Adventurist Life — An Introduction and an Invitation

Chazz Layne

Chazz Layne

Adventurist
Banned!
Edit: the KICKSTARTER LIVES!!!1 Head on over to view the details and join us:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chazzlayne/adventurist-life

We need your help getting the word out to adventurists far and wide: every like, follow, and share is one more person we can reach to help make this dream a reality.

Instagram | Facebook | and of course, Kickstarter



Original post:

It's high time to publicly unveil what Brian ( @dr1665 ) and I have been working on for the last few months:
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Mozzy by Fozzy 11092.jpg


We seek freedom in all its gloriously simple flavors:
Truck, car, or motorcycle. Paddle, pedal, or just a pair of boots.
More important than how we get there is why we go.​

Adventurist Life is a community-driven digital magazine focused on the experience of adventure. We mean this in the broadest sense of the definition: everything from hitting the hike/bike trail to paddling down river, cruising twisty mountain roads to off-roading/overlanding, wilderness and urban adventuring. As mentioned above in our mission statement, it's time the means took a back seat to the adventure. We'll cover gear and vehicles of course, but our bias is heavily toward adventure stories, routes and destinations, and the people getting out there to experience them.

We're still in the design and development phase, but we expect to have a working prototype to launch along with our Kickstarter next month, which we'll be opening up for a private preview (everyone here at American Adventurist is invited).

In the mean time we'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas on what you want to see in an adventure magazine. We take the community-driven aspect very seriously—it's your magazine as much as it is ours—so before we even finish the design we're starting an annual tradition: the Adventurist Life Readers' Survey. It's your chance to shape the future of the magazine, and keep us on the right track.

Click here to take the 2015 Adventurist Life Readers' Survey
This year's survey has ended. Thank you for all your input, your answers have helped to shape what Adventurist Life will become.​

We are also in need of contributors, and we know from your trip reports that many of you are fantastic storytellers. If you're handy with a camera, can spin a good yarn, and want to share your adventures with the world please do get in touch: ping@adventurist.life.

Many thanks to Dave and everyone here at American Adventurist for welcoming us onboard. None of this would be possible without your support. Here's to many more adventures together!
 
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Exciting stuff! Who knew Brian would take my advise so quickly...

Painless survey by the way - I enjoyed seeing the other responses broken out graphically.
 
Filled out your survey and I just sent you an e-mail! Looks like you're going to have a fun time with this, even if it is a lot of work.
 
I'm very excited about this project and hopeful for a breath of fresh air in this segment. Knowing the team, I know that it is going to be a high quality publication that will only get better with time. This statement in particular resonates with me:

"It's time the means took a back seat to the adventure. We'll cover gear and vehicles of course, but our bias is heavily toward adventure stories, routes and destinations, and the people getting out there to experience them."

I for one am tired of publications that serve purely as a vehicle for advertising and commerce - selling "stuff". I want to read about where to go and what to do, not what I need to buy first before I'm "ready" to leave my driveway. I want to read about real people and what those people experienced, how these places and vistas made them feel. I want to read something that's focused on the reality that most of us face - our adventure time is limited to weekends and vacation time as we juggle work and familial responsibilities. And I could care less about putting my truck in a container and shipping it to Africa because as neat as that would be, that's just not reality for 99% of guys with a career and a family. Besides, there's so much to see right here in North America that even if I left now, I'd never see it all before I die. But I sure dream of trying so that's where it's at - attainable dreams and adventures for real folks.

Good luck on this great venture gents!
 
Dave said:
Besides, there's so much to see right here in North America that even if I left now, I'd never see it all before I die. But I sure dream of trying so that's where it's at - attainable dreams and adventures for real folks.
Click to expand...

That is how we feel. This past summer we hit GSMNP, BBNP and a handful of parks around Texas. This coming summer we're off in a 3-vehicle caravan to Tetons, Yellowstone and Glacier for a 3-week long adventure, three families, each of us have 2 kids ranging from 4-9. We practically took over our corner of the campground in the Chataloochee Valley when we all were there in June. 2017 might be a Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Sequoia year. I'm trying to talk my wife into an epic adventure to drive from central Texas to Denali in 2020...

Each of the trips my wife and I take we bring the kids, that is what it is all about. If I can't take my family, if we can't see new things together, then I don't want to go!

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Thank you for the kind words everyone, and please do keep the questions and comments coming. We're learning a lot we didn't know going into this, and have already made a few changes to the content plan based on your feedback. :)
 
@TangoBlue ;)

Dave said:
I for one am tired of publications that serve purely as a vehicle for advertising and commerce - selling "stuff".
Click to expand...
Preach it.

Magazines, in the traditional sense, are purely curated lists for advertisers. I regularly challenge people to google the "media kit" for their favorite magazine. Take a spin through it, and see if you can come up with an average ad cost. Don't be surprised if it's north of $50k.

Now pick up the latest issue you've got lying around and count how many pages of advertising in it. (I tally up full-, half-, third-, and quarter-page adds, then add all the above up to get a solid number.) Would it surprise you to learn 45% and up of most magazines, per page, are advertising?

And what if I told you they make $1MM per month from retail purchases of the magazine, but closer to $3MM per month in ad revenue? (Again, for a major, "buff book" as they're called.) Who is the customer they really serve?

As a publisher (I've been publishing Gearbox Magazine since 2009), I've always hated this. Every new vehicle you read about in a major publication - online and print - was provided free of charge to the outlet. The "journalists" flew out to the big event on the manufacturer's dime. Who's going to give up that gravy train?

It's why I don't consider it journalism. And it's why I'm so excited to be part of Adventurist Life.

We're calling it a "magazine" because that's an easy way to describe something we don't see in the market at large. To me, it feels more like a foundation. Chazz and I aren't looking to get rich with this. Sure, we'd like it to pay the bills and cover more than a few trips - maybe even covering more bills and more trips - but we want to build something that matters.

Our dream is making a living exploring, helping others experience more and better adventures for themselves. This Kickstarter we're building? It's not to pay our bills while we quit our day jobs and globetrot. It's to prime a pump which we're designing to direct resources to regular joes like us - like you - in exchange for the high quality stories and information we all need to spend more of our lives doing what we enjoy.

And, oh, the ideas we've got cooking. I've never been so excited about the future.

Welcome to the ground floor, folks. We're building your "magazine."

Thanks for your time, support, and feedback!
 
Great post. Thank you for your honesty.

Because, contrary to the jaded beliefs of some of these "journalists", we the average Joe's see right through the bullshit in this industry.

American Adventurist recently cut all ties with a publication because we felt that the self serving mercantile bent of that ad revenue focused rag were not at all in step with the advertised ethos that drew us to their initial effort. It doesn't take long for us or our members to figure out when someone is selling us garbage and calling it journalism.

It's VERY refreshing to to hear you guys echo my own viewpoint.
 
It's nice to hear I'm not crazy (again), Dave!

If it better puts things in perspective, for years, I've considered GBXM my life's work; my legacy if you will. Within a couple days of an hour long phone call with Chazz earlier this year - he wanted to pick my brain, a huge compliment I must say - I decided to pretty much walk away from GBXM.

We've got so much in the works it boggles the mind. And all of it revolves around making a difference before making a profit.

Feels good to be here. Feels real good.
 
I took the survey. I'm really hoping to see some other trucks featured besides the standard (Tacoma/FJ Cruiser/TLC). I understand that they make up a large part of the overlanding crowd, just would be nice to see other vehicles featured. I'm really interested in the "experience" part of the mag, as I have younger children, and I try to take them out to enjoy the experience of the outdoors as much as I can, which unfortunately isn't as much as I would like.
 
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