Stephanie Lane

I attribute my success to audacity and faith. It's about having the guts to do something, and then just believing in yourself and believing in your team. If you are working with people and hiring people that are smarter than you, let them be smarter than you. Let them do what they're great at, even if you're not great at it. I can sometimes be a control freak, so not letting that always be the case, delegating and believing in people and in myself is the big thing. Having a little bit of guts, and then just trust in yourself and others, is what's made the difference for me.

The best career advice I ever received came from a boss I had when I was 21 who had started 4 or 5 new businesses. He took me aside and told me, 'You have something special, like, what you're gonna do in this life is so beyond what you're doing right now. I can see it a mile away, and I know that you know that. I know that you know that you're meant for something great and bigger, and you need to remember that and believe that above any, you know, above anything else, the outside noise.' He told me that if I really feel it in my heart and soul, that nagging feeling, I need to listen to that above all the other noise and remember that. He said that's what's gonna make me great. There's a lot of people who love us who want to protect us from taking chances and going for things, but it's just because it's making them uncomfortable. I scare the heck out of everyone that loves me all the time because I'm starting things and trying things, but that advice has stuck with me. If you know that you're meant for something bigger and something big and great, you need to just keep moving accordingly and not doubt yourself, or God, or whatever your light is. You need to just keep moving towards that, and amazing things will happen. I know that maybe sounds kind of corny, but that is what keeps me going and not stopping and starting back over.

My advice would be to show up as yourself, with your unique, special voice and gifts, and not try to mold to what you think everybody wants you to be. In the past, there's been this idea of what an outdoorsman looks like, what a woman in the outdoors looks like, or how they're supposed to show up on social media or any type of media. But humans are all so unique and different, and we want to see people that are similar to us in these spaces. It's way less intimidating when you see someone who's like you, and you're like, 'oh my gosh, I can do it because she can do it.' I think it's so important for women in my industry to show up as their self and not try to put on a show, because they're not only going to impact so many people by not trying to be cookie cutter and look like everybody else or do the same thing everybody does, but also, there are some things in this industry that need to elevate and grow and change, and that can't happen if we don't bring unique people into the space. We need real people. We need real people who aren't afraid to be heard, and aren't afraid to show up, and aren't going to just try to make everyone else happy. They really need to organically show up as themselves. I didn't have a female friend that even did anything that I did growing up, and now I have hundreds of them across the country. It's wild to me, and they're so different, and they all have these little niches of friends and things that they're good at and teaching. It creates this beautiful thing, and I wish everyone who loves what I love could experience it, because it's way different than what I had growing up. We need more of that.

The biggest challenge in my field right now is competing for people's time and attention. Everyone's so busy these days. With kids, sports are so different now - if you're in baseball, you're probably on two baseball teams. A lot of people have multiple jobs. The hustle and the work and how busy everyone is, especially in the United States, is pretty wild. We're competing for time for people, because we do surveys and ask hundreds of people who we serve if they would ever do this again, and it is always a yes. Even people who've never done it before say yes, because it's not even about harvesting an animal. They saw nature in a way that most people will never see it, right next to a mentor who's teaching them and empowering them. For adult women, it's hard to make time to either make friends or meet up with the friends that you have, so they're getting together with this group of ladies they don't even know, coming from completely different worlds, and now they're together for a common goal, creating a bond and friendship that honestly lasts forever. But to get those people in that environment, we are asking them to take away from something else they're doing, and everyone is in such a hustle, crazy mindset. It's so hard not only to get their time, but their attention. Everyone's attention span is so much shorter too. We're just scrolling and doing all these things, information overload. So to grab their attention and actually get them somewhere is the battle. Once we get them there, I'm very confident that it's gonna change their life, because they're gonna take the time and nature is so healing. But it's just getting them there in the first place that's the hard part.

Being a good person and doing the right thing is most important to me. I've worked in plenty of places where I was told I was too nice to be in some industries. I want to work with people who care about themselves and care about their families. If you would do your friends and family dirty, then you probably aren't gonna care about me or what we're really doing. Just being a good person - that's simple, but you would think that would be commonplace, and unfortunately, I have experienced that not being commonplace. I'm with such great people right now, and it's very life-changing when you work with people that are just wonderful people. Outside of that, the most important thing is just being a genuine person, being who you are. I've gone to so many trainings around this - not that you have to be sharing your feelings every meeting you have, but people who are just authentic and vulnerable, whether they're my peer or my leader, that makes it such a safe place to work. You're very motivated, not just for yourself, but for the people alongside of you to do a good job. Just being real, genuine, authentic people, being trustworthy, where I don't feel like we're playing games. There's no toxic work environment. I don't want to ever do that again if I can help it.