Outwild Discovery Series: Meet, Carina Hessmer
This series was co-created by Matt Inman and Outwild
Hi there! Welcome to the Outwild Blog’s Speaker Discovery Series.
When the world changed last year and our in-person events were postponed, we decided to bring our amazing workshops and speakers into an online setting. However, attending a live event obviously gives us the ability to meet Outwild leaders in a more intimate setting. We wanted to help bridge the gap by giving each speaker the chance to answer some interesting questions about themselves and share a bit more than they can in an online session.
So without further ado… Please welcome Carina Hessmer!
Carina is a globetrotting experience designer dedicated to creating high impact experiences within both the event and video production space. Drawing on her research on transformational experience design at Cal Poly University, she has applied her findings in a variety of fields including sustainability, executive trainings and her own personal life. Before founding her own company in 2018, she held the role of Director of Experience Design at San Francisco based firm, Entire Productions. In a quest to redefine the impact and profundity of her work (and recover from full burn out), she co-founded Adventure Architects alongside Noah Rainey (previously Director of Community at Summit), offering a variety of services dedicated to the facilitation of high functioning culture among corporate teams. Incorporating life design principles, she now balances running her own company with dedicated time to wellness and adventures traveling the world alongside her boyfriend, Pablo Durana, frolicking and working, capturing compelling stories for companies such as National Geographic Society, Netflix and VICE. Previously based in San Francisco, CA, Carina now resides in the beautiful mountains of South Lake Tahoe where she spends her free time skiing, dancing in her living room, hosting bonfires and playing.... I mean practicing her drone skills.
In her upcoming workshop, Carina will focus on the art of vision boarding. She will guide participants through a process of collecting art, words, and photos in order to create vision boards that reflect our hopes, dreams, and goals for the upcoming summer. Visualization is a powerful tool that can help us be more intentional about the future and bring our goals to life.
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Hi Carina, we'd love for you to introduce yourself in one or two sentences:
I’m just a 33 year old, learning to be bolder and kinder as I navigate this thing called life.
What 4-6 words would you use to describe yourself that would help us get to know you?
Restless, Compassionate, Curious, Creative
How have your past work experiences brought or prepared you for where you are today?
Growing up, I received a $1/week allowance which wasn’t enough to go out and do what most of my friends were doing at the time. I was eager to join them, so I took matters into my own hands. I quickly figured out creative ways to earn the cash that would allow me to share more experiences with my friends. I’m not sure I would feel as at ease being an entrepreneur as I am today if I hadn’t had this push at an early age.
We know you love to travel! How has traveling changed or impacted the way you interact with people? Do you have any viewpoints that changed from seeing more of the world?
I was born in Germany, a country that very much values free time to travel and spend with family. We would spend weeks in our skyblue VW bus exploring neighboring countries such as Spain, Scotland, France, Italy and Morocco. Now an adult, traveling continues to be an intrinsic part of my life. Above all else, these travels have fostered a profound recognition of my privilege. I live in a country so many go as far as to risk their lives to come to, a country whose currency exchange allows me to often live like a queen when traveling, when in reverse the exchange rate makes it nearly impossible for citizens of those countries to come to the US. I could go on about my privilege, but what has truly changed how I interact with people is the profound recognition of our beautiful and flawed, shared humanity. I believe we have far more in common than what separates us. So in turn, when I catch myself judging, or criticizing with immediacy I give myself a gentle, mental slap and lean into the other person’s truth with sincere curiosity.
We took a look at your social media and pulled a picture we'd love to hear more about. Tell us a bit more of what was happening in this moment.
Hah! Blast from the past. Pablo and I generally visit his extended family in Colombia 1-2 times per year in Bogota. We were driving back from his family’s country house when this outrageously vibrant double rainbow framed our way home. Naturally, Pablo, a professional photographer ran off to get a shot on his DSLR, and I filled the time imagining I had superpowers that would allow me to shoot rainbows out of my fingers. Yep, I’ll never fully grow up.
Speaking of social media, we often curate the personal image we share with the online world. What would you like people to know about you that isn't reflected in what they see there?
Some days are hard =)
What does creating an outdoor-driven life mean to you?
Humanity’s sweeping trajectory towards living our loves separated from our natural surroundings and cycles is directly affecting our wellbeing. For me, living an outdoor-driven life has meant a deep reprioritization to include more time outdoors, to not let the comforts of modern living lull me into dissociation from nature and to surround myself with people similarly keen to live a more outdoor centric lifestyle. Every day we make choices. In fact, some internet sources claim we make 35,000 conscious decisions each day. I try to include getting myself outdoors in as many of those decisions as feel right to me.
How have you created an outdoor community for yourself? Volunteering with search and rescue, attending wilderness trainings, starting a company dedicated to bringing people outdoors, moving to an outdoor mecca and finding one of the most adventurous men in the world as my partner have all contributed to the community I thrive in today.
Ok Carina, you have the floor. We’d love for you to share any upcoming projects or ideas that you’re working towards that we should know about!
I am on a mission to normalize increased time off of work. In a culture that celebrates the overworked martyr and has popularized a mere 2 weeks of vacation that many people don’t even take, I don’t see how we can possibly find enough time for reflection, for personal and community awareness, for continued education on current affairs, time to give back, wellness, for the personal growth it takes to build strong, thriving, loving and resilient communities. The facts support this paradigm shift and I hope to bear witness to massive cultural shift in the coming years.
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Thank you, Carina! You can get to know Carina even better by attending her workshop on Wednesday, April 28th and 5:30pm PST.