Episode 3
Ep 003. Reinvention Story Part 2 - From Engineer to Full-Time Outdoor Educator & Coach
In this episode, join host Allison Boyle as she continues part 2 of her adventurous reinvention story of how she went from a conventional engineering career to a fulfilling life as an outdoor educator and life coach. Discover how embracing failure, adventure, and personal interests can lead to transformative life changes.
Key Points Discussed:
- Reflecting on her journey of going from engineering to life coaching and outdoor education, highlighting the lessons learned along the way.
- Decision to leave a stable job for a year of travel with her partner, Michael, and their life-changing van living experience.
- How Allison started She Dreams of Alpine and the Backpacking Badass Program - which has now served over 1,700 women in becoming confident hikers and backpackers.
- How embracing failures has resulted in significant personal growth and learning.
- Importance of focusing on life’s journey, experiences, and personal development, rather than just the destination.
- Insights into creating a life of freedom, creativity, and belonging in the outdoor community.
Where to learn more about Allison:
🎁 FREE GIFT: Grab the Outdoor Backpacker Starter Kit for FREE here to get started on your journey with backpacking.
🥾 BACKPACKING COURSE WAITLIST: This is our signature program where we teach you how to become a safe, confident, and self-sufficient backpacker. It's an online course, coaching program, and community to support you in your journey to becoming a confident backpacker and step into your adventurous identity.
Transcript
You're listening to the Adventurous Reinvention podcast. I'm
Speaker:Alison Boyle AKA She Dreams of Alpine and this is the
Speaker:show that's dedicated to all the adventurous spirits out there who have either
Speaker:been transformed by the outdoors or interested in what it
Speaker:looks like to step into a new adventurous and courageous kind
Speaker:of identity in their life. It doesn't matter what your background is in the
Speaker:outdoors, what age you're starting at, or where you grew up. If
Speaker:you're curious about the outdoors and using adventure as a way to
Speaker:reinvent yourself, you're in the right place. I'll be
Speaker:sharing all kinds of personal adventure stories, lessons I've
Speaker:learned from the mountains, teaching what I know about the outdoors and leadership,
Speaker:and interviewing some amazing adventurous women all along the
Speaker:way. I've been coaching women on becoming safe, confident, and
Speaker:self sufficient backpackers and leaders of their own adventurous lives
Speaker:since 2018. And I know exactly what
Speaker:big fears and self doubts can pop up along the way. I have
Speaker:so much to share with you, so let's dive in.
Speaker:Okay. Hello, my friends. Welcome to episode 2 of the
Speaker:adventurous reinvention podcast. I'm so happy
Speaker:you're here. If you are new to the show,
Speaker:welcome. I did a kind of part one
Speaker:version of this episode, which was about kinda, like, my
Speaker:personal adventurous reinvention. I wanted to kinda share that behind the
Speaker:scenes and what that looked like for me and my story. So today
Speaker:is part 2 where I'm gonna talk about my
Speaker:adventurous reinvention going from being a full time engineer
Speaker:and to what I'm doing today, which is a full time outdoor educator and
Speaker:coach. So if you missed episode 1 where it was more
Speaker:talking about my adventurous reinvention, like, becoming outdoorsy and
Speaker:adventurous because I used to be from Texas, basically,
Speaker:not outdoorsy at all in any way, and then moved to
Speaker:California after college. And after I had gotten a divorce at a young
Speaker:age, I did a year of yes, which took me to saying yes to my
Speaker:very first backpacking trip. That is the first part of my story, so
Speaker:definitely go check it out if you missed it. But this episode is
Speaker:gonna be all about kind of how I got into
Speaker:outdoor education, becoming a coach, and building she dreams at
Speaker:Alpine, which is my business that I have today. So
Speaker:during all of that time that I was kind of, like, growing
Speaker:and exploring my new adventurous identity after, you
Speaker:know, going on that very first backpacking trip, that I did in Half
Speaker:Dome, I was also an engineer working a
Speaker:classic kind of 9 to 5 corporate job. So,
Speaker:basically, I worked on spreadsheets behind the scenes. I did project
Speaker:management, and I did a lot of financial forecasting,
Speaker:just boring engineer stuff. Right? So I was an
Speaker:engineer by day and then as I was getting into the
Speaker:outdoors and, like, falling in love with the outdoors and adventure and all those
Speaker:things, I was exploring that love for the outdoors by
Speaker:weekend. So I was your classic weekend warrior.
Speaker:I would work all week and then as soon as I could because at
Speaker:that time, you know, when I was at first an engineer at least I was
Speaker:single at first and then I didn't have any
Speaker:kids. I just left after work and I would go to the mountains. I wanted
Speaker:to spend as much time as possible learning and
Speaker:honing my craft and getting more experience in the outdoors, going on more
Speaker:adventures. I really had gotten into like mountaineering and rock
Speaker:climbing and obviously backpacking as well and hiking
Speaker:as much as possible and like kind of starting to build my
Speaker:adventurous community as well and doing as many learning opportunities
Speaker:as I could. I was just all in and in pursuing that
Speaker:lifestyle. So that is kind of
Speaker:what I did. I did engineering by day and then,
Speaker:you know, the adventurous thing by weekend.
