Latest / The iAlign Podcast with Flint Mitchell / #11 - Escaping the 9 to 5 and Embracing Failure With Professional Snowmobiler Ross Robinson

Transcript

#11 - Escaping the 9 to 5 and Embracing Failure With Professional Snowmobiler Ross Robinson · The iAlign Podcast with Flint Mitchell

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: What's up y'all?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Seeking Authenticity.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Flint Mitchell, and I get absolutely psyched by having conversations with authentic people that I admire about the things they value.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Their stories and perspectives don't just make me smile, laugh, and think.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: They inspire me to wake up earlier, listen better, focus, and work harder, and help make me a better version of myself.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it's my hope that sharing these conversations through this podcast might do the same thing for you.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: In this episode, I talk with professional snowmobiler Ross Robinson.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Ross has been leading snowmobiling tours in the United States and South America for the last six years.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: While on this adventure, he started creating content via vlogs, podcasts, and social media and has accrued a large following.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it's no wonder that people enjoy following him too.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: His authentic character is absolutely contagious.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: His social media and profile will be in the podcast description.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: I met Ross through a good friend and knew we were gonna have a great conversation just from our first phone call.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: He's one of those guys who puts off a positive energy and is genuinely invested in you when you talk.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Those kinds of people are inspiring for me.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because not only do I know that they will be a good backboard for my ideas, because they'll be willing to listen to them, but also that they will have their own well-thought-out ideas to offer in return.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Here, we talk about putting yourself in the environment where you could succeed in what you want to do.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: About the struggle of choosing what to do next in life, but committing full throttle once you make the call.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: About dealing with failure, and about switching your frame of reference in order to connect with others.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: I had a blast listening to Ross about his journey and his perspective, and I know you will too.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Enjoy.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I put myself there, and uh if I was gonna if I was in Oregon, if I was 18 hours away, I I wouldn't have got the call probably.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: It took some time for me um to kind of get like the chip off my shoulder of like, because people just didn't believe I was gonna go do it.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the outcome of the other decision would be, um, and I never will know the outcome.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So as soon as I make the decision, I might as well go.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's not going to a company and saying, as an athlete and saying, hey, I need a free helmet.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's this is what I can do for you, this is how I can help you sell more product, this is how I can represent your brand.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then they say, That's great, here's a helmet.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you do in this day and age, if you love it enough, you can create something special from it.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for doing this with me, Ross.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate it.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: I always enjoy talking with people who are pursuing passions of theirs.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's pretty obvious from our brief chat the other day and a cruise through your social media that you are doing exactly that through snowmobiling and content creation.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and while I'd like to get to what it seems like you're really interested in right now, which is content creation, I'd really love to hear about your entry into snowmobiling.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's pretty fascinating.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Could you tell me a bit about when you realized it was possible to make even a bit of your career based off of snowmobiling and then what that experience was like?
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um so like starting pretty young, I have a and I still have the tendency of doing, I'm not good at doing what I don't want to do.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if I find something I like, I really like kind of get like hyper focused, super into it.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what happened with snowmobile.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: So and I always say like it would be interesting if my dad, who got me into snowmobile um when I was 14, that's what he, you know, we have a cabin in eastern Oregon, so he would take me out there and we would go, we'd go ride, and that's how I kind of got into it.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And um I always say it would be interesting if dad did something else.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like if he was a oh yeah, if he was an avid, if I live if we lived in California and he was an avid surfer, what would have happened?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, because I think I don't necessarily think it was snowblowing as much.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was just like that's what we did, and I just really got into it.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And um about the time I was 15 or 16, that's when I was like, I I had like been on YouTube and watching the the other pros and who was like revolutionizing the sport, and I entered the sport in a kind of an interesting time when um technology had actually surpassed a lot of the riders.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Previously, most of the riders were held back by the machines they were riding.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um the manufacturers weren't building these uh mountain sleds that were that were insane.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And um, about 2011, Polaris came out with a sled that kind of revolutionized it again and really let riders and you didn't have to be this big 200-pound just jacked guy to to handle a snowmobile anymore.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: They made it so you could finesse it around a little bit with good technique.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: So um about that time I was like, man, this is so cool.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was just so into it.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was watching all the videos, and there's a guy, um, his name's Chris Brant.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are a snowmobiler um at all, you've you know his name.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he's like he won one of X Games Um in 07 for freestyle, but he's like a true backcountry guy.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And he owns a company called Brandt's Backcountry Adventure, which is uh an elite guiding service in Colorado.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And um he's kind of the first guy to start a guiding service like it.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: So um he was doing that, he was creating these videos called Schooled, um, which was essentially like writing, like how to be a better writer.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And they were these really cool movies, and I watched those, those were like my textbook.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: I would watch those and try to figure out you know how to how to get better.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then dad was um dad was able to, you know, if it snowed during a school day and it was like a good snow day, we were going riding.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I was very fortunate in that way that he was like supportive and and loved to go ride with me as well.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: So dad was super supportive in that aspect of uh of like riding, and he could he owns an excavation company, so winters are slower, so he could get out and go ride with me.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And we would go ride, and um then in I graduated high school in in 13, um, in 2013, and my dream was to go ride with Chris um at Brand's backcountry adventure.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So dad helped me pay for a trip.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: That was it.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: He he just like put me on a plane and he's like, All right, you this is what this is like your birthday and your your gift, graduating gift, all in one, go there.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, man, it it would be cool to go work for this guy.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't have the idea.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I I knew I wanted to, I didn't think I didn't know how possible it would be.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: I sure knew I could go ride with him and very well just get absolutely like shown how to ride and not be able to hang.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And what ended up happening was I held my own, but you know, I'm a 16-year-old or a 17-year-old kid and he's a top pro.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I got to spend a lot of time with him, luckily, riding and uh actually kind of helping a little bit while I was even there.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was just able to go help other guys that were guests at the same time.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, so going forward, we we uh I had the trip, it was great, and I left him with a resume, and that was kind of where it ended.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: But then I had this genius idea looking back on it.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't really understand that what I was doing at the at the time.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I was like, I'm gonna go to school in Breckinridge, Colorado, which is an hour away from Chris's location.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I went to school in Breckenridge and I had like I was taking the most BS classes.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was taking like I was taking an entrepreneur class, like one like entry, I because I thought maybe I wanted to be like an EMT or a paramedic.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I was taking like a few basic classes there.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And while I was doing that, I was just bugging Chris, like, hey, if you need help, if you need help, if you need help.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And um I was and I he he's like, Yeah, sure, come on down.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I would just help him with basic stuff.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that was in about the that was about the beginning of October, and then come November or December, I was like, I moved in with him and I was living there, and I like didn't even finish my first term.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of where like the essentially the rest is history when it comes to guiding and sewmobiling there.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um I started guiding with him and riding every day, and like then I started just like Instagram and working on sponsorships.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was always interested in that, and um it kind of it flourished from there for about four years, and then um I took a break, I took a year off, and then I went back for two more years.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I I spent six seasons chasing um chasing him around and guiding with him, and we got to go, you know, I've I've I've guided down in South America um three times.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been to Chile in August, um which is a great experience.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been to Canada and I've been to Sweden and so like got to do some incredible things on that front.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um but that that's kind of where you know the rest is that's kind of where it all happened for me was like dad supported it and I went after it so aggressively and like did some things intuitively that I didn't realize I was doing at the time, like moving putting myself close to Chris um to the opportunity, um, without like and I wasn't pestering him, but I I often help.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I put myself there and uh I if I was gonna if I was in Oregon, if I was 18 hours away, I I wouldn't have got the call, probably.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Can you tell me a bit about guiding in other countries?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um Chile is like the the staple for sure.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah and because it's Canada's like very there's nothing crazy about Canada.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just like a bigger the mountains are different and it's it's great.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: I love Canada as well.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's one of my favorites, but Chile is rad because there's no industry down there.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: So we would load up a shipping container and we'd send it down, and um it would it would take a month to get down there with 10 snowmobiles or 12 snowmobiles, and we have a partner down there and he runs an operation called Sled Chili, which is really cool and it's flourished into its own thing, where he has a couple pro snowboarders who guide down there as at the same time we do in August.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Wild.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we fly down there and we have sleds and the things that we we think we're gonna break, we have because we can't get it, and it's like this like balancing act of like, okay, hope nothing, hope, hopefully we have parts.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Can we fix this?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: We need to like find a welder, and um and then we're we're learning a new zone simultaneously, and um but after you know I would spend a month there at a time, so you know, about a weekend I get in my groove, and um it's actually like this last time I was down there, I could have stayed longer for sure.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um quite an issue.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I can't remember, I had to get back for an event or something um in Minnesota and like uh tickets are already booked and sure, sure, sure.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's that's wild.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have any like specific stories from from Chile that that kind of stand out in your mind as crazy experiences?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think one of the craziest parts down there is um the weather and the just the the vegetation of the terrain.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's very coastal, and they have they have these trees down there um that are called arcaria, and they're like they only grow in that bandwidth of like in South America.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think some grow in Australia, maybe.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but they're like they're kind of like the pride and joy of like the vegetation down there, and they're really cool.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're huge, they're like prehistoric trees.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And but they have these like razor, like like sharp needles on them that will like they when they like poke you, they hurt.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we're like riding, we're ripping ripping around, riding through the woods.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember one year we were testing gear down there for a company.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and by the end of the week or like the end of our trip, we had our elbows were getting wet, and this is like brand new prototype gear.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Shouldn't be getting wet.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what is going on?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we get back, we send it back to them, they put it under like they look at it, and there's these micro abrasions from these trees cutting through the Gore-Tex.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: No way.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it was just like like that kind of stuff.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like you never see that.