We were lucky to catch up with Natalie Bogwalker recently and have shared our conversation below.

Natalie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Often the greatest growth and the biggest wins come right after a defeat. Other times the failure serves as a lesson that’s helpful later in your journey. We’d appreciate if you could open up about a time you’ve failed

We created our first online course in 2018. Several of our friends and colleagues had had success with online courses and we were excited to join them. Our school teaches hands-on skills, including traditional and primitive skills, and we chose to create a course on the all natural Braintanning method of making buckskin. It’s a form of hide tanning that is very ancient and results in the most soft, supple, and durable buckskin you can imagine. It’s also a very physically rigorous process with lots of detailed steps. We poured a huge amount of time and money into the course.– both creating it and marketing it. It’s beautiful, comprehensive, and was a pretty big flop. Myself and my team were pretty devastated at the “failure,” after pouring so much of ourselves into the project. I think one of the biggest challenges during this time was how much we had gotten our hopes and expectations up about it. We had seen our colleagues find success and were expecting the same.

Throughout this process and this failure, I learned a lot. This was our first online course, and it actually paved the way for two more that we created when COVID struck, and which actually have been profitable. Without this first “flop” of an online program under our belt, there’s no way we would have been able to pivot that quickly when we had to postpone some in-person classes due to COVID. In this way, the failure proved to be a blessing in the end.

Also, our team has really integrated the lesson about getting our hopes up. Instead of putting our energy and attention into some future success, we’re now in the habit of checking in regularly about how things are feeling and progressing in the now. Of course we still dream big and undertake big projects, but if we aren’t feeling a “yes” to the process, along with any potential amazing outcome, we tend not to take on ideas that are only appealing in terms of their potential.

Overall, I would say that failures are rich opportunities to learn and reflect. In this case, we grew our skillset, created something that has had a positive impact, though a smaller one than we had hoped for, and we got to experience disappointment and re-grouping together as a team. We now feel a lot more resilient in the face of uncertainty, thanks to this past failure.

Natalie, 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’m Natalie Bogwalker, founder and director of Wild Abundance.

Wild Abundance is a permaculture and carpentry school nestled in the mountains of Western North Carolina, just outside Asheville. It’s also a chance to manifest a dream of a more interconnected and sustainable world. That dream is constantly co-created by everyone who participates in it.

We believe that humans have a beautiful potential to feel interwoven with the web of life, and to align our actions and our values. Sadly, we see modern life pushing people further and further away from the living world, from each other, and from the skills for empowered engagement. Our school is a place of hopeful resistance to this trend. It’s also our invitation to students to gain confidence and competence. We’ve shared skills and knowledge with thousands of students since we began in 2009.

Wild Abundance is here to help you nurture a lifestyle that’s aligned with your values and your hopes for the future.

We strive to do this in alignment with the living world and our fellow stewards. See more on our Land Acknowledgement.

Our Core Values:

Nurture competence and capability through hands on skills and knowledge
Embody authenticity as we lead and inspire with courage and humility
Care for and interconnection with the earth and our many communities: human; plant; animal; elemental
Achieve resilience through sustainable actions

We offer these classes:
Women’s Basic and Advanced Carpentry
Permaculture Design Course
Tiny House Building Workshop
Wildcrafting and Medicine Making
Women’s Rewilding Retreat
Timber Framing
Online Gardening School
Online Tiny House Academy

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Our school was almost 100% in-person and hands-on before COVID. When the pandemic hit, we had to pivot toward online teaching, and toward masking and distancing when we did run classes. This was a big shift, as we needed to invest time and money into making these changes, without knowing if they would end up paying for themselves. One thing that helped us here was our already-diversified approach. We had already created one online program, and we teach our classes outdoors. In fact, the very subject matter that we teach helped us here. We’re a permaculture school, and this approach means that we move with the living systems around us, we change, adapt, and interact. So, in a way, we were in a perfect position to make these changes when we needed to.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Wild Abundance has a great reputation because we’ve been present in this community for a long time, and we always operate with an attitude of generosity, abundance, and connection. We also dig deep into the subjects that we teach, not just glossing over the surface. In addition, we like to collaborate with others in our field, looking for ways to lift each other up, rather than tear each other down with an attitude of competition. Many of our students have become staff members, and many new students have been referred by past students. We really value relationships, accountability, integrity, and joyfulness. These values have helped us build a solid reputation.      

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wildabundance.net/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildabundance/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WildAbundance.net
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@WildAbundance