Speaker 1: 0:00

Soundstripe, soundstripe, soundstrike, music, music, music, music. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Outskirts Overland. I've been gone for I don't know a long time. It seems like I'm just hopping on, decided it was probably time to give this a go again. Talk about what's been going on with me, what I'm doing. Welcome back to the podcast, the stream, etc. I appreciate you guys listening and being here. I know I got some people that have been messaging me quite a bit and I'll probably hop into that. Of course, I want to talk about Overland content and I want to talk about camping and wheeling and events and different things.

Speaker 1: 1:18

But what's been kind of holding me up from doing this is there's been a lot of ridicule as far as it pertains to influencers. So, and given that that's the case, it's been kind of hard for me. Where I want to be this person that's genuine. I want to be this person that's trying to give people advice and trying to get people motivated and trying to get people into the hobby, into the outdoors, into modifying vehicles, using your vehicles to travel and get out. I don't consider myself that because I'm not. I'm not that person, if that makes sense, but uh, it's, it's the stigma that's put on anybody doing something like this podcast or stream or whatever. So it's. It's been hard because people are looking at me going well, you got sponsorships and you got things of this and you got that and X, y and Z. So they don't take any advice that I have and, uh, apply it. You know they're like, oh, you're just, you're just a guy that gets, gets stuff. So you know, of course you're pushing product or whatever, when a lot of times what I am bringing to the table is just advice from stuff I've done. It's very it's it's. It's pretty rare. I actually even recommend something that is a sponsor of mine or something that's been given to me. Um, unfortunate for the people that do that for me. Um, but it is pretty rare.

Speaker 1: 2:57

I pretty well stick to the stuff I like. I do sometimes get stuff, you know, but everybody's gonna make their own decisions and I respect that more than you know. If somebody is like, what do you use, I'll tell you what I use. Is it something that was given to me? Maybe it's something I bought, maybe. But if the question is, what do you use, I will be more than happy to, I will be more than happy to provide that information.

Speaker 1: 3:23

But it has been a tough space and I think that those of you that watch YouTube and are kind of long in the space as far as influencers whether it's on Instagram, um, whether it's on Instagram or YouTube or whatever I think you guys are familiar. That, like this, is something that's occurring in the space and it's being talked about quite a bit. And my struggle has been how do I find my place where I can be motivating, not seem so commercial, not seem, I don't know, elitist, maybe not seem like that guy, and find my way to the people, that guy and find my way to to the people. So it's been tough. I've taken a long break. I'm sure those of you that have been listening the whole you know I put out like 35, 40 episodes last year. I'm sure those of you that have been listening since the beginning or or for the last 20 episodes or whatever, you could probably tell I was, I was, I was having this internal struggle, so and podcasting fell off for me because of that.

Speaker 1: 4:24

I was losing, and podcasting fell off for me because of that I was losing, I was losing, I don't know how to say it, but, like, as I would watch content, it was hard for me to produce content and I can't explain like I've taken a break from like content, taking in content myself to try and re, re center myself with, re center myself with my values within this um, because it is easy to kind of like, get into the numbers, get into the statistics, start to see success and want more success and then start to latch on to popular topics or popular things you know, like winter's coming, let's talk diesel heaters, you know, and here's the bajillion of them and blah, blah, blah, blah, but it's, it's losing the because of doing that, it's lost. It feels to me like I've lost what I'm trying to get across. Like, do you need a diesel heater? No, is it cool? Yeah, but the point is, do I want to get people outside? Like I will be going camping again this weekend, for instance. It is the 30th of January right now and this will be my fourth weekend camping in 2025.

Speaker 1: 5:33

Like, I go quite a bit. I think those of you that do know me know I go a lot. That does put me in a different, that puts me into a different perspective of things, as far as you know, going often and trying to relate to people that don't quite go as much. So I end up in a little bit of disconnect there. But that's natural, I think, because from going at such a high frequency it's hard to, it's hard to relate to the person that goes three, four times a year, isn't as familiar with their gear, doesn't have their things set up correctly. So I'm really trying and will be trying so bear with me, guys to find my place in trying to be helpful. So I do do this, I do, I do do Cool, I do this live and I would really like interaction. But having done it live for a year now, that's pretty few and far between.

