Latest / The MOOD Podcast / Living Without Boundaries; Josh Guvi, E055
Transcript
- 0:00Josh Guvi: I booked a ticket and I just left, but to be honest, I was really depressed.
- 0:07Matt Jacob: You know you're traveling around the world for going on two years or over two years?
- 0:11Matt Jacob: Yeah, You've obviously got to pay your way.
- 0:13Matt Jacob: Tell us how we can do something similar.
- 0:15Matt Jacob: What are the kind of the tips of the trade to actually pay our way around the world?
- 0:21Josh Guvi: The first eight months of my traveling, I don't think I made a dollar.
- 0:25Matt Jacob: Do you feel like there is still a problem with those audiences who kind of look at this Instagram world or TikTok world and think that it's real?
- 0:32Josh Guvi: Yeah, instagram, you know, gives money now for reels.
- 0:34Josh Guvi: But if you start to gain a following on social media, it doesn't necessarily equal money.
- 0:38Josh Guvi: I had a reel that had like 7 million views or something like that.
- 0:42Josh Guvi: The point is I made 36 cents.
- 0:43Josh Guvi: What?
- 0:43Josh Guvi: How?
- 0:44Josh Guvi: Seven million?
- 0:45Matt Jacob: views or something like that.
- 0:45Matt Jacob: The point is, I made 36 cents.
- 0:46Matt Jacob: What?
- 0:46Matt Jacob: How do you edit?
- 0:47Matt Jacob: Usually it starts with music.
- 0:48Matt Jacob: How does all of this translate?
- 0:48Josh Guvi: into money.
- 0:49Matt Jacob: So I can feel people wanting me to ask this question, so we're going to ask it.
- 1:02Matt Jacob: Josh Goovey, welcome to the Moo Podcast.
- 1:04Matt Jacob: Thanks so much for coming.
- 1:05Josh Guvi: Thank you, man Appreciate it.
- 1:06Matt Jacob: Good to have you.
- 1:07Matt Jacob: For what are you here, a couple of weeks in Bali?
- 1:10Josh Guvi: Yeah, I think three or four weeks until the next trip, yeah.
- 1:12Matt Jacob: That's probably quite a long time for you to be in one place.
- 1:15Matt Jacob: It seems it's amazing.
- 1:16Matt Jacob: Yeah, yeah.
- 1:17Josh Guvi: After three weeks it feels like weird.
- 1:19Josh Guvi: I feel like I need to get over that, because at some point in life I need to spend more than three weeks in one place.
- 1:24Matt Jacob: Before we get onto your history and kind of who you are, essentially, I'm more interested to kick things off by kind of asking you know why you are who you are Like?
- 1:37Matt Jacob: Why would, why do people follow you?
- 1:38Matt Jacob: Why do people would?
- 1:38Matt Jacob: They click on this podcast and want to hear more about you and what you want to say.
- 1:44Josh Guvi: Yeah, I feel like I still ask myself that question every day to an extent.
- 1:47Josh Guvi: I guess what I've like reasoned in my own head which who knows like the accuracy of that is I kind of took a different route that felt unique to me and I kind of pushed out the noise of what I felt like was going to do well, or what I felt like I should put out there if I was going to put stuff out online, and I followed a totally random path that just totally felt like me and I think that resonated with a lot of people and that's a really exciting thought for me.
- 2:14Josh Guvi: What was that path?
- 2:15Josh Guvi: Hmm, I guess you know traveling and life in general, because it's like I feel like it's so much more than traveling.
- 2:25Josh Guvi: Traveling is just a subsect for me.
- 2:26Josh Guvi: It makes you feel a lot of certain ways and I really focused on trying to find a way to communicate those feelings and, like those deep, deep personal thoughts and perspectives, Try to find a way to show those without kind of throwing my own story in people's faces and more so, you know being like, hey, maybe you feel this way, Like I took this route and I had this outcome and even though that's really personal to me.
- 2:54Josh Guvi: Maybe other people could resonate with that, Maybe that's something that can make an impact in their lives and, funny enough, a lot of people seem to have kind of similar experiences, similar lifestyles or similar routes that work for them, and I was like, oh, like yeah, it's because I I'm not unique.
- 3:07Josh Guvi: You know what I mean?
- 3:08Josh Guvi: It's just like some of us have a hard time outputting these things.
- 3:11Josh Guvi: Um, so, being able to take a medium like film or social media and like show those things, it's really cool.
- 3:20Matt Jacob: Where?
- 3:20Matt Jacob: Where did it all begin?
- 3:21Matt Jacob: How did you go back to, kind of, how you got into content creation, filmmaking, photography, social media, travel, all that kind of stuff that I guess we're trying to label you as?
- 3:33Matt Jacob: But where did all that come from?
- 3:35Josh Guvi: Oh, that's a big story with lots of different chapters.
- 3:38Josh Guvi: I guess there's like a bunch of different times in my life that all the pieces came together.
- 3:42Josh Guvi: The first thing is when I was a kid, I loved film.
- 3:45Josh Guvi: I loved storytelling, school projects that was always what I was opting for.
- 3:48Josh Guvi: I started like becoming an editor.
- 3:50Josh Guvi: I did like a lot of Adobe After Effects and I worked on like Star Wars fan films.
- 3:57Josh Guvi: It was like my job when I was 15.
- 3:59Josh Guvi: Cool, very random, somehow.
- 4:00Josh Guvi: That led into this.
- 4:01Josh Guvi: That kind of sparked the film thing.
- 4:06Josh Guvi: But reality set in.
- 4:06Josh Guvi: I kind of graduated high school.
- 4:07Josh Guvi: Obviously I couldn't afford film school I don't think a lot of people can and I studied economics for a long time because I was really passionate about people and change and I just really fell in love with different cultures and also working on things like different communities that are kind of more in need or people living different ways than I was, and so I studied economics that brought me a lot closer to that idea and that subject.
- 4:29Josh Guvi: After university, I think, like a lot of economics majors I was like I don't want to do this.
- 4:36Josh Guvi: This is a totally boring, kind of miserable, mathematics-focused lifestyle, although it was cool.
- 4:41Josh Guvi: So yeah, I worked in sales for a year and, like a lot of people that work in sales for a year, doing 200 cold calls a day, I was like I don't want to do this.
- 4:50Josh Guvi: I was like I think I had a bit of an existential crisis.
- 4:53Josh Guvi: I was probably around 22 at the time and so I kind of quit my job and went traveling for six months.
- 4:59Josh Guvi: I think I had like $5,000 in savings, which is not enough to travel for six months.
- 5:03Josh Guvi: I totally bummed it, backpacked, kind of did what a kid would do at the time.
- 5:09Josh Guvi: It absolutely changed my life.
- 5:10Josh Guvi: I went completely broke by the end of it.
- 5:14Josh Guvi: I had nothing.
- 5:15Josh Guvi: I kind of had to go back to Canada, move back with my parents.
- 5:17Josh Guvi: I'd lost my passport.
- 5:18Josh Guvi: They had to pay for my flight.
- 5:19Josh Guvi: It was a big crash disaster at the end.
- 5:21Josh Guvi: But I knew after that trip I was like, okay, I don't know how I'm going to get back to this or do this in a sustainable way, but no matter what happens in life from here, because you're 22 and a lot can change I figured how do I say like I knew I had a feeling in my heart during that chapter, like I had something in my life just clicked.
- 5:44Josh Guvi: It was the first time I felt like in life that I felt internally like wholesomely, like really, really happy.
- 5:50Josh Guvi: And of course there's highs and oxytocin and you know I can just be part of that spark.
- 5:54Josh Guvi: But I knew there was something special about that experience and I said, even if I spend my whole life trying to chase this feeling again, I just I just want to find this again.
- 6:02Josh Guvi: I really hope I do, because it was unique and I had never felt like anything like that before.
- 6:06Josh Guvi: And so the next you know seven years, I forgot what that felt like, but I remembered that.
- 6:13Josh Guvi: I reminded myself to chase it again.
- 6:15Josh Guvi: That's all I had.
- 6:16Josh Guvi: I just had the knowledge that there was something that I felt that was profound enough for me to spend the rest of my life chasing it.
- 6:23Josh Guvi: That's kind of like the measure that I had and I think that's like a lot of things in life, you don't always remember the feeling itself as much as you remember it meant something to you.
- 6:31Josh Guvi: So I kind of was on a whim and a lot of things changed throughout my 20s.
- 6:37Josh Guvi: When I went back to Canada.
- 6:38Josh Guvi: I had to finish my degree.
- 6:38Josh Guvi: So I finished it.
- 6:40Josh Guvi: I was bartending for a while no-transcript, I had to go after it and I was like getting close to 30, you know, I was like 28.
- 7:10Josh Guvi: And I was like damn.
- 7:11Josh Guvi: Like you know, I feel like it'd be a weird time to backpack the world at like 35.
- 7:15Josh Guvi: Like I kind of want to do this sooner than later and I don't know what I'm chasing, but I just remember I felt something that like I promised myself I'd go back after it.
- 7:22Josh Guvi: So at one point I tore a tendon in my chest.
- 7:25Josh Guvi: It kind of grounded me for a bit.
- 7:27Josh Guvi: I was like stuck in my apartment.
- 7:29Josh Guvi: I did a lot of thinking.
- 7:30Josh Guvi: I couldn't really like work out or be active.
- 7:32Josh Guvi: As soon as I could, I started to like run my stairwell.
- 7:35Josh Guvi: This is like Canadian winter, so you can imagine just, gray, you're stuck at home.
- 7:40Josh Guvi: Financially, I was stressed because I couldn't really work.
- 7:42Josh Guvi: That's how bad my arm was.
- 7:43Josh Guvi: And, yeah, I had nothing to do but think about like life and what I was going to do and I was like, okay, this is really shaking things up.
- 7:51Josh Guvi: It might be a good time for me to make a significant change.
- 7:53Josh Guvi: At the time in life.
- 7:54Josh Guvi: I had everything I thought I wanted.
- 7:56Josh Guvi: I had like what I felt like was a nice car.
- 7:58Josh Guvi: I had an apartment that I thought was super flashy in the downtown, with a great view I thought was super flashy in the downtown, with a great view and I just was not satisfied at all, you know, and the deeper I went into it, the more empty I kind of felt.
- 8:11Josh Guvi: I feel like that's a similar story for a lot of people.
- 8:12Josh Guvi: So I was like man, like ah, and I just remember this, this knock, you know what I mean From before and like from these experiences I had in the past, and I was like was that feeling?
- 8:21Josh Guvi: I was 22.
- 8:22Josh Guvi: I was like was that feeling?
- 8:23Josh Guvi: I was 22.
- 8:23Josh Guvi: I was like was that feeling like something genuine or was this just a one-time experience?
- 8:29Josh Guvi: But one day I was running my stairwell I think I was on like the fourth set or something like that Really really exhausted, and I got to the top and I just had this like feeling in my chest not even my head like really my chest was just like that's it Sell everything, just forget it.
- 8:47Josh Guvi: Push the reset button, forget the job, forget the items you have, forget the apartment and just go, even if you don't have a plan like, just do it, because if you don't do it now, you're never going to do it.
- 8:59Josh Guvi: You know life's only going to get more complicated.
- 9:02Josh Guvi: I didn't have a partner at the time.
- 9:03Josh Guvi: I was single.
