#123 Todd Van Fleet - Tactical Creative
Todd Van Fleet - Creative Director, Photographer & Artist. If you need to capture the perfect images or video footage, but it means hiking through two-foot snow drifts or tackling terrain that requires high clearance, Todd Van Fleet is your guy. Whether it’s grizzlies in Alaska or off-road racing in the California desert, Todd brings the right gear, necessary skill, and never-a-dull-moment conversation. He has brought his top-of-the-line strategic creativity to brands like Polaris, Coors, the NFL, and also the local brewery down the street with killer IPA. He’s a husband to an amazing wife, dad to 3 awesome kids, and 1 dog who hates Zoom. Todd’s ultimate goal is to use his talents and resources to make a positive impact on the world. Please subscribe or like us on social media platforms for updates on shows, events, and episode drops.
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Todd Van Fleet - Tactical Creative
Our guest for this episode is Creative Director Todd Van Fleet. He's the Founder of Tactical Creative, capturing some amazing footage through photography, cinematography, graphic design, and much more. Todd is a true artist that I thoroughly enjoyed sitting down with. I hope that you enjoy our conversation.
Todd, welcome. Thanks for making the drive over from Superior and nice to meet you.
This is awesome. I'm super grateful. I'm honored that you reached out and I'm all giddy to be on a show.
Shout-out to Jeremy Myers who isn't here tonight. Normally sitting in the hot seat over there where Gabby is at. He had something last minute come up. I was like, “Really? You are going to bail on the guy that you wanted to have come in?” Jeremy, we love you. Jeremy turned me onto you. You guys did a gig together or something.
We met in Florida, filming a CPAC event, a conservative Republican convention thing. That was a trip. It was super cool. Regardless of where you sit politically, we were fortunate to get the opportunity to go down and film a video recap of that, and then I also took portraits of all the speakers, so I got to meet some awesome people. I had five minutes of FaceTime with Candace Owens. She's a super sweetheart. I took portraits of her. I got to take the portrait of Wayne LaPierre, the President of NRA, and hang out with his crew for a little bit. It’s awesome stuff. A lot of people in that whole genre.
You take some amazing photos. As soon as I saw it, I was like, “We got to have Todd in. We got to talk about this.” We are in the same spaces. I know that you shoot a little bit for Origin. They are one of our sponsors here.
I'm smack dab in a project with Origin right now. I'm working with Travis who is their VP of Product Development right now. We are working on a project together. It's a project. That's all I will say.
Have you done anything with Jocko Fuel because they have been good to us too? They now are dividing and conquering because it's gotten so big and so popular.
They are growing like crazy. I haven't done anything with Jocko Fuel specifically, but with Origin, I did some apparel designs for them. It was a few years ago. I did a whole set of designs and then that led to another project that I'm working on. It's been cool in this space. I have another client that Pete with Origin introduced me to, Kip Fulks.
Very familiar. We have been trying to get Kip on. We have been going back and forth and trying to organize someone who’s here.
Come on, Kip. Let's get you on here. You can take your shirt off. He was on Cam Hanes’s podcast with his shirt off.
I haven't caught it yet but I saw him doing some stuff on the ground.
I don’t know what the story with that is and I'm leaving my shirt on. He started Big Truck Farm Brewery. They are in Maryland and so I have been doing design work, branding, can designs, and packaging designs. I'm working with Kip on that, and Kip is on the Board of Origin and Jocko Fuel now. He's helping those guys.
The whole camo line thing that's going on now. They are crushing it in all forms and fashion.
That's the epitome of the clients that I want to work with. American made. They get it. They are increasing the supply chain here in America. Good dudes, patriotic, family-driven, and family-oriented. I spent years in advertising. I remember having this moment of like, “What am I doing with my life?” There are crazy stories that led me through advertising and then to what I'm doing now.
Everything that you said about those guys is fact and point, and that's why they are sponsors of us too, because we get so many companies that reach out to us. I had something last time. It was a gothic jewelry company and I was like, “Do you even listen to what we do? I don't wear any jewelry.”
He took all this off when I got here early and he was like, “He took all his rings and you are weird.” That's why you wear headphones. He's got these big plugs in the ears and all that shit.
I took that all off at the start of the show. They have been awesome with us. Anything that we have ever reached out like, “We want to go do this. Would you guys be interested in being a part of it?” They are always supportive.
When I first met Pete at an Order of Man event out in Maine, I was out there filming that and that's how I got to meet Pete and got to hang and chat with him for a little bit. He had told me that he had his own little creative marketing firm before he started Origin. We hit it off immediately because he's a graphic designer at heart. We clicked instantly, and then that led to the first project I did with him. Now I'm working on more stuff. They were referred to me by Ryan Michler, Founder of Order of Man. I do stuff for him weekly. It's this awesome community.
It is and it's weird. We didn't connect through that or anything. It's like we run in the same circle. When I started seeing all that when I was doing a little bit of homework. After I saw your amazing photography, and then we started going down the rabbit hole, I was like, “This is going to go well. This is going to be no problem.”
This is like, “This looks like my kitchen counter at home with the black rifle.” There used to be a beer fridge in the garage and now it's the Jocko fridge.
I still drink Black Rifle Coffee, but the Jocko goes. I'm literally addicted to it. If they can't send them to me fast enough, I still have to go and buy them. I could crush four of those in a day. No problem.
They don't recommend it. It says two a day maybe. I could be wrong about that, but I'm always looking like, “Can I drink ten more of these?”
It must be all the vitamin overload.
Probably won't so my heart doesn't jump out of my chest.
They are not too bad. It's only 95 milligrams of caffeine.
It’s equivalent to a cup of coffee is what I have read or heard.
It’s good stuff. Going back to your photography and how long have you been at this because your works are amazing?
I appreciate that. If I was to say where to go back to, like anything I do lately or whatever, and I don't mean to get weird on you or anything, but it goes back to God. That's where my talent comes from, 100%. I feel like I have this theme that everybody is creative, whether you think you are or you don't think so. My argument is we are created by the ultimate creator. He creates all things. He made you and me in His image and He's creative, so you are creative too. I'm very adamant about that. I don't mean to sound like some Jesus freak.
You are spot on. Steven Pressfield said it in The War of Art. I don't know if you have read that book. It’s freaking amazing. It's like looking within your inner self to find that creative thing and sometimes you don't know what it is. Sometimes it comes to you in the muse or whatever he calls it, or whatever he dubs it.
I tell people that you don't paint, draw, or take pictures, but you could be a ninja at Excel spreadsheets and not realize that that's your gift. You are creative with numbers and I am not. I'm always telling my kids that there are three kinds of people in this world. Those that are good at math and those that aren't.
I'm with you. I was doing the numbers in my head.
Obviously, I'm not.
I'm dyslexic. That was great for me. I would have been like, “I'm on board.”
Same. I'm wicked dyslexic. It’s AHD or dyslexia but I have discovered that that's what my superpower is. It's taken me a while to realize that, hone in on that, or embrace that. That is a good thing. Kip Fulks said something about that like that can be your superpower.
It lets your brain focus on other things because I am as well.
It allows you to be hyper-focused on something that you are super interested in. Most of the stuff, I go headfirst into everything that I do. There's no middle ground with me. I grew up in Wyoming. My stepdad used to always tell me and he would be like, “If you are going to Chicago, you don't stop in Omaha.” It's like, “If you are going to do the thing, you go all the way. You don't do it halfway.” That's been ingrained in me since I was little and that's how I jump into everything.
It's crazy how many super successful people, professional athletes, or artists, all have something that's underlining like that whether it's ADHD. We have had Derek Wolfe in here. Severe ADHD, but was hyper-focused on ripping a quarterback's head off for a number of years. Now he's hyper-focused on hunting. It sounds like he's taken that someplace else and getting into film and that type of thing. He’s filming some of his hunts, which is super cool.
Gabby, you mentioned dyslexia. I'm a big Tim Tebow fan and I have met him in person. I worked at the Broncos for a while as a photographer.
We bashed him on an episode. We had Chris Camozzi in here. I took a little dig on him.
He's got a lot of haters, but I can say that I have met him in person multiple times. Hate is the real deal. I have read all of his books. His books are fascinating. It was his second big popular book. He talks about how dyslexic he is and how he struggled with it when he was a kid. It's like overcoming a disability and dyslexia and stuff like that.
We are close to the same age. When we were kids, ADD wasn't a thing. It wasn't a diagnosable thing. I remember being in a small mountain town in Wyoming Elementary School and getting put in a special class because I couldn't do Math. I couldn't focus on reading and all that stuff. I remember being like, “I'm not supposed to be in this classroom. Why I'm with these kids and not with my buddies?” It was because of ADD and stuff.
I had the same exact struggle as a kid. I still struggle with it to this day like you read some of my text messages on a shoot. Especially when I get going and Siri doesn't work the way it's supposed to like now. Goddamn Apple updates. It took me a while. I always felt like I was stupid or dumb for the longest time. I still make those comments about myself, but now it's in a joking manner like, “I'm a big dumb guy.” I took to like the creative arts because of that. I started taking photography as soon as I could take a class in middle school and ended up in a black room. Those were the classes in that I excelled and got As and hyper-focused on sports or whatever I was into.
I was the exact same way. Back to your question, it started in junior high. I was taking pictures for the yearbook, learning how to use the dark room, and taking every single art elective. A big shout-out to Melanie Hallett. I had an awesome middle school art teacher and she encouraged it. My mom was crazy encouraging into the artist side of me. In sixth grade, I knew I wanted to go to art school. Most adults don't know what they want to do when they grow up, but I have always known I wanted to be an artist or be in a creative field in some way, shape, or form.
Most adults don't know what they want to do when they grow up, but I've always known I wanted to be an artist or be in the creative field in some way, shape, or form.
It's rewarding. I encourage anybody or anyone that has a kid that's struggling with the same thing. Do your best to help them pursue school and try not to put stipulations on it. My daughter has dyslexia now and I hate to bring her up on the show talking about it, but she's an amazing ballerina. She's hyper-focused on that.
Dance is her creative outlet. She loves to draw, paint, and all that stuff. We have put a ton of effort into that to where she's almost doing that pretty much like a full-time job. She dances 6 to 7 days a week and does art outside of that when she's at home. She knows how to sew. She can make all this amazing stuff. She’s super dyslexic though. She's twelve now in 2023.
I have a fourteen-year-old daughter and it sounds like they would be buddies because my daughter is the same way. I was only amplified by her creativity and her skillset. She's drawing stuff that I'm trying to tell her, I'm like, “I wasn't drawing like that until I was later in high school and you are in middle school crushing it.”
She's drawing and painting everything under the sun and I'm trying to feed that. At Christmas, she got this giant box with all these art supplies. Shout-out to my wife. She's brilliant. She's getting her doctorate right now in education. She has taught me all these things about kids that have ADD or dyslexia. There's this concept of twice exceptional. They might be struggling with one thing here, but there's something else that's usually way above average that helps balance that out. Those are the things that you need to feed.
That's what I was getting at. I don't think when you and I were growing up that they'd looked at it that way. It was like you were going to go to special ed during reading. Fortunately, I was fairly good at Math and I was super into History, but History involved a lot of reading. Everything does like Math problems and all that stuff.
I have to force myself to read and it's been the most rewarding thing. Slowing down and forcing myself to read. Shout-out to 1st Phorm the 75 Hard program. You have to read ten pages a day when you do that program.
What is that program? You mentioned it when you came in. I have a couple of friends that have done it, but I don't know anything about it.
My wife and I did it. We are on our next round of doing it again and it's bonkers. You are going to love this because we sound very similar and it's like, “If I do something, you have to go all the way.” When I heard about it, I'm like, “That'd be something I would do,” so I'm just nuts. It's 75 days straight with no sugar or alcohol. You pick a diet and you stick to the diet.
You have to take a progress picture every day. You have to read ten pages every day, and it's two 45-minute workouts. One of the workouts has to be outside. Did I miss anything? Water. That's why I'm going to have to pee ten times during this episode, but you got to drink 80 or 60 ounces of water. You got to drink a ton of water like 1 gallon.
It's so good for you to have a routine like that or something to stick to. I went through working with some awesome doctors and nutritionists. Massive weight loss. It was basically eliminating almost everything from my diet except for meat for 100 days. It was a drastic change and I feel so much better. The mental gratification that I got out of that was almost more than losing weight. It was like, “I did this for 100 days.” I didn't touch a fucking potato chip or anything. When you have kids, that stuff is everywhere. It's on the counters.
Frigging Crumbl app. They have new flavors every week. Damn, you.
Just sticking to that. That's so cool that that's a thing. Two workouts a day. That's heavy.
It's bonkers and the kicker is if you miss a day, start over. You got to go back.
How far in are you now?
I'm only on day five of doing this the second time around. When I first heard your show, I'm like, “He sounds like Andy Frisella.” It’s a side note.
I don't know who that is, honestly.
He's a big deal. He's got a podcast that you would love to check out and he's a hardcore. At first, I was like, “I don't know about this guy,” but then I learned his story like when you look at his pictures, he's just pissed off in his pictures.
I know exactly who this is. I have only seen a few memes, but he is hard in the paint.
He's got a book about 75 HARD and it's awesome. You read it as you go through the program. He came up with this program and it started with a bet. I'm probably going to butcher the heck out of this. Jake, don't kill me. Jake is a guy I met who started 1st Phorm outdoors. I think it was a bet. He got in an argument over 30 days to make a habit stick.
Whatever the argument. I'm calling BS. He's like, “You got to do something for 75 days to make it stick.” They were like, “You can't do whatever. Thirty days is easy.” He's like, “Let's make a list of things for 75 days and I will do it.” This is like in an out-surround way how 75 Hard started. He wrote this program and then he wrote a book about it, and it's gotten crazy popular. The first time we did it was a few years ago. It's been around for a bit.
I can't believe I haven't heard of this. I know who that is though.
He's got big hitters. Ed Mylett is on his show frequently like over and over.
It's so hard. Since I have started the show, I have to be careful. I love podcasts and I will go down a rabbit hole and I will consume as much as I can, but I found out that it was influencing me a little bit here too. If I have a guest that's coming in, I won't go listen to podcasts that they have done, unfortunately.
You want to keep organic. That's good.
I did go and check out the podcast that you helped produce, Order of Man. I got about five minutes into that and I couldn't turn it off because the conversation was so good at the beginning about family and time management. It was incredible. What a good message to me.
Tim is a great dude. We got the memes clowning around with us. I got a picture I could show you. I was like, “Can I get a picture?” He grabs me. “What did I get myself into?” He's a good dude.
He's a beast of a man. That was so good. It made me go home and was like, “I'm going to go do my workout with my five-year-old daughter.” We are shadowboxing each other and doing Tabatas on the heavy bag and stuff. It was awesome. It inspired me.
Getting your kids involved is the best thing. I don't want to do a rant on parenting, but kids are always watching. We had done 75 Hard the first time like 2 to 3 months into COVID the lockdown. That honestly saved me from seriously packing on the lbs. I'd be a big boy if it wasn't for that and it kept our sanity. We had that and you couldn't get by any workout equipment because everybody is under the San Juan.
This is right after it first came out because you said you developed it a couple of years ago.
We did it a couple of years ago. I didn't know how long it'd been around before we did it. Gyms were clothes and everything and my wife loves going to the gym, yoga, and all that stuff. She was getting bummed that she couldn't go and I was like, “I'm going to build a gym in the garage.” Me and everybody else on the planet at that time.
Good luck getting kettlebells. ONNIT is one of our sponsors. I called them up and they were like, “Unless you are Joe Rogan, we don't have any kettlebells at all.” It's like, “Not even for me.”
Marcus Aubrey on it. I read his book. I'm sorry. I'm like, “I'm ADD and I can read.”
I want to go back to that here in a minute, but go ahead and finish with the 75 days.
I set on this quest to build a gym in the garage and I couldn't find anything and I got so lucky. I would check Craigslist every five minutes. This is how I picture it. These 24-year-old-like bros are like, “We are going to be roommates now.” They both had full sets of gym equipment and they are like, “We need beer money or whatever it is. Let's put one of the sets on Craigslist.” It was up and I hit them up immediately and they didn't know they could have charged me 4 or 5 times what I have bought it for, but I got a pretty cool setup.
It was insane during that. Luckily, I had some stuff in my garage and a little gym prior to that. To get anything extra over and above, it did hook me up with some of those sandbags. You can get dirt anywhere.
There was no shortage of sand.
I just had to wear my mask to go to Home Depot to buy some sand. It's so crazy what we went through and what's coming to light now. It blows me away.
I can't believe how it's seemingly was yesterday, but it's also so long ago.
It seems like ages ago, doesn't it?
Kaiser is our health insurance. I got an email. I was telling my wife and I was like, “Kaiser is fine now that the COVID emergency is over.” I coached my son's baseball team and he took a pitch to the face at his game. He wears his glasses in it. I shouldn't be laughing at this. He's fine. He had a mild concussion but we took him in to get looked at and we were like, “What's going on?” They didn't make us wear masks to go into the hospital and stuff. I was like, “Finally.”
