The Wayward Home Podcast

34: Expert Insights into Campervan Conversion Companies and Van Life Market Trends with David Lewis of ExploreVanX

May 10, 2023 Kristin Hanes Episode 34
The Wayward Home Podcast
34: Expert Insights into Campervan Conversion Companies and Van Life Market Trends with David Lewis of ExploreVanX
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Show Notes Transcript

Are you captivated by the van life movement and eager to get your OWN campervan? In this episode of The Wayward Home podcast, we bring you an insightful conversation with the CEO of ExploreVanX, a company dedicated to connecting people like you with businesses in the van life community to help create the perfect adventure vehicles and get the van of your dreams.

You'll learn about finding trustworthy van builders and even get the lowdown on the growing demand for used vans like the Mercedes Sprinter and Ford Transit Trail. Plus, we'll dive into the fun and diverse van life events popping up all over.

We talk about the difference between production line vans and custom builds and get a glimpse into ExploreVanX's future plans. 

This interview was first recorded for the Van Life Virtual Summit, by The Wayward Home and Project Van Life.

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Speaker 1 (00:00:01) - First of all, tell me just, you know, a little bit about your background. How did you come to be c e o of, um, explore Van X and find your outside?

Speaker 0 (00:00:10) - Sure. So, um, my wife and I traveled in a camper van for two years, from 2017 to right at the end of 2018. Um, a little bit into 2019 was just sporadic. It wasn't the full-time thing that we were doing. Um, but we really immersed ourself in the Van Life community at that point. And we were working on a nonprofit that was called Vans for Lands, which unfortunately didn't pan out too well. We were trying to do some good thing in the community as well as for the National Forest through that. Um, in doing that, the original c e O of xx Jason reached out to me and just asked me to be on the team and we built a really good relationship. There was about 15 of us building XX at that time. And then the pandemic hit and everything for everyone really changed a lot.

Speaker 0 (00:01:02) - We were mainly hobbyists putting this whole business together. Um, it went from a team of 15 to a team of three and we found ourselves in a position to keep going with that team of three. So I decided to take over Van X at that point and we've just been running with it ever since. So, um, I have a 10 year background in automotive and about five years in marketing. I've started two or three businesses, two of 'em failed, one of 'em still going, and then Van X came along. So two businesses at this time, but it's been a great journey. Lots of great businesses and great people in the community and we're excited to see what the future holds for us.

Speaker 1 (00:01:44) - Very cool. So what exactly is Van X?

Speaker 0 (00:01:47) - Sure. So explore van x.com is primarily a business directory. So we have the largest directory in the space. Essentially we have a, a little over, or I think we're nearing 450 builders right now, um, couple hundred rental companies, several hundred aftermarket and DIY companies. And then we also have a blog. We have information about ensuring and uh, getting loans for vehicles and we really just comprised everything, trying to be a resource for everyone in the community. When I started out personally, the Van Life community was very small, even back in 2017. There it was just starting out on social media. Obviously people have been doing this forever, but to find information on everything we were trying to do as far as converting a vehicle, really learning about the process and learning about Van Life itself, you had to search on Google for hours to compile all that information. So Jason had the idea of putting all this stuff together in a directory and starting to market and work with these businesses to help them get exposure. Um, in short Van X, our slogan is Finder Outside. Our goal is to connect people with the businesses in the community to help them build these adventure vehicles, to help them find their outside and fulfill these dreams and goals that they're trying to do. So that's our main mission and we love it.

Speaker 1 (00:03:19) - Cool. And so how do you figure out like which companies to, to feature on your site?

Speaker 0 (00:03:24) - Sure. So right now we have a, we, we launched this this year, it's called a premium business platform. And these businesses pay us for presence on the website. They get a larger profile, they get to the top of our pages so they get, you know, first dibs when people are going through looking. Um, we add videos on there, we give them a lot more exposure. They also get social media posts through us, which everyone loves to get that exposure there as well. Um, we also have traditional advertising. We have adva advertising on the webpage. Um, a bunch of different things there. And we're not just big on Instagram. We have a large presence on Pinterest and we're also starting off on TikTok as well. Um, past that, we're getting into events. We're working with Adventure Van Expo, uh, the Ford of Vanlife gathering that just happened a couple out in California this year. And we're hoping to expand on that and just continue to grow our presence and continue to give more resources and opportunity to the businesses we work with in the community, connecting the businesses, connecting influencers with them, whatever we can do to fulfill our mission.

Speaker 1 (00:04:34) - Great. And that's, um, you know, providing resources and growing the, the Van Life communities so people call, people can find things in one place,

Speaker 0 (00:04:40) - Definitely. Completely.

Speaker 1 (00:04:42) - Cool. And then so for all the, like the van build companies, like can, so anybody can apply to be, um, on the website, right?

Speaker 0 (00:04:49) - Sure, completely. And we we're a little bit selective there. Um, if we have heard bad things about a business, which there really isn't too many that, that people talk bad on, um, I think the builders are more skeptical than the actual customers about who does what and quality of work and different thing like that. But everyone's looking for different things to each their own. And we try and facilitate that. We don't, you know, there's builders that put out one van a month or two vans a year, and then there's builders that are putting out 30 vans a month. We built this platform to give kind of an even reach across the board to all of our builders and and different companies on there. We have had some people reach out, um, some different influencers, some different companies, and they've spoken to us about different companies that we have listed. We have vetted those. We have found a couple of them that were not up to our standards. We would not want to feed them traffic and give them clientele coming from us because we want to be a reliable resource in that sense. So we really do try to, to keep it open and keep our reach for everyone. But sometimes yes, we do have to cut people out, so, and only for a good reason. So.

Speaker 1 (00:06:09) - Yeah, totally. I was wondering that cuz there's just so many, you know, van builders popping up all over the country. It's like, how does some even know who's reputable, who's building good vans? You know, <laugh> definitely Definit. Do you have any advice like on, I guess your website would help with that, but what's your advice on that?

Speaker 0 (00:06:22) - I mean, honestly, we are here to talk to people. So if anyone, and, and we just did the Van Life Summit with yourself and I thank you for, you gave me the idea and, and uh, Sammy gave me the idea to put a offer out there for people to reach out and we would talk to them about the builders. So I had multiple, I'm, I'm gonna say upwards of 15 or 20 emails there, people reached out to us and we were able to talk them through the process, see where their location was, see what their goals were and say, okay, these are three recommendations. You should reach out to these builders, talk to them and see if they're a good fit for you. Um, really that's the best way, you know, talk to us. We have an email, we have a, a subscription link on the website, log on, shoot me an email.

Speaker 0 (00:07:08) - I'm gonna be the one that talks to you and I'm happy to talk you through that process and give you our 2 cents about who we think is good, who we think is, you know. Okay. Um, obviously pricing is the biggest point that comes into that and we have a lot of people that come in and don't really know, hey, this van may cost 80 to a hundred thousand dollars. So we're able to educate them on that aspect too and even maybe turn them to a DIY and aftermarket aspect where they can start to do their own thing. So

Speaker 1 (00:07:37) - That's really cool you give 'em options cuz I do know, you know, there's so many options out there, people don't really understand that. Yeah, there's the adventure wagon kit, there's other kits you can put and create a simpler di i y it doesn't have to be a really tough DIY job if you go with some of these components for you, is that part of your record

Speaker 0 (00:07:54) - Completely? Yeah. And, and there's a big separation of builders that want to do a start to finish job and builders that will do a piece together job, most of them want to build the van from scratch to finish. There is several though, like we work with Freedom Van go down in Florida, they're a great company that will do any piece of the build for you. If you just want the adventure van kit thrown in, they'll do that for you. And then you can do any more electrical, any add-ons, anything like that after the fact or come back and see 'em in two years. They're happy to do that for people. So not everyone's looking to do that. I would say the majority is looking to build a, a brand new van start to finish for people.