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's the it's some of the most brutal conditions down there.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I've ridden in rain all day long.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've ridden in two feet of fresh snow, and I've ridden in like 60 degree weathers, weather all in all within a week.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: So very volatile, but super fun.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, that's kind of like like this last season we had we had a we had an 18-inch POW day, and uh we were just like in August.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's only 10 guys riding snowmobiles in the world on that day, and it was pretty pretty special for sure.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: Frothing at the mouth, I'm sure.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, 100%.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's so crazy.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it sounds then like maybe you're not transitioning out of this, but it sounds like your kind of I your perspective on working in the smoke snowmobile industry is changing a little bit.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is that true?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm uh I'm I'm kind of pivoting, is what I that's kind of like how I I would put it.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um into the guiding is fun for me, and uh, I enjoyed it a lot and it gave me a lot of great opportunities.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: But the what ended up happening was there's we were we would run two operations.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a two lead guides, and Chris, the owner, he takes the more advanced riders, and I was became the other lead guide, which was great.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then you know, like I got to show people and teach people and make people great riders.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I didn't get to work on my craft as much doing that, so and and then kind of simultaneously as I was I was like, man, I don't I'm not having as much fun as I could be.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like some days are pretty rough.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um I kind of I kind of just feel like I was going through the motions some days of riding.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then simultaneously I started diving into more content creation and having more fun with that.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: So there that's when kind of everything intersected into um like this my my vlogs, um, the podcast idea that I had with Chris and and all that.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: So now I'm resetting once more and uh kind of going to attack the the content creation at a higher level.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Must have been pretty fun doing a podcast with a guy who was your mentor.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, we had we had a good time, and besides the fact that he never let me talk, um because he's a talker, um, I think I'd get like in an hour podcast, I get like three minutes in, and that was like kind of the running joke.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: But um yeah, it is uh is is good times.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: And um one of the the one of the challenges there was I was pulling double duty, um guiding full time and trying to create content while also like trying to get my boss, Chris, to do a podcast with me was very difficult some days.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm like, dude, we need a podcast this week.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: We haven't done one.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like it's Thursday, and the podcast goes live Friday morning, or it's like, and I need to get on it.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: And um, but he's so busy running the business that it's hard to get him away for an hour and like really get him focused on what we want to talk about.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: But we had good success with it and um stuff.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I learned a ton and I'm ready to kind of um evolve into something better.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: How what what would be one thing that you changed then in the second the second iteration?
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think in the second iteration I'm gonna because it the second iteration will be more so mine, um and that will just give me the freedom to branch out a little bit more too, because I I like having these conversations aside from just snowmobile specific conversations.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that's what that's where the that podcast led a lot was like very technical, like you know, talking about parts and settings and all these things, whereas I want to talk about more of the big picture and what's all the fun stuff.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, absolutely.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um I kind of have one more summarizing question about your snowmobile snowmobiling career so far, which is it's definitely a a bit of a non-traditional path.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: You've been in it for a substantial amount of time.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: How has that shifted your perspective on maybe what success looks like in in your upcoming uh in the upcoming things you're gonna do?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it's been interesting for me um kind of taking that path because growing up in Central Oregon, I I grew up in Sisters, which is a small town outside of Bend, and it's a pretty wealthy town, and um, it has a great school, and it's um it's like it's an amazing place to grow up.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: The downside of it was the pressure to go to college after was out of control.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like God bless my mom.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: She like knew she, I don't know how she knew this about me, but we had these like aspire mentors that would help you on your path after um high school to go to college or whatever your job was gonna be.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she knew that I was gonna have a rough time with a traditional like aspire like leader because they were gonna say, well, you should consider this, this, and this.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I knew.
• 18:28
  unknown: Yeah.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: So my mom's like, I'm just gonna become your aspire leader and like we're gonna just not deal with that.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that was I didn't even realize that really happened until I was until later.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that was really cool that like she did that and she was like aware that I was not gonna do well in that.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I think it definitely took it took some time for me um to kind of get the like the chip off my shoulder of like because people just didn't believe I was gonna go do it.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but after I kind of have proved to myself that I can do a lot of these things, now I don't even I don't care really.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'll just like I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna try it.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: If it doesn't work, it's whatever.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's my loss, you know.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's nobody else's loss.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's they're living their own life.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that kind of has given me like the perspective on like I can go try anything, and it's not gonna what's gonna what's the worst that's gonna happen?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm gonna lose a little bit of time, and like I got so much time in front of me that it's gonna be, you know, I got plenty of time to figure it all out.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what's been cool.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's an awesome perspective to have.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's a hard one for people to appreciate, I think.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um because the traditional path is, I'm not saying it's easy in any form or fashion, but it's definitely just far more accepted.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's easier mentally to accept taking that path.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: What were there any moments?