I'm with you. I'm glad it's all over and that people are hip to what works and what doesn't now. Thank goodness for alternative media because that's a huge part of it. Going back to the 75 days, you have to read ten pages a day, is that what you said?
Yes.
With anything or is it with something?
You can read anything.
It's not a cult like, “Here's what you need to read.”
Jocko's Extreme Ownership was one of the first books I read. Also, James Clear's Atomic Habits. Everybody should read that book. It's an incredible book. I read Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life. It’s super good. I have a stack. I have a picture of the books that I read and they are all incredible and I would reread them in a heartbeat.
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
I use the shit out of Audible because I love that. No matter where I'm going, I can throw in the headphones.
There's a rule. It's got to be paper pages. It's got to be tactile and tangible.
There is something about that. I grew out of my dyslexia because I can read fine now. I could sit down and read a book. I don't like to, though. I don't have the patience too. There's too much stuff that starts running through my mind. I feel like with Audible or something, I can multitask and do it. It's always on when I'm in the gym.
Occasionally if I can't sleep at night, if I got too much shit on my mind, I will throw in something, The Four Agreements or whatever and just listen to something like that. It does make me relax a little bit to where I can go to sleep. Audible is great when it comes to that for me, but there is something about having a book to pick up. We got a bunch in here. I got to send you one of these, too, from Donny Dust. He's who made these arrowheads for us. He's a napper, outdoor primitive survival guy. You should link up with him. He’s doing all kinds of stuff. He's up in your area.
He's been on five times. One time we lost a recording, the power went out and I didn't have any battery backups or anything. We were two hours into the show and we lost the audio recording. I was like, “Oh, God.” That's the bread and butter of the show. I will send you one of his scavenger books and it's even signed and everything.
He’s super rad, a former Marine, so he is a veteran. One day he decided he had all the badass outdoor shit and decided, “I want to go back to stone tools and everything.” He haunts provides. He works a lot with CU Boulder and they do all kinds of primitive studies. They will have him make a tool and then throw out ladles into a bison and then have him process the whole thing with stone tools. It's next level.
It makes me feel weak as a bow hunter with a compound bow, but I love Donny. He's salt of the earth. He’s just a great guy too. Going back into dyslexia a little bit and some of that, the best way to get over that is we were sheltered as kids growing up or I was. The way it was perceived is like, “We will read to you.” That doesn't help. It's like the practice of reading. Once email came around, it was such a staple to have.
That's the only reason I learned how to type. Typing class in high school for me it was like, “This is dumb.”
Back when they had typewriters.
Yes. These kids who read this, they have to look that up. They don't even know what a typewriter is.
Sticking with that and then feeding your kids or whoever might have that with some creative outlet, and letting them know how good they are. My daughter is dyslexic and she can read fine, anything that I send her, she can read books. Reading out loud is very hard.
You need to give your kids some sort of creative outlet and let them know how good they are.
That helps is what I have heard. I could be wrong. My wife's going to be like, “That’s not the correct info.”
She's a state champion in art. She's won a couple of state championships which is awesome for some stuff that she submitted. She's danced at pretty much the highest level that she can. Gabby, you will have to correct me on this, but she trains at Bolshoi Academy and all these different Colorado Ballet and all these different spots. Just feeding that. If anybody's reading this and they know anybody that has that, just feed them with something else. It’s so important.
They are going to be exceptional at something else.
Diving back into your childhood and stuff, you took photography in middle school. You grew up in Wyoming in the mountains. Were you big into the outdoors as a kid?
It’s Lander, Wyoming. It's right at the base. It's the gateway of the Wind River Mountains. A little shout-out to NOLS. It's the National Outdoor Leadership School. They are international headquarters is in Lander, Wyoming. Another fun fact is the International Climbers Festival. They could pick anywhere in the world. They host it in Lander, Wyoming.
Politics aside, Patagonia. Yvon Chouinard, the guy that started Patagonia, he's got a book called Let My People Go Surfing. It’s a fantastic book. One of the coolest books I have read. We will keep the politics of their company out of this, but this a dude that you and I could relate to. His best friend was the founder. We have got Alfred over there who is the Founder of The North Face. Those two dudes were best friends.
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
They were like partners at one point or something.
I don't know if they were partners, but they used to go surfing, climbing, camping, and everything together. Yvon Chouinard thought that there's got to be a better way to make climbing gear. He taught himself how to be a blacksmith so he could make his own gear. I'm like, “That's something I would do.” Now, it's Patagonia, and then the other guy goes off and starts The North Face.
There's a cool thing in there and how the companies have helped each other out. Patagonia grew like crazy. The North Face expanded to Europe and Patagonia had a factory there already, and Yvon was like, “Come over and check out our factory and I will show you how we do it.” I was like, “That seems like it's unheard of for big corporations like that to do that.”
Do you know the history of Harley-Davidson at all? There's a great documentary on it. It was a three-part little series or maybe six hours or something that the History Channel did at one point, which was cool. To dive even further into it, have you spent any time in Alabama or Birmingham?
No. I haven't been there.
If you make it to Birmingham, the awesome place to go photograph is the Barber Museum. They have motorcycles from the beginning of motorcycles. They have a steam engine motorcycle where they have the first lawn mower and it's like this engine with a blade on it and four wheels. It is the most dangerous thing you have ever seen. They have all this amazing stuff. I took a little tour there and I was doing some photography work there. We went down this rabbit hole with this guy that procurers. They started making outboard boat motors like troller motors.
Harley-Davidson and then Johnson were the two companies. They both started building motorcycles and they were best friends. They came to an agreement and were like, “I'm going to stick to outboard motors. You stick to motorcycles.” That's parted that way. They were massive huge companies at that time and era that helped shape America. It helped win wars. It was crazy, the history behind it. Some of those old military bikes and all that stuff that happened in the war. It was crazy.
Women were making them in the factories when the men were at war. Crazy stuff because it was a craze then. They have a whole history. There was a wooden track that they would race Harleys around. It's wild. They have a whole little exhibit on that, but that amazing works of art in there. They have everything from the beginning of Harley-Davidson up until the present day. It's pretty cool.
You have to check that out. Where was I going with that? This shows people. I'm totally fucking this up right now. I have so many people that reach out to me for podcast help because they see what we are doing here, and they are like, “How did you do this?” I'm just an open book with them. In the photography world, I have had some awesome mentors that have helped me out.
You have got to be. That's how you connect with people and it's like people that are so protective of their craft. It’s fine. Good for them. That's what we are doing right now. I was telling you this YouTube channel we are starting. This is a channel about creativity. I have worked on so many crazy projects and come up with these silly ideas that I think people would love to know how because people are always asking me, “How did you do that? What gear are you using? What camera do you have?” We are going to share that.
Design. Shoot. Build. Is our channel about sharing creativity. We are having a blast. My buddy Ken is over there. He's working with me full-time now and we have partnered on this channel. We have a humongous list of ideas for videos we want to make and we are trying to crank him out and have fun doing it.
It's nice to help people. It feels good. I enjoy helping people and seeing other people's success instead of being jealous of it. It's hard sometimes. When I saw Cameron Hanes’ podcast come out and the production level of that, I was like, “This is amazing.”
He came out of the gate with it. It was funny because I went to Austin with Ryan Michler for Order of Man. We filmed Tim Kennedy. Cam was down there and his publisher because his book had come out or was about to come out, so we got to interview him and hang with Cam. Cam was like, “I noticed him eyeballing all my gear and everything,” and he was like, “If you do it right like this.” I was like, “Yeah.” He's like, “I'm going to start a show now.” I was like, “I can't wait to see.”
You got the insight on that.
It's pretty awesome. I don't know where I was going with that. It's back to that YouTube channel sharing all that stuff. You said something about the haters. It's like you see somebody doing something and the jealousy thing like that. A perfect example of what even got me into this is there's a photographer. Do you know who Peter McKinnon is?
I don't know. Let's look him up.
You are going to love this guy. Go to YouTube. Look up Peter McKinnon. He has tons of videos about photography and now, he's branching into other stuff like motor sports and things like that. I have never been like a YouTube guy or watch YouTube, but during COVID I was watching YouTube like way more than I thought I would. He's got hundreds of thousands of views, 1.3 million. He's got 5 million followers on YouTube. I was watching his videos and I'm like, “This guy can do anything that I have never done before. Screw this guy. I don't like this guy. This is stupid.” I was like watch, click, and watch another one of his videos.
I was like, “Why don't I like this?” I'm like, “He's just doing it. All I have to do is do it.” It sounds easy. It's way harder to just do it. I was hating on him because he was doing it and I wasn't. Once I told myself to stop being a douche about it, I was like, “This guy is awesome.” He's sharing his craft. He's excited about it. He was a huge inspiration for the channel we are doing.
It's great that you can build off that. Have you been in contact with him at all or anything?
No, I haven't. I had this weird feeling. I told Ken. Didn't I tell you? I was like, “I have a feeling like in the next year for some reason, we are going to somehow bump into him.” If that will happen, but if it does, I will hit you up. This is the date, so several months from now.
I have been super fortunate in that space because I do shoot a little on stuff. Have you seen Untamed Images, Jason Loftus? We have had him on the show.
When you reached out, I looked him up. Was he a Zoom interview for you?
He was. He's an awesome guy.
Is he in Colorado?
No. He’s in Utah, just outside of Salt Lake.
If you have Gabby look at the comments, I feel like I might be the one who first to comment. I was like, “Let the three of us go out and shoot together.”
I do remember that. If you go to our Instagram page, I'm pretty sure Todd left a comment during his episode. It's Jason Loftus, Untamed Images on YouTube.
Go to Google or YouTube.
Jason is a great guy. Long before I had the show, I reached out to him and was like, “I'm thinking about going up and trying to shoot some of these animals up in Wyoming.” He was super gracious with it. One of the things that he does now on his Instagram is he will put his camera settings behind it because people were asking him all the time like, “What'd you do?”
There's my comment. We got to like that.
I'm so bad at keeping up with that stuff but try not to read the comments.
That's what we are learning is the more engagement you get and the more you interact with them that all of those little tiny things are what add up to help the algorithm.
I could use some help in that department for sure.
I got a YouTube ninja over there.
Going back into how you got into this, how long have you been shooting? Did it carry on from middle school?
It never stopped. I went to art school. I had taken all the electives that there was no demand. My first job I ever had was in my stepdad's tire store in Lander, Wyoming. At thirteen, I had rolled this snowmobile and broke the windshield. I jacked it up. I don't know if he and my mom were married even at the time, but he was like, “You are going to have to come work in the tire store to pay for that windshield.”
I was like, “He's kidding.” He was like, “No.” That next Saturday I was in the tire store cleaning the oil spills and bathroom. It’s just grunt work and then that was all through high school. I knew I didn't want to do that the rest of my life. I worked hard to try to get a scholarship to art school and applied to every art school in the country.
You are like, “I got to get out of here.” There's something about growing up in a small mountain town, too, where you feel like you are trapped almost. I grew up right here and I felt that way.
There's something about growing up in a small mountain town. You feel almost trapped.
It landed me in Denver. I went to the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. I loved my experience there, four-year school. I got a Bachelor of Fine Arts. I majored in Illustration and then got a degree in Graphic Design Illustration, and then I have been in the creative field ever since. I worked at a software company as an art director that made photography software.
It’s like a baby version of Photoshop is what these guys were doing. I got to play with all these new digital cameras that were come out because the programmers needed the firmware from the camera to make it talk to the computer and all this stuff. They would sit on a shelf and I'd be like, “Let me take these and play with them and use them.” This is like a Kodak back Nikon, a $15,000 3-megapixel digital camera. That was an SLR that you could put lenses on.
Did you start shooting on film then like 35-millimeter?
Hipster before hipster.
There was no other option back then.
No, there wasn't. I remember being in high school and my journalism teacher telling me that there was going to be a digital camera one day. You could take a picture and look at it on the screen and I was like, “That's the future.”
It's so different from how I started on a 35-millimeter film and all you had was 38 shots. That 38 shot might be a half a shot or something if you were at the end of the film. You had to keep the canisters dark so you had the whole dark bag and then you're going into the light room and doing that.
No instant gratification. You'd have to wait who knows how long to see what the pictures look like.
That made me understand composure. If you only have 38 shots, you are not going to be sitting there snapping photos at whatever. I always see people on the plane now just clearing their iPhone photos like going through and deleting stuff, and I'm guilty of it too. You have a digital camera. It just makes you take more pictures.
You have to slow down and learn the basics. My biggest photography inspiration was Ansel Adams, hands down. I remember seeing posters and I was like, “I want to do that.” One of his most iconic famous pictures of all time was taken at the bend in the Snake River with the Tetons behind it, and I was there all the time because Landers is not far from Jackson Hole, from the Tetons.
I'd go up there camping with my dad all the time. I was always there and then I remember seeing a big black and white frame print one day somewhere and I was like, “We have been there.” Learning that this guy is this insane famous photographer, I was like, “Wait. You can do that with your life?” I'm pretty sure that's what the spark of was like, “I'm going to go to art school. I'm going to do all the things.” Michelangelo, Picasso, Salvador Dali, and all of these guys inspired me.” Now, there are so many creative things.
Did you do a deep dive into history in photography and stuff like that?
I did take all the basic classes to learn composition, exposure, f-stop, ISO, and all the things. Getting dialed in with that with film.
My first one was a Kodak 35-millimeter and all it had was a light meter. I think it was a 35-millimeter fixed lens like no changes. It was a hand-me-down camera from one of my uncles that shot. That's new. Thank God I had him because I grew up poor. I wouldn't have had a camera, but it was my prize possession for a long time.
When I was thirteen, I bought my first camera and it was a Pentax K1000, full manual. You could interchange the lenses and that's what I used to take pictures in yearbook and the school newspaper. I still have that camera.
I wish I still had mine.
We were talking about the box, your Fuji X100 sitting over there and I told you that I'd gotten one. What led me to that was COVID. I got bored and I was looking at my old film cameras. Old Cannon AE-1 and the Pentax K1000 just sitting on the shelf collecting dust. I was like, “I'm going to clean them off. I'm going to refurbish them. Get them all dialed in and find the battery so that the light meter would work and get them working. I go buy some film and have fun and see.” It was awesome. It lasted five minutes after the first time I took the film and I was like, “No. I don't want to pay for this anymore,” and it sent me down the rabbit hole.
Instant gratification. Sometimes you didn't know what you were getting.
It was the cost for me.
I remember they used to have the one-hour photoshop everywhere. You drop off your film and an hour later, you'd get it back.
Super crazy movie with Robin Williams. Do you remember that movie, One Hour Photo?
I do.
That sent me on wormhole and I ended up finding that.
Where did you even take film now?
You could take it in quite a few places. There's a place like Mike's Camera in Boulder is where I was taking my stuff. There's another place called Victory Camera. They used to be in Boulder. They moved to Denver. If you ever need something like vintage camera. I discovered them because I was looking for some old tripods, because I'm always making stuff like random crap.
I would make lamps out of old tripods so I could stand in the corner. You can get $9 a lamp kit at Home Depot. You get the plug in the thing to screw the bulb in and electrical, and all the things. I'm not electrically handy in any way, shape, or form. I can build stuff with wood and my style is rustic because it's not perfect. I just say, “It's rustic.” It's much easier.
You can still take film in and get it developed.
Yeah. It's a thing.
It's a hipster thing now.
It comes in waves of the hipster movement. Film photography being cool. Now, it's this or that. It's like Polaroids have made a resurgence. The Polaroid cameras with the white boarders.
Shake it like a Polaroid picture.
Funny enough, we did a big project where I bought four Polaroids and we took 300 pictures portraits over a weekend with Polaroids. After researching Polaroid and all that stuff, you are not supposed to shake them. It says it right on the back.
That damn song weird it all.
Exactly. Thanks a lot.
I don't even remember who it was.
OutKast. Big Boi or whatever the dude's name is. Andre 3000.
Some of those Polaroid prints, there was one that was sold to Jim Morrison. Look up Jim Morrison Polaroid photo because they are one of a kind. If you can find one of somebody famous, they are worth a shit ton of money. They sold this Polaroid photo for $1 million plus or something. It was insane.
The big NFT movement. I can't stand the dude so I'm not going to even mention his name, but there's a YouTuber that took a Polaroid every day for a year, and then he sold them as his NFTs. They are shit because he is this famous YouTuber, people were buying them like crazy. That was his creative outlet. Good for him. He thought of something and sold them for a crap ton.
I don't understand that whole side of the NFTs and crypto in general. It’s so foreign to me.
It probably sounds ridiculous, but it scares me because I don't know it.
I don't know it either. You made the jump to digital, and then what was your first solidifying gig? I know you have a ton of crazy gigs since then like shooting presidents.
No presidents.
CPAC, right? You are there.
