Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Clay and Rachelle Croft of XOverland on the Adventure of Travel, Life, and Love

Transcript

Clay and Rachelle Croft of XOverland on the Adventure of Travel, Life, and Love · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I am
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: your host Scott Brady, and I am joined today by
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: two dear friends, Clay and Rachelle Croft. They are known
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: for their ex Overland brand. They're known for their travels
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: around the world, mostly in Toyota's and Clay's expeditions across continents,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and Rochelle's incredible work in both the Trophy I ishad
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Gazelle's and the Rebel Rally. They are two absolutely incredible adventurers,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: business people. Rochelle is the CEO of their operation and
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Clay is the chief creative officer. And just getting a
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: chance to talk to them about their life, about their marriage,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: how they make it work together, how they've been able
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: to make all of this work with their values as
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: family people and as important members of this community. How
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: they've kept Overlanding pure throughout the entire process of all
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: of their success. So this is a very special conversation
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: and I hope you enjoy my time with Clay and Rachelle.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: And a special thanks to Adrenaline Industries for their support
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: of this week's podcast. Adrenaline is making some of the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: most exceptional expedition campers on the market and they are
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: made right here in the USA. Judd and his team
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: of skilled craftsmen are building overland trucks based on heavy
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: duty American truck platforms, integrating comfortable composite living modules with
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: high clearance for WHEL drive. These trucks feature forty three
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: inch tires, robust bumpers winches, and a conversion to single
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: rear wheels. For their expedition trucks, they're building on extreme
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: duty industrial full WHEL drives like the BA with four
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: or six wheel drive, reserve payload capacity, and third world serviceability.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: All of this compatibility comes with one on one customer
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: support and in the field training. Others take you far,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Adrenaline Industries will take you further. Thanks again, Adrenaline Industries
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: for making this podcast possible. This is fun to do
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: the podcast at your studio with me doing the interview.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: That's fun. And that these are the coolest backdrops. We
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: do have a defender as a backdrop, but these are
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: pretty cool. These are pretty cool. So let's dig in
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: real quick on what are the two vehicles we've got
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: behind you guys and behind us?
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: I have to look actually there, okay, so on we
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: have a Tundra O'Ryan and it just got back from
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Africa and it's.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: And it did the two both Africa trips. Yeah.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it was in Africa almost a year awesome.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, plus the Nordic series before that, and then.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Did Nordic series too.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Oh wow.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: And not a lot of changes. You'd have to ask
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Kenner all the changes that we've made between the two trips,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: but ran for a whole year, as is Alucab system
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: all that great place, great thing to live out of.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: And then on this side we have the brand new
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Trail Hunter in our six foot bed.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the first six cast a little bit more space.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so this one is Legion Legion, Legion, and then
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: it has the all new Legion the Allucab Family camper
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: on it, which you've never stayed in, Shelly's never stayed
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: in because we just did Alaska and it got built
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: last second and then went to the North.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: I actually was the last time that I was here.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: You guys were putting it on the truck. Oh nice,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: like it was that day and everybody was sitting in
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: the back of it right here hanging out. Yeah, they
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: can see that, especially with the six foot bed. So
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the tundra it's still a relatively new platform. But did
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: you guys have anything any issues that came up? And
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: that's three big trips, three big.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Trips, and it is in the recall engine.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Oh wow.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Obviously this was made in the first one hundred thousand.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: It was one of the original trucks to come off
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: the assembly line, because that's we get early trucks. Yeah,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: to do the marketing and yeah. So it has run
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: all three expeditions without a single thing.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: And I don't think because I've asked you this a
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: few times in previous podcasts, but I don't think that
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: there has ever been anything major that's come up with
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: any of the trucks in any of the trips.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: No, And as Africans would say, touchwood, yeah, knock on
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: your head. But no, anything that has ever failed that
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: I can really think of, is due to stuff we've
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: done to it.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, aftermarket stuff that it is hard on the trucks.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: The aftermarket stuff is hard on the trucks. Yeah.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: The only engine thing we've ever had was with the
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: supercharger on our twenty thirteen truck back in the day
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: because we moved a steering pump thing and the belts
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: came loose and that was it. Yeah, that's really I'm
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: a terrible mechanic because I've never have to fix anything.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you dress why you drive Toyota's You don't really
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: need to fix things that much stuff goes wrong.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: I can now what.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: Usually they heal themselves along the road too, but landovers
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: will do that.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah they will, like like you're convinced that, like
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: you're calling a tow truck and then you restarted and
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: then all of a sudden it starts working again.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: So that happened on our Sequoia in Africa. It started
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: to have a little bit of a weep in the
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: radiator and we're watching it and we're putting fluid in it,
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: just standing on top of it. Then it stopped, like
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: a Corota shut or something was small enough. Yeah, crodag
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: shut and ran perfect. And then we got it home
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: and we were telling the dealer like, hey, we should
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: probably swap this out, and we're like, we'll have to
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: pressure test to do all this stuff, and they're like,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: there's nothing wrong with your radiator holds everything. We're like,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: we can tell you that we do need Yeah, but
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: maybe it's better than ever.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Oh, that's hilarious. So what I thought
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: would be fun because we've had both of you on
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: the podcast, Clay, you've been on it numerous times, but
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: I think it would be fun to go way back.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: We've definitely talked about you film me in Alaska and
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: all those other things. But let's start a little bit
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: even further back than that. Where did you two meet?
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Because I know this is really early. Yeah, life so
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: very early.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, Shelley, go ahead tell the story.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: Because can you remember the day?
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: All right?
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: So we actually met in high school at a camp
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: here in Montana called Clydehurst Christian Ranch. I was fifteen,
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: you were seventeen, and I'd just come out of my
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: freshman year of high school and could not wait to
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: get out of the house and go do something awesome
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: for the summer. So sure you could apply and you
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: could work at this camp for ten weeks out of
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: the summer. You lived up there, You worked up there.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: Oh wow, that was your summer. Wow, it was so
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: much fun and I learned so.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Much sure about life and everything else.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: Everything. Roommates. You're sharing a cab. I shared a cabin
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: with eight other girls in high school. Yeah, sounds exciting,
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: had bosses yep.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, crew boys. So six guys in a cabin yep.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: And this is like no phones, no, no, like you
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: had to go to the paved phone.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: No.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: Like it was good. You went into the mountains and
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: you were there for ten weeks and then you spit
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: out the other end and went back to school.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: Yep. You didn't know what was going on in the
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: news like everything. It was just you were just in
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: this bubble for the summer and we got out and
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: we did excursions and would go to towns and stuff.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: But and did you have a day off a week
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: or or so?
