From Corporate Life to Wild Woman: How Following Your Need for Space Can Transform Everything

Laura Gates
Nov 7
6 min read

In this inspiring episode of "Surrendering to the Signs," I sit down with data scientist and AI expert Allison Sagraves to explore how a simple yearning for space led her from corporate frustration to running a global business from her cabin in the woods - and being featured in a magazine as a "wild woman."

The Vision That Made No Sense

When I first met Allison, she was working in a corporate role where she felt stuck and undervalued. During our coaching sessions, I ask her to envision her future, and she'd say, "All I can see, Laura, is a field of flowers in my mind's eye."

It made no logical sense. She was a banker, not a farmer, not a gardener. But sometimes the soul knows what it needs before the mind can make sense of it.

Today, Allison runs her own global consulting business, teaches at Carnegie Mellon's Chief Data and AI Officer Program, and spends her free time at her cabin compound in the woods. She was recently featured in her local Buffalo Spree magazine in an article about "Women in the Wild" - originally titled "Semi-Feral Women."

"I felt claustrophobic," Allison explains. "I didn't have space in my life for myself. I didn't have physical space. I didn't have mental space. That manifested itself into this idea of land."

The Unconventional Path to Career Freedom

Allison's journey began with an intuitive yearning rather than a business plan. "I just had this sense of wanting some physical space, wanting some land that maybe I could just take a little hike on. It was kind of a dreamy, ethereal concept. This was not a well thought out plan."

She started looking at parcels of land with no clear outcome in mind. "I really knew nothing about purchasing land. I didn't know anything about zoning. One Friday night, close to midnight, she found a 600-square-foot cabin advertised online. "I contacted the person right away, and we were able to go see it Sunday. I'm like, 'This is perfect because I think I can handle 600 square feet. This is pretty simple.'"

When they arrived to view the property, there it was in the front of the cabin- the field of flowers from her visions. "It was September. And there were things blooming and it was very lush. I just thought, 'Oh my gosh, this is perfect. This is Goldilocks. It's just right.'"

They bought it that day.

When the Universe Provides More Than You Ask For

What started as one small cabin became something much larger through a series of synchronicities. The woman who sold Allison the cabin loved that she appreciated it so much. When the seller needed to sell her adjacent house, she offered it to Allison first.

"I didn't really want a house. I can't take care of my own house. I don't like taking care of homes," Allison laughs. "But I thought, well, if somebody else moves into this house, my shrine, where it's peaceful - who knows? Maybe they'll open up a motorcycle repair shop!"

So they bought the second house. Then COVID happened, and they needed the extra space. Then adjacent land with an off-grid cabin on a creek became available. "I just immediately bought that when the opportunity was made available."

Now she has what she calls "a compound" and employs what she calls her "country club" - a team of people including a beekeeper, landscape architect, forester, and others who help her care for the land.

The Intersection of Technology and Nature

What's fascinating about Allison's story is how she's created a dual life - advising AI companies globally while becoming deeply connected to nature and rewilding her land. She's even living out her own 2016 TEDx talk about citizen data science.

"I was part of a citizen science experiment for NASA last year during the total eclipse because we were in totality in Buffalo, and I actually collected data on the beehives," she shares.

For Allison, technology and nature aren't opposing forces but complementary ones. "The intersection to me is the empowering sense that we can actually be part of the greater whole by being advocates and being engaged where we are and collect data and help measure how things are going."

Breaking Free from the "Work Harder" Trap

Allison's corporate frustration came from a common trap many women fall into. "I believed that if we really work hard and we really deliver and we just keep working harder, that we will be rewarded. And I kept working harder and I kept doing more. And I was rewarded. But I wasn't rewarded to the degree that I was working harder."

The time in the woods gave her space to audit her life. "What was I doing? Why did I think I had to be on all of those committees? Why did I think I needed to do all this extra work? I just see that I way overdid it."

She credits reading Robert Greene's work on strategy and power with helping her become more realistic about how the world operates. "There's a lot of liberation when you accept that people are out for themselves. But once you accept that, then it changes how you play in the world."

[Listen to the full conversation to hear how Allison learned to be more strategic, set better boundaries, and play "harder ball" in her business dealings.]

The Healing Power of Natural Rhythms

"I am more comfortable living in the pace of nature," Allison reflects. "Kind of slow and then like abrupt change and then act and then slow."

Her mother had recently died when she started looking for land, and she realizes now it was partly about processing grief. "I was feeling disconnected from just the very most elemental aspects of our existence and being connected to the earth."

Women especially, she notes, need this kind of space. "We always put ourselves last. And so I couldn't possibly have healed myself when I was last in line for my own attention."

Creating Optionality in Uncertain Times

Allison's approach to the current chaotic times isn't to seek normalcy but to embrace change. "There is no normalcy. The less that you've got to worry about having big fixed costs and the more you can be nimble, it gives you freedom to move in different ways."

Her strategy has been to maintain what she calls "minimum viable contentment" - figuring out what you actually need to sustain a healthful life without being saddled with massive expenses.

"I think that being more free not to have a lot of fixed expenses is probably one of the biggest advantages anybody could have. There's not going to be a time where life will be more normal. I don't see that coming."

The Return to Tribe and Place

Interestingly, all three of Allison's adult children have moved back to the area, along with their partners. She sees this as part of a larger trend: "I think people want to be around family, extended family, friends. You can't find certainty in a job in the external world with all of the change happening in the economy and with technology. But you can tighten your circle of trust."

The Rebellious Foundation

Looking back, Allison realizes she'd been unconsciously preparing for this unconventional path all along. "While my life looked very conventional on the outside, I've always had a very strong instinct that I do not want to be owned. I do not want to be controlled. I do not want my destiny in other people's hands."

This rebellious nature led her to structure her life for optionality - keeping expenses low, avoiding over-commitment, staying flexible. "I must have instinctively set myself up to be able to take a lot of risk, but I didn't have it all mapped out."

Allison's story demonstrates the power of following seemingly impractical intuitive guidance and trusting the process of unfolding. Her vision of a field of flowers led not to becoming a farmer, but to creating a life where she could operate from a place of authentic freedom - both in nature and in business. Sometimes what we think we want isn't what we actually need, but if we follow the deeper yearning, we often find something even better.

Listen to the full conversation to hear more about Allison's rewilding projects, her insights on navigating uncertain times, and her practical advice for creating more optionality in your own life.

Find Allison at Allisonsagraves.com, on LinkedIn, or Instagram under @appliedserendipity