- 9:04Josh Guvi: I guess like things that kind of reset because of my injury.
- 9:07Josh Guvi: So I felt like this was my only chance.
- 9:09Josh Guvi: I didn't have enough money to go travel the world freely, so I sold everything I had.
- 9:16Josh Guvi: I sold the car, I got rid of the apartment.
- 9:18Josh Guvi: I didn't own the apartment, I was renting it.
- 9:19Josh Guvi: I moved in with my friend.
- 9:21Josh Guvi: That was about like two hours outside the city.
- 9:22Josh Guvi: I slept on his couch for seven months.
- 9:24Josh Guvi: Yes, it sucked a lot.
- 9:27Josh Guvi: He let me work out of his office, so I was working basically like my job job during the day, which was, like you know, roughly eight hours, and then the next four or five hours, you know, until like midnight or one in the morning.
- 9:39Josh Guvi: I was working on like trying to figure out ways I could make money while traveling, with a focus on creating content, which felt so aimless and so difficult and such like such a mountain that I was never going to climb.
- 9:49Josh Guvi: But I was like I just got to try and I just went for it.
- 9:52Josh Guvi: After seven months I had enough money to like feel like I could do it, so I booked a ticket and I just left and that's kind of how it started.
- 10:01Josh Guvi: It wasn't a smooth journey from there and I feel like the content creation kind of came I wouldn't even say in the beginning of my trip like way more down the road, after I had a lot of realizations.
- 10:11Josh Guvi: But that's kind of the overall story that threw me into the rush, that made me kind of jump off the cliff and take the risk to pursue something that feels impossible and looks ridiculous from the outside.
- 10:22Josh Guvi: You know what I mean.
- 10:23Josh Guvi: It looks like one of those things that, like, people actually do that for work.
- 10:26Josh Guvi: There's no way that, like you know what I mean, this guy must've knew someone or had this experience.
- 10:29Josh Guvi: But yeah, I don't know, maybe I got lucky or maybe that's just what happens when you throw yourself towards your dreams.
- 10:36Matt Jacob: Wow, what a story.
- 10:38Josh Guvi: Fantastic.
- 10:39Matt Jacob: Well, thanks for sharing.
- 10:39Matt Jacob: I mean, I feel like some of the things you said that I'm like in one of your videos, just because of the way you talk.
- 10:44Josh Guvi: It's so inspirational.
- 10:45Josh Guvi: Naturally, this is going to feel like a real.
- 10:47Josh Guvi: Don't worry, we'll cut it up and you can use it as well.
- 10:52Matt Jacob: What about kind of the?
- 10:53Matt Jacob: I'm intrigued as that seven months, you know what you learned and how you learned it.
- 10:58Matt Jacob: In order to propel, we kind of get onto your content creation and your skills in a minute because I think they're paramount.
- 11:04Matt Jacob: But I'm more interested in like where that came from.
- 11:08Matt Jacob: You know, seven months of sleeping on your friend's couch is.
- 11:11Matt Jacob: There's a lot of soul searching there.
- 11:12Matt Jacob: There's a lot of tiredness and stress and what am I doing and where exact?
- 11:17Matt Jacob: Give me some specifics as to where you targeted your attention into.
- 11:21Matt Jacob: You know how I'm going to earn this extra bit of money, or is content creating a thing that I can do?
- 11:29Josh Guvi: I wish I could say that during that time it was like super healthy for me.
- 11:34Josh Guvi: I wish I could say that.
- 11:34Josh Guvi: But to be honest I was.
- 11:37Josh Guvi: I was really depressed, like those seven months.
- 11:40Josh Guvi: It was a hole.
- 11:41Josh Guvi: I just felt like you know, when you make a really big decision and then after you're like, oh, doubt it all the time.
- 11:48Josh Guvi: Yeah, oh, I did just do that.
- 11:50Josh Guvi: But you've already committed, you know, I guess maybe that's why I made that decision, because I knew I couldn't back out of it and it would be embarrassing Do you know what I mean For me to kind of crawl back to the life that I was coming from.
- 11:59Josh Guvi: So I felt hopeless A lot of the times I had been doing so many late nights I wasn't really sleeping a lot.
- 12:07Josh Guvi: Um, I don't think it was like physically, like a super healthy time.
- 12:12Josh Guvi: I didn't love living on my friend's couch, uh.
- 12:15Josh Guvi: But I will say the thing that I think the number one thing in that time that probably helped me.
- 12:22Josh Guvi: I wish I could say it was internal, but I'd really say like, the guy who I decided to live with is just an amazing soul.
- 12:29Josh Guvi: He's my best friend, incredibly positive person.
- 12:32Josh Guvi: Something about being around, his energy, like kept me going.
- 12:35Josh Guvi: You know what I mean.
- 12:36Josh Guvi: Like I feel like there's a lot of things in life that I can look at and I can be like.
- 12:39Josh Guvi: I think, like you know, having this person made that impact for me.
- 12:42Josh Guvi: He kept me going, even if it wasn't that it was him encouraging me, just being around him and, uh, being in an environment that I deemed like healthy in terms of the people I was around was so refreshing from the environment I was coming from.
- 12:54Josh Guvi: And uh, yeah, I don't know something about that.
- 12:57Josh Guvi: Just like, even though everything kind of sucked and, to be honest, like I was probably crying in my car at least one night a week, like I'd leave the office he was letting me work out of his office.
- 13:05Josh Guvi: It would be like one or two in the morning.
- 13:07Josh Guvi: I like call my dad cause he was in Philippines at the time, so the time changed, and then I hang up and I would just like have a cry in my car Cause I was like this sucks, like this part of life really sucks.
- 13:16Josh Guvi: I really hope that like something works out, because I don't like my life right now and uh, I now and uh, I didn't love it before, but it was better than this.
- 13:27Josh Guvi: So, yeah, I don't know like, uh, I think just having someone, even if it's one person and even if you don't know them that well, sometimes being around people who just like have that fire in their soul as well um, no matter what it's for or people that are just positive, like it, it can save you, because we can't always lean on ourselves.
- 13:41Matt Jacob: I feel like as much as we want to be able to, and you feel like you carry that persona forward as well, now into you know get that kind of energy comes across in in what you put out there.
- 13:51Matt Jacob: Certainly don't know if that's a natural thing or you that kind of emanated from that experience part of what came out on social media for me was I'm really like two different people.
- 14:02Josh Guvi: I feel like I'm actually like extremely introverted person, which people always have a hard time understanding, especially like they call my group trips and like you're so much less like aggressively social than I expected because they expect me to walk into the room and be like hey, anyways, yeah, exactly, but uh, I had been like.
- 14:19Josh Guvi: The person you see in my videos is the person that I was with my like closest, closest friends when I was like inspired.
- 14:30Josh Guvi: It was a piece of me that I didn't know how to share with people, except for the people I was really close with and those people kind of encouraged me on those points and like man, you have like some incredible thoughts or like incredible ideas, and I had some friends that were kind of somewhat similar and in those personal conversations it wasn't that they told me that you should be more outward with this.
- 14:45Josh Guvi: I just, I guess when it was just me and the camera, I was able to access that Um and that kind of dives into another story, which is cause I lived on that boat for so long and living on a sailboat really make you feel comfortable because you're not around like the outside world at all and you get pretty lonely.
- 15:02Josh Guvi: Um, you were on your own I wasn't on my own, but it was a group of five people, okay and the thing is like, even though a boat is small, you get a lot of alone time because, like, everyone is 100 going to be sick of each other.
- 15:14Josh Guvi: Um, so you're just kind of like a lot of the time that you're living on a boat, like whether you're doing a sailing shift from like 12 am to 4 am and no one's, no one's up, or whether it's just during the day and like someone's sailing and someone's doing something else, you do spend a lot of time alone.
- 15:27Josh Guvi: And uh, yeah, those that kind of gave me that opportunity to like find that in myself.
- 15:32Josh Guvi: And then all of a sudden, I was able to like emulate that in front of a camera, which felt weird at first, and I did it and I was like there's no way anyone is gonna like this.
- 15:42Josh Guvi: I like this is really stupid.
- 15:44Josh Guvi: This is like way too me, it's like way too personal.
- 15:46Josh Guvi: But I was like I put it as a story, like I didn't even think I was going to post it, and then some people were like, oh, you should share this as a real blah blah blah.
- 15:54Josh Guvi: And I was like really Like it's just me talking on a boat saying generic things.
- 16:00Josh Guvi: I say really generic things.
- 16:01Josh Guvi: You probably notice I don't say anything, like sometimes I might say something with a bit more depth to it, but I say a lot of really generic stuff that, like I feel like it's pretty common knowledge.
- 16:09Josh Guvi: And that's what I felt about this.
- 16:11Josh Guvi: It was like you know, if you haven't tried something, you should try it.
- 16:14Josh Guvi: But maybe it was the way that I said it or the way that it kind of connected to me as I said it, that people connected with and yeah, I posted that.
- 16:21Josh Guvi: And then it was just like, oh, everything started working.
- 16:28Josh Guvi: That was like four months into traveling.
- 16:29Josh Guvi: I hadn't had like any success in anything.
- 16:31Josh Guvi: I was like, all right, probably not gonna do social media.
- 16:32Josh Guvi: At that point I wasn't even thinking about it, so I was just kind of playing with it.
- 16:35Josh Guvi: At that point, um, I was like, whoa, okay, I guess this whole thing, this whole journey, was about me being myself in more scenarios.
- 16:47Josh Guvi: It was about me just being like, you know, taking what was in here and then just being outward with that.
- 16:52Josh Guvi: You know, it was like a form of therapy in a way.
- 16:55Josh Guvi: I was like ah, I see, the second.
- 16:59Josh Guvi: I stopped trying to be something else the second.
- 17:01Josh Guvi: I stopped trying to be the cool guy that like does all the things that you see, and I just did what felt natural to me.
- 17:08Josh Guvi: It just it was easy.
- 17:10Josh Guvi: And then I was like okay, I hope everyone gets a chance to do this in life.
- 17:14Josh Guvi: This is not social media per se.
- 17:16Josh Guvi: Just, you know, I felt like that's kind of what life is about.
- 17:19Josh Guvi: In a way, it's a piece of it.
- 17:20Matt Jacob: I haven't figured out the meaning, uh, but yeah, I was like I want to share that I think, uh, what comes across for me, anyway, is the the genuine nature of what you're saying.
- 17:31Matt Jacob: Right, it's not.
- 17:32Matt Jacob: If you try and box it into something that's educational, I wouldn't say it is, but it's highly inspirational like you say you're you're giving generic knowledge, but okay, maybe it is.
- 17:43Matt Jacob: Maybe you're not giving like specific pieces of advice, but that's not who you are.
- 17:47Matt Jacob: If you're speaking from the heart, which you seem to be doing in every video, and from a storytelling perspective, because you've been that person in that story, right, that's really what I think resonates people, because they see themselves in you.
- 17:59Matt Jacob: Right, they see themselves oh, if he can do it, I can do it.
- 18:02Matt Jacob: Or if he struggled with something, I'm struggling with something I can get through it right.
- 18:10Josh Guvi: So if he lived on a couch and cried in his car?
- 18:11Matt Jacob: yeah, I can live, everyone can live on a couch and cry in their car.
