Episode 67- Mollie Busby, Arctic Hive / Yoga Hive

Travel

Mar. 9

Arctic Hive is on a mission to bridge this disconnect so you not only experience a trip of a lifetime but return to your community invigorated, more centered, and as an eyewitness advocate for these remote, critical places.

On this episode of Soul of Travel, Christine welcomes a woman who is a writer, yoga teacher, dog mom, backcountry skier, world traveler, & lover of all things business. She also has been empowering leaders & coaching others through experiential education & yoga since 2004.

Mollie Busby is a driven entrepreneur with the spirit of a summer camp counselor and a kind, midwestern smile.

Mollie is also a seasoned yoga and meditation teacher and off-grid home builder with her husband, Sean. Although the pair now calls Alaska their home, they have deep roots in the Flathead Valley of Montana. Wherever they are, the Busbys choose to live close to the land off-the-grid and pursue their life’s work.

The pair started Riding On Insulin, which Mollie ran as Executive Director for 7 years, until Sean took over in 2017. It was then that Mollie shifted much of her focus to Yoga Hive Studios, taking the brand beyond Montana. Yoga Hive is known for its inviting vibe, friendly instructors, and willingness to show anyone that yoga is for everybody and everybody.

Mollie and Sean built their first dynamic off-the-grid homestead in the heart of Whitefish, Montana, that’s been featured on HGTV, the DIY Network, Discovery Channel, Yahoo News, Daily Mail, and more. They've also built off-grid homesteads in Homer, Alaska and Arctic Hive, Alaska, which they now call home.

In this conversation, Mollie and Christine discuss mindfulness and business, living life aligned with your values, dreaming big dreams and off grid living. She starts by sharing about her yoga of business podcast, applying the Yoga Sutras to business which lays the perfect foundation for the rest of our time together. Mollie has a passion for life and community that are infectious.

Join Christine for her soulful conversation with Mollie Busby.

In this episode, Christine and Mollie discuss:

Mollie’s journey into yoga and living in Alaska’s back country
Why Mollie’s passionate about yoga and the impact Arctic Hive / Yoga Hive is making
How to live a life that is aligned with your values and brings you joy
What the catalyst was that started Mollie’s travel journey
Living and building a home off the grid and its impact
Why we need to dream big and go after our dreams

Resources & Links Mentioned in the Episode

To learn more about Mollie Busby and Arctic Hive visit her website http://arctichive.com

Follow Mollie on Instagram or Facebook

If you are curious about Arctic Hive and taking in the Northern Lights while practicing yoga in the transparent Zen Den, then you can visit the Lotus sojourns website to find out how you can join me and Mollie for my Arctic sojourn in March of 2023.

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Last year, women said this was one of the most surprising and impactful experiences they had. Join us for rich discussion, meaningful connection. And an opportunity for exploration from the comfort of your home, or wherever you might be in 2022 your next opportunity to join us is in April for a three or six month experience.

Join us for rich discussion, meaningful connection and opportunity for exploration from the comfort of your home, or wherever you might be in 2022. Visit the website at www.lotussojourns.com/book-sojourn to join today.

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About the Soul Of Travel Podcast

Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of the people making a positive impact in tourism. In each episode, you’ll hear the story of women who are industry professionals and seasoned travelers and community leaders who know travel is more than a vacation. It is an opportunity for personal awareness and it is a vehicle for change. We are thought leaders, action takers, and heart-centered change makers.

The guests work in all sectors of the tourism industry. You'll hear from adventure-based community organizations, social impact businesses, travel photographers and videographers, tourism boards and destination marketing organizations, and transformational travel experts. They all honor the idea that travel is more than a vacation and focus on sustainable travel, eco-travel, community-based tourism, and intentional travel.

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If you want to learn about new destinations, types of travel, or how to be more intentional or live life on purpose, join Christine Winebrenner Irick for soulful conversations with her community of fellow travelers exploring the heart, the mind, and the globe. These conversations highlight what tourism really means for the world.

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Credits. Christine Winebrenner Irick (Host, creator, editor.) Mollie Busby (Guest). Original music by Clark Adams. Editing and production by Rayna Booth.

Transcript

KEYWORDS

yoga, people, business, Alaska, travel, life, snowboard, Montana, arctic, built, hive, journey, living, community, world, book, property, home

Christine Winebrenner Irick 00:08

Thank you for joining me for soulful conversations with my community of fellow travelers, exploring the heart, the mind and the globe. These conversations highlight what travel really means for the world. Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of the people making a positive impact in tourism. Each week, I'll be speaking to women who are tourism professionals, world travelers and leaders in their communities will explore how travel has changed them and how that has rippled out and inspired them to change the world. These conversations are as much about travel as they are about passion, and living life with purpose, chasing dreams, building businesses, and having the desire to make the world a better place. This is a community of people who no travel is more than a vacation. It is an opportunity for personal awareness, and it is a vehicle for change. We are thought leaders, action takers, and heart centered changemakers I'm Christine Winebrenner Irick. And this is the Soul of Travel.

Mollie Busby is the co-founder of Arctic Hive and she has been empowering leaders and coaching others through experiential education and yoga since 2004. She is a driven entrepreneur with the spirit of a summer camp counselor and a kind Midwestern smile. Mollie is a seasoned yoga and meditation teacher and off grid home builder with her husband Sean, wherever they are, the Busby's choose to live close to the land off the grid and pursue their life's work.

The pair started writing on insulin, and several years later, Mollie shifted her focus towards yoga hive studios. She and Sean built their first dynamic off the grid homestead in the heart of Whitefish, Montana. And this property has been featured on HGTV and the DIY Network Discovery Channel, Yahoo News, Daily Mail and more. They've also built off grid homesteads in Homer, Alaska and Arctic hive, Alaska, which they now call home. In our conversation, Mollie and I discuss mindfulness and business, living life aligned with your values, dreaming big dreams and off grid living. She starts by sharing about her yoga of business podcast, applying the Yoga Sutras to business which lays the perfect foundation for the rest of our time together. Mollie has a passion for life and community that are infectious.

