Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Marc McCann, founder of StepOutside, located in Austin, TX, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

At StepOutside, we believe that the world needs more inspired work. We focus on building resilient and adaptable leaders through outdoor experiences that focus on building trust, fostering belonging, and transforming culture. We support impact-focused companies in fast-paced and high-growth environments by:

  • Pairing outdoor experiences with a curriculum that enhances self-awareness and creates authentic connections in small groups.
  • Providing resources to communicate more effectively, develop and grow employees, and create more engaged courageous workplaces.
  • Delivering follow-up support and coaching to help leaders integrate these practices at the individual, team, and organizational level.

Tell us about yourself

I’m really driven by the idea that the world needs more people to come alive. As a former teacher and start-up manager, I’ve spent the past decade training and leading teams. The idea for StepOutside grew from my time in the classroom. I taught in a community that was really impacted by trauma, and it was there that I realized how many of us need more effective tools to manage a sense of our emotions and experiences. I didn’t have those tools at the time, so I spent several years researching and practicing evidence-based methods to heal myself while transitioning professionally into a high-growth start-up. As I grew into management and leadership, I realized that the skills I’d been learning personally were critical for building trust, collaboration, and connection at the team level. While I knew that many workplaces needed more support in these areas, I just wasn’t convinced that traditional training sessions and corporate lectures were an ideal setting for this type of learning. Spending time outdoors, and climbing, in particular, was vital in helping me develop the skills that I needed to engage with difficulty in more productive ways. Giving others the same opportunity to practice and apply these self-awareness skills through physical movement (e.g., hiking, yoga, climbing, kayaking) is a key part of the process. Combining these elements together is what makes me come alive, and I’m so grateful to be able to do work that give others an opportunity to discover what matters most to them.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

While there are several organizations that I'm proud to have partnered with because we've made a real impact in their workplace cultures, I'm most energized by our commitment very early on to reinvest 2% of all earnings into non-profit organizations doing important work for people and our planet. In particular, we donate 1% of all of our revenue to Austin Sunshine Camps (ASC), a non-profit in Austin that's dedicated to providing the magic of overnight summer camp without the barrier cost to kids across Central Texas who receive free-and-reduced lunch or are in the foster care system. Supporting organizations like ASC is one small way that we direct funds into under-resourced communities and give kids the possibility to have a transformational camp experience that can shape their lives. I'm hopeful we'll see more for-profit organizations make these sorts of commitments as we move into a world where business is driven by more than profits

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

Bringing something into the world that you believe in is courageous and scary. While that's difficult in its own right, I think it's even more challenging to wake up and embrace uncertainty over and over again in different ways to try and keep the dream alive. To be clear, that process is also really fun, but carries a lot of weight, particularly when others are relying on the business thriving to provide for themselves and their families.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Prioritize building a system over achieving goals. Figure out what actions and behaviors will move you forward and increase your chances of success. Then go and do those things consistently. Make tweaks based on your results, but don't get too caught up in a potential opportunity or too let down when something doesn't pan out.
  2. Stay curious and listen closely. Pay attention to patterns that show up and check in with yourself when you feel real tension around a decision. That's when your curiosity will be most helpful to you.
  3. Create practices and routines to get some distance from your loud, self-defeating thoughts, and remember that your worth expands far beyond anything that you create in your business.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.stepoutside.us/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/step.outside__/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcmccann/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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