How Alex Boylan Built The College Tour and Traveled the World With Nothing

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Take your recovery to the next level with the Therabody Plus series. check out the jet boots pro plus at therabody.com code word determined miles that make you this is really cool memoir there's something i want to read to you from the back of your book for you in the audience it's not about the weight of the backpack you start with it's about what you do with it how you carry it where you take it and who you become along the way fuck yeah right yeah thanks that's heavy so i opened this book of like being with my mom like i didn't know what new clothes were i might cry we had zero money i would go into the goodwill closet of the church you know i mean people like donating stuff i would do my own shopping there with my mom not having money growing up it was awesome this is where i came from don't feel bad for me yeah we can't control that it's life get over it right well you can control this is where you are right now, there's this set of circumstances that you were born with. What are you going to do now? What are the moves you're making in life to, you know, hopefully be fulfilled, hopefully make this planet, leave it better than you found it. That's amazing. What's up everybody. We're back today with another amazing story. I have my good friend, Alex Boylan here with me today, who was the founder and creator of the college tour. He won Amazing Race 2. He's an Emmy Award winning producer, amazing human, and again, done so many amazing things. He's recently come out with a book called The Miles That Make You. We'll touch on that today. We're going to hear his story. And there's some good things on the back of the book that I want to read you because I want to get your perspective of it for the audience here. But man, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Congratulations on the show. Thank you. Everything you've built here. This is not easy to get what you've built here. Well, coming from you, that means a lot coming from you. because I look at you and I'm like, wow, this guy's doing what I want to do. Right. Streaming, you know, 16 seasons now of the college tour. And that was born during COVID. So let's start there with that journey. What spurred that? I mean, I know the answer, but the audience doesn't. What spurred the college tour and the creation? It's a good story. I mean, the college tour, each episode tells the story of a different, you know, college through the lens of its students. I've never created a show. this is the first one by far the most successful out of a real problem most ideas that i've done is my background is mostly travel adventure shows and it was like oh that looks cool that sounds fun this was so my niece she's from chippewa falls wisconsin names uh uh isabel paul nazik and she gets one trip to go take a look at college campuses so i live in venice beach what did she say she's like oh it's uncle alex in venice so she comes out to la and we have this awesome week we're going around i haven't thought about college since i was in college yeah and so we're going to ucla Hey Loyola Marymount, all these different institutions at the end of the week. And she's there with my sister, her mom. And she goes, okay, I want to go look at some schools in Boston where you and my mom grew up. I want to look at some schools in Florida. I'm like any normal high school kid wants to go travel the country to look at college campuses. And I'll never forget my, my older sister, Andrea sitting there. She's like, what do you think we're made of money? Like, I don't know. You know, we, we, I can't afford to like take you anywhere else. I said one trip, this is it, Isabel. And so obviously that stuck with me. I'm sitting here watching, you know, you're watching your own niece. You want the best for her. and uh so i go why don't we get together once a week this will be an uncle niece like cool project and let's unpack and try to figure out where you're supposed to go to school and we'll do this virtually right like over zoom and i'm like 10 minutes into trying to figure this out i'm like where the hell do i go i think about this 4 000 institutions everyone telling their story in different types of ways whether it's slick commercials websites with more content that you could possibly like figure out um social media and so you know we think in television in terms of formats, right? So I was like, oh man, what if there was a TV? Could we bring the campus to these students and create this television show? And so it was very, very early on, I saw the show. And it's usually, I'm sure with you too, it's like when you kind of see, I can already see it from the beginning of seeing this problem of how we'll make this show. So that was it. We set off with this one mission. Let's find real stories of real students, put those on, make that into a show. That's amazing. Boom, it was. And it's hard, because media, it's not easy to get something to work. You know, it's not. And most people, people see the successes. They don't realize all the other things that took to get there. So I'm, you know, the older I get, the more I appreciate success. And, and this was, this was been a fun one. It's really cool because the thing that I really enjoy, cause I've, I've watched some episodes, right. Is how you bring the student culture to the production. So they can, they