Speaker:And for about 6 years into my engineering career, that's
Speaker:all that I did and I just was all in on kind of building that
Speaker:identity, building my skills, and just really enjoying being
Speaker:that person. Right? And then about 6 years into my
Speaker:engineering career, I went on a backpacking trip with my
Speaker:now husband, Michael, and my best friend, Ashima, and
Speaker:her husband, Karthik. We went on a
Speaker:trip to do the Trans Catalina Trail which
Speaker:is a really amazing trail in California. I
Speaker:always recommend this to my clients and my students if they're looking for a good
Speaker:first time backpacking trip experience that feels a little less scary,
Speaker:it but still feels like wild and beautiful and all these things, it's a great
Speaker:trail to start on because you go to this island and there's not really any
Speaker:like animals you need to worry about or be concerned about. You
Speaker:know, the water situation is fairly easy, the campsite
Speaker:situation is probably the trickiest part to figure out but you just get permits,
Speaker:there's designated sites. I just think it takes a lot of the mind drama out
Speaker:of backpacking where you can still go and experience the
Speaker:trail. So that that's like a little bit of an an aside. I think it's
Speaker:a great trail. It's beautiful. It is a little harder physically
Speaker:than you might think it being on an island, but
Speaker:you can still train to do that where you can do sections of it. It's
Speaker:a great place to kinda dabble in hiking and backpacking. So
Speaker:we went and did this. It had been a bucket list trail for me
Speaker:and my friends, and I had gotten all the permits or the
Speaker:campsite permits, and we did this in April of 2018.
Speaker:So it ended up being one of those, like, amazing weekends. The
Speaker:trail was as beautiful as we had imagined. We had great weather.
Speaker:I was with amazing people. Like, I was with Michael. I was with my best
Speaker:friend. These are people I would spend every day with if
Speaker:I could. Right? And I remember I was
Speaker:walking with Michael. We were kinda, like at a pace where our
Speaker:friends were somewhere else maybe ahead or behind. I don't remember. But I was
Speaker:walking alongside with Michael and we just started dreaming
Speaker:about, like, talking about how amazing
Speaker:that experience was and I remember I said to him
Speaker:something to the effect of, like, I wish we could do this all
Speaker:the time. Like, I just wish like, I felt that longing. It was
Speaker:just, like, this deep internal longing that just appeared
Speaker:to me. Of course, like, I had thought that before. Everyone does. People
Speaker:who are outdoorsy, they, like, want to do that all the time, but it was
Speaker:different this time. It, like, felt a little bit different. I wish we could do
Speaker:this all the time. And, like, Michael and I spent time talking
Speaker:about, you know, as we hiked all the places we still wanted to
Speaker:go, all the places we still wanted to climb and hike at and backpack
Speaker:at, and then we started talking about like wanting more
Speaker:location freedom. Me in particular, like with my job, there
Speaker:were only certain places I could work. You know, time wise, this
Speaker:was before remote work was even really a thing, and I don't even know if
Speaker:this would have been possible for what I was doing. But I wanted more
Speaker:time flexibility. Like, you know, if it's a beautiful
Speaker:Wednesday morning and I wanna go for a hike, like, I wanted the
Speaker:flexibility to do that instead of having to, like, adhere
Speaker:to this really strict schedule. So I was craving those
Speaker:things. We talked about the countries we wanted to visit and, like, how we'd
Speaker:like to live in a van for a while. And one of our dreams still
Speaker:to this day is, like, owning a sailboat, doing that, being adventurous
Speaker:with a sailboat. So we were talking about all the things and it was really
Speaker:building up that desire to do it, right? So
Speaker:after that backpacking trip, like, there was just a shift. I
Speaker:knew this is something that I wanted to explore and I couldn't, like,
Speaker:drop it. Like, it wasn't something that I could, like, not pay attention to anymore.
Speaker:So I came home and being the engineer that I am, like, I'm a numbers
Speaker:person. So I came home and I was, like, do the numbers. Does the
Speaker:math, math. And so I, like, got my spreadsheets out.
Speaker:I was thinking about, like, our budgets and, and, like, you know, how could we
Speaker:make this happen? Because at the time, I didn't have any kind of side hustle,
Speaker:any kind of job, extra income. I had just the engineering job. And so I
Speaker:was, like, okay. So we would need to save money,
Speaker:for this to happen and it would save money, for
Speaker:this to happen and it would probably look like a year
Speaker:off to travel. So that's kind of where my head was
Speaker:at when I went home to crunch the numbers. But in general, like, I
Speaker:feel like I had gotten to this point where it sort of felt a little
Speaker:bit silly to me that I was nearly 30 at that at that time.
Speaker:And I was holding on to this idea that I had to, like
Speaker:I kind of just felt this urge. I was, like, do I, like, do I
Speaker:have to be realistic? Do I have to keep a steady corporate draw job? Is
Speaker:this steady corporate draw job? Is this really how it's the only way that it
Speaker:can be done? Like, I don't know. I was really grappling. When I when I
Speaker:became an engineer, I kind of just saw that this was
Speaker:the thing that I was gonna like do for life. And I just come from
Speaker:a really traditional, you know, Texas conservative background
Speaker:and people, you know, got a good job and you stuck with it for
Speaker:like 30 years and you didn't leave. So that's how I I always thought
Speaker:but I think my reinvention into having
Speaker:a more adventurous identity also opened up this possibility of, like,
Speaker:is it true? Like, do I have to do it that way? So I
Speaker:was kinda getting tired of thinking that way. I was like, other people do these
Speaker:really cool creative things. Like, why not me? Why can't
Speaker:I, like, maybe even take a year off and just go travel? Like, I
Speaker:don't know. I was thinking differently. I was following that, like, line
Speaker:of thinking in that path. Right? So shortly after that trip,
Speaker:crunching the numbers, I decided, like, we're
Speaker:going all in on this dream of taking a year off to travel.
Speaker:Thankfully, Michael was all in. He
Speaker:was at least mostly in on my all in ness. I have this
Speaker:ability to have a lot of optimism. And
Speaker:when I set my mind on something, I'm good at, like,
Speaker:this is the way we should go. Like, it is gonna be
Speaker:amazing. Like, I I have that optimism for myself and
Speaker:so, like, I'm able to convey that optimism with other people.
Speaker:So he was in. I had showed him the numbers
Speaker:and I was, like, let's do it. Like, we we should do
Speaker:it. And we were really excited about it. And at this point, I hadn't
Speaker:even considered building my own business. So that wasn't even really,
Speaker:like, part of the discussion. What I originally thought was,
Speaker:like, we're gonna save up, we'll downsize our belongings, which
Speaker:I also was really interested in. You know, I feel like we had
Speaker:collected so much stuff, it felt, like, freeing
Speaker:thinking about having less things in our life. We also
Speaker:knew we wanted to get a van, you know, years prior to this since we
Speaker:had been really outdoorsy for, like, 7 years at this point
Speaker:or I had, you know, Michael's story is a little bit different than mine, but,
Speaker:you know, he was my partner. You know,
Speaker:we Michael and I spent almost every when I met him
Speaker:gosh. What year did I meet him in? 2014, we
Speaker:started dating, I think, which was, like, shortly after
Speaker:I started going all in on the outdoor stuff. Where was I going
Speaker:with this? Oh, yes. We were spending, like, every weekend together in the outdoors
Speaker:and he had his Jeep and I had my Subaru at the time and we
Speaker:would go to these places, go climbing and we would sleep in the back of
Speaker:our Subaru and our Jeep. So we knew a van and
Speaker:we would camp. It would be pretty, like, low key, like, not
Speaker:anything fancy. So we knew we would like a van. A van was
Speaker:an upgrade. We were not concerned, would we like a a van? We were just,
Speaker:like, wow, this will really be a lot this will be an
Speaker:amazing thing to have. And so we were gonna get a van,
Speaker:and we thought we'll do it for at least a year, like, take a year
Speaker:off from working full time and just travel and see
Speaker:the US in our van and see where it leads us. And I kind of
Speaker:figured I think at this time, I figured I'd probably end up going back to
Speaker:engineering after that year off of travel. But as curiosities and dreams often do, one
Speaker:thing led to the next thing. And,
Speaker:often do one thing led to the next thing.
Speaker:And before I move on in the story, like, I kinda wanna have a little
Speaker:mini rant or, like, emphasize something again before I move
Speaker:on. I wanna emphasize that that quote,
Speaker:one thing led to the next thing. And I think so many
Speaker:people, they often look at, you know, they might look at my
Speaker:story which is somebody's, you know, 5, 6 year transformation
Speaker:at this point and think I could never do that. But all you need to
Speaker:do for any kind of transformation is to decide
Speaker:that I'm going to follow this one thing that I'm curious about and
Speaker:this one thing that interests me and kinda like lights me up and gives me
Speaker:that excited feeling, maybe even a little bit scary, a little bit like
Speaker:uncertain, I find that they kinda follow each other and trust
Speaker:that it'll lead you to the next thing, whatever it is. So
Speaker:for example, like, I love, like Carla's
Speaker:program, the 50 2 hike challenge, you know, hopefully, we'll have her on the
Speaker:podcast at some point but it's like this one thing
Speaker:people can, like, latch on to, like, I wanna get more into
Speaker:hiking, I wanna hike one hike every week and it's simple and it's
Speaker:small, it's achievable and it's something that can get you going and
Speaker:it can lead to the next thing. And you don't have to start that challenge
Speaker:knowing what your transformation is going to look like, you can just know like I'm
Speaker:going to go all in on this transformation and let it lead you to the
Speaker:next thing. Or similarly to people who join our backpacking badass
Speaker:program, it's like I they come in, they're like,
Speaker:I just know that I want to stop waiting around on other people to invite
Speaker:me along on adventures, and I want to like be the leader. I want to
Speaker:take ownership of my adventures. I want to learn how to
Speaker:backpack. That is like the one thing that leads them
Speaker:to the next thing. So you don't have to have, you know,
Speaker:all the pieces figured out. Just am I curious enough to explore
Speaker:this and let it lead you to the next thing. So that's my little
Speaker:mini rant and kind of something I really wanted to emphasize
Speaker:here. So for me, the one decision of
Speaker:taking a year off to travel in our van led me to
Speaker:thinking about, well, what if I could make some side
Speaker:income so that we could support our travels a little bit more?
Speaker:Which that thought led me to being like, what
Speaker:does side income look like? Right? So I,
Speaker:at the time, had this job well, my it was the same job,
Speaker:but the particular role I was in had me driving
Speaker:45 minutes out to a field in the morning and 45 minutes out
Speaker:back to where I lived. So every day, I was, like,
Speaker:driving almost 2 hours a day and maybe sometimes 2 hours if there were bad
Speaker:traffic. So I started binging podcasts, like,
Speaker:the ones that I was listening to at the time, I listened to a lot
Speaker:of Tim Ferris and there was also this podcast, I
Speaker:have no idea if it's still around, I don't listen to it anymore, but it
Speaker:was really great for me at the time and it was called I think it
Speaker:was called Side Hustle School. And for me, this
Speaker:was like my entry into hearing other
Speaker:people's creations, like what they had done
Speaker:to build a side hustle, you something on the side
Speaker:to bring in income for themselves. And the Tim Ferriss podcast
Speaker:was more just like opening me up to like people living wildly different
Speaker:lives than I was, which just was exciting
Speaker:to listen to people talk about creativity in a different way,
Speaker:taking risks in a different way. I was really opening myself up to this kind
Speaker:of realm and space that I'm really passionate about now, and those 2
Speaker:podcasts were really monumental. I remember when I was going through this phase, I also
Speaker:gave myself like, okay, at some point, Allison, you need to stop consuming and you
Speaker:need to start doing. And so I gave myself like a month to really just
Speaker:think about all the
Speaker:ideas I was getting from listening to these podcasts. I was keeping a list, right,
Speaker:and then I was, like, you need to decide and go all in on one
Speaker:thing, like, not having your feet in 10 different things
Speaker:and not really giving anything a chance Because for me, I don't know what led
Speaker:me to thinking this way, but I was, like, I will never make money if
Speaker:I don't really, like, go all in on decide on something.
