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Kayla Storlid – Nature Nanny
[00:00:04.340] – Speaker 1
You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. My name is James Kademan entrepreneur, author, speaker, and helpful coach to small business owners across the country. And today we’re excited to learn from Kayla Storlid, the founder, owner, let’s call it, of Nature Nanny. So Kayla, how are you doing today?
[00:00:30.140] – Speaker 1
I’m good. How are you doing today?
[00:00:31.830] – Speaker 1
I’m doing awesome. And I’m excited because you’ve been on the show two other times before. Yes. Different businesses each. Yes. A cleaning business you had for, I don’t know, 500 years.
[00:00:43.530] – Speaker 2
Yeah, feels like it
[00:00:44.530] – Speaker 1
Something like that. And the other one, whatever, life goes on. Now you got Nature Nanny. Nature Nanny, I got to say, sounds like the most fun between the three. Yeah. So how about you? Tell us, what is Nature Nanny?
[00:00:57.170] – Speaker 2
Let’s start there. Okay. So Nature Nanny is a service that helps get children, adults, and organizations into nature either by doing guided hikes or guided forest therapy walks. So parents can schedule just online and either schedule for one or two children or up to four for increments of time, one hour, an hour and a half, two hours. Or adults can also go on private guided hikes or hikes with their friends. And then organizations can do team building. And there’s two options. One is just a guided hike where we’re just walking and talking and enjoying nature. And the other option is a guided forest therapy walk, which is where you open your senses. You focus on things like you do invitations. So the group will come together, we’ll pick invitations. And an invitation might be look and see what’s moving.
[00:01:56.730] – Speaker 1
In the forest.
[00:01:57.960] – Speaker 2
Exactly. So then we’d break away and go off on your own and just really focus on what’s moving. If I were to do that with children, I would make it a lot more fun. Look for what’s moving and then try to move your body in that way because they’re more wiggly. And it’s about opening the senses. So you would focus on sight, taste, sound, touch, and then what of your heart sense? What is your heart sensing? And it’s meant to really bring you into the present moment. But the whole goal of Nature Nanny is just to reconnect people of all ages with nature to experience the many health benefits because research has shown that spending time in nature can reduce stress, it improves sleep, it reduces anxiety, it improves confidence, and the list of health benefits just go on and on.
[00:02:55.610] – Speaker 1
All right. That sounds super cool. So is the idea that people come to you once in a while or that they come to you routinely, once a week or once a month? I don’t know.
[00:03:08.490] – Speaker 2
It’s really up to whatever the person’s needs are. So for instance, if it’s a busy parent who just really wants to get their kids off the screen and maybe needs to grab lunch with a girlfriend, or get some grocery shopping done, or do some errands, they can schedule as much as they want. So if they wanted to get their kid out every day for an hour just to have a little parent time to themselves. They could do that, or they could schedule once a year. All right.
[00:03:40.430] – Speaker 1
Hence the nanny portion there, where you’re essentially babysitting the kids, I guess, just on a hike. Yeah. Interesting. Tell me, where did the inspiration for this come from?
[00:03:51.340] – Speaker 2
So after I sold my cleaning business, I tried a couple of different things just because I’d done the same work for 20 years, and I’d always dreamed about trying different stuff and seeing what I really liked. And so I stumbled on caregiving. A friend I went to kindergarten with, I bumped into him and his mom needed some help with organizing. And I was like, Well, I can do that, no problem. And so I helped her with a lot of organizing. And then she was progressing with dementia, so she needed care as well. So I was going there five to six times a week for a couple of hours a day, just preparing food, helping her with her medication, paying her bills, going on walks with her and such. And then when I owned the card beanie business, one of the people that I knew needed childcare for his kiddos. And I was like, I love kids, so hey, why not? So that started the nannying thing. I was doing the caregiving for a senior, and then I started watching two boys. They were nine and 12 at the time. I just noticed this profound shift.
[00:05:08.010] – Speaker 2
We made a goal of trying to get out hiking every day. They lived really close to Pheasant Branch in Middleton. So beautiful. When we went into nature, all three of us, there was just such a profound shift in our nature of just feeling more relaxed, more calm, more happy, more joyful that I was like, There’s something really onto this. So while I was nannying those two boys, I had checked out a book at the library at one of our visits to the library, and it was called Forest Bathing. Forest Bathing? Yeah. Oh, really? Okay. So that’s what forest therapy started. So in 1980s in Japan, their population started getting very ill and they didn’t know why. So the government wanted to do a bunch of research to find out what’s happening, why are people getting sick? And they had just moved from being a really rural community, working more outside and in the fields and agriculture, to the tech boom. So now they were all moving to big cities and they were on screens and they were stuck inside all day. So the government decided to fund some research on what would happen if people started spending hours at a time in nature.
[00:06:23.230] – Speaker 2
And they found astonishing scientific evidence that spending time in nature is so good for you. And the one fact that is just incredible is the trees have their own immune system. And they give off these chemicals called photosyndines. I never can say it right. It’s like photosyndines or something like that. Anyways, it’s this chemical and it’s their immune system. So if, let’s say, a predator is coming, they admit this chemical to tell the other trees and such that it’s coming and to protect themselves. And when we spend time in nature, all the plants actually give it off, but the trees are just the largest. We breathe them in. And when we breathe them in, we have a cell in our body called the natural killer cell or the NK cell. And they found that if you spent like 4 hours in the forest, that natural killer cell, which attacks cancer and tumors and all kinds of nasty stuff in your body, is elevated for up to 30 days.
[00:07:27.090] – Speaker 1
Holy.
[00:07:27.430] – Speaker 2
Cow.
[00:07:27.820] – Speaker 1
So go camping once a month.
[00:07:30.350] – Speaker 2
Go all the time. Just live in the backyard.
[00:07:33.580] – Speaker 1
All right. Interesting. So the Japanese government does this research and they find this out. And then they say, Hey, everybody, we’re just kidding about the technology thing. Everybody moved back out in the country.
[00:07:45.920] – Speaker 2
No, the culture shifted to more that in their free time, they were spending time in nature. And they also have a tradition of flower arrangements. So that’s another part of it. But there’s a lot of people that spend time hiking in the forest. Wow.