Some of these people might be president one day. I will be like, “I got their portrait.” That's a great question. I worked at a portrait studio down in Highlands Ranch. That wasn't like any big deal. It wasn't commercial stuff. We were doing some stuff for small businesses and things like that. I was hired on as an art director and photographer for the Denver Broncos so NFL. You could say that was a big deal. It was something. Let's put it that way.
Did you enjoy it?
Here's what's crazy. I snagged this job right after the ’08 Recession, and I'm going to sound like some old-timer. That was a rough time for my wife and I. We had both been laid off from our jobs. I had applied for this job along with 150 other people. No joke and then waited forever to hear back. I'd gotten a phone call or an email that they were like, “We got your book.”
Was that your first big gig?
I’d say that that's the biggest gig that I got.
Were you shooting professional sports or anything?
I wasn't shooting pro sports. I was shooting tons of sports. I had a smaller gig before. I don't even know if the website's still up, EXPN, ESPN's X Games thing. There was a client hired me to shoot X Games in Aspen one year. That was the year Shaun White won it all. I think he's won all of them back then, but he was in all black everything.
Was it the year that Brian Deegan broke himself?
The back flip on the snowmobile? I think it was.
On a dirt bike.
This was Winter X Games.
No, this was on ice. It was the first winter X Games.
There was a dude that same year. It’s the first time you'd ever see a dude on snowmobile doing a back flip and I want to say like broke his back or something crazy. Maybe he pulled it off, but I remember some little back flip here for some reason.
When X Games first started, they drilled tech screws to stub the tires and they made this ice jump and it was freestyle motocross.
That's right. On the winter X Games.
It was insane. I was standing at the base of the jump when Brian Deegan just destroyed himself. It was so bad.
Was this up in Aspen, the Buttermilk?
It was in Aspen. I think it was the first year. I was working for Red Bull at the time. I can't remember but I was working for them at the time. It was crazy to be there and see that all go down.
I was in my mid-twenties at that point and it was cool to have a camera and beyond the side of the halfpipe. It was a party atmosphere and stuff. I'd say at that time, that wasn't the biggest gig thing that I'd had gotten.
It's fun stuff to shoot. I have been fortunate to shoot some freestyle motocross and some other stuff like that, which is super rad. I enjoy freezing those moments and trying to capture it. There's something there too.
It's like you take thousands of clicks and then you get one and it's like, “Yes.”
Are you a rapid-firing something or in a situation like that?
It depends on what I'm shooting. It's like hammered down on the shutter.
You are just hours behind the screen swiping.
I learned to call on the back of the camera. Any free moment on the sidelines at a football game. I learned that quick after the first game. I was calling through the pictures. I was like, “There's got to be an easier and better way.” It was like any free moment you have. You are stopping and you are calling on the back of it because there are going to be 1 million blurry ones, and then the one sharp one, and you are like, “Yes.” I remember the first game I shot. Everything that I had shot for was internal for Gameday magazine and for the website and stuff like that. I remember the next day like one of the shots I took was on the homepage of Broncos.com. It's like, “Yes. This is cool.”
Was it a little nerve-wracking going in there like, “Shit, I got the job?”
Back to that, I told you, they were like, “We got your book.” Everybody is submitting portfolios digitally like, “Here's a PDF or my website,” which I had all that. I made a custom. I called it The Creative Playbook. I printed this thing that looked like a coach's playbook. I had it bound, and I put it in this cool-looking box with this football thread texture on the cover and mailed it to them. I was like, “There's no way that they don't open this or at least get their attention,” and it got their attention. They called me up and they are like, “You are the only one that sent a hard copy portfolio and this is pretty sweet.” That's how I got the first interview.
It goes back to what we were talking about at the beginning, having something tangible.
I'm a big tech tile guy. That was awesome. The next test or interview thing was they gave me a project. It’s like, “Design these things for us,” because the role was for an art director position. Once they got to know me, I discovered they filled two jobs with me. They fill the photographer role on the weekends and then the designer during the week, and then I worked 90 hours a week. It was awful. I remember sitting in the stadium offices at 2:00 in the morning putting together the Gameday magazine that was due that week, texting my wife and she's like, “We need this job right now.”
Luckily, I have the coolest wife in the world and she's wicked supportive. I'm getting to hit her back. I'm returning the favor here. She's getting her doctorate right now, so I'm just chunking away. They gave me this project. I will get asked to speak in webinars to freelancers or stuff like that. I always tell people, “With freelancer client work or whatever, your special sauce is the thing you got to have in your back pocket.” This is to go with anything, with any field. Just do that little above and beyond. It doesn't take that much to do the extra if you go the extra mile.
They'd given me a project and they gave me the directions. They are like, “Design these things.” I was like, “Cool.” I did it at my sleep and then did this whole other thing. When I went back in to sit down with them and show them, I was like, “Here's what you'd asked for.” They are like, “This looks good.” I was like, “Here's what you didn't ask for.” They were like, “What is this stuff? This is awesome.” I was like, “I can do this type of stuff.” I was like, “Let's go.”
How long were you there with that gig?
I was there one whole season. I started in the summer. I don't know if I'd have been there longer, and then 2010, NFL lockout hit. You don't hear. All you hear about is the players are going on strike because they want more money. Don't get me going on some of that. Your last guest was an NFL guy. There were guys like me that lose their job at that time and it ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me. It’s all godsend.
Nobody wants to work. It's not healthy to work 90 hours a week.
Not at all.
You didn't have a team with you or anything? It was a one-man show.
I had an intern and then I would work a lot with the production team who were the guys that sit up in the box like the video producers. I collaborate with them sometimes, and then there's marketing directors and ticket sales people all around me. The workload was crazy that they didn't realize they should have been a team, and now there's a team.
Creative takes time. I don't think people realize. Until you start a venture like this or went out and done some professional photography. There's so much that happens in post.
Laying out 90 pages of a magazine, and they are like, “The printer needs three days to print it and then they need a day to distribute the magazine around the stadium.” I'm like, “Sweet. It will be a little bit like 24 or 36 hours.”
You are just going around the clock.
A 90-page layout. Wrangle adds from the sponsors that would submit it the wrong size or have no idea. They'd send me a file and be like, “This is wrong size,” and I have to like rejigger it around. This is lots of random stuff. I got my Adobe skills unlock.
Shooting on the field, do you ever have any collisions or close calls?
I had an almost. I had a close call one time.
You always see photographers getting taken out. I used to shoot high school football. I lived in Texas for a short time and I was freelancing in live entertainment. I would go out and shoot professional boxing occasionally. When I was at home, I shot high school football, Friday night lights. Even at that, that was dangerous.
I had my wits about me. You got to have your head on swivel. I have played sports in high school. I'm not a crazy athlete or anything, but that job is anticipating the action is how you get the good shots. If you can feel the flow of the game and be like, “I'm feeling the ball is going to be over here,” because it's the pace of the game.
I had maneuvered myself like nobody was down field, and I'm like, “This is the way it's been going. They are going to be down the field in no time.” It was the year Tebow was a quarterback and killing it. I was like, “He's going to drive him down the field again just like he's done the last however many times.” I went around the back of all the players singing and then got to the other side of the thing.
When I walked up, there was nobody there. It was a matter of ten seconds that I was there. I got a couple of shots and then I was like, “It's going to be fourth down,” and then I go back to where I was. I turned around and I damn near took a long snap in the face. The long snap center was right there and he got ready to hike it back.
He was warming up and he stopped, but I had almost taken pig skin to the face and got wrecked. I was like, “Oh, man.” I have my team vest on. Clearly, I'm a team photographer versus press photographers thinking he's going to be like, “Sorry. I almost wreck it.” He's like, “Cut the F out on my face. Get out of here.” I was this big at that moment.
Those players are a whole another level of fast.
They are humongous. They put cleats on them and all their pads. They look three times as big. That was my almost getting wrecked.
Almost, but never taken out on the sidelines. I'm sure have some stories.
I could dish you a couple pictures of me on the sideline.
Were you freelancer there or you are full-time with the Denver Broncos?
I was full-time there on staff on salary, and then I get laid off. I started freelancing after I got laid off. That's the season where God stepped up. He was providing for us. I was making more money and I was like, “How is this working?” This doesn't make sense on paper, but we are getting by. This place I'd been trying to get a job there for three years. It was a hard agency to get into.
I started freelancing after I got laid off. That's when God stepped up and provided for us. I was actually making more money. I was like, "How is this working? This doesn't make sense on paper," but we're getting by.
Finally, they had a three-month contract. They are like, “We need an art director in here for three months to cover while one of our art directors is in Greece or something for three months on vacation sabbatical or something.” I was like, “Get me in there and let me show you what I can do.” It was awesome at first.
