The Root Of It All With Tree

In Season 9, Episode 1 of The Root of It All with Tree, Tree Ryde sits down with Taylor Smeenk, CEO and Founder of Empact Wellness, to discuss health, functional medicine, root-cause approaches, and the importance of trusting your body.

Drawing from her professional background in chiropractic care and functional medicine, as well as her personal experiences, Taylor offers insight into understanding the body beyond its symptoms and taking a more informed, proactive approach to personal wellness.

This conversation explores health awareness, self-advocacy, personal responsibility, and the value of asking better questions when it comes to our well-being.

Join Tree and Taylor for a thoughtful discussion about reclaiming confidence in your health journey and recognizing the power of being an active participant in your own care.

BIO:

Taylor Smeenk is the CEO and Founder of Empact Wellness. Educated as a chiropractor and advanced as a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner, her career sits at the intersection of root‑cause medicine, systems thinking, and whole‑body care.

Her path was forged through personal experience: after suffering five concussions in a two‑year period, she developed and then healed herself from cervical cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, PMDD, chronic pain, eczema, and acne. When she and her own family fell through the gaps in the conventional healthcare system, she realized the world needed a different kind of clinic — one where mental, physical, and integrative health are understood as one connected whole.

That realization became Empact Wellness: a collective approach to whole‑body health. Built from one team, one roof, and one clear plan. What began as a commitment to her local Burlington community has grown into a model designed to help people move beyond symptom management worldwide – to empower people with an understanding of the underlying drivers of chronic, complex disease and build proactive, long‑term strategies without endless referrals, fragmented care, or the frustration of the broken system.

Connect with Taylor Smeenk:

Social media links: @taylor.smeenk and @empactwellness

Website: drtaylorsmeenk.com and empactwellness.com

Business: Empact Wellness

In this episode of The Root Of It All With Tree, Tree Ryde sits down with Lorri Fleming, CEO and Co-Founder of The WOMB, for a conversation about women's health, healing, and the power of connection.

Drawing on Lorri's extensive experience supporting women and families, this episode explores the value of compassionate, collaborative care and the importance of meaningful relationships throughout life's different stages.

Tune in for a thoughtful discussion about women's wellness, family support, and the connections that help us grow together.

BIO:

Lorri Fleming is CEO - Creative Executive Orchestrator and Co-Founder of The WOMB , a wellness organization dedicated to providing exceptional, multidisciplinary, collaborative care for women and their families across all stages of life. With a professional foundation as a doula, childbirth educator, and parent educator for decades, Lorri brings extensive frontline experience in women’s health, pregnancy, birth, and family support. This clinical and educational background has informed her leadership approach and the development of The WOMB’s integrated care model, which emphasizes both excellence in hospitality and customized, relationship-based care. As C.E.O. Lorri is responsible for the strategic direction and operational oversight of The WOMB, including the development of organizational culture, service standards, and scalable programs that nurture consistent, exceptional guest experiences across wellness centre environments. Her work includes designing systems for managing multidisciplinary wellness centres while maintaining the integrity, values, and client-centred ethos upon which the organization was founded.

Lorri is particularly passionate about women’s healthcare, personal development, and the creation of nurturing spaces, rooted in love, connection, and meaningful contribution. She is committed to advancing care models that prioritize professional excellence that support practitioners and franchise partners, offering high-quality, values-aligned services within communities.

Connect with Lorri:

https://www.thewomb.ca/

What happens when confidence comes from understanding your options and having the right support?

In Season 8, Episode 9 of The Root Of It All With Tree, Tree Ryde and Dale Stoneman explore the role legal support can play in helping people feel more informed, prepared, and confident when navigating important situations.

This conversation offers an opportunity to look at legal support from a practical perspective and consider how having the right guidance can influence the way we approach challenges and decisions.

