Don’t Be Afraid to Change with Travis Rosbach

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weddell.

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Now let's get going into this episode.

Of Million Dollar Mastermind. We're talking with Travis Ross back and Travis is a multi talented. He's got a lively mind, he's got lots of abilities and he's interested in a lot of things. As a result, he's got a lot of, a lot of accomplishments along the way and we're going to dive into that. But welcome Travis. Thanks for taking the time to talk.

Larry, thanks for having me. It's great to be here.

And let me congratulate you on being the first guest I've had on here with an aquarium in the back of his as his wall screen in the.

Back they start to fight. Let me know, I'll just tap on the glass.

Okay, so let's talk about your story. You know, how did just so people will know a little bit about. You've done a lot of things. You've been had a bunch of companies. We'll talk about that. But you also been a former pilot for jets and commercial airline, which is not the Cessna that I soloed one time and immediately gave up that idea. But I mean you were big time into that. But you started a company in 2007 called Hydro Flask and has become one of the world's most popular water bottles. You've got eight patents related to the bottle. And the amazing thing, you started that 2007, five years later, sold it for what was that? $210 million. Is that accurate?

Well, yeah, I sold it and then it went on to sell for 200.

Yeah. And so the thing is that and now you've got another company that you had already started, Tumelo, the Tumelo Group. And so we'll hear about that. But suffice it to say you've been in the game performing at a high level yourself and very difficult, strenuous, highly responsible things like being a pilot for jets and commercial airlines, but going on and starting a big time company, coming up with an idea but then bringing it to the market, getting patents, all of those type things. So you might learn something along the way. Travis.

I'm always asking a lot of questions, Larry.

You might have learned something. So let's get into your story. Where do you think your story started? How early in your Life. Did you get on this particular path of curiosity and you know, following your natural curiosity and really doing something big with it like the flying?

Good question. I think it started about age 12. I had a neighbor who died and we were, we were fairly broke. We had not a lot of money. We were eating government cheese and had the opportunity to go into his house and do the estate sale. And there was opulence, there was money. It just felt different from our house, even though it was just right next door. And I inherited his bookshelf and on that bookshelf there was Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Wayne Dyer, all These sort of 80s and 90s legendary business gurus and entrepreneurs and how to self help books and things like that. I just poured myself right into them and I just could not stop reading them. About 14, I met my dad. He was down the US Virgin Islands. I took off down to St. Croix, met him, he had a dive, he had a couple, few dive shops. And then right after graduation I became a, a dive master, a dive instructor and a boat captain down in St. Croix. But, and then I went on to become a commercial airline pilot flying jets and stuff. But I was just always really fascinated with business. And so that's, that's kind of been my, my true calling all along is entrepreneurial endeavors and world exploration.

And how did, how long did it take you to go from getting down there, getting exposed to what your dad was doing to become a dive master and then what'd you say, a captain of a charter? What was that designation?

Well, yeah, so I went down at 18. Well, I started going down at 14 and became an open water diver. And then I got my advanced and rescue. And then as soon as I turned 18, I got my dive master, went over to St. Thomas, became a PADI dive instructor, 1581 90. And then I spent so much time on the dive boats and I just, I just loved being on top of the water also. Just kind of take a break from being under the water. So I got my US Coast Guard, 50 ton US Merchant Marine Captain's license, started doing a lot of parasail boats, ocean rafting, high speed, lightweight, really fast ocean rafts down throughout the British Virgin Islands. A little bit of time on some catamarans and some blue boats, but predominantly on, on power boats, fast boats, dive boats, parasail boats, things like that.

And so, and how long did that take?

Well, that was, that was about it. It was a lot of hours, a lot of days on the water. You know, every Designation was additional days on the water, 720 days on the water, or whatever the number was to get up to 50 tons. And then it was also in combination with time spent on large vessels. I was fortunate enough to get on a fairly sized yacht that, that bumped me up into the 50 ton rating and kind of traveled all over the world doing boating stuff. Lived in Australia for a while and worked on boats and had a little time in Fiji and Tahiti and things like that.