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: You technically were supposed to have twenty four hours off,
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: twelve hours off.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it never happened. You worked all the time and
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: then campers went home on Saturday morning and then they
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: were there by Saturday or Sunday at noon.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Sure, like that day off you were resetting everything totally.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was fun. We worked on it.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: But what a neat story, because that's actually it mirrors
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: exactly my mom and dad. Right, So my mom and
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: day we're both employed at a Christian camp in southern California,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: up in Big Bear, and my dad was the lifeguard,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: and I don't remember what my mom's job was, but
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: and she had gone, she had met my dad and
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: there was definitely some connection that was developing there. But
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: she went home and she just didn't really want to
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: go back. She didn't want to keep doing it. She
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: wanted to be home. And she was a twin, so
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: she was away from her twin for the first time
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: and identical twins, so that's a big shift. But her
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: dad was this hardcore marine and he's like, you committed
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: to doing that, You're going to finish it. And sure enough,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: she goes back up the mountain and my dad was
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: waiting for her to make it back because he knew
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: she was going to come back and that's when he
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: asked her out. So I wouldn't be here if her
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: dad hadn't been the hardcore marine that he towed the
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: line exactly. So that's a neat that's a neat story.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: And you guys did the Christian camp thing, and you
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: knew each other when you were there, But did the
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: love thing start to spark at the camp or Okay.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: The story is I walk in. I was with my
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: friend Roger, and I walked into the dining hall and
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: I was like, let's go see who the new.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: This is day one the fresh meat.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Let's go see who's there. Walk in and Roger was
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: the ladies man. I was not, but I look around
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: and I see Rochelle sitting at the table across the way,
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: and I said, that's the woman I'm gonna marry.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Oh wow, the first time you ever laid eyes on her? Yeah,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: that's awesome.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So I was like, that's the woman I'm gonna marry. Roger,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: that one's mine.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: You dips tubes and you.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: Can say the rest is history, and it was.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Shelley had just come out of a really dark relationship.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: And I did not like boys.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I was mad.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: I've been dumped a few times by then, so I
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: was like, I'd sworn off.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Guy no more.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: I know you're fifteen, but give me a chance.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: You wooed me with kindness and humor, and you played
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: it cool. You were Actually the first time I saw Clay,
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: he came into the cabin and his family had been
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: going to this camp for years, so he knew everybody.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: He was there the year before, and he very charismatic, personable.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: And I look over and this this guy walks in
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: and he's got army pants, army cargo pants tucked into
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: his combat boots and just walks in, saunters in, and
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: sits down on the bed and starts talking to people.
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: I was like, who the heck is what is this?
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: That was my first impression, not a very good one,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: so it wasn't as soon as you saw him that's
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: the man I'm going to marry.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: How did we get this guy out?
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I love that. I love that. And again another cute
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: little parallel, but when my mom came home back to
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: the house the next time, to her family's home, she
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: told her mom she I met the man I'm going
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: to marry by the silverware. Like wow, that's so cool,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: pretty amazing. Yeah, And it doesn't happen that often. It's
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: just it's such a rare thing to not only meet
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: that young, but to have had an incredible life together
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: and to have three of the finest young men that
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I know. It's rare to see all three boys be
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: as upstanding and respectful and driven and creative and everything
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: like they are. It's hard to be a kid now.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: It's a lot harder.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: When I was a kid. But they're just bombarded by
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: stuff that I would have never imagined back then.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: For sure, they're all playing a different game than we did. Yeah,
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: for sure.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: But it's what allows them to stand out even further
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: from the field, is that because they are exceptional. That's
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: hard to do. One of the questions that I had
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: is what are a couple of things? And for both
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: of you to answer, is what are a couple of
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: things that you think have helped you, guys stay so
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: tight as a family and be as successful as you have?
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: What are you know? For each of you, what are
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: a couple of the things that you've learned that you
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: think you could share with others.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: That's a good question. I had a really good family
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: environment growing up. My parents, my mom and dad married,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: worked hard at it, certainly had their differences, Certainly had
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: to work through a lot of stuff. They had a
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: lot of life change in their lives too. They went
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: from being full time ranchers to being independent truck drivers,
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: and I think I saw them work through their life
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: changes and make big decisions. They brought us into their ranch,
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: the family ranch, in my early twenties, to allow us
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: to see how the greater family ran the ranch, and
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: that we weren't allowed to say anything. We could sit
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: in the room, but we had like the board for
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: the rand, and there was a quarterly beating more every
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: six months or whatever, and we were able to go
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: in there and listen to them work the ranch dynamics.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: At the time, Now, that was a very big deal.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Like the ranch was not doing well at the time.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: My grandfather was essentially on his way out mentally, and
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: they had to make a lot of changes. And so
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: they went through massive changes in their lifestyle and who
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: they were as people and how they identified. And we
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: all got this and you did too, because we were
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: married by that time. We all got to sit in
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: and watch this family work through it, and they had
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: a lot of help, and so I think that helped
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: because we just had to sit and watch. And then
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: we had a lot of good people around us the
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: whole time. Still have a lot of great people around us.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: But yeah, it's been people, and I think the cool
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: thing about So we met that summer at camp and
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: then we both we lived six hours apart from each
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: other in high school. Wow, And we continued to date
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: all through high school and so we were long distance.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: I was only a sophomore, you were a junior. We
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: actually wrote physical letters back and forth to each other,
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: and we got in the cadence of he would call
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: on Wednesdays and I'd call on Sundays, and we paid
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: the long distance bills and it was such a cool
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: time because all we could do is talk and communicate
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: and get to know each other, and we just it
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: allowed us to build this really strong foundation of friendship
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: and then you got to see each other and you're
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: really excited about it. Then once every two months and
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: counting down the days, and then the summers we would
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: get to spend together up at camp. But allowed us,
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: especially me, it was really important. It allowed us to
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: be our own people, and it allows us to have
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: our own friends and pursue our own things, like I
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: was in sports and I was in basketball, and you
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: were climbing and mountain biking and skiing, and we just always,
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: from the beginning had this relationship of what are you doing, Oh,
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: that's awesome, have an awesome time. I'm going to go
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: do this, And it was never this, why aren't you
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: spending time with me on Wednesday? I was like, I'm
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: going here, I'll call you Wednesday or I'll it And
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: even then at the time I think you even said
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: and even wrote in letters to me. I'll have to
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: go dig them out. You said several times that I
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: think God is preparing us for something, or that we're
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: getting prepared for a life, that maybe we're going to
