Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Bowlin Kettles.
Hi Sarah, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
About three years ago, I hired a coach to help me thinking through the next phase of my career. Things were going well but I just felt like something was missing and the unknowns ahead had me feeling really anxious. I initially spoke with her about developing my executive leadership skills so that I could hopefully transition one day into a C-level role with my company. Instead, she challenged where that goal came from and led me through a series of exercises that helped me visualize how I wanted to spend my life and what contributions would bring me the greatest sense of meaning and purpose. Ultimately what those exercises helped me to realize is that what I wanted for my life was incongruent with corporate leadership. As soon as I had that insight, I remembered the feeling I had walking off of the John Muir Trail after a 23-day hike. It was like I had meditated for the last month, but really I hadn’t spent one minute doing so. I felt so much peace and I thought to myself that if I could make a living helping other people experience this deep connection to nature, that would be amazing.
Fast forward about six months and the concept of OutPass Trekking was born. My coach challenged me to get it off the ground by the end of that very first year working together, and so I did! I hosted my first trip in December 2019 with three participants in Big Bend National Park. While we had a large spread in terms of generation and age, every trekker on that trip was in the midst of transition and it was an incredible experience being able to facilitate a weekend of connection to oneself and to nature. We ended it by setting intentions for 2020 and beyond, and I knew my intention was working towards leaving corporate and building this business for myself.
Well, 2020 wasn’t the best timing to get an event-based business off the ground and I spent much of last year working on a virtual series with entrepreneurs describing how they managed various periods of transition in their life and career, but later in 2020 I felt honestly a little hopeless at the prospects for OutPass Trekking, especially given the end of COVID-19 wasn’t in sight yet. I took a few months off from working on the business and ended up developing an even bigger vision for a remote retreat that focuses on connection to nature. Since that moment, I’ve found and purchased 120 acres near Terlingua, Texas to do just that. Even though it’s been a wild journey since the original inception of my concept, I’m more excited than ever. If there’s anything this last few years of entrepreneurship has taught me, it’s that my goals are never worth sacrificing, only the tactics that lead me to achieving them are. I’ve adopted the practice of having high commitment towards my vision but low attachment to the outcome. That principle of being has helped me to navigate the ups and downs, particularly those that have come along with the pandemic, in a way that has led to an even bigger vision and plan than I originally had.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Absolutely not! As I mentioned, the pandemic essentially halted all forward movement for OutPass Trekking. I feel the business has gone through probably three whole transitions since our original trip in December 2019. I also battled burnout in 2020 and it was difficult to make the decision to step back from the business for a few months to focus on getting my time at my full-time job under control and to work on giving myself the space I needed to come back to the business refreshed and motivated again.
Now the obstacles are that much bigger, but I’m excited to tackle them! With our unimproved land purchase, we are again extending the vision and scope of the business and likely re-branding as a result. I have no experience or expertise in the things I now have to figure out for the business, including how to find a suitable road, how to appropriately design my site, how to get a well drilled or how to figure out which type of power source is going to work best for our needs. They are fun challenges but daunting at times.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a researcher for Outdoorsy for a living and my entire career has been as a user experience research and operations professional. I’m a deeply curious person and I love learning by understanding others’ experiences around me. I recently joined the Outdoorsy team and I’m excited to be contributing to the roadmap through research insights, as well as developing research as a discipline and building out a team. My most recent research leadership experience was at The Zebra, where I also joined as their first researcher, growing the team from just myself to 10 amazing researchers in just three years. Outside of research, I love to contribute to company culture by supporting and building women’s employee resource groups. While at Airbnb I started Women @ Airbnb, the first employee resource group that focused on the needs of all women employed, not just technical ones. I did the same when I joined The Zebra, founding The Shebras alongside the rest of the women working at The Zebra at the time. The Shebras have gone on to inform new parental leave policies inside The Zebra, connected women employee resource groups from other tech companies together to learn and supported countless small businesses by contracting out professional development workshops of all kinds to support the unique development needs of the women of The Zebra. It’s really important to me that I’m able to contribute culturally just as much as I contribute to the product itself.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
I wish I had accepted the journey before things got really hard. Everyone naturally buys into our own ideas so much when we’re first building the confidence to get started entrepreneurially. It’s hard to accept the challenges and ebbs and flows that require innovation, creative pivots and new perspectives almost constantly. I felt a lot of loyalty to my original vision of OutPass Trekking that it’s been a slow process to accept that my vision getting bigger means I need to let go of the expectations I set for myself when it was smaller. I encourage all entrepreneurs to practice high commitment to your vision but low attachment for the methods and tactics that get you there.
Pricing:
- Typical trips are $1200-$1500 per person
- Campsites will be priced at $25-$30 per night when they launch (early 2022)
Contact Info:
- Email: sarah@outpasstrekking.co
- Website: https://outpasstrekking.co/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/outpass_trekking
