Latest / Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast / BPS 313: Building Long-Term Filmmaking Revenue Streams with Brady Trautman and Alex Blue

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BPS 313: Building Long-Term Filmmaking Revenue Streams with Brady Trautman and Alex Blue · Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast

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You are listening to the IFH podcast Network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting
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podcasts, just go to IFH podcast network dot com. Welcome to the Bulletproof
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Screenwriting Podcast, Episode number three thirteen. Some journeys take us far from home.
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Some adventures lead us to our destiny. C. S. Lewis broadcasting
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from a dark, windowless room in Hollywood when we really should be working on
0:28
that next draft. It's the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you the craft and
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business of screenwriting while teaching you how to make your screenplay bulletproof. And here's
0:38
your host, Alex Ferrari. Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Bulletproof
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Screenwriting Podcast. I am your humble host Alex Ferrari. Now. Today's show
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is sponsored by Bulletproof Script Coverage. Now. Unlike other script coverage services,
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Bulletproof Script Coverage actually focuses on the kind of project you are in the goals
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of the project you are, so we actually break it down by three categories
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micro budget, indie film, market, and studio film. There's no reason
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Warner Brothers, The Blacklist, and many many more. So if you need
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your screenplay or TV script covered by professional readers, head on over to cover
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my screenplay dot com. Well, guys, Today on the show, we
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have adventurers, filmmakers, world travelers, and YouTubers Brady Troutman and Alex Blue.
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Now, Brady and Alex both are sailors and they have sailed around the
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world. They've documented their adventures by opening up a YouTube channel, which to
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a to them, was the first sailing channel ever on YouTube. They focus
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on the adventure of their lives, just going across the South Pacific and the
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Atlantic Ocean and just traveling all over the world and sharing their adventures with their
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tribe. Now I want to have them on the show because they're very interesting
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case study of how they've been able to cultivate an audience, build products,
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build films, build services, things that their audience want to consume, and
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we talk about how they were able to cultivate their audience, which is over
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six hundred thousand strong, how they've been able to generate multiple revenue streams over
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the years, and how they've been able to finance this amazing lifestyle of being
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able to just go around the world on a boat and just live life to
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its fullest. They are truly an inspiration to say the least. So,
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without any further ado, please enjoy my conversation with Brady Troutman and Alex Blue.
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I like to welcome the show. Bradley Troutman and Alex Blue. How
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you guys doing it's by But that's okay? What did I say? You
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see? I always fuck it. I always do that shit, dude.
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Always. I focus on the like the last name. Did I say Brandy?
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Did I say Brandy? It's a good man, Brady, It's Brady,
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It's Brady. Fuck dude, I'm so funny. This always happens to
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be Like, I'll focus on Troutman Troutman, and I'll forget the easy name,
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so no worries. It's all good. Sorry, bro, Sorry,
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all right, let's start it again. Brady Troutman, Brady trout And now
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I'll probably say like Alex Red or some shit. Okay, um three two
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one. I like to welcome the show Brady Up and Alex Blue. How
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are you guys doing good? Thanks for having us all the show today.
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I said it right, right, I said the name right, did Yeah?
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For a second ago, did I say the wrong name again? Uh,
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it's been a long day, guys. I apologize you guys. How
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are you guys doing man, Thanks so much for being on the show.
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Yeah, we're doing good. Were Um. We're currently in like Tahoe in
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California, and the seasons are transitioning from spring to summer, so we're kind
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of in a really good spot and excited for the summer in the lake.
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So very tough life, is what you're saying. Very tough life. Yeah
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it's rough, Yeah, very it's rough. So it's rough out there.
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It's rough out there in Lake Tahoe, the main streets of Lake Tahoe.
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It's tough. Yeah, it's getting pretty bad actually, But I'm just get
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wow, wow, I'm sorry. So UM, I want to get you
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guys on the show because you've had you I've had other you know, YouTubers
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on the show and other people who kind of use this film entrepreneur method.
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Um not specifically that you used it for me, but I modeled it after
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someone like yourselves, who do that kind of like building content and creating multiple
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revenue streams and servicing innch audience and all that kind of stuff. But you're
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very you have. I've never really kind of spoken to anyone with a niche
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like yours, which is boating and only I want you to explain a little
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bit more. But how did you guys leave the normal world and go straight
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into like boating around the world and just following basically doing what everybody wants to
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do other than like going off and joining the circus. I think basically sailing
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around the world essentially would be on the top of people's like dream to do
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list. So how did you guys go? I'm assuming you didn't just come
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out of the womb like that, got your boat at five and just kept
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going. From what I read, you guys started in the normal world and
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said, you know, I'm tired, So can you tell us how you
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got in there? Yeah, for sure. I guess I'll start first because
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Alex joined the journey a little bit later on, and she had her own
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journey before we met. So I grew up in Orlando, Florida and I
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was going to college there, and my brother at the time was up in
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Seattle, Washington. He's ten years older than me, and he had a
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web design company that basically he left it. And we were both getting into
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sailing at the same time. So neither of our parents were into sailing.
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We didn't grow up sailing, but we were both getting into sailing at the
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same time. He was thirty two and I was twenty two, and we
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ended up getting a fifty three foot sailboat. And the plan was to basically
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hang out in Mexico for a little bit and maybe eventually cross into the South
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Pacific and go to Tahiti, socause it was just like an incredibly big dream,
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and so that happened. I had one semester left of college and we
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made the decision that we were going to leave in Mexico and sail out in
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the South Pacific. And I took out all my student loans that I could
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signed up for as many class as I could, took out all my student
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loans and then dropped all the classes and figured I'd use my student loans.
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I don't know, go to the University of Life, I guess. Wow.
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So yeah, that was. That was in twenty ten, and I
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was only supposed to help him because he was kind of a little bit in
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a better financial position to travel long term than I was at the time,
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so I was supposed to help him for like three weeks. The passage from
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Mexico to the Marquess was about three weeks long, and we got to the
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Marquesas and they were like, oh, a couple more months. I'll stay
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a couple more months. And then we got to Tahiti and it was like
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a couple more months and then yeah, that eventually turned into ten years and
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a circumnavigation, so it was that's kind of the journey. And then along
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the way, a lot of things happened, you know, or re ran
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out of money a lot of course, but our family and friends. We
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had a blog and photos, but it wasn't enough for our family and friends.
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They were always just still like what the fuck are you guys doing?
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Like I don't get it, Like are you camping or got a motor boat?
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Like did your boat have an engine? It's a sailboat, but just
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people didn't really understand. So we just started filming our journey little clips the
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time, and uploading small short videos to YouTube. The first videos were even
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like pictures with music behind him, so they were just complete like family slideshow
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kind of things, which was great. Our family loved it. But then
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as we started the film and progressed, other people started watching, and it
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was kind of at a really interesting time in YouTube where it was new and
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fresh and it wasn't like click baity. It wasn't really you didn't have to
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try as hard. If you had good to content, it got put in
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front of people, and actually I think so. Yeah, people kept watching,
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and we eventually saw that there was an opportunity to make like a full
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on production from it and keep filming and keep sailing. And yeah, here
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we are now. And Alex, how did you leave the normal world enjoy
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this psychic, psychotic pirate on his adventures? Well, I got pretty lucky.
