Scott Duffy interviews Les Stroud: TV's Survivorman with , Business & Burgers: Season 2 Ep. 8

I'm Alan Taylor. My buddy Scott Duffy and I are in search of the best burger in America. Each month we visit a new city to try some of the top restaurants, pubs and brewhouses while sitting down for a candid conversation with some of the top entrepreneurs, athletes, entertainers and celebrities. I don't know about you, but I love talking business over a burger. Welcome to business and burgers.

We're back for part two with our interview of the survivorman Les Stroud. And where better to talk with a professional nature lover than in beauty, beautiful Grants Pass, Oregon. I may be a bit biased. This is my hometown after all too. But Grants Pass truly has it all. From mountains and hiking to the wild and scenic Rogue River.

After a long day on the trails.

Or riding the rapids, there are many great places to kick back, relax and grab a burger. And one of my favorites is Climate City. Climate City Brewing Company arrived in Grants Pass a few years ago and set out to make their name in the craft beer world. Their year round craft beers have earned them high praise from the locals and the critics alike. And the high end pub fare is top notch. I think I can speak for Scott and Les when I say the the burgers at Climate City were absolutely delicious. Yesterday Les told us all about his path to success with his hit documentary series, Survivorman. Today our talk turns to Les music career. Les was a rocker long before he was survivorman. And even though music was put on the back burner for a while, his passion for song never died. As with everything Les does, his music was driven by a purpose and that purpose is to connect people with nature. With his songs and music videos, Les combines his three greatest passions, music, filmmaking and nature.

So Les, we pivot and now you're in the music industry and things are obviously fresh and new and you're going to look at fresh and new tools. Let's talk about what you're going to do different this time from what you did in 2001 when you first started with Survivor Man.

Right. And I think, you know, the thought of, you know, if I was starting Survivorman now, what would I do differently, you know, when I first started Survivorman? Think about where the Internet was at in 2001. Sure, right. Social media, the Internet, all of this, Facebook and Snapchat and Twitter, it just goes on and on.

What do you like the best out.

Of those that you just named?

I could never say which one because they're distilling down now to essentially just being outlets. Outlets like a local newspaper, like a billboard at a laundromat you know, that's all they are. They're just the digital version of that. I love the Disney model. I love going in house whenever possible. When I say in house, meaning instead of hiring a company for $23,000 a month to manage my website and my social media, I hire a person for X amount of dollars a week, much less. And I say, learn everything you can. You now have a full time job, right?

Yeah.

And that person is in the office, they see you, they have a drink with you, they have a lot of.

Fun, they're fired up, they feel proud.

And they're doing not only the same thing as these other big development, they're doing more. And it's personable question.

So a lot of people are very uncomfortable filming themselves. But in social media that's a really important element for many people.

It's a great point. Most people are uncomfortable filming themselves. Why do I continue to do well as a 55 year old guy on the social media platform? Because I know how to look into a camera and talk nature at its best. What could go wrong? I just sent a promo shot on my iPhone to somebody and he said, man, our tech guy, can't believe you got such great sound on this iPhone. How did you do it? I said, I spoke clearly and I projected my voice. It was an iPhone. Dude, you have to be authentic on camera. The minute you're not authentic, the rest.

Of us, because that's what people love, is somebody who is authentic and not afraid to actually just because I'm talking into a little round circle over your shoulder or talking to you, I still have to know that there's an eyeball, a person on the other side of that camera lens that I'm talking to. And if they don't feel that authenticity, they turn it off.

They're gone.

They zone out.

I've got a social media person, we call her Web Girl. She signs when she does. Here's a little trick by the way, she does everything. Signed Web Girl. When I post, I go, l. All of my fans know, oh, it was actually less, but they know I'm not being inauthentic and posting like, come and see me tonight in concert. You know, it's like they know it was somebody in the office.

That's right. That's right.