Speaker 1: 6:29

So, if nothing else, I'll try and maybe I'll just tell, you know, tell stories about what I'm doing, things that I, things that I mess up, because there's plenty and it can be funny. I definitely, I definitely mess some stuff up and it's it's a pretty good time. I exploded some coffee a couple of weeks ago First time, using my Jetboil French press um, and just exploded. Um, I got pull start fire, fire starters and I failed to pull the yellow tab out of like four of them, so they didn't work, which is complete and total waste, by the way. Um, so I even made a Facebook status 2025.

Speaker 1: 7:05

Remember to pull the yellow tab, like it was a funny thing inside joke, but I'm just trying to find my way and I wanted to get back on here because I don't want people to think that I'm gone. You know that I'm not here for you, because that's how some people have been. Some people do I mean a lot of people listen. Um, I don't not too many watch, but a lot of people do listen. I'm still here. I'm going to keep producing content. Um, you know, in the same way I always do, you know, off the cuff, random, just kind of what's going on? Um and that, and that's where I'm at, like I don't, I don't really have anything spectacular or special to talk about, but I do feel like I don't owe anybody anything. But I wanted to at least make something and get out here to say, hey, like I didn't just fall off the map, I'm okay. Like I'm okay, I'm healthy, everything's all right.

Speaker 1: 8:04

It's just been a tough time to want to produce content when you're in a world of a hobby where, like, people ask questions and genuine answers are so hard to come by in groups in on on comments on videos, like a lot of influencers. It's like, hey, what do you guys think about about this? And they just put a video that they produced out. Like I get it, that's cool, like for sure. Like, do you youtube people? Do you? You know, whoever push your stuff do your thing. But that's not. That doesn't come off as genuine and it's not answering the question. You know, your video is probably sponsored by somebody or you're you, you potentially biased?

Speaker 1: 8:46

Like where are we going to find the middle ground in this hobby? And overlanding of like there's more than one way to do it and let's try and inspire people and motivate people and help people just move in a direction that's good for them. Because I think we can all say, like, if you've done this long enough, or even maybe this is where my place is here, like I'm familiar with a ton of stuff that could help you, um kind of get along in this hobby. Some that's necessary, some that's not, and it doesn't necessarily have to be what I would prefer or what I have. Um, you can get by with a lot of things I don't have, and so one thing that I have done is I have um, I, I recently, I have, I have my Tacoma. Like that's nobody, always that's not new to anybody.

Speaker 1: 9:34

But I recently did just buy a Subaru, um Forester, wilderness, a new one, 24. 24. And, uh, because my kid was, my kids want to go camping. Like my kids want to go camping, I mean, I think it's. I have a seat, delete in my truck. Um, it's two seater. They're not going camping with me in that, so that's just, that's just not happening. Um, sorry, things trying to update on me and I do not want it to. Um, they're not going camping in that. One of them could go with me, you know. So I I got the Subaru. It's a family car.

Speaker 1: 10:07

My previous daily was not going to suit going camping, um, and I'm trying to do something more minimal with it to just just to get out and, and you know, get some content about like hey, look, check it out. Like I do have this extravagant thing thing here. And by no means is my and by no means is my new car not new and not cool and not more than you know necessary. That's what I picked just for my family. I wanted something reliable, something that's somewhat capable. That's why I went with the wilderness model.

Speaker 1: 10:56

But I plan to take a camping with my kids. I'm not building it out. It will be basic stuff. Hopefully, to you know, people will see me at expos and things with my kids and we'll be in a ground tent. We'll be. You know, I won't have all the things. I don't have a cooler in it. I have. I mean I have a cooler in it. I don't have a fridge. There's going to be no power station. There's going to be no dual power there's, you know.

Speaker 1: 11:23

Taking it back to to some basics, because for two reasons I don't want to spoil my kids too much and with all the stuff I do have now and I want to show people that you know, even me, with something so crazy like the truck I have, I have no more or less fun in with less. You know, almost to the point to where sometimes I'm just like, is this too much? Like, am I doing too much with the truck? Not even close? Um, I at all. Um, you could do it with less. Is it maybe slightly more inconvenient? Is it slightly? You know a little different, you know, yeah, but like, at the end of the day it's the same thing.

Speaker 1: 12:17

It's everybody getting outside and I've never been in a situation where, you know, because you don't have X rooftop tent, like you can't, like it's not a gang, you know. Like you got to have this, you know. So, like rooftop tent initiation, um, it doesn't work that way. So anyways, I even went ahead and like was like you know, hey, this is probably, this is great for me and this is great for when I want to go, when my girlfriend wants to go. The truck's great for that.

Speaker 1: 12:44

But as far as even taking my family, I don't even want my kids to be used to it. It's too much stuff, it's just a lot and it just comes off. It just doesn't come off right to me, like I'm almost not embarrassed but like I almost hate in some ways that like I get seen in it in my truck because it's like, oh, this guy you know, and it's like man, that is such a long time's worth of struggles and you know fixes and how does this work better and how's that work better, just for traveling a lot. But I think I go more than I think I camp or overland more than I don't know. I don't want to give a poor statistic, but 80% of everybody in this, you know, maybe 90, if you, you know, if you got rid of the full timers. Um, I go a lot. Two to three, two to three weekends a month, um, 10, you know, six to 10 days a month. There's a decent amount. I go a lot, so I do invest a lot into it. But I don't like when I'm around other people getting into the hobby, interested into the hobby, and then they're like this is what I have to have when they look at my truck. So that's that's my own internal struggle and then that that just goes hand in hand with the, you know, the influencer thing. You know it's like they see my truck, they asked me about it.

Speaker 1: 14:16

Next thing, you know, I got a podcast and it's like, oh, it all makes sense now. And I hate that because that's not how it started. This podcast happened because I have a friend that does another podcast. I have a lot of friends that were really like they learned a lot of stuff from me. They're like you know, I'm teaching them how to use stuff, like just use gear. They have how to do certain things. They watch what I do and I'm no type of freaking overland Jesus by any means, but just experience and failures.

Speaker 1: 14:46

A lot of failures has has gotten me, you know, some success at this point from you know failing a lot, and I say failing like. I mean I don't even know All my clothes get wet. Tent has holes in it. This doesn't work. That doesn't work. Don't have fuel, Didn't have water, water froze Fuel didn't work in temperatures that I used and these things all sound like they're not that big of a deal, but when you're out there and you can't cook because your butane froze, like it's a pretty big deal and now you're trying to pivot to make it work with a fire, but now you don't have pots and pans that'll work with the open fire and like you're melting your stuff and like some of this stuff is is is extremely useful um to know and hopefully I can prevent some of you guys from being these catastrophes. So that's what I, that's what I'd like to provide, and it's hard to go back for me. So I've spent a lot of time like not.

Speaker 1: 15:46

I've spent a lot of time not taking in overlanding content, like probably, since it's probably been. My last podcast came out in December 3rd, I think, and I think I hadn't. I haven't watched a like an overlanding, typical overlanding trip, whatever. Whatever, probably, since, like the first, the third, the day I did the podcast, whatever. So almost two months I've started to watch a lot more. You know when I'm watching content, watching a lot more like minimal stuff, bushcrafting Cause I do enjoy that as well. I do have a background in that as well.

Speaker 1: 16:22

Um, and again, when you go from like building a shelter, bushcrafting to the truck, I have like they're freaking you're looking at like the Hyatt versus log cabin, you know like they're they. They can cross paths for sure. Like skills are the skills transfer over, but definitely definitely vastly different. So I've been trying to get back to the basics of what I started with so that I can. I don't know if built out rigs to the nines, like I have, is even something that that people are aspiring to do anymore. You know I, they might be like you know what. That's not Dave Ramsey's overlanding. You know they might want to do a little less expensive stuff.

