Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Overland Weekly. This is episode number 14. My name is Davey. I am your host tonight. I had hoped that John was going to be able to join me again, but he's a little bit under the weather. We've had a A string of COVID making its way around the Tennessee area where we are, and he is down with that tonight. But before I get to our guest, I want to catch you guys up. We had had an episode, the last episode, really just 48 hours ago, we put that out, recapping our Marty Crawl trip and that adventure and how I sunk the truck there. And I've got some footage of that that I didn't have before, so I will share that with you. But I want to give a shout out before that to some of the local guys at my STLCA chapter. We had a meet up last night. And I've said before, guys, if you are looking to get involved in this community, in this hobby, in offroading, overlanding, whatever it is, find a local group, show up at a meetup, and just get plugged in. If you're a Toyota guy, find a TLCA chapter. If you're not a Toyota guy, go to United, go to Southern, go to another local club. They're out there. If there's not one, start it. But they are abundantly out there, and that's the best way to meet folks. Don't be nervous about it. There's always people there that have 50 years of experience and somebody that just bought their truck last month. And that's really what makes it unique. So we had some new faces last night. It was good to meet these guys and hang out. And I would encourage you to find your local crew and do the same. So back to the truck. So this is the end result once I am in the mud hole at Marty Crawl. And like I said, I was trying to describe it that this looked deceiving, that it looked like any other mud hole. And just through that tree line is the exit from the trail. And so here is the dashboard of footage of that. And that's it. She's stuck. It doesn't look dramatic here, but when I step out, the hole is to my mid-thigh. I mean, it's just completely, and it's just sticky nastiness. So that's what got me. That's why I say it was deceiving. We'd driven through a thousand other holes like that, but this one did not have a bottom. And as you heard, if you listened to the last episode, it turns out that some of the guys had been through that before and had forgotten about, quote, the swamp portion of this trail. So that's what happened there. So today I went to try to start pulling the alternator out because if you listen before, that shot. And when I went to disconnect the alternator, this is the connector for the alternator on my LX, and these are the wires that are supposed to be in that connector, and it just fell apart when I grabbed it. So maybe the alternator itself is actually fine. I'm going to go ahead and replace it because it's 200, 000 miles, but the connector was just briddle and it fell apart. So at least I know what I have to replace now and what I'm chasing instead of chasing my tail. I will say if you have replaced an alternator on an LX, not necessarily following the service manual and pulling the motor, but if you've done it yourself and have... My question is if I can get it out like I think I can above this frame rail right here, or if I need to pull the radiator and pull the fan and take it out from the front because it is tight. So if you've done that on an LX, put it in the comments. All right, with that out of the way. Let me introduce you to our guest tonight. So this gentleman with us, he has recently, I guess within the last year, so I don't know exactly when he bought it, become the owner of an LX 570, and that's how he got introduced, but he's a pretty busy man. Over 62 million total views on YouTube. As of right now, I believe over 500 videos, and that's spanning almost a decade. So he's been at this. In the YouTube game, that's a long time compared to all of this here and now that we live in. So from Last Line of Defense, welcome to the channel, Mr. Mike Pfeiffer. Hi, Mike. Hey, Dave. Thanks for having me, man. Yes, sir, man. I appreciate you willing to come on. So have you been you've been Have you been using the LX around since you got the 37s on there? I have, yeah. I've been enjoying them a lot, actually. The 37s are pretty new as well as the bumpers on there. There's still a lot I got to do to it. It doesn't have skids or sliders right now, so I need to add those. But it's been good. I actually drive surprisingly well with the 5. 7 in there. I am planning to do gears, and when I do gears, I'm going to do front and rear lockers on it. But right now, no gears. And it drives way better than my third gen Tacoma that was on 35s that had 529s. So that's not a hard thing to beat, but it drives pretty good. You'll be happy. Mine has 488s and lockers, and it will go places that it shouldn't go. So you can You can hang... I'm not... People will get this twisted. I'm not saying it'll go everywhere that a solid Axel 80 series will go, but it'll go a lot of places and hang with a lot of trucks that it shouldn't. Yeah, great trucks. I'm looking forward to it. Well, let's recap, because you've got the LX 570, and that's how we met. But you've, over the past few years, put a whole fleet of a vehicles together. So give us a rundown, just high level on what the current fleet looks like. Current fleet? Yeah, I'm guilty of having a lot of car, too many cars, honestly. I need to get rid of some, probably. And I've had a lot of... I just have always liked cars. I've always liked cars. Like, ever since I was a little kid, and ever since I could drive, I've spent a lot of my life having project cars or beaters and a nicer car, I guess, sports car. Then I missed the truck. Then I wanted an off roader, whatever. So I've had a lot. But currently, I guess I have a BLX 570. I recently got my wife a second-gen Sequoia. So that's the family hauler because now we're a family of five. So we bumped up in size vehicles and she's not ready for that minivan life So you've got two of the five sevens then? I have more than that, actually. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Nobody knows about it because it's... I'm going to turn it into a farm truck, but I got a Second Gen Tundra. Okay. Like a 240,000-mile, one of the cheapest ones I could find. But I'm going to do a whole build on it. We'll talk about up top, I think, probably a little later. But we're getting into building trays and Ute systems and stuff. So the six and a half foot bed to dick around with. And so I was like, I want to build one. So I bought a beater Tundra. So it's going to be a project truck. So, yeah, I guess I have three, I have three five sevens right now. And then I have right now, I also have a 2024 Tacoma, and I have a 2024 Tundra. Both of those are very hot topics of conversation. Yeah, I haven't had any issues with mine yet, but who knows? I might. I had a 2022 Tundra. No issues with that one either. And my 2024 has been great as well. But yeah, there's definitely... They're popping up, obviously, the issues with them in the SEES motors and stuff. So we'll see. Cross my fingers, I don't hit it. But if I do, it sounds like for the most part, people are getting taken care of. And then I have a '97 Land Cruiser, so an '80s series Land Cruiser. That's somewhat of a unicorn one. It's a 40th anniversary, triple locked. A cool one that I shopped around for a while to get. And then I have a '60s series Land Cruiser, so a 1984 Land Cruiser. That one actually has before me. So previous owner did it, but it has a V8 swap in it, but not like a modern V8. It's not like an LS3 or LS4 or anything, an older. It's a motor that was pulled out of, I think it was like a '93 Firebird or something. It sounds like it should be fast, but it's still not very fast. So it's like a throttle A small body, 350 small block. Yeah, that air. So all of maybe 205 horse, but a lot of sound. Yeah, it sounds nice, but the four-speed manual, and that one is a vehicle that I feel glassy, I guess, when I feel special driving it. But those are the rigs, I guess, that people would care about. But I also like fast cars, too. So I do have a Nissan GTR, and then I have a Volkswagen Golf R as well. And well, I got one more. I have a bus, like a a passenger bus. It's a 2011 F-550, a shuttle bus, like in the airport or something, a shuttle bus. But I was shopping for one for a while. And those busses usually come just in the V8 Gasser, and they come two-wheel drive because that's just their hauling people. There was a batch that I learned there was about 12 of them made. I was able to find one that has the... I So the current... It's a 2011, so it has the 6. 