can articulate what they love about the school to the prospective viewers and, and potential college students. and they get to see the conversations with, you know, the president, get to look at the campus and see if it's a fit for him. Because I think a lot of times when you think about going somewhere, you show up and you're like a fish out of water. You're like, this doesn't look familiar to me. So I feel the college tour does also provide that for these prospective college students. Yeah. Appreciate that. Yeah, definitely. Well, think about what happens and I've done a bunch of actual going on college tours now, a lot of it has, think about your, like a tip, let's just take the, I know there's people re-careering and all different people going on to higher education, but let's just take the average high school student. You show up on campus and you're going to get a tour either with a group of people or maybe even potentially one-on-one in certain circumstances. The personality of that person taking the tour, right? And the personality of the person giving the tour, that's huge of how someone's going to feel, right? And when you think about that. So, um, we take that away. I mean, with this show, you're typically going to see 10 different student stories. So through those 10 different faces and people, um, you really should get the culture of a place and, uh, no, I have no problem pulling up, open up the hood of how we make this show. And this is one thing that we've done since episode one till now, over 200 episodes, the first draft of the script. So imagine we're working with the institution. What stories are we going to tell? Let's go Cassidy students. We approach this like any other show. once that student's casted, it was like, okay, cool. We're going to have you tell the story of engineering, right? The first draft of that script, instead of like the school's in there, a bunch of producers are on top of it. It's like, take your time. Here's our kind of format. So you get an idea, write your story down. And so every single first draft of the college tour of that student story is written by the actor. I like that. Yeah. Because if you pull that out, then it's a bunch of marketing speech or it's not real. Yeah. And so we have stayed very, very true to that. Like way we make the show. And then, of course, producers are coming in, how are we going to bring this to life? And the school is coming in. So there's lots of people kind of putting their hands in the pot to make this episode afterwards. But the core of that story is the actual students. And the authenticity is very clear when you're watching these episodes, right? It doesn't seem like this is played up or anything like that. This is a real experience from these kids. That's exactly why we do it that way. These 17-year-olds are going to see right through it. If all of a sudden this is just a bunch of like, this is just a video put together, a bunch of marketing speech from the institution. That's not going to work. That's not what we set off to do. We just set off to this find great stories and great students. And let's just like bring those stories to light, but let's make sure it's real. That's badass. Yeah. Quick question. Where does your niece end up? Oh, great follow up question. Okay. So at the time in season one, Amazon was allowing us to drop episodes as they came. Now we drop as seasons. Anyway. Okay. So episode three, Arizona State University. At this point, I'm telling Isabel, I'm like, hey, watch the show. No more meeting with Alex and doing Zooms. Just watch the show and hopefully you can figure this out. So episode three, Arizona State University. We're telling the story of this young woman who has this full ride via the Starbucks program scholarship that ASU and Starbucks did. So my niece is watching that. She's like, I work at Starbucks. She looks into it, gets a full ride to ASU from the Starbucks program. Holy shit. And she ends up graduating with her master's from ASU, all full ride, not because of college touring like that, because of her watching the show and learning about the institution. And then my nephew, her older brother, ends up transferring from one school in Wisconsin over to Grand Canyon, episode six. So I knew from my own family early on, right? Like I'm watching them pick schools that are on the show. I'm like, oh, this thing's going to work. I'm going to challenge you on something that you said, not because of the college tour. Yeah. It was exactly because of the college tour. Okay. What's that? Think about that. like where she ended up and how it happened. Right. It's like, you're providing this value. And she learned something about the Starbucks programs. Like, wait a second. I work at Starbucks. And now she has her master's and her bachelor's from that institution. That's how it asked, dude. And then your nephew, you said, utilized, you know, episode six or whatever to, to, you know, that's amazing to me. That's true impact. Exactly. I mean, I think that's, I mean, I always try to say like, what kind of show is the college tour? It's almost like, infotainment, right? At the end, end of the day, we built this as a utility show. This job was, there's this, yeah, we hope to entertain you, but this job is to give you information to help you make a better decision in life. It's value-based, man. It's big. You know, there's a lot of things circulating now. I mean, when I went to