Speaker:I just need to choose. And so shortly after that,
Speaker:I decided that I was most excited about
Speaker:starting a blog, which might sound boring. If you're listening to
Speaker:this, you're, like, starting a blog. But I was really inspired by people
Speaker:who were doing it already. So, like, pinch of yum, it's a
Speaker:food blog, and Barefoot Theory are 2 of the people that come to mind that
Speaker:were, like, that shaped me in wanting to do this.
Speaker:So if you don't know Barefoot Theory, she's also in the outdoor adventure space. She
Speaker:had an outdoor blog. She was making money with her blog. Pinch of Yum is
Speaker:a food blog. They used to publish these income blog. Pinch of Yum is a
Speaker:food blog. They used to publish these income reports. I don't
Speaker:think they do it anymore. But it was really interesting to see the behind the
Speaker:scenes of their blog and how their how writing made
Speaker:them income when they wrote. And I was like, I can do that. I love
Speaker:writing. And I already actually had a
Speaker:blog because when I had, you know, kind of just
Speaker:started backpacking and I was getting in all these adventures, I had this place where
Speaker:I was kind of more like dear diary ish, writing
Speaker:about my adventures and the places I went. But I was like, okay, I'm gonna
Speaker:take that. I'm gonna refresh it and I'm gonna start
Speaker:using it as a place to, like, really give value to people, publish
Speaker:trail guides, tips and tricks. We still actually have the
Speaker:blog today. Blog is still a big part of our business
Speaker:or not a big part, it's still part of our business. It's a way that
Speaker:we now in particular, not necessarily like still we still
Speaker:make some money from that, but if you're in the space like Google AI, that
Speaker:has kind of transformed what that looks like. But space like Google AI that
Speaker:has kind of transformed what that looks like but it's still a place for us
Speaker:as a team where we can provide value and free content
Speaker:because, you know, when not everyone is able to
Speaker:necessarily invest in our programs right away, or at all, and
Speaker:we still want to have a place where we can teach and, like, the podcast
Speaker:is this as well in our social media, all the things where we can give
Speaker:free value and offer that kind of value and mentorship about the
Speaker:outdoors. So we still run the blog and
Speaker:so I was like, I'm gonna start a blog and so she dreams of
Speaker:alpine blog as a business was
Speaker:officially born. So that was, man, I
Speaker:don't know exactly the timeline of it, but it was shortly after this kind of,
Speaker:like, trans Catalina conversation. So,
Speaker:yeah, I had been passionate about the outdoors and backpacking for
Speaker:7 years at around 7 years at that point. So I knew that this is
Speaker:something that I could talk to to talk on. I had already
Speaker:mentored so many of my friends in this space, and I was, like, let's do
Speaker:it. Let's go for it and, figure it out. So
Speaker:as I started getting into that, it kinda led me to the next
Speaker:thing. So as I was getting curious about running a
Speaker:blog, running a business, I was learning all the things. I was
Speaker:being really scrappy. Like, I just I knew nothing about
Speaker:running a business. I didn't take business classes in college. I had no idea I
Speaker:was an engineer. So I was
Speaker:really just figuring it out. And I was joining groups. I was signing
Speaker:up for programs to learn more. I've always been a big believer of,
Speaker:like, know, standing maybe this isn't the right phrase but
Speaker:like standing on the shoulder of giants. So like people who had done the thing
Speaker:that I wanted to do and learning from them, I like to learn that
Speaker:way because I don't like to just spend a lot of
Speaker:time, like, wondering if I'm gonna learn something from a
Speaker:random YouTube video that I'm watching because I just found that that
Speaker:wasn't useful. I wanted, like, somebody with their method and their path
Speaker:and I wanted to be able to just try it for myself because it
Speaker:had worked for them and see if it worked for me. And that's not always
Speaker:the case. Like sometimes you try things and it doesn't work exactly the same way
Speaker:for you. But for me, it's like somebody's framework that I could
Speaker:follow and implement for myself. So I was doing like that, joining different types of
Speaker:programs. And I remember, I think it was August
Speaker:of 2018, I went to an
Speaker:Amy Porterfield event. Amy Porterfield teaches about
Speaker:digital courses, online business, business, especially, she was good for me for, like,
Speaker:at the beginner stage of building my business and she had this, conference.
Speaker:And I went to it and I met these amazing people there. I was so
Speaker:nervous to y'all. I went to this event. I
Speaker:felt like such a poser and like
Speaker:a fraud. I was like, I have a blog. People were talking about their businesses
Speaker:being coaches. I was like, I'm a blogger and I write about the outdoors.
Speaker:So y'all do it even if you feel
Speaker:like an imposter. So I definitely had major imposter syndrome but the people
Speaker:were so nice there and it really opened me up to so many
Speaker:ideas and I knew from
Speaker:that event and talking to people and attending, like, different
Speaker:speaker conversations, that's when I knew I wanted to
Speaker:be more than just blogger. And I wanted to help
Speaker:women feel more confident in the outdoors in a way that was,
Speaker:like, more useful than a trail guide or a few tips and tricks on an
Speaker:article because you could only share so much on an article, right?
