Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Stephanie Brady Celebrates 20 Years of Overland Journal

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Stephanie Brady Celebrates 20 Years of Overland Journal · The Overland Journal Podcast

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
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Speaker 1: Ashley Giordano. And as Overland Journal approaches its 20-year anniversary,
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Speaker 1: we're catching up with some of the people who have
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Speaker 1: helped shape this community, sharing the stories, lessons, and adventures
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Speaker 1: that brought us here. With that said, my guest today
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Speaker 1: is Stephanie Brady, our wonderful Director of Design for Overland
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Speaker 1: Journal Magazine. Welcome, Stephanie. So great to have you here.
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Speaker 2: Hey.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so good to be here.
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Speaker 1: So if anybody's ever opened up the magazine, which I'm
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Speaker 1: sure many of the listeners have, you are like the
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Speaker 1: person behind the scenes of how it all looks. So
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Speaker 1: the beautiful layout and where all the images are and
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Speaker 1: how the photography is laid out and all of that
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Speaker 1: is Stephanie. So yay, shout out to Stephanie.
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Speaker 3: Thank you.
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Speaker 4: And a special thanks to Honcook Dynaprotire. for supporting this
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Speaker 4: week's Overland Journal podcast. Be sure to visit expeditionportal.com to
1:07
Speaker 4: see our features on the recent Honcook experience at the
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Speaker 4: fourth annual Bronco Stampede in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We took
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Speaker 4: a look at the full line of DynaPro tires and
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Speaker 4: some great Ford Broncos from all over the country as
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Speaker 4: they gathered at this community event of enthusiasts and top brands.
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Speaker 4: Thanks again, Han Cook.
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Speaker 1: Thank you. I think one of the things about the magazine,
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Speaker 1: there are many things that make it so well-respected, and
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Speaker 1: one of them is the way that it looks.
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Speaker 3: So, yeah, that's thanks to you. We definitely get that
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Speaker 3: a lot.
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Speaker 1: And I love that.
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Speaker 3: And I'm incredibly proud about that. I've many, many times
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Speaker 3: had the privilege of handing someone a magazine and standing
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Speaker 3: there while they look through it. And just the wow
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Speaker 3: and the sweetness. And that just does my heart good.
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Speaker 3: I mean, I just love, love, love when I get
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Speaker 3: the opportunity to see that reaction. People and then just
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Speaker 3: high quality images that we are able to print in
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Speaker 3: the magazine. And yeah, I'm very, very proud of it.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's been wild to see the...
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Speaker 1: the development over time of how the style has changed
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Speaker 1: and the layouts changed and all of that. Bring us
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Speaker 1: back to the first issue of the magazine in, I
2:21
Speaker 1: think it was spring 2007. Yeah.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Tell us more about that. Well, yeah.
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Speaker 3: And I, And actually, I feel like I'd love to
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Speaker 3: back up a little bit because spring 2007 is when
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Speaker 3: we printed the first magazine, but there were these, this
2:35
Speaker 3: whole thing behind the scenes that many people do not
2:38
Speaker 3: know about. And I think that that is just such
2:40
Speaker 3: an interesting part of the story. And so I think
2:43
Speaker 3: the first thing that I remember was Scott and I,
2:46
Speaker 3: and just to back up, Scott, Brady and I were
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Speaker 3: married for a very long time.
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Speaker 1: Okay.
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Speaker 3: So when I say Scott, it is that Scott Brady.
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Speaker 3: And so, and I don't really remember how far, if
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Speaker 3: it was the spring before we actually started the magazine
3:00
Speaker 3: or it was a whole year prior, but he had
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Speaker 3: come to me and I was driving. We had this website,
3:06
Speaker 3: which is now the portal, Expedition Portal, but at that
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Speaker 3: time it was called Expeditions West. And he wanted to,
3:13
Speaker 3: he just kind of started it as a hobby and
3:16
Speaker 3: And he wanted to build up a vehicle to put
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Speaker 3: it out there. He would post our trips and things
3:22
Speaker 3: like that. And so I was driving Land Rover Discovery
3:25
Speaker 3: at the time. And he came to me and just
3:27
Speaker 3: discussed with me, hey, what do you think of we're
3:30
Speaker 3: going to think of trading this in and then getting
3:32
Speaker 3: a Tacoma that he wanted to build up into a
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Speaker 3: project vehicle. So we talked about that and discussed that.
3:38
Speaker 3: And we decided it was a good idea. And so
3:41
Speaker 3: we did that transition. And then at some point after that,
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Speaker 3: I remember we were in Washington meeting with, I believe
3:48
Speaker 3: it was, it was ARB. And I just remember talking
3:51
Speaker 3: with them, like their marketing team. And there were a
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Speaker 3: lot of questions of like, we were saying to them,
3:56
Speaker 3: they like, why don't we do this? And why don't
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Speaker 3: we see this? And just talking about the other adventure
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Speaker 3: travel magazines, because all of them at that point had
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Speaker 3: gone very hardcore rock crawling. And that was just not
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Speaker 3: what we did. This is not how we traveled or
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Speaker 3: anything like this, but that was really all it was.
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Speaker 3: All of them look like that. And so saying a
4:16
Speaker 3: lot in that conversation is what I remember. Why didn't
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Speaker 3: this happen? Why didn't someone do this? Whatever, right? So
4:21
Speaker 3: then fast forward. And again, I don't really remember how
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Speaker 3: far from when that happened to when this next event
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Speaker 3: happened that I tell you about. But we were, it
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Speaker 3: was August of 2006. And we were coming back from
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Speaker 3: a little adventure with some of our friends. And as
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Speaker 3: we were driving, we were talking about what are we
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Speaker 3: going to do next? Because he had been working, Scott
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Speaker 3: had been working for his uncle in California for doing
4:43
Speaker 3: higher education systems on computers. And it required him, we
4:48
Speaker 3: lived in Arizona, it required him to travel four days
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Speaker 3: every single week. So he would fly out Monday morning
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Speaker 3: to go to California and then he would fly home Thursday.
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Speaker 3: At the same time, I am doing real estate. So anyways,
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Speaker 3: we were just kind of getting both of us tired
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Speaker 3: of what we were doing. And so he came to me,
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Speaker 3: you know, we were just talking in the car of like, OK,
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Speaker 3: what are we going to do different if we do
5:10
Speaker 3: something different? And we had a set of friends who
5:12
Speaker 3: were talking to us about building wineries in California. And
5:15
Speaker 3: I could tell Scott didn't really want to do that.
5:17
Speaker 3: And then he says to me, what do you think
5:19
Speaker 3: of starting a magazine? And I'm like, what? You know,
5:22
Speaker 3: because like who who does that? Like who just randomly starts?
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Speaker 3: But I could tell he was really, really serious about it.
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Speaker 3: And when really with Scott, he has always a lot
5:32
Speaker 3: of ideas and things. And so I had learned at
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Speaker 3: that point of marriage, which was almost 10 years at
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Speaker 3: that point, of like, don't worry, don't panic, don't whatever.
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Speaker 3: He's just potentially passing through on this idea.
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Speaker 1: And so, okay. Whatever.
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Speaker 3: That was August of 2006. Well, I don't even know,
5:49
Speaker 3: but like he just was sick. And we basically, we
5:52
Speaker 3: got home and it happened really, really fast where I
5:55
Speaker 3: formed the LLC for this new business called Overland Journal.
5:59
Speaker 3: And unbeknownst to me at the time he asked, he
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Speaker 3: had already bought the URL overlandjournal.com. And he had already
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Speaker 3: been talking to Jonathan Hansen, who would become our first editor-in-chief.
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Speaker 3: And there is a story in there. And again, I
6:11
Speaker 3: don't know at what point it happens, but I remember
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Speaker 3: going down to the Tucson area and meeting with Jonathan
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Speaker 3: and Roseanne Hansen. And Jonathan even wrote an editorial about
6:19
Speaker 3: it one time about, of course, his wife's freaking out.
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Speaker 3: Because this was a day before... the internet existed as
6:25
Speaker 3: it existed today and that we're going to lose our
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Speaker 3: kidneys over this. You know, like, who are these people?
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Speaker 3: You know, whatever, right? And so I do remember having that.
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Speaker 3: But anyways, it happened really fast from that August of 2006.
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Speaker 3: We came home. I formed the LLC. And then by November,
6:41
Speaker 3: we were meeting with who was to become our first team.
6:43
Speaker 3: So by that point, Jonathan was there. We had an
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Speaker 3: initial technical editor mate named Chris Marzoni. There was Brian McVickers,
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Speaker 3: who has always been in charge of the ads and
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Speaker 3: development In January, we bought me an iMac, which I
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Speaker 3: had never designed anything before. I don't really even know
7:01
Speaker 3: how I got appointed as designer of Overland Journal, except
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Speaker 3: that no one else could. I had the most potential skill,
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Speaker 3: I guess. And then we borrowed the Adobe Creative Suite
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Speaker 3: from Roseanne Hansen because we did not have the funds
7:15
Speaker 3: to purchase it at that time. And then by May 2007,
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Speaker 3: we were at the printer in Salt Lake City with
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Speaker 3: our first magazine. So it happened exceptionally fast. I honestly,
7:27
Speaker 3: I don't know how it happened that fast, except this
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Speaker 3: was just something that we were supposed to do in life.
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Speaker 1: Yes, yes. How did it feel putting the design together
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Speaker 1: on something like you've never used these tools before? You've
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Speaker 1: never laid anything out like digitally or yeah.
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Speaker 3: It was honestly crazy because the only thing I had done,
7:50
Speaker 3: you know, as I mentioned, I was in real estate.
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Speaker 3: And so having done that, I had used Microsoft Publisher before.
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Speaker 3: That was like my extent of my design experience to
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Speaker 3: do some little postcards to promote myself for, you know,
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Speaker 3: real estate. And I will just say, you know, Adobe
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Speaker 3: Creative Suite and Microsoft Publisher were like worlds apart, especially
8:12
Speaker 3: at that time. So I have I have no idea.
8:15
Speaker 3: I was terrified. I like literally I went to Barnes
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Speaker 3: and Noble and I bought a book of something like
8:22
Speaker 3: how to design for dummies or something like that. And
8:24
Speaker 3: because I didn't know at all how to use. I mean,
8:27
Speaker 3: I had never worked on a Mac before. I had never,
8:31
Speaker 3: you know, worked in InDesign or anything like that. I
8:34
Speaker 3: remember early days being on the phone with the the
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Speaker 3: printer and I was sitting in front of my iMac
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Speaker 3: and I had the screen open and I could not
8:41
Speaker 3: I had to ask them how do I close this
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Speaker 3: screen I needed to close this screen to move to
8:46
Speaker 3: another one I had to ask them I could not
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Speaker 3: figure out because I had been used to Microsoft products
8:52
Speaker 3: and so the Microsoft and the Mac they're on opposite
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Speaker 3: sides of buttons at the top to close I had
8:57
Speaker 3: I had to ask them like this is how green
8:59
Speaker 3: I was I knew nothing also on that phone call
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Speaker 3: I remember they are talking to me about dot gain
9:05
Speaker 3: and line speed and just all these different things. And
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Speaker 3: I had to interrupt and stop them and said, I
9:11
Speaker 3: need you to stop and I need you to repeat
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Speaker 3: and explain every single word that you just said to me.
9:18
Speaker 3: I have no idea what you're talking about, you know,
9:21
Speaker 3: and they did and they were really sweet. But I
9:24
Speaker 3: literally I use my little how to book and it
9:27
Speaker 3: sat on my lap The entire, for sure, the first magazine,
9:30
Speaker 3: but several magazines in where I'd be like, okay, text wrap.
9:34
Speaker 3: And I would go to the index and I would
9:35
Speaker 3: look up text wrap and I would read how to
9:38
Speaker 3: do it. And then I would do, I don't know.
9:40
Speaker 3: And I was really, I was afraid. I definitely, I
9:43
Speaker 3: had chest pain. The whole first several issues that I
9:46
Speaker 3: designed because just the stress and the enormity of all
9:49
Speaker 3: of it. And at the real estate office that I
9:52
Speaker 3: worked at, because I didn't stop working. Like I worked
9:56
Speaker 3: full time during the day. I would come home and
9:59
Speaker 3: I would work on the magazine until midnight, one in
10:02
Speaker 3: the morning, and then repeat day after day after day.
10:05
Speaker 3: And there was this little designer guy at the real
10:08
Speaker 3: estate office and I was telling him I was scared.
10:11
Speaker 3: And he said, well, could you design one page? And
10:14
Speaker 3: I said, yeah, I can design one page. He's like,
10:17
Speaker 3: that's all you're doing. That's all you're doing. Over and
10:19
Speaker 3: over again. Over and over again. And so I just
10:23
Speaker 3: kind of really took that to heart. And I just
10:26
Speaker 3: did it. I just figured it out. I mean, there
10:28
Speaker 3: was no option because especially... You know, once we got
10:32
Speaker 3: that first magazine out, which was in spring of 2007,
10:36
Speaker 3: it was, you know, it was on repeat. I was
10:38
Speaker 3: going to have to figure it out. It was the
10:40
Speaker 3: biggest thing of sink or swim that you could imagine.
10:44
Speaker 3: There was no option for me not to do it.
10:45
Speaker 3: We didn't have funds to hire a designer. I was it.
10:49
Speaker 3: And so I just figured it out.
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Speaker 1: Good thing you did. We're here. We're here now.
10:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, that was what was going on.
11:00
Speaker 3: you know, and how that all came to be.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. That's incredible. Wow. Yeah. Thanks for sharing the background
11:08
Speaker 1: on that. Yeah. Yeah. It's so different now. What do
11:12
Speaker 1: you remember about the first few stories that were in
11:16
Speaker 1: the magazine? Like, I'm sure you spent so much time
11:19
Speaker 1: looking at them and reading them.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I definitely, what first comes to mind, I just,
11:25
Speaker 3: I remember the main travel feature in the first issue
11:29
Speaker 3: was Graham Jackson's Dark Continent. You know, just remember getting
11:34
Speaker 3: the images in. I, truth be told, don't remember a
11:37
Speaker 3: lot else of that first issue. I do know that
11:41
Speaker 3: our logo came in like I think the week we
11:44
Speaker 3: were going to printer, there was, you know, someone had
11:47
Speaker 3: designed that for us. And it was like, okay, I
11:52
Speaker 3: guess that'll work.
11:53
Speaker 1: That's good.
11:53
Speaker 3: Like, I will say that everything was very much fly
11:56
Speaker 3: by the seat of our pants in those days. You know,
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Speaker 3: now everything is so, you know, planned out. We're booked
12:02
Speaker 3: a year ahead of time with content. We have just
12:05
Speaker 3: amazing systems and processes. But at the time... I don't
12:09
Speaker 3: even know how we put it together, truth be told.
12:11
Speaker 3: Like I look back, you know, just in preparing this
12:14
Speaker 3: 20th anniversary issue and had the opportunity, we're going back
12:18
Speaker 3: and just looking at all these issues and pulling content
12:20
Speaker 3: and stories and things. And it is very interesting to
12:23
Speaker 3: look at the early, one, the early content and look
12:26
Speaker 3: at also just our file structure because it was sometimes
12:29
Speaker 3: it's named by the name, sometimes by the story. And
12:32
Speaker 3: I think it was just everyone's doing the best that
12:34
Speaker 3: they could. And like, I don't, There wasn't foresight. There
12:37
Speaker 3: wasn't at the time, of course, understanding of what this
12:41
Speaker 3: was going to turn into. I think also there was
12:43
Speaker 3: no staff. I was designing the magazine. But then at
12:47
Speaker 3: some point in the first issue, I was like, subscribers,
12:52
Speaker 3: people are subscribing. We need someone to track this. We
12:55
Speaker 3: need to build these advertising. It's like all of that.
12:58
Speaker 3: I did not think through that at all. Like no
13:02
Speaker 3: thought to it until it started happening. We had bought
13:05
Speaker 3: a book of how to run a magazine for dummies
13:07
Speaker 3: and like no one had time to read it. There was,
13:10
Speaker 3: there was no time.
13:11
Speaker 1: Yeah.
13:12
Speaker 3: You know, it just like, like, as I said, working
13:15
Speaker 3: full time and, and doing all the magazine stuff in
13:19
Speaker 3: the evening and then on the weekend, there was, there
13:21
Speaker 3: was just no time. So yeah, I, I honestly, it's
13:25
Speaker 3: kind of a blur, but a lot of fun also
13:28
Speaker 3: when you think back.
13:30
Speaker 1: What did it feel like to hold the first copy
13:33
Speaker 1: of the magazine in your hand?
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Speaker 3: It was very surreal. I remember being up at the printer.
13:39
Speaker 3: Scott and I went over to Salt Lake City, which
13:42
Speaker 3: is where the printer is. And yeah, they walked us
13:45
Speaker 3: all around and introduced us to the various departments that
13:48
Speaker 3: we were working with. So these are people I had
13:50
Speaker 3: been on the phone with. So it was nice to
13:52
Speaker 3: meet them. And then being into the shop where the
13:55
Speaker 3: huge printers were. And I mean, the machine where our
13:57
Speaker 3: magazine prints is massive. just very long, two stories at
14:01
Speaker 3: one point. And it was very cool, I will say,
14:04
Speaker 3: to be able to see those first issues of Overland
14:07
Speaker 3: Journal coming off. And it, just as you would see
14:10
Speaker 3: in the movies where it's just flying on the printer
14:13
Speaker 3: and just like almost like a blur of how fast
14:16
Speaker 3: it was printing and moving. And then just they were
14:18
Speaker 3: explaining to us how it all went and, you know,
14:20
Speaker 3: the binding and just all the things. And so I
14:23
Speaker 3: will say that was amazing. And that was very, it
14:26
Speaker 3: was just surreal that like, something we had just done.
14:30
Speaker 3: And again, this was a very, as I mentioned, a
14:32
Speaker 3: very short time period. It wasn't like we had years
14:35
Speaker 3: to plan this out. It was from August when I
14:38
Speaker 3: heard about an idea and then start. I didn't even
14:42
Speaker 3: have a computer in January. And in May, I'm at
14:44
Speaker 3: the printer. We're at the printer. And so with no experience,
14:48
Speaker 3: like I don't even know how I did it or
14:50
Speaker 3: that we did it. And Jonathan compiling the stories, I
14:52
Speaker 3: don't even know. But it was very surreal. And then
14:55
Speaker 3: the other thing I remember being very, very tired. That
15:02
Speaker 3: was probably like my overriding emotion was exhaustion. Because like
15:07
Speaker 3: I said, I think working full time and then doing
15:10
Speaker 3: this in the evening and weekends and very, very, very
15:14
Speaker 3: long days and a lot of stress and figuring stuff out.
15:17
Speaker 3: So just tired. But yeah, I mean, I look back.
15:22
Speaker 3: And I remember thinking, like, I'm going to look back
15:24
Speaker 3: at this and not like this initial issue because I
15:27
Speaker 3: feel like I didn't know what I was doing. Like,
15:28
Speaker 3: I was very aware that I had no design skills. And, like,
15:32
Speaker 3: I didn't know. I had to determine all of everything,
15:35
Speaker 3: what everything looked like. And I didn't know design. But
15:39
Speaker 3: I actually, you know, I look back and I'm so
15:42
Speaker 3: incredibly proud of a girl with no design skills can
15:46
Speaker 3: produce anything. that magazine that I produced. And again, not me,
15:50
Speaker 3: the whole team, but just from a design perspective. So yeah, excitement,
15:55
Speaker 3: surreal and exhaustion.
15:56
Speaker 1: That's great. And here we are 20 years later. I know.
15:59
Speaker 1: I'm curious from your perspective, how the magazine and the
16:03
Speaker 1: nature of Overland Travel has changed since then. Like, what
16:06
Speaker 1: are you seeing in terms of trends and maybe layout
16:10
Speaker 1: or yeah, just what's changed?
16:13
Speaker 3: Well, I will say just first of all, there was
16:16
Speaker 3: not an Overland industry. When we launched the magazine, nothing.
16:20
Speaker 3: There was nothing that existed. Now, there's not, it doesn't
16:23
Speaker 3: mean that people were not traveling in this way. It was,
16:27
Speaker 3: there was no word overlander in the United States. Now,
16:30
Speaker 3: people in Africa and Australia, and they were doing this
16:35
Speaker 3: form of travel. But in the United States, it did
16:38
Speaker 3: not exist. You know, like I said, the word overlander
16:40
Speaker 3: did not exist. I think what Overland Journal did is
16:43
Speaker 3: just give a name to the tribe. I think, is
16:47
Speaker 3: that happened and gave them a gathering place and something,
16:51
Speaker 3: you know, to be like, oh, yeah, that's us. That's me.
16:54
Speaker 3: That's what we did, you know. So I think that
16:56
Speaker 3: was part of it was just we did not know
17:00
Speaker 3: when we did it what we were doing. I mean,
17:03
Speaker 3: we had no idea what this was going to become.
17:06
Speaker 3: And this whole huge launching of an industry and these hundreds,
17:10
Speaker 3: maybe thousands of companies that have sprung up. since then of,
17:15
Speaker 3: you know, everything from direct on, you know, trucks to
17:18
Speaker 3: clothing manufacturers and just apps and everything in between. Because
17:22
Speaker 3: also like that electronic version of stuff did not exist
17:25
Speaker 3: at all. I mean, I don't even know if there
17:27
Speaker 3: was Google at all. Like I know for sure there
17:30
Speaker 3: was not Pinterest. And I know that and the only
17:33
Speaker 3: reason I mentioned that one is because I literally used
17:36
Speaker 3: to cut designs like layout designs I liked out of magazines.
17:41
Speaker 3: I'd be like at the dentist's office and like ripping
17:43
Speaker 3: things out of magazines. I'm like, oh, that's good design.
17:45
Speaker 3: And kind of using that as an example of something
17:49
Speaker 3: I could use because there wasn't there was no Pinterest.
17:51
Speaker 3: There was no way for me to track that.
17:52
Speaker 1: I had.
17:54
Speaker 3: Design books and things I was trying to look at
17:56
Speaker 3: and then Pinterest came and I had those and now
17:57
Speaker 3: of course I just template off myself and the things
18:00
Speaker 3: that I've done in the past but yeah I mean
18:02
Speaker 3: I think the industry has just it has become an
18:05
Speaker 3: industry has grown by leaps and bounds and um Yeah,
18:09
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just, it's huge. I mean, you just
18:12
Speaker 3: look at just even like Overland Expo and even that,
18:14
Speaker 3: we saw like the first one that started was just
18:17
Speaker 3: like some of the advertisers, some of the people just
18:20
Speaker 3: showed up in Prescott at this racetrack that was right there.
18:23
Speaker 3: And then just what it's turned into today, which is
18:26
Speaker 3: just massive. So I think, I mean, it's on every front.
18:31
Speaker 3: I feel like that we have seen change both from
18:34
Speaker 3: just becoming an industry, all the different businesses, design. I
18:39
Speaker 3: remember laughing about it at the time, but our initial
18:45
Speaker 3: Overland Journal logo had a compass rose in the middle
18:48
Speaker 3: of the O. And for a while there, every business
18:52
Speaker 3: that sprouted had a compass in the logo. And we
18:55
Speaker 3: would laugh about that. And that was actually why, that
18:58
Speaker 3: was kind of the impetus of why I ended up
19:00
Speaker 3: changing the logo after a while is because I was
19:03
Speaker 3: trying to pull us away from just that of everyone
19:07
Speaker 3: doing it. But yeah, it was just amazing growth and
19:11
Speaker 3: just such beauty in that.
19:13
Speaker 1: It must be interesting, too, to go from that core
19:16
Speaker 1: team all those years ago and seeing how many contributors
19:20
Speaker 1: there are to the magazine now from all over the world.
19:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's absolutely amazing. And I mean, I just, I
19:27
Speaker 3: so thank these initial contributors who were there and were
19:31
Speaker 3: with us. And there was definitely a handful. And it
19:33
Speaker 3: was really basically who we or Jonathan knew was basically,
19:38
Speaker 3: I mean, Jonathan wrote a lot, Chris Marzoni, Scott, and
19:40
Speaker 3: then the handful others, which it was not a very
19:43
Speaker 3: big circle, was basically friends, friends and family doing it.
19:49
Speaker 3: And now the course, you can attest to this, just
19:51
Speaker 3: like the number of people that we work with today
19:56
Speaker 3: and our editorial and being able to be booked a
19:59
Speaker 3: year ahead of time for the magazine. And of course,
20:02
Speaker 3: the hungry beast that is Expedition Portal and all the
20:04
Speaker 3: content that moves through that. No, it is it is
20:08
Speaker 3: mind blowing. what the changes that have happened. And I
20:12
Speaker 3: think if you had told any of us, but I
20:14
Speaker 3: will speak for myself, if you had told me at
20:18
Speaker 3: the time what this was going to become, I would
20:21
Speaker 3: have been terrified. I think I would have thrown down
20:23
Speaker 3: my iMac and run. I'd be like, I can't do that.
20:27
Speaker 3: But I think that's just the nature of anything that
20:29
Speaker 3: you do. You just keep doing it. You just keep
20:32
Speaker 3: chugging along. And we just made strides along the way.
20:35
Speaker 3: And I think as people, we all grew so incredibly much.
20:40
Speaker 1: Yeah.
20:40
Speaker 3: And now it's just like second nature to us. Like
20:43
Speaker 3: we I think we all just think nothing of it now.
20:45
Speaker 3: This is just what we do.
20:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, totally. What about some shenanigans or fun moments
20:53
Speaker 1: from the last 20 years?
20:55
Speaker 3: So, so many.
20:56
Speaker 1: I think so.
20:58
Speaker 3: I think that thing that first comes to mind. So
21:00
Speaker 3: when we started the magazine, right, we didn't have a shop.
21:03
Speaker 3: We were running it out of our house. And so
21:06
Speaker 3: the team would come up when we were going to,
21:08
Speaker 3: I would just edit in our, I would just design
21:10
Speaker 3: the magazine in our front bedroom. And when we needed
21:12
Speaker 3: to edit the magazine, Jonathan and Roseanne Hansen would drive
21:15
Speaker 3: up from Tucson and they would do it. Everyone's sitting
21:18
Speaker 3: around my kitchen table. And so, you know, so this
21:22
Speaker 3: is where we started. And so, you know, we had
21:25
Speaker 3: to do gear tests and stuff like this. And we were,
21:26
Speaker 3: you know, very serious about this. And so I think
21:28
Speaker 3: what the first thing that comes to mind is we
21:30
Speaker 3: were doing a rooftop tent test and we needed to
21:34
Speaker 3: test the wind speed of like if you were in
21:37
Speaker 3: the tent camping and, you know, the kind of winds
21:40
Speaker 3: it could withstand. And so how do you do that, right?
21:42
Speaker 3: We don't have access to a wind tunnel or all these,
21:45
Speaker 3: you know, big fans or anything. So what we did is,
21:48
Speaker 3: you know, as we mounted each rooftop tent to the truck,
21:53
Speaker 3: we left it open. We would put a team member
21:56
Speaker 3: inside the tent and And then someone else would drive
22:00
Speaker 3: it up and down the street. And the one inside
22:04
Speaker 3: would have a wind meter that would test the wind
22:09
Speaker 3: going certain speeds. And so we would just do this
22:12
Speaker 3: back and forth and back and forth, up and down.
22:15
Speaker 3: And then we would unmount that tent. And then we
22:17
Speaker 3: would redo another tent. And then we would repeat. And
22:21
Speaker 3: there were so, so many things like that. And so
22:24
Speaker 3: we lived in a subdivision with an HOA. And they
22:28
Speaker 3: were so not fond of us. And we were constantly, constantly,
22:31
Speaker 3: constantly in trouble with the HOA, constantly getting notices and
22:35
Speaker 3: warnings and things like that. And then like, you know,
22:38
Speaker 3: someone would go off to Walmart and they would see
22:40
Speaker 3: an Overlander and a big Unimog. And of course, they
22:42
Speaker 3: would bring them to our house. So now we've got
22:45
Speaker 3: a big, huge Unimog parked out on the street. And
22:47
Speaker 3: you can't, you couldn't park on the street at our house.
22:50
Speaker 3: Like they, You had to keep it all nice and all.
22:53
Speaker 3: And so we got this big, huge Unimog sitting there
22:55
Speaker 3: hooked up to our water in there and talking with
22:57
Speaker 3: us and using our internet and all of that. And literally,
23:01
Speaker 3: we were making the HOA's meeting agenda every single time
23:06
Speaker 3: they met. I know this because you'd get copies, you know,
23:09
Speaker 3: as a resident of the subdivision, we were getting copies
23:11
Speaker 3: of the meeting. And we were literally in their agenda
23:14
Speaker 3: all the time. And in fact, that Unimog, they took
23:17
Speaker 3: pictures of that and we made... They took pictures of
23:20
Speaker 3: our infractions and we would be in the meeting agenda
23:22
Speaker 3: sometimes with pictures. You know, there was a sign that
23:26
Speaker 3: was like, you know, after our house, there was like
23:28
Speaker 3: a curve and then there was a, you could park
23:31
Speaker 3: after that. And they ended up moving the sign way
23:33
Speaker 3: down the street. So we were just, yeah, lots of
23:37
Speaker 3: funny shenanigans with tents and tests and just all the
23:41
Speaker 3: things that we did there. I think, I'm trying to think,
23:45
Speaker 3: you know, what else we would, oh, yeah. I don't
23:47
Speaker 3: know if I want to tell that one. But it's
23:49
Speaker 3: given vehicles and stuff. And one time we had this
23:52
Speaker 3: military Jeep and it had infrared inside, like, you know,
23:56
Speaker 3: in the little camera space where you have it, but
23:58
Speaker 3: it was infrared. And so as one of the settings.
24:01
Speaker 3: And so one time we were coming home from the
24:03
Speaker 3: movies and it was dark. pitch black. And in Prescott,
24:06
Speaker 3: it's a dark sky law. So, you know, there's no
24:09
Speaker 3: street lights anywhere. All lights have to be pointed down.
24:11
Speaker 3: They have to be off at 10, you know, and
24:12
Speaker 3: the point is to see the stars. But we were
24:14
Speaker 3: coming in and again, no one's supposed to be parked
24:16
Speaker 3: on our street. And so Scott coming in down to
24:20
Speaker 3: our street decides we're going to turn our headlights off
24:22
Speaker 3: and we are going to use the infrared to navigate
24:25
Speaker 3: down the street. And it was going well. You know,
24:28
Speaker 3: because you can see with the infrared, except that he just,
24:32
Speaker 3: thank God, last minute, decides to turn on the headlights.
24:34
Speaker 3: And we were right about to hit a parked car
24:37
Speaker 3: that was, like, not supposed to be. I know. Because
24:40
Speaker 3: no one was supposed to park there. So we thought
24:41
Speaker 3: we were fine. But the infrared wasn't picking it up
24:44
Speaker 3: because it was cold. You know, it was winter and Prescott.
24:46
Speaker 3: And so there was no heat signature of it. Or,
24:49
Speaker 3: you know, nothing that we could see.
24:51
Speaker 1: Yeah.
24:52
Speaker 3: We're normally very responsible.
24:53
Speaker 1: Like, you know. Disclaimer. Thank you.
24:55
Speaker 3: Big disclaimer. Normally, you know, and I think other things
24:58
Speaker 3: like I remember coming back one of the times with
25:01
Speaker 3: the Expeditions 7, that expedition and the guys had come
25:05
Speaker 3: into Prague. So the trip was done coming to Prague.
25:08
Speaker 3: And but we needed to get the trucks to France
25:11
Speaker 3: to have work done. Now, there were three trucks, three
25:14
Speaker 3: big of these expedition trucks at the time and big
25:17
Speaker 3: land cruisers. And so me and the video guy's wife
25:20
Speaker 3: and Kelsey, who is one of our team members, we
25:23
Speaker 3: everyone we flew over to meet the guys and then
25:25
Speaker 3: we were going to help move the trucks around back
25:28
Speaker 3: to France. So but on the way, you know, we
25:30
Speaker 3: saw Prague and Italy and Kelsey wanted to go to Monaco.
25:34
Speaker 3: So we went to Monaco. So we're driving through all
25:36
Speaker 3: these places and stopping and kind of just enjoying the
25:38
Speaker 3: end of the trip. And so we're in Monaco and
25:42
Speaker 3: we cannot we want to get out and walk around,
25:43
Speaker 3: but we cannot find a place to park. And so
25:46
Speaker 3: narrow streets, very big truck. And so anyways, we see
25:49
Speaker 3: this space and I'm like, that is not big enough.
25:52
Speaker 3: So it's at that time, it's me, Scott and Kelsey
25:54
Speaker 3: is in the truck. And I'm like, no, that's not
25:55
Speaker 3: big enough. And Scott's like, no, get out. You can
25:58
Speaker 3: spot me going in. And so I'm like, oh my gosh.
26:01
Speaker 3: So we end up parallel parking between a Rolls Royce
26:04
Speaker 3: and a Lamborghini. And I'm not kidding you. There was
26:07
Speaker 3: maybe four to five inches on either side of the
26:10
Speaker 3: bumpers between us and these cars. And it was just like,
26:14
Speaker 3: So I don't even know how we're not still wedged
26:16
Speaker 3: in there, truthfully. It was so, so tight. But yeah,
26:20
Speaker 3: there was like tons, tons of stuff like that. I
26:22
Speaker 3: would host Halloween parties every year. AT Overland was in
26:27
Speaker 3: the building next to us. And so we did a
26:29
Speaker 3: lot with them. We would have breakfast. We'd serve breakfast.
26:33
Speaker 3: When we got Atlas, who is our Alaskan Malamute, and
26:36
Speaker 3: we'd bring him to work every day. And sometimes I'd
26:39
Speaker 3: walk to the other shop and I'd come back and
26:40
Speaker 3: every single employee is sitting on the ground playing with
26:43
Speaker 3: an atlases, tearing around the shop. It was fun. I mean,
26:47
Speaker 3: there's so, so, so many fun things and shenanigans and just,
26:51
Speaker 3: because it was just really, I think in a lot
26:53
Speaker 3: of ways, especially in the early days, we, it was
26:55
Speaker 3: just really fly by the seat of our pants. It
26:57
Speaker 3: was like, there were no rules. There were, we were
26:59
Speaker 3: trying to get our thing stuff done. And, you know,
27:01
Speaker 3: we've always been very, I would say lax a bit
27:04
Speaker 3: with you know, the employees. We want them to feel
27:07
Speaker 3: like family. And so, yeah, we just, yeah, it was just,
27:11
Speaker 3: it was come as you are. But we had a
27:12
Speaker 3: lot of fun.
27:14
Speaker 1: Yeah. What are some of your, what are some of
27:18
Speaker 1: the most memorable stories that you've designed over time?
27:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so many. I think what first comes
27:27
Speaker 3: to mind of like most poignant, there were two different
27:30
Speaker 3: stories where I actually cried while doing the layouts. And
27:36
Speaker 3: the first one was a story of this couple and
27:39
Speaker 3: they were driving through Africa in a 110. And as
27:44
Speaker 3: they came into the city, it was a school town,
27:49
Speaker 3: children swarmed their truck. which often happens, you know, when
27:52
Speaker 3: you come into a small village. And the children had
27:57
Speaker 3: sworn their truck and they were kind of pulling on
27:58
Speaker 3: the limb risers and holding onto the bumper and stuff
28:01
Speaker 3: like that. And they're moving really, really, really slow. But
28:03
Speaker 3: what happened is one of the little boys, he got,
28:07
Speaker 3: he fell, got sucked under the tire of the 110
28:10
Speaker 3: and they killed him. And God, the, yeah, the authorities
28:14
Speaker 3: were urging them to try to smuggle them out of
28:17
Speaker 3: the country, like really quickly. because they were afraid of
28:20
Speaker 3: reprisal from just the people in the town that they
28:23
Speaker 3: might hurt this couple. But the couple chose to stay
28:26
Speaker 3: and do the right thing and requested that they meet
28:30
Speaker 3: with the family, you know, just say sorry to the
28:33
Speaker 3: family and the mother and, you know, what happened. And
28:36
Speaker 3: they did end up, there was some money exchanged and,
28:40
Speaker 3: you know, so they made it right. And the money,
28:42
Speaker 3: that was not them trying to bribe or anything. It
28:44
Speaker 3: was just simply, it was the authorities saying, this is fair.
28:49
Speaker 3: And so, and they were really, the authorities took an
28:51
Speaker 3: attitude of, oh, it's fine. She'll have another child next year.
28:54
Speaker 3: You know, no big deal. But, you know, they want
28:57
Speaker 3: to make it right.
28:58
Speaker 1: So I think that.
28:59
Speaker 3: Was just very poignant because it's something that could happen.
29:02
Speaker 3: We've all come through towns and been swarmed by children
29:06
Speaker 3: up against the trucks and how just easily and how
29:09
Speaker 3: quickly something like that can happen. And then the second one,
29:12
Speaker 3: kind of in the same vein, but this couple and
29:15
Speaker 3: they were, I forget where they were. I don't know
29:17
Speaker 3: if it's south. america somewhere but coming down very very
29:21
Speaker 3: tight switchbacks and the the wife had gotten out to
29:25
Speaker 3: help spot because it was so so close and tight
29:28
Speaker 3: with this big truck that they were in down the
29:30
Speaker 3: switchbacks and she's leading him and she accidentally steps off
29:35
Speaker 3: the edge of the cliff and she fell to her
29:38
Speaker 3: death and yeah, and it wasn't, it's just one of
29:41
Speaker 3: those things when you're in a third world or developing
29:43
Speaker 3: world country, you're not just calling life flight. There is
29:47
Speaker 3: no 911. There's no way. And this was before like
29:50
Speaker 3: the satellite and the evac and all the stuff that
29:52
Speaker 3: you can get these days. And so it was hours
29:55
Speaker 3: and hours before he was able to make it down
29:58
Speaker 3: the mountain. and go get authorities. And then they were
30:01
Speaker 3: able to come back to help her hours and hours
30:04
Speaker 3: she passed. And so that was, it was just sad
30:07
Speaker 3: because I think, again, I've had that experience of being
30:10
Speaker 3: out of the truck, guiding a truck down switchbacks in
30:13
Speaker 3: another country and just how quickly something like that could happen.