And I know you'll be as inspired by her today as I have been since getting to know her when I took my yoga teacher training with her and the yoga hive team. If you are curious about Arctic Hive and taking in the northern lights while practicing yoga in the transparent Zen Den, then you can visit the Lotus sojourns website to find out how you can join me and Mollie for my Arctic sojourn in March of 2023. Join me now for my soulful conversation with Mollie Busby.

Welcome to Soul of Travel podcast, I am so excited today to be bringing Mollie Busby to the show and to talk about mindfulness and business living aligned with your values dreaming big, huge dreams and off grid living, which is so many fun things that we get to talk about today that are pretty unique in this space. So Mollie, thank you so much for joining me.

04:07

Thank you for having me. I'm so happy to be here.

Christine Winebrenner Irick 04:11

Just for our listeners a quick connection between Mollie and I, I feel like two years ago, I don't. You would always think I could figure out timelines before I talk. But timelines don't seem like they really exist anymore. I wanted to reconnect to my yoga practice. And I was really like hemming and hawing about committing myself to it. And very aligned with this conversation. I asked the universe for a sign like after taking a class at Yoga Hive in Montana. And it was like, I feel like this feels like the place for me, but I just can't trust my own intuition. Give me a sign.

And I sat in my car and another friend of mine was doing this big yoga giveaway on Instagram. And I didn't even know what she was giving away but I just was supporting her and I'm like, you're awesome. And then she texts me she's like you just won this yoga mat. This yoga block and yoga towel and I was like, Okay universe, that's a pretty good sign. So I ended up signing up for the training. And I'm so, so grateful because this community has really shifted a lot of things for me. And that time and I'm just so grateful for the connection. So, Mollie, I would love to just give you a moment to introduce yourself and let our listeners know a little bit more about you.

05:25

Yay. Well, I'm so happy to be here. My name is Mollie Busby. I lived above the Arctic Circle or in the Arctic Circle of Alaska. My husband and I run an awkward retreat center called Arctic hive. And people always ask, how did you get the hive, it's buzz, bee. But also bees are a really big symbol in my life. They represent the community, among many other things. And that's really what I've spent my life doing. Right after I met my husband, just 12 years ago, we started a nonprofit called riding on insulin.

Sean had started it a long time ago prior to meeting me. It's skis, snowboard cans for kids with type one diabetes, as well as other action sports. And so we've been doing that as a part of our world in different capacities for over 12 years. And then along the way, I also found my yoga practice, I kind of had nowhere I wanted to do yoga to meet friends. And that I mean, this is a really short version. But that spurred into an amazing journey of opening yoga studios, creating communities. And now I run teacher training, 200, our training seems to be 300 hour training. And I'm just combining all of these things. Now, because of all of the virtual yoga that's happening. It's been amazing not only to be able to be in Alaska, be home with my family and teach, but also now bringing people to Alaska, so that I can teach yoga in person really far north, in Alaska in the Brooks Range. So I'm really happy to be you're really excited to have this conversation. Yeah,

Christine Winebrenner Irick 07:00

Thank you. Well, I think a great place to start is one of the things that really resonated for me in our work together. I was listening to your yoga business podcast series that you had, talking about how you can apply the Yoga Sutras to business. And I just thought it was such a unique perspective and a unique way of looking at business. And for me, I think, I've always had a lot of resistance personally to thinking about business because of how I felt about like, the really masculine energy or like, just felt out of alignment with my personal character, like it felt kind of extractive or one sided, and I couldn't really get my head around business.

For me, I always was trying to find my space in business where I felt like it was something that was mutually beneficial, where I was creating something that was coming from me supporting others. And just when I listen to this, it kind of took a lot of that, like the negativity and resistance I had and made me really think about how businesses can be something that are a positive entity and can contribute to others. So I was just wondering if you could share a little bit about how that came to you. And then maybe walk us through some of the ideas so people could maybe see how that might apply to their work, or even make that transition for people to become more spiritually connected, I guess, to their work.

08:31

Awesome. Yeah, I'd love to talk about it. It's. So the podcast that I created is called the yoga business. And it's actually a really great starting point for my journey and kind of talking about how my life has influenced my work. Really early on, I decided I didn't want to work for other people. I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit from it. As a child I used to do coat checks at parties that my parents would have if we made a good amount of money. And we had like all of these notebooks or we kept track of stuff anyway. So business has always been in my life. Both my parents are entrepreneurs.

And so it was just in my blood, and it's in Sean's blood as well, my husband. And so in terms of you know, when I first got into business, really nonprofit life was my first experience of starting my own. It's not even my own business. Nonprofits belong to the world, but starting a business something from the ground up and like you just shared, I think, so many business owners go through this. Just especially in you know, a yoga type field, you go through this inner turmoil of like, well, here's the business side of me. But then here's me doing all the things that I love.

I just have to do this stuff. I have to get it over with. Sometimes it's dramatic, and I just, it's almost like and I've always kind of felt like this. I have these aspects of myself that feels like I'm living a double life or a triple life. Like I used to go to summer camp as a kid and I loved being outdoors I led backpacking and canoeing trips for anywhere from two to 17 days out in the wilderness in northern Wisconsin and the up of Michigan. And so that part of myself, I kind of like let it slide and I got into journalism and fashion. And that's the time in my life when I met Sean. So I had these like double lives. And then we got together, I moved out west. So really, the catalyst and I'm backtracking a little bit, but this is just kind of part of the story. The catalyst for everything I know about travel started when I met Sean, I did not have a passport when I met Sean, I think I was 23. At the time, Sean had been all over the world, almost all seven continents. And I was like, okay, cool. I'll get a passport. And then, you know, he was like, Well, do you want to move out West? It's like, Sure, no big deal. And we originally, we've spent a couple of time in a couple different areas.