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, maybe maybe not moments.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: What was something that helped you build the courage to to make those kind of jumps?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: To to to be willing to not care about the potential success or maybe about what other people were gonna say and and just kind of do something you're passionate about.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know exactly where that comes from.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um because I am I care immensely about what people think of me as a human, but then at the same time, I don't at all.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like um because I'm I I I know that I need to do what's gonna be best for me.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know how I got that like that that kind of like tenacity to just like go for it, yeah, um without you know being too worried about people's um judgment.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was probably I knew I had the support of my parents on the first one, and then when I succeeded, it was easy because I had done it before and I had the support the first time.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I all I needed was knowing I've done it before.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Why can't I be able to do it again?
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: I should be able to do something interesting or different again.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um and also I uh I kind of have to have that, I feel, because I do struggle with like the nine to five.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've worked a lot of summers with my dad in excavation.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've worked as a welder, I've done all these things, and I enjoy that, but I get I the tedy, like the tedious, you know, 40-hour weeks just isn't for me.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, man, I can't do that, so I better figure out how to do this.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: I better figure out something else because I can't do this.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: I know I can't do this.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: No, absolutely.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: I I I like uh I like that that that comment.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: I I care about what people think of me as a person, but also not as all not at all.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: And it makes it kind of doesn't make sense at the at the front, but if you look at it, it really does because it's more about what people.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Think about your character and less about maybe the the the actions.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how would how would you describe that?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: I would say that it's almost like give me an hour or two of your time.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Let me sh let me tell you, let me explain everything to you, and I think you're gonna understand.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think I, you know, I can get 90% of people to be like, oh yeah, that works for you.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but if you don't give me that time and you're just like gonna cast judgment, then I don't care.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's fine, whatever.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, it's kind of yeah.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's like it just it's something, and I care when people are willing to be like, yeah, like wait, what are you doing?
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Let me let me try to understand this and you you understand it and um and then you can explain it to them, then that yeah, I do care because those people are willing to give the time.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, so how do you then express that or take that mentality into content creation?
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like how it it it how do you express yourself in in that kind of fashion?
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think I found um the most success and like found myself in that way when I started to do these vlogs while working at in Colorado, and uh had a great we had a great team.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and there's another kid who's a couple years younger than me.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: His name's Kyle Pulsifer.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I he is like one of the hardest workers I've ever been around.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: And but he cares, he doesn't care about video or anything at all.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: But the great part about Kyle is is when I put the camera on him, he's the same person.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: I turn the camera off, same person.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people change when they when you put a camera on them.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: And throughout that, I quickly with Kyle, him and I's flow together was so natural that I just became I was just always myself, even on camera.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: And him and I kind of together, he didn't really care.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, well, Kyle doesn't care.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Why should I care?
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just like be each other.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: That was the chemistry that worked.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: And probably like five or six episodes in, we started to see like people were connecting with like the ridiculousness of us just being humans.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um because somewhat, you know, in the industry, people see us as maybe athletes or these like the elite guides.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: And um when we broke that barrier down a little bit and just like showed the behind the scenes ridiculousness, that's when people were like, we saw the the feedback and it was great.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: The feedback was insane.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what that's kind of how I've like like blossomed that feeling of like, oh just be yourself, please.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, and then people feed off of that, and kind of like you said, it's it it right, it's uh kind of a chain.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: This friend of yours, Kyle, he's himself, and so then all of a sudden you feel more inclined to be yourself, and then all of a sudden the audience feels more inclined to maybe be themselves or just to appreciate it.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's contagious.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is, yep.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: And we saw that with even a few others that were involved in the the content creation.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, our office manager Ryan, he's like behind the scenes on the computer all the time, but he's the funniest dude I've ever met.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like yeah, he's so sharp.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: And at first he didn't really know like where where his boundaries were, like what he should do or say, or and then he like came into it like after a couple weeks, and it was the same thing happened with him as well.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it's uh it was a it's a cool process to see like people being genuine after they you know they kind of get into it.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: Are there any specific moments from that that vlog then, maybe with Kyle or the other guy behind the scenes that you look back on and go like that is as genuine as it gets.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: That guy is so authentic.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um we uh I I have a it's still saved on my desktop.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: This clip of Kyle.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're some we feel like we're really good mechanics on SLUDs, but um we like we don't have the fabrication tools that we need sometimes.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have every single tool to build what we're building because we also build these, we build these like crazy snowmobiles, like turbocharged carbon fiber, out of control things.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we actually Chris purchased a TIG welder um for us to have at the shop.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: None of us really know how to TIG weld, and TIG welding is you know, for for the people who don't know, is like um it's really, really hard.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the guys who are really, really good at it can do amazing things.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so Kyle and I can both kind of Tig weld, barely.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: And um Kyle is over there practicing on this like hor like this horrifically ugly piece of metal.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: And um I walk over to him with the camera, and um, remember our audience, there's a lot of guys who are can Tig weld.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: And sure.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: So this was like the perfect setup.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I go, Kyle, what are you doing?