Speaker 1 (00:08:37) - Yeah, I was wondering that. Cause I do get a lot of questions, you know, on my, on my site the way we're at home for people saying like, Hey, I don't know how to do electrical. I don't know how to do plumbing. Yep. So is that one company that would do take on that component

Speaker 0 (00:08:48) - For the most part? Obviously there's gonna be different things that are out of everyone's reach. So that's why we put different categories and different information on our website to kind of guide people in that direction. And again, if you don't see what you're looking for on our site, reach out. We're happy to talk to you and even go, we have more information that we haven't put out on the website yet and we're actually doing a full revamp right now. We're hoping to launch in the next month or two. We have other stuff in reserve as well as like we have a a data list for Canada that we haven't put up yet as well. So we have people reach out from Canada, Hey, who can I work with up here? I'm happy to go through our database and find that information distributed. So.

Speaker 1 (00:09:29) - Wow. Very cool. And you're, so you're kind of the heartbeat of what's going on with the, you know, the van life community, the builders, the companies. What are you seeing in terms of, you know, the van life trend lately?

Speaker 0 (00:09:39) - Sure, and that's, it's a really big question right now because everything went on this huge uptick after covid. You know, people got really into it. I'm gonna say two to 300 builders open their doors between 2020 and now, I believe, and I've seen a few already happen that a lot of those are gonna fizzle out a little bit or get bought up by other builders. Um, I think in the next three years we're gonna see a lot of change with that. The mass amount of vans that have been produced in these past few years and will be produced next year in the following year. There's gonna be a lot of used vans on the market, so people are gonna pivot to that little bit cheaper. They're still gonna be able to get AEM Mercedes with lower miles, all the bells and whistles and it'll be, you know, 50 to a hundred grand less than a brand new one.

Speaker 0 (00:10:30) - So people are really gonna be looking at that part of the market and I think used vans are gonna be a lot bigger in the future. So, um, that puts us in a great position because people are gonna rely on resources like us to be able to find these, these builders that they want to do. They're gonna be able to pick and choose these builders and wheel and deal a little bit rather than being on a year and a half wait list like we've seen the past two years for any of the builders across the board. So it's, it's kind of like these car market did too. It was really hard to find a used car when the microchip shortage happened and now there's too much stock in a lot of places. So we're gonna see that flip. I'm interested to see how it goes. And again, it puts us in a good position to help market these companies and give them that exposure that they're gonna be feeding for in the future here. For sure.

Speaker 1 (00:11:22) - Yeah, that's so interesting you brought up the used van market. Cause I remember when I wanted to get my new sprinter van and it was early, uh, it was like late 2020 or early 2021, there were no four by four sprinters for sale anywhere. It was so hard to find one. I had to go on a Facebook group and like put out a request and a dealer got in touch with me from Knoxville and it had to have it shipped. It was this big thing where I was completely like, geez, why are there no vans <laugh>? Are you seeing more vans even now coming on the market?

Speaker 0 (00:11:50) - So it's interesting, I live in Somerville, South Carolina. I work with a company called Baker Motors and they own one of, there's I think three or four van specific Mercedes dealerships in the entire country. For some reason I was lucky enough to move to a town where one of those existed. So great opportunity for me. I do content videos and different work with them. The plant for the east coast that actually assembles all of the Mercedes sprinters on the east coast is also in my town. I see trucks going up and down the highway every single day stacked with three or four vans. When I spoke with the guys at Mercedes, 80% of those vans that go out of that plant are going directly to an upfitter, whether it be a camper van upfitter, whether it be a refrigerator van or a um, or a hardware van or anything like that for, for contractors.

Speaker 0 (00:12:44) - So it's crazy how many of those vans are spoken for when they leave that, that ordering process and get built and get shipped out like yours when you got your your new one. You know, it's absolutely crazy that that percentage of them are going out. So I think that's gonna flip a little bit too. You know, there's gonna start to be more, uh, more vans available. I also think that Mercedes pivoting to the all-wheel drive system and they also redesign their motor, that's gonna change a lot of different things for people as well. The four by four is sought after more by the over landing community than the all-wheel drive systems because you can do those different upgrades, you can do the lift kits and there's less the, the drive drive capacity for it. The drive line is less, um, I would say prone to issues when you manipulate it.

