Liz Thomas is the co-founder of Treeline Review, an outdoor media company focused on obsessively researching gear reviews for everybody.

 Liz is a former speed record holder on the 2,200-mile long Appalachian Trail and founded Treeline Review with her hiking partner, Naomi Hudetz because neither could find a women-owned, women-run place to read about outdoor gear.

Liz knew Naomi was a business partner she could rely on because together, they’ve stood off grizzly bears and mountain lions.

Now, Treeline Review is one of the biggest outdoor gear review websites with a mission towards obsessively researched gear reviews for and by people of all genders, sizes, and abilities with 50% BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ writers—unprecedented in the outdoor industry.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I’m Japanese American and the child of an immigrant. I fell in love with the outdoors on a school field trip. As someone whose family didn’t spend time outdoors, I had to teach myself how to hike and what gear to bring.

Those lessons and a lot of hard work and practice propelled me to break the speed record on the 2,200-mile hike from Georgia to Maine on the Appalachian Trail. After years as a professional outdoor athlete, I wrote the National Outdoor Book Award-winning Long Trails: Mastering the Art of the Thru-hike (thru-hike is a term for a backpacking trip that is hundreds or thousands of miles long).

I created Treeline Review because I wanted a space where people can learn about the skills and gear they need to get outdoors—even if they don’t have a family or community to teach them.

What inspired you to start your business?

When I was a professional athlete, I struggled to find honest gear reviews written by women. Early in my career, I once had an editor tell me that he writes the gear reviews for items marketed as “women’s gear” and then puts his wife’s name as the byline because “women can’t write reviews.” I proved that editor wrong. For years, I worked for The New York Times’ product review website, Wirecutter. When their women-led outdoor team disbanded, I formed Treeline Review to continue telling objectively researched outdoor articles.

Where is your business based?

Treeline Review is based in White Salmon, Washington, a small town in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. As an outdoor business, it’s an ideal place to be. We’ve got the river, hiking, skiing, mountain biking, and mountaineering all within an hour’s drive. However, our remote team is across North America from Squamish, British Columbia, to Mexico to Colorado to Maine. Having a geographically diverse team lets us test summer gear in Southern California when our headquarters are covered in snow and winter gear in Alaska when the rest of the US is sweltering. It also allows us to test the same gear item in different climates and weather conditions, so we know our reviews reflect many users’ experiences.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

We started small, writing many of the first stories ourselves or working with former colleagues from Wirecutter. We knew what made an excellent gear review. We wanted to set the tone for the level of quality for all future stories.

We also had to teach ourselves Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a crucial part of any product review website. We used free courses from ahrefs, Digital Marketing Kitchen, and Semrush to learn the basics. Neither of us had any experience with SEO, so it was all new to us.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Word-of-mouth has been the best way of growing a website like ours. When trusted friends tell each other how Treeline Review is different, it goes a lot farther than any ad space we could buy. When ski and climbing buddies share how Treeline Review helped save them time and money when making a gear decision, that means more than any awareness campaign we could run.

What have been your biggest challenges, and how did you overcome them?

As an online media company, we rely heavily on Google search. At the end of 2020–already a trying time for businesses–Google ran an update to their algorithm that impacted the outdoor industry. We had to find creative ways to spread the news about our work–from word-of-mouth and social media campaigns to working with other businesses and leaning on our communities.

How do you stay focused?

I’m powered by the feedback our readers give us. Some readers are looking for gear reviews that are detailed, well-researched, and objective—hard things to find these days. Other readers come to us because they want to read about the outdoors from people who look like them. When our readers tell us that they trust our findings and that we’re changing the industry, that makes it easy to get up and do this work every day.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

Two things make us different from the rest of the outdoor media: obsessive research and creating a space for all people in the outdoors.

First, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find a detailed gear review. Testing and being specific about what makes a product work is more work than short, specs-driven guides.  There’s also a lot of sponsored gear articles out there. We go deep, testing gear over hundreds or thousands of miles of backpacking or entire seasons of guiding in Alaska.

Second, the outdoor media space has always been dominated by cliché able-bodied rugged outdoorsmen. Yet the outdoors has physical and mental health benefits for every person and every type of body. Treeline Review is where people of all backgrounds can feel seen and get outdoor expertise from people like themselves.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Since we haven’t been able to go to many outdoor-themed festivals in the past two years, partnering with outdoor brands through contests and giveaways has been a considerable way to share audiences.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Hang in there! The first 6 months were the most difficult for me because there was so much unknown. I struggled over the big and small decisions: what to call the company, whether to be an LLC or S-Corp, what stories should our website feature, and what color to make outgoing links. I learned that the more decisions you make, the easier each subsequent decision is.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

The Later app is my favorite for scheduling social media posts. Our audience is often active when I have meetings or am deep into writing or editing, so Later gives me back a few hours of peak productivity.

My favorite business book is Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia. It’s about creating a work culture where people can have the flexibility to do the things they love. Happier workers mean they’re more likely to stick around and grow with you.

I love the (now canceled) Start-Up podcast by Gimlet Media. Hearing about other entrepreneurs and the sticky positions they’ve been able to get out of has been a morale boost as we grow Treeline Review.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

It’s low-tech, but I love my Panda Planner Venture for Entrepreneurs. This daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly planner helps me prioritize and not overcommit. I appreciate the daily prompts: 1) what am I grateful for?; 2) what am I excited about? And 3) what’s my daily exercise and renewal plan? Answering and committing to these items at the beginning of the morning keeps me energized throughout the day and helps prevent burnout.

Who is your business role model? Why?

My business role model is Brian Lam, the founder of Wirecutter and Lifehacker before that. As a fellow Asian American and first-generation American, I’m inspired by his ability to create useful websites where people can learn about the world and expand their horizons. He values people above all. To writers and editors, he told us that when our readers purchase what we recommend, they are entrusting us with their money. There’s a duty and responsibility to our work.

How do you balance work and life?

I know too many people in outdoor media who barely ever get outside. To combat that, Naomi and I set up a workshare system so that each year, both of us can be balanced and restored by extended time in nature.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

Going for a hike! To prevent myself from working 16-hour days, I also sign up for yoga class at the end of the day to signal to my mind and body that it is the end of my workday.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

We’re planning to get face-to-face with our readers more in 2022. We’ll start with more Facebook and Instagram Live events and (hopefully) get to meet people in person at outdoor and hiking festivals as the year progresses.

How can our readers connect with you?

We’re at www.treelinereview.com. Subscribe to the newsletter or follow us on Instagram www.instagram.com/treelinereview or Facebook www.fb.com/treelinereview.