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The Overland Collective: XOverland and Overland Journal Join Forces · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: host Ashley Jordano and today's episode, I'm sitting down with
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Scott Brady and X Overland's claim Michelle Croft discuss the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: creation of the Overline Collective and the company's acquisition of
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Overland Journal and Expedition Portal. Scott, Clay and Rochelle define
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the Overland Collective, which brings together ex Overland, Overland Journal,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Expedition Portal and the ex Overland Ranch. This episode then
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: dives into the lead up and backstory behind the acquisition.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: What Overland Journal, Expedition Portal and Ex Overland viewers and
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: readers should expect moving forward and honest conversations about editorial
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: independence and authenticity. I hope you enjoy. Thanks for tuning
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: in massive Overland community news the Overland Collective. This is
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: huge stuff. I'm very excited about this podcast episode. My
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: two main clients also I sometimes call them my boss three,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: all in the same room, ready.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: To chat, no pressure.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: The recent news. Yeah please, we have Scot Brady, Rachelle
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Croft and Claycroft here to talk about the massive news
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: about the Overland Collective that just the news just dropped.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: So I'm really excited to chat with you guys all
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: about it, about the history behind it. How long have
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: you been chatting about this, what's in the works, what
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: should people expect? I know there's been some questions in
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the community. So yeah, thank you so much for chatting
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: with me about it today.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: You bet, Yeah, thanks as Yeah, we appreciate you, Ashley,
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: and I love the fact that this podcast is being
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: recorded in Montana at the X Overland Hangar and that
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: you are in Georgia on your way further east through
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: Central Asia.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: So it seems a fitting reminder to everyone that we
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: do the thing, We really get out there and do it.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I was looking at some statistics recently about
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the all the people involved in the overlying Collective, and
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: we'll talk about the different sort of branches of the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: overline Collective soon. But there's a lot of kilometers there,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: a lot of miles covered, a lot of countries, driven
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: some firsts. So yeah, that's that's a very impressive resume.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Maybe Scott, you can touch on that a little bit. Well.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: I mean that that is kind of a fun topic
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: to discuss because that's also how Clay and I got
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: to spend time together. So you know, we our first
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: really ambitious project after having done the Winter Road to
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: tuck Tyuk Tuck and then we had done Central America,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: and then we moved to doing the Silk Road, which
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: is kind of where Ashley is moving along right now.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: After that, I had this opportunity to do Expedition seven.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: And at the time, it had been a long time
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: since something like that had been done. I mean, land
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Rover and other companies used to do big expeditions like
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: that and they kind of stopped. And we were super
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: lucky that Greg and I were able to figure out
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: a plan that worked for us to be able to
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: go around the world. And one of the things we
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: wanted to do was to document this experience of being
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: the first in history to take the same fool drive
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: to all seven continents. And Clay and Rachelle had done
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: some work with us. They had been advertising their new series.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: We had been working together to help grow what I
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: felt was a really important new arm of overlanding in
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: North America, which was premium video content, and it was
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: something that we weren't that good at. So when you
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: can identify someone in your industry that you respect and
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: that you have shared values with, and they're way better
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: at something than you are. You're better off helping them
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: be successful as opposed to trying to compete against them
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: for the same thing. And we wouldn't have been able
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: to compete because you guys were better at it by
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: a wide margin than we were. So I thought, let's
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: find a way to work together. And one of the
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  Speaker 2: best ways to do that is to do big things
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: together for sure. So when Greg said, hey, I really
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: want to invest in documenting this properly, there were a
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: couple people that came to mind, Bruce Dorn, sin Away,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Xavier and of course Clay Croft. So and it was
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: difficult for everybody to be on every continent, so we
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: had the opportunity to have Clay with us for we
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: started off in Russia together.
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  Speaker 4: Yep, you gave me a I think you gave me
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: a twenty four hour notice.
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: I'm sorry, I forgot that.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I got it. I had just met you at
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: the uh the Overland Rally, and then we'd gone to
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: the Seama Auto Show and then I kind of met
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: you again right there and talked a little bit, and
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: then I remember I was at home. It was at
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: the other house. You don't live there anymore. And I
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: was in the garage and Scott called me and I
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: was like, okay, well, I have an opportunity to go
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: to Russia. Oh that's pretty big game on here we go.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: But I already had like a film shoot scheduled with
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: x X overland and uh so I had to call
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: all my guys be like, guys, can I move the
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: entire trip because I have this opportunity And all the
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: guys were like, yeah, we can figure it out.
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: We'll move the trip.
• 5:45
  Speaker 6: So we had toddlers at home and babies and wow.
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: And then I lost my passport. Yeah, well yeah, and
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: then so I was like you know, and we're just
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: pretty broke at the time too, and I was like, oh,
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: where's my passport? And uh ended up having to overnight
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: it to get another one made. And then because then
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: I had to we had to ship our passports in
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: to get visas at the consulate in d C. So
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: I had to do all this stuff to hit the timelines.
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: So yeah, that was my first Yeah, get into E
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: seven work with Scott.
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: Let's go.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean think about the friendships that came out
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: of that. Kurt Williams, Yeah, Greg Miller, I mean, the
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: people that we traveled with in Russia together, and also
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: for you to get this really rare glimpse into something
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: that is big and moving quickly is.
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: The biggest thing out there.
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember the number of times you and I
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: were worried about dying on the Russian roads.
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah, there was a lot of close calls in Russia.
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: Actually, if you make it to Russia there, what's that?
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Sorry, Oh yes, I will.
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: Don't get.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: I won't forget. I was going to say, like that extended,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: those extended periods of seat time together. Uh, can often
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: start at the beginning of big things. So yeah, this
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: is a great example of that. And how did that
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: move forward into today? I guess so way back when
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: in Russia trying not to die together on the road.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: How does that then, you know, have the stepping stones
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: to this collective that has been formed recently.
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: I think at that time it was just the foundation
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: of friendship. You know, it was too early to know.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: I mean, we did actual overland, didn't know if it
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: was going to be alive in five months, you know,
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: it was we were going to do this project of
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: shooting these first few episodes and then see how it went.
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: So this this was just we didn't have big visions
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: and dreams at that time. The big vision in the
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: dream was to do the next episode and make sure
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: that we hit the timelines that we had, and so
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: we were very short sighted at the time because that
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: was enough. So the trip like that just built friendships
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: that later grew into more opportunities and chances to work
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  Speaker 4: together and grow that friendship and then eventually turned into
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: business conversations.
• 8:22
  Speaker 6: Mm hmm. And I remember, like even Scott, we were
• 8:26
  Speaker 6: trying to remember the year that you came to the
• 8:28
  Speaker 6: house for Christmas one year or just after Christmas, you
• 8:31
  Speaker 6: remember that for New Years And the boys were like,
• 8:33
  Speaker 6: oh my god. I mean little Steph was like reading
• 8:35
  Speaker 6: books to them.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: That's still they were so tiny. Yeah, and yeah, we
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: just got to spend quality time together. And then we
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: did South America together, we did Greenland together.
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: Yep.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: We were doing these really big trips together that gave
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: us a lot of time in the same car. And
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: that's when you really get to know somebody. I mean,
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: you know that Ashley from your trips. I mean, when
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: you spend a lot of time with someone on an expedition,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: you get to see the full spectrum of their character.
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: Yeah, oh, you.
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: Get to see him, get to see him stinky, get
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: to see him stressed, hungry, lack of sleep, lack of sleep, frustrated,
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: How they work, how they operate. And I guess with
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: all the guys that are like at least part of
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: the E seven team and your team and all that stuff,
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: you're like, oh, these guys are bomber, not much phases,
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: these guys. I want to be like these guys, mm hmm.
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  Speaker 6: And I think the conversations, from what I recall was
• 9:38
  Speaker 6: after the Greenland expedition in particular, when you guys really
• 9:42
  Speaker 6: started the conversations moved more to a business collaboration at
• 9:46
  Speaker 6: some point.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I remember we were going north still, That's how
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: I recall it. We were in the Emma, the lead
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: truck seven No Emma was the lead high LuxS truck
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: from Arctic Trucks, And we're just cruising in the front,
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: just going along, talking about what it could look like.
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: And you know what else do you remember from that conversation.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: I think the thing that I remember the most was
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: we had always talked about business together, like how to
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: help each other, how to be supportive, like maybe even
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: bouncing strategy and ideas off each other, where you'd be like, hey,
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: what do you think about like really going all in
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: on YouTube or should we really be focusing on streaming,
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: And we would just have these great conversations and then
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: at some point you realize, like, our two businesses are
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: very compatible. Yeah, And then I remember myself thinking, like,
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: maintaining this together even if we never merge or we
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: never worked together, you know in an official capacity, us
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: both making sure that we're successful is really important to
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: the future of the industry. It's important to maintaining the
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: values of overlanding. And you and I finishing each other's sentences,
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: worried about the fact that overlanding was going to become diluted,
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: that it wasn't going to be vehicle based travel. It
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: was just going to be, you know, for four wheeling
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: with a roof tent, and that is not what overlanding is.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Four wheel four wheeling is sport. It's super fun. I
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: love doing it, but it's it's recreational sport, whereas overlanding
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: is travel and you and I are travelers. The three
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: of us are travelers. So I remember us being so
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: focused on like, how do we maintain those values of
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: the industry.
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and now you know it's gone through a lot
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: of iterations over the years, and we've been able to
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: keep our kind of our bearing on that while still
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: respecting and loving all the other things. To your point,
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: they're like the sport of well, the sport of four
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: wheel drive or you know, wheeling. Yep, very cool. And
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: I guess if you want to know the let's say
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: one different, how would you separate that your head? I
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: guess if you're putting a part on, excuse me, if
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: you're putting a part on or doing a modification to
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: your vehicle so that it can go down a harder
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: trail or do a harder thing, that's in the typical
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: with that mindset. That's that's the sports side. If you're
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: putting something on your vehicle so that you can have
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: a better travel experience to go further or go somewhere
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: and do this thing, that's more of the overland mindset
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: for a modification, and they can that same modification can
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: also help you on a hard trail, but the emphasis
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: or the focus behind putting something on or modifying something
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: it was different.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're only doing it because the conditions demand it
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: like you had forty four inch tires on the trucks
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: in Greenland, because otherwise you'd never make it across, right,
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: you'd never make it across the And the goal was
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: to drive across Greenland, yep.
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: And you wouldn't put that on to go across Africa.
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: That's right, you know.
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: So it's it's condition dependent, Yeah, for sure.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm curious at what point it morphed from these
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: ideas and speaking and conversations to being like, let's do
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: this thing. Let's start like first steps.
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: It was actually a few years ago and we kind
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: of got some timelines put together and we're like, okay,
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: by this, you know, by this year, we want to
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: do this. By this year we should probably Scott, you
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: were saying, I'd like to see the business do this
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: or that, and uh, I think COVID was right at
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: the end of that or right at the beginning of that.
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: So that that kicked it a whole year, punted some stuff,
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: changed things, as it did with everybody's business, and then
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: we kind of just oh, I came back to you
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: and said I I gotta go buy this ranch. I
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: remember that first, you know.
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: That kicked the can down the road a little bit.
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: It did.
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I really loved the idea, but you know, that
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: opportunity came up. You know, that was supposed to be
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: a five year plan that turned into a nine month acquisition,
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: and so I was really under the gun. That was
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: a big one. But we knew we just had to
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: do it because of the property, so that that took priority.
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: And then so yeah, and then we came back around
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: here we are that was we bought that two years ago,
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: almost two years ago. Now it was two years ago.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: It's well that we were signing stuff and putting money
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: down and all that.
• 14:24
  Speaker 6: Not two years ago.
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: No, Nope, Wow, August the fog of business war August.
• 14:33
  Speaker 6: Still be two years ago. But yeah, throughout that whole process,
• 14:38
  Speaker 6: I think Scott, I've been really just grateful to you
• 14:42
  Speaker 6: and your patients because and for all parties involved, because
• 14:45
  Speaker 6: it literally was this convert ongoing conversation of like, hey,
• 14:50
  Speaker 6: do we still want to talk about this? Is everybody
• 14:52
  Speaker 6: kind of interested in this? Yeah, we're interested, it's just
• 14:54
  Speaker 6: not the right time. Awesome, we'll just keep on going.
• 14:57
  Speaker 6: And we just both kept going. And so I would say,
• 15:01
  Speaker 6: for me personally and for you, this past what month,
• 15:06
  Speaker 6: is it. So last year, after we kind of got
• 15:09
  Speaker 6: through the ranch and got it launched and we're figuring
• 15:12
  Speaker 6: out how to run that business, the little thought was like, Okay,
• 15:16
  Speaker 6: this might be the time to have those conversations and
• 15:19
  Speaker 6: to actually take some action on it now, And so
• 15:22
  Speaker 6: that's when it really started kicking off. I would say
• 15:25
  Speaker 6: last probably fall, summer fall.
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I've made the trip to the ranch, that's right.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: So you and I spent two days together on the
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: ranch really talking about how it would work. And I
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: think the reason why we were both so comfortable with
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: taking the time with it is because we knew it
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: was the best possible outcome. You know, We've had many
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: people through the years want to purchase Overland International, but
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: either they couldn't take care of my team properly, or
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: they wouldn't take care of the values of the organization properly.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: Because I've put twenty plus years of my life into
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: maintaining a business with editorial integrity. We've never done a
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: single page of advertorial, so we have taken all of
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: that very serious. And it's really hard to find someone
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: that thinks that that's important too, and you guys do.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: So I felt like our best opportunity was the three
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: of us for sure and the rest of the team.
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: So mm hmm.
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: So for you, Scott, was this no sorry, go ahead?
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Go ahead?
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Ash Oh. I was just going to ask Scott if
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: this was an opportunity to kind of free up some
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: more time do other things. Is that one of the
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: things that motivated you to want to do this or
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: was it something that you wanted to sort of change
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: your daily routines or tasks or have a different role
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: with Overland Journal and Expedition Portal.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: That's a wonderful question, and in many ways I don't
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: know yet. My goal right now is to focus on
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: us winning together. That's my most immediate goal. But when
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: I think about the reason why I wanted to do
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: that is I knew that I could never do it
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: as well just Overland International as we could together. So
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: there are talents. I mean that the team at Xoverland
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: is much larger, and they have an incredible marketing team
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: with Mary Hannah. They have an incredible production team with Andy.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: Operationally with Ryan, they have world class executives in areas
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: that we did not, So that was one of the
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: things that was interesting is X Overland didn't make a magazine,
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: we didn't focus on video. But then we had like
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: a great business development guy in Brian, and we had,
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: you know, an incredible editor in Tina, and I'm unique
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: in some ways, so we all fit together like like that,
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: even on the team side, and that's also very rare
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: to find. So for me, I realized that if we
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: were going to maintain the values in the industry that
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: we all care about, we needed to be as big
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: and influential as possible to maintain those values in the industry.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Our industry is rapidly growing and it's rapidly changing. And
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: the only way that you maintain the values that we
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: care about, which is which is family friendly content, genuine
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: travel around the world, inspirational content where people don't feel
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: like that they need to spend a bunch of money.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: They can go around the world in a fifteen hundred
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: dollars car. And we talk about that all the time.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: So I knew the only way, and you and I've
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: talked about that, the only way that we can protect
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: the industry from to be candid grifters of people who
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: just want to come in and make a couple bucks
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: is to be bigger and better and stronger together.
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: Because those people that do come in that want to
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: just make a buck are bigger and stronger than us,
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: you know. And it happens all the time. You see
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: it in all the industries. And thankfully we've had our
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: pulse on a lot of other industries over the years
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: because we're enthusiasts about other stuff and you just see
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: it happened. So the writing was on the wall that
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: if we don't do something like this, that it could
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: be at risk, the integrity of the industry could be
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: at risk. Yeah, that was a major driver for me too.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: The other thing was we were what is it not
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: competition front petition, it's co petition, co op petition, you.
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: Know, cooperative competition.
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's got touched on this a little earlier. There
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: are things that came up with our sponsorships over the
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: years of people wanting to do this or that, and
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: we would say no to it because like, you know,
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: you should call X, you should call Expedition Portal for that,
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: or you should call Overland Journal. That's the great fit
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: for that. We don't do those things, and we just
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: like you could have done video at some time, we
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: could have attempted to do journalism or something. But it
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: was never a good idea because for one, again, we
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: didn't want to step on each other's toes. We wanted
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: to see each other's business succeed because they were expertise
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: in the field. And so eventually what happens, what happened
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: to us is you just see some things cap out.
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: You can't offer everything, and you can't merge, and then
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: the two visionaries here sitting there like, oh, but if
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: we then we could, we could offer these things and
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: this would be even cooler, you know, either on the
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: business side or the storytelling side, because it takes you know,
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: big visions and big ideas take horsepower, and we're kind
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: of capping out the horsepower to do things because we're
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: not together and now.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: And I would even like to speak to the fact
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: that it also requires leadership and we sure you know
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: my business. I've always been a traveler. I've always been
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: I want to go see the world and I want
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: to share it with others. And I think that we
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: were we were we had insufficient leadership within the organization
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: and the fact that Rachelle that we have you in
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: leadership as the CEO that was actually one of the
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: pieces that made me feel at peace was that we
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: have an incredible leader that is also experienced and understands
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: the industry and understands what it means to make great
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: content and invest in that, but also hold the values
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: of the industry very close to the chest. So if
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: you think about it, you have one of the greatest
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: video production teams in the world. You have someone who's
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: traveled around the world and made a great publication, and
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: now we have a leader that is capable of taking
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: us to that next level.
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: That is why it all feels right.
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and back to the timeline, I agree, Scott. And
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: back to the timeline. We couldn't have done this a
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: year ago because we were organized differently. I was CEO
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: at the time, but I felt like after the ranch
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: and and we knew that the the OJ deal was
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: on the on the table in the future. But I
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: was like, Okay, I think I I've got this to
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: where I need to be. I don't need a CEO
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: title anymore. I actually want the creative title. You know,
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: And and who's actually really running all this stuff behind
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: the show, Rachelle. So Shelley needs to be in the
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: official position of the CEO because she was clearly better
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: at it than I was, and so we restructured. We
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: made that announcement to our team a year and a
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: half ago now, and then you know, you know, those
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: adjustments take time to settle out, and I think, yeah,
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: so it's been I don't know, the foot's been on
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: the pedal for a while, changing things, and yeah, but
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: it was important that Shelley came to be CEO.
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: I agree.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what are their roles and responsibilities look like now
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: for each of you?
• 23:08
  Speaker 6: Yeah, great question. We are so I am leading this
• 23:14
  Speaker 6: big ship, which I'm very excited about as CEO right now.