[00:08:04.160] – Speaker 1
All right. Who knew? Who knew? So this is… I mean, ’80s is not that long ago, right? We were alive in the 80s, so it can’t be that.
[00:08:14.790] – Speaker 2
Long ago. No. And there’s so few people that actually know about it. I always loved nature since I was a kid. In my free time, I always hiked. That’s just what I did. Once I read the research, I started being really aware of how different I felt before and after. Like we were talking about before the show, I have a pinched nerve, and it just throws my nervous system, every system out of whack. And so I was noticing that if I went and stuck my feet in really cold water, if I could find a river or a creek or a spring, the pain would go away and it would stay away for a couple of hours. It would return, but whatever it did, it shifted in my body. And I was like, Whoa, there’s something really powerful to this.
[00:09:06.530] – Speaker 1
And it wasn’t something crazy like you’re sticking your feet in ice cold water where it’s just a different pain so your brain can only concentrate on one pain at a time.
[00:09:13.790] – Speaker 2
Well, sometimes I do stick my feet in spring water, which is absolutely freezing. And I’ve gotten really good at it. I can leave them in there for 10 minutes. Do you really? Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. Other people are like, Oh, my gosh, it’s so cold. And I’m like, I’m like, It’s great. But when you put your feet in ice cold water, it also has an effect on your nervous system. It’s cooling the blood, it’s reducing inflammation. It has some pretty powerful effects. They say you should take a cold shower every day because it’s super good for your nervous system.
[00:09:47.750] – Speaker 1
Yeah, I do. In the summertime, especially, it’s just one of those cool things. I guess that’s cold. Yeah, it makes you feel good. The wintertime, not so much. Tell me, from a business standpoint, how does it work? Let’s start with marketing. You got to market this to people and say, Hey, come for a walk with me in the woods. And some people are going to be like, Why do I need you?
[00:10:12.180] – Speaker 2
Right. Well, exactly. Well, some people, adults, for example, I am completely comfortable hiking on my own. But there are women, especially, that are afraid to hike on their own. They’re afraid of bumping into men while they’re alone. They’re afraid of animals. They may have never gone, and so they don’t know.
[00:10:38.800] – Speaker 1
What plans. Wait, never gone hiking?
[00:10:41.030] – Speaker 2
It’s some crazy 43 % of people under the age of 24 have never gone hiking. What? Yeah.
[00:10:52.490] – Speaker 1
Wow.
[00:10:54.600] – Speaker 2
That’s amazing. And I mean, that’s the generation after us, right? But when we were kids, I don’t know about you, but I was riding my bike all the time. Everywhere? Yeah. Obert Gardens used to have a fence around it, so I’d ride my bike to Obert Gardens. Oh, funny. Yeah, it was great. I loved it. I did it all the time. I used to ride my bike around the lake when I was 10 years old. You do not see 10 year olds riding their bike around the lake.
[00:11:20.740] – Speaker 1
No. Just when I pulled in the place here, there’s a little kid, I don’t know, 9, 10 years old, just space cadet walking on the sidewalk. And it dawned on me that you don’t see kids walking.
[00:11:33.760] – Speaker 2
By themselves, especially.
[00:11:35.750] – Speaker 1
But the whole hiking thing. And I would have never guessed that that statistic was true.
[00:11:42.580] – Speaker 2
I heard it on the radio, so who knows? But that’s what they said. And I was like, What?
[00:11:47.780] – Speaker 1
Never been hiking? Yeah, I guess of the few people that I know that would fit that age bracket.
[00:11:53.210] – Speaker 2
But they’re stuck on video games. That’s what a lot of kids, especially males under the age of 24, it’s like, there’s a couple of young men that work at QuickTrip by my house and I like to get my coffee there. And I’m always like, What are you going to do on your time off? And I love these guys. They’re becoming my friend. They’re like, Oh, I’m going to play my game. I’m just going to play my game. That’s it? Yeah.
[00:12:15.170] – Speaker 1
Wow. It’s fire for greatness.
[00:12:17.450] – Speaker 2
I know. Well, it’s addictive.
[00:12:20.680] – Speaker 1
Yeah. I know of a couple of people that I would consider their lives, I don’t want to say ruined, but I will say limited because they were so… One kid, he was valedictorian. He started to go to college. He dropped out of college and he’s still, I think he’s working at Walmart distribution.
[00:12:41.830] – Speaker 2
Center so that.
[00:12:43.120] – Speaker 1
He can play this game 12 hours a day.
[00:12:47.340] – Speaker 2
It’s super addicting. And they know what they’re doing. And I think even for our generation with Facebook, I noted it in myself. I see something beautiful and the first thing I want to do is grab my phone and be like, I got to post this on Facebook. Everyone needs to know about it. Facebook is more for me, like a sharing thing. But I also find like, sometimes I’m thinking in Facebook terms. It’s top of mind. Yeah. Right. Interesting. These devices are designed so we use them as much as possible.
[00:13:24.570] – Speaker 1
Feet.
[00:13:24.950] – Speaker 2
De addiction. Exactly.
[00:13:28.060] – Speaker 1
I guess I try to do, I guess with nature and stuff like that, when we go hiking at Devil’s Lake, Parkview’s Glen, some great beautiful places, I just leave my phone.
[00:13:37.970] – Speaker 2
In the car. That’s awesome.
[00:13:39.860] – Speaker 1
Because one of those I don’t need to take a picture of everything.
[00:13:43.800] – Speaker 2
I feel like I have to.
[00:13:45.740] – Speaker 1
I love taking pictures. I don’t want to get pinged when I’m off there.
[00:13:49.210] – Speaker 2
That’s true.
[00:13:49.840] – Speaker 1
I don’t want an employee to call me up while I’m hiking or something like that.
[00:13:53.820] – Speaker 2
I get that because I used to hike when I owned the cleaning business, and it would ping all the time. Oh, my God. It’s impossible not to. I’m so thankful for that because I won’t be getting pinged.
[00:14:06.530] – Speaker 1
Yeah, there’s something to be.
