Outskirts Overland Podcast

Behind the Podcast: A Raw Conversation About Social Exhaustion

• Charlie Racinowski

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Charlie explores the balance between social interactions and seeking solitude in the overland camping world, sharing insights from his 19 years of experience and how his background influences his camping style.

• Discusses his relationship with custom knife maker Michael Pruitt of Pruitt Knives of Valor who'll be at More Expo
• Shares that Nick Wax reached out to provide tent cleaning and waterproofing supplies after recent gear maintenance discussion
• Explores different campsite entertainment options from card games to simply enjoying downtime
• Explains how his background as a personal trainer and current veteran-focused job affects his desire for quiet when camping
• Addresses misconceptions about being standoffish at events when he's actually seeking peaceful moments
• Emphasizes his desire to help newcomers while learning from others' experiences
• Announces he'll be at More Expo at the Midwest Adventure Outfitters booth with stickers and possibly other giveaways

Please rate and review the podcast to help others find this content. Reach out with questions on social media at Outskirts Overland across platforms.


Speaker 1:

The hey guys, charlie, with outskirts, overland friday, friday, friday, gotta love. It's freaking friday, finally, but still rain here, still not the best you know. Um, yeah. So I actually was really thinking I wasn't gonna do one today and then my buddy, michael pruitt, wrote me on facebook or instagram on. He remembered. I just looked at it and he was like I love the daily and I was like it's a sign I gotta do another one anyways. So, yeah, exciting stuff.

Speaker 1:

So it's Friday, anyways, and for those of you guys that don't know, michael is Pruitt Knives of Valor. He will be at more as well. He makes custom-made knives, hand-forged knives, and I have one. They're phenomenal. They're like freaking razor blades in your pocket that stay razor blades forever. You know, not really they're a knife, but I'll have to show you guys sometime. But he makes phenomenal stuff and they're awesome. But to reiterate yesterday, go over and review the podcast, give it a rating, leave a comment. Please do that. It helps get this content out to others, which is the whole point. I mean, I'm not going to push any codes on you guys or anything, but please at least go review, leave a comment, so that we can kind of give folks that are scrolling an idea what we do here.

Speaker 1:

After I talked about gear maintenance just the other day, randomly Nick Wax reached out to me and offered to send me stuff to wash and re-waterproof my tent and wash and re-waterproof some clothing. And they sent me like a pretty large PDF with like instructions and stuff. So I'll probably sit down at some point next week once I get those things and kind of go over it. They're great things. They're things that you know I mentioned it on the podcast probably three, four different times they're really the way to go when it comes to washing mold, mildewing stuff off your tent. So they actually just sent me, I mean, not a huge care package, but enough to wash and re-waterproof, you know, my rain gear coat and stuff and enough to do, uh, my tent. So I'm very thankful to them for that. Um, actually that's phenomenal really. So I'll get that information out to you guys. There's some stuff that they sent me. I mean they make the stuff right. So there's some stuff they sent me I didn't know um, while I was reading through it. So I'll I'll get familiarized with all the tips and tricks because I told them that's really what I'm most interested in if there's, if there's something a little more candid. That's not just, you know, on the directions to the bottle. That would be awesome and I really just asked for that and they offered to send me some stuff. So cool for them, great brand. They've been making all the temp. I mean, I've been using it forever. It's been out forever since I was a kid. So good stuff, I think, like I told you guys, available everywhere. Not a sponsor, but they are sending me free stuff. So I'll make sure to pass that information on. That's really what I'm here for.

Speaker 1:

So there we go, friday. It's Friday. Yesterday's National Burrito Day. I totally I'm gonna.

Speaker 1:

Since I'm doing dailies, I need to be on top of what the National day is, because burrito day is one that I probably should have got to you guys. National burrito day. Pancheros had like discount codes for free burritos and stuff, like all kinds of places had stuff for free burritos. Now, you guys might not know this. This is an overlanding podcast. You guys might not know it, but I am quite the consumer of foods. If you guys ever meet me, I'm not I wouldn't say I'm an overweight guy by any means, but I'm not a small guy so and I like to eat. I played sports my whole life. It's a very active individual. I eat a lot of food, a lot of food. So national burrito day is right, freaking up my alley, and something I should have got along to you guys. I got to get one of those like calendars to tell you what day it is every day, so that I can uh, I just think that'd be, you know, some of it's for you guys, cause you guys like the dailies. You know I got to make it fun for me too, and that would make it fun for me. I am, you guys, because you guys like the dailies. You know I got to make it fun for me too, and that would make it fun for me. I am, you know I am whether or not you guys know it, I am a pretty I don't know laughter-inducing individual. I'll say it like that. So I like, I like fun stuff, and just that's where it's at. But of fun stuff, what?

