We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Angie Lake. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Angie below.

Angie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I remember the first time I summitted a glaciated peak, crampons strapped on my feet and ice axe in hand as the wind blew frost in circles around me. In that moment, I was an unstoppable woman, feeling a new, bold rush of energy course through me. The adrenaline wore off as I descended the thousands of feet back to the frontcountry, but something changed within me for the rest of my life. I still felt unstoppable. Mountaineering and ultrarunning showed me that my body and mind were far more capable, resourceful, and resilient than I ever would’ve known had I stayed indoors.

Adventure teaches women lessons that can’t be learned indoors. Yet, girls and women face barriers to access the outdoors, more so than boys and men. At The Cairn Project, we uplift adventure-fueled storytelling and grassroots giving to shift perceptions of who belongs outside. It’s our mission to close the gender gap, starting with outdoor adventure and knowing that it has ripple effects through the rest of life and society.

So, I launched the See Her Outside Podcast to amplify the stories of women who adventure but that mainstream media ignores. We highlight women like Isabelle Riddle, who climbs big mountains with chronic illness, Alexandria Garcia, who advocates for the Puerto Rican community through time outdoors, Gunjan Utreja, who accidentally created a major hiking group for women in the Bay Area, and Carlie Graham, who bravely shared her experience with assault in the climbing community so we can prevent it in the future.

Women belong outdoors, and their stories help advocate for a more inclusive future of adventure.

Angie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I partner with outdoor brands and women to use our “Outside Voices,” helping build campaigns, platforms, communities, and events that support women’s equity. I love unpacking taboo topics and stories that explore the true-but-tough issues facing women, all through an outdoor adventure lens.

The “first wave” of my career involved supporting programming and events for non-profits like the Girl Scouts, YMCA camps, and the National Park Service. I loved the mission-focused aspects of day-to-day non-profit work, but I felt constrained by the bureaucracy (that’s probably similar to that of corporate, just with less funding).

The “second wave” of my career began when I quit my employer and decided to go fully self-employed. I had been building side projects even while employed, creating a successful side gig in menstrual health education. But I wanted to experiment with a bunch of projects before committing where to go next, so I ended up relying on word-of-mouth recommendations to try my hand at a variety of creative media projects, from podcast production to email marketing strategy to community events and beyond.

I still consider myself in my second wave now, but towards the end of it. I sense a “third wave” starting soon, now that I’ve narrowed my offers and found where I really shine: facilitating campaigns and conversations through brand consulting, workshops, and 1:1 work with women.

In addition, I co-direct the Wild Woman Trail Runs, which was the first-ever all-women’s 50k and marathon in the USA. I host the Gorge Speakeasy storytelling night, a beloved monthly event in Hood River, Oregon, where community members take the stage to share a true, personal story (and we’ve raised over $30,000 for Gorge non=profits through it). I host the See Her Outside Podcast: Stories of Women Who Adventure. I founded the Outdoor Period Pledge, a campaign for outdoor guides and outfitters to help menstruators feel more comfortable and supported on wilderness trips. I’m busy, but never bored, and I adore the projects I get to juggle.

My work is about Blood, Sweat, and Fear: how our inner rhythms shape our creativity, what outdoor adventure teaches us about life, and how to use our boldest voices to make positive change in our communities. I learn more about my own Blood, Sweat, and Fear every day of entrepreneurship.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Creativity isn’t about thinking “outside of the box.” It’s realizing that there is no box at all. My messaging, marketing, and programs are unconventional because I don’t want to play by rules that feel stifling, ethically questionable, or, frankly, boring. More rigid thinkers are sometimes stunned to see how I operate without traditional conventions guiding me.

For example, I design my offers around what works best for me, rather than what a business book tells me to do. “Angie’s Arcade Tokens” are one tool I created to add flexibility in my work, which benefits both myself and my clients. My content strategy retainer clients receive a set amount of credits to “spend” throughout the month from a menu of deliverables. They can choose what they need most that month and roll over credits if needed. This gives me the structure and timeline I need while honoring clients’ shifting needs, and I love the novelty of each month.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

In my 4 years of being fully self-employed, I’ve pivoted pretty much constantly – in my offers, messaging, and people I work with. As time goes on, though, I’ve become clearer and more specific in the most powerful work I can do with others: helping women turn their wild ideas into a movement that changes a community for the better.

Women work with me to develop the confidence, tools, and platform to boldly share their voice and get their radical idea into the world. I didn’t set out intentionally to do that work, but it kept finding me anyway. I’d hardly marketed that part of my business explicitly, yet folks still found me to ask how we can work together. It only hit me this year that that likely happens since I’m practicing what I preach and seeing it work. In fact, my greatest fulfillment has come from going against the grain and turning my weird ideas into mini-movements:

Post-pandemic, I saw a lack of connection in my local community. So I started a monthly storytelling night. 5 seasons in, it’s a community staple and has raised over $30,000 for local nonprofits.

I got fed up with the media treating menstrual cycles like a weakness. So I wrote a book about the beauty of cycles and how to use them to your advantage.

My friends complained about dating in a mountain town. So I built a live game show to “solve the Gorge dating problem with the GALgorithm.” (Lighthearted movements matter, too!)

These creative experiments taught me that we need to hear stories and voices that are a little weird, that welcome taboo conversations, that reject the boring and welcome the nuanced. And I think others want the same. Just this year, I’ve gotten to work with athlete-advocates, a national girls’ leadership organization, and a journalism department at a university to develop women’s creative ideas and blend them with the nuts-and-bolts of building a platform.

I want all women to have this same creative confidence. Women are, by nature, change-makers. We’re innovators, creators, experimenters, problem-solvers.

But we also hear those tired old voices: “Be more professional.” “Don’t risk having too hot a take.” “Maybe you’re not qualified yet.” “Who are you to build that, anyway?”

My work is for the rebels, the wantrepreneurs, the multipassionate humans who struggle to organize their creations into one platform. The ones who want to sell their ideas without selling their souls. The ones who think climbing a mountain is easier than pitching their creative work to a business. The ones who have 37 Notes app lists but no published platform (yet). The ones who know, deep down, that they have something great to share with the world… but crave the confidence, accountability, and outlet to do so.

I won’t stop working until every woman feels ready to share her boldest voice, even if it’s scary.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://itsangiemarie.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/angvswild
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/angie-marie
• Other: https://bloodsweatfear.substack.com