• 23:19
  Speaker 6: A lot of what I do is a lot of
• 23:21
  Speaker 6: problem solving, making sure the team has cared for, hiring
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: new team members, holding all of the things that aren't
• 23:29
  Speaker 6: so glamorous like budgets and accounting and just things that
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: keep the wheels turning, and then making future decisions as
• 23:36
  Speaker 6: well as we continue on. Kalay is the chief creative Officer,
• 23:42
  Speaker 6: and that was a switch ex Overland made just over
• 23:45
  Speaker 6: a year ago, and so it allowed him to step
• 23:49
  Speaker 6: more into that creative role. It's really hard to be
• 23:52
  Speaker 6: pulled in so many directions mentally at any given time
• 23:58
  Speaker 6: and he handles it so well. I think because you're
• 24:00
  Speaker 6: add you handle it really well because you can just
• 24:03
  Speaker 6: bounce back and forth. But it was starting to take
• 24:06
  Speaker 6: its toll for sure to come in and make an
• 24:09
  Speaker 6: executive decision and then be like, how do I tell
• 24:11
  Speaker 6: the story really well and get into the edit room.
• 24:14
  Speaker 6: And so we've been trying to pull him more and
• 24:16
  Speaker 6: more into that creative mindset as much as we can.
• 24:20
  Speaker 6: All the while, Clay and I still make almost every
• 24:23
  Speaker 6: decision together in some capacity. We're bouncing ideas off each other.
• 24:26
  Speaker 6: He's very visionary. He is so gifted at casting vision,
• 24:31
  Speaker 6: and Scott is as well that I necessarily don't have
• 24:35
  Speaker 6: that gift for it. I'll have it in a few
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: select moments and in a different way. But Clay can
• 24:39
  Speaker 6: really and Scott they can see really far down the road.
• 24:43
  Speaker 6: And then Scott right now is retaining the executive publishing
• 24:46
  Speaker 6: title for Overland Journal and Portal. We've told him when
• 24:50
  Speaker 6: he came on, I said, just keep running things as
• 24:53
  Speaker 6: you are. We don't need to rock the boat. Just
• 24:55
  Speaker 6: keep doing what you're doing. All the while his title
• 24:59
  Speaker 6: is still floating. Actually kind of a joke. Right now,
• 25:01
  Speaker 6: we're chatting through it, but he is helping me out
• 25:03
  Speaker 6: a lot, even on the business side of things, of
• 25:07
  Speaker 6: just educating me on how their business runs and who
• 25:10
  Speaker 6: all of the players are and the team members and
• 25:13
  Speaker 6: how they've worked. And then that combining, we're able to
• 25:17
  Speaker 6: kind of see, Okay, well, how can we tweet this
• 25:19
  Speaker 6: and even make it better? Where can we go from here?
• 25:22
  Speaker 6: And it's been so nice to have now the three
• 25:24
  Speaker 6: of us instead of just feeling like Clay and I
• 25:25
  Speaker 6: are shouldering everything, Scott's not shouldering everything by himself, and
• 25:29
  Speaker 6: we just it's taken a lot of pressure off and
• 25:32
  Speaker 6: it's been really fun.
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you feel like you've got a quorum, a team.
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think Ashy are together.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: Ashley. What I was most grateful for is Clay and
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: Rochelle's commitment to editorial integrity. That was the one There
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: was a couple of things that were hardlines in the sand,
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: and that was one of them. And I know, Ashley,
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: that's an important value to you as well, and I
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: know it is for Tina and I. Our audience needs that,
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: they need to have that single source of truth. So
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: the fact that Clay and Rachelle were so committed to
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Overland Journal always holding that line. That was a huge
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: stress relief for me. It was very encouraging to see
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: them commit to that so early. So we'll be able
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: to end same with the podcast, where we're going to
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: be able to say when something works and when it doesn't.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: We don't have to we don't have to adjust our
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: our approach with with our editorial.
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: So I think for the audience out there, if we
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: could define what what is advertorial what is editorial? People
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: may not know because even I was a little fuzzy
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: on it at first.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: Well, anytime that there's a conflict of interest. So every
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: magazine has advertising, but they're kept entirely separate. I mean, Ashley,
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: you can speak to the fact that you've never been
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: asked to compromise your edit I mean, I don't want
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: to put words in your mouth. Have you ever been
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: asked to compromise your editorial integrity for Overland Journal?
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: No, And actually it's something that I keep in mind
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: all the time, and I'm very strategic about keeping certain
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: things separate. And now they X Oberlin, Overland Journals, in
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Portal and the Rant, all of that is under one umbrella.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: I still am very committed to keeping my own integrity
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: intact about what I'm writing about or what that's influenced by.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I think it can be easy in the
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Overlin industry to kind of have that compromise, like have
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: that happen very easily. Certain things could be sponsored or.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if the editor, if the person that's writing the
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: content is being compensated for their opinion, it's advertorial.
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: If you know.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: Obviously businesses need revenue to run, but that you maintain
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: that with church and state, like advertising and business development
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: runs and editorial runs separate. But once an editor has
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: been compensated or the businesses has been compensated for someone's opinion,
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: like if they say this is the best tire ever
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: and you got a ten thousand dollars check, that is
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: very much advertorial. And that is most of the industry.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: So we're one of the few remaining publications in the
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: world that doesn't. It's our policy, So.
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's good.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: I was also very cognizant about sort of shifting certain
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: stories to other editors when I felt like that was
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: the appropriate thing to do. Smart smart, So yeah, one
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: of those. Yeah, I think that that was really important,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: and so I think it's great to define editorial and
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: advertorial advertorial and the difference between the two, and maybe
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: listeners have questions about I saw this in the comments
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: a little bit today on Expedition Portal about what happens
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: when ex Overland comes to form the Overland collective with
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Overland Journal and Expedition Portal and you have a relationship
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: with certain companies. Does that impact the integrity of editorial?
• 29:41
  Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, great question. And we saw this one coming
• 29:45
  Speaker 6: and we've we've actually talked about this a lot because
• 29:48
  Speaker 6: when we were talking about how we join forces, how
• 29:51
  Speaker 6: would how do we make editorial that priority? And it
• 29:54
  Speaker 6: stays separate. So the reason we've formed kind of the
• 29:59
  Speaker 6: collect dive with the brands underneath, but so that each
• 30:02
  Speaker 6: brand can continue operating in its own vertical so X
• 30:05
  Speaker 6: Overland we're going to continue to do what we do.
• 30:08
  Speaker 6: We have sponsors, they are fantastic partners, We've had them
• 30:12
  Speaker 6: for years and as a as ex Overland, we have
• 30:16
  Speaker 6: always worked really hard to only work with those companies
• 30:19
  Speaker 6: that we believe are good because we are using the
• 30:22
  Speaker 6: gear out in the field and we will always retain that.