We lived in central Utah. And I didn't even know what you told us. Like, honestly, we lived in Montana. after that. I also had no idea what Montana looked like before I went there. So really, Sean, and this is kind of like a thread in my whole story. Like he has this sense of adventure. And it's not that I don't, I definitely do, but he's the one with these ideas. And I've gotten more and more ideas as the years go on. But I would, you know, I would have never chosen to move, I would have lived my whole life. And Madison, Wisconsin, which is an amazing place to be and to grow up and to live. So anyway, we moved out west, and Sean and I met. It's a really lovely story. Also a very sad story. We met at a funeral of a young boy, his name was Jesse.

He died at the age of 13, because of complications with type one diabetes. And so the reason I met Sean was because Sean was giving a eulogy at Jesse's funeral. And I worked with Jesse's mom at the time at a women's magazine. And so we were brought together, Michelle, Jessie's mom introduced us at the funeral. And it just kind of, you know, as they say, the rest was history. But actually, we just started dating. And the rest really was history. And part of the reason we started the initial business, and I think a lot of business owners can relate to this as I mean, I think, you know, in the, on the TV shows, people are like, I'm going to start a business and make a million bucks. Right. But I think a lot of us in small business, we start because of some magical spark in our life, where we realize, oh, my gosh, this is what I want to do.

And that's absolutely what happened. Sean at the funeral said he hadn't been doing these camps that he called riding on insulin at the time. And he vowed at the funeral to restart those for Jesse. And I mean, of course, I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is amazing. And then getting to know Sean and moving out west and being closer to him and learning what he had done. And what we could do with this organization, I was, I was pumped, it was just the perfect reason. And Jesse really had brought us together, that's really the way we saw it. And so I looked at Sean, after about six months ago, last or a couple months, and I was like, What about writing an insulin thing? What are we going to do, and we had some contacts that, you know, really wanted us to run a camp in Utah, and I had never seen one before. So we ran one in December of 2010.

That was the first camp, I just incorporated at the time, a corporation, and then we applied to be a nonprofit, right around that time as well. But after I saw it, I was like, because you know, obviously Sean knew what to do. And I had been to camp but not to write an insolent camp before so to see it happen, and to organize it and be like, Whoa, these kids living with type one diabetes, coming together and getting to feel normal for the day. Because they are normal, they just have an invisible disease, but coming together and sharing stories, and, you know, sharing the hard times of anybody living with a chronic disease, it was just beyond me. I was blown away. And so that experience, really number one light, lit this fire within me like we need to do this. You know, Sharon had a job at the time because I had just moved.

I was in between jobs. And I thought, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make this my career. And, you know, I did, it took a couple years, but we got the nonprofit off the ground, we were running camps in three countries, we still would be if it was COVID, the US Canada and New Zealand, we had a one point we had a staff of five and this is like, you know, years, five to seven years in of being the executive director of this organization, raising, you know, half a million dollars every single year to be able to put on these camps across the country, employ people give back to kids. Really, it was amazing. And starting a nonprofit is no different than starting any other small business.

There are those moments where I mean, it's just consumed your life and you feel like you have to be almost a different person to make some of these business decisions and the hard decisions and on top of that, asking people for money, which was a really which we're all doing, whether we're are nonprofit or not, we're all putting our proposition out there. Because money. You know, I had a consultant tell me this in the beginning because of course, we wanted to do these camps for free. And when we did that people weren't as likely to show up. And I had this consultant, he said, Mollie, because I was like, Well, I don't need, I don't need money, we'll just, you know, we'll just keep doing this. And it's the point everybody gets to when they're like, I don't need to make a living. I just, I'm gonna keep getting these people. And I'll just figure my own stuff out, right?

And he said, Mollie, if you aren't running these camps, because you can't sustain a life, no one's gonna get these camps. And I was like, dang. Okay, that's like such a powerful perspective. And that really shifted it, you know, it's not like, you just, you don't want to be cutthroat because you're giving back and you need to be able to live, right, we all need to be able to sustain a lifestyle, so we can support our family, whatever that looks like. And so having this passion project turned into a career, that's where everything really shifted. And so like a flash forward, I started a yoga hive, which is a yoga studio that began in Whitefish, Montana, after Sean and I moved there.

And we moved in 2013, started a yoga hive in 2015, because I just looked out into the community at the time, and there are some great yoga studios. But for me, as somebody, I don't live with chronic disease, so I feel at home and writing on insulin, but also I have this side project of yoga, and I just love it. And I was like, I don't feel at home. When I walk anywhere. I want to feel like, you know, when you walk in somewhere, you're like, yeah, these, these are my people. This is where I want to be. And so I was like, well, I'll just create it. And it was really fast. What happened was, within a month of deciding, I was like, well, I might as well start a yoga studio, because I had observed my best friend, she opened the Yoga Studio in Denver the year prior. And I got to really walk that journey with her. And this is part of it to his community. And using your resources and men, I had great business resources. And I had literally a person who I'm who I love, who I watched walk through the same path. And I thought, dang, I could totally do this.

So I opened a yoga hive. And that's really, when I started to dive more into yoga and into training and learning more about the philosophy and just everything that goes behind and beyond just making shapes with our body. That's when I was really like, Whoa, how do I reconcile these two things? You know, how do I show up in business authentically, and also follow my dreams, but also do things, right?

Like, there's a certain fee that you learn in business where when you mess up legally, contractually, insurance wise, I mean, the stuff people don't want to think about, even financially, money wise, when you screw up, you have to learn from that, if you're going to continue doing what you love. And it's the stuff that especially people are like, Oh, Yoga people, we don't, you know, want to, we don't want to worry about finances, and whatever it is empowering, to get it together and learn from your mistakes and be able to say, Yes, I'm gonna show up in my authentic with my authentic voice and also get it we're going to sign a contract, we're going to get clear about what we're doing here in this partnership.

