Why I Quit a "Successful but Unsatisfying" Business to Build a Movement ft. Jeffrey Hunter

Okay, this is a Sprinter van from Storyteller Overland, and these are really amazing portable little kind of mini houses on wheels. And the way that I will be utilizing one is for podcast studio, taking it up to my ghost town, which is Cleator, Arizona, sleeping overnight or as long as I want to. There's an indoor shower, outdoor shower, This has a whole awning that comes out, so you have your outdoor patio. There's a cooktop, there's a sink, there's a refrigerator right there. In the front, you've got 2 seats with a table. The 2— the passenger seat and driver's seat turn around so you could all, you know, have— be facing each other. That's why I'll record some of the podcasts. And then there's a bed in the back. There's room for mountain bikes, whatever you want. And so this guy right here is Jeffrey, and he is He's the CEO of the company. So come in the back. So obviously we're here at Genius Network, so you got a bunch of people checking it out. But yeah, this just pops up, bed comes down. What do you think, Joe Polish? Yeah, I think you need two of them. You gonna move in? Well, I come with you. Got it. So that's it. And it, you know, Jeffrey will be able to explain how much water does this hold. It's 24 gallons of fresh water. 24 gallons fresh water.

And then about the same for the gray water.

Okay. And the battery, how long will it run AC for, like in the hottest summer in Arizona? In the hottest summer in Arizona, through the full duty cycle, you'll probably get about 9.5 to 10 hours out of it. Okay.

But if you're not running AC like, and you're just using the, the vent fans and the like, uh, you could be off-grid for about 7 days on this with the power that's stored in. And it only takes about an hour and a half worth of high idle or drive time to like fully replenish that.

There you go, hour and a half, uh, drive time to replenish it. So it's a pretty self-sufficient unit. This is the outdoor shower, this is the different things.

So yeah, uh, these, these things are, uh Yeah, yeah, you get like kind of the reflectory.

And then of course, any sort of a rack system you want to put in the back here. Do you like to go on adventures? When you go on an adventure, do you fly or drive? If you drive, do you drive your car, your truck, a trailer, or an RV? Or are you driving a Storyteller Overland Van? 4 years ago, the first van was sold, and just last month, the 2,000th van of off the Storyteller Overland production line rolled off. So these are luxury vehicles starting at $153,000 all the way up to $226,000. Almost everything about them is unique and spectacular, especially the founder and CEO Jeffrey Hunter, who not only drove— he's got one of the vans here for all of us, for you to see, but I'm going to be doing an interview with him. I'm going to ask him the kind of questions you'd ask an entrepreneur who started a business from scratch and grew it to over $200 million in just 4 years. That's an adventure all in itself. Please help me welcome Jeffrey Hunter. Awesome, sir.

Love it.

Where you prefer?

We'll go here.

Okay, awesome. All right. So I'll keep the hat close by just in case, just in case. Let me put it back on.

All right.

So what did I not say about you that everyone here should know?

That I am super grateful to be here. How freakishly cool is this? Like, y'all have— I always suspected that there was an enclave of like really awesome, cool people that were talking about all the cool shit and helping each other out. I always suspected that these kinds of things existed, but here we are. And the fact that there is a Genius Network is awesome. The fact that you are the fearless leader of it makes all the sense in the world. The fact that I am here is something that I'm grateful for, but I haven't quite figured out. I self-diagnosed with imposter syndrome yesterday after listening to Doug, but, but nah, super cool to be here.