Speaker 1: 17:13

Um, spend more time getting out and enjoying it and I think that's fantastic. Like I think that if you get out and you make memories, those are going to last longer than things are going to last. So spend time with the focus of making the memories versus buying the stuff, assuming it's going to make the memory better or make the experience better. In reality, the failures are the things you remember. If it all goes smoothly, it's kind of it's kind of lame really. I mean it's fun for me because I'm, I want to relax. But if you're just into it and you're motivated and you're like I want to wheel hard and I want to do this and I want to do that, those failures are what? What? Like make it fun.

Speaker 1: 17:50

You know, like oh, we got soaked, I didn't have anything. Like you know, I wasn't prepared. Like I wasn't prepared. Like that's probably the number one thing I've. I've, I've come down to. Like every failure was like I didn't think of that, I didn't know that could be an issue. I didn't know I had no clue, I wasn't prepared for that, I had no idea. That was a thing. You know and I'm saying these vague sentences because I can't even come up with all the stuff. You know like it's so hard Anything from starting fires to batteries dying in the cold, to fuels not working, to stuff getting dumped in your truck that you don't want to have dumped in your truck or car or SUV, or you know tent.

Speaker 1: 18:41

You know how to how to manage things. It's all learning curve and it's a learning curve that I've learned and want to help bring people that that haven't done that yet to hopefully, to hopefully a little bit make their life a little easier. You know, from anything from waterproofing your own stuff to getting waterproof stuff, to fabrics that are better in the cold and the wet, to how I handle like shoes and pants and stuff. I mean I was just camping a couple weeks ago at one of the things called polar bear camping club and I was. I was there, were some people, there was some discomfort Okay, I'm not gonna I mean the people that I went with will watch this or listen to this there was some discomfort occurring and I had, I was, I was prepared.

Speaker 1: 19:34

You know, I know that one of the best insulators is air. So you want to have loose fitting clothing with something warm underneath. A lot of people wear tight fitting clothing, a lot of it and layer it and it doesn't. It doesn't keep you quite as warm, or they don't know that if you tie your boots too tight, it it, the circulation in your shoes make your feet get cold quicker. So I always have like loose boots on, looser know, like, like, like not quite tied, um, to keep circulation, you know, in those things. And those are just things that I've learned, whether it's from the military experience, um, or just a lot of camping, and then then searching youtube videos to like, why does this keep happening to me, like I've got insulated boots, I've got wool socks, why am I feet continuing to get cold? Why does it feel like? Why is everything falling asleep? Why does everything feel cold? So I was wearing like bibs and fleece and, um, I don't even know.

Speaker 1: 20:33

I don't be honest. I don't even know what my base layers are made out of, um, I don't even know what they're called, but they work really good, okay, so I'll look them up. Anyways, it doesn't matter. They weren't crazy expensive either. They're not Merino wool, they're not Smartwool brand, they're not North Face or Patagonia. They're like, I don't even know. They feel like some type of nylon fleece and they're tight. But I wear those under like bib overalls with a fleece jacket, like nothing super wild going on there, um, and my bib overalls are fishing overalls from Academy, so they're just windproof, which is just another thing. Like you don't want wind and cutting through the cold, you don't want super, you don't want super breathable stuff unless it's like oh, excuse me, gore-tex, so stuff that's letting it breathe out but not come in. So anyway, stuff like that, like that's all stuff I've learned.

Speaker 1: 21:25

I'm not some freaking genius, I'm a guy that's, you know, had frostbite, almost had hypothermia. You know, had to left leave early. You know, had I don't know. I had stuff stuff blow up. Like I've built fires on rocks that got too hot and exploded. Like don't do that, you want to. I know that because I did it like not a good idea. You want rock shrapnel? Like who, who would think of that? Like like, yeah, somebody's gonna go, yeah, dummy limestone, if you get. Like for sure, yeah, I now. But like I wasn't born with that in my head, it you know my whole life. So like that's the stuff I want to try and bring. It would be.

Speaker 1: 22:08

It's just going to take me a minute, so bear with me while I try to like come back to it, because it did turn into there for a little bit. As far as even my podcast is concerned, like here's this product, here's what I think about it, a lot of review, kind of stuff, um, and that's, that's fine. Like stuff's going to come out and I'm going to have an opinion on it and if somebody asked me about it on on the podcast in the chat, I'm definitely going to be, I'm definitely going to address it, but I don't want to make that the focus I want to start to. Really, I'm going to probably start taking some notes. Actually, like the ones of you that have been listening to this, you know, I just kind of freaking wing it I'm probably gonna start taking some notes when I am out camping as like talking points for this, when I decide to do it. I'm not going to tell you guys I'm gonna do it every week, but for when I decide to do it, like no-transcript and I think I found a solution to that, but anyways, I don't want you guys to, I'm not even bring it up, that's for another time.

Speaker 1: 23:23

I'm going again this weekend and I'll probably lighters or a thing you know, headlamps or a thing like some of that stuff. You know I uh, heck, I just gave somebody a headlamp that's been camping a long time and I was like you don't wear a headlamp, like this is a game changer, um, and I guess just from being in the military it's like headlamps a must. I don't know, maybe that's uh, I don't think that's for being like for any being cool. I just think it's a must period. Like you gotta have one of those things, like you want to have your hands free and can do stuff and can see, and otherwise you gotta have lights everywhere and headlamps like 30 bucks. Leds like everywhere in all these places, thousand bucks, like what? Completely unnecessary? Um, just get a headlamp, but anyways, uh, I don't want to have a flashlight in my mouth. You know, I'm sure we've all done that, um, and that's me. Maybe you want to have a flashlight in your mouth. I don't know, maybe you're that one, I don't know. Um, but yeah, that's me. Maybe you want to have a flashlight in your mouth. I don't know, maybe you're that one, I don't know. But yeah, that's. I just want to get on here. I mean my kids are asleep right now and I was like I have to get something out. I don't want people to think I'm done.

Speaker 1: 24:28

I did do a podcast, I did a different, I did somebody else's podcast. I plan to do that again. So I mean you're going to not only hear me here, you'll hear me other places and that's the whole point of that segment that I'm on with. That is, it's beyond Overland, it's with Benji at Newfound Overland. There's an episode out now with me. You can go and we talk a little bit about like society and stuff.

Speaker 1: 24:56

I think you know some of us in this space are kind of heading that way, like get to know us a little better, get to know what we think, like see if we align, you know, and then maybe we can build some, build some community from that and then kind of kind of make something a little different than just, uh, you know, influencer and consumer type thing, you know. So, anyways, hopefully I mean I'm not even gonna listen to this, I'm going to post it. Hopefully you guys like it, hopefully it works for you guys, hopefully you kind of can see where I'm coming from, even though I'm all over the place. Um, and I hope to be getting back on pretty frequently, um, by frequently I mean in compared to my last six, four months, you know, like maybe I put one out once a month, let me, let me get back into it, let me take some notes, let me see what I can get put together so that I have a little more curated stuff, so I can go hey, like this is, this is good topics, I'm not going to like start the podcast and be like we're going over these five things today like with a syllabus, but I'd like to get some topics down, some things that I'm learning on all my trips and I'm just going to bring that to the podcast. You know, what you know like a after action almost.

Speaker 1: 26:09

Here's some stuff I did that went great. Here's some stuff I did that didn't here's, you know. Here's something I found a unique solution to. I made this fun. I did this thing. Whatever you know, some of it'll be repeat of previous podcasts. Some of it'll be, you know, repeat of the last 10 in a row. Um, and that's what I'm going to do from here on out. Um, but I didn't go away. I'm not done doing this. I have had a lot of you know not done doing this. I have had a lot of you know I didn't. Thanks guys for listening, thanks for caring, thanks for taking my advice. Like I appreciate you guys. I never did this for that.