It's so empowering to get into that position. So I am looking forward to starting more yoga studios to open three in Montana, I work closely in partnership with Blaine and in Colorado, who went to Colorado, and then I opened one in Wisconsin as well. And along the way, what I learned was I could take this philosophy and apply it to my work in business, learning how to be detached from this. What was it like? I don't know if people like this term or not like business babies. You know, I personally don't have kids right now. I have dogs, I have businesses all over the country. And for me, I've worked with a lot of women and I work with a lot of moms, both in writing on insulin and through archives. Through yoga, hi. Anytime we create something, whether it's as intense, I would say it's creating a human or intense is creating a business, or creating a hobby or building a home. Right?

These are all creations. And so really, when we take it down to that tiny level of creation, anything we create has to go through the same cycles of creation, sustaining and then death, right? It's inevitable, even in the journey of a business. And so applying these principles of like detaching from like, okay, is my business still relevant? Right, like with yoga, when we went through the pandemic, I was traveling, it was super unsustainable for me as a human.

I had been traveling once, sometimes twice a month, across the country to different studios, running training sessions. It was fun. But it wasn't spending any time with my family, you know, and I just kind of said, well, you know, we'll move to Alaska. I'll just figure it out. And I was in no rush to figure it out because I had no idea what I was going to do. And then when everything shut down, and everything went online, it was like the universe said, Here you go, this is your chance, take this, run with it. And this is how you're gonna be able to have a family and operate this business. And it's those little clues, right? Those little, if you're not paying attention, if you're not, you know, meditating, or having that self practice every day to be able to notice the signs you don't see. You don't see them. And I saw it. This is the answer. And then flash forward, we've been doing 200 hour training, 100% on Zoom for, like two and a half years. And people say, Oh, so much time on Zoom.

But I don't know, maybe you can attach like, it's magical, how close you feel to people like right away. So all these principles now, where I am today, running your cheat centers, still running trainings, I still own a studio in Wisconsin, I've since sold the Montana studio to a dear friend and colleague of mine, and just creating these communities in different ways, and still working with riding on insulin as well. I think the biggest thing that I've taken away is that, you know, we feel so disparate in these parts of our lives. But there is this opportunity for us to kind of seamlessly weave them all together. We can't really compartmentalize our lives, we can really try, you know, like, I'm going to come home, I'm not going to think about work. That is for what I do at the office, and this is for my family.

Yeah, I think that's one mentality. But what's really worked for me is to just have boundaries, that was a big one, but also not be afraid to allow all parts of my life to really intertwine. And when something doesn't fit, that's usually something to do with me. You know, that's something I've got to sit with. And I've got to be like, Okay, what's not working. And so just integrating these teachings and you know, you can listen to the podcast, it's 10 episodes, specifically, the yamas and niyamas playing each of those to our life in business. They're just powerful reminders that I use every day. And if you've never heard of the Yoga Sutras before, it's okay. You don't need to know anything about Sanskrit or yoga. Just really powerful principles that you'll find even woven through lots of different virtual and different traditions, even within the self help world as well. So yeah, that was a long answer. But I think that also wasted a lot of my a lot of my journey.

Christine Winebrenner Irick 22:27

Hi, it's Christine. Interrupting this episode for just a moment to make sure you know, you still have time to join our 2022 Lotus books sojourn, this is a unique journey exploring the heart, the mind and the globe through the pages of nine specially selected books, written by inspiring female authors. Your journey includes two guided virtual discussions each month with a community of light hearted women, as well as weekly journaling prompts and reflection, and an assigned travel companion for each book in the journey. Last year, women said this was one of the most surprising and impactful experiences they had. Join us for rich discussion, meaningful connection, and an opportunity for exploration from the comfort of your home, or wherever you might be in 2020.

Your next opportunity to join us is in April for a three or six month experience. Visit the website at Lotus sojourns.com backslash book dash sojourn to join today. Now back to our soulful conversation. Yeah, I love that. I will the one thing that first stuck out to me and I think will resonate with people listening, especially in the area of travel where I focus in sustainable travel and community based tourism and with a lot of colleagues who are giving back through their travel businesses, the idea of not being able to be cutthroat and give back at the same time or not being able to much like you said, of of hearing that powerful sentence like not thinking that it's okay to earn money. If you're trying to give that somehow those things can't be, they can't go together. And also hearing you say that, that, you know, if you're not being able to sustain what you're doing, because you're just giving, then it's going to go away and no one's going to benefit from it. I felt like that's a huge permission slip, to be able to say, you know, we have to do this. It is a business.

And I also think listening to your podcast, but thinking about money is an exchange of energy, right? And so for me, this is a huge space that I've spent focusing on. I am putting my energy out and I'm putting my love out and I'm putting my time out and The way that our society likes returns, that is the energy of money. And I think that that is something where if you look at things through this perspective, you can find some ease with whatever that guilt thing is associated with earning money for giving love.

25:21

Well, and I actually think it's something you said right before we started talking, which was this, like, masculine energy, right, that we often experience with business, I think, like to encapsulate all of it, it's so powerful that point because masculine energy and feminine energy, regardless of gender identity, we're talking about just two types of energies, and they complement one another one cannot exist without the other.

And actually, the word yoga means union or to bring together and really what we're doing in yoga, whether it's philosophy, or Asana, or breath, work, whatever, we're bringing together, these two parts of ourselves, this masculine and feminine energy, and you hit it on the head, like we're in this masculine dominated world, right? You're like, I'm getting into business, I need to make budgets, and I need to bring in money. And like, I need to somehow convince my partner that this is a good idea, right? I know, that's another thing. But once we figure out this feminine piece, and you know, especially as someone who identifies as a woman, and really has been, for me, I've been dropping a lot into this feminine energy and really feeling, feeling the energy and being able to sit with it. And, recognizing the receiving is not always money, but also receiving joy, right?