An amazing wealth of experience. And it would sound like for most people, you'd work yourself into the life of Riley, you know, just the dream life, doing that type thing. But, you know, the human mind has its own ideas about things. You know, these things are planted in us before we're born. And so somehow you said, you know, I don't want to spend all my life just on the water and under the water. I want to get up in the air, you know, I want to try, you know, speed. You know, a boat's never going to go as fast as a plane, that's for sure. So what got you thinking to make that transition? Because most people just say, I've got it made. I'm going to do this the rest of my life. The world is full of unbelievably beautiful places and I'm a star, I'm a captain, I'm a dive master, I'm an instructor. I can go anywhere, do anything and get a job pretty much anywhere. With the credentials you'd built up, I'm sure you had your name established in that industry and now you're thinking about moving into a whole nother industry. Nobody even knows who you are. And so talk about what you're, you know, what kind of scrambled eggs type thoughts did you have that caused you to think this would be a good idea?

Never quite heard it put that way, but I love it. Yeah. You know, there is a. There was a part of me that was just. I captained and was the first mate on pretty much all of the ships and vessels that I really had ever set out and desired to be on. You know, the only thing that I. I kind of did not get to do or have not done just yet was a circumnavigation.

And.

And for a long time I kind of wanted to go on a solo navigation. I just wanted to get on a boat and take off, but I had this kind of like odd fear of hitting a shipping container floating out at sea. So I don't know what that phobia is. Some sort of past life stuff. But I was, I was working on a yacht, I was making great money and they offered me the captain's position and it was incredible money. It was a lot of money. And I was only about 24 at the time and I just decided I'd kind of had enough of that. I didn't really want to be on the vessels anymore. It was, it was beautiful, it was great pay, it was a lot of fun, but at the same time it was a little confined. It was a full time time, live aboard job. And you know, it, it just, it felt like kind of like golden handcuffs almost. And, and I, and I declined, I said no, you know, I think I'm done working with you guys all together, but thanks anyway. As I was walking down the board ramp, I thought, oh geez, you know, like, what have I done? There goes my opportunity. And I heard you're a pilot. Like I'm a pilot, I guess. And, and that night I realized like, well, I don't know how to fly airplanes I guess but. And I need money for rent and food so I might as well go get a job as a captain again. And I happen to stumble upon a magazine called Flying a piloting magazine. And it like, I saw it and it was just like, okay, that is it, I'm a pilot. So I started calling around and, and they were telling me these outrageous prices to go to school to become a airline pilot. And I had like $8 to my name. And finally one of the schools said, well you can get student loans. I said, okay, I don't know what that is, but that sounds good, let's do that. So like everything just kind of started falling into line and I ended up leaving St. Thomas, came back to Oregon and started flying. And then September 11 happened. That put a huge pause on everything, especially aviation related. So then I moved over to central Oregon, started rock climbing and just kind of passing the time until we could fly again and then picked right back up and became a multi engine, you know, instructor with my instrument ratings and all that. And take, by the way. Well, it took, I started in 2000 and then 2001 happened and then 2002. So it was about two and a half, three years to get all my ratings. I did a bit of a fast track also. I went to a school called Airline Transport Professionals ATP. And I think, I don't remember exactly, I think it was about 90 days plus or minus where we had multi engine cross country time. So we just got to fly all over the country from school to school, racking up cross country pilot in command, multi engine, cross country instrument night time. So I had a lot of good hours from that school. And then when I got done with the school, I was driving back home, had no idea what I was going to do. And I saw some skydivers. I was like, well, skydivers need pilots. And went over and got a job flying skydivers out of Creswell, Oregon, which was just a lot of fun. I, I didn't get a lot of hours and I got no pay. But my gosh, I had a lot of fun and with those hours I was able. Then I went down to the Caribbean, back home to St. Croix and started flying charters like turbine jet charters. And then there was an opening at the Seabourne Airlines. And that's what I really had always wanted to do is fly the seaplanes. So I just barely passed the exam. And the next day I was up in Canada getting my twin Otter on float airline ratings.