- 18:12Matt Jacob: Do you find that that is still a problem, though?
- 18:13Matt Jacob: With social media it's like you know, we want to put the best versions of ourselves out there all the time, because it's curated and we want to look good, and then we don't see the audience seeing, feeling, feeling the not envy, but the kind of oh well, he's doing something amazing.
- 18:27Matt Jacob: Why can't?
- 18:28Matt Jacob: Why can't?
- 18:29Matt Jacob: Why is it?
- 18:29Matt Jacob: Why isn't it working for me and why can't I do something amazing?
- 18:33Matt Jacob: I feel like you've connected those worlds, but do you find that that is always a problem?
- 18:39Matt Jacob: Certainly for photographers and filmmakers who want to, like, put out the best production content right and make it look amazing, but you don't see often the time, that hard work, the tears, the lack of money, the tiredness and the jet lag and all the kinds of stuff that goes with it.
- 18:54Matt Jacob: Do you feel like there is still a problem with those audiences who who kind of look at this Instagram world or TikTok world and think that it's real, almost, yeah, yeah, absolutely okay then, do you have a?
- 19:12Josh Guvi: do you feel like you have a?
- 19:13Matt Jacob: responsibility to at least like push the push, the reality of things absolutely this world is not real.
- 19:23Josh Guvi: like you mean.
- 19:23Josh Guvi: There's realities of it, but I mean I I use instagram as a message, you know, as a platform, and even TikTok, like we spoke about.
- 19:35Josh Guvi: I don't agree with necessarily what these platforms.
- 19:39Josh Guvi: That doesn't mean that you know what I mean.
- 19:40Josh Guvi: I am 100% of the nature of like this is.
- 19:46Josh Guvi: It's such a huge gray area and I feel like a lot of people's response is being like oh well, like you know, it's really just a reflection of yourself and those things are all true.
- 19:54Josh Guvi: But ultimately, like I do sometimes feel like it's a platform built on making us wish that we were living a different life, and I know that because I'm living the life that I always wanted since I was a kid.
- 20:07Josh Guvi: It doesn't mean I figured everything out.
- 20:09Josh Guvi: I got lots of stuff to figure out, but like I'm just really stoked about what I've got so far.
- 20:13Josh Guvi: It's awesome.
- 20:18Josh Guvi: Sometimes I still find myself being on Instagram being like, oh, like I you know what I mean Like that natural, like I swiped through something and there's that like, oh, I'm not good enough and I'm like every day, like it's built it is, that's what it does.
- 20:27Josh Guvi: I don't want to do that to people.
- 20:29Josh Guvi: You know what I mean.
- 20:30Josh Guvi: That sucks and I feel like it is.
- 20:34Josh Guvi: It's weird that the platform I'm not saying it's the intended purpose, it's just kind of like how our minds work Like the grass is always greener.
- 20:41Josh Guvi: But yeah, I really I guess a big part of me wants to.
- 20:47Josh Guvi: You know, that's a big part of like.
- 20:48Josh Guvi: What I want to focus on is like trying to sometimes pull down that curtain.
- 20:51Josh Guvi: For a lot of people it's it's about sharing more of the negatives in their life, so like showcasing more of like the bad things and things like that.
- 20:58Josh Guvi: Um, for me, the route is to be honest.
- 21:01Josh Guvi: I think if people watch my social media, they'll see that like it feels very personal, but I don't actually share anything about my personal life on social media.
- 21:08Josh Guvi: Um, it's just not my, like.
- 21:10Josh Guvi: I said I am introverted, funny enough and, uh, I don't share that much about, like you know, the inner workings or my friendships or things like that on there.
- 21:17Josh Guvi: Um, but I I like to have conversations around, you know.
- 21:21Josh Guvi: Let's just take a step back and like look at what this thing is, that like in reality.
- 21:26Josh Guvi: Um, and I try and break that barrier on Instagram once in a while and like, yeah, I think that's like a part of my bigger mission is trying to talk more about that because I think it's important.
- 21:35Matt Jacob: I think it is.
- 21:35Matt Jacob: I love it.
- 21:36Matt Jacob: I think your stuff is incredible and I'll go into why.
- 21:39Matt Jacob: I think that in a minute.
- 21:40Matt Jacob: But I'm more interested for now is why travel?
- 21:44Matt Jacob: I mean, you know, I ask photographers we'll get on to photography in a minute, but a lot of the times, why photography?
- 21:54Matt Jacob: What is it about this medium or this form of self-expression or whatever you want to kind of define, the travel bug or the travel experience, the curiosity?
- 22:02Matt Jacob: Essentially, what is it about travel for you that brings out the best in you and brings out a sense of fulfillment?
- 22:09Josh Guvi: That's a good question.
- 22:10Josh Guvi: I have like a quite a deep answer to that, because I've analyzed this a lot in myself, because it's a bit of part of my you know nature.
- 22:18Josh Guvi: I think that, um, growing up, uh, mixed, I'm mixed, my mom's white, my dad's black, he's from Africa, my mom's from Germany.
- 22:26Josh Guvi: I think that, growing up in the environment that I did, I grew up in a town where I was like a very definite minority, um and I've talked about this with a lot of mixed race people, you don't really have a place to belong.
- 22:42Josh Guvi: You know what I mean?
- 22:42Josh Guvi: It's like I'm not gonna go show up in zimbabwe.
- 22:45Josh Guvi: People can be like hey, you're back, like yeah, they're gonna be like just picture me not.
- 22:51Josh Guvi: Yeah, they're like you are a foreigner, like you don't look like us, you don't talk like us, yeah, and I do feel at home in canada, but also like I never felt like you know, I feel so at home in canada and around these people, but like ultimately, especially like you're like okay, I don't look like these people.
- 23:06Josh Guvi: I feel somewhat different, especially and that's why I say especially mixed race people, because they don't have like, oh, it's not like they can go back somewhere and at least look like everyone and then maybe learn the language.
- 23:14Josh Guvi: It's like no, there's nowhere where you're really gonna kind of click in.
- 23:16Josh Guvi: That's not a bad thing.
- 23:18Josh Guvi: You become a bridge, in my opinion, um, kind of between cultures, in between you know, like different uh opinions, but it made me feel very comfortable with the idea of kind of floating, because I never felt like I belonged somewhere.
- 23:33Josh Guvi: Do you know what I mean?
- 23:34Josh Guvi: And then it became this thing of trying to find that place that I belong and then realizing that like I didn't need to, um, I didn't need that to be something that I anchored to, but it just, I guess, gives you the flexibility and encourages you to go out and explore, because it's not like there's a big group of people that naturally, are just going to be like oh, you belong here, come back to us, uh, and then in that way, like not having that super deep connection with any specific place, allows you to just be more deeply connected in moments.
- 24:05Josh Guvi: You know what I mean and different places.
- 24:07Josh Guvi: So one thing I really really value is when I'm traveling and there's a community that kind of, I feel like opens up to me or like welcomes me, and I feel like you've probably had this experience like traveling too like like wow, I just rolled up to this village and I feel like I could just stay here.
- 24:21Josh Guvi: Like people are incredibly open.
- 24:23Josh Guvi: Um, that meant a lot to me and, uh, I think that's probably what like encouraged me to keep traveling more was like being able to capture that feeling in different places and not feeling ultimately attached to any of them allowed me to just kind of keep floating and keep moving and keep experiencing that in different ways and places.
- 24:39Matt Jacob: Do you still feel like, though, there is a deep-seated desire to belong somewhere, or to put roots down somewhere where you feel you know permanently connected for sure?
- 24:52Josh Guvi: I feel like I don't have a home right now.
- 24:56Josh Guvi: Um, absolutely I want one.
- 24:59Josh Guvi: Am I going to find a place that I feel connected to?
- 25:02Josh Guvi: That would be great.
- 25:03Josh Guvi: You know what I mean.
- 25:03Josh Guvi: It doesn't need to be culturally.
- 25:05Josh Guvi: I think like a big part of my traveling and why I started was like I want to find a new home.
- 25:08Josh Guvi: That's how I felt when I left can.
- 25:09Josh Guvi: I started was like I want to find a new home.
- 25:10Josh Guvi: That's how I felt when I left Canada.
- 25:11Josh Guvi: I was like I just want to.
- 25:11Josh Guvi: I want to live somewhere that's not here.
- 25:13Josh Guvi: I felt like I was meant to live somewhere else.
- 25:14Josh Guvi: I don't know where that is.
- 25:15Josh Guvi: I guess like I figured I would travel and one day I would just like find the spot and be like here it is, I'm, I arrived but like I don't know ends up.
- 25:24Josh Guvi: You know what I mean.
- 25:28Josh Guvi: Maybe I do all this and then realize home is where I started.
- 25:32Josh Guvi: Yeah, I don't know.
- 25:33Josh Guvi: You know what I mean.
- 25:33Josh Guvi: Like it could be a really interesting story.
- 25:35Josh Guvi: It also could be really not interesting.
- 25:38Josh Guvi: Maybe I'm just like all right, cool, like I found a spot worth a beach and that's where I decide I don Fantastic, where does photography fit in?
- 25:48Matt Jacob: and video?
- 25:49Matt Jacob: We talked about the kind of equipment you use.
- 25:51Matt Jacob: Where did that?
- 25:52Matt Jacob: I know you have some kind of technical background with acting voiceovers, you know the editing side of things and you kind of piece that all together and at some point during your travels you thought, oh I want to document this, or I want to create something cool out of this, because your content is not just you documenting stuff, it's no it's of value, there's a message and it looks and sounds incredible.
- 26:14Matt Jacob: So how did you, how did that come about?
- 26:17Josh Guvi: well, I sucked at it for a long time, at first as we do as we do yeah and uh.
- 26:24Josh Guvi: Yeah.
- 26:24Josh Guvi: I guess, like I always, once I had set on that path of, like you know, trying to push myself into my content, I I didn't feel really connected to doing it any specific way.
- 26:36Josh Guvi: I was like I want to find a unique way that just feels like me.
- 26:38Josh Guvi: So a lot of time that I spent learning, I spent not like consuming content.
- 26:44Josh Guvi: I didn't watch a lot of content.
- 26:45Josh Guvi: I didn't watch a lot of YouTube, I didn't watch a lot of Instagram.
- 26:47Josh Guvi: I kind of shut everything off and just started trying random things.
- 26:51Josh Guvi: I guess I don't know through doing it over and over again, and I actually think, for me, like I think my natural creative space is music.
- 27:02Josh Guvi: My grandma's a pianist.
- 27:04Josh Guvi: I like I used to play piano, in no way good at it.
- 27:06Josh Guvi: Just putting that out there, I just feel like somewhere in my heart I was a musician and for me it's always like I just find a song that makes me feel something, like I'm always just like on Spotify or like listen to music and I find a song that makes me feel, like, feel something, and it like brings all these memories and then I just write a voiceover down and that filters into everything.
- 27:25Josh Guvi: It filters into the film, it filters into the editing, it filters into the shots.
- 27:29Josh Guvi: Even when I shoot, I always have headphones on Um.
- 27:32Josh Guvi: I shoot alone a lot cause I solo shoot a lot, and I always am listening to music cause I feel like that's actually the driving force and everything.
- 27:38Josh Guvi: And when I'm making videos, I just feel like I'm dancing to the song.
- 27:41Josh Guvi: Or when I'm writing a voiceover, I usually have my headphones.
