Outskirts Overland Podcast
Welcome to the Outskirts Overland Podcast, your go-to source for all things overlanding! Hosted by a seasoned adventurer with over 15 years of experience, this podcast offers a genuine and down-to-earth exploration of the overlanding lifestyle. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just starting out, join us as we delve into the essentials of gear and equipment, share captivating stories from the road, and provide practical tips for your next adventure. Tune in for insightful interviews, expert advice, and a community of like-minded explorers who share a passion for discovering the world beyond the beaten path. Get ready to fuel your wanderlust and embark on unforgettable journeys with the Outskirts Overland Podcast!
Outskirts Overland Podcast
More Than an Expo: Why Overland of America Creates a Complete Experience
Step into a world where overlanding meets resort-style amenities at Overland of America, happening September 12-14 in Jay, Oklahoma. This isn't your typical vendors-in-a-field expo – it's a comprehensive experience designed to welcome both seasoned overlanders and families new to the lifestyle.
What makes this event truly unique? Picture yourself floating down a lazy river after shopping premium vendors, or enjoying the film festival featuring renowned creators like Baker Overland and Independence Overland showcased on a 20-foot LED wall in a proper theater-style pavilion. Need to wash your trail clothes? The free laundry facilities have you covered. Want to experience suppressors with Silencer Co or try high-powered air rifles from Umarex? There's a designated shooting area for that too.
The event perfectly balances practical overlanding education with comfort and entertainment. The education pavilion hosts classes throughout each day, while the Ladies Overland Lounge offers women-specific courses covering trail hygiene, safety, and more. Guided trail rides accommodate both beginners and advanced off-roaders, ensuring everyone finds appropriate challenges regardless of experience level.
Founded by Robbie (an experienced event promoter) and Kris (a vehicle customization specialist), Overland of America emerged from a surprising origin – the founders' desire to eventually fund "Mighty 30," a ministry program focused on discipling men through overlanding experiences. This faith-based foundation gives the event its distinctive character while remaining welcoming to all.
With camping options ranging from primitive ($135 including weekend pass) to premium spots with private bathhouses, plus cabins available for those not ready to camp, the event truly offers something for everyone. Whether you're shopping the 75+ vendors, enjoying the Barbie Jeep downhill race, or simply relaxing at the pool party, Overland of America delivers an experience that redefines what an overland gathering can be. Use code OUTSKIRTS10 when purchasing tickets for a special discount!
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Outskirts Overland Today. I have a couple guests with me. I have Robbie and Chris from Overland of America with me. How are you guys doing tonight?
Speaker 2:Doing good man. How are you?
Speaker 1:doing.
Speaker 3:We're awesome.
Speaker 1:Doing good, doing good. So it's been a little bit of time. You guys have done, you know, about 65 podcasts up to this point. You guys did Benji's podcast a week ago and it sounds like you guys just got done with the Overland podcast a few minutes ago.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir. So how are you guys liking that? They're fun. Each one is a little bit different, but they're all fun, right?
Speaker 3:I wouldn't even say it's part of the job, just because we really like doing them. Yeah, yeah, but it's like.
Speaker 1:you know, the cool thing about a podcast is, it's like you're talking to your buddy, you know, and it's just recorded and people get to hear the conversation and you know it's it's real. You know it's not like an interview, it's it's real for sure. So we were just talking about it just a minute ago.
Speaker 1:The event is september 12, 13, 14th yeah and, uh, you guys said there's some some, so obviously it's the second year of the event, but you guys said there's a few things different this year from last year. So would you guys mind going over last year and then what's new this year? Yeah, so it's.
Speaker 3:September 12th through the 14th in Jay, oklahoma, at America's Outdoor Adventure Park. That's one of the changes is it's now called America's Outdoor Adventure Park. So the park was sold. They have new owners. Great person, it's one of my business partners, uh, his name is michael hymes and he uh buys resorts and uh and fixes them up and makes them better, so they are turning it more into a resort type feel, an event center type park and so, uh, that's one of the big changes as it's now fall america's outdoor adventure park. In jericho hom so the old park there was a big area up top called the prairie and that was owned by another landowner, so that is no longer part of the park. So the big prairie area we don't have anymore because it's not part of the park and it is fenced off and everything so you can't even go up there. But there is some prairie area that the park does own but instead of having everybody camp prairie, camping way far out like that, to where our shuttles couldn't even really reach them because they were so far out.
Speaker 2:Last year they were so spread out, they were just all over the place and you'd be like where's everybody out? And I'm like drive out into prairies. They're just scattered everywhere.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we've moved prairie, what we call general prairie camping. We've moved it in, so it's now located where our premium camping was last year. Yeah, yeah, so it's super close. They can walk to everything inside the event. If they want, they can ride their bikes or their one wheels or scooters or whatnot, and they don't have to break down camp to come in to where the vendors are and where the pool party is and film festival. So that's one of the changes.
Speaker 3:Well, since we've moved pre uh prairie camping there, we've moved primitive camping in even closer. So primitive camping is now where the rv spots were, right by the restaurant. So if you're in primitive camping or prairie, it is festival style, so you can camp anywhere. Is that the premium, or Both are? Both are festival style, but the premium is right by the restaurant. We have a breakfast buffet in the morning. There's all the private bath houses there, like showers, you know. So it's got a lockable door, its own toilet, sink, shower, tub, all that stuff. So it's private, uh, so you'll be right next to that. And then there are still, uh, powered campsites which are the rv spots, and those are all along the fence line, like they were last year. But so that's something different. So everything's going to be a little bit more compact, so we're not just so spread out over all this acreage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, vendor camping's moved over.
Speaker 3:Yeah, vendor camping. We have actually moved away from where the vendor setup is and we moved it right in front, so vendor camping is the closest camping to the restaurant and private bathhouses. Now, where the vendor camping was, we've created an area called content creator corral. Yeah, and that's where you're going to be and so that's how we met you as you applied for our content creator corral section. Uh, last year we had to turn down a lot of creators because we only had a small area and we were more focused on the film festival and the storytellers that we were having featured in the film festival. Well, well, we didn't like turning people down. So it was like let's move vendor camping and have a content creator section so we can showcase everybody.
Speaker 2:And it turned out great because there's a lot of people that are starting to sign up for that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we've got. We've got room for 30. And I think we're setting about 17 or 18, maybe 19 or 20. I'd have to go back and do a count. So, yeah, we're going to have a cool section of content creators. You know it's cool too, because you know those guys can talk to people or meet people that watch them and stuff. So I think that's going to be pretty neat. The film festival is still the same. We're going to have our Storyteller Row right in front of our pavilion and if there's any creators that want to still get signed up. And then we've got uh, our storyteller film festival is going to be saturday night at 7 pm. So we'll have that.
Speaker 3:We've got some really cool uh storytellers that are going to be featured in that baker overland, independence overland. Uh, we've got uh, cody guample is going to do it this year with us. Sean Story Till Now. Sean Story Till Now doing it. Matt and Kara from Lizark Overland Adventures. So I think we're going to cut that down to where we have like five or six total. I think we had six total last year. So about the same size as last year, so it doesn't run over too far. A couple changes that we made this year is since we don't have the prairie no more. All the trails that we ran last year were up on the prairie. So we've got this new 88 acres right across from the entrance of the park and they've got some pretty awesome trails. There's some pretty, there's some easy ones, there's some hard ones, like I almost flipped my grenadier last time we went up. I was at a 34-degree side incline. I ripped my jerrycan holder off.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I ripped his jerrycan holder off. They're real trails out there, for sure. We chunked up our tires on a rock climb but we still have the playground area which is down by Thunder Valley, which people like to go down there and find out the rock walls and stuff. Some good clients. We are going to do two guided trail rides, both sponsored by Heavy Metal Off-Road. So Tim from Heavy Metal Off-Road will be guiding those, along with Dan from the Corral Brotherhood. So we do an easy one and we do a difficult one. So if you want an easy trail, you go with this guy one. So if you want an easy trail, you go with this guy. If you want a difficult one, you go with this guy.
Speaker 1:And so dan doing the easy, one is dan doing the easy one. He's probably gonna do the difficult one again oh man, so we're both marines, so I wanted, I just wanted to.
Speaker 2:I was like if you don't get that he'll listen, he'll listen to me.
Speaker 3:Easy one, yeah, hey, maybe doing the foot patrol yeah, because he, because he broke, didn't he? The other day yeah, he's broken. That's what I thought.
Speaker 1:That's what I thought, so we've got that.
Speaker 3:So we are going to do two of them. We're going to do a morning and an evening, and the reason we're adding an evening one at 5 pm was a lot of our vendors wanted to go on it but they wasn't able to. So we're going anyone so they can join us and we'll be back in time for the film festival. So that'll be fine. But we may have to be figuring one out for the. The new idea.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, on our last podcast, uh, feral chick, uh came up with an idea of doing a ladies only trail runner, so we may be adding that as well, so that'll be pretty good. Parking oh yeah, spectator parking used to be across the entrance and you walked across the highway, which it really isn't a busy highway. We wanted to bring everything into the park, so spectator parking is now going to be a separate entrance. Uh, so you'll be able to look at our overall map on our website, overlandofamericacom. You'll be able to see where spectators are going to enter and it is a little ways. So we are going to have a shuttle running about every five minutes bringing people up to the uh, the main area of the park nice.
Speaker 1:So when, when you guys talk about, uh, doing this night run well, and you talked about doing an evening run, a night run, and then you talked about it running into the film festival would you guys mind kind of giving me a breakdown of what do the days look like? What's the schedule of events for the days?
Speaker 3:So Friday is going to open up to spectators at noon and then the vending hours go from about noon to 5, 6, somewhere around in there. During that time we have classes and courses going on in three different locations. So Ladies Overland Lounge has ladies only classes and courses. They'll do, I think, three on Friday, two on Saturday and then on our main education pavilion we have classes and courses going on there uh, a bunch of different instructors, but we also have a switchback outdoor safety doing uh four each day.
Speaker 3:And then where the restaurant is, there's a stage in there and there's an area that we're going to do some classes and courses as well inside that area, which that's new this year. Yeah, so that's been able to do that. Yeah, so we'll put a schedule out a little bit closer to the event. I know we're about seven weeks out, but probably I would say four weeks out. We'll go ahead and get our schedule locked down, get it posted so everybody can check it out and start deciding what classes and courses they want to do. So those will run every hour on the hour and there might be multiple classes going on at the same time.
Speaker 3:Be multiple classes going on at the same time at uh see five o'clock, so five o'clock on friday we're going to do our barbie jeep downhill, yeah, and then so that's changing, because that was during the day last year. And then at seven o'clock we'll meet up at the pool and lazy river and we'll do our pool party mixer and that is, uh. Well, this year that's sponsored by 4x4 Colorado. Those guys had a blast last year at the party so they decided they wanted to be the main sponsor of the pool party. So we're going to do that. All of our giveaways will go down there. So all day Friday you'll be able to go to our merch booth this year and purchase tickets and you're going to do like an arm length for $20. I think last year we gave away like $30,000, $35,000 worth of product. This year it's going to be a little lighter, probably in the $20,000s. Man, it was so crazy last year we were just.
Speaker 2:It took forever. We had so much to give away. It took forever to do it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we were giving away five, six items at a time.
Speaker 1:I was just falling off numbers, so are you guys going to split that up across the days now, or or, or kind of, or kind of split that out? Are we still going to do?
Speaker 3:we'll do the majority on Friday at the pool party, but we're going to save some stuff over for the film festival and give away some stuff during the film festival as well.
Speaker 1:Awesome, and the film festival will start when on Saturday.
Speaker 3:So the film festival is going to be Saturday evening. So so now we're in the Friday night after the pool party, and the pool party will be from like seven to ten, and then hang out, do whatever. There's a couple of bars there, so you know you can hang around around your campfire or whatnot. But then, saturday at 8 am we're going to do the first trail ride in the morning, and then at 9 am we'll start classes and courses. Those will go all the way till 5. Spectators the Spectator opens at 9, by the way, so then you'll do your classes and courses all day. The vendors will be open from 9 to 5. 5 o'clock we're going to do our evening trail ride. It'll still be daylight, though, but we'll do our evening trail ride on five or at five on Saturday night, and then they should be back in time for the film festival, which will kick off at seven.
Speaker 1:Awesome, and you've. And you said there's six creators that are presenting films. Yeah, five or six. Yeah, five or six.
Speaker 3:Yeah, five or six. Yeah, five or six. Yeah, we're at five right now with a six possibility.
Speaker 1:And Tyler will be there with his new trail hunter, correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah, Tyler will have his new one. Let's see Matt and Kara have a new one, so they'll have that there.
Speaker 1:They'll have their Ross Monster Baja.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so they'll have that there, but, yeah, it'll be real cool, uh, sunday. So, so the film festival will take a couple hours and then, uh, and, by the way, the pool is open until I think like 10 or 11 o'clock 10 o'clock, so you can go enjoy that. Uh, you know, after the film festival if you want. But then on sunday we wake up and at 9 am we have our java and jesus in the pavilion. So for anybody that wants to come hang out, drink a little coffee with us and fellowship with us, uh, we're not preaching or anything, it's just a bunch of christians getting together and, and, uh, you know, celebrating christ and talking about, uh, you know, like their stories, and so it was really cool. Last year I think it was awesome. Man 35, 40 people showed up to it or something. So it was pretty neat. Last year, I think it was awesome man 35, 40 people showed up to it or something so it was pretty neat.
Speaker 2:We're kind of sweating, we're like how many people are going to get more than two? And then they just started pouring in. Yeah, we almost ran out of comfy. Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So one thing that there's a few things that I wanted to touch on, that I listeners, I I was like hey guys, me and Benji are real good friends.
Speaker 2:So I was like hey, go listen to Benji's podcast hit me with questions, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I was like hit me guys with some questions you guys want answered. So a couple things we're. I was talking to them and they were like I talked about and and I'm not trying to talk about other events, but I've talked about other events on my podcast and I was like you know certain events, have you know the this place you camp for the party animals and this place you camp for the families? And I was like, from what I understand, this is just overall quite a bit nicer of a family setting.
Speaker 1:But then they heard Benji's podcast and they were like they're shooting guns. And I was like all right, we'll cover it. We'll cover it. So hit me with this, guys, where's that at?
Speaker 3:in relation to the camping and what's the timelines for the away? So so one of the benefits about losing the prairie is uh, there there's not going to be anybody up on the prairie, so down at where the uh tracks were, like the side-by-side tracks, we're going to have an area of that shut down and we'll be so so so to bring up the shooting. So our title sponsor is silencer coat, which is one of the largest manufacturers of suppressors in the world, and so silencer co is our title sponsor this year, and they wanted to be able to allow people to shoot guns with suppressors to see what it was like, and so they're not going to be like full clip guns to where you can start shooting crazy.
Speaker 3:They'll have like two, three bullets at them, but you'll be able to shoot some different types of firearms with suppressors. It'll be down in the dirt area down by where the trail or not the trails, but the track is and it'll be like a secured location. So it's a very long ways away and no shooting towards any crowd, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:yeah it'll be shooting into a berm. That's what I told him. I was like, definitely daytime hours into a berm. Yeah, there'll be a range safety officer. We also do have another range for umarex.
Speaker 3:Umarex is one of our sponsors this year and they will have a shooting range, which umarex is one of the largest manufacturers of airsoft rifles and they're right here in Fort Smith with Chris and I and so they'll have a little shooting range set up as well. But again, you'll be shooting into a berm, you have some targets and stuff, and so that'll be pretty neat and that's going to be up closer to the vendor area but still again, not shooting into where people will be walking and everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and airsoft guns are electric, they're not loud. That's probably where the.
Speaker 2:These are actually high-powered air rifles, so oh, okay, yeah, these are the type of guns. They're taking down the elkin stuff with these things. They're, they're, that's sick, they're insane. Like 3500 psi is what they use to charge them with. So yeah, they they're not really airsofts, they're high-powered air rifles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're air rifles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're air rifles but then also we have.
Speaker 3:Vortex Optics is our official optics partner. So, if you notice, we're trying to make Overland of America an experience, and that's what we always promote it as more than just an expo, as an experience, and so we're trying to give things for people that are into overlanding, outdoors, camping, hiking, you know, all that kind of stuff. We're trying to grow our event and in a way that is more of an outdoorsy feel. Uh, eventually we're hoping to be able to add like fishing and fishing companies, because we do got a little fishing lake down there too, at the park. So we're hoping to each year be able to add like fishing and fishing companies, cause we do got a little fishing like down there too, at the park. So we're we're hoping to each year be able to add something new and different. And you know to set us apart. Well, most of these- overlanders.
Speaker 2:I mean a lot of them shoot guns, a lot of them fish, you know, a lot of them sleep in hammocks. So I mean, yeah, it just goes hand in hand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was handing that. Yeah, kayak, yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, you know, whatever. Yeah, all of the above, yes, for sure, and I think that's awesome. I think it's awesome that you guys have something that's just absolutely completely different. Not that and I'm just going to go on to pad your ego a little bit but not that the pool is not completely different. You guys have a cigar lounge this year completely different. There's a bar, there's a restaurant, there's showers, there's a lazy river, there's still trails, there's guns, there's you know, it's downhill, brought barbie jeep downhill.
Speaker 1:If you you know, and from what I heard, anything goes on barbie jeep downhill.
Speaker 3:If it's got a barbie jeep body, it's game on and for those of you that are traveling and and we're one of your stops during your travels, we have a free laundry facility. So if you need to do laundry, there's a free laundry facility that you can take advantage of Free soap, free laundry, free everything. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which is awesome. I definitely have a lot of listeners that are all over, so I'm sure they probably get sick of me talking about these local events. That's a pull, though that's a pull. Laundry and showers is a pull. I know that I have went to other events far away and as I'm traveling through that events in the middle of my trip and it matters that there's showers Huge thing, Absolutely, Because as you guys travel, I'm sure you know sometimes you got to stop at a Love's or you got to get an airbnb or this could be in place of that and actually, if you're out on like a two-week trip or something, or even a month-long trip where you're full-time and you're traveling, like, how are you doing your laundry?
Speaker 3:you know you're stopping, obviously probably stopping at a laundromat somewhere in some town, but now you can be at the event, enjoy the event, throw your in, do your laundry while you're shopping.
Speaker 1:Yeah, put your feet up, hang out, get to meet some new people.
Speaker 3:Put your laundry in and go float the lazy river there you go yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 1:That's I mean, you guys have a lot going on. That's just so unique and hearing that you guys are bringing you know, when I saw Silencer Co was the title sponsor and I saw Vortex Optics I was the was the title sponsor and I saw Vortex Optics I was like there's, there's no way there's not going to be something like that.
Speaker 1:There's not going to be some. I was like that just doesn't even, it wouldn't even make sense. So when you guys were like we got this huge berm, we're going to, you know, give people the opportunity to do some of this, I was like that's just so unique from everything else, cause there's a, there's pretty much a recipe to an Overland Expo and that's a field, a get together, a giveaway, showers, maybe, music, maybe, you know whatever your guys' film festival is unique to here, but Overland Expo does that as well. The Pacific Northwest other places do that, but not here. Now, shooting guns, lazy river pool, cigar lounge, restaurant, laundry Now we're getting. Now we're getting kind of into a different thing altogether.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we got cabins. So if you're wanting to get into the Overland scene and you want to come shop and you want to come stay and experience this and meet new people, you could rent a cabin. You can stay right there on property. Rent a cabin, you could rent a cabin. You can stay right there on property. Yeah, rent a cabin. You can get dry cabins that don't have restrooms and you can use the free shower houses. Or you can get a wet cabin that has, you know, plumbing and everything and they've got air conditioning, the heat and cable tv and a microwave and a little small fridge in them and there's a lot of options for everybody another question I had is what's service like there and will there be available internet?
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah. So service is pretty good there. I've never had a problem and I throw multiple events there. So cell service is good. Internet If you're staying at a cabin they have internet, but I don't think like we. We have internet, you know, because we have to be running our computers and stuff like that, but I don't think there's a centralized internet. But you have good enough service, even with a lot of people there, that you won't need to be on wi-fi for sure, and and there's probably enough people with star, I assume there's probably enough people with starlink that if you had something you probably can get by.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, but that was one of the questions because obviously you guys have been to other events.
Speaker 1:There's certain areas that are dead spots, or just one service is good and the other is not good, and a lot of people that I have that have asked me questions are bringing kids. So they're like, okay, I want to go shop and my wife's going to be with the kids, can I get my kids set up on a tablet watching YouTube? Is service good enough to occupy the kids Absolutely, you know, outside, because there's not enough to do right With the pool and the river and the lazy, you know, there's not enough to do. There's a splash pad too, isn't?
Speaker 3:there. Yeah, there's a splash pad and a playground and it's located in the middle of the lazy river, that's what I thought in the middle of the lazy river.