Yeah, it's so great to have you here, and we totally hit it off. So this just goes back a few weeks ago. I went to the Overland Expo. There's many of these outdoor events, and you guys go to a lot of them, and you have a big community of around it, and it was the first time I did it, and so I met Jeffrey there, and it was really cool, and I've shared this with a couple people including him, but we're looking at all these booths, and there were all kinds of things in this whole overland world that I didn't even know existed. It's like me stepping onto a new planet, and of course being a business owner and entrepreneur, it was like this whole new niche that, you know, I knew this stuff was out there, but I never really went, you know, I was always on the outside. I never kind of went into it. And, uh, there was a Mercedes booth because they make the Storyteller Overland on a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van. And there was a guy that was a photographer and videographer that was at this Mercedes booth, and he just looked like he kind of knew this whole world. And so I was there with Jason Campbell and Mike Leone, who I own the Ghost Town of Cleator, Arizona with, and then Pat Nighhouse. And so And then a couple of other friends came out there that we met while we're out there for the 3 days, and I said to him, I'm like, "What is your favorite, you know, Sprinter van company that's out there?" He's like, "Which one of the best vans?" Because I'm there looking for one of these for myself, because I was like, "I'm going to go to this place and then decide which one I want to buy." And he said Storyteller, and he's like, "There's some cool ones, but Storyteller is my favorite." I'm like, "Why is that?" He's like, "Well," They're really well built, they're awesome, they totally have it dialed in. He's like, but their community, he's like, the storyteller people that buy the vans, they just have the strongest rabid community. And then, you know, talking with Jeffrey, like, what is all this? So this is gonna be the basis of some of my questions to you, are like, what does that even mean? So like, I think the van is the vehicle for people to live their lives and tell their own stories. And from talking with him, it wasn't like, you know, we're not telling people how to do their lives, we're just providing them a way that they can experience more, uh, and, and, and coming from a really genuine place. So my whole conversation with him, I was like, yeah, this guy, it's just a really cool culture, a really cool company, you know, the, the clients seem to love it. And so we, you know, we started talking and, you know, we had a, you know, conversation and we spent 2 hours on a Zoom meeting. And towards the end of it, I was like, What are you doing during these dates? Because I just love— I was like, I'd love for you to come and share stuff on how you built this company, what you think about it, you know, in your entrepreneurial journey. You're clearly having a success, and they're, you know, the top in the world in their category, as far as I know, in that particular niche. So that's what, that's what you're here for. And, and I think this is just the beginning of seeds being planted of what the hell we could do together, because I want And then I'll shut up, sorry. It's like, let me bring someone up to interview them and I'll do all the talking. So I want to have a mobile office. It's really good for the ADD brain, I believe, to be able to have a contained space, but it can take you wherever you want. And so mountain bike, hiking, my ghost town, podcasting, thinking, journaling, just doing something where it allows me, you know, personally and professionally. So that's, uh, that's, that, that was— so what's the story behind Storyteller Overland? Why'd you start all this? Let's go, let's go there.

Well, um, yeah, so some of that's a super long story, but the condensed version is, uh, we've been in this kind of second stage automotive custom world for about 15 years. Previously to this, we had a business, uh, I and my partners had a business that I would regard as successful, but not particularly satisfying. Previously, our focus was on a more luxury-oriented mobile office type of product. Also on the Sprinter platform, just kind of private jet on wheels. Super cool. A lot of people, you know, seem to enjoy them. But it was, there was also a little bit of conspicuous consumption in it, like what was leading people to buy that particular product. And again, we're grateful that folks saw the value in what we were building, but it got to the point that I didn't. And not that we weren't providing need or, you know, solving people's problems or doing cool things, but it just felt like there would be different ways, maybe better ways, to make an impact, do something that was more connected, engaging, substantive from our perspective. And so about that time, private equity agreed with my other business partners and they— a larger private equity fund came in and offered to buy out the previous partnership. And my business partners who had been the original founders of the company continued on their journey with the, with the group that ultimately got sold to Fox, and it gave me the perfect time to just really get into this, this space, this community that I had kind of seen emerging and evolving in the van life and overland space that seemed to be more, um, I don't know how to say it really, but it just seemed to have more substance to it, it seemed to be more interconnected, seemed to be more, more community-oriented, and it seemed to be more impactful in really getting people connected to greater experiences that were kind of transformative for their, their crew, their family, and kind of the world around them. And it's like, yeah, we, we had built a lot of stunning relationships as a result of the previous partnership. We had the full attention of all the major OEMs like Mercedes and their engineering group and Ford. So a lot of the infrastructure for that was built by relationship through the previous business. And so there was a lot of overlay and a lot of transfer into this. But outside of the mechanics of those, those types of things, everything was fresh and new and just a blank slate. And so we just got to build from there. Had a lot of the team already in place when I told them, um, what I wanted to do. They were like, sounds awesome, sign me up, what are we doing? And then they agreed to do it, and then I told them what it was. And I would say I kind of keyed them in to what was happening in the van life and overland space and what I thought we could do if we just really put our hearts and minds to it. And everybody doubled down on their creativity, really bought into it. It started about— we started the end of 2018 in November. By March of the following year, we had 3 provisional patents filed. We had— that were ultimately granted, not just nationally but internationally. We had developed a focus floor plan feature set. We had 2 fully production-intent-ready prototypes that we launched at this big RVIA gathering. And then we showed up just hearts open, eyes open, just ready to go at this big launch event for the RVIA group, which is kind of the governing body for the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association.

Went live on that floor.

The press release about the company went live that day, and it's It's just kind of been a whirlwind ever since.

Wow, wow, that's awesome. Hey, I hope you're enjoying this video, and I want to let you know that I have a new book that's come out, and if you'd like to get it absolutely free, there's a link below in the description, or you can wait till the end of this video, or you can simply go to joesfreebook.com and you can get a copy there. So, you know, so explain a couple terms so people hear that, uh, van life and overland, okay? Because I think it's It— let me back up and even give some context of where the seed was originally planted. What I hope today does is plant a seed. Some of you may be like, "Oh, you know, I don't know if I'll ever get in a van and go wherever you're gonna go with it," but you never know. And so several years ago, Ben Altidonna— how many of you know Ben Altidonna? He's been around forever. He was one of the top sellers of teaching chiropractors how to market and grow their their practices. And so I've known Ben for 25 years, and he's the one that originally introduced me and invited me to the dinner with Mike Faith that was put on in 2006 where I first met Richard Branson for the first time. So anyway, we were talking, and I've been to his house. He has two houses, nice house. Guy makes a lot of money. And he makes this comment to me on the phone. He's like, I get more work done getting in my Sprinter van, driving to the Whole Foods parking lot, and just sitting there all day just working. He goes, I feel focused. I get a lot done. And prior to that, I can get more work done in a public library in an hour than I can in my own building. And this is an 11,500-square-foot building, and most of the wing of that building is all devoted to all my crowd. And I still, like, get distracted here. But in a space of a library or some other space where it's quiet, my brain just focuses differently. Some people do well in coffee shops. I don't. It's too noisy for me. However, you know, then COVID happened and libraries were shut down and all these little places that I used to like that were quiet. And I never forgot that conversation with Ben. And then I called up Ben. I'm like, so how's the Sprinter van thing? He's like, well, I'm now on my third one. And he said, "It's awesome." He goes, "I love it, and I'm actually getting rid of more and more of my possessions, and I spend most of my time in my van." He goes, "I love it so much." He goes, "I'll speak at some conferences, and they'll have these really nice hotels, and they want me to stay in the room, and if it's within driving distance, I'll drive my van there, stay in the parking lot, shower there, put on a 3-piece suit. They don't even know I wasn't even in the hotel, and they're offering to pay for my hotel." He goes, "It just feels so good to me." And I'm like, "Wow." What the hell are you talking about? And now, so I didn't quite— and this was like this ongoing conversation over the last year. And then finally, uh, you know, he's like, you got to come out to this Overland Expo. I go to it every year. I'll come out and meet you. And that's, that's where I went, right? And I had gone and I had rented a, um, I had rented a, uh, a Sprinter van to take up to Cleator, Arizona from a company called Outdoorsy, uh, and they They're like the Airbnb for Sprinter vans. And so this company, I met the CEO of Outdoorsy, and we've been talking about when they come to Arizona, they use Kleder to rent out my ghost town on their site, right? And they just passed $2 billion in revenue. So they're, and I'm like going, this is a big growing niche of people that I think what happened in COVID is this sort social distancing thing caused so many people to be like, we want to be out in nature, we want to be able to go wherever we want. And so it really brought a whole new meaning to it. And so the, you know, there's twofold my intention. For one, to extract from Jeffrey some business lessons of how you've built and grown the business. The second is what is this, what is this doing for people that are buying your products and services? What is van life? Which we'll come back to in a moment. And what does this actually do for your thinking? Like, if you could change or create an environment that was more conducive— because this year we've had Steven Kotler talk about flow, we have Dr. Doug Brackmann talking about being a driven entrepreneur, and there's a lot of driven people in there. And what I realized from talking with Ben and from being in the, in the van is like, wow, like, for the way my brain is, you give me that sort of space, and then I can go to any landscape I want. I can drive up to, you know, go to a park, go anywhere. It's like, if you have kids at home, if you have noise, just being able to— like Ben even told me, he goes, I'll oftentimes go out, and if I can't get a work problem done, I'll go out into my driveway and I'll literally do work, and I will sleep in my van outside of my house, and I sleep better. And I'm like, what the fuck? But I'll tell you, after even just dabbling in this, it totally is starting to make sense to me. And I'm like, wow, this is, this is really kind of interesting, you know, on how the driven brain and how, you know, the entrepreneur works. So that's, uh, so let's go back to the van life and out, like, uh, Overland. What does that even mean to people that have never, you know, experienced this before?

Well, the— there are distinct communities, I guess, between what is van life and what is Overland. Uh, van life has become kind of the catch-all phrase or the hashtag van life thing on Instagram became a little bit of a catch-all term for people that were just a little more free-spirited, a little more nomadic. Maybe they had a portable skill set or they could code from anywhere or run their photography business from anywhere. And it was a lot— the on-ramp for that was different for a lot of, a lot of folks. Some of it is Some of it's solving for— I'll put it this way. We have a lot of folks who live in our vans that collect really high, you know, really big checks as coders for Google and Facebook, but they were historically in the Bay Area, and they started doing this income arbitrage over— it's not how much you make, it's how much you keep. And if you're trying to live a Bay Area lifestyle at the Bay Area cost of living, but you're, you're right, you're getting written a check from a company that makes you theoretically a high-income person, then again, that income arbitrage, van life solved for that for a lot of folks that were doing the math over like, hey, you mean I could go and like my office could be El Capitan one day or somewhere Cannon Beach the next or something. So yeah, that— so it's a free-spirited, very, um, uh, again, nomadic. I'll overuse that term, but the overland thing is more usually more driven. They're kind of like the philosopher kings and queens of off-roading. I mean, folks that are very adventurous and want to go cool places and do cool things, but it's I think the technical definition or the one that has endured the longest is self-contained, self-directed vehicle-assisted travel or vehicle-reliant travel. So it's folks that everything you need to live and sustain life is going to be on or in your vehicle, on your person or in your vehicle for whatever period of time. So that's the Overland perspective. So preppers with a Tacoma, right, or with a, uh, or with a Sprinter van. But we, we kind of recognized that those, even though they, they were distinct and they found ways to distinguish themselves, we kind of rested in the Venn diagram overlap where those two things connected. And it brought a little bit of the, the warmth and the hominess and the vibiness of the, the van lifers were seeking And it brought the ruggedness, the capability, and the self-contained sustainability of the overland community.

So now you have this community of people that you are doing it, you know, letting them self-create and self-organize events, and you're also putting out media, and you're letting people create this new experience in their life. Why'd you call it Storytellers? So kind of give me a little bit of the background because I think with the marketers in the room and the business owners in the room, in a lot of ways, you know, stories sell, stories engage, and I think you have a really interesting way of selling a product and services.

Well, as far as like how the community evolved, we started with that as a point of reference. We knew that that was the ultimate goal and the desire to do something that would unleash that type of interconnectivity. So in our world, I always say it a lot, but community cures all. Like everything you need to know, everything you need to accomplish, everyone you need to know, it's all going to get solved for by all this interreliant, interdependent connections, which is just— you can see it in the room. That's how you all built the Genius Network, and it's pretty amazing. That there's some version of this, a microcosm of this that exists in our world, where it's just cool people trying to do cool things and help each other out and help each other be successful. But when we were listening and learning, because if there's anything that's more— if there is any superpower of Storyteller and the team, I think it was just we just paid attention and hyperfocused and listened longer. Like Michael, who's sneaking out the back door over there, said in his, like, just being very intentional to listen to, uh, to, to the information. I didn't mean to call him out, sorry.