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he looks at me and he's got this like mangled piece of him trying to tig weld on.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: And he looks at me and he goes, I'm building lightweight mod snowmobiles, and then he just goes right back to work and it's just so ugly.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like because he's so he's like in my eyes, Kyle's like one of the best wrenches.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like he built he this last season, he built my sleds for me.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be editing and he's like building my turbos and doing all this stuff, and so for him to be like, oh, I'm just he didn't even care that people saw him struggling with TIG welding because it was so funny.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and uh in return, it was one of the you know, it was a the clip was did super well, and I think the term he used was like the fabricators say when you like make a really nice, beautiful weld, they call it laying dimes, and Kyle's like, Oh, I'm just over here laying dimes, and it was not even so it was yeah, it was all time.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um that totally ties into what you were saying before about I care what people think about me, but also not at all.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's right, it's this he doesn't care that people see him practicing and it's like making a joke about something because the people who who are watching actually like appreciate the guy as a as a like he is a good wrench or whatever.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's just like you can still make fun of yourself and not take it seriously while still caring that you're a good person or something.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, that's exactly it.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that's what Kyle's so great at, and I think that's where our chemistry like really really shined um and and took off.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, like my friendship with Kyle was one of those where within a week of meeting him, him and I were like just giving each other such a hard time all the time, and so yeah, it was it was great.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's awesome.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Is he gonna be a part of your uh podcast or or is it is the vlog still going on?
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um the vlog is on hold currently, it will it's going to morph as well, um, because there's a lot of other people I want to get involved, and um being um in Colorado, I can't get people involved.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I'm I want to make it kind of a traveling vlog, but I will I definitely want to have him involved um as well.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: So the the kid's such a hard worker at what he's doing, he also is hard to get a hold of sometimes.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like he's a part owner in his dad's concrete business in Minnesota.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: So like in the summertimes, he's like working 70 hours a week.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's a little tricky, but um nevertheless, I'll you know, I'll keep him.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: I I want to keep him in the loop.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: So sounds like an awesome dude.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: Damn.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well then what kind of content have you been creating then?
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I saw there's like some some live gaming and stuff.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: It used to be a lot more of the podcast and then snowmobiling.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is it just like how do you decide what how do you decide how you want to express yourself to the audience and and what you want them to see?
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um right now, um what you have seen in my probably if if you look through the the last two months of my feed or anybody else has seen recently is really just been a lot of like testing and um just trying to see like what works, does my audience respond to this or that?
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm uh you know, like I enjoy gaming a little bit.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I you know, when I was younger, I was pretty good at it and had a lot of fun.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a couple buddies that still play.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was like, I have all the stuff, why not just like fire it up and see what happens?
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: See what happens.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and simultaneously while doing that, I'm learning the software and I'm learning like how can this have this work?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, in the future, maybe I I know how to run a live show on my computer.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: If I wanted to run like our conversation that we're having right now, if we wanted it to be live, I have the tools to do it, or I'm or I'm can do it on a basic level at least.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: So like that's some of the value I've gotten out of that.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm also I also made the move back to Bend.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I before that I lived in this the place I live now with a couple awesome roommates.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: I uh I live with my parents, so now I kind of like transitioned here and I've been like, how can I create content around this house and my friends?
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: So tested that a little bit, but really it's just kind of feeling everything out, and um now as we have this conversation, I'm starting to have a little bit better direction, yeah, which is good.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: So you're you are uh the kind of guy who has an idea and then does it and then sees what sees what happens in reflection.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, a lot, yeah.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of like a learn as I go, like yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like uh last last night I had I was streamed with a couple buddies, and my stream was so broken the whole time, and I'm trying to play and fix the stream and do all these things.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: I had like it didn't work at all.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like things were going haywire every five minutes, but I was learning the whole time.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that's kind of how I and and instead of just like shutting it down or like I'm never doing that again, I'll get back at it and you know learn again, um, see and see what's going on.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, so it's all about just constantly learning and seeing what works best in the future.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yep, for sure.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's awesome.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: And dabbling dabbling with a lot of things simultaneously.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like I have a lot of you know, I have a lot of irons in the fire, um, and kind of just like not even really seeing which one takes off, it's more so like which one do I want to really go after, or like how can I juggle a couple of them, um, is kind of the process that I'm in right now.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Cause I also kind of created a brand around this idea of it's called Mountains Project, and that's what like my my podcast will be called when it is launched, relaunched.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um but then I made I started making hats and shirts and all this stuff, and it did well as well.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, man, I could turn that potentially into something cool as well, just because of like what the message behind it is of like essentially I created this somewhat brand that has been kind of dormant, but like create some soft goods here and there that do pretty well, and but the the mountain is like a peak and then a slight dip, and then another peak.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the idea of that is like we're always climbing our own mountain, and you get to the top of another one, and as soon as you get to the top of that one, you might go down a little bit, but you look, you better look right back up because there's the next peak in front of you.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like no, I think that's uh um also kind of ties back into a bit of what we were saying is as you you learn as you go, it's not just that when you get to the top of the first peak, you see that you have more to climb.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's also when you go to a new area and you climb a mountain, at the top of that mountain, you then learn all the other peaks you could climb.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's very true.
