Josh Grillo: Discovering Life's Moments: A Business Owner's Epic 3-Month Sailing Journey with Family and Lessons Learned

I do really believe 100% from every part of me that everyone has the capacity to be able to do the things that they want and not to be held back by the mental baggage that's in our head that we want to push through.

Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. In each episode, we get down and personal with people who go after the things they want to make all their wildest dreams come true. Join us as we unveil and dissect a formula for what it takes to do the thing. Here is your host, Stacy Lauren.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacy Lauren. Okay, guys, this story is going to really get you excited because I have a friend who we've been in the same mastermind for five years now. And it's been really cool to get to know him from both a business and personal perspective and getting to know what are the things that get him excited and goals and dreams. And that's what's fun about surrounding yourself with people that are like you and that want the same things as you because you get to expand your mind more of the things that you want. And we had a really fun episode. Actually, it was number 27 on the do the Thing podcast. So he was sort of in the beginning of the podcast where he shared his business story and then also a little bit about how he got into sailing. And so definitely check that out so you could hear his full story. But today what I wanted to do was bring him on to talk to him about his recent adventure, which was a three month sailing adventure. And it's cool because I got to see where the idea got implanted and then getting to see him just now come back from it. I thought this would be a really fun experience to memorialize this experience for him because it's something that was a dream of his and then he got to do it. Now we get to talk about it on the do the Thing podcast so it's something he can listen back to and have the. The memories for himself. And then also I'm really curious about more. He was sharing the the story in the Mastermind about how everything was. And I'm like, I have so many more questions. I might as well have you come on the podcast. And then I'm also excited about you guys hearing this for you because it doesn't always start with this big thing. You have to almost take these steps that get you to be able to do the big thing. So then you build the confidence up when you're doing something new and Then by tapping into your why and your purpose of why you want to do something, it really helps you take that step and that leap. And so I am just so excited to welcome Josh Grillo back to the show. Hey, Josh.

Hey. Good to see you. Good to see you. Glad to be back for sure.

I know. I'm so excited.

So.

So if we could just go back to the dinner that we had with the Mastermind. So for the listeners, we had this dinner, it was actually several of us had sold or exited our businesses, and we, the whole Mastermind, got together and did a celebration for the people that exited. And it was really fun to get to celebrate in that way. And then all of a sudden, I don't remember how this came up, but someone was like, oh, let's ask, because they know that I love the icebreaker questions. They're like, let's ask a question to everyone that everyone can answer. And I had just listened to on Ryan Rand's podcast, he had Brooke Castillo on, and she had framed the question. Let's say your life is a Super Bowl. What would be your Super Bowl? And that's when you said, oh, yeah.

