Lauren Leatherman

Honestly, I've always been a pretty hard worker and self-starter, but I would say connections and community have been huge, especially in REI. It's such a great space to work in, and everyone is so willing to help and allow you to grow or take a different path. There are so many paths through REI - we're starting to put out short videos and make little mini movies, so it's kind of growing into this space where anyone can come in and move up, and everyone wants to help each other. That's why I stuck around so long. Everyone is such an outdoors person in such a different way that you could come in being like, yeah, okay, I like to camp, and then everyone is a kayaker, or a rock climber, or a mountaineer person, and they take you on these adventures, and all of a sudden you find yourself across the country with some people you met at a store doing something wild. That is also so amazing.

As a woman, always negotiate your salary and come with confidence. Support each other, because it's kind of wild - REI for a very long time was almost like a man-run company. Someone came in and they were like, listen, it's really hard to become a manager as a woman. This was quite a while ago, but it was a thing, and they kind of sidestepped and started creating all of these ways for us to make things fair and equitable and kind of change the system and shake it up. People just encouraged me to not give up, stay with my career trajectory, and ask. Ask for everything, and don't give up. And now it's also a woman-owned company, which is kind of wild.

I would say create your own success, or definition of success, instead of trying to fit into the traditional male-centric models.

We have a few values that we stick to through our company at REI that I absolutely love. We go further together, which I absolutely love. The outdoors is for everyone. And we courageously embrace change. These are the values that guide both my work and personal life.