[00:14:07.830] – Speaker 2
Said for that. But you were talking about marketing, right?
[00:14:10.480] – Speaker 1
Yeah, just wait a second way. No, it’s so easy to talk to you, right? You just go forever. So marketing, how or I guess what have you done for marketing the business to start so far?
[00:14:23.390] – Speaker 2
So I’m just getting started. I actually came up with the idea just maybe three months ago, and I was posting on… There’s childcare Facebook groups about this service, and a news reporter picked it up, Spectrum One News, and was like, This is such a great idea. You should have nature nannies all over the world. And she’s like, You should go on TV with Jojo. Do you know who Jojo is? I have no idea. She’s the super nanny. She’s like César Milan for our kids. She’s so great. And so she really got me going because I was like, I got to… If I’m going to be on the news, I got to build a website. So the last couple of months, I built my entire website myself. And I’m going to school for forest therapy school. And so we just covered the section on marketing. So there’s a ton of things I can do for marketing that I’ll be working on, like Airbnb experiences is a great one. Eventbrite is another one where you can put your events on there. Meet up Facebook ads. And then I’m going to be working with a spa on the East side of Madison that’s really close to Obert Garden.
[00:15:43.740] – Speaker 2
So parents can get a spa service, and I’ll take the kids to go over to Obreg and depending on how long they’re going to enjoy the service, then we might grab lunch because it’s in that building where Ian’s Pizza is. Oh, very cool. All that stuff. Yes. And then we can do some art projects to bring my art. If it’s going to be a half day experience for them, I’ll have some tools to keep the kids busy. Nice. Yeah.
[00:16:08.860] – Speaker 1
So is the idea for this, I guess from a growth standpoint, or maybe it’s too soon to tell, is the idea that you’ll eventually have employees that will be taking kids and adults on all these hikes, or is the idea just keep it you?
[00:16:22.690] – Speaker 2
Well, for now, I just want to keep it me because I think there’s some learning that needs to take place in any business when you first get started. What to do if this situation happens? And just having this knowledge of being able to share experiences because I learn something different every time I take the kids out. Like, last week I was informed scientifically how babies were made by a 10 year old.
[00:16:50.420] – Speaker 1
Good that he shared that with you.
[00:16:52.860] – Speaker 2
You don’t know what you’re going to get with the kids, right? What paper?
[00:16:57.030] – Speaker 1
She wrote that down.
[00:16:58.080] – Speaker 2
It was hilarious. I was cracking up. But yeah, I think once I gain a little bit more experience, then the idea would be to have subcontractors. They wouldn’t be employees, but my website has a capability to add a staff member or an independent contractor, and they can completely be in control of their entire schedule. I can put their profile up that this is a person who’s a nature nanny, and then parents would be able to book with them individually or choose from different nature nannies. Very cool.
[00:17:31.700] – Speaker 1
So that brings to the question, the whole business owners are really good at building their own prison thing. I imagine you’re scheduling out with summertime, and this is the time to hike, I guess.
[00:17:44.340] – Speaker 2
How.
[00:17:45.180] – Speaker 1
Do you have time for yourself as well as time to take kids and adults on all these hikes and stuff like that?
[00:17:54.010] – Speaker 2
I think that was the greatest lesson I learned in my first business is that I was so flexible and I worked so much that it actually made me really ill. I had chronic fatigue and it took a long time to heal it because I just was very much over working and over trying to, over extending for the customer and not having enough balance. So the wonderful thing about this business is I have my schedule is set on my website and they can only pick from the times that are there. And I do have some flexibility. Like, if a parent really needs a different time, then I can easily just put in the new time and block off a different set of times. So there’s really good balances in place. Because I think that’s so important that you have a balance of work and me time or play time.
[00:18:57.260] – Speaker 1
Oh, very much so. I can tell you that I own my business or a business since 2006, and I’m still learning. Even today, I was in the office and I stood up and I’m like… You know when you sit for five hours or whatever and you stand up and your body’s telling you, What are you doing? You need.
[00:19:19.520] – Speaker 2
To move.
[00:19:19.930] – Speaker 1
Yeah, but you all… There’s just like, One more thing. One more thing.
[00:19:23.940] – Speaker 2
It’s hard when you have a service business. It’s just you’re constantly getting pinged. I feel.
[00:19:30.240] – Speaker 1
Like I should have graduated past that.
[00:19:32.310] – Speaker 2
It’s hard because if you care about your business and your customers, you want to get… And people expect answers so fast these days that it’s hard not to answer people’s questions.
[00:19:44.070] – Speaker 1
Yeah.
[00:19:44.860] – Speaker 2
It.
[00:19:45.150] – Speaker 1
Is tough. It is so tough. It is. So it’s one of those things, like even today, I’m like, if I were to take my own advice, I wouldn’t have this issue. But here we are.
[00:19:56.610] – Speaker 2
Hey, but you have a successful business, and I’m sure your customers are super appreciative of it. Yeah, I’d.
[00:20:02.920] – Speaker 1
Like to think so. But I mean, they don’t know that I’m sitting in that desk too long.
[00:20:09.090] – Speaker 2
Yeah, but they would know if you weren’t getting back to them.
[00:20:12.500] – Speaker 1
Probably. This is more, I think, this is mopping up employee stuff. I guess there was a little bit of customer stuff, but for the most part, customers are cool. And I have decent employees that can take care of them. That’s good.
[00:20:26.370] – Speaker 2
But.
[00:20:26.660] – Speaker 1
You got that rolling employee base of headaches.
[00:20:31.360] – Speaker 2
Yeah, always trying to make sure the spot is filled all the time. Yeah.
[00:20:36.120] – Speaker 1
It’s constant. It’s so interesting because I guess that’s why I wanted to ask about employees and stuff like that. And I imagine with the cleaning business, this must have been a bigger deal than what I have now. But right now it’s a headache.
