Who I am
I'm Michael Rucker, a transformation coach specializing in Camino de Santiago preparation and integration. I guide people through one of the most profound journeys they'll ever take—not just the physical walk across Spain, but the inner transformation that makes the Camino truly life-changing. This short film was made on my first Camino. It changed the direction of my life.
2022 Camino Francés
My Story
I spent more than 30 years in the music industry, building careers, mentoring talent, and making things happen. I was good at what I did. I was also exhausted.
Exhausted from chasing outcomes.
Exhausted from proving my worth.
Exhausted from defining myself by being needed.
In my late fifties, I got sober. It was the first time I stopped running.
In 2022, at 60 years old, I walked my first Camino, from Zubiri to Santiago de Compostela. I didn’t walk it with a master plan. I walked it because something in me knew I needed space, silence, and movement.
I didn’t know what I was looking for, but the Camino did.
Day by day, step by step, it taught me how to let go. Not through insight or strategy, but through repetition, humility, discomfort, and presence. Carrying only what I needed. Leaving the rest behind.
My Transformation
The Camino stayed with me long after I returned home.
In 2025, I went back. This time I walked two different sections. The Camino Francés from Saint Jean Pied de Port to Logroño, and the Portuguese Route from Porto to Santiago.
Each walk deepened what the first Camino began.
By the second return, I understood something clearly. I wasn’t chasing answers anymore. I was practicing surrender. Letting go of identity. Letting go of external validation. Letting go of the need to be important.
The Camino taught me how to move from warrior mode, pushing, controlling, forcing outcomes, to wizard mode, listening, trusting, allowing. That shift changed how I live, how I work, and how I relate to what comes next.
When I returned from Spain in 2025, I knew I couldn’t go back to my old life. I had to build a new one, aligned with who I was becoming, not who I had been.
I began writing my memoir, Under a Canopy of Grapes: Letting Go and Coming Home on the Camino de Santiago, publishing in 2026. I also founded Camino Más Allá, because I realized this path could help others navigate their own transitions with clarity and integrity.
Why I Guide
I guide people through the Camino because I know what it’s like to define yourself by external success, to seek validation through achievement, to push and force outcomes, to feel quietly exhausted by it all, and to sense that another way might exist.
I also know what it’s like to discover that another way does exist.
The Camino shows you, but only if you are prepared to see it.
Most people prepare their gear and their itinerary. I help you prepare your inner landscape. Because the Camino isn’t about completing miles. It’s about discovering who you become when you stop clinging to who you were.
My Credentials
Camino journeys completed include the Camino Francés from Zubiri to Santiago in 2022, the Camino Francés from Saint Jean Pied de Port to Logroño in 2025, and the Portuguese Route from Porto to Santiago in 2025.
I am the author of Under a Canopy of Grapes Letting Go and Finding Home on the Camino de Santiago, publishing in 2026.
I bring more than 30 years of strategic consulting, mentorship, and leadership experience.
I am in recovery, with more than four years sober, and active in the twelve step community.
My Approach
I offer multiple levels of coaching, from single sessions to comprehensive preparation and post Camino integration. I also assist with logistics planning for those who want support while keeping the journey personal and intentional.
My approach is simple. I help you prepare not just your backpack, but your readiness for what the Camino will ask of you. And when you return, I help you integrate what you learned so the transformation doesn’t fade.
Because the real Camino isn’t the miles you walk across Spain.
It’s the journey from who you’ve been to who you’re becoming.
Más allá, beyond what was, toward what’s calling.