• 34:13
  unknown: Yeah.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like I never go on anytime I go to a new area and I hike somewhere, I leave that place with like 14 new hikes I want to do, or 14 new peaks.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: I look around like, oh shit, why didn't I climb that one?
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yep.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: That and that's the exact that's I've never really thought about it like that.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you're on the money, and that's the same.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: I I feel like that too.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: You get to that point and then you look around and you're like, oh my god.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's so and I think one of the things that that one of my struggles is I'm crippled by the possibilities and the opportunities.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like sometimes I wish I had less.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like I wish it was somebody would be like, you can only podcast.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd be like, okay, I'm only gonna do the podcast.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's I almost need that.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's the next question I wanted to ask, which follows right after this, which is how do you once you get to the top of that first peak and you see 13 more, how do you choose which one to climb next?
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: Or in your case, you know, you have all the irons in the in the fire, you have all these projects going on, and you see some moderate amount of success uh uh around them.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: How do you choose which one to pivot into?
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm still trying to figure that out, um, kind of on my own, essentially.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like the last few months have been, I'm just running around in the basins right now.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, I'm gonna go over here.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: Wait, I'm gonna go over here.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go, you know, just back and forth, back and forth.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I think it just takes time to to kind of you have to sit with it a little bit and and figure out like what is what am I going to enjoy the most and I and I think is gonna work.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then the tough part is is making that decision and not looking back.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um because the the decision thing is interesting for me.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I like I like to make decisions and I where I struggle with it most is within like my little business entrepreneurial ideas.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's where I struggle with the most.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: In other things, I'm pretty good about it.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um is like I don't know what the outcome of the other decision would be.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I never will know the outcome.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: So as soon as I make the decision, I might as well go.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what would have happened if I would have, you know, if I would have uh not started the content creation and still been just guided for the last eight years, I would uh who knows?
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I would I'd love it and I'd live in Colorado full-time and all this stuff, but I don't know that.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: So like why dwell on it?
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: I better I'm gonna focus on what I know, um, what uh and the decisions that I've made.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: So it it actually sounds like you initially you said you struggle with the the not looking back part, but it doesn't sound like you struggle with that.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like you struggle with the the I struggle with yeah, I struggle with the initial choice, and that's the thing that I'm trying to do now.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: Is like and um and and really it's just I I I know where I do want to go.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I always I've always been that way of like um having a pretty good direction with with my within myself from a young age.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um now it's just like making that initial commitment and just getting back um kind of back back on the grind of it.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um what does that mean to have when you say I feel like I've had a good direction uh from it from when I was a kid, what does that kind of mean to you?
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I guess I never I never understood when my friends would say, I don't know what I want to do.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: I always knew what I wanted to do.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I know there's a lot of things I want to do.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's just um, you know, going after them.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I could you give one example of like something yeah.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean soloing was the first one for me.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um I was like, I'm gonna I'm gonna be a pro stone biller.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Where and then I have friends that are freshmen sophomores in college, they're like, I have no idea what I want to do.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I am like I've wanted to be a pro soul and builder since I was 16 years old.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then it transferred, and I'm like, I'm gonna I'm gonna create a vlog and a podcast, and I know that's what I want to do.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um so that's what I've never that's what I've always had inside me is like knowing the direction I want to go.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I never understood and and uh and people obviously don't know what they want to do, and I've felt glimpses of that, and I've seen it in some of my really close friends.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um but when it when I really kind of break it down, what I think of is we all have things that we like, and I and I always go after what I like.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I have a tendency that if I think I'm good at something and I really like it, I'm like, ooh, how can I make money at this?
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: How can I do this for for a living?
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, whereas a lot of people think of their hobbies as strictly their hobbies, which is in ways very healthy to think about it because then you don't go down the path of it became a job and now I don't like my hobby anymore.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: I hate my hobby.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but for me, that's not really how I roll.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I want to I would rather do what I like and kind of not have some fun some days, um, rather than just wait all week long for Saturday and Sunday to go do what I want.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know what's really interesting about that, which I and I love this, is when you say, um I know what I want to do, and the the the con like the con to going and pursuing a hobby as a potential job is that's it might become a little less fun on certain days.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: You what you know what 99% of other people would have said?