[00:20:49.740] – Speaker 2
Yeah. Well, I had 40 employees, and then that just became so much to manage that we ended up hiring subcontractors. And that took a lot of burden off of us because each subcontractor had three of their own employees. So they had to do the recruiting for themselves. And if someone called in sick, they needed to fill the spot with this. That was their problem. Somebody else. And so that taught me a huge lesson because we went from four people in the office down to two. Oh, wow. Yeah. And two meaning one full time and me popping in as I could because I wasn’t feeling well towards the end. So it really freed us up. And so having had that experience, I know that if I do create this to have additional nature nannies, it will definitely be on an independent contractor basis. And they will be in charge of their own schedule. And if they don’t show up, then they’re not going to get clients to rebook with them. And there’s a different mentality, I think, when it’s your business.
[00:22:03.340] – Speaker 1
Right. Yeah, I would definitely agree with that.
[00:22:07.450] – Speaker 2
It’s.
[00:22:08.000] – Speaker 1
Interesting how, I guess not to go crazy tangent wise, but it’s interesting, you and I are considered to be pretty driven people. And there’s a lot of people… Originally, when I first started my business, I assumed that everybody was driven for something. Maybe it’s not necessarily business ownership, but something, whatever it is. And I’m finding a lot of people it’s actually.
[00:22:30.400] – Speaker 2
Pretty rare. And I went through that same experience when I hired my first employee. I just could not wrap my head around why they couldn’t… They do it as fast as me. Why weren’t they as motivated as me? And then I realized, I don’t know what percentage of the population is that driven, but it’s not the norm.
[00:22:54.740] – Speaker 1
That’s so weird to me, though.
[00:22:56.300] – Speaker 2
I know. What are you going to do? But they only know their experience and we only know our experience. So they’re probably looking at us like we’re lunatics.
[00:23:04.560] – Speaker 1
Well, they may be right.
[00:23:05.980] – Speaker 2
I can’t blame them. Why are you.
[00:23:08.720] – Speaker 1
Working so hard? But I guess even if your goal was to beat Mario or.
[00:23:14.190] – Speaker 2
Whatever.
[00:23:15.900] – Speaker 1
Some goal or some focus of any kind, I don’t care what it is. Even if you want to have a fancy coffee every day, whatever. Who cares? But as long as you’re driven to something. But I keep meeting people, and even when you’re interviewing people to hire, I try to figure out, what is their drive? What is their goal? What’s their motivation? Nothing. Really? Nothing. Even a lot of them, even money is not a motivator, which blows my mind.
[00:23:44.850] – Speaker 2
Maybe it’s video games.
[00:23:47.140] – Speaker 1
Just kidding. A lot of them do play video games. But it’s interesting because I find like there’s no, or maybe they don’t want to share. There’s no like, I’m going to beat this level or something. They’re just happy. No, they’re content or complacent.
[00:24:05.920] – Speaker 2
That’s pretty normal if you think about it. I mean, there can only be one leader of the company, right? And few people on this planet are actually visionaries, right? And usually the person who is running the business is a bit of a visionary. And so I think that’s that balance of you need people who want to lead the people and people who are totally happy being led.
[00:24:31.890] – Speaker 1
So I think of a movie like The Matrix.
[00:24:34.700] – Speaker 2
Or you.
[00:24:35.260] – Speaker 1
Think of even just any shoot them up movie like a James Bond film or something like that. The bad guys always have this arsenal of people that just do all this crazy stuff. We’re going to take over the world. So they had to build some crazy satellite or all the people in the matrix that were in that little ship. All of them seemed pretty driven. And I think, what if it was actually the employees that I’m seeing come through? What if they were in that movie? It’d be like, Well, the machines are taken over. They won. They already won.
[00:25:07.000] – Speaker 2
Maybe you should become a nature nanny. Maybe.
[00:25:11.690] – Speaker 1
I don’t know.
[00:25:13.290] – Speaker 2
That’s interesting. Less stress. Way less stress.
[00:25:15.840] – Speaker 1
Yeah, maybe.
[00:25:16.540] – Speaker 2
Just.
[00:25:17.730] – Speaker 1
Kidding. I don’t know. I guess when I go hiking, I don’t want to talk.
[00:25:21.960] – Speaker 2
No, I hike a lot alone, but hiking with children is pretty funny. They just Yeah, they just say… I think they feel very much safe and calm. So the conversations that they want to have are really neat. They come from in their heart versus…
[00:25:46.730] – Speaker 1
That’s fair because they’ll.
[00:25:48.690] – Speaker 2
Open up. Yeah.
[00:25:50.190] – Speaker 1
I can’t remember. Well, my kid is, what is he, eight now, and we take his buddies to… Perfury’s Glen is a good example.
[00:25:57.040] – Speaker 2
I love that place. It’s beautiful. It’s beautiful, right? Yeah. Have you been to Dewey’s Glen right next door? I have not. That is one of my favorite places on the planet.
[00:26:05.900] – Speaker 1
Better than.
[00:26:06.710] – Speaker 2
Perfury’s Glen? I like it better. Whoa, I got to check it out. It’s so beautiful.
[00:26:10.600] – Speaker 1
Because Perfury’s Glen is cool because you get the little water. And depending upon time of year, you never know how much water.
[00:26:15.970] – Speaker 2
But Dewey’s Glen has way less people. And I like to hike through the Glen, and it’s stunning. Oh, I have to check it out. It’s deeper and narrower. Okay. So, yeah, it’s really pretty. Any kid I’ve ever taken there has absolutely loved it. All right.
[00:26:32.470] – Speaker 1
That’s the thing with Perf rees Glen, right? Because at first you try to go rock to rock, so you don’t get wet. And then eventually your feet get wet and then you just have fun with it. And kids don’t even try to go rock to rock.
[00:26:43.410] – Speaker 2
No, they just get their feet wet. We’re wet, right away. I went hiking with my friend on Friday, and her kid got in the water and got his boots completely wet, like, over.
[00:26:54.530] – Speaker 1
The boots.
[00:26:55.630] – Speaker 2
And I was like, Okay. Then he’s like, My boots are so mushy. I was like, Yeah, I bet they are.
[00:27:02.430] – Speaker 1
Water will do that. Oh, that’s funny. Well, let’s look at schedule.
[00:27:07.940] – Speaker 2
In the.
