We were lucky to catch up with Monica Shoberg recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Monica , thanks for joining us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your professional career?

I was working at my dream job in Oregon in a beautiful office with big windows, close to the ocean, surrounded by pine trees. I could bike to work, walk my dog at lunch, and was surrounded it seemed by constant spring. Flowering dogwood, magnolia, and rhododendron were the pop of color among the abundant and towering pines. This was a career that I had poured my life into, that I truly felt purpose and had finally found myself in a location that made me feel more at home than ever before.

Although it took some time, eventually I still felt it. The feeling that something wasn’t quite right. Eight years in and even in this dream of a place the familiar tug that wanted something more, came creeping back in. I wanted to learn more, explore more, adventure more, be immersed in nature and still find a way to help people in a meaningful way. Throughout the years, I tried to incorporate these things I yearned for into my work-life. I kept trying to discover new ways to make my life feel whole.

There is a deeper you, a wilder you, that’s been suppressed and molded into who the world thought you should be. And sometimes, no matter how creative you get, it becomes time to stop fighting against the tug of the current and go with it, even though you’re not sure exactly where it’s going to take you.

This particular current, took me into the mountains. A late July weekend before the wildfires really kicked off, I brought my dear friend backpacking for her first time. It was hot and hazy, but we had fun making our way up the mountain, glissading down, and getting eaten alive by mosquitos. We briefly crossed paths with another woman who mentioned how she wished she’d had the confidence in her younger years to do what we were heading out to do, and with other women too. I knew she wasn’t alone in feeling that way, because I too had felt that way at one time. In that one weekend, I experienced balance, felt more alive, inspired and filled to the brim than ever before. I discovered a way that I could help people, specifically women, to feel empowered, discover their most authentic selves and do the things they didn’t think they were strong enough to do, while immersed in nature. Over time, this has morphed into what Unruly Women has become today.
Life is too short to settle, to ignore our truth and cover up our unhappiness with distractions. Our intuition is trying to guide us where we’re meant to go. We can either resist, or trust in the unknown and bring our wildest dreams to fruition.

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

A few years ago, I decided to shift gears. After 8 years of working my dream profession in the medical world, I finally recognized my own cyclical burnout.

While I was living in Oregon, I backpacked in some of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. Although I’d done plenty of solo roadtripping, camping, and hiking over the years, Oregon was the first place that I’d gone backpacking into the wilderness alone. It was life changing. I realized how much I wished I’d felt the confidence to do this sooner, without having to wait for a significant other or friend who had the gear and the expertise to go with. The pandemic triggered a series of events that led me to leaving my career to start a business empowering women through educational outdoor experiences. I am now a Wilderness First Responder and a certified BICP mountain bike instructor. I currently create and guide multi-day backpacking and biking retreats, centered around skill building, mindfulness, journaling, meditation and community.

Unruly Women’s mission is to help create a more inclusive and accessible outdoor experience that empowers all female identifying and femme-leaning non-binary individuals to reclaim their voice by unearthing their inner wild outdoors, through backpacking, hiking, mountain biking, and land stewardship projects.

I believe that when we are empowered in outdoor spaces, the independence and confidence gained inevitably trickles throughout all areas of our lives, giving us the courage to pursue whatever our hearts desire. Learning to strengthen our intuition through mindfulness while participating in these experiences is crucial, so that we can more easily embrace our most authentic self and learn to fully trust ourselves, especially in outdoor situations. There’s a magic that happens when we come together in nature, and in a world that divides us and decides for us, there’s no more powerful thing than to gather in one space to cultivate relationships, nurture our skills, and empower each other.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

I would. I don’t believe that I wasted my time in my last profession, because I know I helped numerous people and I learned invaluable skills and life lessons along the way. It was a necessary step in my own evolution towards finding the inner strength to build my own business by incorporating my skills, favorite outdoor activities, nature, and adventure while also living a more balanced life that better aligns with who I am, and who I am becoming.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

Keep learning, be flexible as things don’t always turn out exactly as we imagine they will, and don’t let fear of failure stop you from trying.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.unrulywomen.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unruly.women
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unruly.women.outdoors
• Other: Sign up for the Unruly Women Newsletter on my website to stay up to date with events, head over to my blog for inspiration, outdoor advice, and personal stories. You can find the Unruly Women backpacking and biking retreats, biking workshops, and volunteer events on my website, sign up to secure your adventure!

Image Credits
The first photo, the initial one requested that looks professional was taken by Riah Beth Photography (www.riahbeth.com)