• 30:26
  Speaker 6: And then you have Overland Journal, you have Exhibition Portal,
• 30:30
  Speaker 6: X Overland will not influence that with a sponsored post
• 30:34
  Speaker 6: or anything. There are ways maybe that one of our
• 30:38
  Speaker 6: sponsors wants to put an ad in a journal or
• 30:40
  Speaker 6: a portal, which is absolutely fine, but you will not
• 30:45
  Speaker 6: see us have influence in a story or a gear
• 30:49
  Speaker 6: review in any way. That is a very hard line
• 30:52
  Speaker 6: that we will continue to hold.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but to answer your question, Ashley, the cool thing is,
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: you know, adventure telling adventure story is wide open, so
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: we get to tell more X Overland stories. Like it's
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: not going to say, well, the tires at X Overland
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: used on their trip across you know, Siberia were the best,
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: but we can certainly show beautiful photographs, tell the story
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: of their trip, their challenges, what they overcame, what they learned,
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: but it's not going to include product placement in the editorial.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: So there's I think I'm really excited about telling more
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: beautiful and bigger adventure stories with X Overland because there
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: is no conflict of interest. We're just talking about their trip, yep.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: So and we've always done that. We've I mean X
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: Overland has been on the cover of Orland Journal many
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: times because they're great stories, they're awesome adventures.
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and there's even articles of past trips I think, Ashley,
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: that you've written or other folks that have been on
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: the trips, you know. But it's it comes down to
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: the emphasis of the travel, like this is what we
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: went and did. This is cool and you should read
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: about it in the journal, you know, because it's up
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: to this Lee and I want to see more and
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: more of that in the future, just more of more
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: angles of the story that that can be told, because
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: you only get so much in a in a video series,
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: you can only say so much, show so much. There's
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: so many other things that happen in the background or
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: people have other experiences than than what the what I
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: can put out as a as a series host. I
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: guess uh so it's a great way to expand the
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: knowledge what happens on one of our trips. Mm hmmm.
• 32:33
  Speaker 6: Does that answer your question?
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Very cool? Oh yeah, yeah, that was great, Yeah, thank you.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: I was going to also ask about, like what should
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: people expect to see in terms of any changes or
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: what is going to be brought forward in each arena,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: So are there going to be events or what will
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: happen with the Overland Journal podcast? What will happen with Xoverland,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: What will happen with What should people expect to see
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: in terms of changes and big dreams that you guys
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: have that for the future, for all of these undertaking.
• 33:12
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think I would love to answer a question
• 33:15
  Speaker 6: first on what is the Overland collective? Yes, I saw
• 33:21
  Speaker 6: that question pop up a few times, and I would
• 33:23
  Speaker 6: love I think we can all kind of take a
• 33:25
  Speaker 6: stab at that. But you've heard us say a few times.
• 33:27
  Speaker 6: It's really the collaboration of these two amazing companies coming
• 33:32
  Speaker 6: together and working together to do bigger and better things.
• 33:35
  Speaker 6: And that's a very I know that's a very high
• 33:37
  Speaker 6: level answer, but at the high level, that's what we're doing.
• 33:40
  Speaker 6: We saw that our strengths were better together. Instead of
• 33:43
  Speaker 6: us moving forward individually and helping each other where we could,
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: it was time to come together and really be able
• 33:50
  Speaker 6: to be stronger. So, as I said, these brands, we've
• 33:55
  Speaker 6: brought them together under one umbrella. They will continue to
• 34:00
  Speaker 6: operate and we will have more people, more horsepower to
• 34:05
  Speaker 6: be able to do bigger things, tell bigger stories. And
• 34:08
  Speaker 6: I'll let Claient Scott chime in on more the visionary
• 34:11
  Speaker 6: things as well.
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: So that's the I would say that's the baseline of
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: what it does and the reason that we were forming
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: the Overlining collective. It's really important when two teams come
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: together that you form a new north star, because individual
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: companies can they need their north star who they are
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: and what they do. But if you're going to come
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: in and work together, you need something even past that
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: point to all be working towards. It keeps everything between
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: the rails and on track towards something bigger. And that
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: was the vision when Scott and I and Shelley and
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: we were all talking with like, Okay, this is really cool.
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: We do want all of our companies to continue to
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: run as as they are, but how can we when
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: we do combine, how can we put it towards something
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: even bigger, earn better in the future. Because if we
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: didn't do that, why would you do it? You know,
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: So as long as so when we're thinking through it,
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: this has to benefit the community of people that make
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: all this possible first, and then we need to see
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: how with other business ideas, how we can make new
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: visions work. You know, because at the end of the day,
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: it takes capital to be able to achieve anything in
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: this world. So how do we combine and make all
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: of this new machine function towards something greater. And we
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: have a lot of amazing ideas that are out in
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: front of us that we're all working towards. Way too
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: early to talk about right now, but just know that
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: our hearts in our minds are set on providing even
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: better value, more cool experiences, better production value, all these
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: things leveling up in every way that possible for ourselves,
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: for our business, and for the community itself. So that's
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: what I mean, that's what gets me up in the morning,
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: is that stuff. It's like, Okay, let's roll, let's work
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: towards that. M Yeah.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: Well, and we you know, we have both have so
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: many people that care about our businesses and care about
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: our content consume it on a daily basis. So when
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: you can take two businesses and now you only have
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: one operating facility, you only have one CEO, you get
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: to combine accounting. I mean, I'm just speaking practically. Yeah,
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: like we it gives us more resources to make better
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: content and more content. So people are going to see
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: more content on expedition Portal, They're going to see more
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: content and overland journal like we try to shoot videos,
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: but we're not very good at it. So like I
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: have some of world class producer that's he's in the
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: same room here, Andy. I mean, it's like he's going
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: to be able to share with me ways to make
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: better content. Clay's going to be able to say, hey, Scott,
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: you may want to do that. You may may want
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: to stup using your iPhone, and like, let's let's set
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: you up with this thing and you'll get better contents.
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: We can make better videos. So across the board we
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: can make we can do just a better job.
• 37:05
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and I think too. You guys, the Portal community
• 37:09
  Speaker 6: is incredible and you have is it twenty years on
• 37:12
  Speaker 6: the Portal Expedition.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Portal this year two thousand and five was the first year.