BIO: Family is the most important thing in my life, and I am incredibly proud to have raised four amazing humans as a single mom. I spent 18 years in banking, working in a variety of roles. I discovered LegalShield in October 1998 and I was proud to help bring LegalShield to Ontario in June 0f 1999. Today, I am passionate about helping individuals, families, and small businesses gain affordable access to legal protection. I love connecting with people, helping others, and continuing to learn and grow. I believe personal development is one of the keys to living a fulfilling life—and I’m grateful to be doing work that allows me to make a difference in the lives of others.

Connect with Dale:

LinkedIn-linkedin.com/in/dale-stoneman

Facebook-Dale Stoneman

My website- https://dalesusan.legalshieldassociate.com

"My podcast experience with Tree was very comfortable and felt like a conversation. She is an amazing interviewer and has a gift of asking all the right questions. "- Dale Stoneman

What if your leadership blind spots could be revealed without anyone saying a word?

In Season 8, Episode 8 of The Root of It All with Tree, Gail Carruthers joins Tree Ryde for a powerful conversation about leadership, communication, alignment, clarity, and decision making.

Listen to this thought-provoking conversation and explore what horses can teach us about how we show up as leaders.

BIO: Gail Carruthers is the owner of Skye Blue Acres and the founder of the Equine Intelligence Centre, where she creates transformational experiential learning experiences exploring leadership, self-awareness, emotional resilience, human capacity, and consciousness through the intelligence of horses. Gail's professional foundation includes certification in Adult Education, mediation and conflict resolution, and grief specialization, along with degrees in Physical Education and Sport Administration. Her work has evolved from an early interest in human performance and development into a much broader exploration of human potential, awareness, relationship, and consciousness. Her work brings together experiential learning, embodied awareness, intuition, and the remarkable capacity of horses to respond to what is happening beneath the surface of human behaviour. As an evidential Medium and Psychic, Gail's work has also led her to explore the possibility that consciousness continues beyond physical death. Her experiences have shaped a deeply held curiosity about the nature of existence, connection, and the unseen dimensions of life. Gail is also a Reiki Master, and her work reflects an ongoing exploration of the subtle intelligence and energetic relationships that exist between living beings and the environments they inhabit. She is interested in what becomes possible when we move beyond seeing ourselves as separate individuals and begin to consider the Interconnectedness of consciousness, energy, relationship, and life itself.

Connect with Gail Carruthers:

www.skyeblueacres.com

www.gailcarruthers.com

Sarah Jackle and Tree Ryde dive into the mechanics of mindset. Discover practical brain hacks to conquer fear, eliminate self-sabotage, and approach daily challenges with calm authority.

Stream the full episode now on your preferred podcast platform.

BIO:

Sarah Jakle is the Founder and Executive Director of DemocraShe, a nonpartisan national nonprofit empowering historically underserved high school girls to be our future leaders, voters, civically engaged citizens and elected officials. Previously, Sarah served as the Get Out The Vote Director for the California National Organization for Women and as the National Outreach Director for Field Team 6, leading efforts for mobilizing women and innovative voter registration. Empowering women to hold political office has been an interest since Sarah first interned at the Women’s Council of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in college.

Sarah’s unique inclusion of brain science in young women’s civic leadership training helps young women overcome the barriers on a woman’s leadership journey and successfully step into leadership in any area that interests them while knowing running for office is their birthright. Ultimately, her training helps any woman looking to grow as a leader, step out of her comfort zone, and learn evidence based practices to nurture courage and ambition. With her vision, DemocraShe fosters the next generation of leaders who will shape a more inclusive and just society and is a critical pipeline nurturing high school girls to engage in our democracy. Sarah has a Bachelors from Yale (Phi Beta Kappa), a Masters in Social Work from USC and a Masters in Public Policy from UCLA. She was a 2025 Movement Builder Fellow with How Women Lead and was a Fellow with Obama’s Organizing For Action

Connect to Sarah Jakle:

Website: democrashe.org

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-jakle-535617240?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios

Why do some brands and people instantly click with us, while others feel completely forgettable?

It all comes down to authenticity. In this Episode, Cindy Csordas joins Tree Ryde to discuss how sharing your genuine story can break down walls and foster deep trust. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a leader, or just someone looking to improve your communication, this episode is packed with practical wisdom on keeping it real.