Like, I know, people that are teaching yoga and have never wanted to get paid, and that's feeding that that that works great. And then also people who start yoga studios or any business, in order to pay the bills, there has to be money coming in. But also there has to be joy, because there can be tons of money and no joy. So money is just like you said, and like we say a form of energy. And so all we're doing right there is just balancing that feminine energy of like receiving, and then this masculine outward energy of giving, giving, giving. And as long as they're somewhat in balance, you know, on a day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year basis, then we're going to find some of that balance in our life. Totally. Yeah,

Christine Winebrenner Irick 27:21

I just, it makes me so happy to think about things from this contact. So I really appreciate you sharing that. You mentioned, when you were telling us a bit about your story, kind of your transition out west, and then moving to whitefish. And this is kind of the beginning of your off grid journey. But I would love for you to share a little bit more about how that happened for you. I think this is something that when I share about you people are very interested in and curious about and not a lot of us have had this sort of experience. Even someone growing up in Montana, and likes camping and spending all that time. That's one thing but committing to your lifestyle. This is another thing. Yeah. I'd love to hear what sparked that for you. And then what kind of made this a goal for you to set out and create this lifestyle.

28:17

Awesome. Yeah, I would love to answer this question. So Oh, my goodness. So I will start off by saying I have a deep love for the outdoors. I always went to summer camp every year for like 15 years growing up, I worked at a Girl Scout camp for many years and attended camp. I worked at the Twitch YMCA camp in northern Wisconsin, leading trips. And so outdoors I just love it. I love it so much. And what was really interesting, like I mentioned briefly is like I had kind of gone away from the outdoors to pursue a career.

But actually that's what happened. And I was like now like I actually remember writing in a journal one time. I don't think I can make a career out of camp. And I'll never forget it because I truly believe that and we talked about that as a staff a camp like Well, eventually I'm gonna have to go get a career. You know, there's this idea of like a career but then also like your campus is something you do from time to time.

So when I met Sean, Sean was a professional snowboarder, backcountry snowboarder, at the time and and even now, not less with COVID. But he had been traveling the world on these snowboard expeditions, climbing up mountains, you know, with no chairlifts and snowboarding down them. And I mean, it was a really steep learning curve pun intended for me. I'm gonna go skier at the time from Wisconsin, really to get up to his ability level. Learning how to ski from your partner is a whole other story for another podcast. But really it brought us together with the travel experience because I was, of course I'm always up for the adventure. And so we started traveling right away, like I moved out west. And then a month later he was going to New Zealand. And I was like, Sure I'll go. And let's go to the Cook Islands. And then let's go to Australia and like, my parents were like, why?

And I was like, trust me, it's cool. And so that really, you know, the travel bug really ignited something in me. And we've experienced everything on that first trip, we got food poisoning together, we had to actually serve as we went to the hospital in the Cook Islands together, and I got to then land in New Zealand and meet amazing people, right? Like, it was just mind blowing. If you can think back to that first time that you have gone, if you've had the privilege to go out of the country that you live in that first time, like I'd gone to Canada, but at the you know, as before passports were even needed. So this was my first time on a 14 hour flight. And I was like, whoa, whoa, you know, like, everything was new, and like taking pictures and meeting people. And what's so cool is like we have met so many people on our travels, I've been to five continents myself with Sean. He's been to seven continents almost two times each, all of them to ski and snowboard. And so the off grid stuff, when it really started to happen was we decided to go to the Yukon Territory of Canada. And this was in 2012, I believe. And we wanted to take this expedition to it really well, there's not a lot of towns in the Yukon, if you've ever been there or driven through on the Alaskan highway, we flipped a white horse. And we stayed at this little cabin in the woods. And it was totally what we call a dry cabin. So no plumbing, no water, got a little, you know, wood stove that heats the place you cook on a wood stove.

He's an outhouse, you have like, bring in these jugs of water. And I just remember getting there. And I had no idea what to expect. This was something not that I didn't want to go to. But again, Sean is this, he finds these places that are just like, I have no idea how he does it. But I'm really fortunate to be able to take along and I was up for the challenge. And so we had to manage how much water we had in these jobs. And then the people who own the place were like, yeah, let us know, if you need more water, we'll bring over a jug. And it was as simple as that. And I remember we would sit in the cabin, looking outside.

And the Northern Lights were happening. And I was like, we're in this cabin with no plumbing, no running water. And it's great. And we both looked at each other. And we were like we could do this. We were playing until we loved our Skip, skip or you know one of those silly card games, which we still play to this day. And I was like, This is amazing. And I had no idea how we would possibly do that. But you know, it was fun to talk about, like, Yeah, we could totally do this. And then we did a little bit more traveling, and we decided to go to Kurdistan. And this was a belief at the end of 2012. And we were married by the time we got married in 2011. Pretty soon. We met in 2010 and got married in 2011.

And then did all this really big travel in 2012. And we went to Kurdistan, which is in Central Asia. It's one of the most mountainous countries in the world, which is what drew Shan to it. And we had connected with some people. And we decided we actually wanted to do a little bit of giving back. So you know Yes, we were still running and riding on insulin at the time. But you know, we took a little vacation time in order to bring over skis and snowboards to this really amazing community in a place called Arsalan bog Kurdistan.

And they were working on getting ski and snowboard tourism going in order to support the economy of this town. And so we brought over a bunch of snowboards and solar panels and osprey backpacks and from all these sponsors that Sean and I worked with, at the time, and really what we realized on the trip was like, wow, it is so cool to give back to places where you travel. And to not just like, and this is a mentality that I have today that one of my teachers, you know, brought up and like we go on these vacations from our life, to get away from our life. And then by the time we get halfway through the vacation, we're already dreading returning to our life, right? This is what we do. And man going on this trip and being able to be there with these kids. We didn't speak any of their language. You know, that was just not something we had time to learn before going over there. We knew a couple words. But the language of skiing and snowboarding is a language that we speak. And it's universal. And to be able to see the smiles on these kids' faces like I'm not joking.

There was no chairlift. If they insisted that we ride these horses and get up to the top of the ski hill, there was a whole train of kids behind us walking to walk right. And we were like, like just going along and they were just like no, this is what we do. And we were just on this adventure and seeing these kids' faces when they strapped into their snowboards. We had, you know, Shannon helped put these bindings on they had received this, you know a couple shipments of this stuff from another Other gal who had gone over previous to us and we kind of completed this collection of things that they needed in order to snowboard and ski. And it was amazing. We got to ski and backcountry ski and snowboard in the world just well not for us. We got to see yurts or ger, as they call them over there. And life in the round. That was a whole new thing for us as well. And we still keep in touch with a lot of these people that we met over there. And that just really showed us like, you know, we had been kind of skiing, snowboarding and like working with sponsors, and it almost was becoming this like business, right, and it's documenting our trips.

But at that point, we were like, Whoa, travel is so much more than just traveling for ourselves, right to be able to get back to a place. So I think that really got us excited about it. Then when we moved to Whitefish, Montana, we specifically were looking for a property where we could move off grid, we found a home on 10 acres. And so it was like starting a place where we could live while we built this off grid space. And we built a yurt. And that was an experience, none of us had any none of us, neither Sean or I had any building experience pretty much at all, like my dad was a carpenter growing up for some kind of a side job. And so I think I had it in my blood.

But Sean, which is like a kit, you know, we learned how to build a platform. And then the following year, we built a tiny home, or a small cabin. And we got to do that and just learned so much. Building a home is like building anything. And the people that you build that home with, you have to work as a team. And they say it is one of the second biggest causes. I won't quote me on this, but somebody told me this one time, like, they're like, the second cause for divorce in the US is building a home together, not even physically building a home together, just like hiring somebody to build up. And I think, for us, the partnership that we had, I mean, we had some big obstacles at that time in our life.

And we were also building this home. And after we built that, and we were living off grid, so no plumbing, we created our own power from solar. No, like I said, no plumbing, no running water, we were hauling in all of our own water, we would snow machines in the winter, because it was too steep of a road to plow. So we really got to experience years in Montana. But like Sean will say, this was like our starter home, our starter home instead of before moving to Alaska, because it was something he always wanted to move to Alaska. And like, like I said, I've never been closed down to moving or adventures. And once I saw Alaska, I was like, Whoa, and just the culture of people in Alaska, Alaska is really huge. You should look at a map overlaying Alaska and the rest of the US. It's like, you know, driving from Montana to Texas or something, it's huge. But getting to see these different parts of Alaska, and getting to be in a place where off grid living isn't weird. Not that I don't mind being a weird kid, I always kind of have been going to summer camp every year to get like, you know, loving getting dirty and whatever. But in Alaska, you know, not everybody lives off the grid, but homesteading. And after living, I mean, it's a way of life.

I mean, obviously people have been doing this for so long. And so to be able to be in a place where not only can we possibly make this happen, but also have so many folks to mentor us in in the waves because there's so many more obstacles in Alaska than there were in, you know, whitefish Montana is like a small town but like, way more urban that I would consider anything that we do. You know, here there was there's, there's a Lowe's, there's a Costco, like, right there within, you know, 20 minutes of whitefish and so, moving to Alaska, that's where we really it's like everything prior to that moment, gave us the tools to do what we did here, especially at Arctic hive, you know, buying a plot of land in a book strange seven hours from the nearest town.

I mean, I don't think I ever thought it was crazy or beyond our means. And again, there was a place Sean found and he had been watching the Brooks Range for years prior to us ever moving to Alaska. And he was like, Hey, let's go look at this. Look, there's a piece of property for sale. And so we went up and we looked at it and there were no realtors. We strapped on our backcountry skis, Sean strapped on this flip board, we skinned out to this property, we had to find a metal detector with us to find the property markers. And we kind of had to get a lay of the land all ourselves because what I mean, we could have worked with a realtor but I'm pretty sure they didn't want to drive the 14 hours round trip just to sell us a lot of property. So we went out there right away. It was just like when you feel it, then that's the other thing in business and and, and in all the places that we've You know homesteaded or bought property. We've always felt it. You know that feeling when you go somewhere even like, regardless of all the obstacles you have to overcome to either buy that property or build on that property. You just get there and you're like, This is it.

This is it. Like I am prepared to do whatever it takes to make this happen. And so we drove back to Fairbanks after that chap met with this woman who has owned the property for generations, and sat with her at a Wendy's and said we'd like to buy this. And so she sold us the land in Wiseman, Alaska. So the tiny village has anywhere from 12 to 20 people. It's a former mining community, it's the subject if anybody wants to read a book, it's called a there's a book called Arctic Village, written by a guy that traveled there, Bob Marshall, you might also know that name, he wrote this book about mizen village and his happiest little Utopia from like, a long time ago, but the vibe still rings true. It's this magical place in the Baroque strange. And starting out to build that, again, everything we had done prior to this point, prepared us for what we were going to do. And we knew we had to do it in stages. We didn't know what we were going to build in stages, but we wanted to bring people there. We had gotten that bug of bringing people to Whitefish, Montana, when we were there. Even with riding on insulin, which we still do, we do these for the nonprofit, these coaches camps where we bring a bunch of adults with type one diabetes to these amazing locations, like Whitefish, Montana.