7 Power Stroke diesel and factory four-wheel drive. So that was decommissioned from whatever it was being used for and put on online. And I bought that. And that's going to be a longer term. I'm going to build a poor man's Earthroamer out of it. Nice. But for a family of five. So just better seating and sleeping arrangement and just laid out a little better. So that's And maybe I'll have it done summer of 2025, but we'll see. Okay. So on the rigs anyway, so aside from the Nissan and the Volkswagen, do you consider yourself a Toyota guy when it comes to trucks? I mean, yeah, one could put it that way, since I own a lot of Toyotas, I definitely own a lot of Toyotas. And I've had great luck with... Everyone that they're reliable, and I have had really great luck with them. And I've had a lot of other vehicles in my life. Now, only in the last several years have I had a fleet of vehicles. I've usually had two, but I don't know why. I just had good luck with them. It was really I had a Tacoma. I had a 2016 Tacoma. That's what a lot of people on YouTube know me for. I had a quicksand Toyota Tacoma right around that era where overland was I was in the first overlander in the world. I'm the first person to put a rooftop 10 on my truck, but I had started doing it when it was gaining popularity. So that probably most known for that truck. And then I got my And that got... The '80s series Land Cruiser. And the '80s series is what got me into the world of Land Cruisers, really. That was my gateway drug. And then I was like,'60s are really cool, too.' And then I got the '60. And I was like, I really want a daily that's just nicer and newer. So I was kicking around the 100 series or 200 series. And I didn't know a whole lot about LXs. I was just like, Land Cruiser, Land Cruiser. And then when I was shopping for 200 series Land Cruisers. I was like, well, let's check out the LXs and watched a bunch of videos on them. And it was like, oh, this actually sounds pretty nice. And I'll save about five grand over buying an equivalent 200 series and some things that might be nicer. Actually, this is my second LX 570 that I have currently. I had one two or three years ago. It was my first LX 570. And I bought it and I loved AHC, and I loved a lot of the things that the LX had. And it was in early 2010. My current one is older, it's in 2008. But that generation, LX, was significantly better than the Land Cruiser as far as power tailgate and some other stuff like that. It was like, oh, this is actually you get a lot more for your money. That, I entered a weird stage in my life where I decided I was going to build a house and get married. And I was like, the LX wasn't... It was just too nice to just have as a vehicle. So I bought a first-gen Sequoia. I'm talking too much, probably. But first-gen Sequoia, and I was keeping it in the Toyota family. And then I missed my LX, sold the first-gen Sequoia, got my LX again, a different LX. And then we We had two more kids in that duration. And I was like, second-gen Sequoia, I think, is the best true SUV people mover that Toyota makes anyway. I want a reliable big SUV, and my wife doesn't want a minivan. So second-gen Sequoia scratch that itch. And then the newer... I'm really an old... I probably prefer older vehicles. The newer, the new Tundra and the new Tacoma, it's more If I'm being honest, more for just YouTube. Those are the current relevant vehicles in the space. I work with a lot of third-party aftermarket manufacturers, and they want their stuff developing products for the newest platform. Those are more for work, I guess you could call it. That's interesting. But I like them. That's interesting. Those purchases are actually a legitimate business decision that you knew they could get eyeballs. Yeah, they are. And it's a little controversial. My Tacoma I had for eight years, I guess, the one that people know about. And that was, I don't get particularly attached to any material possessions. Somebody offered me a good price for anything, I'd be like, I'm not that attached to it. I'll let it go. Outside of maybe my 80 and my 60, I have a little bit of sentimental attachment to, I guess. But yeah, the new Tacomas came out, and it was, I A thousand people asked me when I was going to get it, if I was going to get it, will I get it? And so I was like, okay, it makes sense that I should get it. But also my biggest gripe with the third gen Tacoma was power, just lack of power. So I actually waited for the... So I have a hybrid 24 Tacoma, which is what I decided on. But yeah, it's really a business decision. If I wasn't on YouTube, I'd probably just be driving around a bunch of old beaters. Really, that's what just things that can beat up, things that I can wrench on easier and I understand a little better. And I don't mind if somebody opens their door into it or whatever. That's more... I think that's more me. I do like the new trucks. They're very nice trucks. I like them a lot. Just I'm not really a nice... I'm not a nice things guy, I think, at my core. That's fair. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people, what they choose to do for work or do what they're nine to five is not their thing. And it's the same thing in your case. It's just it has to... When you're creating content like you do, I think it's a lifestyle choice, and you have to fit that in there where it can to develop the content. And no, you're going to be right. I I love the trucks, and trucks, that's what I would be driving if I didn't have a YouTube channel. I just probably wouldn't be driving the newest one. And that's really just a cost thing. Spending $65,000 on a truck is hard for me to swallow. Personally, I would feel just as good in a $20,000 second-gen Tundra than I do in my $67,000 platinum 2024. So Sounds a little weird, but it's really just financially, I wouldn't do that if I wasn't making money with it as well. I totally understand and can agree with that philosophy. Speaking of using those new trucks for business. So you touched on up top. So give us the rundown for that, because I'm assuming that the Tacoma and the Tundra will come in handy with the up top products. Yeah, it will. And when I say work related, I I do mean more just my personal YouTube thing. But we are using them for some development and testing at Uptop. So Uptop Overland is a manufacturer in Colorado, primarily roof racks and bed racks is what they're known for, I guess. And they came on. I work with some companies longer term as sponsors of the channel or whatever. And I have a current selection of them, and I've had past selections of them. Anyway, there was an opportunity where I was looking for a new rack manufacturer to work with. I had some issues with my previous ones I was working with. And so there was a few local I was like, why don't I just work with some local companies? That'll be easier. I can go into the shop for installs or if I need a custom one-off thing, they'll be able to handle it. So there's a few. Actually, Colorado has got quite a few. Two off-road manufacturers in them. But there was between two. And one was Sherpa and one was Uptop. And I was bouncing back and forth between them and landed on Uptop to pick up as a sponsor. And then through that, we were talking a lot of marketing stuff and a lot of product development and just like, what are you guys doing? And what's the future plan? And they wanted to lean on me a bit for just marketing, a general marketing advice. They haven't done a whole lot of marketing. They've just built. They've just been to manufacture that have been doing cool things or whatever, but not really marketing. So I was like, this is a little outside of the scope of me running your racks and you guys being a sponsor. And so the conversations evolved to maybe we could hire you as a marketing director or with that. And I was like, I'm not really interested in a W2 job. And the owners went back and kicked around some ideas and then came back Would you be interested in investing and becoming a part owner? Would that be more interesting to you? Because I had talked to, I knew two of the owners for a while and I always talk to them about manufacturing. I have a little holster company, a really small scale holster company. And I've always been into manufacturing and CAD design and just all that tinkering and making things better and modifying things. I've always loved to do it. So I've always had a fascination with manufacturing. Anyway, Anyway, so we talked more and it's funny when I say it out loud, but it was like, do you want to pay me to be marketing director? How about instead I pay you? Don't make any money for now. And then take on more work and more stress for potential future payoff, obviously, as I have some ownership stake in the company. So they offered that and we chatted numbers and I got to an agreement and I bought in, yeah, 25 % ownership stake actually at Uptop. So primarily, I'll be not just like... I didn't buy in as an investor. I bought in as an active owner, if that makes sense. So I'll be doing a lot of marketing stuff. So I'll be somewhat... They don't really have anyone there that wants to be or is good on camera necessarily. So product launches and announcements and just a little this and that. It'll be me because I'm comfortable with it and might as well. So I'll be doing some marketing stuff. And then I'll also be doing a lot of product development, like some a little bit I will be doing it. And then some I'll be working with their main the original founder of the company, this guy named Micah, who's just great at developing products. But I want some things done a little bit differently, or I think the market needs this, or I think that would be a great accessory, or I don't really like how that works because I don't like it. So we'll be working together on updating the current line of products and then launching some new products as well. So it just scratch a lot of itches for me. I wanted to get in a manufacturing, but I didn't want to get a building and have employees and learn how to do it because we have millions of dollars of equipment up top that I would have never I would have never ramped. I don't have the ambition to get there to build that from scratch. But I love that now I can come in. Now, all the hard work is done, right? I can come in and we can just be like, all right, let's make some cool stuff. So we have some ideas also. I want to start this, I don't know what I call it, special projects division, where I'm just like, oh, I think it'd be cool to make a fold out table for the descent, the swing out carrier, they have it on the tire, but they