[00:00:00] The point is to create margin, make time and energy and money for what matters. Because it's not the stuff, you know, it's the relationships, it's the journey. And so minimalism, I don't really see as, as an end in itself. It's a means to an end for creating a richer, more rewarding, more impactful life.
Oh, my goodness. My friends, you are in for such a whirlwind treat today. Today, I'm talking with Glen van pesky. He is widely recognized by the trail name legend for his legendary contributions to the backpacking community. He's a native California and with a childhood rooted in the Western outdoors Glen's journey into backpacking began when his oldest son joined Scouts and he led the troops backpacking program. Through those experiences, he became intrigued by lightweight, backpacking, and started sewing [00:01:00] his own gear. In 1998, he found a gossamer gear. A company dedicated to manufacturing, ultra light backpacking equipment. Over the years Glen and his company have been featured in backpacker. Outside. National geographic adventure magazines and the New York times. Beyond his passion for backpacking and entrepreneurial success. Glen had an extended career in civil engineering. Most recently he served as the community and economic development director for the city of Carlsbad, California. Prior to spending nearly a decade in various roles with the city, he served as an engineering consultant.
Before that role Glen held the role of president of Pacific rim engineering. Glen is a sought after speaker known for his inspiring humorous information packed presentations. His extensive backpacking experiences. Include hiking. Most of the Pacific crest trail. Exploring the back country in Japan [00:02:00] and Europe. And bike packing along the great divide mountain bike route. Glen lives in bend Oregon with his wife of over 40 years Francy.
And he's a father of two grown sons.
And you have got to check out Glen's book. It is linked in the show notes, and I am telling you, this is such a good read.
I read it in just two days, because it was so packed full of amazing stories and insights and life lessons from hiking and backpacking. Uh, you've got to read it, definitely check it out. It's linked in the show notes. And if you want the chance to win a copy from Glen. Here's what you've got to do. We're doing a giveaway for one copy from Glen directly.
And if you want to get that copy. [00:03:00] You've got to take a screenshot of you playing this podcast. This episode. On your phone, your laptop, whatever device you're listening on, and then you need to either post it to social media or send it to me directly. And I will. Enter you into a draw.
The deadline to enter is December 16th and the winner will be notified directly. So you have got to message me. When either you posted on your social media or tag me on your social media, or if you send it to me directly, then obviously I can contact you, but you need to be in contact with me is what I'm saying.
So I can reach out to you. And make sure that you are notified if you win. And so I know who's named put into the draw. I mean, of course, right. All right. back to the show.
You're listening to Success in Mind, the show for high performing leaders, changemakers, and entrepreneurs ready to take your life and business to the next level. If you're ready for [00:04:00] whole life success, keep listening.
Hi, Glen.
Welcome to the show.
Thanks, Teri. Thanks for having me.
So I want to start with what inspired your philosophy and your book, Take Less, Do More?
Well, I guess I, it started with backpacking or more precisely bikepacking, I guess. I've always been interested in, in taking less because when you're carrying it on a bicycle or on foot, it becomes painfully obvious.
I think sometimes in life, maybe we don't realize all the impacts of the extra baggage we're carrying, so to speak. But in 1976, I graduated high school and rode my bicycle across the country with a couple friends. And so, you know, I researched it. I mean, the stuff that was available almost 50 years ago was nothing compared to today.
But, you know, I cut my toothbrush in half and did everything I could to, to lower my, the weight of what I was carrying then. And that's been pretty much a [00:05:00] theme in life since then.
And I've read your book and I loved that story of You traveling with your friends across the country. A great, great story. I won't give it away, but a great story.
Your book is full of great stories actually. What is ultralight backpacking and why do you do this?
Well, and, and people probably do it for different reasons, and in talking about ultralight or lightweight backpacking, for those of your listeners who aren't, uh, backpackers might not have heard this term, it's, it's common to compare based pack weights.
Uh, so your base pack weight is all your gear except what you're wearing and not counting food and water. Because obviously you're not carrying what you're wearing and food and water will vary on the trip. You know, how much water is available, how long is the trip, how many days of food you have, uh, things like that.
