Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Exploring the Journey: An Interview with Matt Scott

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Exploring the Journey: An Interview with Matt Scott · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Scott Brady, and I'm here with my co host Matt
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Scott and today we're going to talk about my favorite thing.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: We're going to talk about you, me. I love talking
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: about me. This is going to be the easiest podcast.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Ever, which or not, which I think is really fun
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: because we've done now twenty podcasts and we're so grateful
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: for the response to the podcast. We're so thankful for
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: all of you that love the feedback.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: To get a lot of feedback on social and really
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: appreciate it.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if you ever have questions or suggestions, or if
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: you need for me to do something a little different
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: or for Matt to do something a little different. We
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: are very new to all this. We have a passion
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: for the subject, but we are not professional podcasters, So
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: any suggestions that you have, we'd love to hear more.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: And thank you all for subscribing and for listening. And
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: that leads us to why we're going to talk about
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the subject today is learning more about who Matt is
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: and his background and asking him some questions that I
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: think will shed some light on why he is the
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: co host on this podcast. In his history. So, Matt,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: thanks for taking some time today to be the one
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: being interviewed.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, I'm I'm stoked. I love talking about myself,
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: you know. So I learned a little bit more about
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: you even today. I mean we have known each other
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: for over a decade, which is so which is so fun.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: And I learned today that you went to school for
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: international politics and for even some cybersecurity and international relations.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: The goal was to end up, you know, foreign intelligence,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: some kind of three letter agency. And then I found
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: out they paid like thirty five grand a year that
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: I could write about cars and have fun and you know,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: live the life I really wanted to live and make
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: the same amount of money. Not that it's all about money,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: but my life is definitely all about the things that
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: I'm really passionate about. And you know, since I've been
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: five years old, that has been cars. I don't I
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: don't know anything else but cars. Well, and and tell
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: us a little bit about that. I can see this
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: picture in my mind of a of a five year
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: old very ginger kid.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: I'm not ginger, I'm not ginger. Now you were you
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: were in a fully suspended race car at five years old, yeah.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I tell us that the first time I drove
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: a race car that was my actual race car, I
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: was I was technically four. It was the day before
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: my fifth birthday because at five you became eligible to
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: race quarter midgets. And I grew up in the Midwest.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Even though I'm an avid West Coaster now, you know,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: I'm a corn fed Midwesterner that used to race you know,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: circle track and dirt track.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: And it's interesting.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think when you're five years old and
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: you're kind of groomed to be a racing driver, which
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: you know, until I was fifteen sixteen, that's that's that
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: was my that was my life in the same way
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: that you know, you know.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Football dads or hockey dads or whatever.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: You know, my dad, Jim Scott, you know, we raced
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: every weekend together, and I mean that I love that, Like,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: you know, one of the things that drives me to
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: be successful now is I want to go back racing
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: with my dad.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: You know, so basically from five to being an adult,
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: you know, I raced everything started in quarter midgets and
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: kind of kind of everything a bunch of road corps,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: a bunch of you know, a lot of circle track stuff,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: And yeah, I guess it just changes things, you know,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: at a young age when you are having to communicate
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: at five years old, you know to your crew chief
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: my dad that you know, the car is a little
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: bit loose going into turn three. It's not a thing
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: that I guess most five year olds are thinking. So
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: it's never it's never shut off. And I think that's
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: why I got into reviewing cars and I've had, you know,
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: a modest success with that and the writing thing, because
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: to a degree has come second nature for me.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: I'm one of those weird guys.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: That can feel the the you know, there's a little
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: bit too much preload on the right rear shock or
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: something like that.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Sure, I don't know. I'm just a car guy and
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: I love it well. And that's an It leads to
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: a couple questions on the driving side, because one thing
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: that I've noticed is once people shift from driving recreationally
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: to semi professionally or professionally or even in a very
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: advanced amateur way where they're getting a lot of training,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: so much shifts for them. What are some of your
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: key takeaways that you've had as a driver that have
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: then influenced who you are as a traveler and then
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: even as a businessman, smooth as fast.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one thing that I always that has just
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: drilled into my head.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: You know, my my.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Uncle is is a racing instructor. He's been a racing instructor,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: used to be with Skip Barber from the eighties and
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: now he works at BMW and kind of everybody. But
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: he always drilled that into my head. And that's something
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: that I've that stuck with me through travel. You know,