college, you know, I went because I was a baseball player and the only way I was able to graduate is because if I wasn't eligible, I couldn't play baseball. And you know, at LSU, you have the college world series hanging over your head every single year. So you want to be a part of that. You don't want to miss out on going to Omaha. And then now with social media and all these creators and, you know, there's podcasts, there's TV shows, there's reality shows, and people are becoming famous for just being famous now. And so there's a lot of debate, I would say, I should say on, is college even worth it? We also have all these massive blue collar jobs that are paying a lot of money. And I've heard some statistics and I don't know if they are a hundred percent accurate, but at a college, you know, average salary is 60 to 62,000. You go to trade school, right. And you become a high skilled plumber or a welder out of the gate. You're looking at 80, 85. So there's a lot of people saying like, I don't know if college is that important anymore, but in your mind, is college worth it? Yeah. Great question. It, to me, it's crazy. And I, in the press, I get that question all the time with my position at the college tour. It's crazy. I think in today's society here in 2026, right. That we're asking that question. And by the way, my older sister, who's, you know, the mom of Isabel, she has her masters and she was asking that same question when she said to, so this is happening across the board. She's like, should she really go to school? is it worth it? Is it crazy to be living in society today where we're asking if education is worth it? It is pretty well. Go back a couple of generations ago, 1800s, it's like less than 10% of the population was educated. It was like for the elitist class, right? After World War II, it's still not that much. Go to the seventies. It's still like one out of five people had a degree in something. So I think it's funny that we're asking like, so to me and my humble opinion, And like, yeah, like everyone, we, especially the, where the, where the world is going. Yeah. We need an educated class. This is why America's amazing. We're able to push in so many different industries. All that being said, what is right for you? And I think that's where the college tour came in. It's like to us, the way I look at higher education, we've probably done 30 community colleges. We've probably done 15 trade schools. Right. So yes, we're telling the story of university of Oregon and ASU that have brand recognition like LSU. Yeah. But to me, and what even gets me sometimes like really excited, these schools, no one's ever heard of before. So to me, it's all about, if you go to business labor of statistics, right? This is government data. Let's assume that it's all correct. For every piece of paper you get, your income goes up. Let's just start with high school. If you graduate high school, you're going to make more money than the person who doesn't graduate high school. You can go into certificate, associate's degree, trade school, just all the way up to your doctorate. You're going to on average make more money and you're going to have a life's chance of being unemployed. It's the simple fact of being educated. That's pretty cool. Right. It's a hard one to argue. Hey, look, man, I don't disagree. I can tell you from my perspective. And I think it's. The amount of value you get out of college is based on every person. Right. For me. It was more about connections and leverage. Right. Coming from LSU baseball, you know, the networking with the alumni, former big leaguers. And, and when someone would see LSU baseball, my resume, right. College world series participant. It was like, so for me, it was, it was worth it. Did I learn everything that I needed to learn? No, because I was stupid and was more interested in going to the tiger bar and tailgating and, you know, having the fun stuff that, that came along with being an LSU baseball player. And I look back at it now and for all the parents and, and, you know, the, the young kids listening, I regret every minute of not taking my education more seriously. 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So if you're going to buy some stuff, load up there in that cart for that first time and you get 15% off. Go to therabody.com and at checkout, the code is determined. So let me know how you guys like it until then stay determined. I mean, I'm in the same boat as you. Okay. My college experience. No, but I think like when you really zoom out and this is where we are so blessed to be in this country, everyone, there's almost 4,000 institutions. So to me that goes into a personal responsibility category of obviously for me, I went and ended up to Jackson university and played soccer. And that was right for me. And between myself and my family and scholarship and all that, I couldn't make that, that, that decision made sense. Okay. And so to me, what's cool about this country and what we should be celebrating about higher education, Hey, whether it's you or your family or scholarships and you can go afford a hundred grand a year at some institution. Sounds great. Hey, if you're someone else that needs to like community colleges are amazing system. Sometimes the exact same professors that are at the big schools anyway, and that they offer for service for that community. So you can get educated and become a productive member of society. And then