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: What's that?
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm afraid that I won't be able to succeed at it.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that that is that's something that I don't I don't feel like I have is that fear of failure.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because like I said earlier, when you fail, it's your loss, it's nobody else's loss.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: They are gonna act like it's their loss for some reason.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't like, dude, you didn't do it.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: You like you're still doing your thing.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like I failed.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: Who cares?
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but for some reason people like to be like, oh man, they like to, it's kind of like misery love loves company a little bit.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um so that's yeah.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, absolutely.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's great, man.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: And and it's it takes uh but it takes a impressive level of personal accountability to accept that fear of failure.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: Because even if you're not scared of it, it that just means that you you accept that it's possible and that you can overcome it, right?
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yep, yep.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: And looking at failures as you know, nothing more than something to learn from and build on.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that is that's something that and I think that just comes from like my childhood and seeing who um like my who my dad was.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like dad um created his own excavation company and he's we know worked really hard and figured out how to do it, and he has that whatever it takes attitude that has kind of been instilled with me.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um I remember like in in 2008 when the economy crashed, um, it hit it hit my dad really hard because of it.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: He was an excavation company, he was a building company, and homes were the thing that took everything down.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: So when homes went, all of the building and infrastructure went around it.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: And to watch, I was young then.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm um, but so I don't re I didn't really see as much I I as I wish I could have learned from that, from how he handled that whole situation of like running a company that was thriving and then just like the whole world world crashes on it, and then having to be like, okay, I gotta keep this thing rolling, I gotta figure out how to do it.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so just like you know, watching he's a him um is something that I've tried to pick up on and and yeah, absolutely.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that ties kind of back into the question I was asking.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_01: And you did answer of how do I make decisions?
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_01: You choose the things that you know bring you joy.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: Are there any other aspects to these to these possible avenues uh that push you in those directions?
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um something about them is the uh there in all of these avenues, I feel like there's a potential big upside.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, f with freedom with financially and you know, with just like my happiness.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: So but they're not easily uh they're not easily grasped.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, like there's you you see the big the big names that are doing the the big podcasts that are creating crazy content, the you know, um those guys are doing what exactly what they want every day.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they get to do create what they want and kind of live on their own terms, and that's what fires me up.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because you know, I I chase that freedom.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like what I said about working the nine to five.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: I just get so burnt out so quickly and like I'm miserable.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: So um being able to kind of have that, and then also the financial freedom would be out is like a a great bonus of you know being able to um do that.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the idea that you could have this podcast, you're a big surfer, right?
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: So you could have this podcast on you you could be watching the surf right now in Costa Rica having this conversation with me, and you're like, All right, it's over, boot, and you get on the you get on your board and you're surfing.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: You're reading my mind.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's that is and what what people when I when I try to explain to people is that is possible in in 2020, you know, regardless of the pandemic and what's going on, if you kind of forget what let's go back to 2019.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: In the world of 2019, that's 100% possible.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: And in the future, it will continue to be possible.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, um that's kind of that's kind of what I bank on.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't have to be, I think what's important about this is people limit their perspective on that kind of thing to the social media or to the podcast.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_01: But the world is changing so rapidly that whatever you do right now, there's an opportunity to use it in a fashion that might give you more freedom.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_01: If you're an accountant, if you are, I don't know, a window cleaner, there's probably a way that you can chase freedom using whatever skill set you have right now.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_01: Because we're so much more connected.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, for sure.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's, you know, it's it's that thing about making connections, you know, and um it's about who you know.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, even if you don't know anybody, it's about making those initial connections and making an impact on those people and offering value.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's where that's what I learned the most um in my early days of like snowmobile sponsorship.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: At first, I was like, I need a free helmet.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_00: How can I do this?
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: What and then it's not it's not going to a company and saying, as an athlete and saying, Hey, I need a free helmet.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's this is what I can do for you, this is how I can help you sell more product, this is how I can represent your brand.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then they say, That's great, here's a helmet.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um whereas when a lot of people enter the conversation of like, what can you do for me?