Speaker 0 (00:13:41) - So the four by four can take a little bit more. There's more upgrades and more different things available for that right now. So it'll be interesting to see that happen as well as say Ford's all-wheel drive system versus Mercedes all-wheel drive system just to stack 'em up against each other. So, um, I hope that availability continues to get better. I know it has. We're also, you know, in, in this site line of a possible recession and you know, it's also tax season so a lot of people are gonna be ordering things. So there's lots of things into play. I do think it's gonna get better for people and availability. It's gonna get better, but only time will tell. So

Speaker 1 (00:14:21) - Yeah. And I know like for a long time the, the Mercedes sprinters have been very sought after, like you were saying the four by four option, which I think I got the last year that was doing four by four. Yeah. How do you think that's gonna affect um, sprinter sales? Cuz now there's the transit trail, the all-wheel drive mm-hmm <affirmative>, you know, what do you think about about what's happening there?

Speaker 0 (00:14:37) - It's interesting too because have you driven a transit?

Speaker 1 (00:14:41) - No, not yet. Okay.

Speaker 0 (00:14:43) - I describe them as different vehicles. Um, I say the ProMaster and the Mercedes Sprinter, they drive more like a truck in my opinion. That's what I feel like when I'm behind the wheel of those A transit, it feels like I'm driving a car or an suv. It's a little more pleasurable, it's a little more gentle. I think the transit trail will change that up a little bit. You know, obviously it's got the lift and I haven't seen or touched one of those yet. So I'm interested to do that. Um, like I said, it's gonna be interesting to put those next to each other and kind of see the battle. Obviously the Ford is cheaper. Um, they both have kind of, actually, I don't know what Mercedes warranty is these days. So if Ford continues with that 10 year a hundred thousand mile warranty that they've been putting out on different vehicles, that's a game changer too. That's something I would personally go after. And to get an off-road edition transit trail that's already, you know, rated for a little bit better with that, that uh, warranty there, that's a huge game changer. So it will be interesting like you're, like you're inquiring to see what happens there.

Speaker 1 (00:15:50) - Yeah, that was all really fascinating to me cuz one reason I chose a Sprinter is it is has a higher, you know, lift on it, you know, from the factory than most of the other vans. And so I wanted that, but I heard the trail is, has that lift on it, so <laugh>. Yep. Yeah, we'll see what happens there. Huh? <laugh>

Speaker 0 (00:16:04) - Definitely, definitely.

Speaker 1 (00:16:06) - Yeah. Very interesting. And so are you also seeing like a boost of like Van Life events that are, that are popping up across the country

Speaker 0 (00:16:14) - Completely and we are, uh, we're working on a master list of everything that's going on this year. Um, again, we're trying really hard to get that, uh, website out. I work with Katie from, so we bought a van as, as you probably know and she's kind of the backbone of building that website with us right now. And she's been working really hard and she's doing a great job and um, we're really hoping to roll that out. We got the events list, we revamped the blog, did a whole bunch of work there, but you'll be able to see kind of every, every event that we have that's going on this year. I know there's other, uh, people that have a blog out on it too, so you can find that if you search it. But yeah. Um, I feel like once a month, twice a month I have two or three people reach out and they're like, Hey, can you put my event up or can we do some advertising with you guys?

Speaker 0 (00:17:00) - And it's cool because not everyone's doing the same thing. Um, you know, you have your actual Van Life gatherings, which is more of a community event. You know, let's get around a campfire, let's hang out, let's meet each other and, and network. And then there's a lot of the shows, there's the Adventure Van Exco, there's uh, I I would say Vanlife Outfitters there. Florida Vanlife Gathering was a nice mix of that. They had some of, of um, some speakers. They had, you know, a camping area but then they also had the vendors and they had a good community feel there. So it's cool to see different things happening like that for sure. And yeah, I'm sure there's gonna be lots more popping up. Same with the builders though. You're gonna see those uptick and start to fizzle out because there's only so many people in so many places that can go to so many things. Um, with that said though, the Northeast is expanding heavily, I feel like on different things in the community, there's gonna be a, a large uptick of them up there, I would say for sure.

Speaker 1 (00:18:02) - Interesting. Yeah. Cause a lot of people write me as well, they're like, how can I find a van builder in the northeast? Or how can I boondock out there? It seems like it wasn't as van friendly, but it's good to hear that it's maybe trending to become a little more van friendly.