So, My base pack [00:06:00] weight, generally, when I'm going out for a backpacking trip, and so this is my pack, my sleeping pad, my sleeping bag, my tent, all my extra clothes, insulation, hat, all my first aid, cooking equipment, weighs under 5 pounds. So most people, there's some, some discussion about the, you know, most people, I think, um, a base pack weight of under 10 pounds, they consider, Lightweight, under seven pounds, they generally consider ultralight.
So and under five pounds, you know, people call it extreme ultralight or, uh, things like that. Uber ultralight. Just depends.
It just, it amazes me, this whole concept, cause I am not a light packer no matter where I go. It's always my goal to bring as little as possible on a trip, but we go away for a weekend and I'm packing a full suitcase before I know it.
So It's absolutely amazing to me.
[00:07:00] And it's, it's applicable. I've had fun in, in recent years, we do a lot of traveling in, in Europe and I've applied the same principles. In fact, we just, my wife and I did a talk at our local REI here. I will go to, you know, I can go to Europe for eight weeks of hiking, nice restaurants, you know, museums in one very small carry on because I've thought very hard about every single piece of clothing.
Every piece of equipment and it's, uh, you know, it's great being able to go with such lightweight and always have all your stuff with you.
Yeah, that's, that's absolutely amazing. Now, you know, in your book you talk about how your, your lightweight backpacking principles have sort of guided you and, and in particular you talk a lot about generosity, gratitude and curiosity throughout the book.
Why are these principles so important to you? Well,
generosity. Well, you know, when you're traveling with very little weight, [00:08:00] you don't have as much margin for error. And so I think sometimes, uh, generosity becomes more crucial in those situations, uh, you know, sharing what you have. I was on a trip once, so not surprising.
I weigh my food, so I know, you know, I don't carry extra food because food tends to be a heavier item. I was on a hike with my buddy, Reed. And, and we're like one or two days in and, and suddenly I'm looking at my food bag and I realize I must have done the math wrong because I do not have enough food for the rest of the trip.
And I, I explained this to Reed and he says, well, here, let's stop and, you know, put Put a pad out and pull all our food and just split it down the middle. And we'll each be a little bit hungry rather than you being starving or having to end the trip early. And I think an early lesson in generosity, I think growing up by [00:09:00] my mom taught us by what she did.
Um, I always remember her saying no bless oblige, uh, which generally, you know, if you have, if you have been blessed that comes with an obligation to share, basically. And we were on this bicycle trip. We would typically, you know, we had no money. We were kids, uh, and we would stop and either sleep at a rest stop, or if we were in kind of a small town, we'd just go knock on a door and ask someone if we could stay, you know, on their lawn, camp on their lawn.
And, uh, this one, this one evening we stopped and knocked on a door and, uh, an old guy. And then now. You know, I was 17 at the time, so I don't know how old he was, but he moved old. I mean, I'm, I'm guessing trying to project like probably seven, maybe eighties. Um, and he said, Oh yeah, sure. But you know, come around the side.
It'll [00:10:00] be, you know, softer, more protected from the wind. So we're, we're setting up our tents and, and, uh, he comes out and asked what time we leave in the morning. And I said, well, usually around seven o'clock, you know, we've got. Trying to, we have 4, 200 miles we're doing here. And he said, he looked disappointed.
I said, well, you know, why, why do you ask? And he says, well, we'd really like to send you off with a proper breakfast, but my wife has terrible osteoritis and the mornings in particular are just really hard for her. I said, well, that's okay. And we don't expect anything. We're happy to have a nice place to sleep.
And he came back with a box of donuts since they couldn't get up to cook breakfast for us, which, you know, we. Gratefully accepted, but told him it wasn't necessary. So the next morning we're packing up, uh, chomping on donuts and, uh, the door opens to their house and the man motions us over says, walk across the.[00:11:00]
The dew soaked grass, he motions us in to a full breakfast. Yeah, I'm convinced to this day that we ate through their week's worth of groceries in a single sitting. Because we're riding, you know, 80, 90 miles a day, and we're 17. I mean, we're bottomless pits, basically, four of us. And there were eggs and bacon and sausage and potatoes and fruit and muffins and, I mean, just a staggering amount of food that, as far as I remember, we pretty well polished off.