I was in my mind, my stumbling around like, oh, what is my super. And again, I'm thinking of it in a, in a yearly context, really, what is my super bowl for this year? Do I even have any idea? And then in my mind immediately starts going to things that, that are. I don't say they're dreams, but, yeah, they're kind of big. They're big goals. They're. They're. They're scary stuff. Right? And I'm like, well, I had this idea that I would like to go and do this ba ha ha, which is free for, for those of you that are new to sailing or don't know much about sailing. Ba ha. It's a rally of boats. And there's quite a few. Well, we left. There is. I think there was 80 that participated this year. And it's a rally that's been going on, I think, for over 20 years now, and at least in San Diego. But what happens is anybody that's sailing, sailing south for the season. So starting, I think it's this past year, November 1st is when all the hurricane restrictions for insurance for boats is lifted. Right. So every, every November, it's like the hurricane restrictions lifted off insurance policies. So a lot of people go sailing south. Plus it's the time to go down south. So these are people that are going to go from Canada, Washington State, Oregon, Northern California, Southern California, all These people on boats, typically sailboats, they sell all down through Mexico, they go down to Panama, they go over the South Pacific or to the Bahamas or wherever their, their route takes them. A lot of these people are on around the world trips, right? And this is the start of it. But, but what's cool is this Baja is a central place where everybody kind of meets and goes together. So that happens in San Diego. So I knew about the idea, I had some friends that had done it, and we've been sailing for many, many years now. We're not expert sailors or anything like that, we're recreational sailors, but we're in it, right? And it helps to have a partner. My wife, she's really into it as well, so that helps a lot. And I have two kids, Stacy knows, that are 8 and 11. And I have a really big dog who's a one year old lab puppy. So when Stacy asked about Super Bowl, I was like, well, I would like to do this. Ba ha ha. And at this point in time it was just like, yeah, this thing's probably not even going to happen. It was in my mind, but I'm like, yeah, I'll throw this out there, right? But it's funny and this has always been the, always been the way for me is that anytime I put it out there in the universe, if I say it, you know what, whatever reason, it always ends up happening in some way, shape or form. It ends up happening, right? And so I threw this thing out there and you know, my kids have been talking about it. They're familiar, they always wanted to travel on the boat. My wife too, we watch all the YouTube videos, sailing Delos and some of the big sailing YouTube channels. So it's always kind of been a dream in the back of our mind. But this was kind of like a starting point. So yeah, I put that out there in Stacy and that was kind of it. And literally that was kind of it and for many, many, many months. And then I. Registration came up for this, for this Baja hop. And you can register, I think it's open in May and you can register all the way up until the thing takes off in November. So I was just sitting around one day and then it was like in June and I was like, what the hell? I was like, I'll go pay the 500 bucks just to register and maybe that will, maybe that will catapult me into doing this thing. So pay it to five. And then the second part of that was, okay, my big issue was, well, how the hell am I going to work down there, right? I own an agency and. And a lot of my stuff's remote anyway, and I just do zoom calls, basically. But what happened was Elon Musk, their Starlink satellite service really opened up. So they have a RV version which is portable. So I basically bought it, I put it on my boat to test it, to say, okay, can I actually work, right? Can I actually have this Internet on my boat? I put it on high speed Internet, cruising around all over San Diego with it anchoring up, and it worked beautifully. So I was like, okay, this is, this is. This can work, right? So then I bought a second one in Mexico. I have an employee that works in Mexico. So I bought a second one, shipped it to Mexico, and had them bring it across the border to me. So I had a backup version that's from Mexico in case my US version didn't work. So. So that was kind of like the starting point of all that. But. But even before that, I made the money. I was mentally like 50% there. I was like, you know what? I paid the money, so I may do it, I may not. And then I remember point blank, I'm sitting there, I'm in Maryland, and I remember my dad had passed away from COVID like the. The November before or the December before, Excuse me. And I'm sitting in. I think it's in June, and I'm with my sisters and their husbands, and we rented a house out. We're kind of there, like a spreading of the actions thing. And I'm sitting there at night, we all had some drinks, and I was telling my. My sister's husband. I was like, you know, look, I got this opportunity. What do you think I should do? Pack the kids, pack the dog, get on the boat and just go south, right? And work from the boat. What do you think? And he was like, well, why wouldn't you? I was like, you know what? That's a really good. Don't buy this kid. Like, what are you waiting for, man? Why not, right? If you could do it, just go do it. I was like, you know what? All right, I'm going to do it. And literally, that was it. That conversation convince me, like, what the hell am I doing, right? I'm like, what am I going to sit here every single day in San Diego, wake up doing the same old shit I always do? Let me mix it up and let's just go after it, right? Even though it was a fear, there's a lot of unknowns there, but go for it, right? That's what we did.

I'm loving just writing down kind of the order of the things that you did, because first the idea is implanted, right. Then you say it out loud, you just speak it, Right. And then I love this because I've been really exploring this idea of when you sign up for a half marathon, you're going to run the half marathon. And you did that for the register, the 500 registration for the boat. So it sort of, kind of was an easy step because 500 bucks isn't a lot to you, but it's enough meat to get you to really think about it.

You know, that makes you think about. It was like a hundred bucks a year. But, you know, it's enough where I'm like, all right, yeah, okay, I don't want to lose about 500, but I need to pull out. I can.

Exactly. Then you're still. You're getting excited about the idea, but there's just so many unknowns that you don't even know. And then you're, how can I even do this? And that's when the Starlink thing came up.

Think about it like this, right? You got two kids. Well, they're in elementary school, public school. You got that going on. You got this big dog, you got two cats, right. You got a 45 foot boat. But you're gonna load all your life into this thing. Right. And then sail off for the past, right? Yeah. Oh, that. That's kind of the idea.

Yeah.

So look at anything else. You start. Once you start wrapping your head around it and you start going through and start creating a little checklist. Need this, need that, need that, need this. You know, obviously you're. You're never fully prepared, but you're only prepared as you can be.

Yeah. And then the combination of you really having that moment while you're going through what you did with your dad, and then that question being asked to you. Why wouldn't you. The timing of that just got you to really be able to open your mind up to just be able to say, why wouldn't I?

Well, that's it, right? I think back and a little bit about him. You know, I was thinking he passed, obviously, right around Christmas time, and it was Covid. And it was just like, what you see what everybody goes through that has a really bad. Right. Exact same thing. But I remember he was like, I'm gonna come to San Diego. I'm gonna come in February, come out sailing with you and all this. And he was really into it, right. And he was like, he was kind of Living it through my world, right? Through my stories to him, right? So I just was like, you know, for me it's a little bit of a extra push if you would, just to say, what the hell, just going and do it.

So, yeah, so then once you make the decision, it's exciting, but it's not done. Now you've got to do the trip.

Then literally you have to do the trip, right? And like I said, you think you could be fully prepared, but you're never prepared, right? Life on the water is no joke. For example, we leave San Diego and it's the first stop is three days later. So you're literally on the boat for three full days. That's day in day, day and night. And you were sailing or motoring if there's a wind, right, overnight in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 15 miles off the shore with nobody around. So with two little kids and a big dog. So literally shit can happen. And so those are, those, those unknowns, they, they're, they're very interesting and I've told a lot of people this, but it's like when I'm, when I was on that trip and doing that, it's. You're really living in the moment, you're really living in the day, right? Versus when you're back in the saddle, you're back in the seat, like am here. You're, you're comfortable, you have your creature comforts and you're, you're planning what you're going to do tomorrow, today, next week, the month after, right? Then when you're in that, you're not doing any of that. You're literally planning the today survival in that, that feeling. And it's really unique. It just, it's, it's, it's something I never really thought about until I was there and in it, right? You're living, you're literally living by the weather and by the waves, right? That's what you're living by. And it's a really weird thing because you become, I mean, you become your best meteorologist, right? I mean, you have to learn the weather and read the weather and study the weather, know the weather pattern and what's going to happen. And, but that was, that was part of the excitement of it all.

How do you even prepare for a trip like that? I know you mentioned the Starlink, but what sort of happened from the preparation time as well?

Well, I think, I think we were. Well, we had never fully mentally prepared, but we had watched so many, and there's so many YouTube sailing channels now that there are people sailing around the world and they've been doing it for years, right? So you watch, after you watch so many of that stuff over years, you're like, okay, you kind of get this sense, you know, again, they only show the good stuff. They don't really show the bad stuff, right? But from getting prepared, it's. It's literally the, the main thing is, is the boat, right? Is the boat capable? Is it ready? Is it capable? And what do you need to do to it to make sure that it doesn't break down on you, right? And then the second part of that is, what are your safety measures, right? What do you got if you get hit by a well, which happens, right? Or if, if something happens right at sea, what are you going to do, right? So to me, it's like the safety, right? Do you got the ditch bag with all the stuff in there that your life raft, all that stuff, do you have all that, right? Is it ready? All that, do you have that? Then do you have your communication devices, your secondary communication devices, right? Do you have spare parts for everything on the boat that could potentially break, right? So it is somewhat of an open wallet in the sense that you start spending, right? And you do. I mean, you know, I just remember it's like you, you had that excitement, right? So you're spending all the stuff on the boat, but then you're also spending like, okay, how much sunblock are we going to need, right? How many fishing poles am I going to need? What about spare fishing poles? What else am I going to. How many surfboards should I go through all those things? And Amazon's at your house every single day delivering you different packages. But I mean, it's like freaking Christmas time, you know, because you're getting so pumped up and, and you're just, you're so pumped up. And then it isn't until. I don't think it all takes effect until you get on that boat and you're like, wow, I remember in the mastermind, last Mastermind, I showed you the, the video of the level amount of stuff that we had to move on that boat and then put away, which is just insanity. And we were really bad procrastinators. So we did it all the last minute, which was, well, I think it's.

Cool talking about even the procrastinating side because you made this commitment to go. And it's like, think about it with anything else you have to do in life, right? Sometimes if you weren't ready, you might not go, but you Couldn't back down. You were already so far into it. And so it's so interesting if you compare that to other things. Right. Because if you have that same kind of mindset or you set that same kind of goal, then maybe you can just do anything at that point.

Absolutely. You know, I think that's what this trip taught me. It's one of those things that just put in motion and you just throw yourself out and go. Regardless of how scared you are, how embarrassed you are, how whatever feeling you may have, how uncomfortable, you get there, you experience it, you get through it. There's life on the other side. Right. And it's amazing. I mean, in. Regardless if it goes great or if it goes bad, all that experience. And for me, and I would change anything about it. I mean, us, we're looking like, okay, how can we go back down? Right. Our biggest issue is we came back too soon. We want to be back down there again, you know. Well, we will. Right. In a. In a bigger, grander way. Because we've learned a lot from this last three months we were there, so.

Well, yeah, and it's great to. You've already done sailing here in San Diego and you've sort of flexed that muscle. We had that full conversation just so you guys, if you want to listen to it, go to episode number 27 Where We Talk about the learning lessons that Josh had. And he even talked about some. Some boat accidents, which. Which helped me with my boating experiments too. Cause I didn't look at it the same as he did. And then I reframed it. And so you flex the muscle by boating here. And then now you did this three month trip and now you actually have the confidence to take a longer trip now that you know you like it and you guys can do it.