30:18
Speaker 3: So yeah, I just, I would say those are the
30:21
Speaker 3: most poignant stories that I've that I've laid in. And yeah,
30:26
Speaker 3: and I feel like other ones that are meaningful to
30:30
Speaker 3: me is I love our photo essays. Like the first
30:34
Speaker 3: time I ever did that, I believe it was maybe
30:37
Speaker 3: fall of, I don't know if it was 2012, but
30:39
Speaker 3: I may have that slightly wrong. But it was some
30:42
Speaker 3: images that came in from Sinway Xavier. And it was
30:44
Speaker 3: the first time I ever did it. And I came
30:46
Speaker 3: up specifically with that layout for him, for his images.
30:50
Speaker 3: And it is so interesting how that kind of thing happens,
30:53
Speaker 3: where we have specific layouts sometimes that have come up
30:57
Speaker 3: because of a specific contributor, where I need to lay
31:01
Speaker 3: something out and we don't, especially in the early days, right?
31:04
Speaker 3: I now have set layouts where I handle certain Say,
31:08
Speaker 3: for example, if I don't have a lot of good images,
31:11
Speaker 3: but the copy is good and we really want to
31:13
Speaker 3: take a story, I do a specific layout that is actually,
31:16
Speaker 3: to this day, we call it after the specific contributor
31:19
Speaker 3: that why I came up with it, you know. And yeah,
31:24
Speaker 3: so anyway, those are my favorite, though, are the photo essays.
31:28
Speaker 3: Because I just, I absolutely love just looking at the
31:32
Speaker 3: images and I feel like it makes the magazine so strong.
31:37
Speaker 3: when there's a lot of really amazing imagery. And so,
31:41
Speaker 3: and really in any photo essay layout, there's, I don't know,
31:44
Speaker 3: up to 30, early 30s of, you know, say 32, 35,
31:48
Speaker 3: I'm getting crazy with the layout images, but I might
31:52
Speaker 3: get up to 200 or more images. And so I
31:55
Speaker 3: think like what I see is just so amazing and stunning.
31:59
Speaker 3: And I think that's probably it across the board. That's
32:01
Speaker 3: probably one of my favorite things of just the job
32:04
Speaker 3: that I do is I'm able to put for the reader,
32:08
Speaker 3: I believe, craft a beautifully, you know, crafted story from
32:13
Speaker 3: the image standpoint. But what I see is amazing. And
32:17
Speaker 3: that just makes me love it all the more. What
32:21
Speaker 3: are you looking for in a pitch? Somebody sends a
32:25
Speaker 3: pitch in with a bunch of photographs. What do you,
32:28
Speaker 3: looking for? Yeah, that is such a good question. So my, obviously,
32:33
Speaker 3: so when I, I'm obviously part of our editorial team,
32:35
Speaker 3: so I handle the image side of stuff, my opinion
32:38
Speaker 3: on that. And so I think, obviously, I'm looking for well-composed,
32:42
Speaker 3: well-shot images that tell a story. And I am not,
32:46
Speaker 3: and we will take a variety of images and pitches.
32:50
Speaker 3: So sometimes I've run, like, I think of this one
32:53
Speaker 3: and it was a motorcycle trip. I forget where it was,
32:56
Speaker 3: but it was amazing. crazy that they took these motorcycles
33:00
Speaker 3: like up this hill and down. And so the images
33:03
Speaker 3: were really not very good from like a technical standpoint,
33:07
Speaker 3: but they were legit. So I mean, so it's a
33:10
Speaker 3: whole range from legit to crafted. So for example, for
33:15
Speaker 3: latitude and photo essays, I'm looking for more crafted images.
33:21
Speaker 3: Like I want them, I want them to be shot well.
33:23
Speaker 3: I want, this is the crème de la crème of
33:25
Speaker 3: what I'm always looking for with those two things. But then,
33:28
Speaker 3: you know, Obviously, if there's a legit story where the
33:31
Speaker 3: photos are not that great, but it is just like,
33:33
Speaker 3: oh my gosh, I can't believe they did that. You know,
33:36
Speaker 3: that works too. So, but I'm looking to tell a story.
33:40
Speaker 3: So I don't so much care. Like I care about
33:42
Speaker 3: the truck. Like I want to show the truck. This
33:44
Speaker 3: is Overland Journal. The readers want to see the truck.
33:47
Speaker 3: But I, what I'm ultimately trying to do is take
33:50
Speaker 3: the reader on the trip with you. I want them
33:54
Speaker 3: to see themselves in your story. So I always want
33:57
Speaker 3: to see what you saw. So not so much the truck,
34:01
Speaker 3: but yes, I do need truck pictures, but I want
34:03
Speaker 3: to see what did you have for breakfast? Where did
34:06
Speaker 3: you camp? What are the people you saw? Was there
34:08
Speaker 3: a struggle? Did the truck get stuck in the sand
34:11
Speaker 3: and you had to dig it out? Was there the
34:13
Speaker 3: caravan of camels or whoever came by, the tea ceremony, the,
34:19
Speaker 3: I don't know, the candles in the church like what
34:22
Speaker 3: show me what you saw I need to see your
34:25
Speaker 3: adventure that is always what I am looking for and
34:29
Speaker 3: at this point in 20 years in an overland journal
34:32
Speaker 3: I need I'm looking for different yeah if I can
34:37
Speaker 3: get it now I'm really really like because we get
34:40
Speaker 3: a lot of the repetitive areas and that's fine people
34:43
Speaker 3: are going through but if you can shoot it in
34:45
Speaker 3: different ways where like things that I have not seen before,
34:48
Speaker 3: I am always very, very interested in that. And I
34:52
Speaker 3: will seek that out trying to get it.
34:55
Speaker 1: I think that's such an important point. And I remember
34:58
Speaker 1: that piece of advice has stuck in my head forever
35:01
Speaker 1: is what are you seeing? Because the magazine visually is
35:06
Speaker 1: very different from social media. So you're shooting for social media.
35:11
Speaker 1: We can often is like, look at me doing this.
35:15
Speaker 1: Whereas this magazine, you're looking for what are we seeing? Exactly.
35:19
Speaker 3: And that is the number one thing. And I wouldn't,
35:23
Speaker 3: you know, Instagram really became a thing. And then we
35:25
Speaker 3: started getting a huge plethora of images of people like,
35:30
Speaker 3: you know, on the side of a mountain or, you know,
35:32
Speaker 3: lotus pose on a cliff and, you know, whatever, right?
35:35
Speaker 3: And I'm like, I would reject every single one of those.
35:38
Speaker 3: I was like, no, I don't, I don't care about you. Like,
35:41
Speaker 3: I don't want to see what you were doing. No
35:44
Speaker 3: one is wanting to look at you. I need to
35:46
Speaker 3: see what you're seeing, the beauty of it. Why are
35:49
Speaker 3: you there? Who are you interacting with? Like, show me
35:52
Speaker 3: the trip. Show me the struggle. Show me because that
35:55
Speaker 3: is so much of it. You know, I want them
35:57
Speaker 3: to experience. And I think that's the biggest thing is like,
36:00
Speaker 3: I need your experience of it. That is always what
36:03
Speaker 3: I'm looking for.
36:05
Speaker 1: Great tips. Great and center tips. So if you want
36:08
Speaker 1: to send your pitch in, That's really good advice of
36:13
Speaker 1: how to get something in Overland Journal. Absolutely. That's great.
36:17
Speaker 1: I'm curious about out in the field for you. So
36:20
Speaker 1: you're at your computer making designs and laying photos out
36:24
Speaker 1: of everybody else's adventures, but you've been on your own
36:28
Speaker 1: adventures as well. What are some of the most memorable
36:31
Speaker 1: trips you've been on?
