Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Scott Brady, and I'm here with my co host Matt
Speaker 1: Scott and today we're going to talk about my favorite thing.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk about you, me. I love talking
Speaker 2: about me. This is going to be the easiest podcast.
Speaker 1: Ever, which or not, which I think is really fun
Speaker 1: because we've done now twenty podcasts and we're so grateful
Speaker 1: for the response to the podcast. We're so thankful for
Speaker 1: all of you that loves the feedback.
Speaker 2: To get a lot of feedback on social and really
Speaker 2: appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you ever have questions or suggestions, or if
Speaker 1: you need for me to do something a little different
Speaker 1: or for Matt to do something a little different. We
Speaker 1: are very new to all this. We have a passion
Speaker 1: for the subject, but we are not professional podcasters, So
Speaker 1: any suggestions that you have, we'd love to hear more.
Speaker 1: And thank you all for subscribing and for listening. And
Speaker 1: that leads us to why we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: the subject today is learning more about who Matt is
Speaker 1: and his background and asking him some questions that I
Speaker 1: think will shed some light on why he is the
Speaker 1: co host on this podcast. In his history. So, Matt,
Speaker 1: thanks for taking some time today to be the one
Speaker 1: being interviewed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, I'm I'm stoked. I love talking about myself,
Speaker 2: you know. So I learned a little bit more about
Speaker 2: you even today. I mean we have known each other
Speaker 2: for over a decade, which is so which is so fun.
Speaker 2: And I learned today that you went to school for
Speaker 2: international politics and for even some cybersecurity and international relations.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The goal was to end up, you know, foreign intelligence,
Speaker 2: some kind of three letter agency. And then I found
Speaker 2: out they paid like thirty five grand a year that
Speaker 2: I could write about cars and have fun and you know,
Speaker 2: live the life I really wanted to live and make
Speaker 2: the same amount of money. Not that it's all about money,
Speaker 2: but my life is definitely all about the things that
Speaker 2: I'm really passionate about. And you know, since I've been
Speaker 2: five years old, that has been cars. I don't I
Speaker 2: don't know anything else but cars. Well, and and tell
Speaker 2: us a little bit about that. I can see this
Speaker 2: picture in my mind of a of a five year
Speaker 2: old very ginger kid.
Speaker 1: I'm not ginger, I'm not ginger. Now you were you
Speaker 1: were in a fully suspended race car at five years old. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I tell us that the first time I drove
Speaker 2: a race car that was my actual race car, I
Speaker 2: was I was technically four. It was the day before
Speaker 2: my fifth birthday because at five you became eligible to
Speaker 2: race quarter midgets. And I grew up in the Midwest.
Speaker 2: Even though I'm an avid West Coaster now, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm a corn fed Midwesterner that used to race you know,
Speaker 2: circle track and dirt track.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think when you're five years old and
Speaker 2: you're kind of groomed to be a racing driver, which
Speaker 2: you know, until I was fifteen sixteen, that's that's that
Speaker 2: was my that was my life in the same way
Speaker 2: that you know, you know football dads or hockey dads
Speaker 2: or whatever. You know, my dad, Jim Scott, you know,
Speaker 2: we raced every weekend together, and I mean that I
Speaker 2: love that, Like, you know, one of the things that
Speaker 2: drives me to be successful now is I want to
Speaker 2: go back racing with my dad.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know, so basically from five to being an adult,
Speaker 2: you know, I raced everything started in quarter midgets and
Speaker 2: kind of kind of everything a bunch of road corps,
Speaker 2: a bunch of you know, a lot of circle track stuff,
Speaker 2: And yeah, I guess it just changes things, you know,
Speaker 2: at a young age when you are having to communicate
Speaker 2: at five years old, you know to your crew chief,
Speaker 2: my dad that you know, the car is a little
Speaker 2: bit loose going into turn three. It's not a thing
Speaker 2: that I guess most five year olds are thinking. So
Speaker 2: it's never it's never shut off. And I think that's
Speaker 2: why I got into reviewing cars and I've had, you know,
Speaker 2: a modest success with that and the writing thing, because
Speaker 2: to a degree has come second nature for me.
Speaker 1: I'm one of those weird guys that.
Speaker 2: Can feel the the you know, there's a little bit
Speaker 2: too much preload on the right rear shock or something
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: Sure, I don't know. I'm just a car guy and
Speaker 1: I love it well. And that's an It leads to
Speaker 1: a couple questions on the driving side, because one thing
Speaker 1: that I've noticed is once people shift from driving recreationally
Speaker 1: to semi professionally or professionally or even in a very
Speaker 1: advanced amateur way where they're getting a lot of training,
Speaker 1: so much shifts for them. What are some of your
Speaker 1: key takeaways that you've had as a driver that have
Speaker 1: then influenced who you are as a traveler and then
Speaker 1: even as a businessman, smooth as fast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one thing that I always that has just
Speaker 2: drilled into my head.
Speaker 1: You know, my my.
Speaker 2: Uncle is is a racing instructor. He's been a racing instructor,
Speaker 2: used to be with Skip Barber from the eighties and
Speaker 2: now he works at BMW and kind of everybody. But
Speaker 2: he always drilled that into my head. And that's something
Speaker 2: that that stuck with me through travel. You know, for me,
Speaker 2: smooth travel is just proper preparation. You know, it's figuring out,
Speaker 2: figuring out what you're doing, and in business too, just
Speaker 2: keeping it, keeping a cool head.
Speaker 1: I remember that what you just said brought me back
Speaker 1: to within the first couple of months of you starting
Speaker 1: to work with us, you had a jeep wrangler. Oh
Speaker 1: it was horrible. Yeah, and we were we were up
Speaker 1: we were up in the mountains outside of Prescott, and
Speaker 1: we were working through a pretty technical trail in the snow. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And and I remember I had given you a couple
Speaker 1: pieces of advice and and you just like I saw
Speaker 1: all the bulbs come on and You're like, it's just
Speaker 1: like racing. I need to be smooth in order to
Speaker 1: get through this range.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I guess race car, four wheel drive, vehicle, whatever,
Speaker 2: and anything with four wheels, two wheels that has a motor.
Speaker 2: It's it's all about just inputs, right, So if you're
Speaker 2: smooth with your inputs off road, you're not going to
Speaker 2: break traction.
Speaker 1: If you're smooth off road, you know.
Speaker 2: The second best thing that always sticks in the automotive
Speaker 2: is something you taught me that off roading is like
Speaker 2: a chess game, right, And I think by being smooth
Speaker 2: through that chess game, that's that's how you win.
Speaker 1: Sure, and you're thinking a couple moves ahead, Ryeah, if
Speaker 1: you're focused on the trail immediately in front of you,
Speaker 1: you're going to miss setting yourself up exactly.
Speaker 2: I was always taught you know, if I'm going into
Speaker 2: turn three, I'm looking through turn four, you're looking not
Speaker 2: at where you're you know, you look where you want
Speaker 2: to go, You're not looking at where you're going. Sure,
Speaker 2: And I think the same thing applies for off road.
Speaker 2: So I think on the car front, then if you
Speaker 2: could have any car not a full wheel drive right now,
Speaker 2: what would you what would you buy?
Speaker 1: Anything? Anything?
Speaker 2: Probably a nine to eleven, nice you're I really like
Speaker 2: the nine nine sevens. It's before they got too big.
Speaker 2: It's after the reliability and quality issues of the nine
Speaker 2: to ninety six and the ugly headlights.
Speaker 1: They're good value.
Speaker 2: There's still a kind of emotional vehicle. You know, you
Speaker 2: still feel the still feel the engine rumbled just a
Speaker 2: little bit.
Speaker 1: And could that be a track car for you? Would
Speaker 1: that be the thing that gets you back into racing
Speaker 1: with your dad?
Speaker 2: You know, if if I was to get back into racing,
Speaker 2: it'd have to be in a race car, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean it would be like trying to take your
Speaker 2: you know, year Tacoma that you've built for overlanding and
Speaker 2: do the one thousand in it. Right, There's just there's
Speaker 2: so many differences. And honestly, taking a street car to
Speaker 2: the track as a primary thing, I've never understood that.