[00:27:08.690] – Speaker 1
Wintertime, do you still go hiking?
[00:27:10.460] – Speaker 2
Yeah. This last winter was the first winter where I went hiking on a very regular basis, thanks to my friend Katie. We’ve made it a routine to go almost every Friday. Wow. And I felt better this winter than I ever have. Like, mentally and physically, we need fresh air and we need sunshine and we need nature. We are nature. And there’s a lot of people who suffer from not feeling well in the winter, whether it be seasonal depression or just low energy or low mood. And I’m telling you, we went hiking on nine below degree days. And if you have hand warmers and you’re dressed properly, it’s great. It’s beautiful. And it’s funny because your breath will make your hair all frosty and icy.
[00:28:05.410] – Speaker 1
When I go running in the winter, you get frozen eyebrows, and if it’s really cold, you get frozen eyelashes.
[00:28:12.720] – Speaker 2
Because you walk every rease or you run every morning. Do you ever miss a day?
[00:28:19.160] – Speaker 1
I think my dog and I have missed three.
[00:28:24.630] – Speaker 2
Ever?
[00:28:25.550] – Speaker 1
I don’t know if we missed. We cut them short. When it’s 24 hours, five below, we cut.
[00:28:31.100] – Speaker 2
It short. That’s pretty cold for the dog, too.
[00:28:33.420] – Speaker 1
Yeah. And there were some… I think we had two thunderstorms where there was actually lightning that was like, That’s just take it in chances. We probably shouldn’t be taking…
[00:28:41.920] – Speaker 2
When I had the Airbnb, a lady stayed at my house who had been struck by lightning. So it is a thing. Wow. Yeah.
[00:28:48.670] – Speaker 1
Yeah, I could see it. I could see it. I got Kirby, my dog. She’s normally just tools around, chases some rabbits, stuff like that. But when there’s thunder, she’s like, Get your butt moving.
[00:29:00.070] – Speaker 2
There, buddy.
[00:29:00.790] – Speaker 1
We’re not doing it. She’s like, We’re not jogging. We are sprinting.
[00:29:05.370] – Speaker 2
She’s ready to go.
[00:29:06.760] – Speaker 1
Because she wants to get back home to crawl in the basement because the world’s ending.
[00:29:10.470] – Speaker 2
Poor baby.
[00:29:12.110] – Speaker 1
But I’m like, We’re going for a run, right? Because a tired dog is a good dog.
[00:29:17.470] – Speaker 2
She’s your little savior, making sure you’re not out in dangerous weather. We will not be hiking if there are thunderstorms because that is dangerous and you can get hurt. So, yeah, we would be canceling that appointment, rescheduling.
[00:29:33.620] – Speaker 1
What’s interesting, hiking all year round. I guess now that you mention it, it would probably be cool.
[00:29:39.630] – Speaker 2
It’s beautiful. And some of my favorite things from hiking this winter is breaking the ice. You know how you just get that tiny film of ice with water underneath it, and you can smash it all. Kids do that type of stuff all the time. And then I was really starting to pay attention. You can find all these cool patterns in the ice when there’s that water just below it in different ways. It freezes and has different designs, and it’s beautiful. It’s much quieter in the winter, though, because you don’t have the birds. It’s totally different. Yeah, I think the snow can absorb.
[00:30:16.100] – Speaker 1
Some sound. My buddy and I went biking across one of the lakes this winter, and that was one of the coolest feelings I’ve ever had because we stopped in the middle of the lake. So you’re in the middle of the town, you can see the Capitol, campus and all that jazz. So there’s city all around you, but in the middle of the frozen Lakes, there’s not a whole lot of people. And we stopped in the middle there just to take a little break. And it was eerie, but it was still super cool because it was just so… I don’t know. It seems like you’re surrounded by nature, and then that is surrounded by city. That had to have.
[00:30:52.830] – Speaker 2
Been really neat. It was cool.
[00:30:54.430] – Speaker 1
I’d do that again.
[00:30:55.550] – Speaker 2
I bet.
[00:30:56.330] – Speaker 1
And then looking at the ice, it was freaky at first, but then you’re like, Well, that’s.
[00:31:00.970] – Speaker 2
It’s beautiful, though. It’s neat. It is. And when you clear it, if it’s like… And it can be bumpy or really smooth. We aimed for the.
[00:31:09.570] – Speaker 1
Bumpy because we found the smooth stuff was not great for a bike.
[00:31:12.740] – Speaker 2
Were you sliding? Yeah.
[00:31:15.160] – Speaker 1
We had rear end kick out a couple of times. Did you have a.
[00:31:17.730] – Speaker 2
Fat tire bike? Yeah.
[00:31:18.840] – Speaker 1
Not studded, but they spread the weight a little bit. But you could still… The first 50 feet, that was like… Doesn’t seem like that great of an idea. But as you get going and you get acclimated to it and you just feel the bike and adapt a little bit.
[00:31:38.630] – Speaker 2
I bet you felt great after just to be outside. It was cool.
[00:31:42.530] – Speaker 1
Then we had Mickey’s diner, so that was No.
[00:31:44.930] – Speaker 2
Nice. Can’t go wrong there. That was my grandma’s favorite spot. I think she used to have a coat in a frame or something there. Oh, funny. I don’t know if it’s still there. That’s awesome.
[00:31:55.690] – Speaker 1
I know. That’s super cool.
[00:31:56.910] – Speaker 2
That’s my neighborhood I grew up in.
[00:31:58.940] – Speaker 1
Mickey on Monroe Street in all that?
[00:32:01.460] – Speaker 2
Oh, Monroe. I was thinking of Mickey’s on Williamson. No, it.
[00:32:05.670] – Speaker 1
Was Mickey’s Dairy Bar. Oh, so there must be a.
[00:32:07.750] – Speaker 2
Second one then. Across from.
[00:32:09.900] – Speaker 1
Camp Randall.
[00:32:11.620] – Speaker 2
Okay. No, not that one. Never mind. All right. No worries.