Speaker 1:

What do you guys do for fun while you're out camping and overlanding? Do you guys play any trivia games? Are there any games you play? I've I've had different card games where, like, you pull a card to get to know somebody. So, like you know, you pull a card and it's like tell everybody blah, blah, blah. Or ask the person next to you X question. Or sometimes there's dice you can roll and you got to uncover a thing and it's you know what's blah, blah, blah. Or there's little you know around the campfire games. Bunny Bunny Whoop is a game I was introduced to last year and it's like a copycat game and you get eliminated and stuff, and you guys could probably look it up. I don't know, I don't know where it came from. It might just be totally made up, but it's fun too. So that's what I like to do.

Speaker 1:

As far as like entertainment, I do. You know. I go with other people. My one of my really good friends, his wife, always brings a book. She likes to read books. I mean and when I say likes to read books, it's like life likes reading books is life. So she likes to read books. Other people like to, you know, camp and snack and you know my buddy Tyson likes to cook. So he spends a lot of time like prepping elaborate things to cook. That's what he does at camp that he enjoys. I've mentioned it on my podcast and many others. I really like to do like be bored. I'll read a book. Sometimes I'll talk to folks, sometimes I'll.

Speaker 1:

You know, when I'm at camp I often fiddle with my stuff. If I've got something that needs a little adjusting, I adjusting. I have like, I have tools with me and stuff, so I might just go, you know, patch this thing, move that thing. That's really where I might when I have downtime I'll read and whatever, but that's where I might also, you know, do some of my gear maintenance really reorganize, make sure everything's clean, stuff like that. Um, it's just a, it's just something, it's just what I do. It's a time that I could sharpen my knives. It's a time that I could, you know any number of things reorganize my truck, make sure my truck is organized, make you know, charge stuff up. You know it's just a good time to go through stuff. I've told you guys before I enjoy that. So for me that is not a chore, but I do.

Speaker 1:

And I don't know that I don't talk about my kids enough, but there's reasons why. But I do have three children. So I try to not take too much time away from my kids, cause I do too much time away from my kids because I do. I mean, I camp a lot, guys. So let's, let's, let's start there I go, I. I overland travel camp a lot with without my kids primarily. I will say that I do. I camp with my kids yeah, primarily without my kids, especially in the winter, so I try not to take any more time away from them than I'm already going camping, you know, and I have a very flexible work schedule I think I've said that before too, so it's not like they only see me in the evenings.

Speaker 1:

Taking off work is not a big deal where I work and with what I do, so I do spend quite a bit of time with them doing different things. For instance, today I'm leaving at noon because they were going to go to uh, all the kids are going to go Savannah bananas. The rain canceled that, unfortunately, and so now they're they're going to do something else, I don't know, but I'm like they're all going to be together. My children are not all of the same mother, so it's a little logistical, but yeah, they're all going to get together, all the kids and my ex-wife and they're going to go do something with her individual's ex-spouse. So all the moms are taking all the kids to do stuff across. So real blended family type situation going on, but they all really like each other and they just want to hang out together.

Speaker 1:

So and I naturally I am pretty lame as far as diversity of things I enjoy doing I like football, I like hockey and I like camping, that's. I mean, again, I'll tell you guys, like I am just who I am. I'm not, I'm not. You guys don't meet me. I mean I'm trying really hard to be more available for you guys and it's not that I so I want to reiterate this because actually I talked about this on Benji's podcast too and I've talked about it before Like I'm not antisocial.

Speaker 1:

To be real clear with you guys, I was a personal trainer and strength coach for 15 years. So I was forced social for 15 years, 12 hours a day, not every day, but like you work early when you're a trainer and you work late when you're a trainer, and if you're a good trainer, you are busy throughout the day because people adjust their schedule to also see you. I was a busy and successful trainer, slash strength coach, slash nutritionist. I have certifications in all of those things I still do and I do stuff online. I'm not plugging myself here, don't reach out. I have enough people, I have what I want to have there.

Speaker 1:

But I was social and at my job. Now I work in a capacity that's like it's actually a little more than it's customer service in a way, but it's on a different level and it involves veterans specifically. So I often am problem solving, critical thinking, getting yelled at not a whole lot of praise in that job. So when I go camping, it's not that I'm antisocial, it's that I'm, that I it's the only time I get quiet. So because everything's so chaotic for me nonstop like I said, three kids my job is talking to people. Literally that's my job. It's it's helping people with the company. It's helping people with the company. It's helping customers with the company. It's helping everybody get, you know, working toward the common goal. And it's a lot of confrontation, which I am not, you know. That's why I'm good at that job. Confrontation is not something that bothers me but it leads to when I go camping I tend to want to just be quiet.

Speaker 1:

I don't have a non-social job to where. That's where I get my socialization, for instance. So I guess that's worth saying because I'm trying to make myself more available to you guys. But it has been difficult in the last couple of years because it's my time to decompress. And for those of you that, like I don't know what anybody does coloring books, like, play video games, whatever camping is that for me and I can't do it every night. So when I do get to do it, I quite enjoy just not, you know, not not having anything to talk about or do.

Speaker 1:

And I talked to you guys here so and it's, and I love doing this and it's just been brought into my attention, you know, brought into my attention by me, um, that I need to make sure that I'm being more available to you guys to talk about stuff. But, guys, if you could, I am not gonna you guys see me all the time, like you hear me all the time. I don't see or hear you guys. So if you would, whenever you guys do see me, just let me know you listen to the podcast or you're aware of who I am, because I'm not gonna be aware of who you guys all are and I want you know and I don't want to be, and I want you know and I don't want to be. I don't want it to seem like I'm pushing you off, it's just not like I don't want to. I just don't want to come off that way. I'm not standoffish, but I'm not going to. It just isn't going to register to me because I got a lot. My brain is constantly going guys and I want to talk to you guys. I want to be available. But just let me know when you guys see me out that you listen, like, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask questions.

Speaker 1:

I'm extremely personable, like I, like I said earlier, like I'm very personable. It's not that I don't want to be personable, it's just that I'm trying to roll Like, I'm trying to relax often and when I'm at events, I I'm totally available to you guys. I just don't know. I don't know if you're just a guy coming over to chit chat and I I struggle with that because I don't want to. I don't want to say something inappropriate to somebody just trying to get to know me. If you guys know me from this, that's a whole different story. You kind of got an idea. So if you guys see me, I just let me know you're a listener, like that. That might sound ridiculous, but I'm that simple of an individual Like that changes. I'll be like oh cool, how are you? Like you know, then I know you've taken in at least some of my content, to know a little bit about me. So I don't have to.

Speaker 1:

It's exhausting to me to be like go through the same 10 questions with everybody and maybe this will resonate with someone. But, like I said, all these camp games are getting to know people. Getting to know people exhausts me to death. So the whole what are you? You know who are you? What do you do for a living? How long have you been doing this? Like I've been doing this Benji brought to my attention since 2006,. It's 2025. So that's 19 years.

Speaker 1:

I've been answering those questions for 19 years and, guys, I love you. But if you guys are answering the same questions for 19 years every time you know you go camping, I'm not saying I don't love you, guys. It gets old, though. It gets real old. It's really really old. So I'd like to have more meaningful conversations.

Speaker 1:

So hopefully you listen to my content so we could talk about something else. That that would be awesome. That'd be my best case scenario. Like, let's talk about something else, tell me about you, but if you listen, you already know a little about me. So, yeah, just let me know you listen and I'll ask you questions. That would be refreshing for me because that just and that might sound terrible, but that any of you guys that work in a people in a people business, you know, you, you're an online worker and you, you know, maybe you get exhausted with the company chat Heck, I don't know, it doesn't matter, we're all a little different. But, like, just let me know you listen that you know a little bit about me. That will automatically make me just a lot, because I hate, I hate seeming. There's a few things that I do hate and I hate seeming.

Speaker 1:

Lots of people are new in this and they're really excited about being new and once they find out I've been doing it so long, they you know it turns into. It goes two ways. They're either like insecure because they find out I've been doing it a long time, which is not how I approach it whatsoever. So I almost hesitate to even say that. I just say, oh, I've been doing it a while. You know I do this often, et cetera.

Speaker 1:

I just get in a place where I don't want to seem like I'm too, like I don't want to answer your question, and then you automatically be like, oh man, like this guy's, I don't know, I don't want it to seem unapproachable. And I feel like there's a lot of times where when I am at stuff and people are like, oh, you know, what do you do? And I'm like this is kind of what I do. Like you know, I probably I mean, I spend a lot of time in the woods camping, et cetera. You know, this is like I'm not going to say my life revolves around it, because I have other very important things. You know, I have bills, I have to have a job, but I do spend a lot of time doing this and I feel like some people get a little apprehensive to.

Speaker 1:

You know, it gets the conversation gets kind of awkward, you know, and and I don't, I don't have it in me to be like it's so you know, like I don't even know how to navigate from there, but I can automatically tell it's like oh, you know, like almost like it's taken as an age and I see that a lot and that just is I'm like, well, what do I do with that now? So you know, and I do small talk every day, all day my girlfriend you guys, I don't talk about her extremely a lot here, but she's a pharmacist, like like PharmD, and she talks to people all day, every day too. So if you see us and we're just sitting like it's, you can approach us, we will talk. We just are not like. We like each other too, but we're just sitting in the quiet, it's not a big deal, like you're not, also not interrupting us. You know, like I've talked to her about it too, like I really got to do a better job about being more available.

Speaker 1:

There was somebody at an event we were just at and I seemed like a total asshole I know I did and they were talking to me. She's like you barely even turned around. I was cooking and I was like I, I'm sorry, like I don't even know who that was. I'm sorry. I was cooking. It was freaking. Winds were like 40 miles an hour. I was a little focused and I wasn't frustrated by any means. I was trying to converse with you, but I was also cooking. Lose my food.

Speaker 1:

You guys know, when you're camping, it's not like you got extras. I didn't want anything getting ruined. I didn't have enough to make stuff work throughout. But I am going to be more available to you guys. I did just order some shirts, so hopefully I'll be identifiable through that. I will be at Benji, I will be at more and I'll be a Midwest Adventure Outfitters booth. I'll probably have some stickers for you guys. Nobody's commented what you guys really want Keychain stickers, bottle openers, patches I don't even know. So that's something to think about. Maybe I'll make something a little, a couple of things that are a little nicer and donate them to the. We're going to do some giveaways at the booth, so maybe I'll give you some. Maybe I'll put some stuff there at t-shirts, something like that, cause, naturally, I've made that apparel. My family has apparel. They are pretty supportive of the podcast, so I have they have stuff, so I've got that all mocked up and whatnot, but that doesn't matter, so I just got on here.

Speaker 1:

What do you guys do for fun? How do you guys get to know each other? You know, if you are somebody that's going to be at these events, comment, talk to me, get to know me a little. Everybody I know that's gotten to like know me some. They will. They'll tell you I'm a pretty. You know I'm. I'm very personable, I'm fun to be around.

Speaker 1:

If I just if I don't know, like, doing this social media thing makes it tough, cause I'm like do you know who I am, or is this a brand new interaction? And that is for those of you that don't know like when somebody comes in as a client and you're in a business, you already know if they're a new client or not, because they have to fill something out, they have to do something. You're going to know if you've seen them before. I don't get to see any of you guys, so I don't know. So it would be really helpful to me, when I do see you guys, to just know if you listen or not, and then if you don't tell me that, I'll just assume you don't, and that changes how I will approach that conversation to be more appropriate. You know, because I don't ever want to be like.

Speaker 1:

I have a podcast, like it out loud. This is what I sound like. I have a podcast. My truck's really built. I've been doing this 20 years. That automatically is off-putting. Okay, like to everybody. I've never had somebody be like oh, that's great. Tell me some stuff. Everybody's like oh, and that kind of like ends the conversation right there, and that's not how I see it, but that is how it goes often and it's not.