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Actually, I don't know if I ever quite entered the normal world.
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Nice, we'll play. Yeah. In college, I started, Yeah,
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I was studying like meat. Yeah, and so I started my own film
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and photo company and yeah, basically with the goal of wanting to travel.
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I had this random dream. I don't know where I got it from,
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but I really wanted to work in Central and South America with my camera,
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so pretty much once I graduated, I made my way down there and was
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able to, yeah, pay my way with my camera. And one summer
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I ended up in Columbia and I got offered a position on a sailboat that
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sailed between Cartagena, Columbia, and San Blast Island's Panama. And so I
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lived aboard this fifty two foot catamaran for a summer and we would take like
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twenty backpackers from Panama, spent five days in San Blast, sailed them to
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Cartagena, and then have a couple of days pick up twenty more backpackers from
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Columbia, sailed them back to Panama. And anyone that's ever been on a
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fifty two foot sailboat will understand how ridiculous it is. We'll be right back
10:00
after a word from our sponsor, and now back to the show. To
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have twenty plus people sleeping on a boat, like, not just people but
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backpackers. Yeah, so it was pretty much a big party. But it
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was beautiful. I mean yeah, I slept outside every single night in the
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hammock for the entire summer and pretty much fell in love with living on a
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boat. And started to see other people on boats too at the anchorages and
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realized that people were living on their boats and that cruisers were a category of
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people that I would come to know a lot about and become one myself.
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But yeah, pretty much after that, came back to Tahoe for a winter,
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and then a sailing friend of mine sent me Adelos episode on the YouTube
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channel and said, hey, I think you'll like this, So I gave
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it a watch, and they were yeah, sailing, scuba diving, which
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I had also been getting into, and filming, which is pretty much all
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the things that my life evolved around as well. So I just sent them
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a random email and they actually now in retrospect, I know that they get
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you know, I don't know, probably a thousand of those a year or
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something like that of people that want to join through with them. But for
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whatever reason, luck was on my side, and Brady's older brother Brian caught
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the email and said, cool, if you want to be in Africa and
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South Africa in two weeks, then you can cross the Atlantic with us.
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So I just went again. I didn't have to like quit a job and
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sell my house or anything a traditional phase. Yeah, I already worked for
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myself and I was just floating around anyways. So from there and then within
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like a month we were we were dating. And yeah, I like to
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say our first date was crossing the South Atlantic. How romantic. Yes,
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it's very intense. I'm imagining an intense first date to say the least.
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I was away. I was away at a wedding and my brother called me.
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He's like, hey, this guy Alex, he's a pheographer and he's
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a sailor and like, you know, we're looking for crew to go from
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South Africa to Brazil. Like what do you think? Man? And then
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we had we had a video call like Alex isn't a dude? Perfect?
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Yeah, I was get here in a week and a half and she made
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a decision, and then yeah, we were. We sailed on that boat
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for three and a half years together before we moved to Taha. You know,
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it's it's insane because I love the way you guys talk about these trips
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like it's it's just like I'm going down to get a cup of coffee,
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like we're gonna do just gonna cross the Atlantic or and I just want to
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go to Tahiti, you know, and go to the South Pacific. Like
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when I think of the South Pacific, all I think about is just like
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this massive amount of water and thistle and this little little island called Tahiti or
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Fiji. You know, like like Hawaii is essentially a monstery complex comparatively,
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and you're like, yeah, you know, just we're just gonna just keep
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going into I love that mentality because for you that's normal. To me,
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that's insane, but in a great way. And I admire that so much
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because you are truly living You're living the dream because you guys are doing what
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you love to do. You're making a living doing it, You're helping other
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people, You're you're providing value to people around the world, and you get
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to literally travel the world on your own dime and do whatever the hell you
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want to do. You have complete freedom, and I think that's I think
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we all that's that's going to you know, running away with the circus.
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It's essentially we're gonna go wait the circus, but on water. Thank you
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for saying that. I think I don't know, after doing it for ten
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years, I definitely got a little bit jaded. And you know, as
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as pretty as it is, like anything in the movies or documentaries or series
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whatever. It feels incredible when you're watching it. It's like, oh my
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god, it's the dream. But there's there's hardships and there's a lot of
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difficulties that go along with living on a small sale. But with five people
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at a time, it's amazing. I wouldn't share it for the world,
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and I'm so grateful that I did it. Um, it's just yeah,
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it's nice to hear again people from the outside, like you say stuff like
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that, because it's like, yeah, I'm really lucky I was able.
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We were able to do that. Yeah, absolutely, And but you know
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I couldn't. Look, you're you're traveling to South Pacific. You're traveling.
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You know, if you cross the life, you know, shit's gonna happen.
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You know, I'm imagining It's just not like Crystal Blue sales and everything's
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running and the dolphins are jumping over next to you, like the entire way.
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You know, I'm assuming you run out of money, you run out
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of food, you run out of gas or whatever you're doing, like things
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happen like oh, there's a hurricane showing up, Like I have to imagine
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things like that. Happened. So but that's life. But you're but you've
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taken life by the kind of horns and just done what you want to do
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with it, which is believe me, I talked to a lot of people
14:45
and I and I talked to filmmakers, which we're all nuts. We're all
14:46
we're all nuts. Filmmakers insane and the filmmaks are insane people. I mean,
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I'm insane. We're all insane. My family looks at me like,
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what do you do twenty years? Twenty five years? And you make and
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you do what And now they see me on YouTube so now they're just like,
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oh, he talks to famous people. I'm like, yeah, okay,
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yeah, that's sure. That's what I do. That's all I do
15:05
in my life now? Is that sure? Why not? But there's an
15:11
insanity that comes along with being a filmmaker. But you guys just amped up
15:13
that insanity. Like instead of shooting a movie, let's shoot a movie on
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the open sea from months at a time, and oh, let's open up
15:22
a YouTube channel and you can never got like, oh my god, you
15:28
can never lose set. Yeah exactly, it's always going. So when you
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guys started doing the videos to send back to your family because they just want
15:35
to make sure you were alive and doing well. How did by the way,
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how do you communicate like carry your pigeon or like, how do you
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like, I'm assuming the cell reception. I'm assuming the cell reception is not
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so well down there, especially eleven years ago. Yeah, in the middle
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of specifically, I mean, yeah, the best way to communicate really was
15:54
was when we get to an island and you'd find a random computer or someone
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you'd have a computer with internet and you sign in check your emails. Really
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that was it. I mean, we didn't even have cell phones. Weren't
16:03
really a thing through the South Pacific in twenty ten. Now you can find
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a cell phone pretty much anywhere you go, and you buy a simcard,
16:11
a local SIM card, and you can get you can get calls and dead
16:14
on stuff. But back then, yeah, it would be months before we'd
16:18
reach out or do anything. And even uploading stuff to YouTube, right,
16:21
Like, there was times where where we couldn't. We'd leave the laptop in
16:26
like a cafe somewhere for like two weeks to try and upload like five hundred
16:30
megabit video and it just wouldn't upload. So we found we'd buy the small
16:36
little USB thumb drives, putting an episode on it, ship it across to
16:41
my friends in Florida, and they would upload it for us and then post
16:44
it for us. So that was faster than actually uploading a video at that
16:47
time. Jesus, and you start so you start doing this for your family
16:51
essentially, and you just opened up a YouTube channel just like started doing things.
16:53
But then eventually people just started finding it, and you're this is about
16:57
eleven years ago. Yeah, yeah, really, it was two and ten
17:02
is when we first started uploading the little picture slide shows, and then two
17:06
eleven it was a bit more video involved, and then yeah, I think
17:11
twenty twelve is when we really decided. I think we ended up getting a
17:15
check from YouTube at some point for like eighteen dollars or twenty dollars, I
17:18
don't remember the amount, and we're like, holy shit, what is this,
17:21
Like they made a mistake or something, and we didn't realize that they
17:22
were monetizing our videos. So we realized that there was a way to make
17:27
money on YouTube, even if it was small. That was like a case
17:30
of beer, which was awesome at that time when you have zero money.
17:33
So yeah, we just kept doing it, and then once we realized that
17:37
there was a way to grow it, it was growing and growing. And
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we found out that as long as we were consistent and we were ourselves and
17:45
being authentic and honest, it would just kept growing. And then the real
17:48
real change happened when one of one of our followers, one of our viewers
17:52
on YouTube, reached out and said, Hey, there's this new thing called
17:53
Patreon. It's perfect for you guys. You should check it out. And
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it must have been. The first six months Patron was was often a lot,
18:00
and we signed it for a Patreon account, and then yeah, people
18:04
really really understood that because there's something really special about giving directly back to an
18:10
artist or somebody you like, it's a personal connection instead of giving it to
18:14
a cable company or a network and maybe it'll trick down to them, Like
18:18
literally giving five dollars or ten dollars to that creator. It has an emotion
18:22
attached to it, and that's one hundred percent why we were able to be
18:26
successful. So so with YouTube, you start get making some money with it,
18:30
you realize that there's an actual something there. At least it's you know,
18:33
beer money. We can work for beer money. Basically, yeah,
18:36
yeah, you start working with beer money, And I put, what,
18:38
Alex, at what point did you like coming What year did you jump in
18:41
with them? Let's see, it was two thousand sixteen or seventeen, I
18:48
think seventeen March, so you guys were often running already. The YouTube channel
18:52
had already been oh yeah, yeah, we were full on by then.
18:55
We'd just started like probably right then as we started making a pro I would
19:00
say, like our our our expenses were paid for so like the boat was
19:03
paid for, insurance, food, fuel, like cameras, it was kind
19:08
of break even, like our lifestyle was paid for it. And then right
19:11
around that point that Alex joined his when it kind of kept going and we
19:15
were able to pay ourselves five hundred dollars a month. I mean, obviously
19:19
it's all Alex's, it's one hundred percent. But Alex joined, the videography
19:25
got better, the storytelling got better, the editing got better. Yeah,
19:29
perfect, No, I mean it's actually funny, yeah, to look back,
19:33
because when I once I realized I was going, I didn't watch any
19:37
more episodes or anything. To me, it felt weird to know that I
19:41
was going to show up and know these people, and they weren't going to
19:42
know me or anything. So I kind of just went and didn't really look
19:45
into it much. I was like, they seem legit. Whatever, just
19:48
go to ask. Okay, so let's stop. Let's stop there for a
19:52
second. I want to because my daughter's not see this one day, and
19:56
I'm gonna say, no, this is not the way to do it.
20:00
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor, and now back to
20:07
the show. I looked at the video. It seemed legit. I flew
20:11
to Africa. This is not a statement that I ever want to hear my
20:15
daughters say, Yeah, my mom had some doubts, but I would have
20:22
hoped so. But no, I didn't. I didn't know that that.
20:27
Um So the tribe is what they kind of Dellos refers to as the people
20:33
that watch their videos. And I'm telling you, people are so inspired and
20:37
like touched by these videos. I had no idea. It's like a it's
20:41
like it's almost like a cult classic in a way. Dellos the Dellos episodes,
20:47
like people are so into them, and they've people have altered their lives
20:51
so much, like so many people have sold everything they own when and bought
20:55
sailboats, move their families aboard. Like I'm talking hundreds, if not thousands
20:59
of people from these episodes, so they really touch people in a lot of
21:03
ways. Um and yeah, And I just had no idea any of that
21:06
before I got on the boat. Some people like to think that I saw
21:10
Brady online and body was cute and like came came in to swoop them up.
21:14
But I did not have that much foresight. I was a lot skinnier
21:18
and tanner about them. No, it's it's it's it's really interesting because as
21:23
a creator, you know, with with what I do on a daily basis
21:26
with podcasting, I've done hundreds and hundreds of of podcasts, and you,
21:33
as a creator, you don't know what effect that has on people. You
21:36
really don't. You just put it out into the universe. And only when
21:38
I'm at an event or at a film festival, or if I get emails
21:42
or something like that do I realize the impact that yeah, an episode did
21:48
I mean you found me listening to podcasts? You're like, oh yeah,
21:51
yeah, And and I have people who follow me like, oh my god,
21:53
you you know you saved you saved me from losing five hundred thousand dollars
21:56
because that predatory distributor was going to screw me or you know, those kind
22:02
of things all the time. So but as a creator, you just don't
22:04
know. Man. So I can imagine I understand that feeling of just putting
22:10
it out there, and it really does affects people lives. For me,
22:12
it's just like an interview, like I'm having an interview with you right now,
22:15
and then I promise you somebody will be just like, oh, waiting,
22:18
what's that. Let me click on that YouTube channel. Boom, all
22:19
of a sudden, and they sell their boats, they sell their lives,
22:22
They get a boat, and they go to with a strange man with a
22:27
strange man with a strange man. Oh no, excuse me, strange man.
22:33
It's exactly but you don't know, but I promise you from something like
22:37
that will probably happen at one point or another, someone listening to this will
22:40
happen. So it's it's really I always tell people it's so important to put
22:45
whatever's in your heart, to put it out there, because you just have
22:48
no idea what effect you will have on another human being. It could be
22:52
nothing to you, and you could say something like I say stuff on the
22:55
show all the time that to me, it's just not that's something I just
22:59
it's it's just part of my vernacular. But it will blow someone's mind has
23:03
never heard it. And I'm assuming this is like, if I start watching
23:04
your videos, if I wanted to get into boating, you'll probably save me
23:08
years f painting, years of pain and suffering on how to run a boat
23:15
or take one of your courses or or you know, or something like that.
23:18
It's it's pretty remarkable, it really is. Now you started, once
23:21
you regard you started doing the YouTube channel, you started seeing it was a
23:25
real thing. How did you build the audience or was it just strictly like
23:27
I'm just going to create content, or how did you start interacting with them?
23:30
How did you build that tribe? Because I called my guys the tribe
23:33
as well. I don't know when we first started getting followers besides our parents,
23:41
there was something, there was something inside of us, like I knew
23:45
something was I just knew it was going to be big, Like I knew
23:48
we were the first sailing YouTube channel in the world. And now there's I
23:52
don't know, ten thousand or something, or I don't know how many there
23:55
are, but I just knew that it was gonna go big, like it
23:57
was going to be something big, and we made it kind of a rule
24:00
just to only make videos that made us smile, so to be authentic,
24:04
to be ourselves one hundred percent, never make a video based on a comment
24:08
or what other people think, and only only do it if it makes us
24:14
happy. So if it ever came to a point where it was just too
24:17
much and too stressful, which those times definitely came, then we had to
24:19
take a step back and reassess. And that, combined with the consistency,
24:25
is I think what grew the channel. Like we were releasing one episode twenty
24:29
to thirty minute episode every Friday still to this day, since it's ridiculous.
24:36
And now I've been off the boat for full time for a little over a
24:40
year now and my brother and his wife and they have a baby on board
24:42
now and they're still doing it, and we have we have outside editors and
24:47
stuff helping out. But it's just like seeing it from the outside now,
24:49
I'm like, how the fuck did we do that for ten years? Like
24:52
I don't it was just thirty minutes of fresh content shot and edit it every
24:57
week. Is Yeah, the content was probably five months behind real time.
25:04
Sure, so it was backlogged, but yeah, it was every Friday,
25:08
twenty to thirty minute episode. Sometimes they were even longer five minute episodes,
25:12
double releases to try and catch up. Yeah, ridiculous. It's insanity.
25:18
That's insanity. That's absolute insanity. No out of So, so you you've
25:22
mentioned a couple of revenue streams. You've created, the the YouTube advertising,
25:26
which generally from my own experience on being on YouTube and just from other other
25:30
YouTubers, I know you got to have obscene amount of numbers to make Like
25:36
people people think they're like, you're making a million a month. I'm like,
25:37
dude, are you out of your mind? Like maybe in the beginning
25:41
that was like it was a lot easier to make money when it started,
25:44
but now you know, you got to really work to make and it's it's
25:48
it's not make make a living off of YouTube unless you've got millions of I
25:52
mean, you gotta have a lot, a lot of views. So but
25:55
you you were able to build that revenue stream and then Patreon, how did
25:57
Patreon do for you, guys? Is really supported you? Yeah, that's
26:02
been the main revenue stream by far, I mean that revenue in the beginning,
26:06
and to have fourteen fifteen it was good. I think around two thousand
26:10
and sixteen it just it started to drop. Even though our numbers grew,
26:12
our ad revenue didn't really go up very much because it was just so flooded.
26:17
But Patreon, yeah, has continued to grow since we started it.
26:19
I think we started it in twenty thirteen is when we first started our Patreon
26:23
account. And Yeah, people find us on YouTube and they watch a couple
26:27
episodes, and of course we push it in our YouTube videos were like,
26:30
these videos are free. If you really want to support us, head over
26:33
to Patreon and we give them rewards of course, T shirts and sometimes we
26:37
picked somebody's name out of a hat and they get a come sailing with us,
26:38
So the rewards and it's a really cool platform. And without Patreon,
26:44
I don't think we'd be where we are. We would have found a different
26:45
route to continue, but I don't know if it would have been as big
26:48
or a successful as it is at all. We also have another revenue stream
26:52
which is really fun. It's our It's not a donation button because donation seems
26:57
so light. Oh, they give me me a beer. Yeah, be
27:00
a beer exactly. And we came up we were sitting down having beers when
27:03
it this is before Patreon existed, and we're like, yeah, people should
27:07
like the people want to give us money. They're asking how to donate,
27:11
but you're like, come on, who's going to donate to two younger dudes
27:14
on a saleboat living living a great life out in the south of the civic
27:18
Like, I wouldn't donate to those guys. But we we kind of formed
27:22
it more in the way of if you're at a bar and somebody tells you
27:26
a good question, or tells you sorry, tells you a good story,
27:29
it makes you laugh, then you buy them a beer. Right, It's
27:30
like, oh, that was a great story, let me buy you a
27:32
beer. That's kind of how we did the whole thing, and that was
27:36
a huge success and it still is. Yeah, because you guys start building
27:38
up your website and yeah, I mean all that, all those kind of
27:41
things, and they obviously have some merch that you sell merge and um,
27:47
oh the what other other do you listen? Now? Do tours? You
27:52
also? Do you have a course or like some sort of training do you
27:55
do as well? Kind of separate now, like since since we left the
27:57
boat, Alex and I have started our own I'm still part of Delos,
28:02
but we're not involved in the filming or the editing of it. So we've
28:04
found it on our own thing. And instead of relying solely on YouTube to
28:08
create an income and to constantly pump out videos as much as we can,
28:14
we've taken our experience of sailing around the world and all the stuff we've learned,
28:18
and we've made a sailing school. So we're teaching. It's it's not
28:21
through Delos, it's not through the YouTube channel. It's just something we're doing.
28:23
So that way we can go back to filmmaking is a passion instead of
28:27
a constant like how are we going to make money off this next film?
28:32
Now? Is that? Is that? Is that online? Is that an
28:33
online course or is that an in person course? In person? It's an
28:37
in person course, all right? So do they fly in? Uh?
28:41
And yet oh wow, so I must be Yeah, that's solid and then
28:44
and then you could just film when you want a film and it's good.
28:47
It's it's remarkable how you guys have been able to just figure it out in
28:52
a way that like I'm just going to keep doing what I want to do
28:55
and I'm never going to work for the man h and just and just live
29:00
the life you want to live. And it's really inspiring, truly, truly,
29:03
honestly as filmmakers, and it's just as human beings to be able to
29:07
just I don't think you could ever get a job, like could you get
29:11
a job? Like? Like why we There's no way I could get a
29:15
normal job. I just don't. I wouldn't know how to do it.
29:18
I'd fail. I get fired, probably right away. I always I always
29:22
tell people I'm unemployable. I'm completely I'm psychologically unemployable. I cannot there's no
29:29
way I can have a boss. No, I guess I just got rid
29:32
of my clients. Like three years ago when I when I close my post
29:34
house down, I was like, yeah, I'm done. I can't do
29:37
this all full time now. And it's it's been great now. You also
29:41
did a documentary series called Eighty Degrees North, where because you know, the
29:47
off Pacific's not enough and of course the Atlantic's not enough in the Indian Ocean
29:51
and you're like, well, where haven't we gone on this planet? All
29:52
the all the Arctic, Oh, there's that. We'll be right back after
29:59
a work from our sponsor and now back to the show. So, uh
30:07
so, let's go up to the Arctic and do this adventure. And you
30:11
did this movie called eighty degree in a movie, but as a series called
30:14
eighty degrees North. Can you tell everybody a little bit about that that that
30:17
project? Good? Yep. So we have a couple of friends who are
30:25
also sailors. They have more of a it's not a charter, it's kind
30:27
of like a blue water Ocean experienced school where you can go make long ocean
30:33
passages with them. And they were going to be up in small Bard m
30:37
For anyone who doesn't know who that is, which is good chance probably everyone.
30:42
Yes, Yeah, it's um it's north of Norway. It's about six
30:48
hundred miles from the North Pet Pool. It's a group of islands, and
30:52
yeah, they're they're very in the in the summertime, it's twenty four hours
30:56
a daylight and poll bears and all kinds of wildlife up there, and they
31:03
recently have become more of a tourist attraction because a lot of the ice,
31:08
the pack ice than normally kind of packs them in even in the summertime has
31:12
been melting, so they had this idea they wanted to go up there.
31:17
It was kind of between trips, and they invited the Della's crew to come
31:22
out and meet them, which definitely isn't something normally that the Dellas crew does,
31:26
Like we're always on Delas sailing around from place to place, filming,
31:30
kind of doing her own thing. But it was an opportunity at that point
31:33
where I think that everyone is pretty ready to try something new. Dellas has
31:37
spent most of her life, you know, at the equator, and so
31:41
everyone was like, let's go see what you know cold water sailing is all
31:44
about, and we try this out. So yeah, we all flew up
31:47
there and hopped on their boat. They have a forty eight foot swan,
31:51
so it was them too. They had a ship photographer and then five of
31:55
the Dellas crew came, so it was eight people on a forty eight footboat
31:57
for three weeks and we sail cameras. Oh my god, there's so much
32:01
camera gear flying everywhere. So yeah, hopped on board with them, sailed
32:06
around then pretty much just filmed our experience, everything from sort of what it
32:09
took to prep the boat to the encounters that we had with glaciers, to
32:15
seeing polar bears, belooga whales, Walruss, the sailing conditions, everything,
32:21
and yeah, madea ended up making a four part documentary series with it.
32:25
Okay, so again, I just want to go back to that for that
32:29
scent that you said, Hey, let's fly up to the Arctic and see
32:30
what that's about. Again, that's something that is normally said by a normal
32:34
human being. I just want to let everybody know that right there, because
32:37
you say it's so with like it just rolls off the tongue. I just
32:39
want to stop for a second, just so you are aware that's just not
32:43
the way we're living in our underwear and bikinis in Brazil. Right, Oh,
32:50
let's try and fund so, yeah, let's do that. What a
32:52
great idea. It was a great idea. It can out be a great
32:53
idea. But looking back, it was like we had no idea what we're
32:57
getting ourselves into. It was just a complete the opposite thing than what we
33:00
knew and what we were used to. And I think that's why it excited
33:04
us, because at that point, when you're constantly filming your life every day
33:07
and editing the same footage. You kind of you don't get burnt out,
33:10
so to speak, but it's not as you're not as passionate about showing it
33:14
anymore. You're like, Okay, get it doing the same thing we've done
33:16
two hundred times, getting in the dinghy and go into an island. So
33:21
the idea of going to the Arctic, someplace we've never been with totally different
33:23
conditions, reignited our passion for filming and exploration, and we knew we wanted
33:30
to do something different with it than the YouTube channel, Like we didn't want
33:34
to have it just a normal Friday release and wanted to try and grow as
33:37
as filmmakers and just learn more and try different things. So we spent a
33:42
ton of time. It took us about two years to finish editing it,
33:45
and we did tons of interviews in it. Yeah, so full on a
33:50
little miniseries. That's awesome, dude. And I was gonna say, I
33:55
don't know how you guys edit yourselves for over a decade, because if it
34:00
wasn't for me talking to other people, I can do this, Like I
34:02
could not edit my because my life is boring as hell, but nothing nearly
34:07
as cool as you guys do, but like just seeing myself all the time
34:12
and doing the same thing after Like it might be cool for a little bit,
34:15
but after a world like you said, like okay again and the thing
34:17
again, we're gonna go to the you know. I know everyone everyone watching
34:21
is like, oh my god, but for us, it's like, uh,
34:24
you know, like Okay, before she joined Ellas, she was behind
34:28
the camera like one hundred percent of the time. And she got on the
34:30
boat and tell Africa and there's a camera to her face and she's like,
34:34
oh, so that was as to get used to, right, Yeah,
34:37
I think it's actually there's a lot of value in you know, people always
34:42
say if they have to listen to voicemail that they leave or you know,
34:45
watch a video clip of themselves and they they're like, oh I hate my
34:47
voice or I hate the way I look. And for me it was really
34:51
really interesting because yeah, I'd always been behind the camera, and but there's
34:54
a lot of value even though it's straight up sucks and it's really hard to
35:00
like watch yourself on camera, you realize a lot of I realized two things.
35:04
I realized things about myself that I never realized before. From not new
35:07
perspective that I wanted to change. And then I realized things that maybe you
35:14
know, weren't perfect about me, but that's who made me who I was,
35:15
and I was never going to change those things. So it actually really
35:19
helped me grow as a person and see myself from you know, someone else's
35:22
point of view, and I think I became a better person for it from
35:25
it. But it's it's brutal. Most human being go the other way.
35:30
They go like, oh my god, this sucks. I'm just horrible.
35:31
I can't do this, and it just you don't find the positives or even
35:35
the constructive, You just look at the negative. I took me years before
35:38
I can listen to myself, like I know now I've got a little more
35:42
accustomed to listen to my voice. But oh it's brutal. It took me
35:45
forever to get on. It took me forever. Just get if you if
35:49
you go to my YouTube channel, the first videos, it's all just audio.
35:52
I just threw up the audio and I just took me cut like two
35:54
or three years before I started putting myself on video. I just I was
35:58
like, oh, I'd rather be buying the camera. I don't want to
35:59
do it. So it is brutal. It's brutal. So I tip,
36:01
I tip my hat to you guys for doing it for as long as you
36:05
have. Now, there's really interesting thing about A B's North is that you
36:07
have a very unique distribution model and and how is that working for you?
36:13
And what is it? Yeah, it's actually turned out. We took a
36:16
big risk and it's worked out very well for us luckily. Um, when
36:21
we first yet, when we first started editing this thing together, and we
36:24
had three parts in four parts, and we knew it wasn't going to go
36:27
on YouTube. Um, I started reaching out to, you know, just
36:30
distribution networks. I started listening to your podcasts, Like what other avenues out
36:34
there? What do people do? I started talking to aggregators. I talked
36:37
to people at all the major streaming networks that I want name, but all
36:43
you know, all the big ones that are out there. It's a short
36:45
list, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah. And the most common
36:47
thing that I heard back from them was where where's the arguing? Like where's
36:52
the drama where I'm like, we're fucking sailing in the Arctic. We have
36:54
to carry a rifle because polar bears can attack us for a protection, Like
36:59
is that not an help for you? Like it's not enough drama. You
37:00
really need to Alex to throw like they just wanted like they're like, when
37:05
did the crew argued? You know, did you argue with your brother?
37:07
There had there was eight people on a forty eight foot you had to have
37:09
argued, like no, like we didn't. Actually it was perfect and we
37:14
didn't have any arguments. We didn't have any disagreement. So they were looking
37:17
for they were looking for the Housewives of the Arctic is basically yea god,
37:24
I want to make a stoop of that now, Oh my god, old
37:27
Housewives of the Arctic glaciers, blogle whales. Nah, let's just see you
37:30
guys argue in a small space. I mean it was a I don't know,
37:37
it was a wake up call and a turn off really because as a
37:40
as an independent filmmaker or something, you feel like getting on one of those
37:44
streaming platforms is like this is that's where you want to go. That's you
37:46
get in front of so many people and it's almost like a notch on your
37:50
belt. Um. But then I realized that we have such a cool,
37:54
dedicated audience already, like our our YouTube, following our Instagram accounts. Everybody
37:59
is so engaged and so interested in what we're doing. We realized that no
38:04
matter where we release it, people will want to watch. So instead of
38:08
yeah, instead of going with the streaming platforms or or even charging like on
38:13
Amazon Prime, where you charge a certain amount for the episodes, we decided
38:16
to give the people the choice of how much they wanted to pay. So
38:21
we did a pay What's Fair model who built their own website put up a
38:24
trailer of it, eighty North Series dot com is where it's all at.
38:29
We did some podcasts and people started hearing about it, and then there's a
38:31
little box where you can go and you type in whatever amount you want and
38:36
then you get to watch. You get to stream all four parts of the
38:38
series for as long as you have to ask you. I mean, I
38:40
don't want like accounting, but like, what's the average? See? I
38:45
was fifteen dollars and thirty five cents? Wow for a two busic is its
38:51
almost a little bit over two hours the full series, if what I'm saying,
38:53
Yeah, yeah, each episode's about thirty minutes, so it's yeah,
38:55
a little over two hours. So I thought more people would watch um,
39:00
I mean, I'll tell you that the amount of people that have watched this
39:02
right around fourteen thousand people. Right now, I'm sorry that I've paid fourteen
39:07
thousand people so you can do this amazing. It's great. We were able
39:12
to cover our production costs, like the flights of the crew, all the
39:15
camera gear, you know, all all this stuff that goes into that.
39:19
But it didn't reach as many people as I thought it would because we get
39:22
you know, in our YouTube channel, we get close to two to three
39:25
hundred thousand views in a week span, like from the first Friday release.
39:30
So it's a small percentage of people that are watching, but they're actually paying
39:34
more than I thought. Maybe I thought it would be one hundred thousand people
39:36
and they'd pay four dollars. But I'll tell you, getting fourteen thousand people
39:42
off of a two hundred thousand like audience is a massive amount of conversion.
39:47
That's yeah, really massive, and at that price point that you're talking about
39:52
is massive because I've seen guys with guys and gals. We've got a million.
39:58
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor, and now back
40:05
to the show, and like if they can get if they get ten thousand
40:10
off of a million, it's you're you're you're winning. It's a win.
40:15
So that's a that's a really big conversion. That that says a lot about
40:20
the passion of your audience. Now, you know, when I saw the
40:22
pay to play model, I was like, Okay, this sounds great,
40:24
but without an audience, this is really a tough sell. Like, this
40:28
is a tough you know, if you if you've got nobody and it's only
40:31
your mom and your uncle and maybe your your best and all the actors or
40:36
all the crew people's parents and friends. Yeah, this is this is the
40:39
pay It's not going to really work. Um. So it's so important.
40:44
I've been yelling at this from the top of the mound for so long.
40:46
Building that audience, connecting with that audience, and then feeding that audience,
40:52
giving that audience what they want, providing a service to them through your videos,
40:55
through your services, through your products, through everything that you create.
41:00
Eight And you didn't go off and make, you know, a movie about
41:02
the carnival or running off with the circus. You didn't make that movie because
41:06
that movie wouldn't sell to your audience. Maybe maybe a handful you just want
41:09
to like did Davos just join the circuits, which, by the way,
41:15
would probably be an interesting documentary, right, it's a condimentary But but you
41:20
focused on the niche and you stayed within that niche, which is a niche
41:22
you love, and you've maintained your life livelihood for the last decade by doing
41:30
what you love. And isn't that every filmmaker's dream? I think so.
41:35
I never thought I would be a filmmaker or make documentary films, and then
41:37
it just kind of came to fruition by necessity, I guess. And yeah,
41:43
it's it's a one hundred percent of dream. And I talked to a
41:45
lot of other YouTubers, a lot of people that have YouTube channels, sailing
41:49
YouTube channels, and it's always the same question, like how do you create
41:52
revenue from your YouTube channel or for making films? And it's so hard,
41:57
it's really hard. And that's why we're really grateful to have such a good
42:00
audience. And that audience was born out of going back to what I said
42:04
before, being authentic and just being ourselves. And you can see, you
42:07
know, with a minute, somebody's fake or does something to think that audience
42:13
will like, or something for money. The audience can see it right away,
42:15
like if viewers will notice right away and they'll be like, Okay,
42:19
this person's not not real. They're only doing it for these reasons. So
42:22
being authentic really helped us all the way through, even for this documentary series,
42:28
because people really stood behind us and they're like, yeah, screw those
42:30
guys trying to make you argue. Do your own thing, and we're happy
42:32
to support it. Now, did you do you guys do sponsors as well
42:36
or now? No? Not we do. We do like gear sponsors and
42:39
stuff. We don't do any big paid sponsorships. We've kind of stayed away
42:45
from all that. If somebody wants to send us something like a dinghy or
42:49
sales and we use it organically in the YouTube series, then awesome, it
42:52
will show up like organically. We don't have to blatantly put it out there.
42:58
So we've never actually done really big partnerships, and for the eighty North
43:00
series we didn't do anything. Nope. Yeah, is there is there any
43:04
reason? Would there have been a partner in the eighty North series that might
43:07
have been a good look, Maybe a couple of brands or something like that
43:09
that would have aligned with your message of what you're trying to do, and
43:15
it also helped pay for it. Yeah, I mean the whole the whole
43:19
series is pretty much a Hellie Hanson commercial. Yeah, we had a we
43:22
had a pro deal with Helly Hanson and yeah we got yeah, and none
43:28
of us had any snow gear or anything. We all have bikini so we
43:30
had to get literally fully fitted out all of our gear, all of our
43:35
follies and Helly Hansen. So, like Brady said, the whole thing is
43:37
a Helly Hanson add essentially. But I mean, yeah, maybe if we
43:42
had tried to work it before, but at the end, it's like,
43:45
well, it's already there. So yeah, it's like, hey, Hanson,
43:49
look what we did. It's already released. Do you want to give
43:51
us some money? Yeah, you want to give us some money now for
43:52
it? Now, what do you guys? What are you guys planning in
43:54
the future. I mean obvious obviously this season you're going to be a Lake
43:58
Tahoe um and sailing. I'm assuming you're doing courses are training now, Yeah,
44:02
it's gonna be doing that this summer. So what's up next for you
44:07
guys? Now? Yeah, So well, actually me and Brady had the
44:10
idea of starting our new business, the Cruisers Academy, which is the sailing
44:15
school, when we were still on Delos. We really like teaching people and
44:20
uh yeah, like Brady said, just take a little bit of pressure off
44:22
the filmmaking so that we can kind of you know, enjoy it again and
44:29
like, uh not put so much not put so much pressure on it.