Speaker 0 (00:18:14) - It is, definitely. And I mean like the, the higher northeast up in New England, there's a lot more land up there, so people tend to go up there. You can camp in National Forest more, but I'm from Pennsylvania originally, now I'm down in South Carolina, like I said, but that, like my tri-state area with New York, New Jersey, I wouldn't even, you know, you, you can get away with it, but you're doing a lot more Walmart or parking lot camping or, or really traveling to be able to stay at night or staying at campgrounds. It's not the B L M and National Forest a as far as and wide as out west. So it's more interesting for sure.

Speaker 1 (00:18:50) - Totally. So yeah, I'm curious with the people that you know, I know we've had seen an influx of people wanting to buy camper bands, um, from what you've seen, are these people that wanna live in them full-time or are there a lot of weekend warriors or, or what do you seen there?

Speaker 0 (00:19:01) - I see, I feel like I talk to a lot less people that are full-timers. Um mm-hmm <affirmative>, I feel like the community that we attract because we're, we're doing a lot more of the more expensive vans. I find those to be business owners, um, people that are, you know, starting to get their vehicle in in preparation for retirement, different things like that. A lot of families, a lot of people with kids or, or you know, um, different different aspects like that. And they're doing more of the weekend warrior stuff or they're like, Hey, we're gonna go out for a month or two once a year. Um, a a lot more like that. I see the class A, the class B or I'm sorry, the Class A and the Class C rigs are starting to become less desirable by families. They want that van. So then even, you know, hey, we're going to grandma's house this weekend, we're gonna take the van sleep in the driveway rather than all be crammed into one house. Um, so it, it's a lot of diversity there, but it's still growing in all aspects like that. For sure.

Speaker 1 (00:20:06) - Yeah. That's interesting you said that cuz my mom and her husband travel in a class A and I've sometimes wanted 'em to like, come meet me on a whim at this state park or come camp with me and they're like, well I need to make a reservation a year in advance. And I'm like, ah,

Speaker 0 (00:20:18) - <laugh>. Yep. Definitely.

Speaker 1 (00:20:20) - Like, I, I mean that's such a, a huge thing that I do think, like you were saying, people are trading in those bigger vehicles or maybe also getting a van just to have that flexibility of being able to park and drive and go anywhere really

Speaker 0 (00:20:32) - Completely. And I mean more and more adaptations to these vans is making them a class a smushed into a small vehicle. It's, I mean I'm, I'm doing these, uh, these content videos with Baker Motors and they have mostly more luxury vehicles. They have like Midwest design vehicles and, and different ones like that that are more production style. And I mean, you get into 'em and it's just an immaculate setup just like you would see in a normal, uh, RV coming off the lot. You know, it's got the, it's got lithium packages now, it's got the full toilet shower set up. Um, it's got the microwave. It's, it's more of that RV feel compared to the classic builders that's more of a wood build interior and, and different things like that. So we're seeing a lot more of those home style feels, those technology features really going into these builds these days.

Speaker 1 (00:21:25) - Yeah, and I've heard of the, the Midwest designs and I feel like they're not talked about very often, but they are very beautiful. And are are, are they, do you know if those are custom or do they kind of produce um, you know, I don't know, production line, right?

Speaker 0 (00:21:36) - It's more production line. Definitely I would, you know, they're on the level of Airstream or Winnebago or anyone like that for sure. But, um, yeah, I mean it's, it's interesting too because you talk to a lot of the builders or the guys that do their custom DIY builds and they kind of bash those vans and any van is gonna have its issues. I'm a big stickler for get a warranty and make sure the warranty's gonna stick. And as I spoke about in the Van Life Summit, one of the biggest aspects of that is, you know, a topic we talked about before, a lot of these Van Life companies that, or these van build companies, they may fizzle out over the next few years. Mercedes dealers won't put Vans on their lot from those smaller companies for that reason. If they sell a van and it has a three to five year warranty across the board and that Van Build company disappears, that Mercedes dealer now has to uphold that warranty. So it's a little tricky there and, and you know, you get one of these more production vehicles, you can take it to any RV place, they know what the components are, they know what they're doing with it and they can fix it for you. It's a little bit easier. So it gives peace, peace of mind to a lot of people to go after that type of van rather than uh, a more custom build

Speaker 1 (00:22:52) - That makes sense. And they probably hold a better resale value. Cuz you were saying that people know what they are, they know, you know, their value, they're easy to list on various websites. They probably are easier to sell, huh?