[00:32:14.220] – Speaker 1
No worries. What has been some of the feedback that you’ve gotten from when you tell them exactly what Nature Nanny is, what is some of the feedback that you get? Good or bad?
[00:32:24.760] – Speaker 2
Yeah. I’m getting you’re doing a good thing. That’s a really great idea. You’re a genius. Thank you for getting kids out into nature. Really positive feedback. People are very supportive of it. They think it’s a good idea, which makes me feel really good because I do want to make a difference. And I feel like global warming and the environment is on my mind a lot. I’m pretty sensitive to all things, nature, just animals and insects and trees and habitats and habitat loss. And I feel like if children connect with nature at a younger age, and even adults, there will just be this shift in consciousness that says, hey, there are things we can do to make our practices more sustainable so that we’re not just taking all of our resources and hurting our planet. And they know if you cut down trees with the… I think it was the Emerald Ash board, was that the thing that hit our neighborhood where all the trees…
[00:33:42.040] – Speaker 1
Yeah, a lot of neighborhoods. And the.
[00:33:44.020] – Speaker 2
Golf course I heard just down the road, lost hundreds of trees. And so they did scientific studies on when that hit. And they were seeing in doctor clinics, respiratory illnesses spiked because we lost so many trees. Really? And they have found even people who live closer to very treed areas have even better neonatal outcomes. What is that?
[00:34:15.090] – Speaker 2
Childbirth and the wellness of the newborn babies. How do they even.
[00:34:20.080] – Speaker 1
Keep track of that? I don’t know.
[00:34:22.100] – Speaker 2
Science is studying all kinds of stuff, right? And I think we’re pretty lucky because we have a lot of trees in our neighborhood.
[00:34:31.120] – Speaker 1
It’s interesting you say that because when we bought our house, I don’t know, 10, 11 years ago, whatever, the old owner gave us an aerial shot of the neighborhood. And it shows the neighborhood is probably half full. Zero trees. Wow. It was just farm field that they’ve planned ish. Oh, I didn’t.
[00:34:51.080] – Speaker 2
Know that. Put up.
[00:34:52.560] – Speaker 1
Some houses. Oh, I didn’t know that. Yeah. So it’s interesting because you look at it now and there’s mature trees everywhere. Thanks for.
[00:34:59.030] – Speaker 2
Sharing that. I always thought they just left some of the trees that were naturally there. So those were all planted by our people that moved in. That’s beautiful.
[00:35:09.200] – Speaker 1
Our lot, we put in… Well, I want to say we put in 17 trees.
[00:35:15.380] – Speaker 2
Wow. Yourself? Amazing. You have a lot of shade. Your house probably feels great. Yeah.
[00:35:21.840] – Speaker 1
Well, we got there and there was two, maybe three, something like that. It was weird because we were used to trees. Matured, the neighborhood that we came from was probably 30 years older than this one. This one is mid ’90s.
[00:35:38.030] – Speaker 1
It was interesting because we came from a place that had very mature trees, like maple trees that are big. Maple trees aren’t just that little stick. So we’re like, We need trees everywhere.
[00:35:49.550] – Speaker 2
I know. I’ve lost one, two, three, four, five, six. I think I’ve lost seven large trees.
[00:35:57.060] – Speaker 1
From storms or.
[00:35:58.470] – Speaker 2
Just? one fell down in a storm. One was the Ash borer. Two pine trees got some type of disease. All my juniper trees got the spider disease. So I have planted 10 trees in the last year and a half, and I plan on planting a lot more because I can really understand global warming because when I lost the four trees in the backyard, my house used to be so cool. I never needed air conditioning, never. It was always cool back there. And when I was running the Airbnb, there was an arborist that stayed there and he noticed the two trees that were coming down. And he said that is going to drastically change the temperature of your house. And it is so hot in my kitchen and my living room now because there’s not any great shade back there anymore. So you can change the entire environment of your house just by planting trees. And not to mention the air quality and all the other health benefits that come along with it. Interesting. So good job, James. Yeah, right? Yeah, I.
[00:37:11.680] – Speaker 1
Just wanted it more for privacy. Not what you’re talking, I guess you do feel better when you’re out and about and by a lot of trees and stuff like that. My kid plays ball and we’ll play ball in the yard. And at first he’s like, Hey, let’s play ball. And I’m like, It’s 8 30, man. I’m dialing it down. But I’m like, Okay, let’s go. That’s the only way you’re going to get better is to practice.
[00:37:36.600] – Speaker 2
And you almost.
[00:37:38.460] – Speaker 1
Feel better when you’re done than right before you get out there. It’s like.
[00:37:42.720] – Speaker 2
Mowing the lawn, too. It feels like such a chore. But usually after you’re done, you feel pretty good. And same with gardening. I mean, I always feel if I’m starting to have a pain flare, I’ll just hit the garden. Really?
[00:37:55.420] – Speaker 1
Oh, my gosh. Well, if you feel pain, just come on over to our garden.
[00:37:58.700] – Speaker 2
Pick all the leaves. Yeah, good one. They keep you busy. Oh, that’s funny. But there’s nothing better than this year I grew lettuce. Oh, it’s so good. That’s tough.
[00:38:08.450] – Speaker 1
To grow, isn’t it? I just.
[00:38:09.910] – Speaker 2
Put it in. I mean, this is only my third year gardening, and I haven’t done a ton of research on it, so I just experiment. And I just put the seeds and not all of them made it, but I have three good… It’s leaf lettuce. And then I did mustard greens, and they are spicy.
[00:38:28.430] – Speaker 1
All right.
[00:38:29.530] – Speaker 2
They’re good, though.
[00:38:30.740] – Speaker 1
Nice. I’m really good at tomato and snap peas because I feel like you can’t mess that up. Yeah.
[00:38:34.360] – Speaker 2
The peas I did this year and they’re growing, I’m excited. Tomatoes, I’ve always done. I’m great at growing tomatoes. Cucumbers, I’m very good at. Last year, I got to go to the got squash bugs. What are squash bugs? They lay 800 million thousand eggs and they’re impossible to get rid of and they eat all your squash. Oh.
[00:38:54.780] – Speaker 1
Yeah. Boom. All right. No more squash.
[00:38:58.490] – Speaker 2
Apparently, once they know where you live, they come back. Oh, the word spreads? Yeah. Nice. What have been.
[00:39:04.660] – Speaker 1
Some of the challenges in starting this business that you didn’t necessarily anticipate? Or is it too soon to tell? Maybe. Yeah, I think it is.
[00:39:16.190] – Speaker 2
Too soon to tell. And this is great news because I feel like we were talking about this before the show, like with Card Beanie, my invention, there’s been so many challenges that I’m like, I don’t think this is what I’m supposed to be doing. So many things shouldn’t be so difficult. Just really things that should be easy just keep giving me problems. And with nature nanny, things are just going. And they’re going well and I’m getting good feedback. And I think just more doors will open. I think it’s going to take a little while to grow it, which is fine. Sure. Just get awareness, right? Yeah. And I’m not in any big rush, but it’s my dream job. I think getting paid to take a hike doesn’t feel like work. It feels like, I don’t know, fun. Right?
[00:40:08.430] – Speaker 1
That doesn’t sound so bad.
[00:40:09.870] – Speaker 2
It’s pretty awesome. I like it. I did four sessions last week, and I just felt so good. But I did realize if I’m going to do it every day, sunscreen is going to be much more necessary because by the last day, I was like, my face, it hurts. Oh, no. Speaking of.
[00:40:25.140] – Speaker 1
Which, you have a bag that you wanted to show.
[00:40:27.810] – Speaker 2
Yeah. I bring supplies with me. So in case parents forget, I always have bug spray. I have some good sunscreen, the baby mineral, so it’s not so stingy on the eyes. I’m super sensitive to that stuff. And then I have a first aid kit in case we get any little owies. Just in case. And then I ask that the participants, either the adults or the teams or the children, bring their own water bottle. But if they don’t, I always have bottled water in the car because you’ve got to have something to drink while you’re hiking to stay hydrated. And then when I do the guided forest therapy walks, the guided forest therapy walks have a traditional schedule that you do where you’re picking the invitations, you’re opening the senses, you come back to the group and you share, and then you go and do another invitation. But they always close with a tea ceremony. Tea like.
[00:41:24.630] – Speaker 1
Drinking tea?
[00:41:25.090] – Speaker 2
Yeah. Okay. So on those, I’ll be bringing a teapot and some tea for people to try because that’s the last sense that you’re supposed to use is the taste. Got you.
[00:41:36.690] – Speaker 1
I was going to ask you about the senses and taste specifically. And I’m.
[00:41:41.130] – Speaker 2
Learning some foraging, too. Have you ever learned anything about foraging wild food? No.
[00:41:46.810] – Speaker 1
It is something that I’ve had friends that you feel like if zombie apocalypse comes, they’d know what bark to eat. How to.
[00:41:54.360] – Speaker 2
Start a fire. I’m learning from my friend. His name is Vincent Aiello, and he teaches foraging. And I hope to work with him. I hope to do sessions where I’m doing the forest therapy with half the group and the other half the group is learning foraging. And then we swap for larger groups. But I’m learning tons of different things you can forage. It’s really fun.
[00:42:18.000] – Speaker 1
So that’s people knowing what berries you can eat, what leaves mean, whatever. Yeah. There’s a.
[00:42:24.680] – Speaker 2
Lot of things you can eat. Even in your lawn, you can eat clover, the stuff that looks like spinach. I think it’s called plantain. You can eat that. It grows in your lawn. Right now, the raspberries are ready to go. They’re so good.
[00:42:40.100] – Speaker 1
Razzberries are good.
[00:42:40.830] – Speaker 2
I know. The wild ones, I love them. The goose berries are green. They’ll be turning ripe soon. And then we’ll have the wild grape. But there’s a ton. Vincent’s the expert. I remember this much of everything he tells me. He remembers the scientific name and everything. And I’m like, Oh, yeah. There’s this plant called the sticky weed you can eat, or you can throw it on people and they don’t even know it’s attached to them. And it’s pretty funny.
[00:43:05.960] – Speaker 1
Oh, it’s just got little things.
[00:43:07.640] – Speaker 2
That stick? I do it with the children all the time. And then we have sticky weed wars. It’s really fun. Have you.
[00:43:13.430] – Speaker 1
Found different places to hike that are for different things? Like someone comes to you and they’re like, Hey, I’m not feeling so hot, or, Hey, I’m depressed, or, Hey, I have physical ailment, or something like that. You’re like, Oh, we have to go to this place because they have a bunch of oak trees? I don’t know.
[00:43:30.160] – Speaker 2
Well, that’s a good question because studies have found that pine trees are the trees that bring you the most peace and calm. So if a child was struggling with overthinking or terrible anxiety, pine trees are the place to go. And there is something about when you step into a pine forest and you feel that cool air, you can feel that there’s this shift in how you’re feeling. But it also depends on what people like because some people really like water and some people really like trees and some people don’t like closed in trails. And then you have different physical abilities. So one of my favorite trails is two pines in Lodi on the Ice Age trail. But it’s difficult.
[00:44:17.000] – Speaker 1
Difficult because it’s steep or close?
[00:44:19.010] – Speaker 2
It’s all windy and close. And it’s beautiful, though. I mean, it changes scenery from totally treed in to grassy grasslands, to complete forest. It’s just beautiful. I love that one. And then Elmer and Edna, Calver Springs down the road, that’s pretty easy. You could probably take a stroller through there if you had a good one because it’s pretty flat and easy to get to. Nice. Yeah. Oh, that’s super cool.
[00:44:51.150] – Speaker 1
So you’ve been exploring all kinds of different hikes here? Mm. Man, I’ve lived here for a while and I don’t know half the places that you mentioned.
[00:44:58.090] – Speaker 2
I will give you ideas all the time. There’s a great one on River Road towards Wahnakee. It’s part of the Cherokee Marsh. That one’s beautiful. There’s sunfish in the pond. The kids love it. And there’s turtles. And we saw tons of turtle eggs. They’re weird. They’re not like a shell. They feel like skin. Oh, interesting.
[00:45:18.930] – Speaker 1
They’re really weird.
[00:45:20.590] – Speaker 2
And there’s totally different stuff there, too. Pine trees and forest. And it’s by that country day school. Yeah.
[00:45:29.270] – Speaker 1
All right. That’s beautiful, too.
[00:45:31.450] – Speaker 2
Nice. And then you have Patrick’s Marsh that’s really close to here. I’ve only been.
[00:45:35.810] – Speaker 1
There once, but it was pretty cool. Yeah, it’s.
[00:45:37.660] – Speaker 2
Short, but it’s really pretty. Those huge oak trees are amazing. Yeah, it was interesting.
[00:45:44.160] – Speaker 1
Because we went there and we’re just tooling around. All of a sudden there’s that huge dock, beautiful dock. How long has this been here? It’s pretty cool looking.
[00:45:53.000] – Speaker 2
It’s beautiful. And all the frogs that sing down there. Holy cow. If you go down there when the frogs are active, it’s beautiful. Do they have swans?
[00:46:02.760] – Speaker 1
They are pelicans.
[00:46:04.240] – Speaker 2
Pelicans.
[00:46:04.590] – Speaker 1
That’s what it was. Yes.
[00:46:06.110] – Speaker 2
And it’s not normal for them to be going there, but they go there every year. And then the blue herons, if you ever are driving towards Columbus, when you get to that section that’s by the truck driving school, there’s tons of trees. And if you look up high, you’ll see their giant nests. Oh, really? Yes. And there’s like 50 of them, and they’re huge. And those blue herons go from those nests over to Patrick’s marsh. All right.
[00:46:32.520] – Speaker 1
So.
[00:46:33.590] – Speaker 2
Beautiful. They’re huge birds. Yeah, they’re a cool.
[00:46:37.250] – Speaker 1
Bird to watch. I can remember a buddy and I were fishing at Devil’s Lake, and we weren’t catching anything. And this heron comes by, stands in the water, maybe 20 feet from us, stabs their beak down, catches the fish and takes off. So they.
[00:46:54.140] – Speaker 2
Stab it? They stab it. They don’t like… Oh, wow. They stabbed it. It was.
[00:46:57.620] – Speaker 1
Still in his back. And it happened so fast. I’m like, That bird just mocked us. We’ve been out here for two hours, haven’t caught a thing. This thing’s like, Let me show you how it’s done. But wasn’t.
[00:47:08.280] – Speaker 2
That more exciting than catching a fish? Oh, my God. A thousand times.
[00:47:12.310] – Speaker 1
Yeah, I don’t even… It is so cool.
[00:47:14.700] – Speaker 2
When the animals interact with you in nature. That’s one of my favorite things. Yeah. It’s one of those.
[00:47:21.760] – Speaker 1
Like, what just happened? I feel like we’re not on top of the food chain when something like that happened.
[00:47:27.200] – Speaker 2
Totally. This was the conversation I was having hiking with the kids the other day. Humans think they’re the superior race, but it’s like, we can’t turn to liquid and then be a Caterpiller and turn into a butterfly. Did you know they completely live liquify themselves? I did not.
[00:47:46.080] – Speaker 1
Yeah, they turned.
[00:47:47.140] – Speaker 2
To liquid. I’m like, we can’t be born and get up and walk within seconds. I’m like, We can’t fly. We can’t fly all the way to South America without a compass or something. Yeah, it reminds you that there’s intelligence, all different kinds of intelligence. Right. Beyond our abilities.
[00:48:08.080] – Speaker 1
Yeah. Interesting. How can people find you on Nature Nanny? They can go to my website.
[00:48:13.470] – Speaker 2
It’s www.naturnanny.com. Easy enough?
[00:48:17.510] – Speaker 1
Super easy to remember. Yeah. I appreciate you being on the show.
[00:48:20.660] – Speaker 2
Thank you for having me. It was really fun. This is cool. And congratulations. Time goes.
[00:48:24.540] – Speaker 1
Really fast. It does. And Congrats on the new gig. Thank you.
[00:48:27.390] – Speaker 2
I’m really excited. It’s literally my dream job. Nice.
[00:48:30.620] – Speaker 1
I’m excited to see where this is at in a year or two. It’d be interesting to see how you grow this and where you’re expanding beyond to do a nature hikes in Hawaii or something. I would love to.
[00:48:42.850] – Speaker 2
Do retreats. That would be cool. It’s super fun.
[00:48:45.550] – Speaker 1
I like it. Looking forward as you grow, right? Cool.
[00:48:49.960] – Speaker 2
Cool.
[00:48:50.710] – Speaker 1
This has been Authentic Business Adventures. The business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We are underwritten locally by the Bank of Sun Prairie. If you’re listening or watching this on the web, if you could do us a huge favor, give us a big old thumbs up, subscribe, and of course, comment and let Kayla know what is awesome. If there’s any hikes that you want to check out or would like to check out, recommendations, right? Maybe you know all of them. Who knows?
[00:49:16.180] – Speaker 2
No, I’m open to suggestions. They’re everywhere. There’s a lot.
[00:49:19.830] – Speaker 2
My name is James Kademan and Authentic Business Adventures is brought to you by Calls on Call, offering call answering and receptionist services for service businesses across the country on the web at callsoncall.com. As well as Draw In Customers Business Coaching, offering business coaching services for entrepreneurs looking for growth on the web at drawincustomers.com. And of course, The Bold Business Book, a book for the entrepreneur in all of us, available wherever fine books are sold. We’d like to thank you, our wonderful listeners, as well as our guest, Kayla Storlid, the owner of Nature Nanny. Can you tell us that website one more time?
[00:49:55.520] – Speaker 2
www.naturnanny.com. Awesome. Naturenanny.com.
[00:49:59.370] – Speaker 1
Easy enough. Thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you.
[00:50:02.610] – Speaker 2
It was really fun.
[00:50:03.440] – Speaker 1
Past episodes can be found morning, noon, and night. The podcast link is found at drawincustomers.com. Thank you for listening. We will see you next week. I want you to stay awesome. And if you do nothing else, enjoy your business.