No, that's great.

I love it when you guys— but, but yeah, just, just really focusing in, really listening a little bit longer to what somebody's actually saying, because there were a lot of folks showing up in the market trying to find vehicles, and they were thinking that they were going to have to build it themselves or go to a custom van builder and had no idea how that would turn out for them. But anyway, what we— rather than thinking about what's the product, we were thinking about what's the point. And the point that we were trying to solve for was people were trying to become the heroes of their own story for the benefit of themselves, their family, and the world around them. And so with that being said, it became kind of on the nose. Well, Storyteller is kind of the brand that built the business around it. Like, if you're trying to help people achieve that, if you're trying to help people achieve being the hero of their own story and be self-directed and giving them a product or a van or vehicle that gives them the confidence to go and do that, why not have that as the name, right?

No, I mean, actually, I think it's just really good marketing, you know.

But the other side of that is, at the same time, um, I'll spare you part of the story, but I'll impose the other aspect of it. Um, my wife Lisa, who I love and adore, was not instantly sold on this idea. Because it kind of started out, hey, I might build a van. And then we were listening and learning and realizing that some of the things that we would want to solve for if we built a van, we could solve for it at scale if we built a van company. So it was a little bit self-serving. But anyway, Lisa might not have been super on board initially even though we had had success in the previous business. She was like, why do you have to keep doing this? And I don't know, because I'm a driven. It's this particular brand of neurodivergence, I guess. But so anyway, she's like, really, we're doing this again? Yeah, can we please? But she had this turn of phrase that I think flipped everything on because I had mentioned the name storyteller to her, and she had this turn of phrase where she was— our niece, she'll pick it up, our niece sometimes, they have this kind of like love-hate dynamic and they provoke each other and it's kind of awesome and fun to watch. But her retort to Makayla was always, "Ah, just shut your storyteller. Just shut your storyteller." And so that was a word that was in her mouth, and I was like, But that's what we would call it. That's what we would call the company. And so I think she kind of took ownership of it at that point. Wow, that's funny. So it kind of helped solve for a lot of things. That's great. When she had a strong hand in helping to name the enterprise.

Yeah, well, there's that line, you know, Alex says it all the time, Alex Mendoza, you know, people support what they help to create. You know, and I think with Storyteller and your clients, You know, your clients will support what they help to create, and I think you've created a community that your customers and clients are utilizing your product to create their own stories. And so they're creating your own company.

Yeah.