36:32
Speaker 3: I would say my favorite. So I feel like my
36:36
Speaker 3: favorite probably across the board is Iceland. I just absolutely
36:40
Speaker 3: loved Iceland. And I think, I don't know, I think
36:45
Speaker 3: just like the black volcanic soil and the blue of
36:49
Speaker 3: the glaciers, because I think for me, just everything with me,
36:52
Speaker 3: it's not so much about the adventure, but about the
36:55
Speaker 3: beauty of the place. Like I want to see the moss,
36:59
Speaker 3: see the contrast in the colors. Yeah, I just look
37:02
Speaker 3: at things, I think, differently just as the designer and
37:05
Speaker 3: just like who I am as a person. The green
37:07
Speaker 3: of the moss, just the way the columns and the rocks,
37:11
Speaker 3: stuff like that. So I loved Iceland. I think Africa
37:14
Speaker 3: is really, really special. I've been there two different times.
37:19
Speaker 3: You know, each place is very unique, has its own feel,
37:22
Speaker 3: has its own people, its own set of experiences. So
37:26
Speaker 3: I think Africa, Iceland, Africa, obviously been into Mexico a lot, Baja, mainland.
37:32
Speaker 3: through South America, Chile, Argentina, all of that. So yeah,
37:37
Speaker 3: I think, of course, then across Europe and all that.
37:40
Speaker 3: So I don't know, just like, I think all of them.
37:43
Speaker 3: If I had to pick a favorite, it'd be Iceland.
37:45
Speaker 3: But I will say that every, every, all of the
37:47
Speaker 3: trips in and of themselves, I have amazing and beautiful
37:50
Speaker 3: memories from everything. You know, and again, just coming back
37:55
Speaker 3: with all the pictures. And I always, when I go somewhere,
37:58
Speaker 3: I try to pick up design magazines. And those are
38:01
Speaker 3: some of my possessions that I really, really love. So
38:04
Speaker 3: I can't necessarily read the magazines often if they're in
38:07
Speaker 3: other languages. But I just, I really enjoy doing that
38:11
Speaker 3: and just to see what's going on in the world
38:13
Speaker 3: of design and, you know, wherever I am. And so, yeah.
38:18
Speaker 1: Oh, I like that. That's a fun souvenir.
38:20
Speaker 3: It is fun.
38:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, I enjoy that. Cool. I'm going to start looking
38:25
Speaker 1: for those now.
38:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, you should. It's fun.
38:28
Speaker 1: On those trips, were those personal trips or were they
38:30
Speaker 1: part of an expedition or what was happening? It was.
38:36
Speaker 3: It was probably a mix. I mean, there were some
38:38
Speaker 3: of them where we were on the expedite going to
38:41
Speaker 3: be gathering content or, you know, generating content for the magazine.
38:45
Speaker 3: But there were also a fair amount of those, like
38:48
Speaker 3: I mentioned, where Scott, say, would come in from, say,
38:52
Speaker 3: like Antarctica. So one of the Africa trips, right? He
38:54
Speaker 3: had been in Antarctica and that whole trip. So he'd
38:56
Speaker 3: been gone for two months. So I flew down to
39:00
Speaker 3: Africa and met him and then just to see him
39:02
Speaker 3: and to spend some time with And like I said,
39:05
Speaker 3: when we moved the Expedition 7 trucks, you know, so
39:08
Speaker 3: usually I would try to, if I could, piggyback on
39:11
Speaker 3: an end of an expedition. And then so I get
39:15
Speaker 3: some fun too, but some of it, like the Iceland
39:17
Speaker 3: was a Land Rover launch. And so I would say
39:20
Speaker 3: it was kind of split 50-50 of what I got
39:23
Speaker 3: to go and do and experience. But usually I was
39:26
Speaker 3: right along. I was not. I would shoot photography sometimes
39:29
Speaker 3: in the early days, but I mainly was, I was
39:33
Speaker 3: just going along and enjoying.
39:35
Speaker 1: Nice. I love it. I love it.
39:39
Speaker 2: And a special thanks to Honcook Tire for supporting this
39:43
Speaker 2: week's podcast. What's it like when over 20,000 Jeeps and
39:47
Speaker 2: more than 50,000 people get together in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee?
39:51
Speaker 2: We joined Honcook Dynapro Tire to capture the awesome energy
39:55
Speaker 2: of the 2026 14th annual Jeep Invasion. Keep an eye
40:00
Speaker 2: on ExpeditionPortal.com for our upcoming event recap and get inspired.
40:06
Speaker 2: Thanks again, Honcook.
40:08
Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit about what you've been up
40:10
Speaker 1: to recently. I know you've had a big move from
40:13
Speaker 1: Arizona north. So what have you been up to? Okay. Yeah.
40:19
Speaker 3: So I just like, I don't know. I mean, there
40:22
Speaker 3: were reasons for it, but move from Arizona to Minnesota.
40:26
Speaker 3: So I am in a small resort town about two
40:29
Speaker 3: hours northwest of Minneapolis. And the Yeah, it's just, it's
40:35
Speaker 3: really sweet. Small town, not unlike Prescott, which is where
40:38
Speaker 3: I moved from, but tons of lakes. And so I
40:41
Speaker 3: don't know, I think I'm just honestly enjoying the lake lifestyle.
40:44
Speaker 3: I mean, like just honestly, like still designing the magazine
40:48
Speaker 3: and I do do stuff in my in-between time for
40:51
Speaker 3: the collective, for Overland Collective with process stuff and whatever.
40:55
Speaker 3: But especially like through the summer, I was kind of,
40:58
Speaker 3: I just honestly doing a lot of playing in between
41:01
Speaker 3: all of the stuff, pontoons and e-bikes and, yeah, stand-up
41:05
Speaker 3: paddleboards and kayaking and stuff like that. So, yeah, I
41:09
Speaker 3: don't know. Just try not to take myself too seriously.
41:11
Speaker 3: And we spent just, you know, 20 years building up
41:14
Speaker 3: the magazine, working incredibly hard, lots of incredible incredibly long hours.
41:20
Speaker 3: And I just I had the opportunity to do something
41:22
Speaker 3: different for a time and just to relax a little
41:25
Speaker 3: bit and enjoy and just kind of recenter and find
41:29
Speaker 3: myself and just honestly try not to think very much.
41:32
Speaker 3: Just go do have fun. So, you know, that's kind
41:35
Speaker 3: of what I've been doing recently and kind of starting
41:40
Speaker 3: to now that fall is starting to come here in Minnesota.
41:44
Speaker 3: And definitely everything changes here. It's a huge difference from
41:48
Speaker 3: arizona living with sun all the time and so you
41:52
Speaker 3: kind of get stuck inside and i think there's beauty
41:54
Speaker 3: in that too with here with the snow and cross-country
41:58
Speaker 3: skiing and a lot of it's very popular you do
42:01
Speaker 3: the sauna and then you do the you know the
42:03
Speaker 3: polar plunge and so there's just i look forward to
42:05
Speaker 3: taking advantage of a lot of that this this winter are.
42:08
Speaker 1: There any cultural differences that you noticed moving to minnesota.
42:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, I will definitely say I noticed that initially. I
42:18
Speaker 3: think in the West, people, and I'm not, and I'm
42:21
Speaker 3: sure Minneapolis is probably different, but just where I am,
42:23
Speaker 3: you know, I would say in the West, it's definitely
42:25
Speaker 3: more fast forward thinking, you know, quick movement. I would
42:31
Speaker 3: say it's definitely a slower lifestyle here. Everyone's super crazy nice.
42:35
Speaker 3: I mean, I have met so many good people and
42:38
Speaker 3: I now I'm part of like a 19 person strong
42:40
Speaker 3: friendship group that is like family and we do a
42:43
Speaker 3: lot of things. But yeah, I will say that I
42:45
Speaker 3: noticed a much slower lifestyle when I first moved here.