Speaker 0 (00:23:02) - Depending, depending, and, and a lot of people are going for the more rugged, more overland style vehicles these days and that's really cool. But there's also, you know, a, a huge community of people that are retiring and getting into these, those are the people I see going for more of the, the production style vehicles because they're used to that RV feel. So I I think that's the big separation there.

Speaker 1 (00:23:28) - Yeah, very true. And so is your new website going to be hosting, uh, used Vans at all, like a directory or will you offer that service to people?

Speaker 0 (00:23:36) - We will, yeah, we're gonna be launching a, uh, a for sale area. We're also gonna be launching a jobs area because we've seen so many builders in this space that are really fighting to get good technicians to build these vehicles. Um, like I said, I, I worked in automotive and uh, my last job in a body shop was a few years ago and just people don't want to do that type of work anymore. It's same with plumbing or electrical. You're seeing those labor rates go up and up because they're having to pay these technicians more and more and they're harder to find. So, um, the Van Build companies are really heavily looking for that. They're also looking to offload these vehicles that they're pre-building now. Cuz like I said, it's not, it's not the same. People don't have a year wait list anymore. They're even building vans to try and sell off their lot because they don't have all their build slots done.

Speaker 0 (00:24:29) - So definitely something we included in there. Um, another huge thing that we added to touch back on resale value and stuff like that, we are adding a van appraisal aspect to the website. So, um, I foresee that being really big. A lot of these people are going out, they're doing their builds, they're doing upgrades, different things like that. And then they turn around and they go, I don't know what to sell this for. So we, we tried to bridge that gap and I'm excited to see how that goes and how that helps everyone for sure.

Speaker 1 (00:25:02) - Wow, that's cool. You have a lot of really awesome components coming to your site, <laugh>.

Speaker 0 (00:25:05) - Definitely, definitely.

Speaker 1 (00:25:06) - I'm excited to see that <laugh>. Awesome. Yeah. Very cool. And then your other company, how does that incorporate what it with it, the finder outside?

Speaker 0 (00:25:15) - So Finder Outside is the, what's called it the Umbrella corporation. So, um, we have, that's the C corp that owns Explore Van X essentially. So finder outside. We really want to take that to another level when we do start to build that, we started to build the social media up on TikTok a little bit. We're gonna stay incorporating it with Explore Xanax right now. But we see it being more of a nomad focused community in the future. Um, we want to build different aspects that kind of key into not only Van Life, but I mean I work remote, you work remote, we both have a travel aspect to our brain. We want to continue this nomad lifestyle. And there's so many different aspects to that. Like there's, there's a lot of companies coming out right now. Um, I've spoken to a few of them. We haven't done any, any relationships or anything, but they're building almost like retreat centers or um, or like a network of areas that you can go to park your van, have, you know, access to, to park outside the vehicle or outside of the building.

Speaker 0 (00:26:23) - And then also go in, use the building for either offices or they'll have showers, almost like a networking space and then they'll have different areas around the entire country where you can do that by being a part of their community. So we'd love to be a resource in helping people find all those different things that they can use as resources while they're traveling, while they're working remotely, different things like that. Um, to be honest, finder outside is still a vision. It's not really into play yet, but yes, that is the overall corporation that we're gonna expand on. Hopefully have a few more domains and different things like that in the future.

Speaker 1 (00:27:04) - Very cool. Yeah, I love the idea of having the, you know, places people can actually go in and like use a house. Cause sometimes you just wanna stay somewhere for a while. Is were you guys talking to Kift at all? Is that one of 'em? I'm curious.