You know, by telling their stories. And we were talking like, you know, how do we do a storyteller event in Cleator? Where we— he's like— and he was interested. He's like, yeah. You know, what— of course, I mean, that's what led to us having rapport. We're both talking about how do we fit our commonalities into making something. You know, I happen to have a ghost town, you happen to have this company, how can we do something? But the deeper conversation became, you know, what does it have to do for the people? Why would they come there? What, you know, that's just one of many things. And, you know, I, I think, uh, there— we're gonna have a conversation about AI after this conversation, and The interesting thing about AI is we're more connected in computers and tech and everything. We're more connected electronically than ever before in human history, but we're more disconnected as humans. And so there are devices and apps and everything designed to keep people from the temptation of being connected, right? And the interesting thing, what I've thought about the Sprinter van when I finally get mine, which will be very shortly, then I will, you know, be able to drive wherever I want, disconnect wherever I want. If I want to go to a place where there's no internet, I'll be able to do that. And the reason I bring up the AI thing, I think inhuman gatherings are going to be the killer app, because when everything is faked, when you don't know what video is real, when you don't know what voice is real, Being with another human is going to be such a valuable experience, and I want to set up my life to where I am in the world, not in this perceived staring at a screen world. And I think there's a real danger— I think this is good for your mental health. I think this is good because it's like— I have a lot of friends that have dogs, and I've had this conversation many times. Why do you have a dog? It's the only thing that will get me out of the house. It's the only thing that has me go out and take a walk. I'm like, fuck. I mean, think about what we have become as a culture, where you have to have a trigger like an animal that needs to poop and go for a walk. That's the only thing that's going to get you away from the screen. And so I look at all of this in that sort of way. And we have a tool in Genius Now called Write Yourself a Swimming Pool. And it came from a conversation with— Paul McCartney and John Lennon, and he was saying, you know, I remember me and Paul, it's Paul saying, I remember me and John talking and a reporter said to them, you know, the Beatles are materialistic. He goes, you know, no, we're not materialistic. John used to, we're not anti-materialistic. I remember sitting down with John and saying, hey, let's write ourselves a swimming pool. Well, let's write a song a song that's going to make us enough money where we can buy a swimming pool. So I created a tool called Write Yourself a Swimming Pool, and it's what's the big idea. So for me, when it comes to getting a— I'm going to get the top-of-the-line one. So if you want a $200,000 Sprinter van or whatever, you want a house, just write it. What is the business idea? What's the sales letter? And so think of selling as influence. Think of marketing as storytelling. So what What is the sales letter? What is the video? What is the thing you need to do that will get you the money? So for me, this is almost just kind of a bit of a game. I'm like, I want this thing, I think it's really cool, turn it into a podcast studio, it becomes a total business write-off. I have this portable thing that I— it's just like this neat thing. And so I think even if this ain't your thing, I hope you use this conversation as what is something that you really want that will allow you to experience more of an elf life that will be awesome and just freaking create it. Just use that brain of yours, use Genius Network. What are the ideas? Let's go ahead and do it. And I— so I wanted this conversation to kind of be like, hey, I think it would be hysterical if we have like 5 or 10 or 20 people in Genius Network that all have— because here's— I want to see how everyone would use the damn thing because then it would make a great idea. And then like, hey, let's all drive together and meet up at this place here and have this sort of like event because I think that'd be kind of cool. So for me, it's just another excuse to put people together and get them to connect with each other. It's a connection mechanism. And that's what I see what you're doing with Story Dude. You're just connecting people. And when I went and saw that group of people, I was like, damn, these like people are— I was talking to people saying, so, you know, I had no idea how many people lived in their vans. Like, these are like smart, talented, capable people. Many that are, you know, some just scraping by, others are making a lot of money. And they like, I love it. I feel more, you know, I was talking to this one guy at a gas station. I'm like, you know, how long have you had the van? He goes, I live in it. I'm like, how long have you lived? Like, he's like, I've lived on the road for 8 years.

And I'm like, well, it's become like a meme, right? Because there used to be that whole Matt Foley thing from SNL, like, you're gonna live in a van down by the river. And now that's like the opt in, like I wanna live in a van down by the river, so it's like flip the whole thing. Because it feels like agency, it feels like self-direction, it feels like rugged individualism.

My God, where's the Carey at? Where's the Carey Chan? He's probably downstairs. So Carey, we gotta do a video like that. We gotta do a new version of the motivational speaker van down by the river, but a person who's not insane and totally has his shit together and is not a cocaine addict. And so, you know, that would be— I actually love that. Can we show the website real quick? I want to pop the website up. I want you to see a couple of the different, the 4 different designs of vans that they have. And then at the bottom of the site though, this is user-generated content. People just— and correct me if I'm wrong, it's just, it's constant new videos that the people that are out there living their life in the vans are sharing the stories. And so, uh, you want to give a quick overview of some of the different models and what they are? Just, I know that you can go see the one outside when we're done, uh, through the day.