How am I managing all of this new world? I'm exploring it just like everybody else, but I'm doing it without getting sucked into the next big thing. We spent time on vine, disappeared, Snapchat, I don't know. But is Snapchat, right? For what I do, you know, Facebook, Is that right? Should we do both? Who knows? No one has that answer.

Like you said, you're wading in. You're not jumping in head first. And that way you can make quick decisions and turn on a dime.

Calculated risks. I'm wading in with a life preserver around me and I'm scared. Like I said, I'm not an adrenaline junkie. I calculate my risks as I get into the new social media, try to figure out what to do.

From 2001 to today, technology has advanced tremendously. And you kept right up with it because like he said, everything was very purposeful in every decision he made. How has technology aided you in even being out in the wilderness?

Technology has come to my rescue hugely. First of all, I'll backstep a bit and say, as a creator, it would be good to learn how to multitask. One of my multitasking roads was understanding technology and what it can do for me in presenting my creations. I first started with a shoulder mount camera, a big heavy thing like this, trying to film myself with that. And then along comes this little camera called the VX1000. I basically invented the selfie stick. Should have patented that one. Had my selfie stick. Nobody else was doing that. Everything that I had to do as a creator was different than any other TV show by necessity. I was completely alone. In those days, you had to have. 90% of your footage has to be shot on a broadcast quality camera. In those days, those broadcast quality cameras were. They were Sony beta cams. They were big beasts. Along comes the Sony VX1000 with a pretty good quality. Why did QC let me get away with it? Because I made sure that the creative producers in the networks saw my cut. And that goes before it goes to qc. So they see the cut and went back and forth.

Final.

There you go. Now it goes to qc.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Because they can kind of tell by technology and the lines, he's not using. 90%. Broadcast quality camera. What is this? And the executive producers say, but look at the story. The content king. Content will always be king. We care about the content. Fluff doesn't last long. And I was creating content that was powerful and different and unique. When I first pitched Survivorman, I met in a room with two filmmaker friends of mine that I respected. And I told them what I thought I should. I wanted to call the TV networks with this idea. And they both laughed at me audibly, out loud. And they were friends. And I have to say I was actually hurt.

Left. You know, I'm thinking, like, they're not even gonna help me. Two weeks later, I made the call, signed the series. One year later, they were both asking me for a job, which I never did give.

Right? Don't you love that?

I've had that too. But here's the key about the idea, the great idea. You know, different people will come to me with great ideas. And I call it. I do this sometimes in seminars. I call it the pitch and run. You know what we should do? We should do blank. Okay, go for that, guys. And off. You can't pitch and run. If it's your idea, if it's your passion, you are the only one who will see it to fruition. It's true every single time. You might think you gave it to your partner and he's got it. You might think you gave it to this executive and she's got it. Uh, if you don't stay with it every step of the way, it will find a place, hit a wall and die. And you'll be like, hey, how about that deal we were working on? Oh, yeah, we haven't called the guy yet. We were thinking, right, you've got to stay to the end of your passion, right?

And when you go through periods where you're going through that swamp and you're swimming, but you get stuck, things aren't going right, things go sideways, it seems like the world's gonna end on us at that point. What do you do to get yourself back on course?

Perseverance. Perseverance, man. That's it. There's always hurdles, speed bumps, roadblocks. You can get over a hurdle around a speed bump. It's the roadblocks that are tough. You learn to recognize those three things. And if you recognize a roadblock for what it is, okay, you need to get another road. But speed bumps and hurdles are just that. And the other thing that I'm doing is starting my own channel. You didn't ask me about that because you didn't know, did you?

I didn't know.

Breaking news, everyone.

Breaking news. Yeah, I'm gonna be starting my own absolute channel. We're not talking YouTube, we're talking subscription based, like a Netflix, like a Hulu, that sort of thing. This is gonna be everything. Survivorman, which I hate to say this so vainly, but if you like me and you like what I do, let's get together and rock this. Because for the price of a cup of coffee, I'm gonna bring you everything you want me to bring you, this cold, arctic mistress.

Breath.

I do not let myself get into anything without expressing gratitude. I know it's starting to sound cliche. I hate to say it, it's out there so much. But I express gratitude. I pick my five things. I pick the relationships in my life. I pick my kids, and I say for their health and their love with me. I pick the beautiful things I'm able to see in this world when it comes to nature. I pick the abundance I get to experience and my chance to enjoy it. The money, the fun. And I pick my own creation and creativity and the chances I get to express it, be it film, be it music, be it writing. And I gotta feel it. I gotta feel the gratitude for those things. Or it's not authentic, is it? You gotta be authentic even in your gratitude.

And everything starts with gratitude. You know, I always tell people, if they ask me, you know, what's the most important skill that you need to have as an entrepreneur? That's my answer. Gratitude. And the reason is it doesn't matter what's going on. If you're going through good times, bad times, you're up, you're down. If you focus every day on the things you have versus the things that you don't have, you're much more empowered, right?

Well, yeah. And it sounds almost, you know, New Agey. Get over that. You know what? It's spoken and it's taught because it's real.

I want to give you a couple of quickies. Who's your hero?

Who's my hero? I idolize risk takers because I'm not. I'm such a calculated risk taker. It's like, oh, should I go in now? You know, oh, where's my life preserver? Okay, now I'll go.

What are you most proud of?

Survivorman. You know, there's times when I've hated survivorman, but I know I'm proud of survivorman realistically, because it affected people in a positive way. It was inspiring. I've had people send me many, many messages about how it got them through being stuck on their back, eight months in the hospital, how it got them out of a. Get this out of a. An abusive relationship. Those stories give me that weird combination of being incredibly humbled and incredibly proud at the same time.

There's people all over the country that are thinking about getting started. It's starting a business, but something's holding them back. What's the one piece of advice you give to them?

Don't do anything because you want to get rich. Don't do anything because you want to make money, do everything. I out of the little burning germ of passion that's down in your deep belly, your guttural instinct that says, well, here's what I really want to do. Good. Do that. I know this is a cliche, but the money will follow.

What makes you most happy?

Lots of things. You know, my own.

Selfish gathering of energy from nature, from being out in the wilderness a moment, playing my music with somebody. I can see somebody singing along with my lyrics. I have yet to perform a concert where I can stop the song and let the crowd finish the song. We've all heard people do that. I know I'm gonna break down balling when that happens because I'm looking. So when I have those connections with the audience is very powerful for me. A lot of times, what makes me most happy is completion, the joy of completion. The only reason survivorman happened was because I eventually later in life, we're talking 30ish. I started to figure out I should maybe complete the things I start made a big difference.

What does success mean to you in this new pivot towards music?

If I can stay true to my mission and that's the big thing here, always staying true to your mission. If I can stay true to my mission and not lose myself and get stressed out and hung up or focused on numbers, then I will. And yet it still it accomplishes. It gets out there. It affects people in a positive way, it creates an inspiration for people, then that'll be my nod. You know, I can always manage the money, can always make things work financially. That's no big deal. So that'll make me the most happy, I think is now I've seen what survivorman has done. I will continue to honor that. And now I'm doing this music and I will honor it. And I want to see sort of some of the same results.

Last question.

What does a barbecued scorpion taste like?

Barbecued scorpion tastes like. You know what it actually tastes like? It takes like the burnt end of a chicken wing. You know, that's actually kind of good. You have your chicken wings, whatever. There's always a little kind of burnt end. That's what it tastes like.

Tastes pretty good.

You're awesome.

It's great to see you.

I'm gonna keep eating.

Let's finish this.

It's not often you get to sit down with someone as uniquely insightful as Les Stroud. Here's some food for either authentic or you're not. There's no in between. Content is king. We care about content. Fluff doesn't last long. Don't pitch and run. If it's your idea, you are the only one who will see it to fruition.

Check out more episodes of Business and Burgers and our B blog at our website, businessandburgers. Com. And don't forget, visit Business and Burgers on Facebook and give us a big thumbs up. See you next time right here on Business and Burgers.