Uh, it just so touched me that, you know, in spite of all the pain, it was important enough to them to be generous with what they had and make a huge impression on the four of us. And I've been telling that story for 50 years, you know, it was pre internet so I could never connect with them afterwards.
Couldn't find them. I mean, if I'd been a little smarter, I could have gotten an address, I guess, but I was 17. And so that was an early. You know, lesson in [00:12:00] generosity to me that, that, that stuck with me.
Yeah. How has that, that generosity, how has that influenced you as an entrepreneur?
Well, I guess I've never, I never worried.
Um, I always remember someone saying, you know, make your, make your boss look good and things will work out. You know, don't, don't worry about, don't worry about your career. I've never asked for a raise. Um, never, you know, fought for my rights or anything like that in a job. I've always just tried to do the best job I could and make my supervisor look good.
Use my creativity or whatever talents I have and my work ethic, just do a good job. Um, at least in my case, I feel like that's paid off. I mean, I'm a sample size of one, so who knows if I'd done it differently, but. [00:13:00] You know, being generous, I think, um, as an entrepreneur, I've never focused on what I needed.
I mean, I accidentally started a gear company, Gossamer Gear, never took a salary from it to this day. You know, I worked full time and I was just doing it to help other people get into the outdoors with less weight, um, you know, making gear that, that helped that happen. And you know, it's, I've had incredible blessings from that.
Mm hmm. You're welcome.
They just haven't been in terms of salary. So I, I don't know. I've been lucky not to have to worry so much about the money, and that's always seemed to work for me.
How would you recommend that the audience listening, how would you recommend they apply minimalism to their lives? You
know, it's, it's, it's tough because I, you know, your audience is probably in a lot of different places.
I mean, obviously if they, if they backpack, I'm your guy. [00:14:00] Or even if they travel. You know, I think there are obvious benefits from minimalism, but, uh, a book I, I really like things that matter by Joshua Becker is a famous American minimalist. And the, the point isn't to really own less, I mean, some people get caught up in that, but the point is to create margin, make time and energy and money for what matters because It's not the stuff, you know, it's the relationships, it's the journey.
And so minimalism, I don't really see as, as an end in itself. It's a means to an end for creating a richer, more rewarding, more impactful life.
And does that, you know, do you find that minimalism helps to enhance decision making in business or help? [00:15:00] Entrepreneurs in terms of running their business. I would
say so.
I mean, I, you've probably experienced this, you know, when you're completely overwhelmed, you get brutally efficient. You know, when you're, when, you know, I'm retired now, it's like, yeah, I can squander time. And you know, part of that is I enjoy it because I never had the time to squander before. Uh, but there's nothing like pressure to refine your decisions and force minimalism, I guess, in your decision making.
But I think often, we, another book I really like, which I've referenced in my book, is Subtract, uh, by Leidy Klotz. It's fascinating how, when we're faced with a decision, we're wired to think about what can we add to this, to solve this, rather than what can we take away to make this work better. And it's, [00:16:00] it's a fascinating book, which I think would have a lot of applications to our entrepreneurs.
It's like, instead of what more do I need to do? It's like, wait a minute, what, what if there's another way? What could I stop doing that would actually move me forward?
And do you have an example of how you've applied that in your life, that idea of subtracting? I'm sure you have lots.
Yeah. Well, you know, I'm, I'm actually a pretty lousy minimalist in most areas of my life, except for backpacking.
Gotcha. That's one area of my life. And part of that's complicated by, um, I've been married 42 years and Francie's approach is, well, if you have space, it's like, who cares? Just keep it, store it.
Now,
that mostly applies to Fabric, she's a big crafter, uh, but kind of her general approach to life. So, you know, my areas in life tend to be a little more, [00:17:00] or areas in my house tend to be a little more spare than, than hers.
You know, examples of subtracting, well, this is a, a silly one, but you know, when you get in the shower, if it's like an old shower that has like a hot and a cold faucet. You know, you generally turn it on, you turn the hot and cold on to about what you think is right. And then if it's not hot enough, most people would turn the hot up.