Speaker:And that is where that event was where the idea for the
Speaker:backpacking badass program. And it was kind of like one of those similar feelings I
Speaker:had had on the Trans Catalina Trail. It was like the
Speaker:idea came to me at the event and the
Speaker:backpacking badass program, like, even the name, I was like,
Speaker:this like, I must bring this forward into the world.
Speaker:Like, I just had this knowing that it needed to happen.
Speaker:And, yeah. So then I was, like, okay. I'm gonna build
Speaker:this course, the backpacking badass program. And it's I
Speaker:knew, like, what I knew about is, like, I knew we needed
Speaker:more women mentorship in the outdoors because that is something, like, all of
Speaker:my past, you know, friends that I went backpacking with and
Speaker:hiking with were mostly male. My mentorship was
Speaker:mostly male. And I was like, those
Speaker:people are great. They taught me a lot. But like so many times
Speaker:I felt like not seen, not understood,
Speaker:and that I had to like keep up. Like I had to
Speaker:prove myself. There were so many moments where I felt like, you know, if
Speaker:I don't prove myself at this adventure I was invited on by
Speaker:these guys that invited me, then they would never invite me back.
Speaker:Like, so there was a lot of pressure, and I wanted
Speaker:to create, like, more
Speaker:focused program for women, with women mentorship so that
Speaker:they all these women don't have to worry about that and be afraid of,
Speaker:like, these things and people looking down on
Speaker:them, all this I want them to be their own leaders so that they can
Speaker:have control of their own adventurous futures to say the least. And
Speaker:I wanted to, like, be someone who, like, could help
Speaker:them understand their fears, their unique anxieties, their
Speaker:unique self doubt around everything, all these things that are really
Speaker:normal and natural to feel when you're just starting out on the trail and even
Speaker:as you grow. Like new level new devil is something I always tell
Speaker:my clients, as you're growing in the outdoors, you're going to reach new
Speaker:levels and you're going to encounter new fears, new anxieties, and
Speaker:new self doubt. So basically, I wanted to create the
Speaker:program and the mentorship that I wish had existed
Speaker:when I first started in the outdoors and was super awkward and
Speaker:didn't know what I was doing, I didn't feel outdoorsy or adventurous at all,
Speaker:and I felt silly half the time and I wanted to, like,
Speaker:create that what I would have loved to have and wish had
Speaker:existed when I started. So that program
Speaker:was a full body yes for me. Like, I knew
Speaker:it needed to happen and I got to work. So I came home from that
Speaker:event and I was still working my 9 to 5 y'all so, like, that's still
Speaker:happening, I'm still an engineer and now I'm also building this
Speaker:business on the side. And building
Speaker:a business period and building a course was probably one
Speaker:of the hardest times I've ever worked in my life.
Speaker:I would just to give you an idea of, like, what my day started to
Speaker:look like at that point, like, in August is I started
Speaker:to at first, I was really struggling to, like, get momentum, but then I
Speaker:realized, like, I need to commit to this dream in a really tangible
Speaker:way. So I kinda, like, went home one day to Michael and I was, like,
Speaker:okay. I really wanna take this business seriously that I'm
Speaker:building. So on Mondays and on Wednesdays after work, I'm not
Speaker:going to be coming home. You're also on your own for dinner, like, just figure
Speaker:it out. I'm going to go to Starbucks, I'm going to work for
Speaker:a few hours and at least 2 or 3 hours on my
Speaker:business. And then I will come home, it will probably be late, I'll go to
Speaker:sleep and I'll go to my engineering job in the morning. And so
Speaker:I committed to at least have 2 days a week where I would be working
Speaker:at least 3 hours. And then at some point I was also working a lot
Speaker:of weekends. So I was sacrificing at that time my time passionate to
Speaker:get this thing up and running and I could see, like,
Speaker:the vision for putting in the effort and I was really
Speaker:driven by that. So it was so funny because at this time it
Speaker:was, like, this thing I didn't even know if people really wanted,
Speaker:and people were telling me, like, people thought it was cool that I
Speaker:was doing this thing but they didn't really take me seriously.
Speaker:They saw it as just this little side hustle and I kept talking about how
Speaker:like I was gonna build this business and then hopefully after my year off of
Speaker:travel, like I'd be able to stay with it full time. And I just don't
Speaker:think anybody really believed me. They were always talking about, like, well, what are your
Speaker:backup plans? Will you come back to engineering if you don't make this work?
Speaker:Nobody really thought I could do it. And I honestly, I wasn't making any
Speaker:money. Maybe I don't even think in August I was making, like, $50
Speaker:a month. I was making, at the end of that kinda, like, season, maybe
Speaker:100 to $200 a month from our blog, which is not enough to
Speaker:live on. And so I didn't really have any evidence that it was
Speaker:gonna work either, but I just knew I had to give it a
Speaker:shot. So I worked my ass off. Yeah. I worked really
Speaker:hard and I thought it was I'm like I held space for it being
Speaker:worth it. So in April of 2019,
Speaker:after kind of, like, working a whole season building this course, getting it ready,
Speaker:learning how to sell a course. I had never sold
Speaker:anything in my life and that's something you have to do as a business owner.
Speaker:You have to learn how to sell. You have to learn marketing. You because
Speaker:people, like, if they don't know how to work with you, then that's
Speaker:your fault. You have to be able to explain how people can work with you,
Speaker:what you offer, all the things. So I was learning that as
Speaker:well. And in April 2019, I opened my program, the backpacking
Speaker:badass program, for the very first time and we
Speaker:enrolled 12 women into the program and I was
Speaker:thrilled. 12 women took the
Speaker:leap of faith to learn from me, a blogger,
Speaker:a part time business owner, and full time
Speaker:engineer. And I will be forever grateful to those
Speaker:12 women because that was all the proof that I
Speaker:needed to keep going, to keep
Speaker:pursuing this. And I was stoked. Like, that was, I think,
Speaker:even more than I had hoped for. I was, like, oh, if I just get
Speaker:3 or 4 people to join this program, I would have been stoked.