don't have it on the other one, and I have the other one. So little things like that where I just want to build things for myself, and maybe we run a batch of them and offer them for sale. There's dozens of those things that I would like to do that I don't think necessarily have a mass market appeal, but I just want to build them myself. So might as well build them for a few dozen other people that might want to buy, group buys or whatever. It's interesting because a lot of people, just when you When you think about that space, the Overland accessory space, it's easy to say it's flooded. There's a new name. There's a new... Somebody's white-labeled the same thing again, and there's a new brand spun up on Instagram. But you think there's really still room for some true innovation and growth in that rack and accessory space? I think so. I mean, it's tough. It's a crowded space and economy sucks, and There's a bunch of people trying to get into it. But I think there's not a ton of true, enthusiast-run, American-made manufacturing companies. There definitely are some. Don't get me... I don't want to twist my words and say we're the only one or anything. There definitely are some out there. But there's a lot of companies out there that aren't US manufacturers, that aren't even US companies. They're definitely not making stuff in the US. And they're making stuff in China sometimes. They're making stuff somewhere else. And a lot of them are just... You get the big names, and they're just corporate, and they're bought out by investor companies trying to grow them and this and that. So do I think there's room? It's tough because that's more of a true business... How business savvy are you is how you're going to survive in the marketplace, because I think the marketplace is too flooded currently to just be like, oh, well, we have a really great product because the rate at which great products are getting ripped off now makes it hard to survive by just making a great product. A decade ago, I think you could just make a great product and make a business out of it. Now it's harder. You got to have a great product. You have to have a great manufacturing behind you. Ideally, that's US manufacturing. Otherwise, it's just another Chinese made product. But then now you have to have good marketing. You have to have good relationships. You have to work with social media people. You got to work press. You got to be clever and witty. You got to keep up with the competition. And it's tough. It was a full disclosure, it was a risky financial move on my part. Yeah, as you walk through all these points, and then you're like, oh, yeah, I invested in this. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not like, oh, man, this is going to be a great money maker for me or anything like that. But I do think there's room in the space. And I'm in a unique situation in this space, somewhat unique anyway, in that I have worked with dozens, probably hundreds of brands at this point. I have tested so many... I have had my hands on and been through manufacturing facilities and talked with product dev teams and marketing. I've done more of that than almost anybody in the industry just because of the last decade of my life, essentially. So with that, I think I do see a lot of areas for improvements, even if there's 100 rack companies out there. I think there are ways you could do it better. And there are certainly problems that need solving in better ways. But I'm big on US manufacturing. I'm big on being agile. I'm big on on if this isn't quite how we want it, well, by next week, we can have it exactly how we want it, and we can be shipping product then. So having the ability to be super agile and knowing where everything's coming from Like recently with our roof racks, we have a lot of roof racks are the same. A lot of the overland roof racks are the same. It's flat aluminum side rails with 80, 20 bar. They're all the same. We can say print Everyone is just a rip off of Princeou, including up top in some sense of the rack space. But we're trying to change things up a lot in that. And they're minor things, but instead of just flat side plates, let's form them over the top so they look a little better. They're actually a little more functional. They're a little more rigid. They're a little more supportive. Yes, it costs more to manufacture. Yes, it takes more time. But at the end, it's a better product. And then 80/20 now, you don't even know where it's coming from. I mean, you do if you're buying it, but there's US manufacturers or Chinese manufacturers. So some rack companies are buying it locally sourced from US manufacturers, and kudos to them. And some are not. They're buying it from China. And so when you come, when push comes to shove, and we have some racks made with 80/20 as well, US-sourced 80/20. But now, some of our new racks were forming We're bringing stainless steel crossbars in-house ourselves. So we're bringing all of the manufacturing in so we can control the whole process. So if there's a shortage or if there's a price hike or if there's some China export something or steel sourcing something or whatever it is, we have more control over the whole process. And if we want to do things a little bit differently, we can. So we've been on this journey to take ownership of the whole manufacturing flow. We don't make nuts and bolts. There's some things we still have to buy. But as much as makes sense to make in-house, we're working to do that. So over the last six months, It's been a bunch of equipment purchasing and training and stuff like that to get to that phase. But now we're there. There's always more equipment. I'd love to buy more, some five axes CNCs and stuff just to make specialty parts. But as far as our core competencies for manufacturing, we've brought it all in-house. That's good. The manufacturing aspect. The more you can control that supply chain, the more agile you're able to be, as you were saying, and able to adapt. I've worked in my professional job with a lot of small US manufacturers, and nothing will wreck the business like supply and unable to get what they used to get for the last 10 years and those issues that tariff stuff coming from overseas, whatever it may be. So kudos to getting in as much as you can in-house and having control of the situation. Yeah. So we're stoked on all that. So on the manufacturing side of things, we're trying to get pretty squared away. And then just, yeah, I think new interesting. I have several I think they're cool ideas anyway, that haven't been done, that will be unique to the space that we'll be rolling out over the next couple of months. We did some little bit, we did a cheap folding table carrier for our bed racks. So it's just the life or the Costco or whatever the four that everyone has. They're a pain to transport, even though they fold, but they're always-They're so good once you've got them at this campsite. Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, let's make Can we make this product? And we kicked around some ideas. And for a week or two from let's do this to it's a launch product that you can buy on the website. So that stuff really excites me. And so now I just have... Up top is way more than me. But as it pertains to me, now I have a big manufacturing, not big, we're a pretty small company, but a manufacturing machine that can bring my ideas to life, so to speak. So, yeah, back to it, is there a room in the flooded space for it? I hope so. I hope so for you, too. Yeah. Well, you It's interesting. You were talking about all of these relationships you've had with sponsors and products you've reviewed, either from sponsors or things you've purchased over the last decade, really. Let's look back. When I go through your channel, and there's a definite transition of the content that you were making 10 years ago to what you're making today. And in the early days, you were real heavy on firearms content and everyday carry and that thing. And I'm curious two things. I'm curious, one, about the shift, if that was in response to your viewers or what you saw working, but also just your thoughts on gun tubers and YouTube's restrictions over the years and how that whole thing has really become rocky for a lot of channels that spent years building something that may be in jeopardy. They're always worried the plug is going to get pulled. Yeah, it's tough. That's another thing where if you don't own it yourself, it could be pulled right out from under you at any moment. So I did start, I guess, I don't know, it It would make sense to go a little bit. I talk a lot. It's good for a podcast sometimes, but I'll try to keep it relatively short. But I never had any intention of becoming a YouTuber. Wasn't on my radar. I didn't want to do it. If anything, I thought it sounded dumb. But what happened a long time ago, 10 years ago, roughly, I had an Instagram account. And I was just... Anything that people were posting on Instagram 10 years ago, I was probably put food pictures, whatever. I went out to a bar and got a beer of that, or I would post some guns. And I've always been into tricking things out, whether it be motorcycles or sports cars or off-road vehicles or guns. So I had some pretty tricked out guns. And people like, oh, that's cool. What is that slide? Or how did you get that seracoded? Or whatever. And so I answer those questions in the comments. And then it became like, oh, you don't even shoot those. Those are like safe queens or whatever. I was like, I shoot all the time. I'm great at shooting. So then I started posting just clips of when I was out training, out running drills or