Community, Not Customers: A Q&A with Usal Founder Michael Washington

These days, community is the biggest buzz word in brand building; how to create it, how to keep them engaged, and ultimately how to convert them into customers. But for Michael Washington, founder of Usal, customers aren’t his goal. His curation of community-led outdoor experiences, events, and workshops is more about bringing people together to bond over a shared love of the outdoors. For him, “a natural, magical thing happens when things aren’t about money, but being together.” Washington aims to foster this magic with Usal.

(Though of course, there is a retail space in the trendy Silver Lake neighborhood in Los Angeles, and plenty of merch for sale, too. Because even the best intentions need funding.)

“I very much had a transcendental experience when I stumbled upon Usal,” Michael tells me, referring to a remote beach on an uninhabited stretch of Northern California coastline for which his brand is named. “It’s just one of those places that really leaves a mark on you.” This mark is akin to the one someone gets when attending one of Usal’s events. Washington invited me to a recent class so I could “really see what they were building,” he emphatically told me. And I accepted with equal enthusiasm.

With activities and classes ranging from fly fishing and hiking to overnight backpacking, rock climbing and surfing (meetups typically range from $35 to $250 per person to attend), it was tough to choose which would be give me the best opportunity to understand what Usal is building. Ultimately, I decided on an incense making experience class led by multidisciplinary artist Hyungi Park. The creative energy was palpable in the room as we learned the ancient history of incense before hand rolling our own sticks and cones. This tactile experience was informative enough to satiate the most curious parts of myself yet playful enough to ignite my childlike wonder.

Usal was born of Washington's own youthful instinct to explore. Growing up in San Antonio, "I was curious and really liked trying new things," he tells me. "And what better place to try new things than outdoors." With this foundation, and spurred on by pandemic-induced downtime and introspection, Washington officially launched Usal on Earth Day 2022, tapping his own network of friends and local guides to help lead classes for him and the community he’d built in Los Angeles. About a year after hosting their first set of classes and activities Usal caught the eye of REI and received a strategic investment through the brand’s Path Ahead Ventures, an initiative supporting Black, Indigenous, Latina/o/x, Asian American and Pacific Islander founders as they start and scale their businesses in the outdoor industry. With this support Usal will expand its workshops and outdoor excursions to new areas of California, and eventually to other parts of the country, including New York.

As the Usal team gears up for expansion we recently spoke with Washington to learn more about how he grew a seed of an idea into a thriving community, how he pushed past imposter syndrome, and the next city Usal is planning to foster and nurture community.

Is approaching the outdoors with a childlike curiosity the key to how you interact with nature today?

Yes, this is why I started Usal. I don’t fit into the box of climber, surfer, or runner. I like everything and I was like there's so many climbing communities, surfing clubs, and running clubs, but where is the club for just liking everything? I can't sit still. And while I didn't know how to go on a foraging hike yet, I wanted to learn.

I try to hold on to that curious, childlike state and use that to fuel what we do here at Usual. Everyone can come here and try so many things and maybe fall into one thing or maybe just continue on with what you’re loving. I want to create a space where we all can keep challenging ourselves and learning new things to avoid feeling stuck.

How did the pandemic plant the seeds of Usal? What was the final push to answer the calling to tap back into those early days outside as a child?

During that time period I was taking my own personal trips. I had a camper van in L.A., and California has a lot to offer as it comes to the outdoors. I was taking trips by myself and I started to share those on my Instagram story. People I've never met were reaching out and sending these paragraphs about how they’ve been following my journeys. That really gave me a lot of hope during this time period.

There is nothing superficial about going outside and doing something for your mental health. There's nothing showboating about it. You're not trying to be cool. So, I kind of sat back and I was like, something about this feels really great.

Unfortunately I didn't make the jump right away because of imposter syndrome. I'm not the most outdoorsy person, so I didn’t believe I was the guy to start this idea even though I thought it was a great idea. But then I realized I was the perfect person to start this idea for exactly this reason.

What is a “modern nature enthusiast” and why is this who you built Usal for?

I think that means essentially the person who lives in your LA, New York, or San Francisco but still has a yearning to try out hobbies and activities. They work a regular desk or tech driven job but still engage with outdoor activities and find time when they have it to get outside—we're a community for that person.

All of our guides represent modern nature enthusiasts because they are people who work and live right here in the city and excel at a certain hobby because they love it and it provides a sense of well-being when they're not working. That in turn makes them amazing people to learn from because they love it and they're teaching from the heart.

How are you thinking differently about and centering community in everything that you do at Usal?

Community has always interested me and I trace that back to being an only child. I feel like I yearn for being around others. I yearn for a sense of community, a sense of family. I'm participant number one and I'm the guy that wants this for myself. And my hypothesis was, I think there are other people out there like me that live here in L.A. who have sacrificed their connection to nature because they feel like they have to by living in a city. They are searching for this type of community.

That's so important for what we need right now as a human race. Our heart and soul is about bringing people together, and we'll always be about bringing people together. I think a lot of brands start by making products and then they're looking for the community but we've come at it completely backwards. We're a community and then people are excited and they want to wear the product because they're already a part of the community. It's not faking it.

Is that why you wanted a physical space or did that just happen organically?

Organically. The heart and soul of what I'm interested in is this idea of real life events. Right now it's so hard to make connections with others, so it's important to me that we bring people together. People come to our events, even when they don't know anyone, and they show up to this twenty person thing with a bunch of people they've never met. To me this is so brave, and the beauty of having a physical space.

What does the future look like for your community and Usal's mission?

We just birthed a partnership with REI which is opening up a lot of opportunities for us. We’ll be using this partnership to start an event series in New York in September which we’ll be announcing very soon. And then come 2025 we'll officially be in both L.A. and New York. It's going to be scary and new and completely different.

Our goal is never to come in and push ourselves. We want to partner with people that are already doing amazing things in the city. So it’s very important to me that we're coming at it very holistically. I'm very excited!

Learn More about usal Here