everything in between. So to me, that goes into what we should be having a conversation is like, do some math. If your job is gonna, on average, make you 45 grand or 50 grand a year and you just spent a half a million dollars on that education, that's not a good ROI. That's not a good spend. And that to me goes into personal responsibility. There's a product out there and it's up to us as the people who are deciding, and the people that are guiding those decisions to figure out what is the right product for you, right? What's the right institution for me? So I think what we should be celebrating and how cool is it that you can go to trade school. Yeah, that's available to you. There's community colleges. There's a community college in Southern California that we did an episode on. They'll pay you if you- Which one? I believe it's called Santiago Canyon College. Okay. And Santa Ana, I believe, has a college. But there, it's like, if you carry 16 credits, they will pay you to go to school there because they did the math that, that community. And it was like, for someone not having, you know, a degree over someone having a degree is better to like, let's, let's pump this. It's encouraged students to go to school so they can come out and pay taxes and pay that money back into society. So, and not be poor while they're doing it. Exactly. So I think there's a, there's a lot, that's what I said. There's a million pathways to higher education. Hopefully college tour has taken a small crack out of telling those stories. That's awesome, man. You know, it, it, it, when you look at it like that, right. And break it down the way you did. Yeah. It is a requirement. I mean, definitely go get educated. And I think there's, I think for me too, it, it, it builds these habits where when you start something, you finish it no matter of the process in between it and how bad it gets, how heavy it is. Yeah. The good days, the bad days, the important thing is to see something to completion. And I think a lot of people nowadays aren't seeing things to completion enough. Yeah. Couldn't agree more. And I think for, you know, once again, I'm just, I'll just talk about myself for a second, going to school and maybe it was similar to yours. There was at that era of going to school, it was, it was this bridge from being at home or, you know what I mean? Not being as independent to being like fully independent. And people forget that. And another thing that I think we don't talk about enough, and I'll use my alma mater as an example there, Jacksonville University, the college experience. And I'm obviously there's lots of different pathways, but the traditional, the LSU, the Jacksonville university is not that they're exact same school here. The there's probably 250 clubs that you can join at JU. Now there's a beach on campus. They just put in this like Vegas style pool. There's this awesome boathouse bar. So the college experience now at the institution I went to, it's a lot more expensive to go to JU now than it was when I went back in the day. But guess what? That experience is 10 times better too. Sometimes people forget that. That's where I, once again, I say like, find the right path for you. But, you know, you know, I think there was probably like six clubs at JU when I went in the nineties. Right now there's like 300 shoes from. So I think the experience is a lot different. Um, and, uh, you know, it's awesome. Community is important, man. Exactly. Community is very, very important. So, all right, let's shift a little bit here. All right. Amazing race too. Yeah. You fucking want it, dude. That's a wild thing. I told you last night, my dad and And his wife was in, they were in season 21. And I think they went to five countries and, you know, they, they bowed out, but, you know, what was that experience like for you? It's amazing. Bad analogy, bad, bad choice of words. That's it. No pun intended. Yeah. No pun intended there. It's, it was, I mean, it changed the trajectory of my life. And so like, to me, it was a very profound moment. season two. Like I didn't even know what the show was when I was getting cast on the show because it hadn't aired yet. But imagine you're getting, especially back then, you're getting to do, there's probably a thousand people, production people to pull off the amazing race around the world. Back then, I don't know exactly what the budget was per episode, but my guess it's between a million, 2 million bucks an episode. So you're getting to do that. I mean, we were the first people that ever repelled on Sugarloaf Mountain in Brazil. You know what I mean? So you're getting to do these just monumental adventures and experiences that money, you can never pay for it a million years unless you got the power of like CVS by. Yeah. Right. So, so that aspect, the adventure was, you know, second to none. That's cool. Amazing. But like the, it was interesting because I, I, I was kind of lost a little bit before amazing race. I'd quit my corporate job. I ended up in the Caribbean. I was kind of like, where am I supposed to be in life? And some, cause I'm about 24 years old. and the reason why I kind of pivoted my life in this positive direction. Imagine I'm this kid trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do, where I'm supposed to work. I hated the corporate world. I hated it. Right, you mean both. And here I am, all these like young, other 25 year old producers running around