alison y., professional backpacker and resilience expert at Blissful Hiker

alison y.

professional backpacker and resilience expert at Blissful Hiker

Leadership

Education: University of Southern California - Cleveland Institute of Music

Minneapolis, MN, USA

Biography

Alison Young is a dynamic resilience and TEDx speaker whose global hiking adventures serve as a backdrop for her inspiring storytelling. With over 12,000 miles traversed across six continents as a solo, middle-aged long-distance backpacker, Alison offers a unique perspective on embracing challenges and transforming adversity into growth.

Her journey is not just about physical endurance; it reflects her remarkable resilience as a manager of a neurological movement disorder and a cancer survivor. With a titanium-enhanced spirit, she navigates both the trails and trials of life with grace and determination. As a speaker she has been described as "thought provoking and inspiring!" "engaging, emotional and relatable," as well as "even if your hikes are confined to your backyard you’ll be inspired by her tales from the trail.”

Alison Young is an award-winning professional flutist and a syndicated host on American Public Media, renowned for her creative work on the Blissful Hiker Podcast™. This unique podcast weaves together found sound, flute music, and personal essays, offering listeners an immersive experience that has garnered over 100,000 downloads. Her dual expertise as a musician and storyteller resonates deeply with audiences.

Passion

Passions include walking, hiking, sauntering, wandering, backpacking, thru-hiking and guiding teams and organizations to find their most successful journey in their lives and careers, especially when they're lost, on the wrong path or obstacles block the way

I am willing to travel

More than 100 miles

When it comes to payments

I generally get paid for speaking but make exceptions

Topics

reinvention life reinvention career change quitting empowerment personal empowerment grit cultivating resilience being intentional taking risks managing change identity breast cancer survivor music radio walking neurologic diseases womens leadership imposter syndrome breast cancer dystonia classical music backpacking hiking team leadership leadership aging longevity health middle age inspiration arthritis keynote middle age career changes resilience

Best Story

A few years ago, I sold my professional flute, in order to pay for a half-year’s leave-of-absence from my job, to walk the length of New Zealand.

Ok, that leaves a whole lotta questions.

Like, professional flute?
Leave-of-absence from your job?
Walk the length of New Zealand?

I wasn’t playing flute anymore - I’d developed a neurological disorder that kept me from moving my fingers at the expert level required.

It was devastating.

While walking in nature had always been my solace - that too was on the verge of ending. My body was breaking down and time was running out.

Maybe this was my last chance to walk a long thru-hike, one that was over 1,000 miles and would take months to complete – but how on earth could I afford it before it was too late?

Then it occurred to me, I had a valuable possession worth precisely the amount I needed - but it required me to let go of the past – in order to walk into my future.

And that is exactly what I did.

Origin Story

My earliest memory is walking. I can still see it vividly, looking down at my little feet moving me exactly where I wanted to go.

There’s so much power in being able to move to see new things, to think and solve problems and to quite literally step into ourselves.

I’ve endured some hard knocks in my life. I developed a neurological movement disorder that ended my professional classical music career, I had some lousy bosses that stymied my growth and creativity, and cancer and arthritis threatened to take away by ability to do what I loved most, to walk.

Each time I faced these problems, I had to grapple with the dark emotions that arose and the feeling of being frozen and unable to act because I feared there would be nothing to look forward to in my future.

Somehow, I endured and through it all, I learned that setbacks are often opportunities disguised as loss, opportunities to reinvent ourselves.

As a speaker, I am a guide, using the metaphor from trails – and spectacular images – to show others how to harness power to move forward on their best path in life.

Example talks

Testimonials

The following is a compilation of comments received at the end of presentations and speeches:

"To listen to Alison talk about music is to embark on a journey with a trusted and pleasing friend.”

“Thought provoking and Inspiring!”

“Alison Young struck a wonderful balance of allowing us to participate and experience her presentation and presenting us with concrete ideas, theories, and strategies to apply. Her activities were well chosen and tightly knit with her content in tangible ways. Alison, thank you for your enthusiasm, vulnerability, and expertise!”

“Engaging, great analogies and stories. Very relatable, emotional, educational and easy to listen to and learn from!”

“Such a new concept for us to explore! Make us really think about quitting gracefully! Thank You!”

“I loved the different examples that were relatable to different people in the audience. Alison Young’s casual appearance allowed you to imagine her hiking and also made her presentation feel approachable and personal.”

"Alison's talk was valuable and I think more folks need to hear it!”

"Alison shared her story with emotion, tension, humor, and love. I'd definitely recommend working with her if you want your audience to experience the same."

“Alison Young was the best speaker in my Women's business Bridge time! Very relevant for business and life. Absolutely fabulous!”

"Alison brought the Blissful Hiker story to my Forbes Business Council group on public speaking and it was a great opportunity for others interested in public speaking to see a masterful example of a speaker/storyteller in action. Even if your hikes are confined to your backyard you’ll be inspired by her tales from the trail.”

Hike Your Own Hike: the fine art of reinvention

Transitions are hard.

Whether we like it or not, failures, setbacks, and ‘cosmic rip-offs’ happen and when they do, they can leave us feeling ungrounded, like we missed a waypoint and are walking the wrong trail. Yet oftentimes, these moments are opportunities disguised as loss, opening us up to alternative paths on our life journey.

Alison Young is an expert at reinvention. With a variety of identities from world-class professional musician to syndicated radio host to professional backpacker walking over 12,000 miles on six continents, she is uniquely positioned to speak on the subject.

Using hiking – plus spectacular images – as the setting, Alison is the guide to harnessing powerful emotions for positive action as well as visualizing a wider path and making the mental shift needed for success.

Educational outcomes:

• Understand how the dark, difficult moments can be tools for empowerment.
• Explore 3 ways risk-taking builds resilience.
• Shift the thinking surrounding regrets to motivate change.

Ideal for:

• Leaders at the crossroads in their careers needing motivation to change.
• Teams undergoing restructuring and changes in mission.
• Organizations ready to pivot the potentials of their teams.

Quit with Grit, intentionally letting go as a key to success

So many of us know the “secret to success” mantra – quitters don’t win and winners don’t quit – but sometimes, quitting is exactly the right course of action

In fact, quit and grit are two sides of the same coin. Developing the skills to know when to say “no” can open us up to better opportunities to explore more, do more, and find the right things worth sticking to.

As a long-distance backpacker, Alison Young shares her adventure experiences oftentimes in life-threatening situations, where understanding the biases and blocks to quitting helped her find more success and deeper gratification on and off the trail.