Listen on: Amazon, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, other platforms
A lot of guides and outdoor workers know the feeling: You love the community, the adventure, the bigger purpose, and then every fall you get laid off, change your address, and try to figure out health insurance for the third year in a row.
Sasha Clonts built her business, Guide Theory, for exactly that gap. She came to seasonal work as a burnt-out consultant who sold her car, bought a van, and ended up in the office at a Taos rafting company.
Sasha Clonts is now the founder of Guide Theory, a platform helping seasonal workers build more sustainable, empowered lives through coaching, community, and practical tools. Sasha discovered the transformative power of the outdoors later in life and went on to become a ski instructor at Taos Ski Valley and earn an Outdoor Industry MBA from Western Colorado University. Sasha is passionate about helping women build confidence, capability, and self-trust through adventure and unconventional life paths.
(And if you want to put a big seasonal adventure on your own calendar, join us in the Grand Canyon on October 10, 2026 for our Rim-to-Rim hike! It’s a bucket list trip, and proceeds fund wilderness scholarships for girls and women. Learn more here.)
See Her Outside is partnering with Western Colorado University’s Outdoor Industry MBA — a remote degree program built for people who want to lead, build, and create in the outdoor space. If you’ve ever thought about building a career or business in the outdoor industry, WCU’s Outdoor Industry MBA was made for you.
This conversation is about how empathy is one of the most powerful tools an adventure leader can hold, what it actually takes to build sustainability into a seasonal life, and what happens when curiosity outvotes imposter syndrome.
Sasha and Angie talked about:
- The COVID-era burnout that pushed her to change her life and work
- Selling her car, buying a van, and ending up at a Taos rafting company
- Falling in love with the seasonal lifestyle before she even knew how to raft
- Why empathy is one of the most powerful tools adventure leaders can hold
- Why she was the wrong fit for full-time raft guiding (and what that taught her)
- How she built her business, Guide Theory, to help seasonal workers find sustainability in finance and lifestyle
- Curiosity as the antidote to imposter syndrome
- What corporate employees can learn from seasonal workers
Check out these resources:
- 📱 Guide Theory on Instagram: @guidetheory
- 🛶 Guide Theory programs: guidetheory.com
- ➡️ The Cairn Project on IG
- ✨ The Cairn Project’s newsletter
- 🥾Become a Trailblazer📅Summit Scholarship Foundation
Hike Rim to Rim in the Grand Canyon this October!
Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!
You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond:
- Become a Trailblazer. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.
- Check out the Summit Scholarship Foundation.
- Join our book club, Grit Lit.
- Share this episode with a friend or family member.
Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don’t miss a story!
Listen on: Amazon, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, other platforms
The Cairn Project
Mobilizing to empower young women in the outdoors through grantmaking.