• 37:17
  Speaker 6: That's amazing. Yeah, you have all this massive community of
• 37:20
  Speaker 6: people that have had input into the portal on an
• 37:24
  Speaker 6: education side, on just a people coming together in community
• 37:27
  Speaker 6: and helping each other out and riffing and educating. And
• 37:31
  Speaker 6: that's something that we haven't been able to do on
• 37:33
  Speaker 6: our side because we've been so focused on inspiring people
• 37:36
  Speaker 6: from a video and a storytelling perspective, So really being
• 37:39
  Speaker 6: able to bring the community together and to do more
• 37:42
  Speaker 6: to build the community and involve people gets me really
• 37:46
  Speaker 6: excited as well.
• 37:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah, for sure.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: Will that be in the form of events or is
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: the overlying collective something that is like a paid subscription.
• 37:57
  Speaker 6: Or you know, honestly, we are still figuring a lot
• 38:01
  Speaker 6: of that out, what the model looks like and how
• 38:04
  Speaker 6: we want to operate events. Absolutely, yes, and the ranch
• 38:10
  Speaker 6: is such a big piece of that, and especially having
• 38:13
  Speaker 6: Scott come in. He has training curriculum that they've developed
• 38:16
  Speaker 6: years ago, overlanding training curriculum, and Clay is constantly thinking
• 38:23
  Speaker 6: in those terms as well. So I've kind of tasked
• 38:26
  Speaker 6: these two. They're actually gonna we're going out to the
• 38:29
  Speaker 6: ranch today and they're just going to walk around the
• 38:31
  Speaker 6: property and talk and brainstorm about what are people needing
• 38:36
  Speaker 6: and what are they wanting to learn, what's next because
• 38:40
  Speaker 6: we all know through COVID everything went to a screen
• 38:43
  Speaker 6: and you can learn. You can only learn so much
• 38:45
  Speaker 6: on a screen. But when you can get your hands
• 38:47
  Speaker 6: dirty and get frustrated and get the dirt under your
• 38:50
  Speaker 6: fingernails and put your hands on things and actually operate
• 38:52
  Speaker 6: a winch or get your truck unstuck, that is where
• 38:56
  Speaker 6: things really click and where the magic happens. I'm really
• 39:00
  Speaker 6: excited to expand more on our events and our training
• 39:03
  Speaker 6: offerings as well. And then of course we have our
• 39:05
  Speaker 6: big event this summer, the Big Thing. Yes, Clay came
• 39:09
  Speaker 6: up with that name. He was very excited.
• 39:10
  Speaker 4: I liked it. Let's call it, you know, like what
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: we kept saying, like, I don't know, it's just got
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: to be a big thing. We got you've got to
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: do the big Thing, and the like, well, let's just
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: call it the Big Thing.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: So that will be.
• 39:22
  Speaker 6: We will continue to do those as long as we
• 39:24
  Speaker 6: can once a year in the summer and bring the
• 39:27
  Speaker 6: community in and it's really to get back to that
• 39:29
  Speaker 6: hands on experienced training. Of course, you can always come,
• 39:33
  Speaker 6: you can buy gear. Also, it's a way for people
• 39:36
  Speaker 6: to talk with businesses that we work with and if
• 39:39
  Speaker 6: we can help bridge the gap between the consumer and
• 39:41
  Speaker 6: the business. You can directly ask questions. You can ask
• 39:46
  Speaker 6: what product you've been wanting or why they're doing it
• 39:48
  Speaker 6: a certain way. This is the opportunity to do that
• 39:51
  Speaker 6: and we're gonna have a lot of fun. We keep
• 39:53
  Speaker 6: calling it Adult Summer Camp, so.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: It totally is totally and the new logo is coming
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: out and it's awesome.
• 39:59
  Speaker 5: It is the thing logo. It's perfect.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's perfect.
• 40:03
  Speaker 6: But yeah, anything you guys want to add to that, I'll.
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: Speak to the ranch for a minute. So the ranch
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: was a big deal. It was a really big deal
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: for us to come put together. It was it still
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: is a very it's a big animal to run and
• 40:20
  Speaker 4: we've we've kind of been on the crawl walk run
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: scenario here because we had to figure out how to
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: get our feet under us, which we have in a
• 40:28
  Speaker 4: lot of ways. So the vision of the ranch is
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: that it is absolutely the hub for the community to
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: come and learn the very best things at a centralized place.
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: So it's awesome that x overland expos are out there
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: and other training companies are out there. Please keep going
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: to those things, but we want we want a centralized
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: location that there's a constant in the within the industry.
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: So as we spool up trainings and experiences out there,
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: you know that there's somewhere that you can consistently go
• 41:03
  Speaker 4: to get very consistent training and that it's a place
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: that is working on developing the best curriculum possible. Because
• 41:11
  Speaker 4: overlanding is extremely hands on, it's a tangible thing. You know,
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: we can like Shelley said, you can watch as many
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: things as you want on YouTube, but you don't know
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: how until you unstuck a car in the sand with
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: max tracks, or use a winch and hook things up
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: for the first time for real and put your hands
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: on it, or cook that meal. You can watch all
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: the youtubes you want, but when you go to do it,
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: it's going to be like starting at ground zero. So
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: you head knowledge, turning head knowledge into a whole lot
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: of experience. That's what the ranch is about. In fact,
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: the slogan of the ranch is come inspired, leave equipped,
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: and that's it. We want you to leave from that
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: point wherever you leave from the gate, ready to go,
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: or at least mostly ready to go as far as
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: you can to go, do whatever it is that you
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: want to go do.
• 42:05
  Speaker 6: So yes on.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: Events school, if you have any Yes, do you have
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: any ideas as to what's on the curriculum. I know
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: you touched on all of those things that you just mentioned,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: but any specifics you can dabul.
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: Sure man various driving techniques how everything. So the off
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: road course is designed to take anybody from two will
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: drive to four wheel drive four low and understand all
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: the advanced functions of the vehicle, Understanding approach, departure angles,
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: breakover angles, tipping angles, understanding recovery. You know what's dangerous,
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: what's safe, Where to you know ultimately where to break
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: the rules if.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: You have to.
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: Where the photography storytelling, because a lot of people want
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: to tell their stories just like we do the medical
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: there's so much medical emphasis that we need. So there's
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: we're working on the medical scenario side of things. How
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: to build a safe vehicle, how to build a proper vehicle,
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: understanding the compromises of that.
• 43:10
  Speaker 6: How to know how to calculate how much fuel you need,
• 43:13
  Speaker 6: water you.