the world, asking me questions, doing jobs. And I was like, you get paid to do what you're doing? I was like, what is this? You know, because back then I was never exposed to it. And they're like, oh, I'm a producer. I'm like, well, what does a producer do? This looks awesome. And so for me, yes, I wanted to win. I'm competitive, but it was all about like, that gave me the opportunity. I saw a job. I was like, oh, I'm gonna do that for the rest of my life. Whatever these travel producers are doing, that looks awesome. And I've been chasing that high Sean to this day. See, that's, what's amazing to me. And that's what I really respect about you because you said you were lost. You're in the Caribbean. You kind of like, what am I going to do with my life? And you took an opportunity to take a risk and go do the show, but you found what you love. Yeah. And that's why I always, like, I talk to my kids and I talk to people that, but I mentor a little bit like don't judge any situation yeah go in there and just be present because you don't know what's going to come out of it yeah you built your whole career based on that yeah lots of great advice and what you just said right it's like sometimes you find your some of the best opportunities in my life from college tour because I was like kind of down and out before college tour like I'm you know if you've been in the entertainment business long enough there most people aren't riding out here it's just kind of roller I feel like I feel like I spend most of my time here. I mean, listen, me too. I mean, like it's this roller coaster and most people have really been in the trenches for long periods of time. We'll tell you the exact same thing. Very few people are just like hanging at this level. So, but every time in the bottom of a trough is when something like I was in the bottom of trough of life and amazing race hit, you know, I was kind of COVID was hitting, you know, this past business I was working on. What's the show was not working called dream jobbing really. And then college tour came out of it. So sometimes you got to kind of be in the sock, you know? And also I think it makes you appreciate, at least for me, as I reflect on it, it's probably God's lesson of teaching me to like, just to be positive, you know, and appreciate every little thing along the way. Yeah, man, gratitude goes a long way, doesn't it? Totally. So you traveled the world, right? Yeah. Spending zero dollars. Yeah, yeah. That's a crazy concept to me. Yeah, totally. It's like the original vlogger. Yeah. Like how did, how did that happen? Like, how did you, so I met you, you hitchhiking or you, are you, what are you doing for food? Are you washing dishes? Okay. So yes, I should tee it up. This is around the world for free. We're talking about, right? So it's the first online interactive show kind of ever produced. Um, and if, if, how long do you want this story, but I'll back up just a second. I hear it just to see where I'm at. So I'm, I'm, I'm hosting shows. So my career is kind of starting it off. Um, it's after amazing race. Um, I'm down shooting a surf documentary in El Salvador. Right. And everything goes wrong. Like the, a hurricane like hits the coastline volcanoes erupt in. It's like an earthquake. So like they put us in this hotel and they put us in this like a little hotel where we're staying in this hotel. They took our security away. It's pretty gnarly where we're kind of filming. And, um, they're like, don't move out of this hotel until we bring security back. And so we're in this town called La Libertad. And you look behind our hotels, it's like favela, right? It's kind of like shanty, you know, tougher area, let's call it. They say it. And so the whole time, every local's like, if you go up there, you'll die. Keep saying this over and over. Holy shit. And so Jolt Luca, one of my guys I've filmed around the world with, we're both kind of sitting back and we're kind of like laughing, like drinking beers and being like, what, we're going to die by walking up there? Yeah. And so we said, all right, when the storm clears, let's try to make it to the top of the mountain without dying. Like we kind of make this bet to each other like that. Right. And, uh, and so right before we go, Joel grabs the camera. So, you know, and so we're still not back filming this documentary that we're doing at the time. And so he's like, I'm going to film you. Right. I'm like, all right, cool. So I just start walking to see what happens. Right. What do you think happens? People are like, Oh no, no, like gringos ever walked up into that community ever before. And they're like, come on next. You know, I'm being invited inside. There's like, uh, the ovens are trash cans cut in half. They don't even have much food, but they're bringing out food and trying to cook for us. And we're like going through this labyrinth of houses and five. It's just a funky play. I've never seen it before. And Joel's just following with this camera. So all the stuff we had like spent time pre-producing and all this stuff. The most exciting thing that happens is this raw moment, like living with locals. Right. So that one idea kind of sticks. It's like, Oh man, what happens when you kind of like don't plan anything and just try to to force yourself to live with locals. And that's the beginning of around the world for free. Right. And so, um, I'm, I'm actually working with primary film and television and doing a bunch of shows, this idea I can, and usually I'm sure this happens to you when, when I'm waking up in the middle of the night thinking about something, I know, and I'm a lot better about it now knowing that's a good idea. This thing's burning a hole in my head, man, I could, I think I could make it around the world with no money, just live that way. And like, let's go tell the story at that point, not to knock the shows that I'm hosting. I'm very grateful for those shows, but imagine I'm giving a script show up here, do that kind of like a parrot, right? Okay. Sounds good. I'll do this. You just kind of told what to do. And I love the Ron, like I loved amazing race and the rawness of just being with real people, seeing what happens. And so kind of go back to LA with this idea, like armed and, uh, joined up with this guy named Burton Roberts. We've been business partners for 20 plus years. And, uh, with this idea, I was like the let's, let's do this show. Originally it was just this Can I make it around the world? And then Facebook's not out yet. YouTube comes out. YouTube's just starting, right? And I was like, oh man, could this be like short form? Could we do this on, could we do like, you know, could we shoot the show kind of like live? And so anyway, that's the beginning of like, now it's like we all do it on our cell phones every single day with social media. That doesn't exist, right? So we set off with this mission. Can we make this? It's so out of the box. I mean, Burton and I were getting kicked out of every single room. Like, oh, it's cool. It's interesting. what is it again? It's online. Like no one really got it and kept hearing no after no, after no got this one. No, but felt like a yes from this gentleman named Ken Maynard, who is credited with bringing survivor amazing race and all the big, like basically creating rally TV with inside the network. And, and we had met with him and it was the second time he said, nobody wrote me this awesome email. And now I'm a young producer at this point in time. He goes, Alex, this reminds me of the early days of survivor where everyone didn't get it and didn't understand it became this juggernaut. He's like, it's a no from CBS again, but I think you should go do it. And so it was almost like enough of like, so it was getting these like tiny, sometimes in life, you just need those tiny wins, right? Just someone validating you or agreeing or thinking you can do it. So, um, and eventually it's a long story, but this lady named Anna O'Grady, who I owe so much of my career to, she's the head of marketing at CBS. We get this meeting with her and she's like, why isn't CBS doing this? And, and she funnels us to the CBS early show. And so we set off, we built the website at that point in time, which you could do on a Facebook page right now. It cost us like 150 grand just to upload like a, you know, a two minute video and then have someone be able to write a message just to try to build that. Just understand like the time period we are in and the technology that was needed. It was so out of the box. Um, but the CBS early show, we get this meeting with the executive producer there. We go on and do the whole dog and this is what the show is going to be about. I'm going to leave. I have no, no money, but everyone's gonna be able to check in with me every single day. And I'll never, I like, I'll never forget it. The guy like leans back in his chair. He's like smoking a stoke. And he's like, there's never been a stunt. I don't like kid. You got the early show and I'll never forget that moment. And so we had, so now we had the early show that's willing to follow us. Every single do live check-in. So that was enough, like big media to be like, all right, let's do this thing. So we kind of bootstrapped it. Jolt Luca, one camera guy. I mean, our backpacks were so heavy walking off the CBS show with one mission. Can we make it around the world using the help of the online? Like basically living with locals the whole way through the, um, through the help of the online community. And, and, uh, fortunately that once again, it's like it worked. you know, yeah. 16 countries, 45,000 miles went down like the East coast of the U S through the Caribbean into Venezuela, West coast of South America, up the East coast of Africa, across Southeast Asia, all like living with monks, live with locals, every one of those we could have a podcast about. So it was like just a crazy journey. Um, and, and we broke the backs of a new, honestly, that that's what launched around the world productions for my life. It lasts 10 years because no one was doing online interactive content. So that CBS came in, we did two more seasons of that show. And then Rachel Ray shows like, Hey, can you do that for our audience? And we became around the world productions basically in the two thousands became that go-to, you know, what everyone is now run and gun guerrilla type of like filming and short form contact written near real time. And it was a really fun time. Yeah. I'm hearing all the destinations and I am also what's not lost on me as a difference in culture and how, you know, Americans are viewed. What was that experience like, you know, for you going through Venezuela, going through all those different countries? And that it's a little, cause 2008, when we launched the first season around the world but you know it fresh on a memory just to give everyone some context of time 