Speaker 0 (00:27:14) - Yes. Yep. Definitely. Yep. And, and that was the one I was blanking on, so thanks for talking about that <laugh>. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (00:27:20) - Yeah, yeah. That one seems really cool for people who don't know you can, you know, sign up and there's several houses now I think three that you can go use the home facilities use wifi, there's food. Yep. And you can meet other nomads. And I just think that's such a cool way to, I'm gonna have to try it, you know, next summer when I'm off my, my sailboat. But it's such a cool way to just, you know, change it up a little because it get tiring just to be boondocking and you're not even near anyone and you just wanna have that social aspect. So I think that's a

Speaker 0 (00:27:45) - Really cool, completely and I think we all strive through that at different points, you know? Yeah. It's cool to, let's go out and be by ourselves for a week or two, but then it's like, you know, I'd really like to make a friend right now and that's the perfect place to go do that, so.

Speaker 1 (00:27:59) - Yeah. Yeah, it's exciting. Cool. Yeah. Well, yeah. Is there anything else you wanted to, to add or, or discuss that, that I missed?

Speaker 0 (00:28:06) - Um, I'd, I'd love to ask your, your view of the Vanlife community right now. What are you seeing changing what's going on in your world? I mean you're heavily, you know, involved with Van Life Project. What other things do you have going on and what do you foresee in the near future?

Speaker 1 (00:28:21) - Yeah, for me, I mostly um, just interact with people who are subscribing to my email list and they're really interested in doing van life maybe in a few years, like you said, a lot of retirees Sure. But young people as well. Just wanting to get away from the, the nine to five and just, you know, be outside more. We're just seeing more and more of a trend toward that, you know, the less stuff, more adventure <laugh>. And so I'm hoping more and more people jump on that bandwagon cuz it will be better for, for the planet in the long run. You know, more people are living in smaller and you know, eating, you know, more vegetarian food and I'm seeing that in the van community just so much like care for the planet and nature. And so I'm hoping that it continues to trend in that, that way. So definitely, yeah, that's my goal. Helping people live nomadically like that and to figure out how to make money on the road. Yep. So I produced a new course about it, about niche site creation, which is what I did with my site, so Awesome. Trying to help people in all these ways, so. Awesome. Yeah, it's just great to meet so many other people out there who are doing the same thing and just trying to help people live like this cuz it sure is fun. <laugh>

Speaker 0 (00:29:20) - And that, that whole aspect I love because I'm seeing so much innovation in this space because of exactly what you just said. We have so many people interested in it and a lot of us are entrepreneurs and come into it and go, Hey, I found this problem, let's fix it. Just like the Explore XX site, you know, give that resource or give that way to help people meet these dreams and, and meet these goals. And it's just great and I love connecting with people. I'm happy to have connected with you today. Anyone watching, if you wanna reach out and just say hi, happy to talk to you, so

Speaker 1 (00:29:55) - To Yeah, totally. And yeah, again, tell people your website, I'll put it in the show notes below, but where can people find you guys?

Speaker 0 (00:30:01) - Sure. So it's explore van x.com. Uh, we are at Explore van X across every platform except for TikTok. TikTok is find you're outside. So, um, you know, check us out, happy to talk to anyone, happy to talk through our resources and, and give anyone aspect of, uh, of the knowledge that we have. Uh, and just go from there. So

Speaker 1 (00:30:25) - Awesome. And I encourage everyone to go to your site over the next month or two and see if it's revamped. I'm excited to see that myself, so. Excellent. Yeah, that's, that's great.

Speaker 0 (00:30:33) - Cool.



Show Notes

In this podcast episode, the CEO of Explore Van X talks about the company's mission to connect people with businesses in the van life community to help them bui...

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Timestamps

Background of Explore Van X CEO [00:00:01] The CEO shares his background and how he became involved with Explore Van X.

*Explore Van X's mission and services...

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Tweets

🎉Exciting news for van lifers!🚐💨 In this episode, we learned about the mission of Explore Van X, a business directory connecting the van life community with ...

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Titles

  1. "Revolutionizing the Van Life Community: Explore Van X's Mission"
  2. "From Camper Van to CEO: The Inspiring Story of Explore Van X"
  3. "Expert Advice for Bui...