EP 54 - Natalie Brechtel - Gut-Z Journey

Episode Intro:

Dear listeners of the Female Guides Requested Podcast, welcome back and happy Wednesday. This is your host Ting Ting from Las Vegas. In this podcast, we spotlight the stories of women guides and guides from other underrepresented groups and see how they navigate the complex terrain of mountains and life.

Today we’re thrilled to host a true veteran of the backcountry: Natalie Brechtel.

With over two decades of professional experience, Natalie’s journey is nothing short of breathtaking. She’s gone from guiding in New Zealand to spending ten seasons working for the U.S. Antarctic Program as a Field Safety Coordinator and Mountaineer, all while contributing to the high-stakes world of Yosemite Search and Rescue.

Natalie is the founder of Gut-Z Journey, a business dedicated to building deep-seated confidence in the outdoors through a unique, holistic lens that combines wilderness medicine, strength training, and functional nutrition. As you’ll hear today, the name “Gut-Z Journey” perfectly embodies her philosophy—it’s about trusting your intuition and optimizing your health to make critical, life-saving decisions.

In this episode, Natalie shares her powerful insights on the importance of never outsourcing your decision-making in the field, why she prioritizes working with clients who are “invested in the process” of learning, and how she shows up every day as a strong female role model in male-dominated technical spaces.

If you’re looking to turn your physical and mental fortitude into unshakeable outdoor confidence, stay tuned. Let’s dive in with Natalie Brechtel.

Natalie’s Links:

• Gut-Z Journey
• WMA Instructor Bio
• My philosophy
• Gutzjourney IG
• Dirtbag diaries podcast

Quotes:

• I live in a really outdoor driven town and I actually can find it exhausting to be around so many people that are so driven in the same direction. And there’s just something to be said about when you’re in your own community sometimes behavior just changes.
• I really believe in going from the gut first and it’s a double-edged thing for me. because I also went to school for holistic nutrition later in life and microbiome health and our gut sends a lot of signals with our intuition and a lot of messaging.
• when someone feels physically stronger they’ve reconnected with their body then they frankly tend to feel more confident
• I was trying to think about what I could do back in the US that would still feel fulfilling… that gut part of my intuition was like, Natalie, you need other things.
• I didn’t have examples of women doing the things I wanted to do… I can at least represent that these things are possible.
• You outsource that decision to authority and end up in a precarious situation, even though you knew it wasn’t the right decision.
• I think that when one really wants to pursue challenges just for their own growth, then there is no end point to that.