It was like, “I have made it. I'm at a big agency.” It’s like Mad Men style, big agency and big clients. Throughout my duration there, I started off working on the not so fun projects like Dollar General, Procter & Gamble products, and BISSELL vacuums, daily suck jokes when I worked on that account. I eventually got moved on. I got to work on POLARIS, motorsport stuff, which I was like, “This is pretty cool. This is fun.” I was the Senior Art Director at MillerCoors, doing stuff for Coors Light.
Funny enough, we are working on programs for the NFL, NBA, and NCAA. I'd worked there for a number of years, and then advertising life was quickly like Broncos’ life with tons of hours, client demands, and money flying around. I remember I was like, “We are not saving babies. This is going to be a little digital ad on Amazon. We are losing our minds over this. People need to get a grip.”
I remember when I had this a-ha moment. I was art directing a photoshoot back at Mile High Stadium for the Coors Light NFL program. I'm looking around and we have got these models and talents. It's like the talents over here and they have got these dudes suited up who are models that look like NFLers. There's the crap services truck with $20,000 worth of food and crap for everybody to munch on.
The equipment that we have got there and what it costs to rent the stadium. I remember thinking to myself, “The amount of money and resources that they are spending now to sell.” Sorry if you are a Coors Light fan, but to sell crappy beer of to 22-year-old D-bags. I was like, “What am I doing with my life?” I remember.
That was the moment that then it was like God was grinding on my heart like, “I have got more for you. This isn't what your talents are supposed to be for.” Not long after, I took a job at my church on the creative team. That's how I met Ken over there. We worked together for years. I did ministry for eight years. A super cool thing. That was His plan for me. I stepped out of this advertising job and then into ministry. It was like a major pay cut.
It feels like you are taking nine steps backwards.
Financially but not creatively or spiritually. Not in life. It was like opened up this thing. I worked right down the street from my kid's school where my wife teaches and my kids went to school.
Which is super important and that's what I was getting at. You took nine steps backwards career-wise or money-wise. Sometimes the most important thing is being genuinely happy and having family time, because working 90 hours a week is not healthy for anybody.
All of a sudden, it was like, “I could hop over and have lunch with my kids at the school,” or go hang out where there's a school event or something. Just be there to support my wife and my kids, and do something that matters. Stepping into ministry, that's when I started freelancing like doing work for clients here and there, and whatnot.
After eight years of doing that, I'd started to build up enough momentum. I have always wanted to do my own thing. I'm super entrepreneurial like crazypreneurial or whatever the term you want to call it. I had gotten enough momentum that it was like, “If I'm ever going to do it, I should do it now.” That was years ago. God is good. It is awesome. I have been everywhere from Honduras to Alaska and ten different states in between. We were counting.
This is when you started traveling. From the church gig, you went into business for yourself and you are going to be the creative director. You are going to be it all, the one-stop shop. Automatically, you take off and you start traveling all over the world to shoot stuff.
My first gig, I had it lined up. It was three days after my last day at the church. I flew to Atlanta. I met up with John Lovell and the Warrior Poet guys. We flew to Honduras. I filmed an episode for their network for them. We could talk for millions of hours, but I ended up being a one-man crew on that, which was nuts because their other camera guy came down with COVID and couldn't go because he couldn't get on the plane. Imagine I'm running mics and multiple cameras, audio, and everything and directing them. It was insane. I was using gear that wasn't mine. It was so stressful.
I'd be on YouTube at night like, “How do I use this thing?” then downloading footage, and charging batteries, and stuff, but it was awesome. It was a crazy cool experience. We went and filmed on a coffee farm because they have their own little coffee brand. It's good stuff. They went down to the coffee farms where they sourced the beans and stuff, and that was super fun. I'd started drinking coffee a little bit, but have a whole new appreciation for it when you wake up on a coffee farm and have fresh coffee in the morning. I used to think I like coffee but it turns out I like vanilla creamer.
Drink it black to get the full flavor. Was there even creamer there available?
No. I was even afraid to ask if there was. I’d be like, “That's rude.” You don't insult somebody's cooking. It's like, “Do you have something I could put in this?”
You go to Honduras for your first freelance gig.
I have been freelancing, but this was first solopreneur like it's me. I'm in it. I'm going for it. It's been a wild ride since. Now I have got Ken who's sitting over there working with me full-time and brought on a project manager. I have got a bookkeeper and an accountant. I feel so grown up. I figured out what I'm not good at real fast, and then immediately, it was like, “I need somebody to help me with that.”
What was the hardest part of making that jump? Was it courage to do it? I found that that's always been my hardest transition like when I'm going to transition into something new or even starting the show, or anything like that, just freaking doing it. Going out and doing it. It starts to consume you a little bit.
It's making the leap. It was like we had good health insurance was paid for. Everything was covered. It was that security net. What I would tell people now like any time it's like, “If I think about it, I'm like, ‘I wasn't secure anywhere. I have been laid off from two different jobs.’” It's like you could be working for somebody and they tanked the company, and then what? There's nothing certain.
It's like, “Now I get to be in charge of my own destiny.” It's like, “If I fail, it's on me,” and I'm fine with that at the end of the day. I will get up tomorrow and kick some more ass and go without much harder. If you are thinking about it or anybody's thinking about it, they are on the fence about doing it. Ask yourself, “Why are you not doing it or why wouldn't you do it?” If there's this bigger reward on the other side, whether that's freedom or being able to coach your kids' baseball team, or having the time to make your schedule or come up on a Thursday evening and hang with you, it's like whatever. It's like, “Just go do it.”
There's nothing certain in life. You have to be in charge of your own destiny.
Those were some lessons that I learned super early in life. Part of that was growing up the way I did. Also not having a whole lot of money is like you got to make it yourself. A lot of people get stuck in like, “I will wait for the right time. It's not the right time now.” One of the worst things that you can do and I brought this up a couple of episodes ago. When I was thinking about starting this, I worked behind the scenes for years since I have been out of high school, whether it was live concert production behind a camera, or whatever. That's been my background and I never wanted to be in the limelight.
Anytime that there was a documentary being shot and they wanted to interview the road crew or anything. I was the guy that was like, “I don't want to be interviewed.” I never wanted to do that. When I thought I had the idea to start the show, I reached out to a few friends, and that can be a bad thing. The majority of people that you reach out to when you have an idea unless they are from that creative field are like, “This could happen to you.” They tell you all the bad stuff that can happen to you along the way.
I know exactly what you are talking about. I'd say it's a lack of vision on their part. They don't see what you are seeing.
They care about you too. It's not that they want to shoot down your dreams, but they are looking out for your best interests. If you reach out to a majority of people, 80% of them are going to tell you some horror story of why you shouldn't do something. It's stepping over that line.
You got to find those people you trust and talk to them about it. I remember I'd been thinking about doing this. I asked my father-in-law. His name is Dick. I was talking to him. I respect him. He had grown a company and sold it, and he retired. He's smart about everything he's done and I respect him. I'm married to his daughter and I'm like, “I'm thinking about quitting my job and starting my own business.” I was expecting this, “Is that what you want to do?” He didn't miss a beat and he's like, “You are going to crush it. You are going to be successful. You are going to be great. Go for it. Do it.” I don't know if he said this but maybe he's like, “I wonder what took you so long?” I was like, “Wow. Okay.”
We share some mutual friends. That reminds me of Marc and his daughter Brooklyn. that we have had on. Yes, and, shout out to Marc Montoya. Brooklyn told the story of her going to her dad and being like, “I want to be an ultra-marathon runner. Do you think I could run a marathon?” He's like, “You could run a marathon off the couch.” It's just having somebody in that mindset in your corner. If you don't have anybody in your corner, go for it anyways. Fuck it. There's nothing wrong with stepping into a void and failing. I failed so many times in my life.
If you don't have anybody in your corner, just go for it anyway. There's nothing wrong with stepping into a void and failing.
My wife and I were talking about this. We are going on these 45-minute walks every day together, which is the best thing for our marriage too. We have got 45 minutes a day. We are outside going for a walk together for our second workout. She was talking about the degree she was pursuing. I don't mean to sound cliché, but it's like Michael Jordan says, “You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.” It's good. It's a knowledge bomb right there.
It is because how are you going to even know that you failed at something unless you try it?
You don't know unless you try. Like middle school baseball. I'm coaching these boys and they are getting down themselves when they are striking out or missing it and seeing their faces when it clicks. My son and I had to look this up. I was like, “Who has the best batting average ever of all time?” It's Ty Cobb. Maybe look this up. It’s 366 or something like that.
Is that a lifetime average then?
It's best all time.
Just look up the best baseball batting average maybe.
It's Ty Cobb, but me telling them that that's a little over 3.5 times out of 10 times at bat. I could see their heads exploding inside. They are like, “What?” I'm like, “That's the best to ever play the game.” They are like, “3 out of 10 times?” “It takes 3 out of 10 to be the best. What are you afraid of?”
They were probably crushing balls at that practice then I would imagine.
It fired them up. It was good. They were getting down on the cells because they are missing. After that they are started having fun again.
Going into this, what has been your biggest struggle for anybody that's reading that might be starting something or wants to jump into something creatively?
I would say that I didn't do it sooner, but then also I have this double-edged sword of I believe everything is His timing. Figuring out the things I'm not good at, and then finding someone who is. It took only a year to figure that out. I have always had this thing. I have done like soul work through these church retreat things like for men. Realizing that I have always had a problem asking for help. I think men in general are wired that way like, “I can do it myself. I don't need to ask for help.” I always thought asking for help was a sign of weakness, and so I never wanted to see me weak.
I hate asking for anything.
Most people do because everybody has their reasons. We will take on more than I should. Like I said, bringing on Ken and hiring a project manager to help me to keep my brain inside my head, an accountant, and a bookkeeper is freeing. It's like, “That's covered. That's somebody who could do it 1 million times better than I can.” I know the things that I'm not good at.
You are good at the creative stuff so you can focus on that more. I have done the same thing with the show. When I first started, I did all the editing, every bit of it. Now, I have some people helping me.
You are in another situation. You got somebody over here running the board and checking cameras. You are free to have a conversation, and you are not like, “Did the battery go out on that? Is the card full? Is the sound drop?”
You can focus more on what's in front of you. It's super important. Going back to the career and everything where are you at now and what is happening, because you got all this cool stuff that's starting to happen, you have this new YouTube channel that you were showing me prior to this. Can you pull back up that reel, Gabby?
That's our promo reel for Tactical Creative. That's a niche that I have fallen into that happened fast that I'm like, “I'm going to 100% go after this market and gear myself towards men entrepreneurs, men's brands, men's centric, and masculine more stuff like that.” A buddy of mine was joking with me like he was going to refer me a project to a tech company. He goes, “It's not guns, trucks, or beer, but would you want to do it?”
I was like, “I'm buying that domain name and I'm going to make T-shirts that's got my logo and says, ‘Guns, trucks, and beer.’” There's so much work to go around. That's the other thing I tell people, “I don't want to share my secrets or this or that.” My mother-in-law was like, “You are going to spill all your secrets on your YouTube channel telling people how to do it.” I'm like, “Don't worry. I'm always telling them this much.” There's so much to go around. There's so much opportunity. If you stop and look and go, “I could do that.”
I look at it as a community too. You are only as strong as the people holding you up, I believe. If you can help somebody, you never know where that's going to go or where that's going to come back around to you. I try to view this show as a community, so we help anybody and everybody.
I got to list the names for you when we are done. I will be like, “You got to call these guys.” It'd be great on here.
It's helped us through sponsorship and building relationships. It’s feeding itself and it's being that open book and not hoarding it.
That's been the referrals. I have been getting to know this rad dude named Sean Parnell. He wrote a book called Outlaw Platoon. He was in Afghanistan one of the most highly decorated soldiers to come out of there like all the medals. They were in a battle for a crazy amount of time. I'm going to get it all wrong. I'm so sorry, Sean, if you are reading.
He's got a book where you can go and read.
He's got a book out, but he knew he wanted to start a podcast and a thing. He's friends with Ryan Michler with Order of Man. Ryan is incredible. He will share. He got to be become friends with Sean. He's like, “What do you want to know?”
What's Sean's last name?
Parnell. One of the things Ryan was like, “I use this dude Todd to do all my graphics and all my creative. Here's Todd's number.” He’s sharing that. Thank you, Ryan, by the way. Sean called me. I did all his branding and logo. I had been helping him with tips here and there. I helped him set up a makeshift studio. I was like, “Grab this mic, camera, or this whatever.” Now, he's got a podcast called Battleground. He's getting some heavy hitters on his show already right out the gate because he's a badass.
It's about helping each other. Ryan very easily could say, “That's my guy and I keep him so busy. There's no time.” It's sharing what you know and sharing your resources and helping somebody out. That's important. At the end of the day, we are only growing everything together is the way I look at it. I have had a ton of other people that have their own podcasts or their own podcast hosts, and stuff like that. I tried to return the favor to some friends. I say no to a lot of podcast interviews because I'm trying to focus on this, but if a friend needs a guest or something, you know what I mean. It's huge.
You saying that, we can go a whole another tangent, the asking for help thing and then also the power of saying no. Those might go hand in hand of like, “I'm not going to ask for help and I'm not going to say no to anything,” because deep down my brokenness, there's part of being a people pleaser in there. It's like, “I can do that for you.”
It’s being honest about your time. Don't say yes if you can't show up. Be impeccable with your work.
I have had to work hard on protecting my time and my boundaries because I will get texts from clients and this and that. At first, I'm like, “I'm building my business.” It's 5:00 in the morning and then they are texting me because they are on the East Coast and I got to hit them right back. I'm like, “What am I doing?” I'm opening the gate for them to keep doing that. I'm not responding on weekends or only respond during business hours or not give my cell phone out or whatever that looks like.
You find out what somebody's about when you do tell them no.
They are either going to respect that or you are going to be like, “Whatever.”
You find out what somebody's about when you tell them no. They're either going to respect that or go, “Whatever, I'll find somebody else.”
With this show I have struggled because I do like to please people. I do like to give people their opportunity. We have been getting a lot of it. As this thing is growing, we are a couple years in. We are 100 plus episodes now and now I have all kinds of people coming to me as where it was like me reaching out to people that I wanted to talk to.
Before, it was me reaching out to people I want to talk to because I get asked by a ton of people that come on the show. It's not always the best fit for what I want to do. I don't know how I'm going to have an interesting conversation with this person that wants to talk about their company and what they are doing. It's like, “This isn't an hour-long commercial.” I have said no to a lot of people and it's crazy how some people get pissed off.
They got butt hurt and they are like, “What do you mean?”
I have had to learn to say flat out no as opposed to like, “Maybe at another time or we are too backlogged right now.” Just a simple no and you will find out what people are about sometimes when you tell them that. Not to make myself like we are the best show that there is. There is a ton for me to learn still.
We are still growing and still learning. I don't want that to sound like I'm holding myself on a pedestal either. It's like I have personally put it into my own creative stuff. It's like, “I want to have Todd in because I want to learn about photography and what he's doing.” Your guys' podcast production level is top notch, right up there with how I was talking about Cameron Hanes's production level. It's made me want to step up my game at first. When I first saw that, I was a little bit jealous. I was like, “I'm doing this.” I felt like I had fucked up 100-plus episodes after seeing that. It’s like, “I'm totally doing it the wrong way.”
You are not because you are doing it.
I was a little bit jealous. As soon as I got jealous, I turned around and shared how great it was. To all of our readers, “Go check this out. This is awesome.” That's one way to get over that jealousy. It is to share it with somebody.
To be fair, years' experience doing video shoots and stuff. It could be a little over the top for YouTube.
It's not. I enjoy watching it. You're doing it the right way for sure.
I appreciate that. Hear that, Ken? I can't take even all the credit because he's the guru over there, the meister. He does all the editing and puts up with me and my crazy ideas, and then take after take. I sounded ridiculous. Let's do that again, but then he puts it in the bloopers at the end. That's what kills us is guys is like, “We did this awesome video,” and then we go look at the stats and it's like a ten-minute video and they are like, “Everybody jumps off at two minutes,” because that's people's attention span. We are like, “They didn't even get to the good part or they didn't see the bloopers that roll after the animation at the end.” You think it's over and it's like an Easter egg.
I personally like it because maybe I come from that film background. We had Donnie Vincent in. We had an incredible time with him.
I'd love to be a fly on the wall if you get him in again.
Maybe we will have you guys produce the next one.
I watched a ton of his videos because of his stuff. He's got a crew and he's doing stuff for Cabela's shoots creatively. He has a production thing. I watched a ton of his videos because one of my buddies, an ex-Navy SEAL dude, hired me to go film he and his buddies’ bear hunt in Kodiak Island, Alaska. I have never done anything close to that.
Was this just for personal stuff?
They are going to use the footage to tell a story at a time coming up for something they are working on.
We don't have to dive into details.
No, but I have got an episode on the YouTube on our channel about the gear that I took.