Speaker:So in that same month, I had also planned, like, when I launched
Speaker:when I launched that enrollment, to open up the backpacking badass
Speaker:program, I also knew I was gonna be quitting my job. I had already
Speaker:saved up. Michael and I had saved up for a year. We had enough in
Speaker:the bank to live off of for a year so that we didn't have to
Speaker:put so much pressure on my business to make money while we were traveling.
Speaker:And I was hoping by the end of that year and the end of that
Speaker:savings, I would have enough to live off of or I would have figured out
Speaker:the business stuff so we could keep doing it. So that same month, I quit
Speaker:my job, so did Michael. We left the
Speaker:security of our full time
Speaker:corporate paycheck, and we leapt greatly into the
Speaker:unknown. So I had to give this dream the
Speaker:shot it deserved. That's what I was thinking. And even though I had no
Speaker:idea what I was doing and there's really no manual for this kind of thing,
Speaker:especially if your dream is very different, and
Speaker:not other many not many other people were doing it in that particular way.
Speaker:So I was just figuring it out as we were going. And we had
Speaker:gotten our van officially in March, month before, and Michael
Speaker:was putting finishing touches on the van so that we could live in it full
Speaker:time. And at that time, I was like, literally developing the
Speaker:backpacking badass program or delivering, sorry. I had
Speaker:enrolled 12 students and in May, I was delivering the program as like a
Speaker:live cohort to that first group of women. So we did like live
Speaker:coaching calls, we worked through the program curriculum together. We
Speaker:still do live cohorts from time to time in our our
Speaker:program now, but a lot of times, it's, like, self paced and then we have
Speaker:ongoing coaching calls. But this first cohort, I did, like,
Speaker:everything really live, because it was my first
Speaker:group. So, I'm even, like what's funny is
Speaker:I'm still even close to several of those women today. Like, shout out
Speaker:to Heather who has also gone on some of our She Dreams of Alpine
Speaker:retreat. She's also one of our ambassadors now, which is, like, basically a
Speaker:mentor inside of our backpacking badass group. So, yeah, that's
Speaker:a really special group to me that I, like, think about all the
Speaker:time. Going back to kind of, like, the timeline of
Speaker:things, so that was May delivering the program. We had
Speaker:quit our jobs. And and then in June that year, Michael and I flew to
Speaker:South Africa to go to the rocklands. It's like an area in
Speaker:South Africa where we were going to spend a month climbing with some of our
Speaker:friends. That's the trip we had planned and we were
Speaker:super excited about. And then we officially hit the road in
Speaker:our van full time in July of 2019.
Speaker:So we didn't know what life would look like for us after a
Speaker:year. We weren't sure, like, would we run out of money? Would we
Speaker:hate living in a van full time? We hadn't done that. We had lived in
Speaker:it, you know, for weekend things. We were wondering, like,
Speaker:would we regret leaving our 9 to 5? All of it was
Speaker:a huge question mark but we wanted to give it a shot. All that
Speaker:I knew was that, like, I was willing to give it
Speaker:everything that I had in order to figure out how to build my own
Speaker:business, how to be financially independent, location
Speaker:independent, and to have more autonomy over my time
Speaker:because this was, like, this was my big dream. So
Speaker:even if it meant that I got to my end of my year off of
Speaker:travel and I had to get a 9 to 5 job again, until I figured
Speaker:out how to create a business that could support me, like, I was
Speaker:still all in on the dream no matter what because I believed it would
Speaker:be worth it. So the mountains,
Speaker:I really believe, like, one important part of this story that, like, I haven't really
Speaker:talked about is I think the work that had done being outdoorsy,
Speaker:adventurous stepping into that identity, the mountains had prepared
Speaker:me for this moment. The mountains had taught me about risk, they taught me
Speaker:about failure, they taught me about navigating low
Speaker:moments and picking yourself back up when you fell down.
Speaker:Backpacking, like, backpacking in the outdoors, it taught me a
Speaker:lot about following my curiosity because if you remember from
Speaker:part 1 of the story, you know, that paid off big time for me when
Speaker:I went and backpacked Half Dome, so why not follow my curiosity
Speaker:starting my own business? So that hadn't let me down. It taught me about that.
Speaker:It had led me to some beautiful adventures, and this was kind of like a
Speaker:life adventure I was embarking on. Backpacking had helped
Speaker:me, like, fear failure less. Like, you fail so much in the
Speaker:mountains. You don't make summits, you have a bad trip, you learn
Speaker:a lot of lessons. In climbing, in particular, you fail all the time,
Speaker:like, you have a goal climb you wanna want to do and it's just you're
Speaker:not there yet and you'll fall, you'll fall, you'll fall, you'll fall repeatedly.
Speaker:This is just something I really learned and started to embrace as
Speaker:like part of the journey and I'm really grateful
Speaker:for. It also showed me that there's this concept I
Speaker:talk about a lot and I'll probably do a episode one day on this but,
Speaker:the fifty-fifty, it's kind of like life is
Speaker:not always good, not always bad. It's this
Speaker:kind of mix no matter where you are in life. There's no fantasy land where
Speaker:it's always great and always wonderful. The mountains taught me that in
Speaker:in a, like, very tangible way. You go out on the trail and
Speaker:it's fun, you're like, this is beautiful, and then you get on that uphill and
Speaker:you're like, this sucks, right? There is balance. Like, we're gonna
Speaker:have all of it and that's all part of the adventure.