- 27:43Josh Guvi: In same thing, I feel like I'm dancing to the song more than anything else what was the last song that made you do that?
- 27:49Matt Jacob: oh?
- 27:49Josh Guvi: that's a good question.
- 27:50Josh Guvi: Um, yeah, I feel like I don't like I listen to all these songs and I have them, but I don't ever like remember the names.
- 27:58Matt Jacob: There's like a song that, like like a violin song I've been listening to, but I don't even know what it's called or like who the artist is do you just listen to like um random playlists or whatever spotify throws at you, or do you have set kind of like I'm going to go through this, or recommended songs?
- 28:12Josh Guvi: Usually it's random.
- 28:13Josh Guvi: Maybe I hear it on Instagram or through a radio.
- 28:17Josh Guvi: Usually I find a song that I like and then I kind of start the radio.
- 28:20Josh Guvi: I really like the soundtrack.
- 28:21Josh Guvi: Yeah, like you can do a radio.
- 28:24Matt Jacob: Yeah, spotify radio, not radio radio.
- 28:26Matt Jacob: People still listen to radio.
- 28:27Matt Jacob: I'm not 70.
- 28:27Matt Jacob: Yeah, no offense, people who still listen to radio.
- 28:31Matt Jacob: It's okay, my mom loves the radio.
- 28:33Josh Guvi: You can listen to the radio.
- 28:33Josh Guvi: You're kind of weird, but you can do it?
- 28:36Matt Jacob: um no, I think uh, you just choose a song and then you put the radio.
- 28:41Matt Jacob: Yeah, I do that all the time yeah, it just kind of throws out shit for me, though, but um, ah, there's a lot of garbage.
- 28:46Matt Jacob: Yeah, you gotta sit through crap, yeah.
- 28:48Josh Guvi: I really love the soundtrack to everything everywhere all at once, but the 824 movie.
- 28:52Josh Guvi: I haven't used any of those songs, but I don't know.
- 28:54Josh Guvi: Those songs make me feel very inspired, maybe because I connect it to the movie, which is like that's like probably my favorite movie, yeah.
- 29:04Matt Jacob: It's a great film.
- 29:04Matt Jacob: It part of what you do and you know we don't really talk about music that much, but I think it's part of it's integral to so many creators, creators, lives and inspiration, right yeah.
- 29:14Matt Jacob: Let's flip it, though.
- 29:15Matt Jacob: Who do you think that you are singing to and who do you think you are speaking to when you, when you're creating content and, more importantly, when you're posting it, you know who is that avatar, who is that audience that you are aiming your stuff at, if at all.
- 29:30Josh Guvi: That's the trick.
- 29:31Josh Guvi: I feel like I'm speaking to myself.
- 29:32Josh Guvi: Yeah, yeah, big misconception.
- 29:33Josh Guvi: Josh figured this out.
- 29:35Josh Guvi: He's sharing the knowledge Reality.
- 29:37Josh Guvi: Josh is telling himself this is what he needs to learn.
- 29:42Josh Guvi: You know what I mean?
- 29:43Josh Guvi: I really do feel like all the conversations I'm having are me telling myself that, and I guess the avatar is people who kind of have felt lost in the ways that I've felt lost and then kind of like felt found.
- 29:58Josh Guvi: But after learning the lesson, I kind of immediately repeated to myself to solidify what it was that's 100%.
- 30:05Josh Guvi: Everything that I talk about is just things that I'm it's a very, very implicit derivative of something I'm going through at the time.
- 30:11Josh Guvi: So if you really, like you know, kind of decoded everything, you'd be able to be like, okay, something's going on in his life to do with this subject or this subject.
- 30:19Josh Guvi: A hundred percent, it's me talking to myself.
- 30:21Josh Guvi: It's almost a journal of sorts in a weird way.
- 30:24Matt Jacob: Yeah, it sounds like how you started it as well was kind of almost a diary entry that popped off yeah, yeah, diary video entry.
- 30:30Josh Guvi: It took me a while to realize that too, and I was like, oh, like, I see what's going on yeah, people really resonate with that, that kind of stuff.
- 30:37Matt Jacob: And then you throw in the artistic aesthetics and you've got to, you got to win it yeah, it's fun.
- 30:42Josh Guvi: yeah, it's fun to combine those things and I think, like the visuals and creativity of filmmaking or photography, like, oh man, when you can connect that to an emotion to you, you know, without context it's beautiful.
- 30:53Josh Guvi: Then you can kind of create a context and then it's just become something even more, and I love being able to do that.
- 31:01Josh Guvi: Sometimes it's just as much as like the expression on someone's face.
- 31:04Josh Guvi: And then you tell the story, to kind of drive into that.
- 31:06Josh Guvi: It just feels like something you know, even if it's like an iPhone video.
- 31:10Josh Guvi: I like to shoot on a camera but you know it's not necessary.
- 31:12Josh Guvi: I don't know Like that's cool.
- 31:15Matt Jacob: to me it really excites me With all of these messages.
- 31:17Matt Jacob: What is it?
- 31:17Matt Jacob: Is there a common theme or common message that you're trying to portray and, if so, how do you think that evolves over time?
- 31:27Josh Guvi: Yeah, I think it started, as you know.
- 31:29Josh Guvi: I think that story of me kind of like jumping off cliff's edge and taking a risk Not literally- yeah, not really Don't do that.
- 31:39Josh Guvi: Yeah, no, no, it probably started as that and now I feel like it's morphed into something else.
- 31:46Josh Guvi: That is a big part of my message still, but I feel like I'm past that part of my message still, but I feel like I'm past that part of my life.
- 31:51Josh Guvi: You know, like I'm I'm far out now, like I mean it was way, way away from taking that risk, um, so, yeah, I guess now a lot of it is trying to come back to the basics and I really focus a lot on human connection.
- 32:06Josh Guvi: It's like a big driver in my, uh, my reels, my work, I guess, and the storytelling that I do, um, trying to drive home messages about connecting with people.
- 32:16Josh Guvi: And once again, like I say, I'm talking to myself, that's because I actually don't naturally connect with people.
- 32:22Josh Guvi: Very often I'm very like right, solitude, work, work, work.
- 32:25Josh Guvi: And I have to remind myself it's always in these like small moments when I'm traveling and you know what I mean I have these like small interactions, like, oh, like I'm totally like bypassing the most important part of life.
- 32:35Josh Guvi: For when I go to my grandma's house and we play piano together, you know what I mean.
- 32:39Josh Guvi: It's like I it's only in those moments you realize you miss out on them.
- 32:43Josh Guvi: So human connection is probably a really big piece of what I do, and just like taking a risk in your career and your life, which is also something I talk a lot about.
- 32:53Josh Guvi: I think taking a risk in people and like putting your heart on the line, you know, not just in the context of uh, romantic relationships obviously that matters too but just friendships or connections like deep connections.
- 33:06Josh Guvi: It's really hard for us, um, it's hard for me a lot of the time to like, feel like I'm putting myself out there.
- 33:11Josh Guvi: Even though I do it on Instagram, it still feels different in person, which is weird, but it's a thing.
- 33:16Josh Guvi: Yeah, taking those risks on people I feel like is really important.
- 33:21Josh Guvi: I feel like that's a big part of my message at the moment and just trying to remind people that like it doesn't matter if someone's an instagrammer or filmmaker or you know, like this cool person in the limelight or someone's like some seven-year-old dude that like carves bamboo in his village.
- 33:37Josh Guvi: Like people are people.
- 33:39Josh Guvi: They're like oh, so, so, so awesome, and you tend to meet the coolest people in the weirdest places.
- 33:45Josh Guvi: You know what I mean, because it's it's always the people that are not trying to be an avatar that like have this incredible depth and this connection with themselves and, like you know, I'm sure you can relate that when you meet someone that is like fully, fully being themselves, it is like empowering.
- 34:00Josh Guvi: You're like, oh my gosh, I had a taxi driver in New Zealand, I don't know, she was like 60.
- 34:05Josh Guvi: And she just, I don't know like she just made me excited about life and like being around her was this like infectious energy because like she's like, she was her, she just was her totally unforgivingly like.
- 34:18Josh Guvi: She just like was connected with, like the flow of life.
- 34:21Matt Jacob: And uh yeah, you find those people in the weirdest places, yeah, wonderful, and often they're with the most simple, without sounding condescending.
- 34:28Matt Jacob: They often have the most simple of lives.
- 34:29Matt Jacob: Absolutely, you know they have, and this is why barley is, uh is so special for me is because it's full of those people that, yeah, yeah, there's people struggling, we're all struggling with things every day, but they seem to have.
- 34:40Matt Jacob: These people have peace, this inner peace, how they cultivate that over time, whether it's through spirituality or something more rational, but, um, I think that's, that's the essence of everything, isn't it?
- 34:53Matt Jacob: the human connection is, uh, I I have to remind myself that all the time when you spend 10 hours behind a laptop, hang on a minute.
- 35:01Matt Jacob: You know.
- 35:03Matt Jacob: There's one, one reason why I absolutely adore photography because it gets me a connection with another human 100, and that's the beauty of photography for me and for in a selfish no, I totally agree with you.
- 35:14Josh Guvi: It forces you into the environment and you know, when you've been editing for a long time and you, like, you're just like I just want to get all this stuff, you don't even.
- 35:20Matt Jacob: Sometimes you want to go on shoots because you're trying to like churn out all this other stuff you don't need.
- 35:23Matt Jacob: You don't focus on anything else and you're enjoying it.
- 35:25Josh Guvi: But then, like you go out and like, do so, like you do a shoot that forces you to be around people and genuinely connect with them.
- 35:31Josh Guvi: Otherwise it's never going to be as good if you can't create a genuine feeling and you're like oh yeah, I forgot about this.
- 35:37Josh Guvi: I'm so lucky that I have a job that forces me to do that, because it's easy to forget to do it.
- 35:40Matt Jacob: So how do you balance that, or how do you remind yourself the balance between being and becoming right it's being in the moment versus productivity, moving forward, evolving, you know, making money and working and that kind of self-development all the, all the stuff we get inundated with these days and overwhelmed with how.
- 36:01Matt Jacob: How do you find and I'm not saying you do it perfectly, maybe you do, maybe you don't.
- 36:05Matt Jacob: I feel like we all struggle with that.
- 36:07Matt Jacob: There is no answer, but how do you manage it's?
- 36:10Josh Guvi: a really good question.
- 36:11Josh Guvi: That is like on my mind a lot.
- 36:13Josh Guvi: You know what I mean.
- 36:14Josh Guvi: That's like one of these things that like maybe I'm not making reels about it right now because I haven't figured it out, yeah, but I'm like, okay, once you take that risk, make the jump, do the things, start doing something in life you're really excited about.
- 36:24Josh Guvi: You realize, you know, once you find the thing, if you're lucky enough to find the thing that you love in life, it's really hard to not do it all the time.
- 36:32Matt Jacob: Yeah, really hard, and then you end up resenting, not doing it all the time.
- 36:36Matt Jacob: Yeah, and then you become grumpy, yeah, and then you become frustrated, yeah, and then you lose perspective.
- 36:41Matt Jacob: The opportunity cost, you know.
- 36:43Josh Guvi: And then you scroll through Instagram and you're like oh this guy is getting really good, while I'm like spending time with people, I care about like it's really it can get so toxic so fast.
- 36:54Josh Guvi: So I don't know.
- 36:55Josh Guvi: I guess, like the first step is being like aware of which.
- 36:57Josh Guvi: I feel like most of us are super self-aware of that.
- 37:00Josh Guvi: I am really, really lucky in that the nature of the jobs that I've been doing recently so forcefully puts you in the moment, uh, that I don't necessarily have a choice all the time.
- 37:11Josh Guvi: Like I was in Madagascar a couple of weeks ago and we were doing a motorbike exhibition across Madagascar and, yeah, like I was terrified.
- 37:20Josh Guvi: These guys are like professional motocross racers and I'm trying to like follow them with my camera on my back and on my chest and like I didn't, like, you know, I'm just thrown to.
- 37:30Josh Guvi: Like you know, I don't have a choice but to be super, super present during those types of trips.
- 37:34Josh Guvi: And I also like host group trips that are hyper social and I don't really focus on shooting during those times.
- 37:39Josh Guvi: So I'm really lucky that, like I have these moments that force me into the moment outside of that, when I'm in places like this and I have my free time and I get to work as much as I want to Ooh, it's a big, it's a big problem.
- 37:51Josh Guvi: I work way too much, it's it's.
- 37:53Josh Guvi: I'm still figuring that out for sure.
- 37:55Josh Guvi: I have a hard time pulling myself out of it, even for one hour.
- 37:58Josh Guvi: It feels weird, so yeah.
- 38:00Matt Jacob: What do you do around that in terms of um?
- 38:02Matt Jacob: I don't know how do you call it Self-development?
- 38:04Matt Jacob: Or health practice, you know, do you have a routine, Do you?
- 38:07Matt Jacob: You know what do you do to at least aid in that Fitness?
- 38:11Josh Guvi: for sure, is like my, my route.
- 38:13Josh Guvi: I feel like that's just like reminiscent on.
- 38:15Josh Guvi: I was into fitness since I was a kid, so it's been like something that I'm really comfortable doing.
- 38:20Josh Guvi: So fitness and I try and just go watch the sunset, I mean that's so simple.
- 38:28Josh Guvi: It's so simple and it's like kind of like that's like the out of the book thing, it's like, but it actually works.
- 38:32Josh Guvi: That's why it's a thing, Uh.
- 38:34Josh Guvi: So yeah, you know, like between working out and then just kind of like watching a sunset, either with friends or on my own.
- 38:41Josh Guvi: I like to do stuff on my own too, I like both.
- 38:42Josh Guvi: Uh, but yeah, that that helps a lot.
- 38:46Matt Jacob: I do, we, uh, I make the mistake all the time.
- 38:49Matt Jacob: I'll come home around six ish, sun setting at six six 15.
- 38:52Matt Jacob: And we're very fortunate in our villa it kind of we look out and the sun sets behind the rice fields and it.
- 38:58Matt Jacob: You know, it is incredible, but I will.
- 39:00Matt Jacob: So many times I've caught myself looking oh yeah, that's nice, back to it, right, yeah, and it's, it's just toxic, is it?
- 39:06Matt Jacob: You know, what are you actually going to get done in those 10 minutes that you Not do or push somewhere else?
- 39:12Josh Guvi: And just be totally present, yeah.
- 39:14Matt Jacob: No, I've got to get this done.
- 39:14Matt Jacob: I've got to get this done.
- 39:15Josh Guvi: It's ruthless.
- 39:16Josh Guvi: That's why it's like I feel like you know, I had that when I had my apartment like where you have like the view and you're like sweet, now I don't have to go somewhere for sunset and you're watching at home.
- 39:29Matt Jacob: You're like, oh yeah, I needed to go somewhere.
- 39:31Matt Jacob: Take a, might never have again.
- 39:33Josh Guvi: So weird Cause it's like one hour out of your day and you're going to spend that scrolling anyways.
- 39:37Josh Guvi: You know what I mean, uh.
- 39:38Josh Guvi: So, yeah, that's like an internal struggle.
- 39:40Josh Guvi: It's amazing how, how hard that can be, but I think there's so many ways to like.
- 39:47Josh Guvi: I've been really into breathwork at times in my life.
- 39:48Josh Guvi: Um, I'm not right now.
- 39:48Josh Guvi: It's kind of like something I do in and out of Uh, but when I decided to go on my trip, I was doing a lot of breath work at the time.
- 39:53Josh Guvi: I feel like that's an amazing way to be more present, but at the same time, everyone, everyone's like looking for that one answer like oh, this is the thing you gotta do, like breath work or this, but there's a million ways.
- 40:05Matt Jacob: So many ways.
- 40:06Matt Jacob: It's just difficult now because of social media podcasts.
- 40:09Matt Jacob: Yeah, you know, information overload every day, right?
- 40:12Matt Jacob: So, oh, we need to be doing this.
- 40:13Matt Jacob: But I also need to be doing this, and I said this to my best mate, who's here uh, the other week, if you listened and actually took the advice of everything you saw and heard, you wouldn't have a day you'd be doing it all day, the morning, everything all day.
- 40:28Josh Guvi: Have you ever done like the whole, been like okay, you know what I'm gonna do in the morning routine.
- 40:31Josh Guvi: I'm gonna journal, I'm gonna have the coffee.
- 40:32Matt Jacob: At this time I'm not gonna eat like my protein at this time.
- 40:34Matt Jacob: Exercise, meditate journal, cold plunge sauna, whatever it is, watch the sun right.
- 40:39Josh Guvi: Whatever you know, before we know it it's 2 pm yeah, there's, yeah, you have nothing, and then it's like you got sunset in like you know three hours, and that's it.
- 40:47Matt Jacob: So you know I need to.
- 40:48Matt Jacob: I need to be social, so maybe I need to go out for a drink.
- 40:50Matt Jacob: And if you're married or you got a partner, it's like, well, I need to.
- 40:52Matt Jacob: I need to make sure I have quality time with them.
- 40:54Matt Jacob: Before you know, it's bedtime a hundred percent.
- 40:56Josh Guvi: so life is about sacrifices and I I believe there's chapters, there's times where you can't like if there's something that you're trying to achieve, you might not be able to have the perfect balance during that time.
- 41:08Josh Guvi: But I guess what's important is you need to recognize that that's a chapter and not a book and if you let that a book, you will ruin your life in the long run doing what you thought would make it amazing.
- 41:19Josh Guvi: So that's difficult, but also I think it's also recognizing that you know as much as social media tells us all these ways, which I think most of those ways are amazing, like that's where I probably found out about breathwork.
- 41:28Josh Guvi: There's a lot of ways like I guess that's what the traveling and meeting different people makes you realize, and you know, being in bali and meeting locals here, like they're not doing morning routine you know, I mean not explicitly like looking at, like that they're not doing cold plunges and things like that they're finding more natural ways or ways that are like familiar in their environments to be present.
- 41:46Josh Guvi: And that's the thing.
- 41:47Josh Guvi: You don't have to find a specific way to do it, you could just.
- 41:50Josh Guvi: It just matters like my grandma she plays piano or she goes to church.
- 41:55Josh Guvi: I, I don't know, like, do you know what I mean?
- 41:56Josh Guvi: There's a million different ways and like there's the cool ways and like the modern way, but it doesn't mean everyone has to do it that way.
- 42:02Josh Guvi: You could do something really silly, 100%, but as long as, like, you were really present in that time and ideally you're not looking at a screen, but maybe you are, I don't know.
- 42:17Matt Jacob: But like I, reading books for thousands of years.
- 42:18Matt Jacob: Yeah, you know my wife's great with that she'll sit in the corner of a room and just read a book.
- 42:20Matt Jacob: Yeah, let's just do that, even if it's for 15 minutes.
- 42:22Josh Guvi: Switch off, be present, yeah, that's.
- 42:24Matt Jacob: All we have is the present moment it's so difficult to balance direction forward and productivity with, oh, the only thing we have in life which is right now.
- 42:34Matt Jacob: It's so hard, it's so hard, it's so hard.
- 42:37Josh Guvi: And the curse is, if you find what you love and you love what you do, it becomes infinitely harder, yeah, yeah.
- 42:43Josh Guvi: Because, like then, it's not like.
- 42:44Josh Guvi: Oh, like you know, I remember the days where I used to work like nine to five in like an office and I'd be like five would hit, be like boom, it's gone.
- 42:52Josh Guvi: I didn't care, I was like it's not my business, it's not my problem anymore.
- 42:55Josh Guvi: From nine to five is my problem.
- 42:56Josh Guvi: After that it's not.
- 42:57Josh Guvi: And I think there's also beauty to that life.
- 42:59Josh Guvi: Do you know what?
- 43:00Josh Guvi: I mean, and that's why I'm really big on not like.
- 43:02Josh Guvi: I think it's really amazing to find what you love doing in life, but you don't have to.
- 43:11Matt Jacob: You can have an amazing life.
- 43:12Josh Guvi: Hey, you might even have have your routine, um, I think, like just happiness and being present, so all that really matters, uh.
- 43:19Josh Guvi: So yeah, if you can do that better, working nine to five hey, good for you.
- 43:22Matt Jacob: I got friends who are wrong with that and I think there's a lot of pressure, especially on young people these days, that they see all these online entrepreneurs and all these people that you know digital nomads and stuff, which is which is such an amazing way to to live a life for some people.
- 43:36Matt Jacob: It doesn't mean that everyone it's going to be right for everyone or that everyone can do it, or you know so absolutely.
- 43:44Matt Jacob: There's so much crap out there about you know.
- 43:46Matt Jacob: You don't have to be nine to five, you go and do your own things, like some people like nine to five, they'd like leaving work at work and just switching off and going to the pub at the weekends and doing what they want to do, but as long as they're able to yeah, be present in that moment, actually enjoy it for the right reasons, I think I can.
- 44:04Josh Guvi: It can be beautiful if you're doing it the right way.
- 44:06Josh Guvi: And, uh, I would say I.
- 44:08Josh Guvi: You know, I spend a lot of time in bali.
- 44:10Josh Guvi: I meet a lot of different people.
- 44:11Josh Guvi: I meet a lot of people that are like in their thing, they're in their flow and they're super happy.
- 44:13Josh Guvi: I also meet a lot of people that are like in their thing, they're in their flow and they're super happy.
- 44:15Josh Guvi: I also meet a lot of people that are just like you know.
- 44:17Josh Guvi: Maybe they're happy but like I guess the message is like, just being in Bali doesn't make your life immediately better.
- 44:21Josh Guvi: I have a friend who's an accountant.
- 44:23Josh Guvi: One of my best friends is an accountant, that is, I am just, you know, no offense to accounts, but that might be the world's most boring job.
- 44:29Josh Guvi: I know this because him and I talk about tax a lot.
- 44:33Josh Guvi: He's become incredibly useful now, you know, like five years ago.
- 44:36Josh Guvi: They're extremely useful, but fucking boring.
- 44:39Josh Guvi: Yeah, Five years ago, like you know, we all made fun of his job.
- 44:42Josh Guvi: Now it's like you know, he's like the guy you call all the time.
- 44:45Josh Guvi: He is the happiest guy, One of the happiest people I know, and I would say that he's considerably happier than a lot of people I meet in Bali.
- 44:51Josh Guvi: I, I meet in Bali.
- 45:01Josh Guvi: I also meet a lot of happy people in Bali, but like it's just like it didn't matter.
- 45:01Josh Guvi: Do you know what I mean?
- 45:02Josh Guvi: He just set his priorities.
- 45:02Josh Guvi: He never work was never his full thing.
- 45:03Josh Guvi: He just he actually like always focused on relationships and doing things and like going out and spending time with friends and family, and it made a huge difference in his life.
- 45:09Josh Guvi: Like the guy is genuinely really happy.
- 45:11Josh Guvi: So it doesn't really matter what you end up doing.
- 45:13Josh Guvi: Absolutely, I tell people go chase your dreams, because I love it.
- 45:16Josh Guvi: That works for me.
- 45:17Josh Guvi: But I also want to make sure I'm not telling people this is the only way to be happy.
- 45:20Matt Jacob: It's not Well, your dream could be that life.
- 45:23Matt Jacob: My father-in-law was exactly the same accountant for 40, 50 years, lived in the same town for 40, 50 years.
- 45:30Matt Jacob: Joined the same sports clubs everyone in the everyone knows, and he's the happiest guy.
- 45:36Matt Jacob: He loves it and I I'm jealous.
- 45:39Matt Jacob: Yeah, good, good for you it's awesome, like awesome.
- 45:42Matt Jacob: Yeah, it's more simple than we think sometimes, and being here and meeting locals like you, it reminds you that yeah, tell us a little bit about your process and without maybe giving away trade secrets certainly when it comes to the, the making videos, making of images, how you go about doing that, both technical and more conceptual, tell us a little bit about, okay.
- 46:02Josh Guvi: I've got this idea.
- 46:03Matt Jacob: What happens then?
- 46:05Josh Guvi: So usually it starts with music.
- 46:07Josh Guvi: I find a song I really really love.
- 46:10Josh Guvi: It sparks an idea, even if I don't end up editing to that song.
- 46:12Josh Guvi: Maybe that song inspires me to think about something, or it starts with an experience.
- 46:16Josh Guvi: But always it's during the off time that I think about it.
- 46:20Josh Guvi: Like I feel like if you don't take time to actually like digest a memory, it's hard to make any reason of it.
- 46:25Josh Guvi: Like if you just keep going, going, going all the time, then you're not going to think too much about what it meant to you.
- 46:30Josh Guvi: Uh, so during those times that I'm reflecting or listening to music, I usually will have an idea.
- 46:35Josh Guvi: I guess an example like I made a reel about going to a boring town in Japan.
- 46:44Josh Guvi: I didn't really realize what it meant to me until like a couple of weeks later and I was listening to a song and I was like damn, like I think that that meant a lot to me because it was a lonely place and I didn't feel like accepted in that country.
- 46:52Josh Guvi: And then, like this 80 year old guy really made my day, probably made my month actually, and uh, so feeling inspired and genuinely inspired is always the start of any good story or any good photo, I feel like, uh, that's like you know that feeling inside where you know you have like something to tell.
- 47:10Josh Guvi: And then usually I'll write like a script, uh, based on that, not in any specific way, not using any specific app, not using any you know special like AI, just in my notes app, and it looks like crap and if you were to read it over, you'd probably be like this is a terrible script.
- 47:26Josh Guvi: Most of the things I say it's not about what I'm saying, it's more about how I say it.
- 47:29Josh Guvi: And then yeah, and then I kind of start building out what that's going to look like.
- 47:35Josh Guvi: So usually I try and capture, especially like the Japan thing.
- 47:38Josh Guvi: I was capturing it because I knew it meant something.
- 47:41Josh Guvi: I didn't know what it meant at the time, but I was like, okay, I want to capture this experience.
- 47:46Josh Guvi: In terms of the technicalities of capturing those things, I feel like it's you're thinking about a lot of things like composition and lighting, obviously, and exposure.
- 47:53Josh Guvi: You're thinking about a lot of things like composition and lighting, obviously, and exposure, but also, depending on what you're capturing and the story behind it, sometimes you have more or less flexibility and like what the outcome, where it's kind of meant to lay, and sometimes you're capturing images just because it looks great.
- 48:09Josh Guvi: Yeah, that's pretty fun too, to be honest.
- 48:11Josh Guvi: You know what I mean.
- 48:11Josh Guvi: So those usually will fill.
- 48:13Josh Guvi: You can use those later on for different things.
- 48:17Josh Guvi: But yeah, I'd say it starts with that inspiration and then you don't need a lot, but kind of having a couple specific pieces of gear with you is super, super handy, depending on how you want to capture things.
- 48:27Josh Guvi: So, chaz, well, for me it's my camera.
- 48:31Josh Guvi: I guess like I'm getting more technical.
- 48:32Josh Guvi: I'm like a really big, really, really big.
- 48:34Josh Guvi: I like only like to shoot on primes.
- 48:37Josh Guvi: I don't like zoom lenses.
- 48:39Josh Guvi: That's like I don't know.
- 48:41Josh Guvi: You know what I mean.
- 48:42Josh Guvi: That's just like one of those.
- 48:43Matt Jacob: Well, they know it's good.
- 48:44Josh Guvi: Yeah, it's one of those things that you know some people be like yeah, some people like no.
- 48:47Josh Guvi: And yeah, I have my Sony a7S camera, just because you have a ton of versatility with light and usually you're gonna have really bad lighting and a lot of cool scenarios, um, or a lot of scenarios that mean something.
- 49:04Josh Guvi: So, yeah, I guess, like I'm trying to think if I'm there's so many different things that I shoot because, like some client work I shoot is like so different than what I put on my instagram, so sometimes it's hard to go about that process.
- 49:13Josh Guvi: But feeling inspired, listening to music is probably the mainstay for me, and if I can't listen to music at the time while I'm shooting, I have a song in my head.
- 49:21Josh Guvi: Being present in a place to really does make you a better shooter, in my opinion.
- 49:27Josh Guvi: Really hard to do.
- 49:28Josh Guvi: Sometimes.
- 49:29Josh Guvi: You know, when you're like at that rush of shooting and it's like, oh the sun's going down yeah, but if you can like take a breath and be there, hear the sounds, see the environment.
- 49:41Josh Guvi: When I was in nepal, this was like in the himalayas.
- 49:43Josh Guvi: I felt like this a lot, like I would just be like okay, like I just want to be here for a second and then I'm like whoa, this place is pretty cool and like I just noticed something about that bird or this tree that, like is not necessarily the obvious, like there's the mountain shot, you know what I mean.
- 50:00Josh Guvi: Um, even the sound of things, or like the hecticness of a city, interacting with people in that city.
- 50:05Josh Guvi: You just allowing yourself to be in the environment gives you the ability to shoot it from your perspective better.
- 50:13Josh Guvi: But once again, there's that balance.
- 50:16Josh Guvi: You know what I mean.
- 50:17Josh Guvi: But you know, getting there and doing that is maybe what's addicting about travel, photography and film is that you end up in some environments that force you to be present.
- 50:26Josh Guvi: You don't have a choice in a lot of these places.
- 50:30Josh Guvi: You know what I mean.
- 50:30Josh Guvi: It's pretty hard to roll up to some super hectic market and like be completely tuned out.
- 50:35Josh Guvi: So, yeah, I'd say that the process, you know it starts with the music, it starts with the inspiration, um, but when I'm kind of on location, if I'm shooting something, it also dives into being present.
- 50:47Josh Guvi: But a big thing about my style is so much of it is in the edit, yeah, yeah.
- 50:53Josh Guvi: So I feel like being inspired during that creative process is really important to you, because that's probably where most of the things I do happen is in the edit, and that's where I kind of piece all these things together and make them mean something, uh, bigger than maybe what they originally did how do you edit?
- 51:08Matt Jacob: tell us, tell us some little tips yeah editing.
- 51:12Josh Guvi: I mean, we talked off air, but your audio is is on point, thanks you gotta give us some tips on that okay, yeah, so audio weirdly not my favorite microphone to use outside of.
- 51:22Josh Guvi: Like I use a rode studio mic which is like not that like groundbreaking of a mic but sounds really good to me.
- 51:29Josh Guvi: Maybe just works really well with my voice.
- 51:31Josh Guvi: Um, and like a lot of my reels, like I talk into my iphone and have really I have like $500 wireless mics and they're great, but sometimes I find the iPhone audio better, which is really embarrassing to say.
- 51:43Josh Guvi: But like voice memo on iPhone sounds really really good, especially if you just use like a D noise and like a compressor.
- 51:50Josh Guvi: It just I don't know.
- 51:51Josh Guvi: It's great, you just kind of learn where to hold it.
- 51:52Josh Guvi: You also, when it's too windy, like you have to be aware of these things, but it's not.
- 51:56Josh Guvi: It's not that hard to get great audio.
- 51:59Josh Guvi: I guess you know what I mean.
- 52:01Josh Guvi: As long as you're willing to be holding your phone and like it's funny, because sometimes people comment on my videos be like he's not present, look he's.
- 52:06Josh Guvi: He's like so gripped to his phone he doesn't even want to let go of it for the shoot and I'm like no, no, that's like, that's my microphone really people yeah, everything you know there's, there's everything there is everything, yeah the trolls, yeah, and then I yeah for editing.
- 52:22Josh Guvi: For me I guess it depends on.
- 52:23Josh Guvi: For me I'm dancing to the music, um, and if there's not music, I'm dancing to the sound effects of the environment.
- 52:32Josh Guvi: Really big on environmental sounds, I think.
- 52:35Josh Guvi: For me a huge, huge inspiration with editing, sound design and sound in general and visual editing is like a24 it's like incredible sound design and it's weird sound design.
- 52:45Josh Guvi: It makes you really uncomfortable.
- 52:47Josh Guvi: I'm sure you've seen a lot of a24 movies.
- 52:49Josh Guvi: They really they're really uncomfortable to watch, like a lot, and they're super emotional, um, and I feel like for me, a lot of that is in the sound design, even if it's simple, even if it's odd, um, and you know, you could make your own sounds, like you just use your phone mic and you can just go about and make your own sound effects a lot of the time too, so it doesn't have to be complicated.
- 53:06Josh Guvi: Yeah, and I had a da vinci resolve.
- 53:10Josh Guvi: That's big too.
- 53:11Josh Guvi: I feel like this is a big for filmmakers.
- 53:14Josh Guvi: This is like a huge conversation it is.
- 53:15Matt Jacob: It is you know, and I don't really like to talk about equipment too much.
- 53:19Matt Jacob: Like the technical side of things too much.
- 53:20Matt Jacob: But you know, one thing that does come across with your videos, other than the message and how you produce them, is the post-production and the edit, and you know there's some really high quality stuff and even just things with just different stuff with creative stuff, with subtitles.
- 53:38Matt Jacob: You know.
- 53:38Matt Jacob: You know there's things that you know and how you overlay, did you?
- 53:40Josh Guvi: know where you put those subtitles and how they appear.
- 53:41Matt Jacob: Yeah, um, just just being creative with stuff like that, I think it's, it's really cool.
- 53:45Matt Jacob: But you also you know, coming from someone who knows think I must have spent a lot of time doing these things, but maybe not.
- 53:53Matt Jacob: Maybe you have done it so often now and you know exactly how to you know, what you're doing and when you want to do it.
- 53:57Matt Jacob: It's kind of a quick process.
- 54:00Josh Guvi: Yeah, it feels pretty easy now.
- 54:01Matt Jacob: Yeah.
- 54:02Josh Guvi: Like subtitles are a bit of a pain, but like yeah, I always got into like yeah, putting the words.
- 54:06Josh Guvi: I think that was inspired by I don't know if you ever saw Secret Life of Walter Mendy and I loved how they like put the text in it and then that, just like it just became a permanent thing for me, I was like I have to do this.
- 54:17Matt Jacob: Such a good film.
- 54:18Josh Guvi: And then because I had a lot of experience in After Effects for making lightsabers when I was 15, for some reason that translated well into like working with text.
- 54:26Josh Guvi: So for like more intricate stuff, I just got really fast at it, so like adding text reflections in the water and stuff.
- 54:33Josh Guvi: Like it's actually not hard if you know the program, um.
- 54:36Josh Guvi: So I just got really fast at doing things like that, so it just never felt like a huge chore for me to add to it.
- 54:40Josh Guvi: And I think because I like the process of post-production because I came from like really liking vfx when I was young and like really liking editing that, like I don't mind experimenting a bit, yeah, and I get carried away.
- 54:50Josh Guvi: I mean, if I'm opening after effects I might be gone for like nine hours on like four seconds, but for some reason like that's another form of art to me.
- 55:00Matt Jacob: Yeah, oh, it definitely is yeah.
- 55:01Josh Guvi: Um so, like I enjoy, I enjoy that process, but generally it's pretty fast for the most part, for most of the stuff I do.
- 55:07Matt Jacob: How does all this and I can feel people wanting me to ask this question, so I'm going to ask it but how does all of this translate into money?
- 55:14Matt Jacob: You know you're traveling around the world for going on two years or over two years, or yeah, um, you know you've obviously got to pay your way.
- 55:21Matt Jacob: I'm sure a lot of that came from obviously working multiple jobs, seven months and savings, but tell us how we can do something similar and what are the kind?
- 55:31Matt Jacob: of the tips of the trade to actually pay our way around the world.
- 55:36Josh Guvi: That is the golden question.
- 55:38Josh Guvi: I think I get like probably eight DMs a day of people like what's the income?
- 55:42Matt Jacob: Like how do I do?
- 55:42Josh Guvi: it and that is okay, I guess, for me.
- 55:46Josh Guvi: I was lucky because I had an entrepreneurial background, because I had a business in Vancouver.
- 55:50Josh Guvi: So being used to the idea of like kind of using your own means to make money, makes you more aware of opportunities in your environment to make money.
- 55:59Josh Guvi: The first eight months of my traveling I don't think I made a dollar from social media.
- 56:05Josh Guvi: I didn't start doing stuff on social media until four months in.
- 56:08Josh Guvi: But, like, those first eight months were all in savings.
- 56:09Josh Guvi: It takes a lot of savings to travel for eight months but, mind you, I was living on a boat for four of those months which was free.
- 56:16Josh Guvi: I got really lucky and a boat reached out to me and said if you help us with our YouTube channel, we'll let you live on the boat for free, kind of thing.
- 56:21Matt Jacob: Okay.
- 56:22Josh Guvi: It's like a work exchange, so that was like a huge.
- 56:24Josh Guvi: So I probably paid for about four months of traveling.
- 56:26Josh Guvi: My first way of making money outside of that, like once I started, was group trips.
- 56:33Josh Guvi: I had two big opportunities and then, like I started branching out a lot of things at the same time.
- 56:36Josh Guvi: So the first thing I thought of doing is like okay, I have a following.
- 56:39Josh Guvi: Now, just because you have a following doesn't mean you make money.
- 56:42Josh Guvi: I know people with a lot of followers that make very little money and people with very little followers that make a lot of money on social media.
- 56:47Josh Guvi: It just depends on your perspective.
- 56:49Josh Guvi: So I looked for ways to make money with my platform that didn't feel like I was selling out, cause I did not want to like roll up and be like hey, like, buy this hair gel.
- 57:00Josh Guvi: You know what I mean Like things that didn't make sense.
- 57:02Josh Guvi: So I started hosting group trips and that was a way that I was able to make some money and keep doing what I was doing.
- 57:11Josh Guvi: I made pretty decent money from that, I'd say, but it was a lot of effort and I didn't use external, like third party, platforms.
- 57:18Josh Guvi: I just planned my own group trip and we did it, which is easier than I thought it was going to be to do.
- 57:23Josh Guvi: Like, you kind of reach out to hostels and they're like yeah, like sure, we can set this up for you.
- 57:27Josh Guvi: So you don't really end up designing the trip like a hostel, does it for you.
- 57:29Josh Guvi: So you don't even really end up designing the trip Like a hostel does it for you.
- 57:32Josh Guvi: Outside of that, I, uh, because of the awareness people had of me, I was totally able to use that as kind of a flex of clients.
- 57:38Josh Guvi: So one of the biggest things was I was in Fiji.
- 57:42Josh Guvi: I didn't have service.
- 57:43Josh Guvi: I was on the boat and we had just done like an 11 day crossing from New Zealand to Fiji.
- 57:46Josh Guvi: It's supposed to take four days.
- 57:48Josh Guvi: We hit a storm and we had no service during the whole time.
- 57:50Josh Guvi: When I got to Fiji, my friend reached out to me and he's like hey, like this motorcycle expedition company was looking for a videographer and I know that you love riding dirt bikes.
- 57:58Josh Guvi: So I just told them that you'd be down to do it and I guess, because they saw my social media, they use that.
- 58:04Josh Guvi: It just makes you more human.
- 58:05Josh Guvi: Do you know what?
- 58:09Josh Guvi: I a lot easier if you can watch like 20 videos of them talking and be like okay, you know he's a person, he has a camera.
- 58:15Josh Guvi: Yeah, he seems to know what he's doing.
- 58:17Josh Guvi: Uh, so even if it's just recognition, like brand recognition, in the beginning, that helps so so much.
- 58:22Josh Guvi: Um, so, yeah, they, they chose me and I went and I rode across mongolia immediately after the boat trip and that was absurd but really fun and really cool, and I still work with those guys.
- 58:31Josh Guvi: So in the beginning sometimes it's things like that, you know, I mean, I think that you have to like it's not going to be, like there's one answer, like you can, oh, sell digital products to do this, you can do all these different things, but you kind of have to look at your brand and say, like what can I offer that's actually a value to the people that follow me?
- 58:48Josh Guvi: like don't offer things that aren't valuable hey I've done the odd real like here, like advertising, something where I'm like, you know what I mean.
- 58:53Matt Jacob: But like icky.
- 58:55Josh Guvi: Yes, 100 and I feel like nobody really wants to like have a whole page of doing that and that's not a good long-term strategy.
- 59:00Josh Guvi: Um, so just figure out, like what do you have a value that you could offer your audience, and sometimes that's not obvious.
- 59:05Josh Guvi: Um, and maybe like talk to a mentor or talk to someone external to your brand that can look at your brand from the outside.
- 59:11Josh Guvi: But if you start to gain a following on social media, it doesn't necessarily equal money.
- 59:15Josh Guvi: And for people that say like, oh well, I want to get paid off views for, like TikTok creators fund or YouTube, I don't think that's a good strategy.
- 59:22Josh Guvi: Yeah, it's like the amount of money you're going to.
- 59:25Josh Guvi: I mean not much.
- 59:26Josh Guvi: Instagram, you know, gives money now for reels.
- 59:28Josh Guvi: I think I had a reel that had like 7 million views or something like that.
- 59:33Josh Guvi: What 7 million?
- 59:35Josh Guvi: Or maybe 5.
- 59:37Josh Guvi: Something like that.
- 59:37Josh Guvi: I actually forget, but that's not the point.
- 59:40Josh Guvi: The point is I made 36 cents.
- 59:41Josh Guvi: No way, wait, how does that work then?
- 59:47Josh Guvi: I don't know what the numbers are, but don't trust Instagram.
- 59:52Matt Jacob: It's not going to pay your wage.
- 59:54Matt Jacob: I'm just trying to do the maths per thousand views.
- 59:57Matt Jacob: You can't point zero, zero, zero, zero, one cent.
- 1:00:01Josh Guvi: No sense.
- 1:00:02Josh Guvi: So, yeah, 100%, you have to be entrepreneurial.
- 1:00:04Josh Guvi: I think if you're not entrepreneurial person in nature, then it's best to become one.
- 1:00:07Josh Guvi: If you're going to do social media, because the way to make money, and the consistent money, is being an entrepreneur.
- 1:00:12Josh Guvi: So, selling things.
- 1:00:13Josh Guvi: Especially if you're selling things to your audience rather than letting third-party brands sell things through you, because a lot are going to reach out and a lot are going to try and like, use you as, like, a spokesperson for their platform, you're going to last longer because you're actually offering things that are coming from you, so there's more value for your audience and people can see it.
- 1:00:28Josh Guvi: When it's like, sometimes people just want to support you.
- 1:00:30Josh Guvi: Like, sometimes I'll sell something, people like I'm buying this just because I like you.
- 1:00:34Josh Guvi: Yeah, like, I have no use for this.
- 1:00:35Josh Guvi: Um, and that's really cool thought that I rely on these.
- 1:00:40Josh Guvi: Yeah, your stuff probably is not very valuable like that's all the money you're getting, but like I think that, um, not being scared to sell things to like, not feeling like you're selling.
- 1:00:49Josh Guvi: If you're selling things that like you made or like if you're like digital products or if you're like selling group trips, you're not selling now, you're doing something that's like a value to people.
- 1:00:55Josh Guvi: It's like, hey, come travel with me.
- 1:00:57Josh Guvi: When I did group trips, it was crazy.
- 1:00:59Josh Guvi: We had an amazing, amazing experience and so many of the people from my group trip became creators after like they kept traveling and some of them, like they know more creators than I do now because they're like better at networking than I am.
- 1:01:11Josh Guvi: So it's, it's cool to be like, wow, we did that and we actually like gave value to people and they make connections out of it.
- 1:01:16Josh Guvi: So, yeah, it's also a better feeling when you can do things that feel like you're offering real value.
- 1:01:21Matt Jacob: Tell us a bit about your group trips.
- 1:01:23Matt Jacob: What?
- 1:01:23Matt Jacob: What do they entail?
- 1:01:24Josh Guvi: So I'm actually on my way out of group trips right now, as much as I love them.
- 1:01:28Josh Guvi: Um, I'm doing more like expeditions, like smaller expeditions, because I'm obsessed with expeditions, uh what's the difference?
- 1:01:35Josh Guvi: well, group trips is like you take like 15 to 20 people to like.
- 1:01:39Josh Guvi: We went to vietnam a couple months ago.
- 1:01:40Josh Guvi: We're going to east java in two months and these places are really cool and not like necessarily super traffic, but it's not an impossible place to go.
- 1:01:47Josh Guvi: Um, in two weeks I'm going to mongolia with eight people and with the expeditions I try and focus more on people that have I've met or been on my previous group trips or I interview people over like instagram or something like that.
- 1:02:01Josh Guvi: Um, it's way more catered.
- 1:02:03Josh Guvi: It's a lot more expensive because it's difficult like we're renting two cars and two motorbikes.
- 1:02:09Josh Guvi: Uh, it's a lot sketchier and we actually work as a team to build the plan.
- 1:02:12Josh Guvi: So like we kind of route it together as the group, as the group.
- 1:02:17Matt Jacob: Yeah, so we have like a group chat so you get them to do the work for you.
- 1:02:19Matt Jacob: Yeah, it's amazing.
- 1:02:22Josh Guvi: But yeah, it's like you kind of like you know you get to do this was inspired by some of the clients that I shoot get to do like a proper expedition with people, um, and that's like what I've fallen in love with.
- 1:02:31Josh Guvi: But my goal is like I don't necessarily that there's less money in that field.
- 1:02:36Josh Guvi: You're doing smaller trips, um, and it's way more expensive.
- 1:02:39Josh Guvi: But, uh, for me now it's a lot more of like selling digital products and things like that.
- 1:02:42Josh Guvi: Uh, rather than focusing the money just from group trips got it my group trips in the past.
- 1:02:47Josh Guvi: The larger group trips, it's like we take 15 to 20 people somewhere that I've been normally, um, somewhere that was like really meant something to me, and I try and reach out to like hostels or places I stayed in those areas and be like hey, can you help me build this trip around this place?
- 1:02:59Josh Guvi: And usually I try to go to places that are like a bit more unique, um, that like maybe some of like the third party trip platforms aren't offering, just so it feels more genuine, which is like I mean, you can go anywhere, it doesn't really matter, but yeah, those have been amazing.
- 1:03:12Josh Guvi: Um, and then expeditions is like more hardcore things, like driving across Mongolia, where surely we're probably going to get stuck and break down for three days, or something like that, which you know a lot of people don't want to sign up for.
- 1:03:24Matt Jacob: Yeah, Cool.
- 1:03:24Matt Jacob: Um, how do we find out about that?
- 1:03:26Matt Jacob: How can we?
- 1:03:27Matt Jacob: Can we get spots on those expeditions?
- 1:03:31Josh Guvi: Ooh, yeah, we can.
- 1:03:32Josh Guvi: We, yeah, get spots on those expeditions.
- 1:03:33Josh Guvi: Oh, yeah, so those expeditions I advertise on my stories.
- 1:03:34Josh Guvi: Um, I, we will build a website for it, but like so far, like mongolia, sold out in 24 hours when we put it up, because it's like a small amount of people so I realize there's a lot of demand for it.
- 1:03:42Josh Guvi: Uh, yeah, just through my stories, I guess, when they pop up and like people being around, so like people that message me often or ask me about them, that I kind of get to know over time, I'm more likely to reach out to.
- 1:03:52Josh Guvi: And if people want to come on expeditions, it's a lot easier if they don't.
- 1:03:56Josh Guvi: Sometimes people have like their profiles on private and they don't have a display photo and then like messaging me like can I like come with you to Mongolia on this expedition?
- 1:04:04Josh Guvi: You're like yes, but like yeah, who are you?
- 1:04:11Josh Guvi: I'm not saying that you know you shouldn't need to have an instagram profile, but it's helpful for me to be like you're a human being, you know, and you have a face, you know.
- 1:04:15Josh Guvi: It helps like kind of realize that.
- 1:04:17Matt Jacob: So so, yeah, tell us something as we wrap up.
- 1:04:20Matt Jacob: Yeah, um, tell us something about you that no one else might know.
- 1:04:23Josh Guvi: Oh, well, I feel like one of the things I mentioned already was like I'm an introvert, I'm very introverted, uh, I don't have a problem talking to people, but I'm not actually an extrovert.
- 1:04:33Josh Guvi: I feel like people are always shocked by that, like that's what they always mention.
- 1:04:37Josh Guvi: It'd be like oh, you're like way more quiet than I thought you were going to be and I guess I totally understand why they would assume I'm not, so it's totally fair.
- 1:04:45Josh Guvi: Um, outside of that, probably that, yeah, like my first another thing I mentioned already, but also like my first love is probably music.
- 1:04:52Josh Guvi: That, uh, I'm in no way a good musician, really want to put that out there.
- 1:04:57Josh Guvi: There's zero expectations here, but I love playing music, I love writing music, um, and I think everything that comes from my brand or like things that I create, is always stemmed from, like that core passion definitely wouldn't have known.
- 1:05:10Matt Jacob: I mean, I know there's a few videos of you playing piano in the videos, but you wouldn't have thought that music was the starting point for all of your content, which is really cool to know yeah, it's weird, I think like I grew up like I never had like a journal, I never was like good at articulating things, I would just write songs.
- 1:05:25Josh Guvi: And then like it felt like my grandma was the only person that she could like take my song and translate it into words and I was like damn, she always knew how I was feeling based on what I was playing, which was frustrating at times because it felt like so personal.
- 1:05:35Josh Guvi: Um, but a lot of me growing as a creator was like how do I use video as that channel?
- 1:05:41Josh Guvi: You know what I mean?
- 1:05:41Josh Guvi: And a big part of that was like making sure music was playing a big role in that.
- 1:05:45Josh Guvi: So that's like my first way of like outputting my, my, uh, my perspectives what does the future look like for josh?
- 1:05:53Matt Jacob: what, what's gonna, what do you hope might happen, or what are the goals for you over the next couple of years?
- 1:05:59Josh Guvi: yeah, uh, I have some crazy, crazy things happening, some really really cool opportunities, uh, but in the long run, my most probably important passion is telling, like, other people's stories, like using that same passion and energy into telling other people's stories that maybe don't get the chance to have their story told, um, rather than just like constantly telling mine.
- 1:06:21Josh Guvi: Uh, I really just fell in love, like not romantically, but like in a you know, like a more personal way, with a lot of different people from different cultures and places and personalities, um, and I just felt like some of those people like were so incredible and I was like man, like I.
- 1:06:37Josh Guvi: I just want a platform for you to just people just see who you are, cause it's important for the world to know, and it's always people that aren't interested in showcasing it or don't want to put the effort in showcasing that like they have a life worth telling the story of.
- 1:06:48Josh Guvi: Uh, so I think I'd love to get more into that in the future and that's kind of like the direction I've been going, uh, this year, so I'm really excited to start doing that more do you think there's a I?
- 1:06:57Matt Jacob: I don't struggle with this because I mean I, sometimes I, how can I put this?
- 1:07:02Matt Jacob: Um?
- 1:07:02Matt Jacob: My photography is very much based around that.
- 1:07:04Matt Jacob: It's you know, finding the subcultures that maybe some people don't know about.
- 1:07:08Matt Jacob: Yeah, you know, just because I'm curious and I'm sure there's other people who are curious, but do you think?
- 1:07:12Matt Jacob: I always think, oh, do people really?
- 1:07:14Matt Jacob: Are people really interested in this kind of stuff?
- 1:07:16Josh Guvi: or are they just?
- 1:07:17Matt Jacob: interested in in.
- 1:07:17Matt Jacob: You know tiktok dances and you know not that it matters because, we.
- 1:07:23Matt Jacob: If we're interested in it, we're going to do it we do it like we can.
- 1:07:26Matt Jacob: We can do something that we get fulfillment from, but I do always question like where's the world going with this?
- 1:07:32Matt Jacob: You know is is.
- 1:07:33Matt Jacob: Is there real like depth and interest into these types of people that we want to share with the world?
- 1:07:40Matt Jacob: I hope so I think.
- 1:07:46Josh Guvi: I think that the the really nice thing about all of the changes we've experienced over the last five years, ten years or whatever, has been that the the really nice thing about all of the changes we've experienced over the last five years, 10 years or whatever, has been that in the world where everything becomes fake, you know, or simple, or super fast, super quick, the biggest thing is, like reality seems to fade away, meaning that, like, if you look at this when tiktok first started and you look at this craze of like, I remember like big brands were doing ads with like their phone and like people talking to the phone, and I was like it's so weird that this, like you know, nike is now having a guy like talking to his phone for their ad, and I realize it's just because the more and more produced things become, the more people crave things that feel real.
- 1:08:26Josh Guvi: Um, and I guess, like for some brands, their perspective okay, we'll use the worst camera or something like that, but it's not that, it's just that I I have a deep seated belief that authenticity cannot be faked.
- 1:08:38Josh Guvi: You know, I don't know, maybe AI will get there, we'll see but currently it can't be faked.
- 1:08:44Josh Guvi: There's just something that clicks when you see content would, no matter what type of content it is.
- 1:08:48Josh Guvi: You know what I mean.
- 1:08:49Josh Guvi: Maybe you see it on tv or whatever, or the radio, for the radio people that you just hear it.
- 1:08:55Josh Guvi: You feel it in someone's voice, like it's from their heart, or you see it in their, their photos, you can feel it through their videos, like you can just feel when something's from someone's heart and I feel like that's something super super human about us that maybe we don't even understand, like how we get that intuition, but it's really cool.
- 1:09:10Josh Guvi: I feel like, as long as we keep that as a human race which I don't see going away anytime soon that things that matter will always find their voice.
- 1:09:20Josh Guvi: As long as the intent behind them and what they're you know contextually about really like is important to somebody, it will always show that that meant that much to somebody and sometimes it's way less about the content itself and it's more about like who's telling it, not necessarily about them, but like you can feel the passion yeah you know.
- 1:09:39Josh Guvi: You look at people who you know give successful speeches.
- 1:09:42Josh Guvi: It's usually not about what they're saying as much as like you're like man.
- 1:09:45Josh Guvi: I can see that this person fully, wholeheartedly, feels this way, so I know there must be something important about it.
- 1:09:52Josh Guvi: That's the message, rather than just like okay, here's the information.
- 1:09:55Josh Guvi: Information only goes so far, but when you see someone that, from the depths of their soul, believes what they're saying, it's very intriguing.
- 1:10:02Matt Jacob: I love it.
- 1:10:02Matt Jacob: Well said Thanks.
- 1:10:03Matt Jacob: Thank you so much for joining us today.
- 1:10:04Matt Jacob: It's been absolute pleasure.
- 1:10:06Matt Jacob: You know, it's such a big inspiration in how you carry yourself and that authenticity that you're talking about, so thanks please keep it up.
- 1:10:12Matt Jacob: We'll be watching the space and, um, yeah, good luck.
- 1:10:15Matt Jacob: Is there anything else you want to share with the audience?
- 1:10:17Matt Jacob: I mean, there's, there's people watching this and following you.
- 1:10:20Matt Jacob: I know, um, you know, is there anything else you want to leave them with?
- 1:10:23Josh Guvi: it's a really good question I should have thought this out like my marketing pitch, uh nothing follow me yeah, yeah, nothing I could you know think about if, if, if this stuff resonates with you, you check out my Instagram.
- 1:10:35Josh Guvi: But yeah, yeah, just that.
- 1:10:38Josh Guvi: I hope that it inspires people that feel like they need to make some kind of jump or some kind of change to maybe inch closer towards that.
- 1:10:45Josh Guvi: You know, another step in the process.
- 1:10:48Matt Jacob: Cool.
- 1:10:48Matt Jacob: Well, good for you Keep it up.
- 1:10:50Matt Jacob: It's a.
- 1:10:50Matt Jacob: It's great to have you here it's been awesome, all right Cheers.
- 1:10:53Matt Jacob: Thanks, man, thank you.
- 1:10:55Josh Guvi: Cheers.