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: for me, smooth travel is just proper preparation. You know,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: it's figuring out, figuring out what you're doing, and in
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: business too, just keeping it keeping a cool head.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: I remember that what you just said brought me back
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: to within the first couple of months of you starting
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: to work with us, you had a jeep wrangler. Oh
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: it was horrible. Yeah, and we were we were up
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: we were up in the mountains outside of Prescott, and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: we were working through a pretty technical trail in the snow. Yeah.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: And and I remember I had given you a couple
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: pieces of advice and and you just like I saw
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: all the bulbs come on and You're like, it's just
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: like racing, I need to be smooth. In order to
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: get through this range.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I guess race car, four wheel drive, vehicle, whatever,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: and anything with four wheels, two wheels that has a motor.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: It's it's all about just inputs, right, So if you're
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: smooth with your inputs off road, you're not going to
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: break traction.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: If you're smooth off road, you know.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: The second best thing that always sticks in the automotive
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: is something you taught me that off roading is like
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: a chess game, right, And I think by being smooth
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: through that chess game, that's that's how you win.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Sure, and you're thinking a couple moves ahead, Yeah, if
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: you're focused on the trail immediately in front of you,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: you're going to miss setting yourself up exactly.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: I was always taught you know, if I'm going into
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: turn three, I'm looking through turn four, you're looking not
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: at where you're you know, you look where you want
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: to go, You're not looking at where you're going. Sure,
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: And I think the same thing applies for off road.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: So I think on the car front, then if you
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: could have any car not a full wheel drive right now,
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: what would you what would you buy?
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Anything? Anything?
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Probably a nine to eleven, nice you're I really like
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: the nine nine sevens. It's before they got too big.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: It's after the reliability and quality issues of the nine
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: to ninety six and the ugly headlights.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: They're good value.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: There's still a kind of emotional vehicle, you know, you
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: still feel the still feel the engine rumbled just a
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: little bit.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: And could that be a track car for you? Would
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: that be the thing that gets you back into racing
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: with your dad?
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: You know, if if I was to get back into racing,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: it'd have to be in a race car, you know.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: I mean it would be like trying to take your
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: you know, year Tacoma that you've built for overlanding and
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: do the one thousand in it. Right, There's just there's
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: so many differences. And honestly, taking a street car to
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: the track as a primary thing, I've never understood that.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: I mean, I raised Formula cars so I could buy
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: a twenty thousand dollars used Formula.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Mazda or whatever.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: The Mazda or Formula Enterprise is a series that I
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: that I follow, and I can turn Lamborghini Super Fail
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: lap times than a twenty thousand dollars car. That's well,
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: that's reasle to service, and that's an that's an open
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: wheel car.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: That's an open wheel car. Yeah, so that's interesting. So
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: and I hadn't considered that because for me, I think
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: the thing that's that's maybe romantic is the idea of
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: getting a Lotus or getting a Porsche, or getting some
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: kind of a of a car, grand touring car or
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: something that could even be on a track and then
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: taking it on and I think maybe it's just romantic,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: maybe it's not actually the best choice. And I think
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: that that translates to the overlanding concept as well, is
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: that there are things that are actually really really good
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: for travel and it may not be the same vehicle
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: that we want, we want to build, or that we want.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: To drive as a traveler. Yeah, I mean as a traveler,
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: the answer is sprinter.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah right. But I don't want to I don't want
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: to drive a delivery van.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I don't think anybody wakes up and says,
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: oh wow, I really want to drive the same thing
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: that the FedEx guy drives. Like, no disrespect to the
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: FedEx guy, but I'm sure if he could drive a
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Jeep Wrangler for his job, Yeah, he would probably drive
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: a Jeep Wrangler.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Over a delivery van.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Sure, you know, but it's very practical, you know, yeah,
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: clicks all the boxes where you can live out of it,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: and it's secure and yeah, I mean I'm a car
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: guy again, so there's I'm not the most practical. I
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: like to have very purpose built vehicles, like my Gladiator.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: I think is a good example of that. It's it
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: can kind of go anywhere. But it's also stockish. But
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: I am stockish. Okay, I take that back, right. It
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: drives very well.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: It drives well. You were very intentional about it. In fact,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: I would say that you're your Gladiator. Of all of
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: the eight hundred and sixty seven cars that you've purchased
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: since I've met you, was the one that surprised me
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: the most because it's the one that is the most practical.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: I've owned it for almost a year now and I
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: have zero ow intentions of selling it. It just it works.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: It does everything so well. So it's your version of