BIO:

Cindy Csordas is an award-winning, professional videographer and former journalist with 30 years of experience. She has worked in the television broadcasting industry at CTV and CHCH-TV, as well as lead video producer for the City of Hamilton, producing corporate videos for both internal and external audiences. Cindy received an award for

Best Television Story in 2016 and Best Police TV Feature Story in 2010 from the Halton Regional Police Service. In 2007, Hamilton Professional Firefighters Local 288 honoured Cindy with an Award of Excellence for her two-part television news feature about Camp BUCKO, a camp open to burn survivors. Her passion: producing powerful videos to connect with audiences. Cindy's video work includes content with an educational, informational, promotional, recruitment and recognition focus. She has experience in videography, writing, editing, voice over work, and storytelling to produce video content for television, long form video (for YouTube) or shorts/reels for social media platforms. Have a video idea for your business? Cindy will make it shine. SEE IT, HEAR IT, FEEL IT!

Promotional content:

The part of my journey as a master storyteller that I enjoy the most is connecting with people on a level that makes them feel comfortable to share their messages in an authentic fashion. Everyone has a story worth telling. I'm honoured when people place their trust in me to help them tell theirs. As a television journalist for many years, people who had lost a loved one to a tragedy opened up to share their pain with me but in the hopes to prevent tragedies from happening in the future or to share with the community what that loved one meant to them. This was never an easy task to ask people in pain to open up but once they did, there was power in their message.

As a corporate video content creator, it's been a welcomed challenge to help educate, recruit, promote, train or inform an audience with videos that make people feel connection to the message. I welcome every challenge and pour my creativity into producing content. This isn't a job. It's a passion. My hope is people who feel nervous in front of the lens walk away feeling a tremendous sense of accomplishment and pride in the work they've completed to drive their message forward. We are a team. We produce magic on the screen together.

Connect with Cindy Csordas:

Website: www.ccvp.ca

Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@cindycsordas654/videos

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cindy_csordas/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindy-csordas-977376111/

When trust is shattered, the trauma left behind can feel permanent. But what happens when we stop fighting the pain and start looking at it with curiosity? In Season 8, Episode 5, Samuel Alumnus and Tree Ryde look at the messy reality of betrayal. They break down practical ways to extend compassion to yourself while processing deep emotional wounds.

BIO:

Sam’s Healing Podcast is brought to you by one of infidelity recovery’s most prominent and renowned influencers and YouTubers. For over 15 years Samuel has been one of the leading content generators for healing and recovery of both betrayed and unfaithful spouses. After more than a decade of blogging and filming under one of the betrayal trauma’s founding fathers, clinician Rick Reynolds of affairrecovery.com, Sam has ventured out to pursue, create and live out his lifelong vision and passion for healing those touched by the trauma of infidelity. Through his new podcast and most recent project, the Ask the Unfaithful Podcast, Samuel continues to bring his own personal experiences with infidelity recovery along with delivering the most current and up-to-date clinical wisdom and healing modalities for recovery after an affair.

Connect with Samuel Alumnus:

samshealingpodcast.com

https://www.instagram.com/samuel_healing/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sams-healing-podcast/id1767521915

https://www.youtube.com/@samshealingpodcast

Tune in now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your preferred RSS feed to listen to the full episode.

Welcome to Season 8, Episode 4 of The Root of It All with Tree. In this episode, we welcome Sarah Kinlin, a powerhouse speaker, coach, author of Grit, Grace & Goals, and the owner of Pearl Performance Inc.

Sarah joins us for a timely conversation about the fine art of finding balance. If you have been struggling to care for those around you without losing your own identity and peace of mind, this episode is your roadmap.

BIO:

Speaker| Coach| Author | Grit, Grace, & Goals @ Pearl Performance Incorporated

Sarah Kinlin is a leadership keynote speaker, mindset coach, author of Grit, Grace & Goals, and wife, mom, and sister. Sarah lives just outside Guelph, Ontario, with her husband Steve and their three children, Frank, Charlie, and Libby.

Connect with Sarah Kinlin:

Website: sarahkinlin.com

Virtual Coffee Chat:

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://calendly.com/pearlinc/15minuteintro&source=gmail&ust=1781597285145000&usg=AOvVaw2xVzU_942jva5Wy2f7ZsT5

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pearl-performance

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pearlperformanceinc/

The Root Of it all With Tree Podcast:

Website: https://www.businessgrowthresults.com/in-the-media/podcast-the-root-of-it-all

YouTube: https://youtu.be/VpbINP5dugw

Here are the links to explore more of what Tree is doing:

🌐 https://www.businessgrowthresults.com/

🌐 https://www.burlingtonhypnosis.ca/

🌐 https://simplewebsiteservice.ca/

🌐 https://simplewebsiteservice.ca/

📖 You can also check out Tree’s book here:

🔗 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0GHPWLRWL

🌐 https://www.treeryde.com/

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In this episode of The Root Of It All With Tree, Laura Louise Persichetti joins Tree Ryde for a meaningful conversation about emotional healing, personal transformation, and finding peace after difficult life experiences.

They explore how pain can influence identity and behaviour, and how awareness and perspective shifts can support long term emotional wellbeing.

This episode highlights resilience, reflection, and the importance of reconnecting with oneself while moving through change.

BIO:Laura Louise Persichetti -Metaphysical Teacher

Spiritual Teacher & Guide for Modern Times. Advanced Spiritual Training & Self Mastery; 20 years of helping people 1:1 sessions, classes & training.

is an Amazon Best Selling Author, Award-Winning Entrepreneur, and International Speaker. She loves a deep conversation over a hot cup of chai, a sunny beach day, and a new stamp in her passport.

With over 20 years of working with people through her own private practice, Laura has been a Registered Psychotherapist with a keen interest in understanding metaphysics, esoterics, neuroscience, and discovering the true essence of JOY.

Laura is a certified teacher and spiritual guide trained in the Lineage of King Solomon, which dates back over 3000 years currently taught through the Modern Mystery School, holding 8000 years of universal principles. She loves introducing people to the tools and teachings of the lineage that have surpassed the test of time in supporting humanity in better understanding who they truly are and reaching their fullest potential.

Today, Laura works 1:1 with clients offering energy healing modalities like the Life Activation, Egyptian Healings, and Ensofic Reiki among many others. She has a virtual self mastery membership with a global community of her students worldwide. She teaches advanced spiritual training, and travels globally to teach students interested in becoming healers and stepping into a higher level of service. Her favourite class to teach is a 2-Day Immersion Program called Empower Thyself.

Laura offers free consultations if you would like to learn more about her services or topics discussed.

Connect with :

You can learn more at lauralouise.ca

IG: @lauralouise.ca

In this episode of The Root Of It All With Tree, Tree Ryde sits down with Keyon Silva for a meaningful conversation about resilience, healing, and the personal growth that can emerge through struggle.

Together, they explore how fitness can become a powerful outlet for transformation—not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. Keyon shares insights from his personal journey, discussing discipline, perseverance, mindset, and the importance of continuing to move forward through life’s challenges.

This episode highlights the connection between adversity and growth, and how difficult moments can often become the foundation for strength, clarity, and purpose.

BIO:

With over 5 years of hands-on experience running a successful fitness facility, FP Fitness has helped hundreds of people transform their lives through health and fitness. From shedding pounds to building lean muscle and getting toned, our passion lies in creating real, sustainable results for everyday people. Whether you're just starting out or looking to break through a plateau, our proven approach combines expert programming, accountability, and motivation to guide you every step of the way.

Connect with Keyon Silva :

www.linkedin.com/in/keyon-silva-24888513b/?isSelfProfile=false

https://www.instagram.com/fp_fitness.real?igsh=YzU4ZWp3c2JuajZw

https://www.instagram.com/keyonsilva?igsh=MXVmcnRpMDVvaXR3Yg==