But I would turn the cold down until it got to the right temperature because that gets you to the temperature of water you want, but it takes less water to do it. Trying to think of other like everyday examples, I have lots of backpacking examples, clearly. Well, I'm sure. But I'm always, I'm always looking for the most efficient.
I think part of that is being an engineer. Um, you know, what's the most efficient, which drives my wife crazy, but even silly [00:18:00] things like when I make my lunch, you know, I'm always thinking like, okay, there's ingredients that come out and ingredients that go in to both the pantry and the fridge. And so I'm always thinking ahead of like, okay, how am I going to take these out or put them away in an order that.
It minimizes the amount of times I open the fridge and the number of trips I take to the pantry. So I'm just always kind of thinking of like, okay, how could I, to me it's maximize efficiency, but minimize the trips or the effort or, you know, and it involves thinking ahead, like, okay. Not just. What am I doing now, but what am I going to be doing and is there something I can do now that's going to make that easier?
So I think that's something that most entrepreneurs have probably figured out by this time.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. That's great.
If you are looking for handmade self care products that truly [00:19:00] work, check out Lizzibear.com. From nourishing haircare to luxurious skincare. Everything is crafted with love and high quality ingredients. Use my code success 10 at checkout for 10% off your order. Because you deserve to feel amazing every day.
And you mentioned that you're retired now. How are you spending your days now that you're retired? Well,
I'm actually, I'm a lot busier retired than I thought I would be. The one thing I do, so my alarm goes off at six.
In the morning, seven days a week. Now, when I was working, I only got up to my alarm five days a week, but it was set at 3. 30. So, you know, to me, that's a, that's a fair trade off. And then I usually, I come downstairs, uh, do a devotional, read my Bible, uh, meditate, practice a language until about 7. 30, [00:20:00] 8 ish.
And then Francie usually comes down the stairs and, you know, I sit on the couch and spend time with her. Reading the Wall Street Journal, talking about articles or what's going on with our days and reading some coffee and doing some Sudoku. No, drinking some coffee, doing some Sudoku. And that feels like such squandering of time, but I really like it.
Nice.
You know, because I never. Ever got to do that before and Francie was on the short end of that stick for most of our lives and then You know, I'll get on with the day. I'm still active in Gossamer gear the backpacking company. I founded In fact, I've got a board meeting later today. I tinker with, uh, gear designs, you know, stuff that I need for trips or that we need for our adventure van.
I have writing that I do, I mean, I have podcasts like this, um, I have writing that I do on, you [00:21:00] know, updating the website, blog posts, meetings with people to figure out if there's something I can do to help them. Something they have that I need to hear, um, and then trips. I mean, we were gone, I was just adding it up for our Christmas letter in the works, and we were gone 126 days the last year.
Wow. So, we do a lot of traveling, a lot of traveling overseas and then a lot of traveling in our adventure van. We just turned 100, 000 miles on Wally, we call him, in four years, so.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, we like to be home, but then we like to be gone, too, so.
Yeah, fair enough. Yeah. Do you have a favorite place that you've traveled to or a favorite trip you've taken?
A favorite trip? I don't know. And generally, if we're talking backpacking, my general favorite is to be in the mountains above treeline.
Okay.
So that's a general guide, although, you know, I [00:22:00] pretty much like to be outside anywhere. So slight canyons, the desert, just about anywhere, but yeah, if I get to pick mountains above treeline.
Nice.
We've done some great hikes in Europe. We did the 450 mile Alp Adria Trail, goes, starts at a glacier in Austria, and you hike through Austria, Slovenia, and Italy, and end up at the Adriatic Sea, 450 miles. That was a great hike. Yeah, and then, like, I've done some bikepacking on the Great Divide. That's always fun, different mode of travel, uh, you know, you see different things on a bike than, uh, than on foot, yeah.
And then we, we do like travel kind of in the Western United States in our adventure van. There's a lot of public land, so a lot of opportunities to boondock and we've, we've just been in some gorgeous spots, um, you know, to spend the night. Just amazing.