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: the Sprinter, It's it's my version.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Of the Sprinter.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: It has that at summit camper on the back. It's comfortable,
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: it's quiet camp in. It drives great, you know a
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: little bit of wind noise because I mean, it is
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: a jeep, but I don't know.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: I just remember you had you had that Wrangler and
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: then you bought a one o nine land Rover. I
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: traded that Wrangler for that one o nine, which was
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: a hell of a deal. And I think that that
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Wrangler was like a salvage title rusted to junk. I
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: want to say that I traded a cross rocket for
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: it that had been dropped like twelve times when I
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: was pretty young. Right, it was bad.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: I remember the like you know, track bar angles were
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: like something really great.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was really good. But so you I remember
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: you got into that series three was it a series
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: series two? As And for me that is where it
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: all clicked.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: That was the transition from from Midwest Matt to West
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: coast Matt.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: The jeep was a car I had in Illinois. We
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: drove through cornfields. I moved out here knowing very little
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: about travel. You know, I had always traveled racing, you know,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: every weekend we were driving to Indianapolis or wherever it
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: was in was in our region. But moving out here
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: was just a was a big change for me. Like
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: I still I still remember that that I call my
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: chest moment. That I realized, like I don't have to
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: fly through everything that it was just like it was
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: just like racing. And I've and I've carried that with
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: me and the land Rover taught me. It taught me
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: that things were about passion and I and I had
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: actually had had had a land River before this. My
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: first car was a land River Discovery. I guess when
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: you have a kid that grew up around race car,
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: is the last thing that you really want is a you.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Want to.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Why I don't want to drive something slow on a
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: road with other people. And I still kind of feel
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: that way, but yeah, that was a big transition for me.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: It made me realize that I loved travel, but I
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: also loved the how the vehicle could play a part
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: of that, like that the vehicle can be a traveler
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: in its own the vehicle can have a personality.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: And that did I. I remember hearing you laugh and
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: seeing you smile more with that car than anything else
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: because it was like it was like the circus bear
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: on the on the tricycle. I mean it was like
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: literally it was so fun because it was spinning, it
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: was you were constantly having to you were working at
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: That's where I learned how to drive? Was that car?
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: You know? It was so analog? And do you miss
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: that with your You have such capable vehicles, now do
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: you miss that haphazardous sort of the series.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: I think if I was to get another car, get
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: I'd get a flat fender. You know, my buddy, my
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: buddy Brad in Australia has a four GPW that we've
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: taken up Cape York, taken a Fraser Island, kind of
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: taken all over and you want to see me smile
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: and it's it's in something with breaks. It doesn't work
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: a gearbox, it doesn't want to go in gear and
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: you know, no power steering. I think everybody should have
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: those should have those experiences. And I agree, you know,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: it teaches you, like I now know what horrible axles are.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: I didn't have the Salisbury in mind, so like I
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: had to learn how to replace an axle. I had
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: to learn how to you know, replace things.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: And be really gentle as a driver.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, learn how to be smooth in a different way.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: I do realize, like even in my own history, that
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: some of the most fun that I've had was in
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: the vehicles that were the least suited for the activity
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: because then because then even a trip to Sedona like
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: we did that one day, was like an expedition because
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: it was like you had no idea if you were
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: going to make it, if you're going to get stuck,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: if something was just going to stop working. I mean, yeah,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: it was fun. You know.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: I think you can definitely isolate yourself from adventure, right,
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: And I if I was to critique myself, that's probably
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: something that I do. I have a you know, my personality.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: I like to perfect things. I find joy in building
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: beautiful overland vehicles for myself.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Something to anybody agree, Yeah, but yeah, it's it's it's interesting,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: I think it's you know, now it's my travels that
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: have influenced my vehicles more so than you know. Early
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: it was the passion for the cars, and then I
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: found out I could travel on them as I got older.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Because I'm still young. I mean a lot of people
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: probably think, well, I just turned thirty. Yeah, you know,
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: so when did I start working for Overland International? I
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: still had an Exhibition's West business card that I found
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: the other day, So I mean that was that was
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: when I was twenty. I was that was over ten
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: those ten years ago or something.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: It had to have been more than that because we
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: started the corporation Overland International in twenty twelve. Yeah, so yeah,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: so yeah, it's been it's been a while, which is
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: it's just been fun to watch. But I mean that
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: was the launch pad for for I guess my career.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I started write for EXCISSI and
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: Portal before I moved out here a little bit.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: You know, people always ask me, well, I'd love to
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: learn how to write, and I always say, well, just
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: do it, because I was not a writer, you know
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: when I first when I first started, as you said,
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: like I I believed in ethics very strongly, and I
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: had a very technical knowledge and understanding of things. But
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: you know, I didn't know how to use an apostrophe appropriately.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Now I do. It takes time. And I remember mentioning
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: that to you. Is that the reason why I thought
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: you would be a great fit is that you always
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: told the truth and that you always had an opinion.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: And for me that that that ethics is so critical.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, the only time we've ever terminated an editor
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: is because of an ethics violation. So it's for me,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: it's it's really that comes down to it, or else
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: the reader loses faith.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: It's all about the reader. You know, you're you are,
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: you are providing a service for that reader. You're not
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: providing a service for yourself. The reader doesn't really care about,
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: you know, the emotion, the contrived emotional backstory, like they
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: want to know the facts. They want to know the information.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: And my style from that and mixing it into my
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: thing became entertained and inform and that's something that I've
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: always tried to do. Writing about cars can be very technical,
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: and it can be very specific. It doesn't mean that
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: it has to be boring. And I think for the
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: listener that is I mean during this time that we're
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: in right now, which this is being recorded during a
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: time that a lot of the country is still under
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: a shelter in place order and a lot of people
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: are trying to start their own podcast, or they're trying
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: to start their own website, or they're trying to write
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: for an outlet like Overland Journal or Expedition Portal. A
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: little bit of advice that comes along with this interview,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: and that I watched Matt execute very well when you
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: started working with us, is focus on the reader. First,
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: focus on telling a great story that is evergreen, that
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: can last a long time, because those articles like that
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: really provide a strong return on investment to the publisher
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: that you're working with. But if I was to give
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: anyone that's listening advice is don't just pitch a publisher like, hey,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: I'd like to write for you. The best thing that
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: you can do, because publishers and editors are extremely busy.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: The best thing that you can do is find a
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: great story, write the entire thing up, have all of
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: the images ready to go in a dropbox or on
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: a Google drive, have all of the images edited, have
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: the article completely edited. Then send the publisher or editor
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: a note and say I've been thinking about your magazine.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: I have purchased several copies, I understand your writing style.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: I have provided a complete story for your consideration totally,
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: and I can tell you that our editors they pick
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: up stories like that all the time. It's I think
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: the challenge is that if someone says, hey, I'd like
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: to write for you, that going to the editor knows
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: that now this is a twenty step process to get
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: to a final piece. Whereas if somebody says I love
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: your publication. I have purchased your publication. I'm a reader
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: of your publication. I understand your style and your style guide,
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: and I've delivered a product that you could put to print.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: You know, I think when you're submitting something to an editor,
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: it needs to be something that, to the best of
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: your ability, is ready to run in that publication. Yeah,
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: fifteen hundred words does not mean that two thousand is better, right,
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: It means that he really wanted fourteen hundred, right, you know. Yeah,
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: And that was an interesting thing. I mean, I guess
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: you know, when I was running exhibition portal, it was
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: cool to work with all these travelers. And it's interesting
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: like some of the people that I that I worked with,
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: even at a young age, you know, I was kind
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: of able to help improve their writing and help improve
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: and send them on the right direction. And now these
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: people have turned into writers full time. You know that
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: that's how they're sustaining themselves, trying. As the industry has grown,
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: there's been more and more opportunity for people and all
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: think of all of the friends that we have that
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: are writing for for us or writing for other outlets.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of great magazines and that leads me
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: to the question, how did it feel when you had
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: your first article published by Outside? You know, it was
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: it was pretty cool, Like I've I've followed Outside for
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: a really long time.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: You know, they they really lead in kind.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Of outdoor journalism. I agree, you know, and I was
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: really lucky. I became really good friends with my editor,
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: my current editor over there, Wes Wes Siler, And you know,
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: he's been another one of those kind of mentors in
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: my life that was never afraid to tell me what
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: I was doing wrong. He really helped refine my writing style.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: So yeah, So, I mean, I guess going back to
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: the first time, I was elated. You know, I sent
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: it to everybody I know and it was so cool,
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: like here's my name on that massive But it was
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: the same way the first time I was publishing Overland Journal,
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: the first time I was published on Expission Portal. Like,
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: you know, I was working for land Rover at the time,
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: and I don't even know how that worked. So I
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: was working for land Rover, decided to I mean, I
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: dropped out of school and decided to make the cars
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: my life. And my kind of performance driving background got
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: me and got me in the door with doing some
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: some training with them, and then moved to Panama. But
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: I don't know, I still love getting published.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think Outside Magazine was the first magazine that
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: I ever subscribed to, and I remember the first time
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: that my words ended up in print in Outside. It
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: was just it felt to me like as nearly as
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: exciting as the first time that I printed an overland journal.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: And I don't do a huge amount with them, but
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: I think the stuff that I do is relatively significant.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: I mean it is, yeah, you're there, you know, full
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Drive Automotive Journal. Yeah.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: I mean Wes is pretty competent too, you know, you
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: know he knows the stuff. But yeah, it's it's it's fun.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: It's ah. I don't know how much you guys know,
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: but I I also own a company called Adventure Imports.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Not trying to plug that necessarily, but you know, that's
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: that's my day job.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: I've kind of transitioned away from you know, full time
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: editorial after I was running a magazine called Unsealed four
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: by four in Australia and I live down there and
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: then move back to start this business. But now it's
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: it's a passion project for me. It's so it's it's
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: cool I can take more time to do things. I
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: can really you know, put my best work out there
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: and I and I love doing that, and I love
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: doing this podcast too, Like it's it's nice to you know,
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: over the time that I've been doing this and the
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: countries I've been to, in the places I've traveled, it's
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: nice to be able to share that information, you know.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: And something that's really you know, passionate that I'm passionate
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: about is that overlanding is about travel. Like I mean,
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: I'm a huge car guy. I geek out on building
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: these things, but for me, it's it all comes back
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: to the travel.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I feel like for myself too that it's relatively balanced.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: I was probably more about the vehicle early on, but
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: now I don't. I don't enjoy it any less. I
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: still I love turning wrenches myself. For me, it is
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: my downtime is busting knuckles and getting dirty hands. So
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I like working on my own vehicle and I still
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: do it.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Like with COVID, I've been working on my land
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Cruiser like I've been giking out rebuilding doors, you know, Yeah,
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: but trying to trying to keep the parts, trying to
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: keep things original. But okay, let's figure out how we
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: rebuild a window motor, Let's figure out how we rebuild
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: this doorhande. Let's figure out how we can make these
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: things better.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: And and then that way, when you drive it around
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: the world, you know how that all goes together. You've
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: actually exactly you've actually turned the wrenches on that car.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Which leads me to a few more questions, primarily around
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: your travels. But you grew up in Chicago, and then
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: you did move out west, and then you ended up
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: in Panama, and now tell a little bit of that story,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: because that's a great Yeah.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: So I ran a hostel down there for a brief
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: period called I mean it was called Panama Passage, right,
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: But that was really that was a huge fulcrum point
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: or transition point for me as a person, because I
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: want to say I was twenty or twenty. It was
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: right before I moved here. I was I was running
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: a hostele for international travelers. So like, yeah, I'm still
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: friends with people that I met there. I don't remember
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: a lot of it, sorry, Christian, but I was drunk
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: for a lot of it, and you know, just being
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: in this environment and learning how to ship vehicles because
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: I was doing it every single day, learning how to
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: do the paperwork. I mean that was one of the
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: things is we would help travelers ship their vehicles. So, yeah,
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Panama was cool to live right downtown. That was really
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: an experience that.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: What a neat city. Really cool, really really cool. Most
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: people have no idea how mod I remember I was
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: going downtown to meet with the ship or because we
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: were going to be shipping the vehicles from after we
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: went to the dairy and gap, and I remember going
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: downtown and there's like Porsche Cayenne, like oh yeah. It's
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: like people have no idea. They think it's Central America
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: and it's third world, like Panama City not third world. Yeah,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: I mean some of the buildings that are pretty crazy.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: I mean this was obviously before his President Trump has
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: like a massive casino and beautiful building, massive, there's sky rises. Yeah,
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: I mean it's it. It looks almost like Miami. It
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: really feels that way to me. But and of course,
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: yeah you get the Panama Canal and all of it.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: I never even saw. I never never time to go back.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: I never went to the to the locks. I lived
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: like a mile from the Miraflora's locks. It's that's how
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: it works. But there's there's kind of this traveler hangout.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: It's the uh say, it's a Balboa yacht club and
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: you can watch the boats.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's so good. I camped out there and that. Yeah, yeah,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: that's awesome. So then so you you were in Panama,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: then you ended up in Arizona for a little while,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: and then you moved internationally again, where did you go?
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: That's when I moved to Australia. There's a pit stop
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: in Pismo Beach there. That's when I'm right.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: I met Laura and Prescott and then she's a wildlife
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: biologist and she was working at Pismo Dunes. She's my
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: dune driver. I love driving in the dunes. But you know,
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: she day in, day out drove Pismo Dunes. She mastered it.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: She's a masterclass. Yeah, So when we moved to Australia,
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: and you know, I eventually moved on from that from
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: that magazine who I still write for. Still have a
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: great relationship with Pat Callanhan down there, and uh, you know,
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: it was cool to be able to do the Simpson
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: and just like throw her the keys and like Oh yeah,
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: this is the biggest, dude, here's big.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Right, I want to get some photos drive up at Yeah,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: I wish you'd get I wish you'd get stuck more.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: But that's awesome. So you were in Australia force, So
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: I lived.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: I lived in the Blue Mountains and made a lot
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: of you know, just really dear friends down there, you know,
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: people people I still talk to. Yeah, Australia is a
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: special place for me. I spend quite a bit of
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: time there obviously with with with my business and importing
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: a few product lines from down there. And it's really
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: still it feels like a second home to me. You know,
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: it doesn't it doesn't feel foreign. And you were there
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: for how long to was there for a little over
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: a year, and then I spend about a month or
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: two a year there, usually.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Sometimes less, sometimes more. And then you've all one of
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: your places. I've asked you before when you're what's your
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: favorite place to travel? And you really love Asia? What
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: love Southeast Asia? What's some of the upsides of Asia
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: for you?
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Overlanding for me is different, and I don't think
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: Overland has to be the same for everyone. I for
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, I had like zero money for the longest time,
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: and I still don't, still don't. But I realized, okay,
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: I didn't. I didn't have the money to buy a
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: several thousand dollars roof tent or a or an expensive
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: vehicle or the things. So I started going to Asia
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: because I could just fly in, rent a motorcycle or
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: rent a scooter and have an amazing adventure in a
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: culture that was mind blowing. Like if you think, if
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: you think Baja is a cultural experience, like I getting
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: lost without cell service in Vietnam on a scooter. There's
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: no way to communicate. I mean, like the alphabet's somewhat similar.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: But those are the experiences that I love. I love
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: feels wild, I love the travel. I mean we've we've
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: spent collectively probably a year traveling around around Southeast Asia.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: I'm lucky to kind of scam manage flight points a lot,
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: so we you know, we go there quite a bit. Unfortunately,
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: with with COVID, that's going to be Yeah, everything's on hold,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: a little bit of a hold, so but you know,
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: that's life.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Matt, thanks so much for answering some questions
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: and giving the listener a chance to learn a little
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: bit more about who you are. We could spend a
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: couple hours and of course.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: Complex, yeah, complex, varying and uh juxtapost.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And at only thirty, I can't imagine what the
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: next thirty years are going to you know, I'm excited
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: about life.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: I think after this this COVID thing is done, you know,
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: I hope people kind of come together and I think,
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: you know, for travelers, once the vaccine's out and everybody's
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: not paranoid about catching this thing, I hope it brings
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: people together. And I intend as soon as we're able
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: to travel, I'm going I'm going to go drive around
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: the world. I'm going to I'm going to do something
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: and you've got you've got a land cruiser to do it.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: And for those that are listening, you can you can
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: find Matt tell Us your Instagram here. So I'm Matt
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Explore on Instagram. I sporadically post. I occasionally find the Apenoid. Yeah,
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: but it's push notifications that.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: I And then you run adventure imports, Yeah, yeah, run
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Adventure Imports where the Max tracks M S A and
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: in deflate distributors for the United States. And of course
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: we're we're sharing that as information about Matt. We Matt
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: and I both have a very strong belief in identifying
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: any conflicts of interest, so we we we will always
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: disclose those in any of our any of our podcasts.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: But because it's about the reader and in this case
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: the listener, not about us.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Well, we thank you all so much for listening, and
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: we thank you all so much for learning a little
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: bit more about Matt. You can reach out to him
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: on Instagram if you've got additional questions, and we will
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: talk to you all next time. Take care, guys,