Speaker 1: 26:49

So whenever I quit doing it, it didn't really it didn't really, uh, occur to me so many people wanted to listen to this while they drive to work or whether at work or whether I'm sorry. I, I really didn't, I really didn't know, like I, you know you can see the stats, but it's hard to put it together until you're getting like dms, like people are finding me on my personal pages not the podcast pages and they're, like you good, like what, like you know, like kind of taking some seemingly caring um about my me personally. So I was like, oh man, I need to, probably cause I haven't been posting on that either, like I just kind of took a break, like had to have my own come to Jesus, like I'm not going to stop doing this thing. Of course I'm not going to stop, I love it, but maybe, maybe, like, maybe being an influencer isn't for me, maybe having a podcast isn't for me, maybe doing this isn't for me, um, and for no other reason. Then I just didn't see it being affecting it, affecting what I want it to positively, what I want it to positively. You know, the connotation on it was that I'm in a group that I try so hard to be the anti that in this space. So I was like, man, this is, I missed, I've missed the mark. I gotta, I gotta like find a way to reset that and hopefully gain your guys trust back as far as and it and maybe I didn't lose it, but gain new people's trust as the guy that's just trying to get people outside.

Speaker 1: 28:25

Not in any fancy, spectacular, gear-oriented, I just want people to camp. We could call this outskirts camping, for all I care. I want people to go camping. Wheeling's cool. That's whatever you really got to modify your vehicle to do a lot of that, but you don't to go camping. Wheeling school, that's whatever you really got to modify your vehicle to do a lot of that, but you don't to go camping. I would love to see everybody get out on a dirt road or someplace and go camping, ride your bicycle.

Speaker 1: 28:49

This evolved into this for me. From walking, from biking, from motorcycles, from two trucks to snowshoeing, I mean I've done a lot of different things and when it all boils down to it, it's the camping that I like. So you know, whatever vessel I use to get there, it's the camping that I like. So I say it all the time when I'm around. You know my close group of friends. Like I just want to camp.

Speaker 1: 29:16

I don't know that I want to overland. Like I just want to camp. I don't know that I want to overland. Like I just want to camp. I want to do simple things and spend my time peacefully in nature. And you know, I'm not that's it. That's all I want to do, that's all. I'd like actually disconnect or go somewhere where that there's no other choice. But that's, that's what. I'm going to come back to you. So, anyways, beating a dead horse, I will be on here again sometime in the future hopefully the near future and you guys can go check out uh, beyond overland is a segment on newfound overland. Check out, beyond Overland is a segment on Newfound Overland. I think we did a two-hour podcast on the last one. I plan to do another segment with that. So I guess I might even do like a five-minute on here.

Speaker 1: 30:08

Like, hey guys, this week go listen to this, I'm on that, like you know. Leave comments, write messages, whatever. Let's see what you think about it. Because that's a conversation between me and another podcaster. Because it's really hard sometimes I'm staring at a webcam right now Like it's tough to talk to yourself and be productive and understand that it's valuable. So that's hard too. Like that's just another. Like it's not poor, poor, pitiful me, like not losing my mind. But you know, go stare at your mirror and try and have meaningful conversations about a topic. It's tough. So it's nice to do that with another. You know another host and kind of go back and forth. We are like minded but we don't agree fully. So it's nice to kind of listen to each other's perspectives and have that conversation. So that's really nice.

Speaker 1: 30:57

So, anyways, I'll probably be on that before you guys see me on here again. So if that comes to be, I'll probably do some short segment to say hey, I'm on this one this week. Go ahead and check that out, it's here. I'm not going to drop a link. You're not going to find like some link tree thing, like I'll just say it like find it, search it. You guys can all spell like we'll be fine, um, and hopefully, hopefully I can start to cultivate the people here that I really want to be here. So I hope you guys all have a good weekend. I hope you guys do get outside. It's supposed to be a beautiful weekend. Um, it's rained here in Missouri. Um, I'm getting out this weekend. It looks like it's going to be 60 during the day, so it might be muddy and nasty, but it looks like it's going to be pretty warm. So that would be nice. Good time, maybe hear some birds, maybe some birds Maybe, but no bugs I hope. Anyways, guys have a great weekend and, you know, keep getting after it and get outside. I'll talk to you later,