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: be a part when we're married or building things or
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: pursuing things. And it was so true. And I think
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: because we had that foundation, it's allowed us this life.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: We always wanted to travel, we wanted to push the boundaries,
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: we wanted to be a team. It was never us
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: against each other.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: YEA.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: Definitely had our moments, Yeah, sure, figure.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we still had to mature. We went through
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: I would go through times of maturing, and you would
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: go through times of maturing and then any especially like
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: in your twenties when we were married early, so twenty
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: one and twenty yeah, twenty one.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: I couldn't drink it our wedding.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: And so we went through all of that. Yeah, happened
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: to work through not knowing anything about life really.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, And to your point with your family, you
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: have such an amazing family of support and your parents.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: I remember watching your parents and how good of a
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: team they were together. Because your dad had a truck
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: driving business, and so his parents were a part a lot.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: His dad would be home like two days a week, sure,
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: and his mom was just running and working and doing
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: the things. And they weren't complaining, they weren't pointing fingers.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: They just worked really well together as a team. And
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: I remember both of us, just especially me, that had
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: a big impact on me. I grew up in a
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: more traditional family where my dad went to work, my
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: mom stayed home, which was awesome. But I've just always
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: been wired from a very young age that I want
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: to go out and do stuff. I want to be
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: that person traveling and doing the things. And how does
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: that work in a marriage. So when I saw that example,
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: I was like, okay, so there are examples of this
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: where people make this work.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: I do see that in you, Rachelle as that you
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: like to be challenged, and you like to be You
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: tend to be like to be challenged, like intellectually, like
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: how do I overcome this problem? Whereas Clay, you like
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: to be challenged as part of a team in someplace
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: completely unknown, like where you're thrown out into the wolves
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: almost of wilderness.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: The worse the better.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, type too fun, type too fun.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think also when we got to college, we
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: were we were part of campus crusade. At the time,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: they call it crew now, I don't know what they
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: call it now, but we have really good mentors. Then
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: in college we were working people that were like actively
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: working on making me a better man and you a
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: better woman. And then we separate of each other. And
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: I owe a lot of people a lot from that
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: time in life from the different campuses and leaderships that
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: we had there. And we were invited to leadership what
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: do you to call projects at the time, but we
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: spend a whole summer in Fort Collins going through extensive
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: leadership training. We're both there and that was a hard time.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: And then right after that, I was like, I'm gonna
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: marry this girl. And I was like, I don't know,
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: I'm so young and all this stuff, and there's all
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: these people that'll tell you one thing or another. And
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: I got to sit down one day with a guy
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: who is in the he's actually in the book Wild
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: at Heart. If John Elleners is sure, and I got
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: to sit a whole day around the campfire with this
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: one of these guys that's in the talked about in
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: reference to the book, and basically, you got what it takes,
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: you can do it. What are you waiting for? You
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: need to do this. And I was twenty twenty one
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: and I was like, Okay, that's what I'm doing. So
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: I had a lot of help. Yeah.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that's one of the things that
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: I think it's a responsibility even for those of us
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: that have families and young people in our lives, maybe
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: young people that work for us, is making sure that
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: they have the opportunity to engage with that level of
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: leadership and mentoring and like a good example. I think
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: it's harder and harder for people to find those connections
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: in their life where they're because I think a lot
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: of people are hurting too. So I think that it's
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: if you can be around good humans that demonstrate even
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: when times are hard, that you can still be kind
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: and loving and supportive, honor the other person. That's what
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: your kids have seen. They've seen you guys, honor each other,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: challenge each other, be accomplish incredible things as a team.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: And now your sons are like, all right, that can
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: be done, Like mom and Dad showed us that. So yeah,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: So this is something I've only asked that a couple
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: of times when I get the chance to sit down
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: with couples like this, but it's one of my favorite
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: things to ask Clay, So, what are you most proud of? Rachelle?
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: For let's see, how would to phrase it? She has
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: vision too, she can see it, and she has always
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: stuck with me through really bad ideas, some of them
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: good ideas.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: That's the thing about ideas, most of them are.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: We can say, oh, we've had a great marriage and
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: we've done all these things and all that, but at
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: the end of the day, I've been a loser a
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: lot of the times. Stick with me and she is
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: always continued to pursue her own advancement despite my conditions.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: That's rock star totally.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter because I'm emotional, I'm I'm an ad
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: d guy. I have this idea and that I'm hot,
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: I'm cold. It's just how I'm wired. But Shelley has
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: always been like, Okay, you do you for a minute,
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: and I'm going to keep I'm going to keep marching
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: and still do the things I need to do and
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: keep developing myself. So I think I'm the most proud
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: of that took me second to get there, but Yeah,
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: that is awesome. If you hadn't done that, we wouldn't
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: We wouldn't be where we are. We wouldn't I don't
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: know where we'd be, you know, probably broken doing Thanks
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: for doing that.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's awesome and we all see it. We
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: see it in who you are, Rachelle. We see you're
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: You're the CEO of one of the most important media
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: companies in our industry, and that's awesome. Like the world
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: needs more of that. So if you feel okay to
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: answer the same question, we can wait a little bit.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: We can. Yeah, so am I I might there with you.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: I'm proud to be your friend. I've known you guys
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: a long time, and it's just like the world needs
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: more of you guys when people need to see that.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: But when you think about Clay, what are you most
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: proud of about Clay?
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: I am the most proud of.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: His.
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: He'll have a vision or a crazy idea, but the
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: crazy idea comes from somewhere. And I learned your mom
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: told me this years ago, probably in high school. You
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: guys would sit around and just spitball ideas and your
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: mom is so good about letting you be creative and
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: use your imagination. And I remember feeling in one of
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: those times. I just watched your mom absorb all of
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: these ideas that you were having in the spitballing, and
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: she wasn't stretched, wasn't overwhelmed. She was just like, Oh,
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: tell me how that would work. Oh tell me more.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: Oh will tell me more. And at the end of it,
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: I think you went upstairs or something and she looked
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: at me and she's like, we call that napkin talk around.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: And that was one of the best things your mom
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: ever told me. Because I instantly when I hear an idea,
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: I instantly take it in and I figure out how
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: to make it happen. I can't help it. I'm just like,
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: I go to details, and I have to be careful
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: not to squash an amazing idea that he has because
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: I go right to the details of, Okay, how do
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: we actually make this happen. Oh, that's going to cost
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: this much money, we need this many people, and it's
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: going to take time and instead of just waiting and listening.
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: But the napkin talk idea is that's how Exo started.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: When Clay has an idea and it keeps coming back
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: around three times or more it's kind of number because
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: he'll have one hundred's going to stick if I keep
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: hearing it. I'm like, oh boy, okay, I need to
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: I'm going to brace myself for this one. But I
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: love and what I'm most proud is that it doesn't
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: matter if it's the ranch is the latest idea.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: That was crazy, that's crazy.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: Insane and I was. It took me a while to
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: get on board with that one because it was such
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: a huge idea. But what I'm proud of you for
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: is even if we don't see it right away, you
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: still go for it. I didn't know what I was
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: getting into today.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Jess got I'm sorry.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Oh I'm not sorry. It's like it's like, no, it's
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: real life. It's real life, and all of us can
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: look at what you guys do with ex Overland and
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: you leave people in wonder at what you've accomplished, the
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: things that you've seen in your life and in the world.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: But it takes, at the end of the day, it's
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: what it takes. It takes being willing to support someone
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: else's dream. It takes being willing to let our partner
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: lead if they need to lead, and it takes building
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: a team of people around us that we can actually
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: take on big ideas with. We've talked about this, Clay
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: and I have talked about this in trucks driving across
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: who knows where, pick a continent. But the hard ideas
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: take about as much time as the average ideas. The
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: problem with an average idea, that's what everybody else does
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: because it feels like you have a greater chance of success.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: So there's actually a lot more competition for an average idea,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: for sure, a big idea, it's scary because people don't
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: want to fail. Yeah, and you two are not afraid
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: to fail, and like to hear you talk about your failures, Clay,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: is that the only way you get to the big
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: wins is by failing.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: Fail faster, as they say, Yeah, fail more, fail fast,
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: get there. Yeah, but you have to.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: If all you're doing is win, you're either a savant,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: which I'm not, or you're not trying very hard. It's
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: you're picking the easy route. And there's not a whole
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: lot of pots of gold at the end of those
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: rainbows because they're pretty. There's not a lot of those rainbows.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you have to do all this stuff because
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: you like to work and you like the community like
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: we love x Overline because we get to be around
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: awesome people and work on big dreams together. And Yeah,
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: there's certainly been some really scary times, and we've been broke,
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: we've had money, we've been broke again, and we've had
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: help along the way, and people just keep backing you
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: up no matter what. You still got to have a
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: huge network of people around you. And to the point
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: of we were talking about this in the truck, you
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: got to pick your hard, yeah, And that applies to
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: so many things in life. You want to get fat,
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: and not because it's easy, but it's hard to be fat,
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: and it's not funny hard or later for sure, and
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: it's harder later you pick it. You pick your hard
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: later you can prolong your herd. And a lot of
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: these ideas that we have. If you do one thing
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: or the other, they're both hard. So just pick the
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: one that's gonna benefit you in the long run and
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: really work towards the thing that matters.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and a special thanks to Real Truck for their
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: support of this week's podcast, Find Your Freedom and Follow
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: your Own Trail in the fresh air of Vast Uncharted Places,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: introducing the exclusive Real Truck lineup of overlanding accessories designed
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: to take adventurous explorers just like you into the furthest
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: reaches with gear for camping, off roading, and more, including
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: the all new Real Truck Go Rack, Go Tent, and
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: overland Awning. And here's to those inspired, self actualized, brave
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: souls that are ready to unplug and check in to
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: pure wilderness. Bring your truck to life at real truck dot.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Com and don't fool yourself. It's all pick your heart.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: It's all going to be challenging. That is the nature
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: of growth. It's going to be it's gonna be challenging.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: One of the things that I really love about your
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: organization is you have because you're great storytellers, you tend
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: to bring in they're not only amazing human beings, but
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: they're really unique. Like you think about John Solberg and
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's a guy that I've known him a
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: long time because he's been a subscriber for a long time.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: And then we brought him on the Greenland trip because
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Greg and I were talking and he's like I need
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: He's like, I got this guy that's an EMT. I'm like,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: not a bad idea. But what if I had an
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: army I think US Army trauma surgeon come with us.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: What if I had the guy that like amputated legs
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: and ficked appendicitis And of course he was amazing yep
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: on Greenland and then and now you've had him on
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: a bunch of trips.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's been to Africa twice. He went to Alaska
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: with US m h.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Kurt's another great example one of the finest human
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: beings on the planet. Yes. The thing, one of the
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: things that I absolutely adore about Kurt is just he
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: has an enthusiasm for every day. Yes, like he's like
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: perma stoke and not creepy perma stoke, just like genuinely
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: perma stoked about everything. Yeah.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: So the most active learner. He has an active learning
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: mind and problem solving mind of anyone I know.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's super talented. A bunch of different things
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: he and that comes across in your films. It comes
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: across like that endearing nature of him comes across in
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: the films, and so I love that. But I also
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: really have enjoyed the fact that you've brought in other
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: generations of travelers, younger people that where you're literally watching
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: them develop a as young adults on the screen, like
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: they're like, whoa, that's great. And then they get some confidence,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: they have some experience and they get a little confidence.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: The next thing, they're driving the truck where they would
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: have never thought they could have driven the truck or whatever.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: That's one of the best things about it. I hope
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: that's maybe why I do it, because it's for one,
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: it's fun to I think it's fun for people to
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: watch it, but it's really fun for me to watch it.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: And for you when you see people, when you see
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: light bulbs turn on, click on, like, yes, this is
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: the best. This is why you should be here, and
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: this is what travel does for you, and this is
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: what problem solving does for you and throwing yourself out there.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: And if you can have a younger people see that sooner,
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: then that hopefully it'll set them on a trajectory of
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: in life that says, oh, this is obtainable and cool
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: and fun and I need to keep doing this.
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: And I think it shows a humility in you as
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: a leader, as an expedition leader, Clay, because you surround
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: yourself with individuals that in many cases they don't have
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: all of your skills as an expedition leader, but they
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: have actually more competence in certain specific areas, and you
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: surround yourself with that. So I noticed that if you
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: need to lean on one of these people because the
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: situation demands on it, you have that backstop. And not
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: a lot of not a lot of expedition leaders do that.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: They don't. Sometimes it's ego, or sometimes they want a
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: compliant group, or they just want people to do what
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: they say that they want them to do. But you've
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: done a good job of surrounding yourself with those kinds
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: of people. The question that I have is how much
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: of it is to tell a great story and how
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: much of it is that is just the way that
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: you guys curate not only your business team, but your
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: friends and the people you travel with. If you were
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: to give some people some advice about how to surround
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: yourself with great individuals with that, what kind of ways
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: would you help people find folks like that? How do
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: you build out a team?
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll take a quick stab at that. A lot
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: of skills can be taught a lot of things. You
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: can teach someone how to drive, You can teach somebody
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: how to recover with max tracks or cook on a
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: stove or whatever. These are really practical things to learn quick.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: What you're what we're always looking for is someone who
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: is a team player, who understands team dynamics, which means
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: that they put other people first, but they can also
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: take care of themselves. And you can just see this
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: in daily life and through conversations. You can read between
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: the lions. And then also people that are teachable. If
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: they're teachable, you.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Can tell somebody's key.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: They go, oh, oh that's interesting. You're like, Okay, I
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: like this guy. This guy could adapt because he's teachable.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: Because that's the lack of ego, right.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: And less ego. One you got to watch out for
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: is the one that says that they don't have an ego.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I don't have an ego.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: That's actually the biggest ego. Right.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: That's always a red flag to me, big time, big time.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because I have seen really advanced people not admit
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: that they know something. They say, Okay, that's good to know,
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: and you're like, dude, that dude knows a thousand times
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: more than that other guy. He's just a gentleman about it.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: Set the ego down. I've seen you do that, Scott,
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: I've seen I think the E seven experience over the
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: years was a big example of people working together, very
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: proficient people in their fields, the best in their fields,
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: still listening to other people's ideas and working the problem
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: as a team. And we call that. What's the book
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: good to Great? You know, and good to Great? He
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: talks about people that are on the bus. We're also
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: looking for people that are on the bus. He may
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: not have all the skills, but I don't care where
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: this bus is going. I just want to be on it.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: That's the guy that or gal that I want to
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: be part of the team because they're adaptable then too,
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: and they're not in it for themselves necessarily. They're in
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: it to see where the bus can go, and that's awesome.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: And they take joy and seeing everyone be successful.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yep.