doing whatever. And I was big, concealed, but still am. I own a holster company, and I carry a gun every day, a huge Second Amendment supporter. But back then, I was really just gung-ho, like, oh, I live to train. And I wake up and I just can't wait to get to the range deal. And I love shooting. So I would post short. And it was back, Instagram had seven second clips. So I'd post seven second clips of just some drills that I did. And at the time, everyone was posting them to dub Step music and what else. So shooting guns and whatnot. And then people would ask a bunch of questions, how do you get your draw so smooth? Or what do you recommend for a belt? I'm new to concealed carry or this or that. So there's a lot And there were gun-tubers on YouTube, but there wasn't really anyone answering these kinds of questions. Just like, I was a regular dude. I was a web developer, had a nine to five. I was going to the office, I was working at a desk. But on the weekends, I would go and train how to draw my gun out of my holster in less than a second and shoot steel 30 yards away or whatever. And there wasn't a whole lot of that on YouTube. So And it wasn't even... Again, I wasn't trying to fill a niche. I was really just trying to give people information. So I started the channel just to be able to give long form information to people that were new to firearms. And my channel originally I was like, create. And it was really like, should I put this on Vimeo or YouTube? I don't know. I guess YouTube. And I just randomly picked YouTube. And it was create a channel name or whatever. And I was like, I'm given Concealed Carry So my original channel was Concealed Carry tips. That URL probably still works, like youtube. Com/concealedcarrytips. Because I was like, I'm just going to give people tips for Concealed Carry. And so I would give various firearms tips And then I was like, maybe some preparedness. I'm a prepper, some preparedness tips as well. Through this whole thing, as far back as I can remember, I was just an outdoorsman, really, like backpacked and mountain biked and off roaded. Those were all things I did. But I was like, well, I'm just giving people tips on guns because that's what they're asking for from my Instagram. So that's how I got into it. And then started building a following. I was only uploading a video once every couple of months or whatever just because it wasn't a thing. And then I forget who. At some point, Optics Planet or something was like, hey, we love your videos. Can we send you some stuff? And I was like, send me Sure. I'll take this stuff. And they're like, what do you want? I was like, I want this flashlight, that holster or whatever. And so they started sending me some stuff. And I was like, oh, yeah, well, let me talk about this new stuff that I couldn't have bought because I can't afford to just buy everything. So I would get some stuff that I really was maybe saving for and would have got in a month, but now I could get now. And so started talking about that. And then And I think there was little bits of my life that I would talk about or whatever. And then someone said, oh, let's see your truck set up. And I had a Tacoma, the quick stand Tacoma. And I was like, okay. I was doing EDC videos at the time. It's like what I carry on my body, a flashlight, a knife, whatever. And I was like, oh, I'll do a truck EDC. This is what I keep in my truck. And that video did really well. And people were really interested in it. We're like, oh, let's see more about your truck. Let's see more truck stuff. I was like, I like truck stuff. Was YouTube monetized at this point? I think, yeah, I was monetized on YouTube. Even though I've been on YouTube for 10 years, about 10 years ago, there was a thing that old, old YouTubers know as the Adpocalypse. So you could crush it on YouTube. You can make a ton of money on YouTube. Right when I started making YouTube was the Adpocalypse, where everyone's revenue was cut by 90 %. So I never I made good money, but I was making a few bucks. I was able to buy Ammo with what I was making on YouTube. It wasn't like full-time job income or anything like that. But yeah, then I showed the truck and people were, oh, let's do more truck content. And then about the same time, I was just not at all getting bored with guns, but it wasn't like, man, every weekend I want to go train. I was like, I had done force on force and I had done simmunitions and I I had done full autos and I had done night vision. And I checked off a lot of boxes and felt very competent in my skills. And those will wear off over time if you don't. But I was pursuing Just trying to check off a bunch of boxes in that world. And I checked all the ones that I cared about off. And I had been sent so many guns. You just get sent guns all the time and new guns and new guns, and new guns. And when you're not in the space, it sounds amazing, probably like, new gun. I could never get sick of new... But you do. You get sick of, you're like, I could never get a new gun again, and I would be fine. So it was more This is tricky to say because people interpret this the wrong way, but guns haven't changed a whole lot in 150 years. There's a barrel, there's a projectile, and there's some gunpowder, and it goes. And when you do the same over and over and over, I get bored. I get very bored of it. So I just got bored of making video. Let's do the Glock 19. Let's do the P365. Let's do the Waller PPQ. And At the end of the day, they're all the same thing. Yeah, there's a little difference. Some are better, the trigger breaks better, the reset, whatever, the set, the quality, the grip. There's little differences. But I'm not the person that can just keep doing the same thing forever and ever and ever and not get bored of it. So I just got sick of it. And it felt very much like a job, like another week, another gun review. I can't do it anymore. And the funny thing is, I'm friends with a lot of people in the space, and they're pigeonholed. One of the main things about YouTube that people that don't do YouTube don't know is that you have to stay in your lane in YouTube. If you pick camera reviews, you got to stay in camera reviews forever. That's what YouTube wants you to do. That's what the viewership wants you. That's how the whole subscription thing works. I am interested in you for camera reviews. If you start reviewing bicycles, I don't care. I want cameras. So changing lanes, so to speak, to a different activity or a different interest group means you're changing to a different audience. Not everyone that's into guns is into land cruisers. They're just not the same. There is some carry-over. A lot of them there is. A lot of people are into both. But When it comes to YouTube, I'm into guns. I'm going to subscribe to a gun channel. I'm into bicycles, I'm going to subscribe to a bicycle channel. I'm into land cruisers, I'll subscribe to a land cruiser channel. And they don't like to mix. So I actually changing what I did on YouTube was probably one of my biggest mistakes, honestly, because it really almost permanently crushes your channel. Now I'm starting to put out truck content. And everyone's like, we don't care about trucks. We care about the gun Glock just released. I'm going to unsubscribe because trucks, I want guns. And the thing about guns is guns is a way bigger industry than overlanding. Maybe not cars in general, but overland. Guns is 100 times bigger. So if I'm not doing gun stuff and they don't care about Tacomas, they're going to unsubscribe and I'm going to lose that subscriber, or they're not going to unsubscribe, and that viewer is just not going to watch any of my truck stuff. They're going to watch my gun stuff. And what that means is to YouTube, I have a subscriber who's no longer really interested in me because because they're no longer really watching my stuff. So they're not interested in me. So my channel must suck because even my subscribers aren't watching me. So I built a subscription based on people that were into guns, and then I would put out truck content, and maybe 10 % of those people were interested in the truck content. So then the algorithm is like, well, the subscribers don't even want to watch his videos. Why should we promote his videos to non-subscribers? So if anything, the transition was really bad for me. And still probably is a reason that my channel isn't bigger or more popular than it may be. Maybe I just suck. Certainly, that's a possibility. But definitely, that inhibits growth. But for me, it was really just I was bored of doing the same thing and wanted to just do some other things. So a couple of things. So did you see this? Was this more of what you felt or were you able to quantify this in your analytics, this loss of subscribers and viewership? Yeah, it can be quantified. And I have a bunch of YouTube friends at this point. We try different things or this and that. So everyone has a good idea of how YouTube works, and there are ways to play how YouTube wants you to play, not even a political thing or anything like that. Just like, YouTube, if you started making in some good views because you said top 10 Overland Mods. That's a very YouTube thing to do. That's what YouTube likes. That's what people will click. Then you should keep doing that stuff. Top 10 Overland Hacks. These five things you didn't know would make your Overlanding better, things like that. So there are little things that you do on YouTube that you know net good results. And then there are other things you do that you know will net bad results. I can know before I put out a video whether it will do good or not. And sometimes I I'm going to put the video out anyway because I'm just interested in it. And it's just to keep my own sanity and to be true to myself. I'm going to put this video out that's going to bomb because I just want to do it. So it's hard to know. There's not really a black and white or, okay, let me check my analytics. And I'm sure if I really broke it down robotically, I could see shifts in videos I posted or whatever. But for me, there was a transitional period where I was still doing some gun stuff and I was doing some truck stuff. Maybe Maybe I'll make a video on chickens. Maybe I would do solar panels. Maybe I'll do a preparedness video. So I've always been all over the place. And you'll never see a channel that's big that is all over the place. All the big channels are singularly focused. There's a few of them out there that are like, blogs or whatever. But for the most part, they're on a topic. Do you think should you have started a second or third channel in for those verticals? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Absolutely, I should have started a second channel, but I didn't because it's weird. Youtube is currently my full-time. Youtube is how I pay the bills right now. It is my primary source of income. I have a few avenues, but YouTube is my primary one. But I've never treated it as such. I've always just said, I'm just going to make videos that I like making and we do it as long as I can. And hopefully, it strikes a cord with enough people that they'll subscribe to me and they'll watch my videos. And that's what I decided to do at the very beginning, and I've never changed, never really altered from that. So it's tough because I'll get questions like, for aspiring creators, what do you recommend? And I'm like, why recommend doing everything that I don't do what I did? Because that YouTube will not reward you for that. What you got to do, unfortunately, is what I wouldn't want to do, but some people can do. And that's pick something that you think you'll be passionate about for an extended period of time, and really, you think you will enjoy creating content about it. But that's really tough, because if you told me after my first video on guns, you I don't think you'll get bored of doing gun videos? I'd be like, I don't think so. I'm not going to do this forever. But inevitably, you get bored. I think with what I'm doing now, my channel has evolved a little bit to be more of just me. You're watching my channel for me. Obviously, a very strong truck overland, off road, outdoor following. But if I were to put out a video saying, oh, yeah, this is just like a a day in the life where I'm going to go out and feed the chickens and work on the property a bit, that would not be out of character. That would be like, oh, yeah, it seems like a video Mike would put out. But if you had some guy that only put out gun reviews that did that video, it would be like, what is this? This is very weird. So I've, over time, built a following. Now I have 400, some thousand followers And I think for the most part, they probably just like me and are interested in some of the same stuff I'm into. But again, there's some guys that like Tacomas, and they're not going to watch a Sequoia video, or they're not going to watch a homesteading video. So even the followership that I have created, they're only interested in certain things, some of them. Some of them will just watch every video, but some of them won't. How important is that, Mike, as far as, number one, the subscriber being sticky, right? That they're staying. But number two, if you've got a subscriber or if the majority of your subscribers watch 25% of your videos versus 75%, is that big in how YouTube affects what it's promoting? It is, absolutely. The algorithm is very complex. I don't understand at all. And evolving, right? I mean, it's always changing. And it changes, and you don't know. And there's a lot of things where channels grow, and it doesn't really make sense why or a video will go viral, and you don't really know why. But one of the keys to growth is viral videos, and I have never had the desire nor the skill, maybe, to make a viral video. I don't care. Those aren't my people. I don't really care about a subscription count. I don't want people to follow me because I did a solo camp, got lost in a blizzard in negative 30 degrees. If I made that video, would it get a million views? Probably it would. And I could make it. I could make 10 I give them a year. But I haven't because I would feel like a sellout. I would feel like I was making a video strictly to garner views. So instead, I make a stupid video that I will only get 10,000 views because I think it's a legit, genuine, good informational video for people. So you're not an actor. This is Mike. This is the real Mike, not a character. Yeah. And that's true. And there's a lot of me's out. There's a lot of people who are genuinely who they are making YouTube videos. But I I would probably say not most, even. I would say most people, especially someone with 100,000 or more followers, are not really that person. I know because I meet people all the time that have met a bunch of other YouTubers, and they'll tell me like, Man, you are just like you are on YouTube. And I'm like, I don't know who else I would be, man. But it's not the case. A lot of people aren't. And some of it comes back to viewership. People are like, well, I'm not going to get a bunch of viewership if I don't talk all crazy and excited all the time. But when you take them out to dinner, they're just a normal person. You're like, How are you still annoying on YouTube? And you're just normal now. I don't know. I had to be myself. And that video only got a thousand views. So I got to be this character. I got to do these things I don't want to do. Or it comes back to the gun stuff. Most of the people that are gun tubers that I know that I'm friends with or their acquaintances with hate it. They're like, it's my job. I have to do it. It's like going into work now. If I could never do another gun video, if I could never do another EDC video, if I could never do a tabletop review of the newest gun, I would never do it. I hate it. If I could snap my fingers and be doing videos on horses instead, I would. And they're trapped in their pigeon hole in this thing. Again, not all. Some people just love doing the same thing over and over again. And that's Kudos to them. Nothing wrong with that. But a lot of people get trapped. So that's one of the big things. And it's called YouTube burnout or whatever, where you just get tired of doing the same things. And I get tired of not doing the same things because I do so many different things. And I genuinely enjoy everything that I'm putting videos out on. But some weeks I don't want to put out a video. I would rather just not put out a video. I'm just feeling lazy or I'm overwhelmed, or I just a lot of family stuff, or I'm just been busy just working on the property and just want to shut my brain off and not do anything. So I definitely have weeks where I would rather not make a video, but it's never not that I want to make a video on the topic that I'm making a video on, at least. But yeah, and then, sorry, to circle way, way back, you had asked the guns on YouTube, the demonetization and the stuff there. There's definitely some huge issues But at the same time, YouTube is a private company. They can do whatever they want. And that's the danger of it. But it's definitely if there is a sissy culture, it is the firearms community. Their feelings get hurt. They have fragile egos. They are cry babies. Anybody in the firearms industry will tell you all this stuff is absolutely true. I have more friends in the firearms industry than I do in the The overland industry. It's not talked about a whole lot because there's no real reason to. And again, I'm speaking in generalities. There's a lot of amazing people in the firearms community. I'm friends with a lot of Like a lot of really great, great solid people. But there's also a lot of people that are just like, yeah, this video is not doing good because YouTube isn't... Youtube hates guns or YouTube hates... At the end of the day, YouTube is about making ad revenue. So YouTube will push a video out if there are ads on it, and there are going to be viewers on it. And gun guys love watching gun videos. So YouTube has their viewers, and they have people creating content. It's the monetisation structure that they're always battling with. So when you go make an ad or whatever, you're pushing out, I'm Coca-Cola. I want to make an ad. I'm a soft little baby company, and I hate guns. So I don't want to be put on a gun channel. Now YouTube is like, we got all this Coca-Cola ad money that we can't make on a gun channel. So that sucks. So they've worked through some various ad revenue structures to where who does want to make an ad and push it out to gun people, the NRA, who does love... Yeti or whatever it is, there are plenty of manufacturers out there that do want to advertise to gun people. So when YouTube can put ads in front of the faces of gun people, YouTube will make money. And YouTube, at the end of the day, wants to make as much money as they can. So it's not so much necessary. The whole story isn't like, YouTube hates guns, and the world is against us, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah You have a video from Garantham. He'll post it. It'll get a million views in a day. It should be very clear to you then that YouTube isn't blocking viewership of gun videos, right? Otherwise, that video wouldn't get a million views in a day. So the gun tubers got to pick and choose