Speaker:So for me, I was thinking about that like, well, if it's always going to
Speaker:be kind of like a balance of 5050 no matter what I choose in life,
Speaker:I wanna choose the thing that I'm most curious about exploring,
Speaker:right? It taught me also that life is an adventure in
Speaker:general and I'm never stuck anywhere. And
Speaker:one really important thing it taught me was that I'm braver and more
Speaker:capable than I think I am. Because I remember on that Half Dome trip,
Speaker:I was like, I have never done anything like this. It was the scariest thing
Speaker:in my life but I was like, I fucking did it. So that taught me,
Speaker:like, I am brave and I'm way stronger and more capable than I think I
Speaker:am. So these are all things that kinda led me into entrepreneurship
Speaker:which I think were very important things
Speaker:that helped me along the way. So the trail had been
Speaker:basically my education for creating a life that was aligned with
Speaker:what I really wanted which was to have more freedom, to live more
Speaker:courageously, to do creative work. So I really wanted to do something
Speaker:that felt creative that was exciting to do and that also gave
Speaker:back to gave back value to the community that, like,
Speaker:means a whole lot to me which was the outdoor community.
Speaker:So I'm happy to report that as you can probably tell because
Speaker:I'm recording this podcast I'm still here, I'm still doing it. It's
Speaker:5 years later and we are still, you know,
Speaker:after that year off, I did figure out how to keep making
Speaker:money and keep building my business. I never went back to my
Speaker:engineering job. I was able to
Speaker:continue being full time as an outdoor educator and
Speaker:that evolved and evolved and evolved over the years. So
Speaker:today, I've taught over, you know, 1700 women inside that backpacking
Speaker:badass program, which is so wild to think about because
Speaker:just 5 years prior, I was enrolling my first 12 students in that
Speaker:program. And what keeps me going now today,
Speaker:because you get to a point where you're like, okay, like, I've done it, like,
Speaker:I've proved it, right, I think it's really easy to kind
Speaker:of like get stagnant with things if you're not
Speaker:reigniting that like excitement in your life. For me, what
Speaker:keeps me going is my clients' stories and my clients'
Speaker:wins. And to see so many women from all kinds of backgrounds and walks of
Speaker:life come into this program and any of our other programs and create their own
Speaker:adventurous reinvention. And it's like, I get to relive it again through
Speaker:those people, hearing their stories,
Speaker:seeing what they're making of it. So I know
Speaker:that even if I wasn't doing this full time, like, even if, you know,
Speaker:for some reason I decided to stop doing this and being a coach and supporting
Speaker:a small team, I know in some capacity I would still be sharing and mentoring
Speaker:in the outdoors in some way, which is why I think, like, for outdoors in
Speaker:some some way, which is which is why I think, like, for me, personally, year
Speaker:after year, I haven't burnt out or I haven't got tired of doing this because
Speaker:and this is probably really important, like, for me, backpacking
Speaker:was one of the most transformational moments of my life and I
Speaker:of the most transformational moments of my life. And I
Speaker:almost feel like this duty and obligation to share
Speaker:that with other women. Because for me, like, it saved me, I
Speaker:was in this, which you can listen to part 1 again, but, like, I was
Speaker:in this spiral, kind of leading my life down this kind
Speaker:of direction that I didn't want to go anymore, right? And backpacking
Speaker:showed me what I was really made of, and it opened up my world to
Speaker:so much possibility and taught me, like, I could just be so much more and
Speaker:different than I ever thought I could be. So, you know, as you may know,
Speaker:today, like, we don't just offer the backpacking dadas
Speaker:program, we do have other things. As a company, we have evolved
Speaker:as a company to offering some more intimate coaching programs and
Speaker:some retreats. We also host, like, free virtual events all the
Speaker:time. Every year, we at least do, like, for example, we usually host
Speaker:a summit in the summer. You know, we're always coming up with new things to
Speaker:give you guys to give you free value to ignite your
Speaker:journeys in the outdoors. We also publish free content all the time
Speaker:on our website and our social media to support y'all, but
Speaker:I'm going to talk a little bit more about that, like our current offerings,
Speaker:how you can work with us, our programs in the next episode. That way, it's
Speaker:just in, like, one place that you can find if you're ever curious about how
Speaker:you could work further with me and my team at she dreams at alpine.
Speaker:So I'll save that more for then. But
Speaker:one thing has led to the next thing still really holds
Speaker:true. And I'm really excited to see where that kinda
Speaker:leads me 5 years from now. And even as I'm starting this
Speaker:podcast, like, I never thought I would ever start a podcast, but here we are.
Speaker:Right? So as we wrap up this episode,
Speaker:I wanted to leave you with just a few final
Speaker:thoughts. Right? So I've left you a lot of thoughts in this
Speaker:episode, so this is just a few more. Some of them are repetitive.
Speaker:The first one is decide who you want to be and become
Speaker:her. So deep down, most of us know, like,
Speaker:there's something we wanna do, something we're curious about that's calling
Speaker:to us, someone we want to become. Right?
Speaker:But the thing that kinda holds us back all the time is the unknowns around
Speaker:it, the uncertainty around it. Right? But we aren't getting
Speaker:any younger, you know, and the one thing we can't create
Speaker:more of is time, which I'm sure you are all aware of.