Speaker 1:

I'm on this literally without those things being pushed in everybody's face and my truck's not available for you guys to see, really so that I can get my knowledge out and my information out to help new people. I want to help new people, young people. I am so happy to see the young people getting out. Some of my friends are young, very young, that do this and they're getting out with a group this weekend. Benji's out with a group this weekend with Midwest Adventure Outfitters, or well, it's for Newfound Overland, but he's out this weekend. A bunch of the younger guys that I know and are getting other younger guys into this. They're going out today or tomorrow.

Speaker 1:

That's what I'm here for. I'm not here for you know, mr, I've done it forever. I'm not trying to change anybody that's been doing its mind about it, but I'm here to help people that have questions. Just learn from my experience. But I'm here to help people that have questions. Just learn from my experience, not me, push my ideas on you, but just learn from what I've went through and you might have different experiences and you might have something you could tell me. Like, I learn stuff all the time from people because there's certain scenarios with certain pieces of equipment and things that make outcomes different and maybe I haven't done everything. I mean, I've done many things in this space but not everything. I don't know everything and I'm very interested in learning new things myself, so that's always good, whether it's you know equipment, techniques, ideas like uh.

Speaker 1:

Michael Pruitt, for example, that I just mentioned earlier, that makes knives. He listened to my podcast and I'm always talking about how dishes drive me freaking crazy, and they do. They drive me nuts. He sent me some stuff that's like aluminum. It's like aluminum infused rags to clean stuff and you just wring them out and if you need to wash them, you wash them later, but they rinse off real easy. I don't know nothing about that stuff. I mean I do. Now. That was very helpful to me. I ask you guys for stuff like that on here regularly. Very helpful to me. That's great and that's I bought it. So that's where that is. Somebody else mentioned they. They got these uh dish cleaning wipes on Amazon and sent those to me and said they worked really well. Prior to that, I'd never seen a dish cleaning wipe and I was even like I'm going to make my own. So that's awesome. Like I don't know at all.

Speaker 1:

Guys, I'm always looking for solutions to my problems and you guys might have those, and if you're looking for a solution to a problem, I might have that, and that's what I'm here for, like that's what I'm trying to mold here. So I wanted to cover that in length on a podcast before more expo, where I will be available to you guys. I'll be there both days. I won't be there first thing in the morning. On Friday I'm dropping my kids off at school before I go at eight and then I'm driving down. I'm two hours from it, so I'll be there, you know, before lunch and be available immediately. I'll probably do a podcast on the way down there too, because doing it in the car has allowed me to figuring out how to do it in the car has allowed me to put out way more content for you guys. So that's where I'm at.

Speaker 1:

In this space, stuff I do for fun is going to be totally different than you guys. So tell me what you guys do for fun. I will um. I'm always looking for ideas. I don't take like. I don't take um like cornhole or any games with me or anything, quite frankly, because it's all. It takes up so much space. But what do you guys do? What do you have? Do you guys take? I mean Monopoly, like, what do you guys do? Uno? Uno is a great idea, actually, just thought of Uno. That's a freaking great idea. Uno would be. Uno would be good. Um, but I don't play chess or checkers or what do you guys do? Or do you just read books? I mean, I do that as well. So, uh, let me know, comment rate the podcast. Shoot me a message again.

Speaker 1:

Outskirts, overland across all platforms and charlie raz. Charlie raz on instagram, charlie rassanowski on facebook. Those are my personal pages. They, they all intermingle. You're going to see the same stuff, but nonetheless, if I'm not messaging you back on one of my podcast pages, find me on my regular pages. You're probably just not logged into the podcast pages, that's all.

Speaker 1:

But I'm here for you guys. I do have a piece of equipment that I'm working on that may apply to some of you guys, may not. I mean and again, I'll be at more expo, so if you guys are interested in it, you can probably I'll have it. I'll have it by then, I'll have it done and going by then and you guys can see how it works. It might be something you're interested in. It's kind of a little it's like I don't know, I don't want to talk about till. I'm talking about it. So, anyways, guys, have a great friday. I don't know what day, what, what today is, but I'm gonna get one of those calendars so I can tell you what day it is, because missing burrito day was a huge fail on my part. So I'll catch you guys later. Love you guys, get outside, stay dry this weekend later.