44:32
So yeah, so doing the sailing school, and our original idea with it
44:37
was to teach people how to live on boats, how to cross oceans,
44:39
but an offshore sailing yeah, how to provision for six months at a time,
44:43
And that still is our goal. But you know, given the last
44:45
year and the travel restrictions and everything, we just decided to keep it local
44:51
on Tahoe. So we're kind of getting the Tahoe chapter set up, but
44:53
we also are in the works of buying a blue water boat that can sail
44:59
around the world, So we're going to be hopefully buying that boat this summer
45:04
and expanding the Cruisers Academy to the ocean side as well, and then yeah,
45:07
still making films. We actually just got back from a dive trip in
45:13
the Galapicos Islands for few weeks. How was that My god, it's like
45:20
everything you see on Discovery Channel, it really is. It's nuts. Were
45:24
glopicus is we're off of the South America Equita, right, yeah, yeah,
45:28
yess off Equador. Yeah, it's actually right at the equator. So
45:31
yeah, we're diving with schooling hammerheads out there and sea lions all around the
45:36
streets, like you know, dogs and everything like that. So we shot
45:39
about four terabytes between the two of us in two weeks and that's gonna be,
45:45
yeah, the next film project that we put together. Again, not
45:47
putting a huge amount of pressure on when we're gonna get it done, but
45:51
hopefully by the end of summer we'll have either some kind of long format product
45:54
from it or a few different episodes on our new Cruisers Academy YouTube channel.
46:00
But pretty much just still doing sailing and filming, but switching it up the
46:04
amounts that we're doing of it, I guess. Yeah. It was the
46:07
first time this Glad Coast trip was the first time we really picked up our
46:09
cameras and we're so intense with filming in about a year. When we when
46:14
we left Delos and came to Tahoe, we kind of put our cameras down
46:16
and we're like, Okay, let's take a break from them filming everything all
46:20
the time. And then this Glock Coast trip, we were right back in
46:22
it with all of our cameras. So it felt really good and it was
46:25
like rejuvenating to film again and be creative behind the camera. So I'm excited
46:30
to see what comes to the footage. We haven't looked at any of it
46:32
yet, but I think I think it'll be pretty cool. If it's not.
46:36
If we don't get cool footage from that trip, then we should not
46:38
ever again. Yeah. Yeah, Oh, you gotta just basically just turn
46:43
it on and expose it really and you should be take the lens cap off
46:45
and you should pretty much good. That's it. Yeah. So yeah,
46:49
and then apart from the sailing school, we did because we've kind of branched
46:52
off of Delos because, like I said, my brother and his wife and
46:54
baby are still on board doing that. So we started our own YouTube channel
46:58
called Cruiser's Academy, same name as a sailing school, and that's what we'll
47:02
be posting our short little stuff like well, like we're not going to do
47:05
stuff once a week like we talked about before, but whenever it's just a
47:08
place for us to release our creative energy and to film and to edit stuff.
47:14
But not in any way trying to turn it into a big business,
47:19
right, just just enough to kind of keep the ball rolling, just to
47:22
keep the ball. And that's the thing a lot of a lot of filmmakers
47:24
always think, you know that you have to be, you know, living
47:29
in the Hollywood Hills making millions and millions of dollars as a filmmaker or as
47:32
a YouTuber. And at the end of the day, like your your is
47:36
your roof paid for? Is your food paid for? Like, you know,
47:40
can you buy a couple of nice things if you need to go to
47:43
can you go on a trip? You're living the dream man like if you're
47:46
making you know, yeah, even more importantly, do you enjoy what you're
47:50
doing? That has a huge value And a lot of people forget about is
47:53
maybe you can get a job paying double what you'd make for yourself, but
47:59
that value of enjoyed eight hours a day, ten hours a day doing what
48:01
you're doing is worth way more than double your salary. Yeah, oh that's
48:06
huge in the center. Are you proud of what you're making? You know,
48:08
like it's so fun to be able to go to the galoppicos and film
48:13
exactly what we want edited, see other exactly how we want, like we're
48:16
the final say. Like when I worked for production houses when I was first
48:22
getting going in video, I just remember making an edit on something and someone
48:27
coming in and telling me to change it to some horrible way. I was
48:32
like, I cannot do this. This is literally ripping my soul out of
48:36
my body. And that was when I decided, like, I'm making my
48:38
own things and I'll make way and less money, but I'll be so much
48:42
happier and yeah, it's a good path. Oh. Oh, trust me.
48:45
I wasn't post for twenty five years. Oh, I know, I
48:47
did everything so I oh, dude, dude, I direct and then I
48:52
would do post. My post was like my day job, so like I
48:55
always had Post to pay the bills and then I would go off and direct
48:58
stuff. But man, oh from color grading, editing, post, supervising,
49:04
VFX. Ah, that brutal, brutal that a lot of your listeners
49:10
are in those fields now, and they're like, I's funny. They're like
49:14
damn it, damn it, hey, but some people love that. Like
49:16
I've interviewed. I've interviewed Academy Award winning editors who are just like love that
49:22
collaborative process. I'm too much of an entrepreneur. I'm too much of my
49:25
own boss. I like collaborating, but I can't. I can't. I
49:30
can't. And as you get older, and I think you guys can feel
49:32
this, as you get older, the tolerance just starts to go down of
49:37
what you're gonna put up, the ship that you'll put up with. It
49:38
just starts because you'll put up with a lot of twenty two. But at
49:42
thirty two things start getting different. At forty two, things get really different.
49:46
That's why you see the eighty two year old guy walking out with his
49:51
with his underwear half off his shirt to pick up the paper, and it's
49:52
like he don't care. He's I'm done. I'm done. We'll be right
50:01
back after a word from our sponsor, and now back to the show.
50:10
Now, I'm gonna ask a few questions. Ask all my guests, what
50:13
advice would you give a filmmaker trying to break into the business today. I
50:20
think it's interesting because the business has changed so much from what it traditionally used
50:24
to be, and there's so many different things that you can do within filmmaking,
50:30
whether you're interested in writing or directing or editing or you know, filming
50:35
or blogging, you know as a huge new one. So I think it
50:38
really depends. But as we've said multiple times over the last hour, I
50:43
think staying true to yourself, even if there's less of an immediate reward,
50:49
is the way to go. And you know, in the long run,
50:52
you're you're really shaping your career path as you go. Every job you take,
50:57
every client you take, every decision you make, every project you work
50:59
on, that's going to lead you to your next step. And if you
51:04
can make good choices and kind of make sacrifices along the way to stay true
51:07
to yourself, I think that's going to get you to where you want to
51:09
go. Yeah, for sure. I think Besides, like what I said
51:13
about being authentic, it depends. If you're behind the camera and you're on
51:15
a set, you know you're not filming yourself, you're not creating a vlog.
51:19
But for a filmmaker that has total control over everything, to be authentic
51:23
and do what makes you happy, like I've said many times during this but
51:28
also I think a lot of people nowadays, especially in the YouTube world,
51:30
get caught up on the most expensive gear and the craziest transitions and stuff like
51:37
that, and you're just like, just tell a story at the end of
51:38
the day, Like, that's what it's all about, is is editing something
51:43
that makes somebody else feel something on the other side of the screen, and
51:46
focus on that. Like I've I've followed some people that film their YouTube channel
51:51
with like iPhones the whole time, and it's incredible because they are who they
51:54
are and it's it's not very cinematic, but it's real and they're great storytellers.