Speaker 2: I mean, I raised Formula cars so I could buy
Speaker 2: a twenty thousand dollars used Formula.
Speaker 1: Mazda or whatever.
Speaker 2: The Mazda or Formula Enterprise is a series that I
Speaker 2: that I follow, and I can turn Lamborghini Super Fail
Speaker 2: lap times than a twenty thousand dollars car that's well,
Speaker 2: that's reable to service, and that's an that's an open
Speaker 2: wheel car.
Speaker 1: That's an open wheel car. Yeah, so that's interesting. So
Speaker 1: and I hadn't considered that because for me, I think
Speaker 1: the thing that's that's maybe romantic is the idea of
Speaker 1: getting a Lotus or getting a Porsche, or getting some
Speaker 1: kind of a of a car, grand touring car or
Speaker 1: something that could even be on a track and then
Speaker 1: taking it on and I think maybe it's just romantic,
Speaker 1: maybe it's not actually the best choice. And I think
Speaker 1: that that translates to the overlanding concept as well, is
Speaker 1: that there are things that are actually really really good
Speaker 1: for travel and it may not be the same vehicle
Speaker 1: that we want, we want to build, or that we want.
Speaker 2: To drive as a traveler. Yeah, I mean as a traveler,
Speaker 2: the answer is sprinter. Yeah right, But I don't want
Speaker 2: to I don't want to drive a delivery van. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Like I don't think anybody wakes up and says, oh wow,
Speaker 2: I really want to drive the same thing that the
Speaker 2: FedEx guy drives. Like, no disrespect to the FedEx guy,
Speaker 2: but I'm sure if he could drive a Jeep Wrangler
Speaker 2: for his job, Yeah, he would probably drive a Jeep
Speaker 2: Wrangler over a delivery van, sure, you know, but it's
Speaker 2: very practical, you know, Yeah, clicks all the boxes where
Speaker 2: you can live out of it, and it's secure and yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean I'm a car guy again, so there's I'm
Speaker 2: not the most practical. I like to have very purpose
Speaker 2: built vehicles, like my Gladiator. I think is a good
Speaker 2: example of that. It's it can kind of go anywhere.
Speaker 2: But it's also stockish. But I'm stockish. Okay, I take
Speaker 2: that back, right. It drives very well.
Speaker 1: It drives well. You were very intentional about it. In fact,
Speaker 1: I would say that you're your Gladiator. Of all of
Speaker 1: the eight hundred and sixty seven cars that you've purchased
Speaker 1: since I've met you, was the one that surprised me
Speaker 1: the most because it's the one that is the most practical.
Speaker 2: I've owned it for almost a year now and I
Speaker 2: have zero ow intentions of selling it. It just it works.
Speaker 2: It does everything so well. So it's your version of
Speaker 2: the Sprinter, It's it's my version.
Speaker 1: Of the Sprinter.
Speaker 2: It has that at summit camper on the back. It's comfortable,
Speaker 2: it's quiet camp in. It drives great, you know a
Speaker 2: little bit of wind noise, because I mean it is
Speaker 2: a jeep, but I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just remember you had you had that Wrangler and
Speaker 1: then you bought a one o nine land Rover. I
Speaker 1: traded that Wrangler for that one o nine, which was
Speaker 1: a hell of a deal. And I think that that
Speaker 1: Wrangler was like a salvage title rusted to junk. I
Speaker 1: want to say that I traded a cross rocket for
Speaker 1: it that had been dropped like twelve times when I
Speaker 1: was pretty young. Right, it was bad.
Speaker 2: I remember the like you know, track bar angles were
Speaker 2: like something really grease.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was really good. But so you I remember
Speaker 1: you got into that series three was it a series
Speaker 1: series two? As And for me that is where it
Speaker 1: all clicked.
Speaker 2: That was the transition from from Midwest Matt to West
Speaker 2: coast Matt.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: The jeep was a car I had in Illinois. We
Speaker 2: drove through cornfields. I moved out here knowing very little
Speaker 2: about travel. You know, I had always traveled racing, you know,
Speaker 2: every weekend we were driving to Indianapolis or wherever it
Speaker 2: was in was in our region. But moving out here
Speaker 2: was just a was a big change for me. Like
Speaker 2: I still I still remember that that I call my
Speaker 2: chest moment. That I realized, like I don't have to
Speaker 2: fly through everything that it was just like it was
Speaker 2: just like racing. And I've and I've carried that with
Speaker 2: me and the land Rover taught me. It taught me
Speaker 2: that things were about passion and I and I had
Speaker 2: actually had had had a land River before this. My
Speaker 2: first car was a land River Discovery. I guess when
Speaker 2: you have a kid that grew up around race car,
Speaker 2: is the last thing that you really want is a you.
Speaker 1: Want to.
Speaker 2: Why I don't want to drive something slow on a
Speaker 2: road with other people. And I still kind of feel
Speaker 2: that way, but yeah, that was a big transition for me.
Speaker 2: It made me realize that I loved travel, but I
Speaker 2: also loved the how the vehicle could play a part
Speaker 2: of that, like that the vehicle can be a traveler
Speaker 2: in its own the vehicle can have a personality.
Speaker 1: And that did I. I remember hearing you laugh and
Speaker 1: seeing you smile more with that car than anything else
Speaker 1: because it was like it was like the circus bear
Speaker 1: on the on the tricycle. I mean it was like
Speaker 1: literally it was so fun because it was spinning, it
Speaker 1: was you were constantly having to.
Speaker 2: You were working at That's where I learned how to
Speaker 2: drive with that car. You know, it was so analog
Speaker 2: And do you miss that with your You have such
Speaker 2: capable vehicles, now do you miss that haphazardous sort of
Speaker 2: the series. I think if I was to get another car,
Speaker 2: get I'd get a flat fender. You know, my buddy,
Speaker 2: my buddy Brad in Australia has a four GPW that
Speaker 2: we've taken up Cape York, taken a Fraser Island, kind
Speaker 2: of taken all over and you want to see me
Speaker 2: smile and it's it's in something with breaks. It doesn't
Speaker 2: work a gearbox, it doesn't want to go in gear
Speaker 2: and you know, no power steering. I think everybody should
Speaker 2: have those should have those experiences. And I agree, you know,
Speaker 2: it teaches you, like I now know what horrible axles are.
Speaker 2: I didn't have the Salisbury in mind, so like I
Speaker 2: had to learn how to replace an axle. I had
Speaker 2: to learn how to you know, replace things.
Speaker 1: And be really gentle as a driver.
Speaker 2: Yeah, learn how to be smooth in a different way.
Speaker 1: I do realize, like even in my own history, that
Speaker 1: some of the most fun that I've had was in
Speaker 1: the vehicles that were the least suited for the activity
Speaker 1: because then because then even a trip to Sedona like
Speaker 1: we did that one day, was like an expedition because
Speaker 1: it was like you had no idea if you were
Speaker 1: going to make it, if you're going to get stuck,
Speaker 1: if something was just going to stop working. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was fun. You know.
Speaker 2: I think you can definitely isolate yourself from adventure, right,
Speaker 2: And I if I was to critique myself, that's probably
Speaker 2: something that I do. I have a you know, my personality.
Speaker 2: I like to perfect things. I find joy in building
Speaker 2: beautiful overland vehicles for myself.
Speaker 1: Something to anybody agree, Yeah, but yeah, it's it's it's interesting,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: I think it's you know, now it's my travels that
Speaker 2: have influenced my vehicles more so than you know. Early
Speaker 2: it was the passion for the cars, and then I
Speaker 2: found out I could travel on them as I got older.
Speaker 2: Because I'm still young. I mean a lot of people
Speaker 2: probably think, well, I just turned thirty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, so.
Speaker 2: When did I start working for Overland International? I still
Speaker 2: had an Exhibition's West business card that I found the
Speaker 2: other day, So I mean that was that was when
Speaker 2: I was twenty. I was that was over ten those
Speaker 2: ten years ago or something.
Speaker 1: It had to have been more than that because we
Speaker 1: started the corporation Overland International in twenty twelve. Yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, it's been it's been a while, which is
Speaker 1: it's just been fun to watch. But I mean that
Speaker 1: was the launch pad for for I guess my career.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I started write for EXCISSI and
Speaker 2: Portal before I moved out here a little bit. And yep,
Speaker 2: you know, people always ask me, well, I'd love to
Speaker 2: learn how to write.
Speaker 1: And I always say, well, just do it, because I
Speaker 1: was not a.
Speaker 2: Writer, you know when I first when I first started,
Speaker 2: as you said, like I I believed in ethics very strongly,
Speaker 2: and I had a very technical knowledge and understanding of things.
Speaker 2: But you know, I didn't know how to use an
Speaker 2: apostrophe appropriately.
Speaker 1: Now I do. It takes time. And I remember mentioning
Speaker 1: that to you. Is that the reason why I thought
Speaker 1: you would be a great fit is that you always
Speaker 1: told the truth and that you always had an opinion.
Speaker 1: And for me that that that ethics is so critical.
Speaker 1: I mean, the only time we've ever terminated an editor
Speaker 1: is because of an ethics violation. So it's for me,
Speaker 1: it's it's really that comes down to it, or else
Speaker 1: the reader loses faith.
Speaker 2: It's all about the reader. You know, you're you are,
Speaker 2: you are providing a service for that reader. You're not
Speaker 2: providing a service for yourself. The reader doesn't really care about,
Speaker 2: you know, the emotion, the contrived emotional backstory, like they
Speaker 2: want to know the facts. They want to know the information.
Speaker 2: And my style from that and mixing it into my
Speaker 2: thing became entertained and inform and that's something that I've.
Speaker 1: Always tried to do.
Speaker 2: Writing about cars can be very technical, and it can
Speaker 2: be very specific.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean that it has to be boring. And
Speaker 1: I think for the listener that is I mean during
Speaker 1: this time that we're in right now, which this is
Speaker 1: being recorded during a time that a lot of the
Speaker 1: country is still under a shelter in place order and
Speaker 1: a lot of people are trying to start their own podcast,
Speaker 1: or they're trying to start their own website, or they're
Speaker 1: trying to write for an outlet like Overland Journal or
Speaker 1: Expedition Portal. A little bit of advice that comes along
Speaker 1: with this interview, and that I watched Matt execute very
Speaker 1: well when you started working with us, is focus on
Speaker 1: the reader first. Focus on telling a great story that
Speaker 1: is evergreen, that can last a long time, because those
Speaker 1: articles like that really provide a strong return on investment
Speaker 1: to the publisher that you're working with. But if I
Speaker 1: was to give anyone that's listening advice is don't just
Speaker 1: pitch a publisher like, hey, I'd like to write for you.
Speaker 1: The best thing that you can do, because publishers and
Speaker 1: editors are extremely busy. The best thing that you can
Speaker 1: do is find a great story. Write the entire thing up,
Speaker 1: have all of the images ready to go in a
Speaker 1: dropbox or on a Google drive, have all of the
Speaker 1: images edited, have the article completely edited. Then send the
Speaker 1: publisher or editor a note and say I've been thinking
Speaker 1: about your magazine. I have purchased several copies, I understand
Speaker 1: your writing style. I have provided a complete story for
Speaker 1: your consideration totally, and I can tell you that our
Speaker 1: editors they pick up stories like that all the time.
Speaker 1: It's I think the challenge is that if someone says, hey,
Speaker 1: I'd like to write for you, that going to the
Speaker 1: editor knows that now this is a twenty step process
Speaker 1: to get to a final piece. Whereas if somebody says
Speaker 1: I love your publication. I have purchased your publication. I'm
Speaker 1: a reader of your publication. I understand your style and
Speaker 1: your style guide, and I've delivered a product that you
Speaker 1: could put to print. Yep.
Speaker 2: You know, I think when you're submitting something to an editor,
Speaker 2: it needs to be something that, to the best of
Speaker 2: your ability, is ready to run in that publication. Yeah,
Speaker 2: fifteen hundred words does not mean that two thousand is better, right.
Speaker 2: It means that he really wanted fourteen hundred, right, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And that was an interesting thing. I mean, I guess
Speaker 2: you know, when I was running exhibition portal, it was
Speaker 2: cool to work with all these travelers. And it's interesting
Speaker 2: like some of the people that I that I worked with,
Speaker 2: even at a young age, you know, I was kind
Speaker 2: of able to help improve their writing and help improve
Speaker 2: and send them on the right direction. And now these
Speaker 2: people have turned into writers full time. You know that
Speaker 2: that's how they're sustaining themselves, trying. As the industry has grown,
Speaker 2: there's been more and more opportunity for people and all
Speaker 2: think of all of the friends that we have that
Speaker 2: are writing for for us or writing for other outlets.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of great magazines, And that leads me
Speaker 2: to the question, how did it feel when you had
Speaker 2: your first article published by Outside? You know, it was
Speaker 2: it was pretty cool, Like I've I've followed Outside for
Speaker 2: a really long time. You know, they they really lead
Speaker 2: in kind of outdoor journalism. I agree, you know, and
Speaker 2: I was really lucky. I became really good friends with
Speaker 2: my editor, my current editor over there, Wes Wes Siler,
Speaker 2: And you know, he's been another one of those kind
Speaker 2: of mentors in my life that was never afraid to
Speaker 2: tell me what I was doing wrong. He really helped
Speaker 2: refine my writing style. So yeah, so, I mean, I
Speaker 2: guess going back to the first time, I was elated.
Speaker 2: You know, I sent it to everybody I know and
Speaker 2: it was so cool, like here's my name on that
Speaker 2: massive But it was the same way the first time
Speaker 2: I was publishing Overland Journal, the first time I was
Speaker 2: published on Expission Portal. Like, you know, I was working
Speaker 2: for land Rover at the time, and I don't even
Speaker 2: know how that worked. So I was working for land Rover,
Speaker 2: decided to I mean, I dropped out of school and
Speaker 2: decided to make the cars my life. And my kind
Speaker 2: of performance driving background got me and got me in
Speaker 2: the door with doing some some training with them, and
Speaker 2: then moved to Panama. But I don't know, I still
Speaker 2: love getting published.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think Outside Magazine was the first magazine that
Speaker 1: I ever subscribed to, and I remember the first time
Speaker 1: that my words ended up in print in Outside. It
Speaker 1: was just it felt to me like as nearly as
Speaker 1: exciting as the first time that I printed in Overland Journal.
Speaker 2: And I don't do a huge amount with them, but
Speaker 2: I think the stuff that I do is relatively significant.
Speaker 1: I mean it is, Yeah, you're there, you know, full
Speaker 1: Drive Automotive Journal. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean Wes is pretty competent too, you know, you
Speaker 2: know he knows the stuff. But yeah, it's it's it's fun.
Speaker 2: It's ah. I don't know how much you guys know,
Speaker 2: but I I also own a company called Adventure Imports.
Speaker 2: Not trying to plug that necessarily, but you know, that's
Speaker 2: that's my day job.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I've kind of transitioned away from you know, full time
Speaker 2: editorial after I was running a magazine called Unsealed four
Speaker 2: by four in Australia and I live down there and
Speaker 2: then move back to start this business. But now it's
Speaker 2: it's a passion project. For me, it's so it's it's
Speaker 2: cool I can take more time to do things. I
Speaker 2: can really you know, put my best work out there
Speaker 2: and I and I love doing that, and I love
Speaker 2: doing this podcast too, Like it's it's nice to you know,
Speaker 2: over the time that I've been doing this and the
Speaker 2: countries I've been to, in the places I've traveled, it's
Speaker 2: nice to be able to share that information, you know.
Speaker 2: And something that's really you know, passionate that I'm passionate
Speaker 2: about is that overlanding is about travel. Like I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm a huge car guy. I geek out on building
Speaker 2: these things. But for me, it's it all comes back
Speaker 2: to the travel.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I feel like for myself too that it's relatively balanced.
Speaker 1: I was probably more about the vehicle early on, but
Speaker 1: now I don't. I don't enjoy it any less. I
Speaker 1: still I love turning wrenches myself. For me, it is
Speaker 1: my downtime is busting knuckles and getting dirty hands. So
Speaker 1: I like working on my own vehicle and I still
Speaker 1: do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like with COVID, I've been working on my land Cruiser,
Speaker 2: like I've been gigging out rebuilding doors, you know, Yeah,
Speaker 2: but trying to trying to keep the parts, trying to
Speaker 2: keep things original. But okay, let's figure out how we
Speaker 2: rebuild a window motor, Let's figure out how we rebuild
Speaker 2: this doorhande. Let's figure out how we can make these
Speaker 2: things better.
Speaker 1: And and then that way, when you drive it around
Speaker 1: the world, you know how that all goes together. You've
Speaker 1: actually exactly, you've actually turned the wrenches on that car.
Speaker 1: Which leads me to a few more questions, primarily around
Speaker 1: your travels. But you grew up in Chicago, and then
Speaker 1: you did move out west, and then you ended up
Speaker 1: in Panama, and now tell a little bit of that story,
Speaker 1: because that's a great Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I ran a hostel down there for a brief
Speaker 2: period called I mean it was called Panama Passage, right,
Speaker 2: But that was really that was a huge fulcrum point
Speaker 2: or transition point for me as a person, because I
Speaker 2: want to say I was twenty or twenty. It was
Speaker 2: right before I moved here. I was I was running
Speaker 2: a hostele for international travelers. So like, yeah, I'm still
Speaker 2: friends with people that I met there. I don't remember
Speaker 2: a lot of it, sorry, Christian, but I was drunk
Speaker 2: for a lot of it, and you know, just being
Speaker 2: in this environment and learning how to ship vehicles because
Speaker 2: I was doing it every single day, learning how to
Speaker 2: do the paperwork. I mean that was one of the
Speaker 2: things is we would help travelers ship their vehicles. So, yeah,
Speaker 2: Panama was cool to live right downtown. That was really
Speaker 2: an experience that.
Speaker 1: What a neat city. Really cool, really really cool. Most
Speaker 1: people have no idea how mod I remember I was
Speaker 1: going downtown to meet with the ship or because we
Speaker 1: were going to be shipping the vehicles from after we
Speaker 1: went to the dairy and gap, and I remember going
Speaker 1: downtown and there's like Porsche Cayenne, like oh yeah. It's
Speaker 1: like people have no idea. They think it's Central America
Speaker 1: and it's third world, like Panama City not third world. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean some of the buildings that are pretty crazy.
Speaker 2: I mean this was obviously before his President Trump has
Speaker 2: like a massive casino and beautiful building, massive there's sky rises. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean it's it. It looks almost like Miami. It
Speaker 2: really feels that way to me. But and of course, yeah,
Speaker 2: you got the Panama Canal and all of I never
Speaker 2: even saw. I never time to go back. I never
Speaker 2: went to the to the locks. I lived like a
Speaker 2: mile from the Miraflora's locks. It's that's how it works.
Speaker 2: But there's there's kind of this traveler hangout. It's the
Speaker 2: uh say, it's a Balboa yacht club and you can
Speaker 2: watch the boats.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's so good. I camped out there and that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. So then so you you were in Panama,
Speaker 1: then you ended up in Arizona for a little while,
Speaker 1: and then you moved internationally again, where did you go?
Speaker 1: That's when I moved to Australia. There's a pit stop
Speaker 1: in Pismo Beach there. That's when I'm right.
Speaker 2: I met Laura and Prescott and then she's a wildlife
Speaker 2: biologist and she was working at Pismo Dunes. She's my
Speaker 2: dune driver. I love driving in the dunes. But you know,
Speaker 2: she day in, day out drove Pismo Dunes. She mastered
Speaker 2: its masterclass. Yeah, so when we moved to Australia, and
Speaker 2: you know, I eventually moved on from that from that
Speaker 2: magazine who I still write for. Still have a great
Speaker 2: relationship with Pat Callanhan down there, and uh, you know,
Speaker 2: it was cool to be able to do the Simpson
Speaker 2: and just like throw her the keys and like, oh, Yeah,
Speaker 2: this is the biggest, dude, here's big.
Speaker 1: Right, I want to get some photos drive up at Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wish you'd get I wish you'd get stuck more.
Speaker 1: But that's awesome. So you were in Australia for so
Speaker 1: I lived.
Speaker 2: I lived in the Blue Mountains and made a lot
Speaker 2: of you know, just really dear friends down there. You know,
Speaker 2: people people I still talk to. Yeah, Australia is a
Speaker 2: special place for me. I spend quite a bit of
Speaker 2: time there obviously with with with my business and importing
Speaker 2: a few product lines from down there. And it's really
Speaker 2: still it feels like a second home to me. You know,
Speaker 2: it doesn't it doesn't feel foreign. And you were there
Speaker 2: for how long? I was there for a little over
Speaker 2: a year, and then I spend about a month or
Speaker 2: two a year there, usually.
Speaker 1: Sometimes less, sometimes more. And then you've all one of
Speaker 1: your places. I've asked you before when you're what's your
Speaker 1: favorite place to travel? And you really love Asia?
Speaker 2: What love Southeast Asia? What's some of the upsides of
Speaker 2: Asia for you? Yeah, Overlanding for me is different, and
Speaker 2: I don't think Overland has to be the same for everyone.
Speaker 2: I for I mean, I had like zero money for
Speaker 2: the longest time, and I still don't, still don't. But
Speaker 2: I realized, okay, I didn't. I didn't have the money
Speaker 2: to buy a several thousand dollars roof tent or a
Speaker 2: or an expensive vehicle or the things. So I started
Speaker 2: going to Asia because I could just fly in, rent
Speaker 2: a motorcycle or rent a scooter and have an amazing
Speaker 2: adventure in a culture that was mind blowing. Like if
Speaker 2: you think, if you think Baja is a cultural experience,
Speaker 2: like I getting lost without cell service in Vietnam on
Speaker 2: a scooter. There's no way to communicate. I mean, like
Speaker 2: the alphabet's somewhat similar. But those are the experiences.
Speaker 1: That I love. I love feels wild, I love the travel.
Speaker 2: I mean we've we've spent collectively probably a year traveling
Speaker 2: around around Southeast Asia. I'm lucky to kind of scam
Speaker 2: manage flight points a lot, so we you know, we
Speaker 2: go there quite a bit. Unfortunately, with with COVID, that's
Speaker 2: going to be everything's on hold, a little bit of
Speaker 2: a hold, so but you know, that's life.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Matt, thanks so much for answering some questions
Speaker 1: and giving the listener a chance to learn a little
Speaker 1: bit more about who you are. We could spend a
Speaker 1: couple hours and of course complex, complex, varying and juxtapost Yeah,
Speaker 1: and at only thirty, I can't imagine what the next
Speaker 1: thirty years are going to you know, I'm excited about life.
Speaker 2: I think after this this COVID thing is done, you know,
Speaker 2: I hope people kind of come together and I think,
Speaker 2: you know, for travelers, once the vaccine's out and everybody's
Speaker 2: not paranoid about catching this thing, I hope it brings
Speaker 2: people together. And I intend as soon as we're able
Speaker 2: to travel, I'm going I'm going to go drive around
Speaker 2: the world.
Speaker 1: I'm going to I'm going to do something and you've
Speaker 1: got you've got a land cruiser to do it. And
Speaker 1: for those that are listening, you can you can find
Speaker 1: Matt tell Us your Instagram here.
Speaker 2: So I'm Matt Explore on Instagram. I sporadically post I
Speaker 2: occasionally find the apenoid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's push notifications that I and then you
Speaker 1: run adventure imports, Yeah, yeah, run Adventure Imports where the
Speaker 1: Max tracks M S A and in deflate distributors for
Speaker 1: the United States. And of course we're we're sharing that
Speaker 1: as information about Matt. We Matt and I both have
Speaker 1: a very strong belief in identifying any conflicts of interest,
Speaker 1: so we we we will always disclose those in any
Speaker 1: of our any of our podcasts.
Speaker 2: But because it's about the reader and in this case
Speaker 2: the listener, not about us.
Speaker 1: Well, we thank you all so much for listening, and
Speaker 1: we thank you all so much for learning a little
Speaker 1: bit more about Matt. You can reach out to him
Speaker 1: on Instagram if you've got additional questions, and we will
Speaker 1: talk to you all next time. Take care, guys,