Meet Jodi
Why Play? Why Me?
Jodi Salmond is a marine scientist, coach, speaker, author, and founder of The Element of Play. She helps people move from burnout, survival mode, and emotional flatness into greater energy, resilience, courage, and connection through the practical power of play.
For more than two decades, Jodi has worked at the intersection of science, community, conservation, leadership, and human behaviour. As the General Manager of Reef Check Australia, she has trained and led hundreds of volunteers, built citizen science programs, supported reef conservation projects, and helped everyday people feel more connected to the ocean and their role in protecting it.
But behind the science, strategy, and leadership, her work has always come back to one thing: connection.
Connection to nature.
Connection to each other.
Connection to ourselves.
Through her book The Element of Play, her speaking, coaching, workshops, and companion resources, Jodi helps people move from exhaustion, survival mode, and emotional flatness into greater vitality, resilience, and self-trust. Her work is practical, science-informed, and deeply human, because no one needs another fluffy reminder to "just have more fun" when they are already running on fumes.
Jodi's approach is grounded in lived experience as much as research. After navigating her own seasons of burnout, grief, reinvention, and rebuilding, she discovered that play was not a luxury waiting at the end of the to-do list. It was part of how she came back to life.
For Jodi, play is not about pretending everything is fine. It is not toxic positivity, forced fun, or childish distraction. Play is curiosity. Experimentation. Movement. Wonder. Courage. A shift in state. A way of loosening the grip of pressure long enough to remember who you are underneath all the roles, responsibilities, and inbox tabs.
Her work blends marine science, nervous system awareness, leadership practice, storytelling, and embodied tools to help people live and lead differently. Whether she is speaking to teams, facilitating workshops, writing, dancing badly on purpose, asking someone their favourite dinosaur, or helping people find their spark again, Jodi brings warmth, humour, honesty, and a little rebellion to the conversation.
She believes the future of leadership is not more pressure, more performance, or more beige boardroom behaviour.
It is more courage.
More connection.
More aliveness.
And yes - more play.
Because play is not the opposite of responsibility.
It might just be how we carry it without losing ourselves.
Jodi Salmond is an Australian marine scientist, speaker, author and playful leadership coach. She is the creator of The Element of Play, a book, framework and growing body of work exploring how adult play can support burnout recovery, self-connection, leadership, wellbeing and more human ways of living and working.
With more than two decades of experience in reef conservation, citizen science, behaviour change, facilitation and community-led environmental action, Jodi brings a grounded and unusual perspective to the conversation around burnout, leadership and play. Her work bridges marine science, ocean connection, women's leadership, personal development and anti-hustle culture.
Jodi believes play is not a distraction from serious work. It is one of the ways people reconnect with energy, creativity, courage and connection when pressure, responsibility and performance have taken over.
Through The Element of Play, Jodi supports high-functioning adults, leaders, entrepreneurs and professionals who are tired of coping, performing and pushing through, and who want to feel more like themselves again. Her work explores the role of play, movement, nature connection, creativity and joy in recovering from burnout and building more sustainable ways of living and leading.
Jodi is also the General Manager of Reef Check Australia and has been recognised for her work in sustainability, leadership, citizen science and community engagement. Her approach is practical, warm, evidence-informed and deeply human, with a strong belief that reconnecting to ourselves, each other and the natural world creates ripples of change.
Why trust this work
A gentler, more human way forward
Grounded in lived experience
Shaped by science, communication, and real-world leadership
Supported by a forthcoming book, podcast, and practical tools
Built for people who are tired of just getting through the day