And we do a whole week of skiing, snowboarding, leadership, facilitation, building skills, and working with kids. And so that had been going on, I'd run a couple yoga retreats on our property with the yurt and everything and white fish, and I was like, I want to bring people together. This is what we do. So moving to Alaska, we built it in stages, we built our first structure in Wiseman at Arctic hive. And it's a dome, we call it the igloo, it's a 20 foot dome. It's a kit. So again, starting off with a kit, anybody who wants to build off the grid, starting off with a kit structure is, is the easiest, you learn how to build a platform, which, by the way, is a whole other thing, because we live on permafrost up in northern Alaska. And which means that there's ice below the tundra, the tundra is like this warm blanket over it will not warm who put like a blanket of sorts that lays over the earth.

And then there's frozen ground during that. So people are like, Well, are you going to do well, someday? No, we can't. Because there's like a whole bunch of ice underneath us. And so building on permafrost has just been an amazing experience. Sean is like the most amazing researcher in the world. And so he is like this, like a logistical researcher and he's like, Okay, this is what we need to do. And then my role is like, Okay, how are we going to make this happen, like logistics, packing finances, like, that's my, that's my strength. And then when we will get there, like, putting it together and actually building I mean, that is just team building that is straight up like, summer camp material is what we had to go through. And, and we really had to look at it just like that, right? Like, getting to see someone in all stages of frustration while you're building a home.

You just have to be willing to walk through that fire over and over again. And like work your relationship while you're building. It's crucial. This is why people crumble. And there's no shame in crumbling things, because also destruction is part of any relationship, any business, any whatever. So it showed us a lot about each other. You know, we made a lot of mistakes, and are not mistakes. But like, you know, we went through a lot of stuff in Montana, the first time around when we built the yurt and the cabin. And I really felt like in Montana, or excuse me in Alaska, it was like our do over like we had done it. And we wanted to do it again, in a place where there were no other people. And at the time we had filmed for heaven. We had filmed with Discovery Channel for a show called building off grid.

So we had cameras on us to make everything. So when I woke up, there were no cameras, we were fortunate enough to have a couple amazing friends fly up and help us with the project. That was great, too. And it was really our chance to do it on our terms, to work as a team to figure out what it took. And so we built this dome. And then honestly, we were this is a great testament to detachment in business. We were supposed to bring out a huge group of 10 Retreat attendees in March of 2020. We had it planned ready to go. We were actually gonna stay at a lodge in the village and then hike up to this dome that we had built and do yoga. And then we all know what happened in March of 2020. So obviously that's gonna happen. And that was an opportunity for us. We were so fortunate for it to be an opportunity, but it didn't seem like one because obviously we had to refund all these people's retreat and cancel it and just say what attack are we going to do? Sean is living with multiple chronic diseases and COVID In a very serious situation for anybody with, you know, a situation like him, especially, we were like, we're not going to travel. And that was huge. We were on a check where we would really carve out at least two times a year where we were taking a, like a two week immersion into another culture, or another part of Alaska, to ski and snowboard and to explore. And so for us to say, well

45:26

just hang out here, we obviously realize we're busy people like, you know, we just like to stay busy. We're like, what are we going to do? So once we got everything under control, I actually had to close two of the yoga studios that I had opened in Montana due to COVID hardship, that was not fun. And, you know, we just kind of re-looked at, like, how can we figure this out in a way to still continue on our path. And we thought, well, we're going to be in Alaska. for the indefinite future. Let's build an archive. And so that's what we did. We built 312 by 12 cabins. Now we built like 12, I can't remember Montana, Kevin, I think it's 12 by 20, that we built in three months. One, it's like two stories. We built 312 by 12 cabins, in I'll say like four to six months. But really the building of them, the raising of them was two weeks, all three of them. And I have never done something so dramatic like that i The sense of accomplishment, I can even think about how we handheld all of that material from where we parked in the village, we had to hand haul it up to archive. And in the winter, we snowmachine in but in the summer, we can use wheelers sometimes, but to preserve the tundra and the permafrost. It's way better if we carry things. So 75 sheets of plywood on my back, carrying them up as hell like we almost broke ourselves, but we didn't.

And the sense of accomplishment and also just the ability to really have your hands on all the material and getting to learn three times in a row how to build so we handled everything on archive flash forward. We built a dome this last summer, a geodesic dome, specifically for yoga. It's the yoga studio, or the Zen Den, sometimes we call it and it just really completed the property. We have a fourth cabin that we finished this year. And so now we have four guest cabins. We have the igloo which is our common space. And then we have our geodesic dome, which is the other space. And so we have future plans.

But living off the grid. It's really inspired by travel. And then really inspired by basically paying forward the experience that we got in Kurdistan. They showed us a way of life that we felt so fortunate to see, and then getting to know the way of life here in northern Alaska, because I mean, again, we're both newbies to Alaska, compared to all so many locals here who have lived here their whole life. And so getting to experience this way of life, and then steward others into learning about the Arctic, why it is ground zero for climate change is so important to learn about. Because honestly, people have to see it to appreciate it. We know this, right? If you don't know it exists, how can you appreciate it, but what's going on in the Arctic should concern the entire planet. And so if we can bring people in a small sustainable way up to a place like Arctic ice, where you get to see the northern lights, and you sit right under the Euro oval. So really the northern lights during, you know, about August 21 to April 21.

They're out every night, it's just a matter of how strong they are, whether there's cloud cover, etc. And to be able to be in that magical place and be comfortable. Because again, we were made so comfortable in places like Kurdistan and even in that cabin in the Yukon. If you're comfortable, you're not worrying about your survival. You're not worrying about where your water's gonna come from, or whatever, but you're off grid and you're experiencing that. And then you can look around and say, Oh, my gosh, this is worth preserving. This place is important, because it is and there's a lot that is threatening the Arctic at this moment. And if people don't know about it, they're not going to know that it needs help and needs our help. So anyway, again, the long version of how I became an off grid, home builder and retreat center owner.

