Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Reid. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Paul is a type one diabetic and an outdoors enthusiast. Diagnosed at 15, growing up in Australia where an outdoorsy lifestyle was prescribed early on. A diagnosis of a chronic condition was devastating to say the least. Absent were the connections and resources we have available today, Paul endured the typical pathways to burnout and depression as is usual in the relentless 24/7 management of such a condition like diabetes, and of course, this led to lapses in control, which led to a slow deterioration of health overall.
On a quest to find his own relief from this burnout, he found his own therapy in wilderness adventure. Slowly, at first exploring more and more with hiking, then trail running, then opening up to adventure sports of all kinds like climbing, mountaineering, snow sports, backpacking and ocean sports he found a variety of challenges that needed methods in bringing medications and blood glucose monitoring into these outdoor environments.
Over the years, after a lot of trials & errors and countless device failures in the mountains, Paul had to find various solutions to these challenges and managed to find some creative ways to make it all happen, and has managed to blend the treatment of a chronic condition with adventure sports. Documenting these adventures initially by starting a blog, and website, eventually found that social media channels had the biggest impact within the type one community, and began @typeoneoutdoors on all social platforms. This led to direct connections with the type one community with the ability to create local events for type ones like local hikes in the mountains around the LA area.
These days, Paul encourages other diabetics to get outdoors and find their own “wilderness therapy” demonstrating some of the methods and techniques he’s developed over the years, by organizing small group hike meetups, rock climbing trips and small camps for diabetics.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I found out quickly that there’s no road map in bringing an idea like this to life. At first, I thought my messages could be best handled in a blog, so I made a website, and put some blog posts up. This seemed pretty straightforward, but there was a disconnect. Writing about outdoor adventure and community didn’t really feel genuine in a digital space.
Soon I started small local meet-ups in Griffith Park on Sunday mornings. These groups were small, like about 3, maybe 4 people, including myself. After a while, maybe 5-6 folks showing up including a few regulars from my local climbing gym who like the idea of a morning hike on easy terrain, but I was still missing my core audience which were the Type One community. Advertising these “Local Treks” through my Facebook page cast a wide net, a very wide net where I may get my Sunday morning hike out across the country, or even the globe, but ultimately missing the core, local folks who I needed to reach. Localized sites like NextDoor were getting a little bit of engagement but not as much as the larger sites with a lot of eyeballs. Narrowing it down, messaging by word-of-mouth was way better.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Type One Outdoors?
Type One Outdoors started as a simple idea to connect with the local diabetic community and those who shared a common passion for outdoor adventure. Through meet-ups on social media, I was able to create small hikes called “Local Treks” on the trails in the hills and mountains around the LA area with local area type ones who wanted to join in the discussion with meeting other local type ones on a hike.
Paul also speaks at universities and medical conferences about how Type One Outdoors started as an idea and became a brand that connects the local type one community, as well as being a patient ambassador with the various companies that create medical devices for diabetics and how they help diabetics get outside with a chronic condition like type one diabetes, bridging the space between medical tech and human drive for adventure.
Now, as a guide for local hikes in the San Gabriel Mountains and a professional climbing guide, Paul is bringing diabetics into vertical and wilderness spaces with Type One Outdoors LLC as a way to empower, encourage and inspire type ones to get outdoors and do things they didn’t think were possible.
Pricing:
- Local Treks (hikes): $0 to $25
- Climbing trips: $75 to $350
- Camps: $50 to $250
- Expeditions: $150 to $650
- Speaking: $500 to $1500
Contact Info:
- Website: www.typeoneoutdoors.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/typeoneoutdoors/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/typeoneoutdoors/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TypeOneOutdoors
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbnE2sT-nWSO0kRXqps7fRA
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@typeoneoutdoors
Image Credits
Dan Flesher Jason Danhoff Eloisa Ortiz Will Dorrien-Smith