Speaker:And I remember when I was sitting at my corporate
Speaker:engineering job and I was at a meeting and
Speaker:we were in a room with a bunch of managers because I used to do,
Speaker:like, financial forecasting. So I used to have to present to a bunch of, you
Speaker:know, higher ups in the company. And I was looking around the
Speaker:room and somebody was celebrating their
Speaker:30 plus years with the company, like, their anniversary with the
Speaker:company. And I had personally just reached my 7
Speaker:year, like, recently reached my 7 years at the company. And
Speaker:I in that moment, I had a moment where I was just like, I
Speaker:don't think I'm meant to be that person. Like and this is no shade to
Speaker:somebody. We all do what we need to do
Speaker:for whatever reason, and sometimes it is, like, we really just love
Speaker:what we do. But for me, I knew, like, I'm not meant to be here
Speaker:for 30 years. Like, I think I meant to
Speaker:do so much more than that. And
Speaker:I don't know. Like, there was a lot of uncertainty around it, so, obviously, I
Speaker:didn't pull, you know, like, get going right after that
Speaker:thought, but the Trans Catalina did pull that courage out of me, and I
Speaker:knew, like, I had already been thinking this. So whatever it is
Speaker:that's on your heart, just go for it. It will
Speaker:feel scary. It will be uncertain. You will not know
Speaker:what's gonna happen. Every great adventure
Speaker:is uncertain. And if you are outdoorsy, if you do get
Speaker:out on the trail, you know this to be true. You can have the
Speaker:best trip plan created, and this is what I always
Speaker:talk about with my clients, like, the skill of pivoting in the outdoors is
Speaker:one of the most essential skills that you'll learn as an adventure.
Speaker:Every adventure has its own agenda. We don't know
Speaker:what it's gonna be like. Right? So if it feels scary, it feels
Speaker:uncertain, and you're, like, wanting to live the kind of life that
Speaker:is making you feel more alive and aligned and adventurous, just know
Speaker:you're on the right track. Like, oh, this feels scary and uncertain,
Speaker:probably doing it right. Right? So don't live
Speaker:your life being too scared to fail, to take
Speaker:leaps into the unknown. And I'm not gonna sit here and pretend,
Speaker:you know, you know, there's a lot to this story that, you know, I didn't
Speaker:cover in this episode, and you can feel free to reach out and ask me
Speaker:questions if you want on Instagram or something. But I'm not gonna pretend that building
Speaker:a business was easy. I'm pretend that building a business was easy. I had to
Speaker:overcome a lot in the past 5 years, but especially in that first couple of
Speaker:years, like, figuring out how to balance work and travel, managing our
Speaker:finances, trusting the process of growing a business, trying things,
Speaker:managing our finances, trusting the process of growing a business, trying
Speaker:things and then failing, feeling like people weren't listening at all, like
Speaker:weren't interested in you, going big even when it
Speaker:felt scary. These were all things that are happening all the time in my
Speaker:business. Now I have a team, it's like supporting a team, the
Speaker:pressures of being the one where it's all on you. There are a lot of
Speaker:things to learn as when you're building a business, right?
Speaker:And so I really had to come to terms with the word failure
Speaker:repeatedly as I set many goals and
Speaker:completely miss them again and again and again. And to this day, I
Speaker:often tend to be an optimist as I mentioned at the beginning of this
Speaker:episode. I'll often set goals and I often don't meet
Speaker:them because I'm just really optimistic sometimes.
Speaker:But each and every one of those failures or quote, unquote failures
Speaker:has led me to a new discovery. It's taught me something valuable and has
Speaker:ultimately made me stronger. And as I've grown, you know, like, in my
Speaker:own personal development and, you know, also becoming a life
Speaker:coach which I did a couple years ago, I got certified as a life coach.
Speaker:I'm just starting to understand a little bit more that, like, sometimes we're in
Speaker:such a hurry to see this success. Oh, sorry, see the
Speaker:success, like, stumbled over my words there, of our
Speaker:pursuits. But then when we when we only focus on the
Speaker:destination, we, like, miss all of the things
Speaker:that are happening in between. So these days, like, I'm really just
Speaker:leaning into the seasons of life that I'm in, the things that
Speaker:I'm learning, where it's leading me next, and that has brought me so
Speaker:much peace. And, yes, of course, I'm I'm still setting big goals and I'm
Speaker:still, you know, shooting for the stars and believing in myself
Speaker:and failing and all the things but, like, I'm just I'm kind of
Speaker:enjoying that a little bit more than I used to. That's definitely
Speaker:taken time, for me to kinda get to that place.
Speaker:So, that's it, y'all. That's
Speaker:today's episode. I'm sure there might be questions that you have,
Speaker:but I hope this kinda gave you, like, a little overview of kinda my adventurous
Speaker:reinvention as far as it goes with building my business, how that I got
Speaker:here, how did I become an outdoor educator, a life coach,
Speaker:all these things. I hope you enjoyed it. Since I
Speaker:am still a new podcaster, I would love it if you could leave me a
Speaker:review if you enjoyed this episode and let me know what you thought.
Speaker:So I will see you next week and talk to you soon.
Speaker:Bye. Hey. I wanted to thank you real
Speaker:quick for tuning in to the show and listening all the way to the end.
Speaker:If you love this episode and you want deeper support in becoming a safe,
Speaker:confident, and self sufficient hiker and backpacker, then head over to shedreamsofalpine.com/waitless
Speaker:to learn more about our backpacking badass coaching program where I teach
Speaker:you absolutely everything you need to know to be self reliant on the
Speaker:trails and stop waiting around on others for the adventure
Speaker:invite. So I'd love to help you more in your journey of stepping into
Speaker:your adventurous identity, and that program is the
Speaker:absolute best place for us to start working together. So, again,
Speaker:that's she dreams of alpine.com/waitlist, and
Speaker:you can learn all about it there. So that's it for today, folks. I
Speaker:hope you get to spend some time outside this week, and I'll be back
Speaker:very soon with a brand new episode. Bye.