Christine Winebrenner Irick 49:23

No, I love it. I'm in trance. So I'm so grateful for every moment that you share it and I love so much thinking about that version of you like how can summer camp be life? No way that's happening. And now you're like, I totally get to live that every day. And not only that, but like in this place that people can't even really convey and like in their mind, they can't even imagine what that would be like and we kind of painted the picture of what this living is like talking about. For those. Those of you that aren't familiar with this Seven to nine hour drive depending on road conditions, all the way from Fairbanks just to get where you can park and then getting to the property. And so for people who want to travel, like knowing getting there is an epic part of the journey, right? Like this is part of the process, which I think is also so magical when you can then bring in, like your yoga lens is like, it's not about like us flying the Fairbanks driving 20 minutes to our convenient retreat, like having this moment like, this is going to be a commitment you're making to yourself, simply to get there, right? And yes, and how can we use that as a part of our journey and the experience and so I love that that is like literally baked into what it's going to take to be on this journey. And then even like you get there, and you're like, Okay, phase one complete. Now we're going to get to the property and what's that going to look like and for you and your daily life, like I'm so you, for you listening, follow Arctic Hive, follow Mollie of the North on Instagram, because seeing these videos all the time of what it takes to live, are

51:16

it's so funny to like, normalize some of these things, because I don't even think like in the beginning, you know, I was, I would call my girlfriend, I have these five girlfriends from home that I'm super close with. And I would call them and they'd be like, so can you can you how do you shower? And I was like, in my head, I was like what? Like, oh, right, this is different. And you just normalize so many things about this way of life. But what you said it's like, this is not this is not a vacation from your life. This is like immersion, you know, an entirely new way of life. And it helps you put into perspective the things that really matter. Because we can get all worked out if I get worked up about my commute from the grocery store, or from the hospital, back to where we live to home and archive. If I got all wrapped up and worked up about that there was no, there's no way I would ever make it. Like you said seven to nine hours, there's times when there's semi travel, it's primarily a road service isn't called the haul road, or the Dalton Highway and it's primarily the bay at the top of Alaska, Fairbanks to there and so there are semi trucks that sometimes took like 15 hours, this was this day, like earlier this year where the road was just so bad. So I can't remember if it's weather, but also road conditions, slip conditions, trucks need change, it's like it can take anywhere from sometimes it takes six and a half hours, 15 hours to go just halfway on their journey. Like we just go halfway up the road to get to archives. So yeah, it's all about the experience. And you just learn like, you just let it go. If I get stuck here, okay, I'm prepared, I prepared for this,

Christine Winebrenner Irick 52:58

I planned for this. And then we just, we just flow with whatever happens. Yeah, I love it. It just seems just like this perfect. Like you said, every part of your life brought you there and enabled you to be there, like you couldn't have gone from Wisconsin to the Arctic, you just wouldn't have succeeded. And I think that's so important for so many people to listen both from an entrepreneurial journey and just a life journey like we cannot get where we're going without getting there like this is this is the part of the journey Exactly. As we end our call, I can't believe that we've chatted for almost an hour, which I wish I had probably had like two or three because we could share so much more. I do want to let listeners know like they have an opportunity to join us for a lotus sojourn in March of 2023. And I'm so excited. This feels like kind of full circle for me in my my yoga journey to be able to get to come up there and enjoy your property and bring people to this like magical destination to experience this offered living but also to learn about that lifestyle to visit the village and learn from locals and to just kind of be fully immersed like you said not to disconnect from living but to like, become fully present and living. And so I'm really excited people if you're listening on March 7 is when this is going to be officially launching an open for booking but you can get on our waitlist now so you can reach out to me via my website and you'll get to meet Mollie in real life and get to enjoy all of these cool things that we've been talking about. So before we end, I would like you to just share for others that might be interested in visiting archives or hosting their own retreat. How can they find you where they can find the podcasts that we talked about at the beginning of our call, and then we're going to end with our rapid fire questions.

55:08

Yeah, amazing. Yeah. So it was something I would love to hear from anyone. My handle on Instagram is @mollieofthenorth. And then our website is arctichive.com. You can see we have retreats, and also yoga teacher training and 200. And soon to be 300, our training, both online and up at articles. And then also, yeah, if you want to get in touch, I'd love to just hear from anybody any questions you have. And then the podcast is called the Yoga of Business. You can search my name, Mollie Busby, and any of your podcasting apps, you can listen to that. And yeah, I'm just so thankful. Thank you so much for having me.

Christine Winebrenner Irick 56:02

This is, it's just so fun to chat with people about travel. So thank you. And I also just want to quickly mention, for those of you interested in the yoga aspect as well, Mollie did mention you can take classes virtually, which I love. And for people either new to yoga, or who have a yoga practice, I would strongly encourage checking it out, because for me, I had been doing yoga for, I don't know, a very long time before I walked into yoga hive and was greeted so warmly in that community by shell, and felt what I had been waiting to fill from yoga, like I had this notion that it was more than like, like you said, the poses you were putting yourself in, like, I knew there was an had had like a few teachers that like, sprinkled in this, the spirituality of it the like, the personal discovery. And I was like, that is what I want. And so for people that might be curious about that magic, I would just highly recommend it. Like doing yoga with Mollie, my very favorite thing was that the very first, like two classes, I don't even think we liked being seated the whole time. And I'm like, this is yoga. I'm like, Oh, this is my yoga, like the breath work and the mind work and the like centeredness like it just was magic. So I just want to give a shout out for that. Because it really is like it created something different in my life. And I would love for it to allow that to happen in someone else's life as well. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you.

Christine Winebrenner Irick 57:43

Rapid fire questions. Rapid Fire ish. I'll always add the ish because it's there. What is your favorite book or movie that offers you a travel escape or inspires you to