Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Max Gunther. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Max, thanks for joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

The main thing that I try to do differently is to make my clients independent of me. I know that is probably not the best business practice, but it feels like the right thing to do. Specifically what I mean by that is that when Client approached me to ask to learn about climbing outside, my goal is to make them safe and independent rock climbers, so that they do not need a guide. In someways, that is the same as what I do as a psychologist. My job is to actually work myself out of the equation so that my patients are independent of me. I want them to be able to function in a healthy and safe way without me having to be there all the time for them.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a rock, climbing guide and a licensed clinical psychologist. I got into guiding mostly because I like teaching a rock climbed a lot in college and then injured myself and wasn’t able to climb for many years during the pandemic when we were all cooped up inside, I got back into rock climbing, because that was an activity I could participate in outdoors. I realized that my injury was healed and that I felt fine on the rocks. It was so amazing to get back to it after being away for so long. the problem that I noticed pretty early on though was that I really didn’t remember how to do a lot of the technical systems that you need to know how to do when you climb. That obviously meant I was really unsafe. Because of that, I decided to start taking some classes. I got really into the technical side of things and realized that I could actually teach people some of what I learned and make them safer and more confident climbers is as well. Someone suggested to me that I should pursue a certification to guide. I like School and I learned pretty well in a structured environment, so that just seemed like a natural progression after I got the certification, I realized what I need there was for rock climbing guides in Nashville, and decided to start my own guiding business. Being a rock, climbing guide is certainly not a way to get rich. It is a lot of fun though, and it definitely scratches the itch to teach. I just love rock climbers too. It’s one of the best communities I’ve ever been a part of. It’s hard to explain unless you’re in the culture. I always ask people do you know what I think the best part of rock climbing is? And the answer is the people.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I really have to give a lot of credit to my friend and mentor Trevor Nozell. I met him in our local climbing gym and we hit it off pretty quickly at least, I thought he was pretty cool. Maybe he didn’t think the same thing about me! He had just gotten out of the army and decided to pursue guiding as a career. He had also done a bunch of training, and I started to learn from him after I got my certification he really encouraged me to try to do it as a business at first I was hesitant, but I’m really glad that I listen to him and decided to go forward with it. He has his own guiding business in Chattanooga called Pinnacle Mountain Guides. He’s a great guide and great teacher.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I would definitely describe guiding as a side hustle. In fact, if it’s a hassle at all, it’s a pretty bad one! I’m actually considering converting my “business” into being a nonprofit. The plan would be to donate proceeds to protecting climbing areas. we have a fantastic organization called the southeastern, climbers coalition that I try to donate money too and to help out with. I’m not that familiar with how nonprofits work, so I’ll keep you posted!

Also, just to clarify, I think the way to make guiding as a business more viable is to really do a lot of volume of large groups, that is children’s groups, churches, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, etc. that’s really not why I got into guiding and rock climbing. I got into it to teach established rock climbers how to climb more safely and to teach them technical roof systems so that they could transition from climbing inside on plastic onto actual rock. So, if you want to be a guide around Nashville, there’s a huge market for guiding children and inexperienced, climbers to tap into. That’s just not my clientele, market, audience, etc.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.spunkyadventures.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spunkyadventures.llc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpunkyAdventures