We had the good fortune of connecting with Alexis Stephens of Tiny House Expedition.

Hi Alexis, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
For both my partner Christian and myself, pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone made the best things we ever achieved in our personal lives and our careers possible. I took the most substantial risk of my life by leaving my steady marketing agency job to pursue a passion project that led us to build our own tiny home on wheels.

The mindset shift I experienced from downsizing belongings that weren’t serving me truly helped me build confidence in myself. It empowered me to see myself as capable of evolution. Ditching clutter that was really clouding my perspective, more than my home, helped me set aside the typical social pressures and conventional expectations, much like what so many others in the tiny house movement are doing. Ultimately, this process led me to re-prioritize how I wanted to spend my energy and time–seeking fulfilling experiences and relationships.

We jumped in with both feet when we decided to pursue our traveling tiny house and documentary filmmaking dream, Tiny House Expedition. Importantly, I had near unwavering faith that we would make this happen despite how risky and uncertain it all felt. Every day we chipped away at the necessary research and planning. Somehow, feeding off each other’s drive, we were able to channel any doubt into courage.

Of course, any major undertaking has its ups and downs. We persevered and achieved an adventure of a lifetime. After building our own tiny house on wheels, we traveled with it across North America to explore the tiny home movement. The priceless experiences, new friendships, and lessons learned along the way have given us much fulfillment. Additionally, we went from starving artists to successful creators as a result. But none of it would have been possible if we hadn’t taken the risk of pursuing our traveling project.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Beginning in 2014, my partner and I had an ambitious idea to film a feature-length doc about the tiny house movement while traveling with our DIY home on wheels. Our sincere hope was to inspire others to rethink housing as a pathway to create more sustainable & affordable housing options, more meaningful lifestyles, and more connected communities.

As documentary projects tend to do, our work evolved in a few directions. We ended up creating a docu-series on the legal challenges around tiny houses. Then we decided to release a series of short docs on our YouTube channel about various aspects of the movement. Building a channel takes tremendous dedication. You have to be passionate and patient. Fortunately, we were; though, it did mean lean financial times. It took years before we made a decent one-person salary. But fairly quickly after that point, we now make a solid two-person salary and can hire freelancers.

The only things that feel better than making a living doing what we love are the ability to help others make a livelihood and, most importantly, contributing to an important cause. Our work led us to become active tiny home advocates because we deeply believe in the need for diverse housing options to help as many people as possible have a safe, secure, and comfortable home.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
After 4.5 years of nomadic tiny house living, we now travel part-time in our shuttle bus conversion and are renovating a small A-frame on a mini homestead. During our travels we searched for a place to put down roots. For us, that’s Central Oregon. So when friends visit us in La Pine, near famous Bend, we quickly share all the amazing local nature to explore. Top on the list: Mount Bachelor–perfect for snowboarding or skiing in the winter and mountain biking in the summer. Next up: the breathtaking Cascade Lakes and Newberry Volcanic National Monument. Game of Thrones fans don’t want to miss hiking through the mountain of obsidian/dragon glass with lake views. And finally, hitting up the plethora of charming breweries is a must.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We are incredibly grateful for all the loved ones, tiny house enthusiasts, and organizations that made our success possible. Countless kind people helped make our tiny home filmmaking journey possible. And it wouldn’t be possible without the participation of all our documentary subjects, who graciously allowed us to share their stories with the world.

Website: https://tinyhouseexpedition.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tiny_house_expedition

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tiny-house-expedition

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TinyHouseX

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TinyHouseExpedition

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/TinyHouseExpedition1

Image Credits
Tiny House Expedition

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