Speaker 1:So we have a bridge, two bridges that go over the lazy river, and the splash pad and pool, or a splash pad and playgrounds, right in the middle so this is where I was really talking about it, guys, and and I'll tell you guys if you guys hadn't listened but I was like you talk about people getting into overlanding. I talk a lot about getting your spouse, your girlfriend, your kids into overlanding. This is a huge event that could be a segue to doing that, because it's not going to be super tough on your family, because the amenities are there yeah, it's gonna be a good entry.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that's absolutely. Your wife's never been out with you and you've always wanted her to experience overlanding or you wanted your kids to experience it, or trail rides or anything like that. It's all right there. Yeah, this is a good event for you. And and really it's one of the reasons we do this event the way we do it is we want to help, like, build the overland industry.
Speaker 3:You know, the overland industry just blew up during covid, you know, and it's kind of it's kind of hit its peak. You know it's plateau and but it doesn't have to stop there. We need to bring our families into it because it's so refreshing, like you know, we all know, because we overland, like I can tell my wife a hundred times how at peace I am when I'm camping next to a creek and just looking at what God's put on the earth for me to see. But to be able to come to our event and it's almost like a I wouldn't say it's a city slicker overland event in the middle of nowhere but there's a lot of things they can do if they're like, yeah, this ain't for me, but I'm going to go float that lazy river, yeah, Well, and it's so much more than just an expo.
Speaker 1:That's a marketplace. It's not just the basics of off-roading and primitive camping. So it me it's a place where, if you were to bring your family in to get them a taste of it, the person that's more experienced also isn't going to be unhappy with the experience they have either.
Speaker 3:So it kind of goes both ways, which I think is awesome. By the way, yeah, it's for the beginner and the advanced for sure.
Speaker 2:And for the ladies, we have the Lady Oglen Lounge.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah, that's good. Yeah, they bring their wives. So our classes and courses, besides the ones that we host, we have the Lady Oberlin Lounge and only ladies can go to those classes, because women are going to talk about different stuff than we are. They're going to be talking about hygiene on the trail and camping and safety. You know there's so many things that you know are for women that aren't for us. You know like safety is a big thing for them. You know if they're overlanding, especially if they're going out alone, and hygiene, you know like. You know I can pee behind a tree and take some creek water and splash it on my face.
Speaker 3:You know a lady wants to clean herself up a little better than that, and that's the type of classes that they discuss, but then they also have this thing called fireside chat and they hold it in this really awesome it's an apartment that's attached to the beautiful pavilion that we have, but you wouldn't know it's there unless we told you or opened the door and showed you. But they have a hot tub there, they do a charcuterie board, they have a little meet and greet and I think they had like 30 or 40, 50 other ladies in there and they're so nice, you know.
Speaker 1:And all the while, while your ladies are doing that, you can go try out the new cigar lounge and the guys can go hang out in the cigar lounge at the bar, and you guys can have a little separation from each other too. So, get a little family independence there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think that's awesome too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's just so much. It's hard to like really put into words how different of an experience that you're going to have. You just have to have it and see for yourself. Like our motto is come for the event, leave with an experience, and that's what we try to do is provide an experience that people are talking about.
Speaker 3:You know, because we can spend so much money on marketing I'm sure everybody's seeing our ads all over social media right now but the word of mouth is what really matters, and we want as many people to get this experience and be able to tell their friends about it.
Speaker 2:And we travel and go to other expos too, and while we're there we're always thinking well, what can we do? That's going to bring more people in.
Speaker 1:Well, it seems like it's just such a one-off. And when people are like, what is your opinion of it? I'm like it's just such a one-off, like. And that's when people are like, what is your opinion of it? I'm like it's just so different. You know, like I said, there's a recipe to all these other things and everybody's trying to do like one degree different. Overland Expo.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:This is not even close. I tell everybody. I'm like this is kind of like Worlds of Fun meets, you know, nightlife meets, overlanding meets, expo, like it's kind of a different. It's just a different fun vibe. So you're not dealing with, it's not kind of the same. It's not Groundhog Day expos Okay, like it may even be some of the same vendors, but you're going to get to see different parts of those people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you know, last year we had people that didn't come because the the way we promoted it was an experience so different Barbecue, downhill pool party, all that. But we don't want people thinking this is a big old party, because it's not. We're a faith-based organization. Like, we don't drink. We're not against drinking by any means, but if you want to drink, cool. But this is not a party. It doesn't get out of hand. It is a family friendly event and we're always going to keep it that way and that's what I've told everybody.
Speaker 1:I'm like this is going to be just again, guys, and for those of you that are listening to this, this is going to be the best event in the midwest to take your family to. Yeah, there's all these other events that that are more of a party. Or they've got a music festival that goes all night, or they've got this, or they've got that. There's not going to be shade AC amenities, different things. This has all those things. So if you're somebody that's really trying to get get into the scene or get your family into the scene, or you know, or want to have a chance to shoot a gun with a silencer, you don't even have to be into overlanding Right Like, just come. I mean, it's going to be a good time, it's going to it. It seemed, it seemed to me that you were right, you guys. The way it was marketed last year, it made it seem like it was going to be a little more fast paced and it super chill. Yeah, it's super chill, yeah.
Speaker 3:So if you're into camping, hunting, shooting, fishing, overlanding, hiking, backpacking, this is a good event for you.
Speaker 1:It's just a real cool vibe Well and you're going to get to see a couple of content creators that I'm sure a lot of people follow. It's pretty synonymous that you're going to see Tyler and Caleb and Sean on YouTube. Those are people that are in your algorithm. Yeah, like these aren't people that you, that you may be. You might not even realize you've watched them, but you probably have. You know what?
Speaker 3:One of the coolest things is about that film festival is you can set there. So so you a lot of you listeners have have watched these guys, right, but have you ever watched them? Watch a live crowd? Watch them. That's what's really cool and that's what I did last year. Is I really paid attention to caleb baker's face, or tyler's face or matt's face, and the smiles that they would get by people reacting to their films that they put on the screen?
Speaker 2:That was really cool, that was awesome.
Speaker 1:Because it's always a silent. I mean they're at home, like we're at home watching it. They don't get to have an audience in front of them, so that's a cool experience for them. Like, I'm sure I'm not going to announce it here, but me and Benji almost always podcast live when we're together, so we'll probably podcast too. I, but me and Benji almost always podcast live when we're together, so we'll probably podcast too. I would bet we do so. I mean, that's an opportunity for people to come ask questions to us and talk about things and whatever Catch people while they're coming by.
Speaker 3:So that's opportunities that people just don't always get and for listeners that haven't ever been. If you just go to YouTube and just type in Overland of America, there's a lot of great videos on there. None of them are paid content. We didn't pay anybody to shoot and put anything out there about the event but there are some great ones on there of people that were there and got the experience. Caleb Baker has a great one, Matt did one.
Speaker 1:Matt and.
Speaker 3:Kara have a great one. There's a lot of great ones out there. What was that one?
Speaker 3:Siriam, sir william, he has a great one oh yeah, but it's just their honest feedback and there was a few things that they pointed on that could have been better, yeah, and now they're fixed, now they're going to be better and see, we like that. You know, we, we, we did it. We searched all around, you know, to find every video we could because we wanted to hear good, honest feedback and see what people thought and you know he said something a while ago.
Speaker 2:He said you know, like you go to expo and they have a film festival, but they don't have a film festival like ours, because that pavilion is amazing and on top of that our screen is huge. So even yeah I know it's the same thing, it's different. Yeah, I've got a side, well it's a sidebar.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've got a 20-foot LED wall. That we put these videos on the pavilion is amazing, and everybody's watching the person right there that filmed it. The pavilion has got little sidebars to it. It's rock space, it's theater ceilings, it's chandelier mood lighting, ceiling fans, that's all.
Speaker 1:So it's a theater. Yeah, that's another thing. Like these other places, they do do that, guys, but they're like a sidebar, kind of like. The way they do the film festival is kind of like you guys do classes.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's kind of just another thing that's going on yeah yeah. This is going to be more of like a theater production type situation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's one of our main events. Yeah, it's something that we really look forward to hosting and you know that's why we do it Saturday. You know we do our pool party Friday at 7. We do the film festival Saturday at 7. Because those are two of our main events.
Speaker 1:So one other thing that I was asked food. What's food look like?
Speaker 3:What's hit me with it. Okay, so we have the restaurant and the restaurant. They have a breakfast buffet in the morning and then all day long they have an amazing buffet. Like I like buffets, but you know they're hit and miss. But me and Chris was up there about three, four weeks ago and we was like, hey, let's eat the buffet while we're up here. Every, I swear, everything on the buffet that I tasted was great, but I'm talking fried chicken, chicken, fried steak, salmon, stuffed peppers, mashed potatoes every vegetable you can think of. And they have a dessert area as well. They have ice cobblers and ice cream. So they've got that. And then we have food trucks, and the food trucks that come to my event are also the food trucks that come to another event that I do, and they are amazing. We have this smash burger truck that everybody loves.
Speaker 2:Dude, that was my favorite.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we've got a great taco Mexican vendor, an amazing barbecue vendor. We've got this hot dog vendor that everybody talks about.
Speaker 1:I heard about the hot dog vendor already.
Speaker 3:I've heard about the hot dog vendor already. I've heard about the hot dog guy, yeah, but they're amazing. But, uh, we, we have, uh, I've got an ice cream vendor. I've got a coffee yeah, we've got our coffee vendor that has pastries and stuff in the morning. Uh, and breakfast sandwiches.
Speaker 3:I think, too breakfast burritos but, then, uh, new this year I've got my buddy coming all the way from south florida. He has I call it a fair trailer. But he does these awesome mixed lemonades. But he also does funnel cakes, deep fried Oreos and deep fried Uncrustables and let me tell you, a strawberry jam and peanut butter.
Speaker 1:Deep fried Uncrustable is amazing, that's awesome, so we got food covered Absolutely it's amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's awesome. So we got food covered absolutely food's covered food's absolutely covered.
Speaker 1:So I know you guys haven't put everybody out, but how many vendors are you guys tracking right now?
Speaker 3:uh, we're probably gonna be. I would say, by the time it's all said and done, we'll probably have 75 to 80 somewhere around in there. We are like I'll be the first one to admit we are going to have a little less vendors than we did last year. When I say a little less, I'm talking really a little less. Uh, I don't think you'll really notice as much because we do have some very big boosts. It'll still be spread out as much.
Speaker 3:But uh, the economy's starting to hurt, uh, some of the vendors. I think think it's the economy mixed with, you know. I mean there were some tariffs put on some stuff, so that hurt some vendors. You know we're towards the later end of the year, so a lot of these vendors have done the expos and all that. And you know we're still a new event. So you know, until we grow, grow, grow, grow. You know we're not always going to have, you know, the 150, the 200 vendors, but the ones we do have are there to do business and they're there to uh sell some product and introduce some new products right and you guys aren't going to be.
Speaker 1:It's, it's, it's coming up. So, guys, those of you that are listening and that aren't in business the fourth quarter of the year is october, so this event's happening at toward the middle of september. Yeah, so a lot of these businesses are going to kind of be in this transition period into 2026. On top of the fact that all my listeners know that I've talked about tariffs like to no end, like I'm trying to be ahead of like get your winter gear now, because it's not going to be as available as it was last year, like all of these different things, but for you guys to still have 75, I mean that's a lot of vendors, that's not a couple, that's not 20 so last year we had 94 total companies involved.
Speaker 3:Now, when I say total companies, that included companies that were not there, that sponsored like product for our giveaway. Yeah, vendors we actually had. There was probably 80, so we're going to be really close. I mean 70, 75 somewhere around in there, you know, but we're tracking really good. A cool thing was is when we were just doing our last podcast right before here, yeah, we, I missed a phone call from overland vehicle systems and overland vehicle systems had.
Speaker 3:I called them right in between these podcasts and they confirmed they're signing on to be a host sponsor and so that's going to be awesome. They're going to have a big booth like a 40 by 40, 40 by 60. They'll have. If you've ever seen them at shows, I mean they.
Speaker 1:I've worked with them, so they actually and they make everything. Yeah, so they'll be coming. I'm assuming they're going to be coming from california, where they're based out of and they'll bring a ton of stuff.
Speaker 1:So for those of you guys that don't know, they do tents, awnings, winches, air up, air down, compressors, I mean all of it. They have everything. So they're kind of like a where you're going to deal with your companies like that are just rooftop tent companies or just this overland vehicle systems is kind of going to be like you're more like your target of of overlay and stuff. They're going to kind of have a little bit of everything, but it's not, it's going to be it's it's. It's going to be a vast. It's going to be a vast many categories of overlaying things. They've got it all camp kitchens, just pots, pans, utensils, all kinds of stuff. A good one-stop shop for sure. Yeah, they make truck caps, they make drawer systems, they, I mean they make it all.
Speaker 3:Yeah, another cool thing this year is our official tent partner is bunda tech and they have an amazing uh tent. It's a electric pop-up. Yeah, so that's an african company.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a south african company that has an aluminum tent that's on electronic struts that comes straight up off the top. So if you guys go look at those, they are sick and uh bundetechusacom is their website, then that is a amazing.
Speaker 1:uh, yeah, amazing and for those of you guys that are that are looking to, that is amazing, amazing. And for those of you guys that are looking to get into rooftop tents and you're like, oh man, setup's a pain, that's a button, that's a button, guys Like up and down, it's a very nice system, it's. You know, there was a time where I thought that GFCs were a big thing and Ursa Miners were a big thing. This is just another level of like niceness with the pistons and everything. So hopefully they've got multiple vehicles there. I have seen numerous of those, those tents on rigs. They are around at shows.
Speaker 3:Hopefully they've got multiple different rigs there, though, because they're really cool, you know. You know they make campers and stuff too, which are awesome with the extension that comes up. But uh, you know, maybe for those guys that are into overlanding and they're trying to get their watch in, get a bundle tech tent and, uh, she just might become an overlander man, they are heavy duty, they're great.
Speaker 1:They black out material. Anyways, guys, I'm not sponsored by bundle tech, but they are cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they are definitely cool, yeah we'll have uh like aev is going to be back this year, uh bringing their vehicles. We've got uh our official, uh glover, jim glover, chevrolet and dodge. They will be there. And jeep they'll be there with some uh fixed up dodges, jeeps, uh and I'm an inios owner.
Speaker 3:I love, uh, love my grenadier uh, seoul inios. I love my Grenadier Sewell Ineos, who I bought my Grenadier from all the way down in Dallas. They'll be there, they'll have some Grenadiers there and I think mine will probably be on display there with them.
Speaker 1:Will they have any Quartermasters?
Speaker 3:there. I know that there are a couple people very interested in the Quartermaster.
Speaker 2:We've got what is it?
Speaker 3:Kuat is a host sponsor, kuat's a host sponsor.
Speaker 2:again, those guys are awesome, man, super guy, killer product yeah, I'm running one of their uh toppers man with the.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it, I absolutely love it looks good on my truck, for sure uh, so you got the, you've got the, so you've got the kuat rack. That's now got the panels on the side okay, yeah nice man. That's awesome. I'm happy that they got into that because it looked like uh, who was extrusion, was going to start doing that. Yeah, and I was really happy to see kuat get into that because I think their design is just. It's just not so, uh, lincoln log I guess that's how I would say.
Speaker 3:I was telling yes I was like yeah, their design. Although it's made out of aluminum, it almost looks like it's molded out of plastic. It's just so style.
Speaker 1:It's so good looking.
Speaker 3:Fine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's got some style to it, for sure.
Speaker 1:Especially on a third gen Tacoma. You don't want a big square box on the back.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know it looks a good looking rack. I couldn't be happier that they got into the overland space deeper in the last few years. Yeah, we've got.
Speaker 3:Heisen is coming back. They're one of our host sponsors as well. We've got let's see what else we got. Come off the top of my head here oh, 4x4 Colorado, 4x4 Colorado. Those are our boys up in Colorado. They had so much fun at the pool party, they decided to be the pool party sponsor this year. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're gonna bring the party and for those of you guys that are looking for air mattresses four by four, colorado, almost guaranteed they're gonna have their air mattresses there and they are sick. Yeah, I would. If you guys are in the market for that, I'd be. Look, I'd they had them at more expo. They've had them at other a couple other places I've been, so they might have their um it's it's probable that they have their air mattresses with them. I mean, they got a lot of rooftop tents and stuff too.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But another new vendor for us this year is Tune Outdoor.
Speaker 3:They will be there this year, so that's cool to have those guys. We've got a lot of new vendors this year that are coming on board.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you would think, well, if you got new vendors, shouldn't you have more vendors than the year before? But that's not the case, because some companies that we had last year are no longer around. The economy has really hit some people and then some are cutting back a little bit, but we are very excited for the size of the event. You know, last year when me and Chris had the event, I was like man, if we could get like 50 vendors, that would be amazing. Yeah, that's all we thought we were going to get and we blew that out and we're still going to be bigger than what I hoped for, you know, last year. So it's looking good, man, it's going to be cool.
Speaker 1:Another question I had is buying, so day passes. So another question I had is day passes, yeah, day passes. So another question I had is day passes? Yeah, I had people and I didn't want to speak out of turn, but I had people that were like, will I be able to get a day pass? And I was like I think the place is probably big enough that selling it out is probably not even possible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, to be completely honest, we would have to have like 50,000, 60,000 people there before we ever even got close to the fire marshal telling us hey, that's too many people in this park, that park is so big. Um, but yeah, day passes will be available. They are available online, um, they're. They're twenty dollars for a day pass. You can pick any day you want. I suggest friday or saturday, uh, but if you want to come all three days, then it's only $15 more, it's $35. Kids 12 and under are free. If you buy camping, it does come with a weekend pass for yourself. And then any guests over 12 years old, you have to get them a pass. If you buy a cabin, that does not come with an event pass. So you still have to buy, like your weekend pass, if you're camping or going to have a cabin. But, like I said well, I kind of just messed that up If you're getting a cabin you need to get your weekend pass, but if you're camping, it comes with your weekend pass.
Speaker 1:And what about full hookup spots? Same thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, same thing. Rv spots are available. So RV spots are $275. They're full hookup. They do not have sewer, but we do have two dump stations on site so you can dump before you leave, but they do have water. There's 50 amp, 30 amp and 110 at each one of them. If you get an RV spot, it's $275. It includes a weekend pass for one, and then any guest gets a purchase of their own weekend pass. That's camping with you. You get an all roads taken event trail badge, which will be one for our second year we gave those away last year as well and then everybody that camps gets a event decal and a patch, and our event decals and patches this year look different than they did last year. It's not like our normal logo, so if you actually want to see it, you can go to our Instagram. Yeah, it just came out today At Overland of America, and on our story we posted this new logo that I created that we're going to make patches and decals out of.
Speaker 1:Sweet. So, yeah, that's always something you don't want to have. The same thing, yeah, you want people to come 10 years and have 10, you know, I want this year's patch. That's a thing. That's a thing People are into. That that's awesome.
Speaker 3:You can come and camp for as cheap as $135 for all three days, include your weekend pass. That's primitive camping, prairie camping, but it's still pretty close.
Speaker 1:If you want to be really close up, the premium is but you don't have to have a premium spot to have premium company guys. That's exactly right. I mean, just do what you got to do, but we're all there to have fun, the same, yeah, and there's a lot of concrete and asphalt there.
Speaker 3:So if you like to ride a one-wheel or an e-bike or a pedal bike or a scooter, you're more than welcome to bring those. Anything that's motorizedized like a golf cart, side by side. An extra vehicle uh, if you want to bring that, you can also. You just have to purchase what's called an extra vehicle pass and what does that cost? And so those are 100, and it includes your weekend pass.
Speaker 2:Yeah perfect, okay, cool and uh, you can bring your furry friends, your cats, your dog, oh, yeah, yeah, animal friendly.
Speaker 3:Just can't have have animals in the cabins or the restaurant unless they are a service animal.
Speaker 1:Perfect, that's all. Yeah, that's sweet. So one question I had for you guys is this is your second year doing an event. What brought you guys to want to do it? What brought you guys to this? I think that, rob, you're a show promoter by trade, correct? Yes, isn't that what you do?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'm an event promoter. I've hosted about 40 events over the past 13, 14 years. I do everything from custom car truck and bike shows with 80,000 people attending to music festivals with 30 national recording artists in the country market. You know, uh, jelly roll, kane, brown, bailey, zimmerman, uh, jesse murph. You know big, big, big names. Uh, we just had one in mid june I think we had 80 85 000 people attend that.
Speaker 3:But you know, the story of overland of america is a really good story and I've known ch Chris here for 25 years and he's never he actually helped me at my very first event I ever did. I remember that he was one of my judges and my right-hand man and you know we've always been friends but we've not always just been the friends that are up in each other's butt all the time. I guess you'd say you know so, and we even work right next door to each other and didn up in each other's butt all the time. I guess you'd say you know so and we even work right next door to each other and didn't see each other. You know I might see you once a month. You know you might be walking out to your car and I might holler at you.
Speaker 2:So Chris had this idea. Well, you, you tell them about your idea. Well, it's not even my idea, it's actually our other. We have another partner. His name is Patrick. He owns Overland Beard Company.
Speaker 2:I reached out to him and we connected. He told me about a vision out on an overland trip 30 guys, and during the day do the overlanding, the trails, but in the evening you come back, have food, sit around the fire and we build these men up, we divide them up in groups of 10. And he told me about this idea and he's like you know, I got to find funding, I got to, I got to find people. And that's how I kind of dreamed up this idea. It just kind of came to me and I told him. I said well, you know, we're going to have to have financial freedom in order to do this. You know I'm going to have to change my lifestyle. I want to be a part of this, you know. And I asked him about you know, do you think this would be a good idea? We could start an expo. I got a friend, his name's Robbie. He's an event promoter. So basically, why we're doing this is to fund.
Speaker 2:Well, not fund, but in order for me and Patrick to get financial freedom so we can move forward on the Mighty 30 to minister to men, because he has changed my life in so many ways, man. I mean I'm still a bad person but I'm way better than I was. You know we're all fallen states so we all got things to need to work on, but he's changed my life so much. I want to give that back and help other men that are struggling if they have questions and things they're going through and share my story with them and let them know that there is somebody there to help you and his name is Jesus and he'll get you through these things. So that's what it's really all about. We're just trying to get our financial freedom so that we can move forward on that.
Speaker 3:But during this, my my financial freedom. He means be able to quit their day jobs yeah, it's right.
Speaker 3:No, absolutely I'm overlanding and just focus on this. Yeah, but yeah, he, he, uh, what you talked to, patrick, about me, and then right on it, yeah, and then he, he contacted actually I needed to have some tires delivered, yeah, and I no longer had my shop. So I said, hey, can I have some some tires dropped off of your shop? He's like, yeah, I needed to have some tires delivered, yeah, and I no longer had my shop. So I said, hey, can I have some some tires dropped off of your shop? He's like, yeah, I need to talk to you anyway. So I had some tires dropped off.
Speaker 3:I came up and and he was asking me if I would do an overland event with him and I was like, I'll, I'll think about it. You know, and I had been, I was actually going to build two jeeps for the sema show, because that's another thing I do is I build a lot of SEMA vehicles and I was going to start a Jeep event, jeep only event and I built. I was building two Jeeps, one kind of a mall crawler type Jeep for my wife, and then I was building an Overland rigged out Gladiator to debut at SEMA that year. So he caught me at a good time when I was discovering overlanding. And you know, when I went home I thought I'm not going to do that, you know. But I didn't want to tell him to his face yet, you know.
Speaker 3:But something hit me. You know what I'm saying. Ask him why. Like a voice kept saying ask him why, ask him why. So I asked him if he'd go to lunch. We talked about it and he told me about the Mighty 30 and about the reasoning behind the event and I said, man, I'd love to do an event with you. And so we started thinking about names and stuff. But I told him, I said you have to come to Lifted Truck Nationals, which is not Chris's vibe. Oh no, because it's a wild, like Lifted Truck Nationals is wild Overland of America. It's a wild like Lytton Truck National is a wild Overland of America.
Speaker 2:It would have been my yeah, back in the day. Back in the day, it would have been.
Speaker 3:Before Chris creating his life out. It would have been his life. But so he came to it because I wanted to show him the venue because I have it at the same location I have Overland of America with Chris. And so he came, checked it out and I said I want to do this and he took me to Rendezvous in Ozarks. That was my very first Oberlin event and I had a good time.
Speaker 3:But I was a little bored because I'm used to providing more entertainment, right, and I'm not used to sitting around the campfire and all that kind of stuff. So I asked him, I said what if we could do this but also also add an experience, add more things for people to do? What if we can combine my world and your world together? And that's kind of like where overland of america the experience comes from is combining those two worlds together, but more on a tame, non-party atmosphere. And so, uh, you know, I told him. I said, uh, you know, there's this ride at disney world. So my wife kena, she's a disney freak, she, she dragged me there six to ten times a year. Right, we're, we live in arkansas and we're seasoned, passable. So there's a ride at animal kingdom that's called expedition everest and I always thought it was a really cool name and so I told chris I said, what about the name Expedition Overland? He's like no, we can't do that, that's like one of the largest.
Speaker 2:Overland channels there is.
Speaker 3:I was like, okay. I was like, okay, overland America. And he's like, yeah, that's it, overland America, let's put an of in there. And so we came up with the name overland of america, and so part of our reasoning for the event is well, all of our reasoning for the event is lifting christ up. You know, during our event, during the pool party, I spoke. I told this exact same story. I lifted christ up in front of three or four hundred people and uh and told about our story and everything.
Speaker 3:But yeah, that's, that's the whole reason, that's what got us into doing Overland of America.
Speaker 2:And. I'm telling you doing the event and meeting all the Christians. Like when we had our job on Jesus, we didn't know how many people were going to show up and the amount of people that showed up at that job on Jesus was absolutely amazing. So to meet all these like-minded people and to realize that there's a lot of overlanders that are Christians and uh, it's, it's awesome to meet all these people.
Speaker 1:Well, I think you talk about. I talk about what you're doing. I think there's a lot of. I think there's a lot of men specifically and I don't want to offend any women that are looking for salvation through this hobby by getting away out into nature, they're trying to create their own space for that.
Speaker 3:My wife goes to church. She's got a local church she goes to and when I'm home, I go to church with her. But a lot of times people would ask her where's your husband at? Aren't you married? She's like, yeah, my husband's in the woods, that's his church and it is. I feel closer to God when I'm in nature, I just I just do, and then being with a person like Chris, and then when I have the pleasure of being around Patrick Patrick is man like it's just an experience being around him If you have questions about Christ and the Bible, like I did, man Patrick, he is amazing, he's the most righteous person that I know and I just I feel closer to Jesus when I'm talking to Patrick, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:It's amazing, that's awesome. I see, I had no idea and I was like that is a that's my question for you guys. I was like there's a reason. There's always a reason, right. Why do you do this? You know why there's a reason, and that's that's awesome. So your reason is to is to facilitate something else. That's also just facilitating, you know, healthy men in the space and I think that's awesome. I think there's definitely not enough of that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean we want to grow the community, we want to bring more family, but you know family you can't have. Well, I don't want to say you can't have family without Christ, but Christ in your family is such a better thing and it's been a better thing for me this past three years that I've brought Christ into my home a lot stronger. You know, I always thought I was a Christian. I grew up in church and you know, I did bad things when I was younger. But because I believed that there was a Jesus, I believed he died for my sins. And I believe there is a God and I believe there is a heaven. I always thought I was a Christian. Well, I figured out that I believed. I just wasn't a practicing Christian.
Speaker 3:You know, it's like playing football or baseball. You know you practice to be good. And practicing to be a better Christian is parking yourself in a word and reading your bible. Or, in my case, I listen to my bible app on my phone a lot. But you know, and then I watch a lot of tv shows. Uh, you know about christ and king david and you know things like that, the chosen, and and some different ones. But I learned a lot like that, but, man, there's amazing stories. Best book ever written Amazing stories.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and hopefully this is just the beginning of another story that turns into something else. You know that's ultimately. It sounds like that's the that's, that's the goal. Continue to grow the Overland community. Also continue to grow this other endeavor so that. Chris, can move forward. You know, doing that I, I I totally do understand when you say trying to get financial freedom to go towards a goal, because work is work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because we're going to bring in a chef and have the chef come and campfire cook for these men, and the whole goal is to minister with these men and create disciples, because, if you think about it, overlanding we're all over the place and we travel all over and meet so many other people. Well, what if we can create this Mighty 30 and disciple these men to be able to go out and do the same thing Bring more people, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, that ultimately, would be the dream right. Well, that would be. That ultimately would be the way that would be the dream right. Like that would be the that would be. The goal is to is to now cultivate. You know, not just 30 men, 30 men that are bringing on 30 men that are bringing on 30 men that are, you know, and now it's almost like a, and now it's almost like you got to have a Facebook group to keep up with everybody because it's it's grown so much, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, you know there was a man years ago that created a movement named jesus christ, and uh, we're gonna try to create a movement to bring more people to him yeah, and that's well.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That's a story I didn't know. I know, chris, you do. You, you work in a shop. That's what you do for a living correct absolutely that's what I was pretty positive of that. I was like you work on cars and I know that you guys do a lot of car customization. That's where I thought you guys connected, because I've seen your jeep and I've seen your grenadier and I was like that's gotta be the connection help me build my very first sema build and cover truck.
Speaker 3:and uh nice, as a matter of fact, I had. I ran a shop in kansas city and I had already been working with ch on a stereo demo car that an amp company connected me with Chris because it was a custom stereo fabricator installer and when I started running a shop, part of me accepting the position to run the shop in Kansas City was I had to pay to relocate Chris Carroll to Kansas City, and so he came by.
Speaker 1:So where were you at previously, chris? So I was here in fort smith yeah okay, okay cool, that's awesome. Yeah, I mean I'm in columbia, missouri, so I'm in right in the middle of st louis and kansas city.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the shop I work at is here in fort smith's called california customs, and we do everything, man, if you, if you want it done to your vehicle, we do it here. We also do commercial upfitting. So I mean we're we're a big place here in fort smith that's what I knew.
Speaker 1:I think that's what I thought. But I was like I think robbie's a show promoter and I was like I'm pretty sure chris is a yeah, works in car customization. I'm also like there's a story.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I started show promoting like 14 years ago when I first started my first show. Um, I now own seven or eight shows or am partners in and uh, but my main gig is I'm a graphic designer. Uh, I, I do everything, but I specialize in automotive industry. So everything that you see, uh, for overland of america, I designed, um and so, uh, our flyers and and just a lot of our posts and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:I designed all that stuff a lot of times on my phone, yeah, you make it, you make it easy for us when you send the the stuff so we can put it on and we don't have to cut it yeah, you make my life.
Speaker 3:You make my life easier I can tell like I send you my logo and I'm like, yes, that's very nice.
Speaker 1:And I'm like, don't change the color and don't change the size I can just layer it in light room or whatever, and it's so much easier. When I'm trying to figure that out for other shows, it's like sometimes you're like, okay, you're like I gotta, yeah, so for your listeners if they want to see what I've done for years, you can.
Speaker 3:you can google keg media and just on images and you will see a ton of custom builds I've done for the SEMA show. Magazine covers I've been on. Oh yeah, I actually used to be on a television show on the Velocity channel on Saturday mornings called the Lifted Life, and I was the guy that designed all the vehicles and you know I've kind of taken a step back from that, all the vehicles and and, uh, you know I've kind of taken a step back from that. Um, you know, there was a, a lot of limelight and being on TV and people wanting to meet you and all that kind of stuff and and you know I don't want people to think I'm an idol. They need to idolize Jesus Christ no man, you know. And so I started taking a step back from that and I started working heavier on being an event promoter. But I still do graphic design every day that's awesome.
Speaker 1:That's super cool. That's super cool. That's why I was like I want to get to know you guys, how you guys met. A little bit about you guys, because I think the event's awesome but like what's behind the event one? I mean, I talk about that stuff. That's what I talk about all the time yeah it's like what's what's going on behind the scenes? Let's get to to know these folks.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, because we have so many, we have such a wide range of people in this space, yeah, because we're not a corporate company.
Speaker 3:I mean we created an LLC called Overland of America so we could have an event, but I mean we're Overland guys throwing the event for Overland guys and gals, you know.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 3:We're from families. We're from families, we're christian families and we want to bring more families together. We want to bring more families into this industry and we just want to. We want to provide the experience for people that come to our event that we would want to experience if we went to an event that's how I see it.
Speaker 1:If I would, if I made an event, it'd be fun like this, like you guys are killing it, really like it's awesome. So I get. That answers everything I could think of in the world to ask and everything that I was asked.
Speaker 1:I really appreciate you guys talking a little bit about yourselves, though that's one thing that I was. I was personally very interested in um, so I do appreciate that. So, guys, where can everybody? Obviously overland of america. I'm posting it, you guys are posting it. Everybody, obviously, overland of America, I'm posting it, you guys are posting it. Go check out Overland of America Code Outskirts10 when you get your tickets. Save you a little bit of money.
Speaker 1:But if you guys but where can they see you guys individually? Like you guys both have endeavors of your own going on, when can they catch you guys individually? Yeah, so Crick, Crick.
Speaker 3:Crick. I got individually. Yeah, so crick, uh, crick. Chris new name. Chris is at fast track overland. He's a youtuber. He makes amazing, amazing videos. He won't tell you how amazing they are. I don't make them in the summertime though steve hawk?
Speaker 3:yeah, he's on break right now but he's got some amazing videos, very cinematic style quality. If he wasn't a partner of our event, he would be a featured storyteller because he makes beautiful videos. So he's got that. I've got at Keg Media. I do have Keg Adventures on YouTube, but I don't really mess with YouTube that much. My Instagram is where you can find at Keg Media and it's K-E-G, like a beer can or beer keg Actually used to stand for Cutting Edge Graphics. That's where the cake comes from. I like that. It's not because I love beer, um, no right. But uh, yeah. So that's us there. And then to find us as overland America. We make it simple. Everything is overland of America. So Instagram, facebook, uh, facebook, our website, overlandofamericacom Real easy to find. We're really easy to get in touch with too. If you guys got questions about it, those phone numbers that are on our website, that's our cell numbers. You can text me any time of the day or night and if I see your text message I'm going to answer.
Speaker 1:Can confirm they reply. I can confirm that for you guys, they do reply. I have texted Robbie numerous times at this point.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and thanks for being patient with me, too, on rescheduling me a few times. My mom passed away last week, and so I had to reschedule again. And man, we just moved into this new house and I've had contractor after contractor coming by to fix things. You've been pretty busy, it's been crazy.
Speaker 2:It's been a crazy year.
Speaker 1:And you got this event coming up and the event coming up so awesome guys. Well, I've greatly enjoyed it. I will make sure to push any questions that come from this to you guys, and I've really appreciated having you guys on and I appreciate you guys taking the time to talk with me. Actually, thanks for having us, man. Yeah, thank you Absolutely. Thanks for having us, man. Yeah, thank you Absolutely. And for those of you guys that are listening, I'll have this out sometime. You'll be listening to it on Thursday probably, and you will be able to catch me again on Friday morning. I will be putting something else out. I got some new stuff for you guys, so I will leave it there and everybody have a good one.
Speaker 2:Thank you, you guys, thanks, man, yeah, thank you.