Yeah. It sounds amazing. How did you get into hiking?
Because I'm someone [00:23:00] who, I love the idea of hiking, but I can never, it just, I don't know. I just never get into it. But when I hear you talk about it, and when I, reading through your book, I'm like, this sounds so amazing. How can a person, how did you get into it? And how could someone like me maybe start to get
into hiking?
Well, I got into it in Boy Scouts, and I think it's, it's, it's important, I mean, to distinguish whether you're talking about hiking or backpacking. Right. You know, day hiking, I really don't care for. I mean, I'll do it. But like. I really like to sleep in the dirt. I mean, to me, that's part of the fun, the whole challenge of the right gear and, you know, cooking your meals and finding a camping spot and, you know, it allows you to get further into the wilderness.
Um, and that's one advantage of ultralight is, you know, if you're busy, like most of your listeners probably are, and you only have two or three days or maybe four days to get in, [00:24:00] you know, if you can only hike five miles a day, cause you got a heavy pack that limits your range, if you can hike. 20 to 30 miles a day, because you got it super light pack.
Well, you can do some cool trips in two, three days. So I got started in backpacking probably through Boy Scouts when I was a kid. And we ironically didn't do a lot of backpacking per se, but we had like camps in the woods where we'd go for the weekend and each patrol had their little site. So it was like being outside and living outside, so to speak, for the weekend.
So that. Got me exposed to it. And then that, that 1976 bike trip, you know, where we're sleeping every night at a, you know, someone's lawn or at a, uh, roadside rest area, or a couple of times city park, you know, just got me used to, I guess that kind of life on the trail, so to speak. And it, it is intimidating for someone that hasn't done it.
One of the cool [00:25:00] things is, you know, when you do backpacking with Minimal gear, you realize how little you actually need in life. This kind of gets back to gratitude, you know, in our normal lives, I mean, our lives are amazing, but they're just our lives. So we just go, yeah, that's my life. Right. We take it for granted.
You spend a week out there sleeping on the ground, you know, in a sleeping bag, eating freeze dried food, treating your water. You get back and it's amazing. I mean, you have potable water at like multiple locations in your house at any temperature you want. I mean, that's a miracle. It's crazy. Um, you have a soft bed, you know, with like, you get cold, you just pull another cover on.
It's like, it's not like you wake up shivering and have to shiver yourself back to sleep.
Yeah.
You realize how little you need. And that I think gives you appreciation for [00:26:00] how much more than that you actually have. So if you want to go backpacking, I mean, probably start with the hiking, I guess, just, you know, general fitness, stuff like that.
Cause the gear is a whole nother thing. Having to figure out, you know, how you set up camp and you know, I love getting people and I'm not good at it. I have friends that actually, you know, take people that want to get backpacking, but don't. Cause there's a big, there's a steep learning curve, you know, if you're starting from like the couch and he's a great teacher, very patient, you know, and had developed systems for teaching people like, you know, this is what you need to know and kind of boil it down to the basics and take on a trip to kind of, you can get the ropes and figure out if like, this is something that's like, this is amazing and I want to do more of this.
It's okay, but it's not as much fun as I thought. So he's down in California. I can connect you with him. You can check it [00:27:00] out.
Yeah. Yeah. Sounds interesting, for sure. How do you, do you practice gratitude? Like, do you, do you have a daily practice that you, you do or is it just something that's sort of a part of your lifestyle now?
Both, I would say. My morning prayer time always starts with gratitude, uh, so, you know, I'm not great about it, like writing a gratitude journal or anything like that. You know, I do try and reframe things. The other day I was, uh, driving somewhere with Francie, somewhere, and we're on this kind of main road into town and the traffic's backed up and.
I'm not super patient, I don't wait well in general, so I think I'm going to take a left and go on this other alternate route, you know, so I do that and I get up there and the road's closed. It's like, that's why all those people are on that road and now I lost my place, you know, now I'm like either further back in the line [00:28:00] and I'm starting to get frustrated and I thought, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's step back and take a look at this.