42:51
Speaker 1: Nice, nice. And you survived your first winter.
42:53
Speaker 3: Oh, my gosh. Just barely. I wasn't sure about it.
42:55
Speaker 3: And it wasn't so much the cold. You know, obviously,
42:58
Speaker 3: I have gear for withstanding the cold. It was just, well, one,
43:02
Speaker 3: the snow driving, which I wasn't, I'm not super fond of.
43:05
Speaker 3: But the other thing is just the, well, the light,
43:08
Speaker 3: the lack of light. And also, you were literally for
43:11
Speaker 3: seven months. Like, basically, once you go into their winter,
43:15
Speaker 3: you're kind of stuck inside. You're really... Yeah. So that
43:20
Speaker 3: was something that was an adjustment. But like I said,
43:23
Speaker 3: I'm trying to figure out this next year, this next winter, okay,
43:27
Speaker 3: and get out more and just do some more fun activities.
43:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, that really, really helps. Yeah. But you're right. I
43:34
Speaker 1: feel the same way. It's like once winter hits, you're
43:36
Speaker 1: in it. You're in it. You're in it. In the North.
43:39
Speaker 1: We are the North. No, totally.
43:41
Speaker 3: You are in the North. So I'm looking forward to,
43:43
Speaker 3: you know, my mind is starting to roll a little
43:46
Speaker 3: bit of, okay, you know, is there any other fun
43:49
Speaker 3: projects or anything that I want to do? And so
43:53
Speaker 3: I'm trying, I kind of had my deadline of like
43:55
Speaker 3: October 1 that I would give myself and not think
43:57
Speaker 3: about anything. So, but I am, you know, as we're
44:00
Speaker 3: coming up to that, I'm starting to You know, I
44:02
Speaker 3: think it's just by nature of who I am, too.
44:04
Speaker 3: I do like the entrepreneurial spirit and stuff. So I
44:08
Speaker 3: don't know.
44:08
Speaker 1: We'll see.
44:09
Speaker 3: I don't have anything yet to report.
44:12
Speaker 1: I'm excited to hear the update when it comes. Okay. Yeah.
44:18
Speaker 1: Before we wrap up, I'd like to know what does
44:21
Speaker 1: Overland Journal mean to you?
44:23
Speaker 3: Okay, that's a good one. And I don't know. I
44:26
Speaker 3: hope I don't cry. But I would just say, like,
44:29
Speaker 3: Overland Journal is my life. It has been my life.
44:33
Speaker 3: I mean, I do consider myself really like the matriarch.
44:38
Speaker 3: And I hope I don't say that at all to
44:40
Speaker 3: be prideful or at all minimize anything else that the
44:44
Speaker 3: rest of the team or anyone did. But I do
44:48
Speaker 3: have just this maternal feeling towards the magazine and just everything,
44:55
Speaker 3: just shouldering it through because so often I think, You know,
45:00
Speaker 3: I did do a lot of, you know, the behind
45:02
Speaker 3: the scenes, not just creating the magazine, but, you know,
45:06
Speaker 3: so many of those, the processes and coming up and
45:10
Speaker 3: how we're going to run and how we're going to
45:11
Speaker 3: track this and what we're going to do and re-architecting
45:14
Speaker 3: systems when they needed updating or just like, oh, okay,
45:17
Speaker 3: let's do this. instead or whatever. And I mean, just
45:20
Speaker 3: trying to keep the consistency and the brand and like
45:23
Speaker 3: just the keeper of all these things. And it's, so
45:26
Speaker 3: it's kind of like a mom when just so many
45:29
Speaker 3: people with their mom, they take, you know, they don't
45:31
Speaker 3: even think about like, you know, there's clean underwear and
45:34
Speaker 3: socks in my drawer, you know, like no one thinks
45:36
Speaker 3: about that, but like someone is there behind the scenes
45:39
Speaker 3: making sure the stuff happens and so that has really
45:43
Speaker 3: been me behind these scenes in a lot of ways
45:46
Speaker 3: is in the process side and so yeah I just
45:50
Speaker 3: I feel like I am the matriarch that I am
45:53
Speaker 3: the mom of this thing just loving it and shouldering
45:55
Speaker 3: it and like getting it to this place where now
45:59
Speaker 3: with the Overland Collective and like I remember when we
46:03
Speaker 3: were in talks with Clay and Rochelle and just seeing
46:07
Speaker 3: how this all could look And it felt to me
46:10
Speaker 3: almost like I was giving the daughter to their son.
46:16
Speaker 3: It almost just felt like this beautiful transition when you
46:19
Speaker 3: think about in a wedding, in a marriage, this beautiful joining,
46:22
Speaker 3: but that this could stand on its own now. It
46:27
Speaker 3: was grown up. And yeah, it was just so sweet.
46:31
Speaker 3: So I'm so, so grateful to be able to still
46:34
Speaker 3: be there, to still be able to be the designer
46:38
Speaker 3: and Just do what I absolutely love to do. And
46:43
Speaker 3: that has been the most beautiful blessing that I ever
46:48
Speaker 3: could have to still be there. But yeah, I'd say
46:51
Speaker 3: Overland Journal has just, it's been my love. It's been
46:53
Speaker 3: my life. It's, yeah, I'm super proud.
46:58
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for making our stories look so incredible.
47:01
Speaker 1: And also, I will say like for myself, there are
47:04
Speaker 1: a lot of stories that have meant a lot to me.
47:08
Speaker 1: And to have them printed in the journal is a
47:10
Speaker 1: great honor, especially some like historical, even though I know
47:15
Speaker 1: those are very difficult to get. Yeah, some of those
47:18
Speaker 1: stories I'm quite attached to. So to be able to
47:20
Speaker 1: have them out in the world and shared with others
47:23
Speaker 1: is so wonderful. So thank you for your contribution and
47:27
Speaker 1: everything all these years, 20 years of Overland Journal. So yeah,
47:32
Speaker 1: thank you.
47:33
Speaker 3: So welcome. My absolute pleasure.
47:37
Speaker 1: Well, thanks for coming on the podcast, Stephanie. If anybody
47:42
Speaker 1: is interested to reach out or learn more about you,
47:44
Speaker 1: where can they go?
47:45
Speaker 3: I think probably, I guess, just for through the collective.
47:49
Speaker 3: I don't, yeah, I don't really maintain a lot of
47:52
Speaker 3: social media. I do have social media, but I'm honestly
47:55
Speaker 3: bad at posting to any of that. I honestly don't
47:58
Speaker 3: even think I can remember my Instagram handle.
48:00
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
48:01
Speaker 3: I don't think so. I don't think you can find me.
48:05
Speaker 3: That is my goal.
48:09
Speaker 1: That's my goal in life. You can't find me. Yeah,
48:13
Speaker 1: the pitch process or the collective, they'll find you. They'll
48:17
Speaker 1: find you if they really want to.
48:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
48:20
Speaker 1: Absolutely. They'll see you on the masthead. Totally.
48:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's where I am.
48:26
Speaker 1: Awesome. Well, thank you again. It's been a pleasure. And yeah,
48:29
Speaker 1: thanks for sharing the stories. And I hope all the
48:31
Speaker 1: listeners have really enjoyed this deep dive into Overland Journal history.
48:35
Speaker 1: All right.
48:36
Speaker 3: Thank you, Ashley. Yay.
48:38
Speaker 1: So to honor the 20 year anniversary of Overland Journal,
48:43
Speaker 1: we're revisiting special heritage content in the upcoming 100th issue
48:47
Speaker 1: of the magazine. So to stay in the loop, sign
48:50
Speaker 1: up for the new Overland Journal newsletter. I'll put the
48:53
Speaker 1: link in the show notes for that and head to
48:55
Speaker 1: Expedition Portal for more bonus heritage content. And thanks for listening.
49:00
Speaker 1: We hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll catch you
49:02
Speaker 1: next time.