We’re Nate & Steph, a couple of outdoor-loving adventurers living a life of full time travel.

In 2015, we decided to leave the corporate world behind and travel full time. After losing Nate’s dad to cancer at a young age, we came to the harsh realization that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed and you can’t wait till retirement to live your dreams.

We were living a good life before, Nate was a firefighter and Steph was an accountant. We had a nice house, two cars, two dogs. You could say we were living the American dream. But we were living for 2 weeks vacation a year and a few long weekends – not exactly our dream lifestyle.

So we sold or donated most of our possessions, put our house in Denver up for rent, and bought ourselves an RV.

Then we took off… with little to no plan.

Steph was able to start making money online pretty quickly, as accounting and financial consulting are pretty easily translated to an online business. Firefighting, on the other hand, isn’t so easy to take to a remote position! So Nate began a new journey learning videography.

Since then, we have been successful in starting and running multiple businesses from the road. We’ve also traded in our big RV for a smaller, more adventurous camper van, which we built ourselves.

We have created a lifestyle surrounded by adventure and community. We’ve learned a lot on our journey to become location independent. Now we are sharing all of that knowledge with you to show you that you can learn to live your ‘later life’ today, too!

STEPHANIE YARBROUGH

I’m Steph, co-owner of Explorist.life. I’m a business financial strategist and the main writer for Explorist.life.

I started my career as a tax accountant after graduating from Texas A&M University. I started business financial consulting on the side while learning the ropes of tax, effectively starting my first side hustle and alternate career path. I soon decided that consulting was more my style, so I pursued an MBA rather than going the typical accounting route of a CPA.

Since taking off on the road, I’ve build my consulting business in a way that allows me to continue to travel while still advising clients and doing what I love. I’m continuing to grow the business every day!

I enjoy helping businesses grow and learn, and I’m constantly looking to grow and learn myself. I work with businesses in all different industries, from retail stores to fitness centers, construction companies to fashion blogs.

“I never did really fit in as a businesswoman. I love it, and I’m good at it, but I’m also totally fine with my hair in a mess and dirt under my fingernails. And now I live in a van, chasing trails and rivers and the next big adventure. Maybe that’s why I was so drawn to the outdoor industry, where networking happens at a crag over beers rather than a fancy restaurant overlooking downtown. I started writing in hopes of inspiring others to get outdoors. I continue to write because of the people who have been inspired by my writing. I hope to spread my love for the outdoors to as many others as I possibly can.”

STEPHANIE YARBROUGH

NATE YARBROUGH

After graduating from the TEEX fire academy at Texas A&M, Nate secured a career firefighter/EMT position in Norman, Oklahoma.

When Nate’s dad, also a firefighter, passed away from a battle with cancer, Nate realized the incredibly high cancer rates in firefighters was not worth the risk.

His training in emergency situations allows Nate to be adaptable and calm throughout any situation that arises. His emergency medical training comes in handy on the road and in the backcountry, where anything can happen. These valuable skills have been a major asset to life on the road.

Nate is the creative brains behind Adventure in a Backpack’s video content. Behind the scenes, he creates video and still content for clients/brands. His additional professional experience in SEO strategy and Social Media Content Strategy allows him to fully understand brand positioning when creating content for clients.

“I truly miss firefighting, but this new lifestyle is allowing me to ‘save lives’ in a totally new way. When I was a firefighter, saving a life meant going into a burning house, finding somebody, and pulling them out, or performing CPR. Now, I am ‘saving lives’ by inspiring people to realize that life is too short to NOT do the things you want to do and if you wait until you are ready to go on that next big adventure…you’ll never be ready.”

NATE YARBROUGH