You know, you're in a car that works great. You know, you've got a beautiful woman sitting in the seat next to you, you're retired, you have no schedule, you have nothing on your appointment, and this beautiful woman wants to spend the next hour, well, you know, 50 years, but today, the next hour, doing something with you, that's like, you really ain't got nothing to be frustrated about.
Yeah.
So I try and, you know, catch myself and reframe everyday occurrences. Well, let's not look at what's wrong. Let's look at what's right here.
Yeah, it's a great way to look at things. Now, I have some rapid fire questions for you if you're game for it.
Sure, those are always exciting.
Oh, what's your favorite book?
Favorite book? You know, I'd probably say the book that I've given away the most is The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter. [00:29:00]
Oh, I haven't heard of that
one. It's, um, like the short, the, uh, TLDR, uh, version, I guess is, you know, we've done too good a job as humans of creating comfortable lives, and it's killing us.
So he talks about the need to get outside, the need to challenge ourselves. Fascinating book.
Yeah. It sounds like it. I'm definitely going to have to check it out.
What's your favorite food? Favorite food is, uh, yeah, probably whatever's in front of me, um, but it's hard to be like fresh sourdough bread. Mm.
Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah. And you, you bake your own, right?
Yeah. Yeah. We haven't bought bread in years.
Amazing. Amazing. Um, what's your biggest pet peeves?
I try not to have pet peeves, um, because to me, like, a pet peeve is something that is revealing something to me about myself. Mm [00:30:00] hmm. I don't wait well. So that would be something that makes me wait, is generally.
Things I need to work on, you know, people not thinking ahead cause I'm so used to like kind of thinking ahead, but like, you know, the person in front of you at the checkout line, they give them the total and. They have to find their wallet, and then they have to find their credit card. It's like, you've done this before, like, you knew this was coming, right?
I mean, you could have been prepared. And then I'm like, well, what do I care? You know? But it's like, I'm, yeah.
What are three things you'd take with you to a deserted island?
Three things to a deserted island. I'd probably take my wife, Francie, because it's like, I, you know, I just really like being with her.
Nice.
Yeah. I don't, you know, pretty much if I got her, that's. I only need one.
Perfect. Perfect. I love that answer. And what is your go to karaoke song?
I hate karaoke. You know, I'm not, I'm not like a music guy. I never listened to [00:31:00] music growing up. Um, so I don't know, whatever song it would be, it'd have to be really large words because I will not know the words to it.
Fair enough. Fair enough. And my previous guest, Dylan Evans, passed along the question, What is a habit that you would like to change?
That's a good question, Dylan. Thanks. Habit I would like to change. Wow. Um, Yeah, because I'm lucky I've got a life that's pretty fun right now. I'd say being, I don't know, reaching out more.
I mean, I've, I've forced myself to reach out because I'm an introvert. And really, you know, connections are the value in life. And so my habit is, unless I force myself to, I'm busy with tasks, you know, balancing statements or doing something by myself. And so just being, if I could do less of that, that would be a good habit.[00:32:00]
Yeah. Sounds like it. What's a question you would like to pass along to the next guest?
So I'm a big fan of the handwritten note, and I would ask the next guest, who is someone that you could write a note to today that could change their life?
Oh, I love that one. That is a great question. And any final thoughts you'd like to leave the audience with today?
You know, I often inscribe my books. Work hard, be nice, and stay curious. So, you know, it's simple, but it can work.
Yeah, I think that's great advice. Thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate this.
My pleasure.
I hope you enjoyed this episode and remember to check out Glen's book. There are some fantastic links in the show notes. Glenn has shared his links for all the books that he mentioned that have made a difference in his life. Plus, of course we're linking Glenn's book, [00:33:00] but if you want to win a copy. All you have to do is take a screenshot of this episode on whatever device you're listening on and either send it to me directly on social media. Or share it to your social media and tag me, and you will be entered the draw closes December 16th, but you've got to make sure that you reach out to me either way so that I know who to put into the draw.
And I know how to contact you if you win. All right. Thanks so much for listening today. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And of course, if you got value out of this, Share it with one person who you think would also enjoy it. And make sure as always you rate and review the show. Have a fantastic week, my friends and we'll be back again next week.
Bye. For now.