what the argument is, I guess. Having said that, there have been a lot of issues. There's been channels that have been shut down. There are policies that YouTube puts into play overnight that means, well, half of my videos now are not allowed on YouTube. I've had videos get removed. I've had flags on my channel. I've dealt with everything that a gun tuber has dealt with myself personally. These issues are real and they can affect you. But in general, is it like, is YouTube putting the hack on gun channels? Not really. I mean, demolition Ranch got, what, 10 million, 20 million subscribers? He wouldn't have that if they were completely anti-gun. But again, there definitely is some truth to it. But there's more of the story, I guess. Interesting take. There's a lot to unpack there. It's a good stuff. Yeah, but there are issues. I have friends who have channels shut down and videos... Again, there definitely are issues. But again, it's like, you choose a private company. They can do what they want, and we can complain about it. But it's not like a first amendment thing. This is a private corporation thing. Right. So you didn't sign a contract with YouTube that says, we guarantee you X air time. They can stop sending you that 1099 tomorrow, and that's the end of the relationship. Absolutely. Yeah. They don't need any warning. There is a three strikes thing, and they try They give you warnings and this and that. But no, they could shut you down and delete all your videos off of their server right now if they want to. And it wasn't really a factor for me. I went through why I quit doing gun content, it wasn't really because I was worried that my channel was going to get deleted. But that was maybe a 2 % of it. If I go down this path, It is my livelihood now, and maybe it could get cut off, but not really. I still talk about guns. I still show guns. I'm just bored of reviewing guns, I think. But like we talked about earlier, I may go reverse. I've talked about it for years, and I may start a second channel that is a gun channel because I do still like guns, but it's just I've become, I don't know. Now I've built a new following that isn't about guns, and now I just will screw them over in full circle. So maybe I just start fresh. You can't make everybody happy all the time, right? Yeah. Well, so you got that first shipment you were talking about a few minutes ago from the sponsors with the guns, and you're like, oh, wow, people will send me stuff. And then people sending you guns and gear and all this, how did you transition from just tactical gear into able to get these... I mean, you've got gear reviews on everything from pants and boots to camp stoves or whatever it may be. Do they come to you or do you actively go out soliciting once you figured out that opportunity was there? For the most part, they've come to me. Or not. Currently, for the most part, they come to me, but not always. And so sometimes you'll never see a product on my channel that I genuinely don't like. If I don't like something, I'm not going to use it. I'm at a point where my in-no-tie to just need it to grab at any random China company that wants to send me a thing to review. It's not the case for everyone. And I don't have any specific memory, but I'm sure I've used some crap in the early days of YouTube that was just crap because they sent it me for free, and I feel like I should do something about it. So it's certainly a mixture of companies reach out to me versus me reaching out to them. I'm fortunate in that I'm in the Overland niche, I guess. I'm a big enough name to where I have had a a lot of really cool companies that are making cool products or doing cool things reach out to me. And I've been fortunate enough to be able to work with some of them. But not everyone is going to reach out to me because they don't have a reason to. Again, there's a thousand relevant YouTubers or Instagramers that they could reach out to, and maybe they think I'm too expensive, or maybe they think I'm not interested, or maybe they think I'm working with some other company that is competing with them and It wouldn't be, or maybe they're just like, I just... Or maybe they have reached out to me and I just didn't... I don't check my DMs on Instagram. I don't know. But there are definitely times when I am doing research and I watch YouTube like everyone else, and I get into the forums like everyone else, and I'm trying to find the right thing to solve that problem like everyone else is. So if I come across a product or a company that is doing something that I think would benefit, I really want to maybe there's a new camp stove that I really want to try And it's something that I would buy to try out. But I'm in this position. So maybe I'll reach out to them and see if they want to send one out and I can try it out. But any time I do that, and this isn't how someone has to do it. This isn't how everyone does it, definitely. I always say, hey, happy to send it out. If I don't like it, I'll ship it back to you. I won't trash talk you or whatever. I'm not really a trash talking guy. If I don't like it, I'll just send it back and it'll never be on my channel and nobody will ever see it. And if I like it, I'll use it. And that is how that goes a lot of the times. And then there are random things like AG1 for Athleta Greens. They're actually coming under a bad rap recently just because people say they're overpriced or whatever. But like, AG1, I don't even know if you know what that is. It's like a nutrition- No, I've seen the news articles on it. Yeah. Yeah. But that's not something I would ever show. There's no reason to. But that's a YouTube sponsor. And I'm like, oh, it's healthy. I like being healthy. It genuinely improves my life. Okay, we'll do a sponsorship. So there are sometimes I do sponsors of something that I wouldn't typically show in a video, but it's never something that I'm adamantly against and just doing for the money, if that makes sense. But as far as products, if I'm going to go out and I'm going to camp and I'm going to use a product, I'm either using it for the first time and I don't know whether I like it or not, and I'm showing you as I go, or it's something that I've done a lot of research on and know I will like, or it's something that I've been using for years for the most part. I'm curious about the economics of that, Mike, if you're willing to speak to this. On a deal like that with a sponsor where they send you a product and you're making a video and presumably there's a promo code or a referral link or something like that. Do you... One, do those links and what you're getting from them, is there normally a set in date? Is it everything that this code is good for 12 months, and then, thank you, it's the end of the deal? Is it almost like here in Nashville, songwriters refer to it as mailbox money when the song gets played on the radio and, Oh, I get a few 20 cents from that that I didn't know I was going to get this month thing? Yeah. So a lot of my income is what's referred to as affiliate income. So it's a commission-based thing. I'll have a unique link or a unique code or whatever. And it's one of those things where if I was just dropping coupon codes in every video, and don't forget to use my link, and I do a little bit of that just to remind people to click the link. Clicking the links doesn't matter. You can just click on the company. You have to tell them, yeah. Clicking the links does actually... It is how I do the things that I do. And if you enjoy the free information that I give you, then click the link if you want to buy something. If you don't want to buy, don't click it. But if you are going to buy it, click the link. Those terms and those conditions are always different. A lot of them are open-ended. A company and an affiliate-based income is very low risk for a company. They're like, we're only going to pay you what you're worth. We're not going to pay you anything if you don't make any sales. And if you make a bunch of sales, you made us a bunch of money. Our margins are enough that we're still making money paying you an affiliate income. So it's a win, win, win. Everyone is winning here. So there's not a whole lot of reason for a company to do a limited time thing. I get comments on videos that I posted eight years ago. So if I still have that link in there and it's still a If it's a company that's in business, they're still going to make a buck if I push a sale and that buck is referred to them from me. So usually they last for a long time. But there's weird things with affiliate. There's different affiliate companies. There's third party companies that track this and make it easier for the company. And a lot of times these companies leave and move. And then so my links no longer work. So I'll have an old link that just goes to a 404 or whatever. This doesn't work anymore. So So there are issues with that. But for the most part, yeah, affiliate usually last for a while and coupon codes are usually good for a while. And I like that because if I don't talk about it, then I don't make any money. And if I talk about it, then I make a buck. That's good or bad sometimes, because the more you talk about it, the more someone says, you're a YouTube shill or whatever. And you're like, I'm not a shill because by definition, a shill is someone who is hiding a relationship with the company and just saying the product's good. I'm telling you, I have a relationship with the company. So by definition, I can't be a shill if I tell you that this company sent it to me for free or use my coupon code. Very clearly not. But yeah, there is... I don't ever want to... I could make a lot. I could double my income if I would just tell more people to use my coupon codes and tell more people to click my links and tell more. But there's some balance you have to walk with making all that money and just being a genuinely good dude that people want to watch. Now, I have chosen the path where I do need to make money on YouTube to find financially support myself and my family. So I do need to make money. How much money I need to make, that's a variable. It's a variable that I do somewhat control. Then the other variable is how annoying it is for me to tell somebody to use my coupon code. And I need to find that balance, right? And I think I've done a fairly good job of it. And then sometimes there are... I'm pretty full disclosure on a lot of this stuff. I do have some companies that are just channel sponsors, like Diamondback Truck Covers is one. I've had a relationship with them since I bought my first one eight years ago and just loved it. And they loved me. And we aligned a lot of our values. And they're like, you're a great representative of the brand. We make great US made products. And you are a dude doing cool stuff. Can we work together? We don't have affiliate or any of that coupon code crap. We just would love you to use our product when it makes sense. And they'll pay me for that. And I say, that sounds great. You're a cool company. You're making a cool product that I like. And I just have to use it. I don't have to say, remember to use code LLOD at checkout of Diamondback Covers. And so I bring value to them just because I am a true enthusiast of the brand. And that's even a tight That's another thing that you got to navigate. It's still now I'm like, okay, I do genuinely enjoy the brand. I would not take money from a company that, A, I don't align with because I have more... I care more about myself and I have more morals than that or whatever, but also just a product that I don't like. Once you get to a point, and I think I'm at that point or I've been at that point for a while, I have options for companies Companies have marketing budgets. I don't need to work with Diamondback. If I wanted to work with Retracs or whatever, this or that, they all have marketing money. I could make money from any of these companies. So I can choose, but at the same time, it's like, well, I am getting paid by Diamondback, but maybe I wanted to run a competing product. Now, I can't really... The waters get muddy there. So in some of those scenarios, or like Toyo Tires is a current sponsor of mine, and I truly love their products. And that was a company that I sought out. And I pitched them and I said, I love your tires. I'm running them. They're great. I'm an advocate for the brand. Could you just support me? Tires are expensive. Yes, they are. And they said, we love what you're doing. Let's form a relationship. But at the same time, I'm I'm not out there running BFG's newest tire because I'm with Toyo. But I genuinely like being with Toyo. But there is a little bit of water that can get a little muddy at times. So once you start, Once you start deciding you're going to make a living doing YouTube, then you got to decide how you're going to make that living. And there are options. There are jam coupon codes and affiliate links down people's throat until they're sick of you. There There are develop relationships with brands that you really admire and see if you can make a buck from them and have them support you in some way. Maybe it's just providing tires or maybe it's financially or whatever. And you got to carve a path. Or Maybe it's you make viral videos and you make enough money from Google AdSense to support you and you just do crazy crap. And you don't have to work for any company. But then you're a slave to YouTube. You got to make sure your channel doesn't get demonetized. You got to make sure you don't get kicked off. You got to make sure you make videos or whatever. So I've chosen the path where I'm at any given month I'll have checks coming in from 30 or 40 places. Just make a little bit of money from a lot of different people. And that's the path that I've chosen that I think allows me to really do anything that I want to do and be true to myself. And if something falls through with one brand or they're doing something that I don't like anymore, or there's another brand that's just doing stuff better that I want to switch to, I can because I'm not reliant on any one singular income stream on the channel. But that takes a hell of a lot of work to get to, honestly, to get to that spot. It's been a journey. How many do you turn down nowadays? A lot. Yeah, all kinds. Yeah, I get in a non-pompous way, I get 20 emails a day from companies that are trying to either give me stuff or give me money. And they, I don't I don't have time for it all. And B, most of it's China crap. Like, Timu. Timu wants to sponsor my videos every day. I get an email from Timu and I'm just like, morally, I'm against it. You could offer me $20,000 for a 30-second sponsor, and I I wouldn't be able to be true to myself and do that sponsor because you guys stand for everything I hate. Or it's just like, oh, we're a fashion clothing company. What? And I'm like, that ain't me, dog. So I'm going to pass on that one. And then there are some things that align. You see it all the time on YouTube, battery, like Jackries or Goal Zeros or whatever. Those guys, that is the one area where I'm like, I should quit doing this. But they have money and they want to send products. And I use batteries all the time. It's something that I use. I power fridges and power diesel heaters or electric blankets or whatever it is, Starlink. I use them, so I will take them. But I turned down why I just usually don't respond to the emails, honestly, because there's too many emails to respond to. But battery companies alone, if I were to just take every battery company, I could probably make a million dollars this year. If I wanted, if I just did every one that came in. But obviously, I don't want to. And I couldn't anyway, because it'd be more videos than I'd be willing to make. So, yeah, you do got to turn down a lot. And I think I was fortunate. I had a very slow, steady growth. I had a full-time job when I was doing it. I was never like, I really need to make money on YouTube for the first seven or eight years, probably, doing And YouTube, I was employed. I didn't rely on the YouTube in anything I made from there. It was added bonus. I had a holster company as well. So I was full-time employed, had a holster company. So I was really self-funded. So any YouTube stuff, I was just funding it myself. So I was really able to pick and choose because I wasn't even trying to be a YouTuber. And at the point where I decided, I'll just do this as my full-time gig, I was at a point with enough relationships at that point where I've just maybe met people at a party at Overland Expo or got invited out to do a Toyota marketing campaign or whatever it was. I waited to be reliant on income until I was able to be very picky about what I did. And so that's the best path to the best path of being true yourself, I guess. But there's a lot of people that just dream about being a YouTuber or just like, I need to live on. I need to figure out how to make. I got a cool truck. I need to figure out how to make money on it. I was never that guy. I was just like, I'll build a bunch of relationships. And then at some point, I'll make some money and I'll be able to choose who I make money from. And again, I probably got a little lucky. I took some time to get there, but I was pretty diligent in my decision making through the whole process of who I wanted to be, I guess. And they want to make any compromises and work with shady companies or companies that show off products that I genuinely didn't like because I felt that I had more value than that long term. But it's tough. It's tough for a lot of newer YouTube guys to try and pick and choose. And they're getting offered a free tent from China. And what are you going to do? I can't blame some of them for taking what they can get, so to speak, I guess. Yeah. You know, your channel, The content has shifted. We've talked about this, guns and prepping and now overland and camping and trucks. But there's this constant theme of preparedness and and self-reliance, that even if you don't specifically address that it's there, is that just you being authentic? Is that what you talk about it? This is Mike, this is what I'm doing and who I am. Yeah. And it's an interesting takeaway to hear that from you, that that's the ongoing theme of me or my channel. I like that. It's great to hear because I've had people that don't know me or I got to introduce myself or I got to talk, and they're just like, so what do you do on YouTube? I was like, that is a good question. I just do a lot of stuff. But yeah, I would say that at a core, it's very much a preparedness minded element and not like a doomsday prepper, not trying to doom and gloom and fear monger or anything like that. Just general... If you're going to break down on the side of the road, have some tools at your disposal and some knowledge at what you need to do. If there's a car crash that you need to respond to, have some medical gear that you can help someone. At the core, it's really just helping other people, but also being able to help yourself. And then later in my life, as a protector provider for my family, I don't want there to ever be a situation where I'm putting them in jeopardy or in danger because I didn't have the foresight to plan ahead or prepare for it or think like firearms. I don't want to be in a situation where there's a guy that comes up and shoots up a movie theater that I don't have the tools and the skills to take down and protect people that are with me. So that is very, very much who I am as a person. And I think, again, at my core, on YouTube, even, I probably want to be more of of an educator than I do an entertainer. I get that there is some entertainment value in it, but I don't want someone to watch any of my videos and not have a take, not be like, I didn't learn anything in that video. I always want them to take away. And outside of feeling that I could have even a tiny impact on the world, I wouldn't want impact to be, find the newest, coolest, tricked-out gun or find the best, highest mileage, highest thread rating tires there is, or this is the best battery with 90 62 % round trip efficiency. It's not really that, probably. If anything, outside of being a pastor and spreading Christianity or whatever, my mark on the world, I guess, would be just help Helping people be prepared for situations, whether that's a flat tire or whether that's the end of the world. I hope that I can help you be a little more prepared for that situation, but do it in a light-hearted way. Nobody that would meet me. It would be like, man, that guy's a weird prepper, dude. There's a couple of screws loose up there. But at the same time, I'm very much prepared. So try to do it in a way that makes it relatable. You can be prepared and not be a weirdo. And that's probably the takeaway. And then the other thing is there's a lot of preparedness. There's a lot of overlap in preparedness and the hobbies that I enjoy, whether that's shooting guns, whether that's going out and camping in the woods, whether that's building a fire, whatever it is. I have chosen and... Not all of my hobbies have some preparedness element, but a lot of my hobbies, there is some cross to, well, this is teaching you some skills. This is getting some reps in for you. This is exposing you to certain tools or methodologies that have direct preparedness applications. And yeah, so I think, yeah, at the core, that's just who I am and that's what I enjoy. And that's what at the end of the day, if I can teach someone how to be a little more prepared, that's probably the the area where I feel is probably the most value for the person that's watching my video. But at the same time, I don't want to make every video of mine a prepping video because that's just, I don't know. I would get bored of it. This has been good, man. This has been fun, Mike. There's a lot of good information you've shared here, especially as far as YouTube and sponsorships and, like you said, the core lesson of find your lane and stay in it. As far as these verticals are concerned. Because like you said, you hear that question a lot. I'm sure you do. Hey, can you give advice? My son, my daughter, they want to do this and this and YouTube and TikTok. And it's easy to say, yeah, be consistent. But that's not the whole story. Yeah, it's not. I mean, be consistent is one of the most important aspects of it. There's some luck involved. Some people just aren't out to talk on camera. It's not in the cards. So not everyone can be in the NBA. Now, YouTube has a much lower bar than that. Don't get me wrong. It's much easier, but not everyone can do it. But yeah, I would say it's the hardest bet. If you're able to gain some traction, the hardest thing is consistency and enjoying it. You'll They're fine. They're certainly out there, but it's not often that there are people that are successful at YouTube that legitimately enjoy it. Again, they're out there, but usually Usually, you get sent down a path and you need to stay on that path. And if you go outside, again, you go outside of your lane, then your YouTube channel will suffer because of it. Sometimes you're able to pull through I was able to pull through with some sacrifices of subscribership or viewership or whatever. But that's the toughest battle is just once you find some traction in a niche, you got to stick in that niche because it's real hard to get out of it. So I don't want to sway people from trying the YouTube thing. Youtube is in my best job. I enjoy it. I love it. I've I've been able to meet people and have experiences and work with companies. And it is a dream job. I couldn't realistically think of something that I would get more overall satisfaction out of and have flexibility and do the things that I enjoy. But it takes a lot of work to get there, honestly. And yeah, I would say probably don't quit your day job and really hang on to your day job as long as you can so that you're able to put yourself in a position to, I don't know, be more authentic, because I think at the end of the day, that's more important than trying to make a quick buck a year, quit your job a year in advance when you're not quite ready to do it. And then you just got to grasp it any monetization opportunities there are. That would be a lot harder and a lot more stressful. And I feel like I have to make a lot of compromises that I wouldn't want to make normally if I was in that position. So, yeah, but not to dissuade anyone. It's great. It costs no money to make a video. So definitely pursue it and see if you enjoy it and see if it takes off. Good deal. Well, I've got five rapid fire questions that before we wrap up, I'll run through here. So number one, mountains. This is funny because you're in Colorado. Mountains or beach? Yeah, mountains. Mountains, absolutely, actually. Beach is cool. Because sometimes when people live one place, they want to go the other place to get away. Yeah, beach is definitely more of a vacation thing for me. I like going to the beach for a few days, but living in the mountains by far, yeah. Favorite overlanding or camping snack? That's tough. I like chocolate milk. It's an ongoing funny thing on my channel. I like to bring chocolate milk. Is there a specific brand? I like most chocolate milk. There's one that's called promised land dairy, and it's like midnight chocolate. I think it's just like... It's probably so bad. Well, it's bad for you because it has so much sugar, but it's like drinking melted chocolate ice cream is what it tastes like. And I don't know, it's like I'm a little kid, maybe. I like chocolate milk. But yeah, I like probably that. That counts as a snack. Sure. What about preferred camping season? Yeah, there are things I like about all the seasons, honestly. In general, probably fall, where it's a little cooler. It's not miserable. My fingers aren't while I'm making dinner or whatever, but it's not too hot. Sometimes there's nice fall colors that you can take advantage of. And then in Colorado, anyway, 80 % probably of the trail's close in the winter because either they're just impassable or the gates close. But yeah, I like winter camping as well, but there's just way fewer options in Colorado. So probably fall or spring, spring or fall, one of the in between seasons. All right. Important question here, DeWalt or Milwaukee? I'm a DeWalt guy. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. I mean, for reasons, though. I have a few. They don't make a ton of them. I have a few made in USA, DeWalt tools, or at least assembled in USA with global parts or whatever, as good as they can do, I guess. But that it's a US-owned company. That conglomerate is a US company versus Milwaukee is owned by whatever that TN something, the Chinese Corporation. They make great tools, though. I have some Milwaukee tool. I'm mostly a DeWalt guy, a DeWalt 20 volt, 60 volt, flexible DeWalt guy, but I have a couple of Milwaukee M12 tools. And then Milwaukee packouts are pretty nice, the cases. But I'm a DeWalt guy for sure. Yellow, Team Yellow. Yeah, DeWalt is trying to play catch up on that packout game, but not quite the same. Yeah, Milwaukee's got their hooks in pretty deep. Yeah. All right, last question, Mike. If you could only choose one album or one artist to listen to all day on the trail, you got an eight-hour trail ride, you got one album on repeat, what's it going to be? That's one of the hardest questions ever, probably. I wish I had a good answer. I have a wide swath I could be listening to folk or country or like '90s emo music or techno synth way. I am so all across the board. But probably if I had to choose one, it'd probably be this old Screamo band. If you're approaching 40 years old, probably you would know it. But this band called Under oath is probably a band that I still like today. They're not a super well known. They weren't on MTV or anything, but an emo scream home band. It's had a resurgence in my life. I probably went through my late 20s and early 30s, just never. And then last couple of years, I was like, I'm going to listen to my old high school and college jams, and I got rehooked on them. It's funny how that stuff makes its way back up in your playlist, Shuffle. Yeah, I thought I had outgrown them, but I didn't. I didn't, I was wrong. All right. Well, thank you again, sir, for spending this hour and a half here with me. This has been really enjoyable. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you for having me on. And thanks for the information that you put out on YouTube as well. It's how I stumbled across your face and your knowledge in the Land Cruiser, specifically the LX570 world. So I appreciate the information you've been putting out there, too. Yes, sir. Yeah, we can't let everybody in on the secret that it's the better value or it'll run the-We already have. We already have. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, guys. I'd like a newer one. All right. See you next time..