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's no room for finger pointing or excuses or
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: throwing your teammates under the bus. Yeah, we just don't
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: operate like that.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: There's no room for it, especially in those conditions where
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: it can be dangerous it and it can be exhausting
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: and you're on little sleep, and yeah, that's when that's
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: when someone's character really comes to play is get them
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: down to five hours of sleep for a couple of nights,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: and you're going to start to see the cracks in
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: the character pretty quickly, Yeah, very quick.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: And then see how fast everyone breaks at some point.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: I can think of a couple of times and I
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: snap at Kurt or whatever, and it's just how you
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: can recover from that team sure quickly people forgive you
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: and move on. So I've been I've had great people
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: in my life show me how to do that too,
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: because that was not easy for me. Here's the other thing,
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: oh I Scott, remember we had we were in Russia
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: and we were somewhere in the Rot the Bones. You
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: were watching an individual around the campsite and you said,
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: he's not going to put this up on the He's
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: not going to put his tent up on the top
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: of the land cruiser. He's going to set it by it.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: And sure enough, and these are all great guys, but
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: they went and set it down and he's that's a
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: seventy percenter. All's he asked to do is take it
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: the next little step and put it on the roof rack.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: But now someone else is going to have this, we're
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: all going to have to go over there and put
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: it on there. Don't be a seventy percenter. I never
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: heard that before. So now I'm looking for the seventy.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: I'm looking for the one hundred percent and the one percent.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: And you can see that in just in simple steps.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: And it's really about its effort more so than execution,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: because we all need to learn. Yeah. So like it's
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: the person that's like putting in the effort, put trying
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: truy just like that goes so far, it goes so far,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: and your team will honor that. Like they're not expect
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: you to be perfect, but they do want you to
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: try yep.
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And you can rally behind a guy who's always trying. Yeah,
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: I may not be able to for sake of example,
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: and not be able to lift it up onto the rooftop.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: Sure, but he tried, yeah, and.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: It had to sit down and then he went and said, hey,
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: can you come help me. I got to finish this up,
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: but I do need help. That's the guy or the
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: gal that that's who goes on trips.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because it really is like all the crazy places
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: that we've all been in the world, like the places
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: are neat Like, those are memories for sure. But the
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: stuff that sticks with me is it didn't matter where
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: it was that I was doing it with somebody that
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: I cared about, Yes, and we were overcoming problems and
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: challenges together. Like that's the stuff that I look back
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: on and I'm just like, it makes me smile. It
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: makes me smile for sure.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: Who do you want to spend ten hours a day
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: in a front seat of the carley?
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah. And that's one of the things I think
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: is special about overlanding is that it is multidisciplinary. So
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: you have to be a good driver, you have to
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: be a good teammate, you have to be a good communicator.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: You have to be open to other cultures. You have
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: to be tolerant of people that are different than you.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: In fact, you have to have a desire to experience
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: people that are different than you. You have to be
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: a decent problem solver, potentially mechanic soundly I you're driving
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: to Toyota, not so much, but it depends on what
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: you're fixing stuff a lot too. It is there are
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: so many disciplines that are involved in it. That challenge
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: I think is rewarding and I think it's what draws
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: a lot of us to it. Yeah, it's tough, it's hard.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: It teaches you to be self aware because you have
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: a lot of impact on the people around you, because
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: you see how much they impact you. Yeah, and so
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: you need to hold a mirror up to yourself and
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: be like, am I also what am I doing? You
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: con contribute to the team to be self aware? Am
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: I smacking my all day in the car next to
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: this guy? I probably shouldn't things that annoy you or
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: the things I'm not doing that everybody else is now
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: having to do self awareness. It teaches self awareness. Self
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: awareness comes from also people that care about you and
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: bringing it up, because if you don't know, you don't
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: know blind spots.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is helpful. It's hard to get to have
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: people when they care about you that much that they're
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: willing to take you aside in a gentle way and
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: give you a little course correction. That's hard to find
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: in life.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: Actually, it seems like it's even harder to find now.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: I had. Maybe it's just my age or something, but
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: that's happening less and less to me. Hopefully it's because
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: I've improved. But does it also mean that we're not
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: doing that to each other.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: I think we're doing it less and I think we
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: need I tell my team please. And once they get
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: really comfortable with the fact that they can tell you
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: what you're doing wrong, then they'll do it more because
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: they want to tell you what you need to improve.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: But they're probably a little bit intimidating dated by it.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: One of the questions that I had was, because you've
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: spent so many times with teams, so much time with teams,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: like in Expedition seven and all of your own expeditions
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: around the world, what do you feel has how has
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: that helped both of you become better leaders in your business?
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: What are some things that you've taken from the trips
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: that have helped you to be a little bit more
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: effective in your own business? And maybe Rachelle you answered
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: that first. As the CEO.
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: Travel and being on the teams and problem solving and
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: just going on these adventures, you're never one hundred percent
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: ready for those things that you may encounter that may happen.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: You can't plan for every contingency. You can't plan for
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: everything that's going to happen. You can try your hardest,
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: but you can't. You cannot control the environment, the outside world,
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: people you encounter, the trucks, Something happens, geopolitical changes, give
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: political changes. You can't control that and you can't be
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: ready for it. So even this year has been one
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: of the hardest stressful, most stressful, most rewarding, most challenging,
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: most growth years of my life. I was not ready
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: for it, but it didn't matter. I knew it could learn.
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: I'm still learning a lot sure, so being in those
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: situations and traveling with the XO teams and even the
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: rallies I've done. Every time I go on a trip,
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: I usually think, Oh, I'm probably going to learn this trip,
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: This is gonna be great for me to work on personally,
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: and then I get blindsided by something else that shook
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: to the surface that is usually embarrassing that you don't
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: You're like, I don't, I didn't know I did that,
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: or I didn't know that was a thing I needed
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: to work on in my life. Yeah, And it comes
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: up and like it or not, it's there. You can
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: stare it in the face, ignore it, or you can
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: choose to take it head on and work on it.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: And that's the key difference between being a manager, and
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: being a leader is the one that is helping to
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: remove obstacles for their team, being humble about their own
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: failures and being open about them and their own limitations.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: I think people mistake the idea of being in charge
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: is being perfect as the one who knows all of
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: the answers, and that probably at one point in time
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: that was that way. Like I'm sure when you know,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: mister Ford said something like not a lot of people
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: question that, but I think you end up with a
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: less effective organization. I agree, And you certainly end up
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: with more chances for people to get hurt, either emotionally
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: or physically injured, especially on an expedition, if there's not
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: these like active check ins and a lot of humility
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: within the leadership. I think Clay, when we were in
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: Greenland and like the one truck was getting, they were
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: getting like we're getting to the limit, Like we're starting
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: to feel like that we're getting to the point where
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: we're taking too much risk. And the fact that we
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: could all stop and have a conversation and they could
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: be open about how they felt and people could listen,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: and we could come up with a strategy that felt acceptable,
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: like a little bit more risk and we're going to
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: go a little bit further. I think that's so important
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: because otherwise you get that summ at fever and you
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: really do put people at risk.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's something when it comes to so expeditions are
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: usually it has a goal that's higher than even the leader. Right,
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: so we're going to go.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: Do X, Y or Z.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: We're going to accomplish this, or we're going to go
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: see these things. And this is the goal has to
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: be bigger than what the leader's ego stands for. So
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: if we're all here just to do whatever Clay wants
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: to do, then that's not really a goal. That's just
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: or a team. You're just along for the ride and
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: whatever's going to happen is going to happen. Same in business,
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: like with X Overland, and what we're trying to do
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: is bigger than we're all as a team trying to
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: move a company, move it somewhere to create impact, and
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: that's bigger than me, that's bigger than Rachelle, it's bigger
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: than any one person. So we're all working together to
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: lift this thing and move it to where it wants
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: to be. If I think expeditions have taught me that
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: because at first my ego when I was if I
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: go back and watch stuff. Early, I was really trying
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: hard to have the answers because people were looking up
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: to me, but they didn't have the experience. So you
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: fake it till you make it. I had enough guys
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: a reality, and that's okay. If that'll go on for forever,
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: right till the end of the world. People will be
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: faking it till they make it. But there's a way
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: that you can do it that is inclusive of the
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: people that says, hey, come help me when I don't
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: really know what I'm doing, and then have the right
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: people around you, and you'll overcome it and pretty soon
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: you will know. But I guess all that to say,
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: we ask our team a lot, what do you guys think?
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: We take information in and so that's been important to business.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: And then I also learned that everybody every day is
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: going through something different. So a lot of times we'll
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: ask in the morning, hey, how are you feeling? On
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: scale on one to ten, ten being the best day
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: of your life, one you'd rather be underground. Where Yet
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: a lot of times people are seven to eight, six, okay, five?
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: Who something's up and that is true in daily life too.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: The swings might be less, but everybody's entering their day
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: with something new. Having grace for people is really important,
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: and then hopefully people will have grace for you.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and even if they don't, like, you're right,
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: that's what we're supposed to do because everybody's going, like
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: you get cut off on the freeway, How do you
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: know maybe that guy just found out his mom died
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: and he's trying to get to the hospital. You just
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: literally don't know. You just don't know, and you're better
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: off like not projecting your own frustrations on some stranger
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: that you have no idea what they're going through. And
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: I do like that idea of checking in. Brene Brown
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: is she's like a fought leader around leadership, and she
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: talks a lot about that of like where are you at,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: like on a percentage of because not everybody there's like
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: maybe a pool of one hundred percent within the team. Sure,
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: and some people are going to be at seventy and
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: some people are going to be at eighty. Some people
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: might be at twenty that day And it's like, all right,
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: I got you, Like, what do you work a half day?
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: To day mm hmm. A lot of times, So what
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: do you need this or that? And you can have
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: somebody who's a five in the morning be a seven
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: by mid afternoon.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because they feel heard or supported or.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: They can help the thing they needed.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, for sure.
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: That's a lot of it. And that's to your point
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: about people. It's usually not about you. Yeah, whatever they're
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: carrying into work that day, or is happening on the
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: trip that day, they wake up in a bad mood,
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: or they got news or something is going on in
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: their minds.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: Ninety eight percent of the time, it is not about you. Yeah,
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: and what it's all going to come out in different ways.
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: So having grace for people is key.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and ourselves maybe, Yeah, And that's been a tough
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: one for them.
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: I have learned that about myself the hard way, because
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: I expect a lot out of myself and I don't
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: like to fail, and I like to achieve and I
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: like to be perfect. I'm learning not to and that
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: it's okay to make mistakes. But knowing those days I
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: wake up and I can tell you can tell those
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: days you're like this is things are not clicking in
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: my brain. I don't have energy. This is one of
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: those days. I'm going to go home after half a
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: day and I'm gonna wake up. We're gonna try again tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow,
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: I'm going to have a completely different outlook on everything.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: And it would be so much better if we did
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: that more often. Like I don't give myself that very often,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: but I think back on the quality of work that
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: I accomplished that afternoon, when I'm feeling at about thirty percent,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: it's not great. It's probably should all be thrown in
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: the dumps and the dumpster like it. None of it
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: was worth doing. But I just felt like I had
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: to fight fight through it. So I should do a
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: better job of that myself. If I'm like, check in
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: with yourself a little bit, maybe give yourself some grace
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: around that, I think would be a good thing.
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: For sure.
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: That's usually an indication to me that your head's really
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: you're looking at your feet. Yeah, if I have to
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: grind that hard and keep working through stuff, that means
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: my head's down, I need to pick my head up
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: a little bit and come out a little bit of
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: whatever's happening. I see that. I use that as a
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: red flag for me not a red flag, an indicator,
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: an indicator that something else is.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: One of the things that's in a position that you
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: guys are all in very public facing, large audience. Your
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: people are watching your lives unfold on TV or on
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: YouTube or wherever else. One of the things that I
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: think is important for me to ask is what do
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: you wish that people knew about what it is to
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: be you guys? Like people will say clearly X Overland.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Of course they like Toyotas because Toyota does this or whatever,
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: But what are some things that you wish the larger
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: Overland community knew about what it is to actually be
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: X Overland. What are the things that you wish that
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: people would give you guys some grace around, or the
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: things you'd like to dispel that were not true that
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: you hear people talk about. We can set the record
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: straight a little bit.
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: We didn't buy the ranch from sponsorship money. That's one
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: I heard. I was like, I wouldn't that have been nice?
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: No, I was totally done a totally different way. We
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: had to go traditional routes with that and take on
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: a lot of risks.
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: On a risk and learn how to take on investors
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: and We've been calling this last year accelerate a business school,
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: because I never knew. I didn't know how to do
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: any of that, but they're thankfully they're smart people in
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: the world who do Yeah, for sure.
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good question. I quit reading YouTube comments
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: a long time ago.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: So that Joe Rogan that says post and ghosts, he
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: is not wrong.
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: He is not wrong totally, because you have a lot
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: of people that and you see it everywhere else on
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: Instagram with whoever else. People have a lot of instant opinions,
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: and I heard a good one the other day. I
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: don't want to have the first opinion one. I don't
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: want to have the first opinion. I want to have
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: the right one. And I'm like, okay, and that takes
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: time typically, So the right opinion of us, it would
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: be we work hard.
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: Very hard.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: A lot of days. You don't get off. Yeah, seven
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: day weeks are common.
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and you're always thinking about it, You're always wondering,
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: you're always working on the next problem to solve. People
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: think Clay is actually really serious. Oh yeah, actually very funny.
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: Oh totally.
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: And we joke around constantly. But people just don't see that.
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: They're seeing it more because you're letting down more too.
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: But in life you are hilarious constantly.
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: I'm a goofball totally, and I like being a goofball
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: if the people could be a fly on the wall
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: in the conversations we have in a land cruiser going
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: across Russia. I think people see me when I'm trying
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: to do my very best and when i have a
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: job to do and I want to tell a good
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: story and so those things. And for years was under
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: a tremendous amount of financial pressure. I stack all that up.
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: Now I'm in charge of other people. I'm learning to lead,
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: I'm learning to overland and I don't know all this stuff.
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: But that's the fun of it. We're all just out
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: there winging it.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: The stakes are so high.
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: The stakes are really high. Most people don't realize that
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: we self ensure all these cars. If we lose a
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: car in Africa, we just lost it. It's just that
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: because there's not really international insurance that is affordable. No.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: For example, we looked at ensuring the three vehicles when
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: we were in Africa, and it was one hundred thousand
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: dollars to have it there for a year. Something like that.
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: So it's just astronomically not possible. So you have to
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: self ensure stuff, take risk like crazy, keeping people alive.
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: Keeping people alive parenting.
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: Parenting Africa was a really big test of that. Yeah,
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: keeping people alive.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: What were what were some of the tests on the
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: parenting side that stand out for you guys and the
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: audience will have a different perspective, But what were the
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: ones that you thought were really tough?
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: It was tough for me. It's tough for me to
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: switch between two sides of my brain because I like
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: to be all in on whatever I'm doing, so it
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: can be hard for me. Usually when I'm on an
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: exo trip, the kids aren't there, so I can just
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: be all in on the job I'm doing. So then
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: when the kids are there, I was like, Oh, I
• 51:41
  Speaker 3: gotta be a mom and do this. But I also
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: have the teenagers that are trying to not need mom.
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: I don't want a helicopter and I want them to
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: figure out who they are.
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: Sure it takes time and energy.
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: And then taking care of our team and leading our
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: team at the same time, but not showing favoritism to
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: our kids just because our kids are still expected to. Yeah,
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: part of the team and have a job. Sure, so
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: as all those things, and the boys thankfully have a
• 52:09
  Speaker 3: lot of grace with us. We apologize to them a lot.
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: It seems like they love it though. It seems like
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: they want to be in the muck and mud with
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: you guys, like they want those challenges themselves. They want
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: to be driving the trucks.
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're getting there. They're getting there. I think they've
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: all flipped that switch. Now they're all good to go.
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: I saw that in Alaska. They were like, no, no,
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: this is good, this is fun.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: I also wanted to take a brief moment to thank
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: all of you for listening to the Ovalan Dural podcast.
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: By listening to this podcast and subscribing to The Ovalan
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: Durnal magazine, you're supporting our employee own and veteran owned business.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: Impartial reviews and in depth content like this would not
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: be possible without your support. If you enjoy the podcast,
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: I think you'd really love the print magazine as well.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: Percent of that subscription price goes back into creating the
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: content like you're listening to right now. And as a
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: special thank you for your loyalty, we're giving twenty percent
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: off any subscription, and that even includes our special lifetime
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: subscription which includes numerous lifetime only benefits. You can go
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: to Overland Journal dot com and use the Code Overland
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: podcast at checkout. Again, that's Code Overland podcast at checkout,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: and I'll give you twenty percent off. I sincerely appreciate
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: your support. How about for you as a dad, like,
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: what are the like? Maybe what were the what are
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: some of the things that have come to mind that
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: you are like super stoked about for your sons? What
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: have you seen them do that you were like? That
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: is amazing. M.
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: One of the coolest things is when they take responsibility
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: for their role and they start owning it.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: I saw Cyrus really own his role, Like he got
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: got trained up and Afric he was learning some things.
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: You're starting to run a camera. And then we went
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: to this last Alaska trip and he was put in
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: charge of media. So every night he's offloading.
• 54:12
  Speaker 4: He's running debt and every dead Yeah, which is a
• 54:14
  Speaker 4: massive responsible Oh yeah, you screw this up. You can
• 54:18
  Speaker 4: lose whatever you shot that day. You just lost an
• 54:21
  Speaker 4: entire storyline that might have taken three days to build.
• 54:23
  Speaker 4: There's the whole project is on those cards.
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: The weight of the business is on those cards being
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: offloaded correctly. And he took it on. I mean, the
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: task is fairly simple.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: Sure it's and it's usually at the end of the
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: day when you're tired.
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's we built in mechanisms to keep it
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: as distraction free and as mistake free as possible. He
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: took that on. And then he started carrying cameras and
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: he starts telling me about storylines, or he'll start reminding
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: me like, oh Dad, don't we need to do this?
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you know, Oh yeah, okay.
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, here we go. I gotta, I gotta. He was
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: really thinking, this is awesome. That has been wonderful to see.
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it's just been fun to watch because I
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: don't even know that they were all born when I
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: first met you guys. Probably not.
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: Eli would have been a baby.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 55:15
  Speaker 3: I was pregnant with Eli when the idea of expedition
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: overland was okay, and.
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: That's your youngest, got it. Yeah, so it would he
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: would have been in a bassinet. Then. Like when I
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: first met you guys.
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: Now you had Overland rally in Hollister, California in twenty ten.
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, probably twenty ten.
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: Twenty eleven. I think it was twenty eleven.
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: When was Eli born twenty ten, twenty ten, I don't know,
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: because Hollister would have been like May, yeah, June somewhere
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: down in California. Yeah, maybe, yeah, so he would have
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: been like four months old.
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: Amazing. Yeah, that's been like now he's like little dude.
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: And little dude learning to drive.
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's really been fun to watch him too.
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: And I've been watching writer the middle son is uber
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: creative and I'm really seeing him. So he just turned
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: sixteen this year. Between fourteen and seventeen, a whole lot happens,
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: and then a bunch happens again nineteen eighteen, nineteen twenty,
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: So there's seem like there's a little gap at seventeen,
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: then the other kid comes and then yeah, he's going
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: through that right now.
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: So the parents that are listening that they either want
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: to travel with their kids or they do travel with
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: their kids. You guys have any advice that helps things
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: that you've learned, like little tricks hacks. I have no idea,
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: but what did you guys find that helps get him
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: engaged or successful?
• 56:50
  Speaker 3: Our parenting style from the beginning when we found out
• 56:53
  Speaker 3: we were pregnant with cy I was twenty one and
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: was always our kids are coming into our life. We
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: are not reworking ourselves or our life just for our kids.
• 57:04
  Speaker 3: And what I mean when I say is they're coming
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: into our adventure. So we're not gonna stop doing the
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: things we'd love just because we had kids. And there
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: are seasons of that. There's seasons when they're young the
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: things are harder to do, or you might do them differently,
• 57:16
  Speaker 3: which is how we got into overlanding because we used
• 57:19
  Speaker 3: to backpack and then had kids and it was like, oh,
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: we'll throw them in the back seat. We'll we'll have
• 57:23
  Speaker 3: an adventure instead of on my back. So that's been
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: our style. The other style we've had from the beginning
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: is that in our family, trust is your currency. So
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: if you have our trust, you are free to do
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: basically whatever.
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: Wild you will go and do, we.
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: Will equip you, we'll give you the tools. If you
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: have the trust, go for it. And so that carries
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: into our trips. So the other thing with that is
• 57:48
  Speaker 3: you mentioned they each have a role, they each have
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: a job. They actually each got paid to be on
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: any of the exo trips, just like any of our
• 57:55
  Speaker 3: team members. Sure, because then they're not feeling them just
• 57:58
  Speaker 3: along for the ride with mom and dad having to
• 58:00
  Speaker 3: do this thing.
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: As a consequence for them.
• 58:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they have an agreement, They actually sign a contract
• 58:05
  Speaker 3: to do this job. I get paid this and this
• 58:07
  Speaker 3: is my job, here's my role, this is what I'm
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: responsible for. And then we equip them as much as possible,
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: knowing their ages and what they're capable of. But even
• 58:16
  Speaker 3: at a young age, starting your kids off with those
• 58:20
  Speaker 3: roles and responsibilities so they feel like they're contributing to
• 58:23
  Speaker 3: the team or contributing to the family, they're not just
• 58:26
  Speaker 3: along for the ride goes a long way.
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: I would say, Yeah, that builds into teamwork right away.
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: If you're going to be here, don't be robing oxygen,
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: be contributing to whatever's happening, and find a way to
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: engage and be a part. And then it comes around
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: because eventually they get good at engagement, which is harder
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: and harder to do now because we have all these
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: ways of disengaging distracted. Yeah, get them engaged, take the
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: things away that prevent that, and and then build them
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: up in other ways. That's been effective for us and
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: then just have grace for where they're at too. I
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: used to have a whole lot more, much higher expectation,
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: like why can't you do this by now?
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah? I did that with my nephews a little bit,
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: and then I was like, dude, pump the breaks man.
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: And I think it was probably because I saw enough
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: of myself in them at that age that I was
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: I did. I was maybe trying to save them from
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: my own mistakes, but like their children, they're like they're kids,
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: they gotta you gotta So I had to pump the
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: brakes and ask them more questions or come at it
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: from a different perspective instead of just correcting them, which
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: was good for me. Good for me because I don't
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: do that an I've never done that with anybody that's
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: an adult. But for whatever reason there, you just I
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: guess you just want them did not have to go
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: through that.
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you want to so bad for them, Yeah, totally.
• 59:51
  Speaker 3: You want to see them succeed and I have to do.
• 59:53
  Speaker 3: You don't want them to have to learn the hard way, yes,
• 59:55
  Speaker 3: but them learning the hard way is actually how they
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: get better as a human.
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: Totally, And that's how I got better was by screwing
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: up a lot.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 3: It's always a conflict.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So put them in scenarios where they can screw
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: up little.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: And gain some confidence and.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: Work them up and work them up quicker, keep them
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: under pressure.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, And that's why Clay has always been so good.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 3: And I'm pretty hands off, I'm pretty laid back as
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: a mom. But you've always been so good with the
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: boys of Honey, they can do that. I'm like, really,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 3: but they're only like nine. Look at what kids in
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 3: Africa are doing. Yeah, so kids over here are doing
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 3: they are capable if we teach them, Yeah, sure they'll
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 3: be Okay, Yeah, okay.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: We got so. You guys just finished the Africa, not
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: the Africa, You've just finished the Alaska trip. When are
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: we going to start to see some content.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: On that February?
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: Oh that's exciting.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: So what's the name of this series?
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 2: Called the Spirit of Adventure? I love that, And it's
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: really about finding the voice of adventure and what it
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: tells you to do. And and it's an attempt this
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: will be in the narrations. It's an attempt to inspire
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: my young boys as a kind of a final attempt
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 2: to hear the voice and heed its call. Yeah, sure,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: and then hear the risk in it, but then also
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: hear the adventure in it, and then hear the wisdom
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: in it. So the spirit of adventure has multiple voices.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: Was there a was there a kind of a crazy
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: moment that you'd want to share that people can be anticipating,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: exciting you guys get the truck stuck? Really good?
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: Alls, I'll say is there is a twist in this
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: series that no one saw coming.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, I like it even you, huh.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: I may have known.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: I love that nobody, but the twist.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: Was something even as it played out, was unexpected for
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: me too.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: Neat.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's also stay tuned.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: It's so February that'll drop and that's going to be
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: on the Overlander network. Is that where that's going to drop?
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 3: Network? And then YouTube after got it?
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, that's a good one. I went from it's
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: just to set up people's expectations. It's completely different from
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: what we just shot because we were just in Africa
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: with seven forty year old guys, were like, we just
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: have to look at each other and poof camps picked
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: up or what's going on? And then we went to
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 2: I went immediately to four Teenagers and Antonai and Peter
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: was there. There's a twist in there as well. But yeah,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: all of a sudden we were like, oh man, I'm
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: back to full on dad Boade leadership dad Bode.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: So that's fun though, it's going to be fun.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: It was awesome.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: That's going to be fun. And is there anything coming
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: up adventure wise or for the Ranch or anything else
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: you want to let people know what else to look
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: forward to or things that they should be looking into.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: Sure, stay tuned. I don't know when this podcast will
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: come out exactly, but stay tuned for announcements at the Ranch.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: We have already just we have already been bl our
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: calendar for things that'll come out. So that's really cool.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: And then we we're going into another cool year of
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: shooting more content. A lot of it's still being finalized
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: to where it's going. We've had some curveballs, but we
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: have every year, so it's not it's no different. It's
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: but we're getting pretty landed on what we're doing. And
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: stay tuned. It's gonna be a really good year.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 3: It's going to be a busy year. It's exciting. Yeah,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: I can say for the Ranch we're working on some
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 3: community pop up events, so stay tuned our social media accounts,
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 3: our websites. You'll see when those land, and then mark
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 3: calendars for hopefully a big event in July at the Ranch.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: So awesome.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: Tuck that away, Tuck that away. Instagram is going to
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: be the best place to find out, So if you
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: don't follow the ex Overland Ranch on Instagram or x
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: Overland our Instagram page, that's probably where it's going to
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: hit first, and then it'll be on websites those announcements,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: But most people get their info from Instagram now, so
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: be subscribed to those things that it'll be awesome for
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: us and for you.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, guys, it's been a joy to have you
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: in my life for over fifteen years now. It's been
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: incredible to see what you've built. You've done such good
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: for the community, for overlanding globally. You guys have done
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: a wonderful job of providing family friendly content that can
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: be consumed by anyone that wants to be inspired to adventure.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: It's been fun to watch your kids grow up through
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: that for you, guys, to grow up through that from
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: you and I traveling with E seven early on to
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: crossing Greenland to now you guys are doing these incredible
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: expeditions in Africa and everywhere else. It's just it's been
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: a pleasure to see you guys do such incredible work
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: and the industry is much better for it. So thank
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: you for being on the podcast today.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: You're welcome. Thank you and appreciate your friendship and everything
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: you've Overland Journal and Expedition Portal has always done for USS.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: The inspiration you guys have given us, the things we've
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: learned from you guys like you guys are the source right,
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: so much stuff. And uh yeah, thanks for calling me
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: to go to Russia that one time.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: Haha, that worked out perfect. Yeah, that worked out perfect.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: Called me up and he's like, you have twenty four
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: hours you want to go to Russia.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: That's how every good conversation is.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: That's how those whole thing kicked off. That's thank you
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: for all that.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: Well, I appreciate your time and we thank you all
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.