Yeah, absolutely. So this trip, which was interesting so you. To give a little bit of an insight on how this thing all works out. So we have here in San Diego, when this Baja leaves, it usually takes off about 10:30 in the morning and there's a big parade. So it's like a parade of boats. Usually the harbor patrol is out there and they're doing like water cannons. The news, the news organizations, local here, they're all out there. It's kind of a big to do because it's like 80 boats. They're all sailing south for the season. Right. But once you get out in the ocean, you start going. It's every man for themselves for the most part. Right. So you go, you're going three days overnight to your first stop, which is basically halfway down Baja Peninsula. So Baja, Mexico. Halfway down the peninsula to a little anchorage called Turtle Bay, right? And it's up. I mean it's basically a huge bay. There's a little tiny town there, not much there. You are anchoring there. You're anchoring there for two nights. There's a couple of organized events on the beach. There's. And then you take off and you go down another two night sail to the next spot, which is Santa Maria, which is another beautiful, beautiful bay. Ginormous starfish. I mean starfish on the beach that are just like huge. Biggest starfish I've ever seen. The whole beach was covered with them, which was really interesting. You're there for two nights, a little bit more activities there and then you're off to Cabo San Lucas. And then once you hit Cabo San Lucas, it's every man for themselves. Everybody kind of displayed first, right? So everybody goes to Cabo. And in Cabo that's where you're really checking into Mexico. So you're doing all your immigration stuff there in Mexico. And then some people stick around there. Some people go north to CI Cortez, some people go south towards Puerto Vallarta. Literally up to you at that point in time, what you do. And typically, since we have kids, we look for kind of really kind of looking for other kid boats. And we really had no itinerary. It's like everybody told us just keep an open mind and an open agenda, right? And, and I kind of like to plan stuff. It's kind of weird just going somewhere and saying, okay, I'm not. Am I going to go south? I don't think. I don't even know yet. I mean, I think we were sitting in Cabo San Lucas and we're like, well, what are we even doing, right? Not even know where we're going. We're in this far right place and that know where we're going north or south. And we had some boats that were going south that we, that had kids that we knew and some were going north and we're just like, let's just go north, right? That's all we did, right? We made a decision to go north and we went north up into La Paz and then up into, if you're familiar with Mexico, the Sea of Cortez. There's islands all through there. It's absolutely stunning. But we just did the south islands there around La Paz. And we were there for a while. But what happens is you have these big northerly winds that Start blowing down through the sea of Cortez. So the wind blows 25, 30 knots at any given point. And when it comes, it blows hard and it'll blow for like three days straight. And it usually goes away. So what you're doing is you're going up and you're finding these really cool, beautiful, I mean, stunning anchorages. The water is just clear as can be turquoise. And then you're looking at the weather and you sell tomorrow, it's going to blow 30 knots. So you need to find coverage, right? You need to go take the boat, find another anchorage that has northern protection, right? So, so these are the things you're learning, right? You're learning all about, okay, the winds are coming out of the north. I got anchor over here, I got anchor over there. And that really is also predicated on how you sleep at night, right? So a lot of people don't think about is when you're in a boat like that. Yeah, it's a big boat, but you're in the middle of the ocean and the boat's like rolling, rolling. You don't sleep. I mean, you literally don't sleep. My kids, they sleep through anything. But me, I'm a light sleeper. I cannot sleep. I had the hardest time sleeping, right. So I needed to be very mellow, very non rolly anchorages. And a lot of the anchorages, especially in southern Mexico, they're all just rolling because they're in waves, right? So very hard to sleep. So you got to think about that when you're doing a trip like this, you're like sleeping is not like you think it is, right? Tiredness level is usually at an all time high because you're not sleeping, right. And then your irritability level too can be at an all time high because you're homeschooling, right? Two kids, small boat, homeschooling, they're trying to, trying to homeschool, right. My wife handled the majority of that stuff, or pretty much all of it. It can be really difficult. But the rewards are so high. I mean, the rewards of it all are incredibly high because your mind is so visually aware of the surroundings. Everything you look at, it's brand new. It's incredible. Your senses are so much heightened. And also the lows, like I said, the lows are incredibly low. So there's no this real level playing field. It's super high. You're off the Richter. It's the most amazing thing. Or you're in the dumps and everybody's crying and ready to kill each Other, those are what you experience. And it's kind of awesome because I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything. And so those are just some of what you experience when you're out there. Like, that food is another big thing, right? I mean, the food Mexican is absolutely incredible. I mean, it's just some of the best food. But when you're heading out, you got to go and plan for whatever, one week or two weeks out at sea or out of an acreage, right? So you got to go to the grocery store, take an Uber. You take the Uber to the grocery store, and you go to this grocery store, you stock up on half of stuff. You don't know what it is, right? You kind of buy what you think you may need, and you stock up on this stuff. Uber comes, you got 10 bags of groceries. You try to shove it to the back of the tiniest Uber you've ever seen, right? And literally, you're carrying this stuff for, I mean, for a quarter of a mile, right? Everybody's carrying bags of groceries are, like, at your house, you know, you drive off in the car, go to the grocery store, stick it in the back, come home and unload it. I mean, in one case, we were down in past Puerto Vallarta in Tenacanta. We literally take our D. We take our D. This is how we got grocery. You take our D, which is basically a little small boat, right, that goes along with the sailboat, and we take that. It's kind of like our car. Take that to the beach, pull that thing on the beach, right? And then we go walk to a hotel, get a taxi from the hotel to take us to the next town over, which is 40 minutes away, go to that town to go grocery shop because we're out of groceries, get the taxi, takes us all the way back. We take all these groceries back to the dinghy, Then we got to pull the dinghy all the way out to the water. It's a low tide, then dinghy back to the boat. So that's what it is. That's what it's like. You have these little modern conveniences that you're so used to. That's all gone. That's all out the world window. You have to work for everything, including water. So for some people, they're like, oh, my God, that sounds like no one. Not good. But that's the fun of it all.

So there's so much in this, Josh, that is just really getting me right now. Because with anything in life, right, there's always going to be the Hard things in order to get the reward. And so that's pretty much what you're talking about right now, is how this one trip is literally a representation of life and what that is. And I love what you're saying about the downside, which was the no sleep and really not knowing what to expect and homeschooling your kids and going through all of that and the wind and all of this stuff. And then you're also talking about the rewards, which is being more visually aware of your surroundings and getting to see everything new, being more present, really having no attachment to an outcome and just being able to enjoy that journey. Right. And not so much the destination. And I feel like there's just so much of a gift in what you just shared. If people actually looked at it as life, that I just am astounded. And one more thing that's really coming up right now is this new thing. I'm not new. I mean, it's. It's out there. But I just interviewed Chrissy, our friend from the Mastermind, and I explored this idea with her. And you're talking about it too. It's that idea of just figuring things out. You couldn't possibly have predicted every step and everything that you were gonna need to do for this trip. Whether it was where you were going, what you were bringing, or any of this stuff, you just sort of had to just be okay figuring it out and flexing that muscle of that open mind to be able to keep pushing through. And that's how you guys were able to do it.

That's exactly, exactly right. It's the confidence you build again. So I had met when we first started talking, I'm like, I'm not an expert seller by any means, right? But when you're going for 72 hours straight on a sailboat, you learn to sail in strong winds, right? I mean, you're offshore, you've got 5, 6, 7, 8 foot seas, you know, 20, 22, 23, 24 knot winds. That's a lot for a boat. And the boat you all look at the place, you learn, right? You learn, you get more comfortable. And I built a lot of bridge, I think, through this trip more than any. Just more comfortable being out on the water. That for me now, it's really somewhat of an addiction. It's really bizarre. It's like I want to be my wife as well. We want to be on the water. We like the water. I mean, where land life for us is. I see our future, right? I don't know if it's Going to be a land life, to be honest with you, it's probably going to be boat life, right? And that's just because of what we, what we've grown to and what we've learned and what we like and we really enjoy. One of the big aspects of this as well that I never really thought about was the people, right? So when you're down there, everybody you meet is doing the same thing you're doing, right? So they're all living their best life, right? You're not meeting people that are like, oh man, I'm stuck on a boat, I can't go nowhere. No, you're like, you're meeting these people of all ages, all ages that are there because they want to be there. Some people that have zero money, some people that have ungodly amounts of money, right? On huge boats to small boats, you are literally parked right next to them, you know, in a lot of different scenarios. So doesn't matter if this guy's on a $10 million yacht, we're literally right next to you. You're going to be having the exact same conversations with him as you are the guy that's on a little 18 foot boat that is worth $5,000, right? It's literally everybody's there because they want to be there. And it was truly remarkable because they are some of those friendly people, the most outgoing people that you would ever meet. And it's some, it's like you go into like a mastermind. A lot of us have stuff in common, right? Well, this and that, the same thing. You're out there like this and everybody's out there because they enjoy being on the water, they enjoy sailing, they enjoy travel, they enjoy adventure, they enjoy this style of life. So you automatically, I can go and talk to a 90 year old guy on a sailboat and have a conversation for two hours because we're experiencing the exact same things. You have that immediate commonality, which is. It's incredible. It's incredible.

And that's one of my favorite pieces of the do the thing formula, which is the M and I'm game, which is my people. And it's when you are surrounding yourself with people that want the same things as you. So you're getting that community and the connectedness that you need to do the things that you want. And like you said, it makes it so much more fun because you're talking to people who have the same interests and they're overcoming all these cool things to be able to do what they're doing.

Absolutely, absolutely.

And Then you're having that shared experience with them too, which is really cool.

Yeah, absolutely.

So I'd love to hear about day one when you're first going on the boat, because I feel like you have this idea that you want to do something and then it's so different from something you've done before. It has to be a shock to your system when you realize you're about to do it and then you're literally leaving your house and knowing that you're not going to be on land for three months, or you might be on land, but at least three days for the first stint. So I'm just kind of curious, how had that went for you guys?

Well, it was a little rough, but I mean, we wake up in the morning and you know, my wife, she's visually upset, she's crying. She doesn't, she really doesn't want to go. And, and it was really her and my kids idea initially, you know, like, let's do this, let's do this, let's do this, let's do this, right? And I guess I was kind of like the stump, like, can we really do this? But now, after all this preparation and getting everything ready to go, and it's, it's go time. It's like, okay, we gotta be at the. I'll call it the starting line, if you would, at 10:30, right? So I can think, having this like, time, this time we gotta be someplace was really, really, really advantageous for us. Literally getting off the docks. And this is what everybody says. Anybody I've talked to, anything you watch, it's like it never really happens until you untie the lines. Literally untie the freaking lines, right? And I just remember that morning. It's like she's visually upset, crying, does not. Really doesn't want to go. And I'm, I'm reminding her, I'm like, look, this is it. It's. It's. It's okay to be scared. I get it. I'm there too, right? But what are we going to do? I mean, we put all this time and energy into this. Let's just go. What's the worst that can happen if it doesn't work? Freaking turn around, right? If it doesn't work, we're going to freaking bite around. And I think that was one thing in the back of our heads at all times is that, look, worst case scenario, we either just turn the boat around or find a way to park it, fly back home riding, like it's, you know, the end of the world, right? And I think maybe that helped. I'm not quite sure. But it is all about Stacy untying those lines, getting off that dot, that is the hardest part. Everybody will always tell you that it's like it's not really happening until you untie the lines.

So I'm just so glad you shared this, because I think there's so many people that are not doing something new because they look at people like you, right, that have done an adventure like this, and they've done all these cool things, and they think that you're not terrified and that it's easy and that you just have every single thing figured out. They don't realize that the majority of the time, you're just figuring it out as you go. And you do have to be able to build the muscle. Once you've done it enough, then it becomes easier. But the first time you do something new, it is scary. And I think that's really important for people to understand, because I think they think when they see someone at the end of it, which is normally what we see, especially nowadays with the way our culture is, you don't see someone on their journey. You see them at the end, they think it was like this easy thing.

Yeah, absolutely. Oh, my God. Yeah. No, I mean, the whole thing was scary and. Well, listen, it's just scary. I mean, you just don't know. I mean, we had. We had one instance. We were anchored, and I was on a zoom call, just like we are now, right, with my business partner. And all of a sudden, I'm looking out the window, and I see a boat just come right at. Literally coming right after one. And it's my wife yelling, we're dragging. Or somebody's dragging. And I remember I pulled my AirPods out and I just threw them aside and run up. And I'm in a daze because you're not quite sure what's happening. It's like nine in the morning, and I look, we're about to hit a boat, and I grab our boat hook, right? Which is something you can kind of hold to hold a boat off of. So I grabbed this boat hook, and my. My son, he ends up grabbing one of the fenders and literally come up. We go riding against this boat, and I'm able to. The boat hooked him off, and my son threw a fender down. And I remember the girl, she. You know, she became a friend of ours. She comes up out of the boat like she had been asleep, right? She comes up, and I'm freaked out. I'm like, you're Dragging. And she's looking around. She's like, I don't think I am. And I look around, I'm like, oh, my God. We just literally dragged across the whole entire anchorage. It was us driving the whole time. We get off and it was fine. And we end up, you know, we. We drop the anchor. We re anchor. It was fine, but it was a really, really terrifying moment because it could have ended bad. It could have been ended really, really bad. If it was at night and that happened. It was that night and that happened. It just. It would have been bad, really bad. So it was. It was fantastic. That happened during the day, and we were able to catch it and that we were on the boat. If we were on the boat again, we'll probably lost the boat. But the beauty of that is this. It made us right when we think we're confident, we're confident in our anchoring ability, and we're. We're great at anchoring. We've never had issues all of a sudden that just looked on its head, unconfident. Is it something with our anchor? Is it something this? And we really had to figure out what was going on. We did figure out what was happening with that. Something that wasn't quite our fault, but it set us up to be a lot more aware. And it made me become literally a better anchor, if you would, through that experience, which is fantastic because something worse could have happened later on, but now that I'm a lot more heightened to that, I'm like, okay, I cannot have that happen again. That was too freaking scary and could have ended in disaster for us. But, well, we fixed it, which is great. Yeah.

And I think you're so good at that. Where we talked about this on your other episode too, where you're really good when something does go wrong. You don't beat yourself up for it. You're able to learn the lesson. So you're not getting emotional. You're learning the lesson of what you need to learn. So then it. It's able to be improved the next time versus you making a story out of it.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. But it was. I mean, it was scary as hell. It was scary. You know, another thing that was just some. Some bizarre, random stuff. There's so many whales that are down halfway down Mexico or halfway down Baja, all the way over to Puerto Vallarta area, down. So we went all the way, went up to La Paz, we went up to Mazatlan, down to Puerto Vallarta area, then Tenacatita, then Bar Navidad. Bar south. So we went. There is so many whales, and they are everywhere. And it is a fear, Right? You don't want to hit a whale, but there are many, many cases where whales just got hit. I mean, one. One just sunk a boat. Was it last week? A boat just got sunk by a whale. From people crossing from the Galapagos to French Ponties. And that's all over the news right now, right? So this stuff happens, but it is a fear because you see them everywhere. So you're going, you're on alert. You see what it's like. You're stopping, right? You're stopping the motor, waiting for the whale to pass. It's usually a whale to cut one the cups. And then you're going again, and then you're stopping whales going by. And it's like this constantly the whole way down. And it's a real fear because, like, not want to hit these things because they will completely destroy your boat and sink your boat. So this is like one of those random.

Yeah.

That you would. You wouldn't even think about. Like, that's not something that was ever on my mind when we left for this trip, right out knowing how many wells are down there. I mean, these are big humpback whales. It's like, oh, God. Right? It's. It's kind of scary.

You're making me think I have to ask you this question. It's screaming at me right now when I. I watched your YouTube channel, and I don't actually think it was. I don't even know if it was about this experience or if it was another trip, but I got to see how you and your wife talk to each other when, like, you're in the middle of doing something, you know?

Yeah, that was on our other book.

Yeah, it was like a big fish you were catching. Yeah, it was like a big fish you were catching. And you. You guys work really well together. And you can tell. It's just how you are with each other. I was just wondering, do you have a strategy for being able to do that in the middle? Because normally in the middle of chaos, it'd be easy to have communication be stressful, but I could tell just how collaborative you guys are. I was just wondering if. If there was something there, you know.

If you ask her that question, she'd probably like, oh, no, there's no. There's no collaboration whatsoever now. You know what? I think that we're in sync when it comes to being on the. On the water. We're in sync a lot. Again, it's it's not perfect by any means, but in a lot of people say that, well, when you're on a boat for the extended periods of time like that, that can kill your marriage, literally. Right. But we're pretty in sync when it comes to sailing and who's doing what, how we're doing what. And we fished a lot. Right. And we've always fished a lot. So she kind of has a really good idea where I'm going to screw up. Right. So she kind of knows that. Okay, this is, I want to say my role, but this is kind of like my role in this thing. I'm going to have to do this or whatever because Josh is probably going to screw this up or whatever, you know, so. So we kind of know those roles. Yeah, I think that really, really, really helps because one thing I've realized is just there's no good comes out of yelling or screaming or it just. Nothing good comes out of that. So we, we do, I think we do do a good job of just kind of figuring it out. But we're in sync. That's the thing. We're in sync. Yeah. That's just practice literally helping out.

Yeah. And I like that too. Like, you know what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are, and so that helps you kind of go into that. Yeah. Thanks for, thanks for sharing that. Okay, Josh, we have to plant your future trip now, so let's, let's land the plane on that. What are you, what are you thinking this next one's going to be?

Well, we were the thought processes, you know, we really wanted to get over to Panama Canal. San Blas Islands is kind of like what we've been talking about. So that may be, I mean, that may be in the making. But also French Polynesia is another one that's really kind of something I really like to do because you can spend, you can go to Mexico, spend whatever Europe into Mexico. You sail down if right around Puerto Vallarta area, but it's a 30 day sail to French Polynesia. Once you're over there, you're. You're in the island. So that's Marquesas, Tahiti. That's the A toll. So that's when it gets really real. So that, that would probably be in our future at some point. I think I may need a different book for that, but that is definitely a talks.

So I love this and I love that you don't know exactly which one you want to do yet because I talk about this a lot on the podcast now. It's Called a rough draft goal. Having an idea of what you want but not knowing exactly what it is because there's a lot of people that will get through stopped when they don't know exactly what it is, and they won't move until it's crystallized. But I imagine you're going to be making some kind of step to figuring out. I'm just curious if you know, what that would be.

It's kind of like for us, we all. We know. I mean, I say this, but we. I think my wife and I both are kind of know. Without really saying that we're more than likely going to end up probably buying a big catamaran. We'll probably move on that catamaran and we'll probably be gone. Right. And when that happens is if. Does that happen with the kids or with them out of school? I don't know, but that's probably. It just seems things are going that route. Yeah, things are going that route. Because we had these discussions all the time, well, do we want to keep the house? Do we want to rent the house or just sell the house and buy a big catamaran? And we have these discussions constantly. And it's just a matter of, I think everything kind of stair steps on each other. Meaning, like, it's just you have these slow, gradual progresses. Right. So this trip taught us a lot. Tell us about what we liked, about what we didn't like about the boat, what we wish we would have done, wish what we didn't do, things we'd want to change. You start learning those things. Build on it, build on it, build on it. Right. So I think, I think our, you know, we're stair stepping towards that. When that will happen, I'm not quite sure yet, but. But I think we're getting towards that. And I know that's. I do know that's the future. I knew that.

Yeah.

It's just a matter of what. At what point in time will we get there? I don't know.

I'm curious. So one step on the stair, there's a big giant step more. This is way more than a step. But was this trip right? So that's like where in the beginning, all those other steps you did led to this trip, which was at that point a dream. Now that's a step. Because now you have a bigger dream. So I'm just curious what. Just to give the listeners an example, what's one step that you are going to take in your mind right now that will lead you into kind of figuring out that Future dream that you have with your wife?

That's a good question. I think it'll be. That step will probably be okay, are we going back to Mexico or not? Right. And, and I think right now with the way it's working is yes, we are come next November, which is, which would be a really big and a hard one for us to do just because my son be starting a new school. There's a lot to that. But that is the step right now that we are working on. And if we do that, that will be for a lot longer of a trip, a bigger of a trip, a big stepping stone for us, I think. And yeah, I mean, I think that's, that's kind of where it's at now. If I was to say, okay, if I was just to paint this out any way I wanted to paint it all out, I think the trajectory would be something like I sell my company in whatever three, five years by the absolute boat of my dreams, right? Like literally just exactly the way I want it. You know what I mean? And we're gone, right? That's it on. Keep the house in San Diego. We're out. We're 60 foot Catarana, we're out sailing, we're doing our thing and we are on just a very long trip up all the places that we want to go and see and, and we're doing it and we're flying in and out of wherever we want to go. Back to San Diego and back to the boat and we're living our best, right? Like that's like, I don't have to sell the company to do that, but doing that would make it a lot easier. Yeah, it was just to paint that picture.

I like it, I like it.

But the thing is, I like working at all. I don't. I like working. I like. Yeah, it's fantastic. It's provided me many, many, many freedoms and lots of really, really cool stuff. And you know, just like you building anything from scratch is always fun when you start. And when you start, it's. Everything starts as a honeymoon idea. And then the real grind hits and you're like, oh, was this such a great idea? You know, you gotta like, okay, I'm in it now. Push, push, push, push, push, right? Get through it. And then eventually, you know, however many years it takes, you get to this other side, right? Where, oh, now I'm starting to reap all that freaking work or whatever stuff I put into this. And that's a fantastic thing and I think that's a great thing for any of your listeners out there, right? Just remember, and I think this all the time. Anytime I think about any new business, any new venture, anything. And I'm not a person that's like a serial entrepreneur or anything like that. And that's on purpose specifically because I literally weigh the opportunity costs. I sit down and I say, okay, am I super passionate about this? Can I get excited about this? Right? If I can't even get excited about, there's no way I even want to do it.

Totally.

So it could be the best looking business idea in the world. If I can get excited, want to wake up and mess with this every day, there's no way I'll ever do it ever. Right? So it's like, okay, how passionate am I, how much time I going to have to spend, right? Literally, yeah. This is a fantastic idea. The honeymoon is going to wear off one month, then I'm going to have to grind it out. How much time is it going to take me to get it to where it needs to be, where I can afford real freedom? That's how I look at everything, right? So and so with this company we've had for the last 12 years, which has been fantastic, I weigh everything against that. I'm like, okay, sure, I can go start this new venture. It's probably going to take a shit ton of my time. It might take me one to three years to get it where it needs to be before I really start earning any income. On, off that. Is that really worth it for the stage I'm at in my life right now? That's why I weigh everything, right? Yeah. And everybody's different. I talked about this before, right? What's your, what's your definition of success, right? What is it, you know, is that you want a lot of freedom to do the things you want to do the way you want to do them, when you want to do them. Or are you a type of person that just wants a whole bunch of money, likes to spend whatever your definition is, right? That's how you got to set yourself up. Or at least that's how I set myself up. Right.

So I'd love to hear what your biggest piece of advice for the listeners are on doing the thing.

Biggest piece of advice, don't overthink it. But. But don't overthink it is probably it. You can overthink everything and it'll. My wife says I overthink it. It's not as complex as I make it out to be. And you know what? Nine times out of ten, she's Absolutely. Right. It's not as complex. Right. It's usually the decision is usually there and it's usually a very simple one. Just stop overthinking stuff, right? Just if you want to do it, do it. I mean, sometimes who cares what who thinks or whatnot? Answer what's going to happen if you don't try it? You do not know.

Please share with the listeners how they can follow along with you. I'd love you to also share your your YouTube channel too.

Well, everything is We're Wilder Sailing, but it's wilder W I L D E R Wilder Sailing. So Instagram is probably the most updated thing. I mean there's gazillion photos there and we keep that running pretty hot and heavy. I'm a YouTube channel as wilder Sailing as well that has been updated in a while. But I do have some videos from this last trip that will be up there here in the next probably couple weeks when I get them done. But yeah, that's it.

Thanks so much for coming on again, Josh. This has been a lot of fun. I really appreciate it.

Yeah, Stacy, good to see you again.

And for the listeners, thanks so much for joining and go out there and do the Thing.

Thanks for listening to the do the Thing podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. But even more, we hope you'll be inspired to do the Thing. Do you have a burning question on Doing the Thing that you'd like answered? How about an inspiring do the Thing story of your own that you'd like to share? We'd love to hear all about it. Just leave us a voice message at do the Thing callcast co or email us@helloothethingpodcast.com.