What do you do when you have an accounting degree and are first in line to take over your family’s successful accounting firm? If you are Brogan Orcutt, you start an outdoor trekking company focused on learning and personal development.

That was not always the plan. After graduating from Otterbein University and working for a time at a ski resort in Colorado and a climbing outfitter in West Virginia, Brogan began work with his father at Orcutt Financial Services in Milford, Ohio.

After a time, Brogan began to have strong feelings of dissatisfaction at work. After talking it over with his father, they decided that the best course of action would be for him to take sixty days off.

During that time, Brogan completed The Purpose Promise program to discover what true purpose at work might look like for him. The result was a completely new career path which culminated in the creation of a new company: Inner Trek.

Brogan says, “The big thing that came out of the Purpose Promise journey for me was that I love working with youth, I love working outdoors and I need to do something physical. I had conversations with my brother-in-law about an idea similar to this for awhile. Now I had the time to put towards it, and it was a good time for my brother-in-law and sister as they were looking to jump on board with something like this. So now through Inner Trek, we lead experiential and therapy trips predominately in wilderness settings. We work with different church and organizational groups facilitating outdoor experiences for them. And we also offer more specific therapy trips headed up by my brother-in-law, Colin, who is the therapist of the group.”

Brogan continues, “The outdoors has a unique way of opening our minds. I think it’s a combination of being outdoors and outside of the environments where we get triggered most often. Being outdoors forces you to be present minded. When we can be present minded it takes away some anxiety and depressing thoughts that many people have. We can focus on our emotional and spiritual time in the present time. That allows us to dive deeper. From a spiritual standpoint, for myself and many others, I feel most connected to God when I am outdoors being in his raw beauty.”

When asked about the change he has seen in individuals participating in Inner Trek, Brogan tells the story of a thirteen-year-old boy who participated in four backpacking and one cabin trip through Inner Trek. He says, “From the first trip to the last trip there was a noticeable change in his excitement, his willingness to participate, and that was exciting to see. Even more was the feedback from his mom that he was more involved at home, how he prioritized time with family, his willingness to be proactive in his communication. Anger was a big issue he was working through, so his being proactive was a good sign of progress.”

He has also been encouraged by the results of group experiences. He comments, “When we did the couples experience with a local church there was a great bonding moment. The older people were able to pass along some wisdom and advice and vice versa. The young people were able to express views and opinions that are unique to their generation. It was a great opportunity both ways. It was more impactful having these conversations around a campfire instead of sitting in a classroom.”

He concludes, “I don’t feel we are created to be indoors. That is not how we were designed. So there is a spiritual side of reconnecting with who we were in the beginning. There is a significant spiritual reconnecting that can take place.”