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: Need, travel, logistic, border crossings, international, what else?
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: Scott, No, there, I mean, there's so much to go through.
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: And what's fun is you know, twenty years ago we
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: did work for the US government. We trained special forces
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: and we developed curriculum that helped them to be safer,
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: better drivers, and that evolved into the overland Certified program.
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: So we have all of that curriculum and then fifteen
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: years later, Simon and Schuster calls up and says, hey,
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: can you write a book on the overlanding one oh one?
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: So we basically over the last year got to develop
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: the one on one curriculum for the ranch. You know,
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: it took months of time to create what is the
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: one oh one guidebook? Now it's the it's the course
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: curriculum for an overlanding one on one course that we
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: can do at the ranch. And I was able to
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: just spend an enormous amount of time doing deep work,
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: thinking about best practices and the things that I've learned
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: going around the world, and then share that with the reader.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: And now we get to share it with the student.
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I'm so excited about that. I was reading
• 44:16
  Speaker 4: through your book and I'm like, oh, that's awesome. I
• 44:19
  Speaker 4: learned this and it's still on the one oh one level.
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: It's just that though I'm learning a ton of stuff
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: from that. And I've been doing this for fifteen years now,
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: it's like, oh, ooh, that's cool. I didn't know that.
• 44:29
  Speaker 4: You know, So you can at the ranch and the curriculum,
• 44:33
  Speaker 4: all of that is there, and then well we've already
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: been talking about the one you know, the two hundred
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: and three hundred level classes that would come from that eventually,
• 44:41
  Speaker 4: So you know that the folks that are building the
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: curriculum and the experiences at the x Overland Ranch are
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: the people that are behind writing the books about it,
• 44:49
  Speaker 4: you know, it is really exciting.
• 44:51
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and we're actually offering so Sunday after our big event,
• 44:55
  Speaker 6: which is July tenth through the thirteenth, Sunday, you can
• 44:59
  Speaker 6: pay it to an additional like advanced class. So we're
• 45:02
  Speaker 6: going to try and just start doing some of these models.
• 45:05
  Speaker 6: So there's an advance Vehicle Recovery class that you can take.
• 45:09
  Speaker 6: It's like an extra five hours. We have some training
• 45:12
  Speaker 6: on the defense side if you are interested in that.
• 45:15
  Speaker 6: And then we were just talking about even offering a
• 45:17
  Speaker 6: women's We have.
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: The table on it. It's a deal we did love
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: to do on it.
• 45:21
  Speaker 6: We're doing a women's class on Sunday that you can
• 45:24
  Speaker 6: also sign up for it. It might not be in
• 45:25
  Speaker 6: our link yet, but it will be there soon.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: So that's awesome.
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, exciting.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: What else are you guys excited about moving forward with
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: this grand thing? Like what is what? Are you just
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: so looking forward to going forward?
• 45:44
  Speaker 4: The ability to talk towards one thing and have a
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: vision together is what I'm really really excited about. And
• 45:52
  Speaker 4: then also offering though we can't get deep into it
• 45:56
  Speaker 4: right now, but building out that that offering for the
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: overland community that they go, Wow, this is awesome. You
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: know that it just hasn't been possible before centralized information,
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: centralized entertainment, centralized equipment and gear, just you know, a
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: very cool place to come and learn everything and have
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: it comprehensively packaged. Because all of us, as we've gotten
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: into this, we had to go over here do this,
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: and had to go over there and find that out.
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: And we're pulling it all together to make it the
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: best learning and user experience possible.
• 46:38
  Speaker 6: And at the end of the day, Exoorlens mission has
• 46:40
  Speaker 6: always been to hopefully inspire people to explore the world,
• 46:44
  Speaker 6: and not just explore the world, but boldly explore the world.
• 46:47
  Speaker 6: And we had that word boldly in there for that reason,
• 46:50
  Speaker 6: so that people feel at least a little more confident
• 46:54
  Speaker 6: by what they've learned through us or seen through us,
• 46:56
  Speaker 6: that they can take that next step. And that's really
• 46:58
  Speaker 6: why we're all here. It's not just for us, it's
• 47:01
  Speaker 6: we would have done something. We would have just done
• 47:03
  Speaker 6: this only for fun, not turn it into a business.
• 47:07
  Speaker 6: But it's so important and it's impacted us in many ways,
• 47:10
  Speaker 6: and I'm sure it has you ashes. We've had conversations
• 47:13
  Speaker 6: in the car, but there's something that happens and ignites
• 47:17
  Speaker 6: in you when you're out outside of your comfort zone
• 47:20
  Speaker 6: exploring a new culture. Even if it's two days from
• 47:24
  Speaker 6: your house, that's still going to impact you in some
• 47:27
  Speaker 6: way and you're going to learn. And that is really
• 47:30
  Speaker 6: why we're all here.
• 47:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, for me, this has been my life's work.
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: And to be able to see Overland Journal, the Expedition Portal, Forum,
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: Expedition Portal, the podcast, be stewarded by such an impressive team,
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: and to be able to do it with people that
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: I care about, doing things that I care about, I
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: just I'm incredibly proud of the team. I'm incredibly proud
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: of the Overland International team that includes you, Ashley and
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: Tina and Brian and Stephanie and you know on that
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: helped us for so many years, all of these incredible people, Paula,
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: that have made all of this possible. I wouldn't be
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: here without all of you, everybody in this room and
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: everybody that has worked on our team. And I'm so
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: excited to see what's going to happen next, Like I
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: just want to I want to see everybody win I
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: want to see the reader win. I want to see
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: the forum member win from this, and that's my goal
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: going forward.
• 48:25
  Speaker 5: For sure.
• 48:27
  Speaker 6: I'm really excited to have just more amazing people in
• 48:31
  Speaker 6: the room as we go forward. That's what excites me
• 48:36
  Speaker 6: is I love building teams. I love our team, and
• 48:40
  Speaker 6: I love interacting with our community, and that's what really
• 48:43
  Speaker 6: gets me excited about this moving forward too.
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're a community based organization. Like it's all about community.
• 48:52
  Speaker 4: Yep, can't wait.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: That's true, very true. Yeah, everything I think that Richard
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: and I do in some ways connected to another person
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: or another group of people, whether it's information or we
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: can travel the world because of you guys, So thanks
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: for that. I appreciate this, ya, because you have the
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: platforms to be able to share stories and embrace storytelling
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: in different ways. So yeah, and then it's my honor
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: to be able to interview other people that are traveling
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: or doing big things. So yeah, it's such a community
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: thing from on all levels, you know, I'm like, hey,
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: where do you get this really good whatever? Where do
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: you get tires in this country? Or what's the best
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: food in this town? Or like from those small like
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: on the micro level to the macro level. It's an
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: very incredible community. So yeah, exciting stuff, you know, and
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: I just want to say what would you guys?
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: I just wanted to say that like people that are listening.
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: You know, you can reach me at Scott dot a
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: dot Brady on Instagram. If you have questions, you can
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: reach out to Clay and Rachelle. The ex Overland d
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: ms are monitored actively. Please reach out and give us feedback,
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: tell us if we're missing the mark, if we can improve,
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: if there's things that you would like for us to do,
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: if you have concerns, if there's a way that we
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: can support you. I mean, we really want, we need
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: that feedback because we want this to be the best
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: that it can be for the community. So please reach out.
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: Please let me know how editorially we can support you.
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: Let's let x Overland know how they can also support
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: you with this larger organization. So please reach out.
• 50:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, and we'd love to know your possible solutions too.
• 50:56
  Speaker 4: Yes's the organization, you know, there's we have you know
• 51:01
  Speaker 4: the one three to one rule. You know, here's my problem.
• 51:05
  Speaker 4: These are three things I think might be a solution
• 51:08
  Speaker 4: for that. And this is the one i'd recommend you
• 51:11
  Speaker 4: know that is tremendous because we can get bombarded by
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: thousands of problems every day. We can't solve all of them.
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: So if you come with a few solutions in mind
• 51:22
  Speaker 4: with that critique, I'm all ears. But if there's not
• 51:26
  Speaker 4: a helpful solution packaged in there, there's a good chance
• 51:30
  Speaker 4: that we won't be able to get to it unless
• 51:33
  Speaker 4: we see a lot of consistency inside of it by
• 51:36
  Speaker 4: other people, then we'll have to address it. But yeah,
• 51:39
  Speaker 4: so anyway, that's it's a complex thing, but we want
• 51:42
  Speaker 4: to know what we call it forging, you know, be
• 51:46
  Speaker 4: folded over, hit us again, we could become stronger, put
• 51:50
  Speaker 4: us back in the fire, pull us back out, hit
• 51:52
  Speaker 4: us again, and we just get better and better and better.
• 51:56
  Speaker 5: Ready for it.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: And will you be over and explore any of the
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: events coming up where people can see you in person
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: to give some feedback.
• 52:07
  Speaker 6: Yes, So, Scott and I will be at over the nextpo.
• 52:10
  Speaker 6: Our entire XO team will also be there. We'll have
• 52:13
  Speaker 6: some of the trucks.
• 52:15
  Speaker 4: Clay I'll be traveling internationally at the time.
• 52:19
  Speaker 6: He will be uh huh, and I will actually be
• 52:21
  Speaker 6: flying directly from Expo to meet the team somewhere in
• 52:25
  Speaker 6: the world, but we will have some of our trucks there.
• 52:29
  Speaker 6: Some trucks are already on a boat as many of
• 52:31
  Speaker 6: you saw on our social feeds. Scott and his team
• 52:34
  Speaker 6: will also be there and we are ready to hang
• 52:38
  Speaker 6: out with everybody and see everybody catch up.
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: Please come say hi, let us know what we can
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: do to be better, and.
• 52:45
  Speaker 4: We'd love to hear your excitement too, you know, people
• 52:48
  Speaker 4: being excited yesterday when we launched it. It was so
• 52:51
  Speaker 4: cool to see the support and that that motivates us
• 52:54
  Speaker 4: big time.
• 52:54
  Speaker 6: It helps so much.
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, is there anything else that any of you would
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: like the listeners and viewers to know about the Overland
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: Collective before we.
• 53:04
  Speaker 4: Wrap, I would say thank you. I just want everyone
• 53:11
  Speaker 4: to know how important it is that you hear how
• 53:15
  Speaker 4: thankful we are. We exist because of people watching our
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: shows and reading our articles and listening to these podcasts,
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: and without you guys, we wouldn't have a job, we
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: wouldn't be able to go do this. So thank you,
• 53:30
  Speaker 4: thank you, thank you. We love you, and I just
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: cannot wait to see what happens next. I've been rejuvenated
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: by all kinds of ideas and visions of what the
• 53:40
  Speaker 4: cool thing could be next, and so thank you for that.
• 53:45
  Speaker 6: And thank you to all of our partners and businesses
• 53:48
  Speaker 6: that have supported each of our businesses all of these years.
• 53:52
  Speaker 6: We also wouldn't be here without that as well. So
• 53:55
  Speaker 6: the relationships we've been able to form with amazing people
• 53:59
  Speaker 6: in the industry and that these companies has been just
• 54:03
  Speaker 6: paramount to what we get to do.
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: So thank you, yeah, and Ashley, thank you for being
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: the amazing Ashley.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: Indeed, I try very hard every day.
• 54:15
  Speaker 5: I know, I know you do.
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: I mean, you're Canadian, so it just kind of happens
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: that way, but you're also extra You're extra Canadian. Yeah,
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: and thanks to you too as well for having faith
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: in me and our team and for making this all
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: possible and giving us the opportunity to work together for
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: something greater.
• 54:33
  Speaker 6: Absolutely, Yeah, thank you, Thank you for your trust. It's
• 54:39
  Speaker 6: an honor to be here and have it come full
• 54:41
  Speaker 6: circle from being inspired by Overland Journal before we started
• 54:44
  Speaker 6: all those years ago. It's very surreal.
• 54:47
  Speaker 5: Very much full circle.
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: It's very much, very cool.
• 54:49
  Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you, Ashley.
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, thank you so much. I was just
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: going to say that I will be very excited to
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: see where this goes in the future and all the
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: big dreams that are in the works right now will
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: come to fruition. And yeah, really excited to see where
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: the cell goes. So yeah, thank you for taking the
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: time to chat with me on the Overland Journal podcast today.
• 55:18
  Speaker 6: Absolutely thanks for being here. I'm glad the Wi fi
• 55:21
  Speaker 6: worked out. From wherever you are in the world, please
• 55:25
  Speaker 6: tell Richard hi back there listening, Hi Richard.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: Awesome. Yay, we'll do but yeah, thank you again, Thank you,
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: and we'll catch you next time.
• 55:37
  Speaker 5: All right here