52:00
So focus on that first and not the big effects and the big cameras
52:05
and the transition. I like the star wipe personally. That's just me though,
52:12
Like Star Wars fantastic. That's the one the blinds, all the blinds.
52:19
Yeah, the blow. You could do it this way if you're if
52:20
you're fancy, you could do it angled wise, this way. Oh hey,
52:23
let's not get crazy, man, that's a that's actually that costs a
52:25
little extra. Um, but uh, yes, the star wipe is fantastic.
52:30
Um. Now, what is the lesson that took the longest to learn?
52:34
Whether in the film business or in life, the lessons to learn.
52:42
That's a tough question. Man. You're both looking over to your right,
52:45
So I guess the answers over there. That's just that's just a window.
52:50
That's a beautiful window. Because I was wondering, are the answers there.
52:55
The first thing that popped into my head was taxes. I wish I learned
53:00
all that shit earlier on Like, I still don't get it, I still
53:04
do. We were just talking about that California. Hey man, tax it's
53:08
like the second and it's the second highest, second or third highest place to
53:12
live after New York and New Jersey. As far as taxes are, It's
53:15
insane. It's insane. It's insane. But you know what, Yeah,
53:19
thanks, thank you so much. Sorry, hey man, Hey, I'm
53:21
with you, brother, I'm still I'm still in this boat. I'm still
53:23
in this boat, sir. I am still in this boat for the time
53:27
being. But you know what, that is probably of the best answers I've
53:30
heard on the show. Taxes Learn, learn accounting, what everything does,
53:37
and how to do stuff, how to deduct, how to legally deduct like
53:42
I'd love to do. I'd love to see your itemized list like, oh
53:45
yeah, everything, every everything is deductible, everything, food, the whole
53:51
thing. It's all part of the show. How about you, Alex,
53:54
Let's see. I think something that I've learned is that when you find good
54:00
people like treat them right and do what you need to do to hold onto
54:05
them. I think that one of the hardest things about being an entrepreneur,
54:08
probably no matter what business y're and even if it's not filmmaking, is that
54:13
it's hard to find another one of you, you know, and if you
54:16
can find someone like that, they are worth their weight in gold, and
54:22
like, you know, make sacrifices to keep them on board and keep them
54:24
happy and value them because you know, together you can do way, way
54:30
more than you can separately. So that's that's a big thing that I've learned
54:35
and something that I am definitely gonna carry through as we start this new venture.
54:40
Yea, and three of your favorite films of all time? Oh oh,
54:45
that's a really good without the window what we got if I really went
54:53
by the ones that I've watched the most, I'm gonna go old school and
54:57
say ten things I hate about you, Like I Ledger five years and put
55:01
it on and still know like every word to that movie. I had to
55:05
remember. I had it, like I recorded it off TV on like a
55:07
VHS tape when I was little, and I used to watch it all.
55:09
I don't know what I don't know what VHS is are. I'm way too
55:13
each for that. But the first one that comes to my mind is the
55:21
Boonese. It's always holds a special place in my heart. So it's probably
55:23
a classic that many people say. Yeah, there's actually yeah, one of
55:29
my favorite films, also like independently made. It's called Chasing Bubbles and it's
55:36
about an absolute legends named Alex Rust. I think you can watch it for
55:40
free on YouTube. Um, go watch it and just be prepared. You're
55:44
gonna want to like sell everything and buy a boat after it. But it's
55:46
so worth a watch. It's really really good. Yeah, Chasing Bubbles,
55:51
it's a good one. Yeah. Um, one more, that's really tough.
55:57
I have one more. I have one word. Um. It's actually
56:00
a film about the wild Mustangs in the US, but it's called Unbranded.
56:04
Um, I ride horses and I have a Mustang. But even if you
56:07
don't, the film is really really well made and it tells the whole story
56:10
of mustangs, and it's about these cowboys that actually go get wild horses and
56:15
put a little bit of training on him and ride him from all the way
56:19
up the PCT from Mexico to Canada. So crazy story, really well done.
56:24
Go watch it. Wow, I see that you which one? Yeah?
56:30
Serious? Of course, probably not original, and everybody probably loves it.
56:35
But I've watched It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia like ten times over, like
56:39
I put it on, I'm going to bed and the morning. I don't
56:42
know, those guys just geniuses. The two shows that I do that too,
56:45
And that's also not original, as Seinfeld and Friends. Like I'll just
56:50
I was. I was just watching Seinfeld the other day again, I'm like,
56:52
oh, so good, it's just so good. I can't I can't
56:57
believe they got away with the stuff they got away with. And then right,
57:00
and then my daughters now we're obsessed with friends there. She's they're like
57:02
young, like super young, and they just sometimes we're like, yeah,
57:06
that's not appropriate, it's not inappropriate, that's inappropriate. But now, like
57:12
it was so funny. Jennifer Addison, we watched Marley and Me the other
57:15
day and they go, is that is that Rachel from Friends. I'm like
57:20
my wife and I both looked at each other like we've done something right or
57:22
wrong. I'm not sure what it is. We don't know yet. We
57:24
don't we that's something. And where can people find out more about what you
57:30
guys are doing and follow you guys? The best thing is Cruiser's Academy,
57:36
so you can find that on Instagram Cruiser Academy or YouTube search cruisers Academy or
57:40
cruisers academy dot com for our sailing school. If anybody's interested in coming up
57:45
to Tahoe and sailing, we're pretty booked up, but we'll find some space
57:49
to do some charters and whatever. Just stay in touch. The Cruiser's Academy
57:52
on all platforms is the best to stay in touch. And also Brady mentioned
57:55
it before, but eighty North series dot com if you did want to watch
58:00
the Talcu series that we made about our adventures in the Arctic. Yeah,
58:06
very cool, and we're looking forward to the Gallapicos series coming soon or maybe
58:10
not that soon, because you guys will take by two years to come into
58:14
it's supposed to come as a true filmmaker. As a truemaker, true filmmaker
58:20
would say, guys, thank you so much for being on the show.
58:22
You are an inspiration on how to live life to its fullest and follow the
58:28
dream, follow the bliss, and you guys are definitely examples of that.
58:30
So thank you so much for being on the show. Guys, thank you
58:32
so much for having us man. He's a really nice shot. I want
58:37
to thank Brady and Alex for coming on the show and dropping their inspiration bombs
58:44
on the Tribe today. I hope someone out there listening right now will rethink
58:47
their lives and maybe maybe buy a boat, maybe quit their jobs, put
58:52
their family on a boat, and just go across the season. Now,
58:55
don't do that until you take their courses or take their training. But life
59:00
is too short. Then not do what you love. If you figure if
59:06
you just do what you love, you will figure out a way to make
59:08
it work. Just go and follow that bliss. That's what these guys are
59:15
doing, and I hope many of the Tribe out there listening follow suit in
59:21
whichever path they want to walk down. Now, if you want to get
59:24
links to anything we spoke about in this episode, head over to the show
59:28
notes I at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot TV. Ford Slash three thirteen. Thank you
59:32
so much for listening to guys as always, keep on writing no matter what.
59:36
I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof Screenwriting podcasts
59:40
at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv.