Scott Brills: Adventure Capitalist

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All right, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. Today, I have Scott, and he is an international entrepreneur and adventure capitalist. With nearly 100 countries under his belt and businesses across 5 countries. His current focus is Pamoja Safaris, a tour operator based in Tanzania. So welcome to the show, man.

Hey, good to be here, Tyler Wagner.

Grateful to have you here, man. I'm excited for this one. We'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you, Scott, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

So I was trying to think of one because I've got a lot of stories, but I know we only have a little bit of time. So I guess it would be thinking back to an adventure I had in 2012 that was not a business thing. It was more of a charitable adventure. And I planned for about a year with a group of friends to take a pair of cars and drive them from the UK to South Africa, to Cape Town. And we were going to raise tens of thousands of dollars to support some charitable causes. And we researched this thing up and down. And prepped as best as we could for about a year, and then we actually did the thing and everything possible went wrong. And so my takeaway from that— and that could be its own podcast episode in itself, especially if you ever do like a 2 to 3 hour format— but I would say my takeaway from that is, you know, no matter how hard you research or plan for stuff, you've got to always be ready to pivot and to change with changing circumstances and just be on your feet like that.

So I'm just curious, so what's like the number one thing that went wrong? Or like, what was the craziest thing that happened?

Oh, take your pick. Let's see, love triangle, being attacked by bandits, not being allowed into a country, multiple hospital visits, multiple breakdowns, war in Syria started. I mean, yeah, there's a lot of things.

Okay, so, all right, for everybody listening, in the future we will do a longer podcast because I think we need to dive into this because that sounds like some good storytelling right there. So, the next one I have for you there, Scott, is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

Yeah, so I guess it would be to address a common misconception in my current line of focus, which is safaris, photo safaris, not hunting safaris. I always have to make that distinction in Africa. And we operate in Tanzania. And I would say that the biggest thing is that people think that you have to be old, retired, have a ton of money to go on a safari. And actually the cost is about the same as taking a nice vacation for a week in Europe. And you can pay, you know, for more or less the same thing, you know, $10,000 and up a person. But our trips are generally more around $500 per day per person. So you're figuring like $3,500, $4,000 for a week, all inclusive, everything besides the plane ticket. So we always— I'm trying to get, you know, a younger demographic, you know, especially people in their 30s, 40s, families to go on these things and to enjoy them in, you know, the peak of their lives. Because more people that we have visit, the more money and government resources will sent to conservation efforts so that we can keep this going for generations to come.

Yeah. And so what's your best piece of overall business advice you could say, like kind of overall or maybe in your area of expertise, which seems to be traveling and things of that nature? How did you even get started in all of this? What prompted you to do this?

Yeah, so I mean, I guess that'd be two questions.

I'll start with the first one.

Yeah, uh, so, so I was kind of struggling to come up with an answer to this and make it broad enough to be useful to people but not just fluff, you know, because all businesses are different and the founders are different. And, um, you know, even if you don't have your own business, uh, you know, people are doing all different types of stuff. And so it's hard to come up with like one like tagline that can, uh, that can apply to everyone. Um, but I came up with Focus on sales. Train yourself in sales. With almost any business that you would start or even be a part of, having that skill in your back pocket, and you know, there are tons of books you can read about it. I'll let you Google that. But it's like, if you know how to sell whatever it is that you are selling, whether it be services or products or tours to Africa, or if you're in a company and you can help out the sales team if you're not part of the sales team, Sales is the number one thing in business. You gotta make sales, otherwise you're not gonna survive. And so I would say focus on that, focus on the knowledge of what to do. And that actually will come back to that piece of information in a few questions, I think. But, you know, learn psychology, learn how people operate, and learn how to present yourself in the best way. And then to take on your second thing, how did I get into this? Long story short, I went on a safari with my father in 2010 because it was in his bucket list to do that. We had a group of 16, mostly older Americans, and we had 3 guides, a main guide and 2 assistant guides, and we had 3 cars. And we were there for a week and a half or so in Tanzania and became friends with one of the assistant guides. And he helped me during the rest of my stay there. Even after the safari was done, I went to Zanzibar for a bit and went to the beach and scuba dived. And then I went to climb Kilimanjaro and he helped me out. And then at the end of the trip, actually, he invited me over to his house. I met his wife and kids and I said, hey, you know, you are obviously really good at what you do. Have you ever thought about starting your own outfit? You know, as far as doing safaris and He said, no, not really. And I said, well, hey, let's try it. You know, the worst that could happen is we lose a little bit of time, a little bit of money, but I know how to start up and run a business remotely. You know everything on the ground here. And I think we could combine our efforts, our energy, and kind of make something amazing happen. And so that's what we did later that year. And so we're in year number 8 of operation now.

Wow, man, that's awesome. And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

It would be to stop looking at other people for advice or examples or— and just do it. Because there were definitely years where I was kind of— I wasn't going full force. I was just kind of like doing this until maybe something better came around or I got a job or something like that. And this is actually before The Safari Company. This is my web development company I started in 2002. And so I was— you know, what is this person doing? And kind of like, hey, you know, are you happy with your life doing this? And, you know, we're running a business remotely, wasn't really a thing, you know, 10+ years ago. And so I was struggling to see, you know, if this was gonna be what I wanted, would I be able to make enough money? Would I be happy? And, you know, looking back, I should have just kind of gone full in. And even if failure was gonna be one of the options, you know, just go ahead and do it instead of kind of putting, you know, one foot into the water.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more, dude. When I first started out, I was very similar to that. I think they kind of call it too, and I don't know if this is exactly what you're saying, but kind of like shiny object syndrome. So it's like I'd start something and then something else would come along and then I'd go—

That's the neural ADD.

Yeah, dude, it's bad, man. It's a real thing. And I still have a little bit of it even today, but now I've honed in my focus and I'm like, all right, I'll get to that when I can, but for now I got this. I can relate. The next Last one I have for you, Scott, is, and it kind of maybe could tie in with some of what you said in this previous answer, but in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

Number one would be health because without it, you don't, you know, nothing else really matters. And then other than that, I would say having the time and resources to fully take advantage of whatever life brings your way, you know, whether that's an opportunity that you might be able to take advantage of or whether it's a challenge that you have to overcome, you know, having the time and resources. And, you know, I guess time is a resource. You could say time and money to either take advantage or overcome any of that is key in my life.

And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from it?

So this is where we go back to the sales thing, and that would be Robert Cialdini's Influence book, which is often cited on many podcasts. I've heard many entrepreneurs talk it up. And basically it's called Influence, I believe it's called The Art of Persuasion. And it just goes in depth into how humans think and how you can use that to your advantage in everyday life or sales or running a business, whatever it may be. It basically just teaches you how humans operate. It kind of gives you the playbook and you can take away a lot from that on just Oh, being— I think just living a better life and a more successful life.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

Favorite quote is often attributed to Gandhi, but I found out recently that he, in fact, was not recorded having ever said it, but I still think it's a good one. And it's, "Live as if you're going to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever." I love that, man.

Dude, thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where is the best place for people to find you online?

Yeah, you can check out my not often updated personal blog at just my name.com, scottbrills.com. Or if you're looking to go on a safari, go over to my website, pamojasafaris.com, and that's P-A-M-O-J-A safaris.com.

Perfect, man. Thanks again for hopping on.

Yeah, pleasure.

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