Yeah, well, did you have, when did you have any moments you went through where, you know, I'm up here in the air now and things could go wrong? Oh yeah, that's what happened to me when I did my was getting my pilot's license and or in the process, you know, and I got it through one solo. I won't tell you the story of, of almost getting t boned by a 7,737that did not bother to call into the tower and get clearance. And on the cross, the cross thing. And I had to pull out right at the last minute. And once I got that thing down, I gave him the keys and walked away. But I mean leading up to that we had all kind of crazy things happen where all the power goes off. You know, we're up there, all the power goes off and then hit an air pocket and the instructor was taller than me and he went, he got knocked out. Oh gosh, you know, because he went boom. And I thought, what if I'm up here in a plane by myself and hit an air pocket? And then we had one thing and another. Then a front came in. You know, we went out there, you know, you check the weather before you go up. Clear skies all the way from Greensboro, 200 miles all the way up to Asheville. We go up for a 30 minute thing and we turn around and come back. You know, we practiced landings and takeoffs. We turned around to go back to the airport. We looked, it looked like Independence day with a black sky weather coming in. You know, we had to land and wait till that went. I was like, I Got the message real quick. I didn't need to be in the air. But how did you get past the kind of fears that jump into your mind? Because you're already a guy who's got this irrational fear of soloing around the globe and not being able to avoid hitting a tanker. So you're obviously capable of irrational fears. So how did you. How did you get yourself to the point of having the confidence to hang in there and go on with the flying?

Well, you know.

The thing is this, Travis, I want to build because we have these irrational fears. There's fears of things going, turning in disasters. When you start companies too and you're in charge and even after you've had year or two or three of success and this, that, the other. You mean there's always going to be those things that pop in your mind?

And.

So how did you look at that?

Well, I think every situation was a little different. I remember as a student pilot, one of the very first things that I was taught was, if it looks like you're going to crash, jam something in the door, put a jacket or something in the door so that if you do crash, you can at least get the door open and get yourself away from the wreckage. And so I guess that was always kind of in the back of my mind that I'm going to be okay if it crashes. I can just, you know, prop the door open and get out of here. But, yeah, there were quite a few times where one of the scariest jobs I had was as a. I had a paper route flying from St. Croix to St. Thomas at 4 o' clock in the morning. I'd fly the newspapers over to St. Thomas and the owner of the plane would fill it up with newspapers because the more newspapers I flew, the more money he made. And he would not put very much fuel in it. I mean, it was literally just enough to get there and back because the fuel weighed so much, he'd rather the money in the newspapers. And there were multiple days where I'd be coming back and like you said, the front would come in and I wouldn't be able to see the island. And I had to get real down low. And a lot of times, I mean, I was flying right on the surface and right on top of the waves in that kind of a. There's a. There's an air pocket. If you take an airplane and turn it sideways, there's a buffer zone that you can kind of just basically float and conserve fuel. And there were multiple times where I'd get down into that ground effect, I think it's called. I'd get down into the ground effect and just kind of coast back. But, yeah, there were multiple times. One time, I actually did get back to St. Croix just as I landed the in boat or the. I had one engine at that time. Engine went out, and I had to get towed back over to the hangar because there was no more fuel.

Wow. So you just had it. I like the. The idea of the guy telling you he assumed you would survive a crash and the biggest problem would be to get the door open.

Yeah, right. Yeah.

That's a positive. That's a positive thought, you know?

Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I didn't know any better.

You know, like, this is my kind of first or second flight. And I thought, well, this guy obviously knows what he's talking. He's an old pilot. He must know. And I just had blind faith at that point.

Yeah. Okay, so you move on from that. You become a commercial pilot. How did the thing with the, you know, looking on here, you. I don't know which you did first, the sign and screen printing company or.

The.

Tumor, basically, because Tumelo started in 2007. Right?

Yeah, yeah, I did the. Yeah, we had a. I had a fence company here in Bend, Oregon. We just started building clear cedar with no knots there. It was just beautiful fences. Right as the housing economy was going straight up, just before the 08 crash. And we sold that company, my partner and I, right before the 2008 crash, thereabouts, and we started a sign, banner, kind of an advertising agency in downtown Honolulu and Oahu. Signs and screen printing.

Okay, Dan, I want to wrap up this first session because you've got a big, powerful background, and I wanted people to kind of get. Get acquainted with who you are. What do you think? What could you pass on to people you think that you did? Right. As you continued to move through these things, you picked up skills. What I see that you did, Travis, is that you kept yourself motivated. A lot of people say, well, I'm bored. Which, to me, that's really poor. You know, that's. That's like saying to the world, I'm stupid, you know, because, you know, if you are bored in the world, whose fault is that, you know, Unless you're in a supermax prison somewhere in solitary, you don't have the right to be bored. And so you. So what you did was you. You kind of grooved off of the things you were excited about and could get interest. And like you said, you're on the water day and night. Accumulating hours, you fast track to the flying thing. And as a result, when you put in, it's amazing how much I've always thought that in 90 days, if you get interested in something, learning a language, playing in history, within 90 days of intensive around the clock effort, if you get the right kind of instruction and this, you know, decent equipment and everything, in 90 days you could probably move up to the top 90 percentile or at least 95th percentile of everybody who does that in the world. You know, just, it doesn't take that long to get really good at most things, almost everything, you know, and so that doesn't mean like if, if you're running, you're going to be the fastest or whatever, but you're going to be pretty good, you know, and so what would you say? So that's what I see about you. I see you as somebody who stayed. You gave yourself the freedom to, A lot of people don't want to change. You gave yourself. And the key to changing is to be more excited about what the new thought you have in your mind than you are about what you're leaving. And you can do that if you have saturated what it is you're doing and you've got all, you know, you squeezed all the juice out of that orange. And they say, well, you got a great orange here. Yeah, but I've squeezed, for me, I've squeezed all the juice out. It's time to move on. And so, but the people who never really take advantage of the situation they're in, they're always going to get around to this and get around to that. You know, they never maximize what they've got. But what I saw, see from you is you went, you got, in situations, you got all the juice there was out of it, went to the top of it and then your mind said, I want to move on. I don't want to be stuck here, I want to keep moving, keep learning. And so is that, is that something people could take away?

Absolutely, yeah. When it, when it struck that I was a pilot, I didn't even really think about flying planes. I was a pilot and so I started to study who and what are pilots. I knew that the flying was kind of an ancillary thing that would come later. But I knew that I wanted to fly for the airlines as an airline pilot. So I started to dress, walk, talk and act, hang out with, read, watch pilots. And so I became a pilot and then I became to learn. I then I learned to fly airplanes. And I think that that was has, has always been kind of a big benefit for me. Like you said, you know, if you throw yourself into it within 90 days, you can really get to the top pretty quick. Where. And I, and I recognize that the people around me were learning to fly the airplanes. They were putting all of their effort towards the flying, and they were, you know, they ended up as flight instructors for years and years and years and years. I didn't want to be a flight instructor. I wanted to be a pilot. So therefore, I studied pilots, and then I learned to fly the airplanes.

We're getting ready to have some real fun because we're going to talk about how you got into these businesses, because let's face it, a pilot's still an employee. You know, when you're, you're, you know, you're working for somebody, you're. You're limited in your income, and you still have to be there. You know, it's not like being captain on a boat, but you still, for a period of time, you've got to be there, and you've got to give up that element of freedom in your life in return for being a pilot, you know, because that's what a pilot does. So thanks so much for getting us going on this, and I can't wait to get in the next one. Thank you, Travis.

Thank you, Larry.

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