But yeah, it's— they're all pretty much like the same focus floor plan and feature set. What had happened kind of prior to our entry into this space is, um, people were either having to build their own vehicles, getting YouTube certified and going to Facebook Universe and just trying to like figure stuff out on their own. And a lot of really cool innovative things, uh, wound up on #vanlife as a result of that. But everything else was either a really cookie cutter, like RV-grade kind of thing that squeaked and popped and rattled when you went down the road and kind of fell apart 2 weeks after you bought it, or it was super premium, took a long time to, to build, and you really didn't know what you were going to get until you took it home, and because it was like pure custom one-off, right? So we tried to solve for a lot of that just with, with something that could be easily, uh, just an intuitive interior design, flex between a lot of different use cases, uh, kind of respond to the moment you were in or the, the use case you needed. And so anyway, all of the interior of these would be really very similar, but The, the Ford has lower ground clearance, but it has like the convenience of a gas burner engine as opposed to diesel. But all the Sprinter products, again, the interiors are the same, but they're like— if you go all the way up to like the Beast Mode, which is on the far right there. Beast Mode, that one has some suspension, all the crazy suspension modified, like a really cool light kit, some auto start high idle tech on it. That's, uh, that's It's really cool. So yeah, I mean, it's basically what you saw out here yesterday is pretty indicative of what we do on that B-Van space now. But like Joe Polish pointing out, like all of this stuff is typically user-generated content. Some of it's, you know, our team, which we have like one of the best creative teams in the history of forever. I love them. They're like, they're just, they're like senses are running riot and their brains are always on fire and they're always willing to go and do and be. But, but the coolest stuff we get is just shared with us by the folks who, who— well, I would say it this way—

who don't just like buy the product but really buy into the movement.

They really buy into the community that, that comes along with the affiliation with Storyteller.

Yeah, just out of curiosity, how many of you now are thinking that one day you could actually do— you could own something like this and you could go do adventures in it that you never thought I thought you would—

Let me see those hands.

Yeah, I mean, and how many of you, this was the last thing that was on your mind before you came to Genius Hour? You're like— Now part of that is just realize you all have Tom's disease, especially Driven, which is terrified of missing shit. So there's that. There's the FOMO thing. But there is the real aspect of like, you know, I've actually been very patient about this because you said to me that— because I was asking you, Why do you have a built-in shower versus a— I mean, you have a shower there, but you could have one that's— and you're like, well, it takes a— we— you said we looked at all the different things that people liked, what they really liked, what worked, what didn't work, and then we built it. So you, you definitely even talked about here, you're— you were very much a measure twice, cut once sort of, sort of decision. So yeah, and, and I am more apt to just immediately buy something, and the very first, uh, van that I went and looked at, it was a Mercedes Sprinter van. Um, I, I told I was going to buy it right there on the spot, and the guy said, you know, go if, if you want where I bought this from. And he was where it was bought from, not him, because he was actually selling it for his uncle. This guy literally owned a private plane hangar, and they were storing his— who lived in another place, and they bought it during COVID and it literally had like had 4,000 miles on it, and this thing was like brand new. And, uh, they paid $160,000 for it, and I was going to get it at a really good price. And it was really cool, but it had the sofa in the back and everything. And he, to his credit, uh, he's like, if you want to see why I bought it, it's down the street. This place here in Arizona, one of the dealers that sells Storytellers, it was called La Mesa. And so I went down there and I saw all these other ones. That was the first time I saw Storytel. I saw all the other ones, and I didn't even realize all of the shit you can do inside a van. I mean, it didn't even— like, oh my God, you go like, there's a million things that you can do inside a van. But the, the thing— what I, I was at first going to do a custom one, but then after renting one, I realized, man, to figure out every little button, where to go, how to build it, like— and even what Ben told me, Ben's like, just, you know, if you, if you just get the first one You're gonna just— you'll know, and you'll never figure it out by just what you like and what you don't like. Just get one, and then you can just— he's like, Joe, you got money, so you can like go get whatever the hell you want. But just, you know, get the one that fits you and just go out and start living your life and do your thing, and then you'll see if you want to need to add this accessory or that accessory. But I've really taken some time, and it was— and had I not, I never would have came to the Overland Expo. I never would have met you. I wouldn't be thinking about all this. So now my whole brain is like going, oh yeah, I wanna turn this into something that's super easy, lucrative, and fun. I want this van to add another $2 million a year to my income.

Love it.

Because of what my brain will be able to do inside of it. So that's the way that I'm thinking about it.

That's like Gary said yesterday, maybe you were supposed to be there.

Yeah, exactly. Okay, I hope you found that video awesome and useful. So if you wanna get a free copy of my book, I want you to click here. And if you want to watch some more videos that will be useful and awesome, click here. Go ahead. They're over here.

Do it now.

Come on.

Thank you.

Watch them.