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, giving giving value and showing what you can give, then that's when you receive the feedback, and that's when you receive the the connection and the support, and then you know, one thing leads to another.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of what has happened with me a lot is the just like nothing.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't here's the funny thing about me, I don't have a job resume.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you were like, I need you to go down here and give them your resume today, I would be scrambling to create a resume.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, which is pretty interesting um in this day and age.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I've that's kind of how I just do it as off connections and try to figure out all sorts of stuff.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_01: And this actually summarizes the conversation, the entire conversation, pretty well, in that the reason you found success in pretty much every avenue you've taken in snowmobiling, in content creation, it was about like your friend Kyle's, about providing value, and providing value in this context of making connections means giving your authentic self to another person.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think that's what is valuable in a connection is when you provide yourself to another person, you know, in an honest fashion.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_01: People value that, people want that.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so when you go out of your way to offer yourself, whether that's a service or just as you said, the ridiculousness of us being human, right, on Instagram and social media, that is offering value, it's offering joy, it's offering honesty, it's whatever it is, and that's how you build connections, right?
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so it and it makes sense, right?
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_01: When you are authentic and you build you build genuine relationships and connections with people, they it's not like because you're not asking them what you could do, what they could do for you.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're saying this is who I am, and I'd love to be connected with you in some form or fashion.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then they might say the same thing.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and you I you identify what they're doing and you say, Hey, this is what you're doing.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and if it's something that you want to be involved in or you can help with, like, ooh, what about this?
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: How about maybe I could get involved this way or that way?
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, that's what and and that's when it becomes fun because you're uh they are they're receptive to that and they know that you're helping them and you're if you're passionate about it, that's when like it starts to fire up and it gets really exciting.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_01: So we start feeding off of each other.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's all it's that's it is the feed.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's so great.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to uh take too much of your time.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_01: I have one last question, which is based on this discussion we've had, we've talked about quite a few things kind of spanning your snowmobile career, content creation, uh form of expressing yourself, dealing with failure, uh not dealing with failure, but accepting the possibility and moving on, making decisions.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_01: What is one thing that you think listeners could take away from this podcast that is meaningful to you?
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um man, there's I there's so much.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um for me, it's really the the the chase of like doing exciting fun things as much as I possibly can.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope everybody chases that, whatever it is.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: And um, it doesn't, and for me, I like the most interesting, um creative, crazy like ideas that people have.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so if if you're listening and you you're passionate about something that is is off the wall a little bit.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, a lot of times when I tell people that I was a professional or am a professional snowmobiler, they don't even think it's a sport.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, that's an interesting conversation to have, but I'm so used to it.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: And at first I was like a little like self-conscious about it because like, oh, I'm a professional athlete.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, what do you do?
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: I write a snowmobile.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's not really a sport.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, actually, it is.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, it's it's whatever you do in this day and age, if you love it enough, you can create something special from it.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_00: And um, even if it's off the wall and pe you don't have a lot of people close to you that also enjoy it, there's a lot of people in this world and there's a lot of people that enjoy the same things you do.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: So um that's what I that's what I encourage people to do is just go connect and um chase things that they're passionate about because you never know what's gonna happen and uh you don't know what the other decision will be if you just continue down.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like the the first thing you have to do is is uh start executing on on ideas that you have.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: And um man, we have we have a lot of hours in the day, and um we have a lot of a lot of years ahead of us.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um even if you're even if you're 50, you're you got 50 more.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's how I look at it.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: And my um I had a conversation with my dad the other day, I turned 25 like last week, and he's like, Man, 25, like you're getting up there.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Dad, I get my dad's in his 50s.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Dad, I get a whole nother life in front of me before I turn 50.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm like, whoa, that's insane.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, just trying to put some stuff into perspective and and uh yeah, that's uh we're all just trying to to enjoy enjoy our time here and uh connect with people.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_00: So um doing whatever it takes to do that is is what I believe everybody should be doing.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_01: I want to thank Ross for that conversation.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_01: Once again, his social media and profile will be in the podcast description.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_01: Too often, we see men and women pursuing their passions and making a living doing it, but not enough do we hear about the vision and perspective it takes to actually do that.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_01: I loved hearing about his experience guiding in Chile and about his learn as you go methods for success.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_01: Likewise, I think his view on failure is eloquent.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_01: People will take your failures personally for whatever the cause, but in the end, it's not theirs, it's your failure.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_01: And therefore, the only real judgment that you have to face when embracing failure is that of your own.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's that personal responsibility that I find impressive with Ross.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_01: It makes me wonder what kind of freedom I can find and what kind of future I can build if I just claim responsibility for all of my actions and their consequences, so that I can learn from them and build on them.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe it makes you wonder the same thing.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_01: If you liked this episode of Seeking Authenticity, that's freaking awesome.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_01: All I want to ask of you, the listener, in return for the time and effort I put into making it, is that you take a deep breath.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean really breathe.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_01: Breathe so that it stretches out your shoulders and your back and your chest and pushes out your stomach.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_01: No more of these shallow, bullshit breaths.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_01: They're barely keeping you alive, my friend.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_01: And after you exhale, go out and soak up today.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_01: Because in the end, your actions and the way they interact with the world and the people around you right now are all you have in this life.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_01: So be authentic with them.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_01: Peace.