It's on the Design. Shoot. Build. YouTube channel. I did a gear breakdown. Probably every dude is like, “I'd love to make videos about gear. That'd be fun.” I was like, “Let's make a video about all the gear that I took because I had to do tons of research from everything because I'm not a hunter.” I love hunting and I have been on millions of hunts and I have grown up going hunting with my dad like everything under the sun. You name it. I have probably been on 50 times more hunts than most hunters, if that makes sense. I prefer to take my camera. That might change, who knows? I know I have such an addictive personality if I get into hunting. I have already have so much money in camera gear.
I do both. The entire time I'm out hunting, I'm wishing that I was honestly behind the lens. September is my favorite time of year to shoot and I enjoy taking photographs. I get bashed for this all the time, but I'm not trying to be Cameron Hanes. I'm pretty much strictly a meat hunter. That's the only reason I'm out there, and to teach my kids some adversity, work ethic, and just value life in general. It’s my premise behind it. If I can get my hunt done, then I'm going out with the camera. I feel like I'm cutting into camera time. That's me personally.
I had a blast following around with the camera. I'm looking at all the stuff that they are not looking at, and then we are looking out for bears, so there's that. You don't wear headphones when you are recording video. I was like thinking about that. I was like, “How am I going to make sure the audio works?” I got some equipment so I could see the levels so I didn't have to rely on headphones because I wasn't going to walk around with the cord dangling or even have headphones in my ears when we are in bear country.
That's not even the best thing. To watch out for his hearing, you never know. Those things are so fast when they decide to charge. Did you guys have any close calls?
We were close to one. I have footage of it. We were super close to this one and it was too small for them. I remember thinking, “That's too small.” The thing is humongous. I remember that we came up on it and I was in between the two guys. I look over and he's nodding his head and moving. It's like, “I see something moving in the bushes. That's a freaking bear back there.” He then looks at his buddy and he's doing the thing with his eyes. I was such a dork. I remember looking around and going, “I'm speaking Navy SEAL right now.” I'm doing this stupid stuff. I feel like I was Jack Black in some movie or something.
I see something in the back of the refrigerator. It’s like Saving Silverman.
It already makes cock sound. Steve Zahn so funny. I was geeking out in that moment. I got sick footage of it. I happened to put a 100 to 500 lens on my R5. I was carrying the C70 around which was the bigger cinema camera that doesn't take stills, but I was like, “I'm going to switch it out.” That was a total god thing. I wouldn't have got these sick photos of the bear with a camera that only shoots video.
I switched over to the hybrid camera. It stills and video, and I had the giant lens on. We were already close enough, but you could see the claws on this thing. That thing would rip you to shreds. I got back and I have been telling people and there are so many people that have done this. Maybe not so many people, but you haven't lived until you have locked eyes with an apex predator. The adrenaline and everything in me, the excitement, fear, and everything.
You haven't lived until you've locked eyes with an apex predator.
It's a very primal feeling.
Primal. That's the best word for it.
That's what I think back to because it puts you back in your place.
You realize how insignificant you could be, how small you could be, and vulnerable.
It's a great reset to let you know who you are and where you are at in the food chain.
We are out in their backyard at their house. It was even more humbling that way.
Growing up in Wyoming, did you have grizzly encounter? Have you been around bears and stuff?
I have seen some brown bears and black bears. I never seen a grizzly until Alaska. They are up there but they are very recluse. It wasn't uncommon to see a bear here and there, little black bears or cubs. Mama bear chilling in the back or a brown bear. I remember, I'm like, “Is that a grizzly?” He's like, “It's a brown bear.” I'm like, “What's the difference?” He's like, “You will know if you see a grizzly. Let's hope we don't see one.” Moose, elk, deer, and everything.
Going back to Donnie Vincent and some of that cinematography that he creates is so beautiful. We brought up Francis Ford Coppola who is one of my favorite filmmakers of black beauty. We brought that up during the show. I have a real appreciation for that. Maybe not everybody does with those two minutes. Going back to that if people take a minute and take it in for what it is and that connection. There's a connection there. That's what I love about what Donnie displays. It’s more the connection with nature than the outdoor channel like, “Here comes this bull.” It's the perfect shot. Cut to commercial.
I was already enamored by how cool this stuff was, and then going and trying to film. I'm going to say trying. I went and filmed it, but I was trying to film it. I have a whole another level of appreciation for the stuff he's putting out. I'm like, “I know how hard that was. That was insane that they got that.” It's crazy.
What projects are you guys working on? Can you talk about them? I know you just got back from a big trip King of the Hammers.
That truck race in California called King of the Hammers, freaking gnarly. That was nuts. I loaded up my truck, drove to Salt Lake here from Denver and filmed at the Western Hunt Expo. I did a project with Order of Man there. We got to interview Josh Smith, Montana Knife Company, and Trevor Farnes, the Founder and CEO of MTN OPS, great dudes. Shout-out. I'm hoping to get to work or do some projects with those guys. There's a potential Africa trip with MTN OPS. I'm hoping it goes through to go film some stuff for them.
It's another great company too.
He's a strong believer, a super family man, salt to Earth solid dude, and all that stuff, and they are doing cool stuff. Every time you make a purchase from MTN OPS, they are giving a meal to a family in need. It’s millions of meals that they have donated or over 1 million. As far as projects coming up, we finished the edit for the Hunt Expo and the King of the Hammers thing. You can check that out.
We are going to drop it on our YouTube channel. I tried to film as much behind the scenes of myself shooting that. We did a behind-the-scenes shoot with EarthRoamer. We did a shoot for them. If you don't know, they built these million-dollar camper trucks. I had no idea. They started $750,000. It’s the base model and they have built them out.
Some of those shots were guys getting in that hangar. It’s incredible sitting next to this C7.
I don't remember what that thing was, but that was a fun shoot. Ken was following me around and I wasn't going to stop every second explain what I was doing because I'm on client time. That's what the truck race. I was there with my client. I'm side by side with my client the entire time. We stayed in Airbnb. They are paying me to be there, so I have to be respectful. He was cool about getting some stuff with his phone and even took my camera and I did a quick little, “We are here at the King of the Hammers,” and I'm filming a five-minute thing. We will be cranking that video out. You will be able to go check it out.
We have got a three-day shoot. We have got cool stuff coming up. I'm doing some rebranding projects for some clients. That's the cool thing about what I do. It's like one facet isn't like going crazy. There's ebbs and flows. It's like we could be busy with photography and video work, or I could be busy with design branding work. Having all those skillsets like it all interweaves and I'm always busy which is great.
If somebody wanted to contact you or view where you do some of this creative work, how do they get ahold of you and what's the best way?
I have been trying to streamline this, but TVFTacticalCreative.com. I just launched this and then I have ToddVanFleet.com, which has been my old site.
We didn't even get into your bicycle landscape.
That's a whole another can of worm right there. The Tactical Creative stuff is more being strategic about what I do. This is like a brand that I can umbrella all of the services.
Those beer cans are awesome. That's Kip's brewery.
I got those cans and I took them to a 4x4 shop up the street for my house, and that's a dude's toolbox that was in the background. I got them to do some metal grinding, so the sparks are flying behind the cans and did long exposure. We did this shoot for some Warrior Poet products, their coffee stuff. You can find out pretty much everything I'm doing here.
Did you design the artwork for the Cameron Hanes signature through Origin stuff?
No. I didn't do that. I have got some hunt designs I did for them that might be launching soon. There's another project in the works we are doing. Kip is involved with the campaign stuff to keep hammering collective. That’s the new thing that they launch. I'm hopeful I'm going to get to work with them. I have been talking to his marketing gal about some stuff and hopefully, there's some stuff that will come to fruition there. I'm super grateful for everything that's been coming my way and it's working with cool people and doing cool stuff.
It's so awesome that we run in the same circles. We know a lot of the same people and have a lot of the same affiliations and you are here in Colorado. This has been a lot of fun. We have been at it for 1 hour and 45 minutes. I want to be respectful of your time that flew by. Go check out Tactical Creative especially if you are in the outdoor space and you need some design work. It is truly top notch, all the logos, video footage, and all that stuff. I want to talk to you off the mic if you got a few minutes about what we are doing here and could use some pointers and add some creative direction there as well. I'm grateful for your time and I look forward to having you back to see you another time.
I can't wait. Thanks.
One more time, social media or spots where we can find you.
Either at ToddVanFleet.com or Design. Shoot. Build. is our YouTube channel. That's a whole another venture of a business that we are building and then TVF Tactical Creative.
Thanks everybody for reading.
Important Links
Derek Wolfe - Past episode
Chris Camozzi - Past episode
Donny Dust - Past episode
Jason Loftus – Past Episode
Donnie Vincent - Past episode
Tactical Creative - YouTube