9 is not too far from that And that changed the fabric of is the world safe? And all, you know what I mean? So there was this, people good out there, everyone's bad. So it was just interesting time, kind of not too far from what's happening culturally right now a little bit. But anyway, so that was a big thing because I had been fortunate to, prior in my life, live in Brazil and Germany and kind of see the world. That was a big mission that I thought was a misconception of both Americans and probably citizens worldwide is like, 99% of the population on planet earth is good. And they all want to do the same thing, break some bread with you, share some stories and learn about each other's culture. It's like this tiny minute population that kind of screw things up a little bit. So that was a little bit of the mission that we were setting off to be. If I was going to get into the philosophy of things is like, let's prove that people are kind of good out there. And so, yeah, culturally, I mean, yeah, I mean, here we were in Venezuela. I mean, it's interesting what's happening right now down there because Shabez was in power. And that's really the guy who kind of like, you know, turn this into a very socialistic and near dictatorship country. And we told the story of two different, you know, via around the world for free. Half the time I stayed with this guy who's packing his family up. He's ready to roll. He's like, I can see everything that's happening here. We got to go. And then another guy that's like, here, why you leave? Like, you know what I mean? We can't have all the good people like leaving. Stay. Let's make changes. This is Venezuela. It's our country. And so it was, it was a really fun time to tell those two different stories, two different paths of, um, and then, yeah, it was crazy, man. I mean, you took a, I think we were talking about last night, but I, I, we took from Caracas. It was supposed to be like three or four days, but it ended up being like a eight day bus track with, I'm talking chickens, goats and everyone. And half these people, they're like smug. I'm like, I actually helped. There's a, there's a shot of me taking these two young girls across the border. Cause everyone's trying to get out of Venezuela at that point in time. and that bus went from Caracas, Venezuela to Lima, Peru. So I think Colombia, Ecuador, just breaking down every five seconds. And so I was like, yeah, what was supposed to be 48 hours turned into like seven days, but it was a hell of an adventure. I went to South America for the very first time in July. We went to my wife's home country. We went to Quito, Ecuador and that was my favorite vacation I've ever seen. I didn't want to go home. I wanted to stay, man, laying in volcanic water, looking at volcanoes and the Andes Mountains. It's beautiful country, man. Beautiful. Got a really good question for you. Like, you know, we go through life experiences and it shapes who we are and we learn different lessons in different seasons. What did Amazing Race 2 and, you know, Travel Around the World for Free teach you about yourself other than what you found that you wanted to do? Yeah, I think, and it's funny not to plug my book here, Sean. We're going to get to it. And I'm not trying to, but it's like, it's kind of like the ethos. And it was, it took me to write the book to learn this about myself. And that's where I talk so much about like, just what happened from a young age. And it incrementally grew because the story starts back, you know, we don't need to go there, but like I had some really cool experiences happen as a kid. And so for me, I got really, and I still am very comfortable being uncomfortable. and in that moment and where I think I personally thrive is where I'm a little nervous and I pull this off. Yeah. But I'm feeling alive as hell. I was, you know, I was just thinking it's this magical place that's hard to get to. Right. But if you can find that sweet spot for me, that's what I learned about myself from all those moments. Cause you're just like, can I pull this off? Is this going to work? Is everyone going to think I'm a fraud? You know, like I walked off the CBS earlier show, our technology, by the way, is like half working. Cause so many people could come from the CPS earlier show on our website. It's like breaking down. I'm like not even getting messages. And so I'm just like, Oh my gosh. I'm like, this whole thing would just like blow up. So if I told you how many times in my life, like I just thought the whole thing was going to blow up in my face and you just got to like, keep it cool. One foot in front of the other, hang in the game as long as possible. Um, and one of the, that's a piece of advice I tell most people in the world of entertainment when they want to get into that. They're like, Oh, I want to, you know, production doesn't matter whatever it is. I'm like, just hang in the game. Half of it's just staying. If you can stay in the game long enough, you'll probably be successful, you know, but too many people, you know, if you, as you know, the statistics, you know, after one year and after five years, it'd be just hang in the game. Yeah. And, uh, you know, it's, it's funny because you talk about, you got really comfortable with being uncomfortable and I live in that energy constantly. And I always ask myself and ask, you know, Pat, Dan, Roman, Matt, and in production, like, you think I can pull this off? Like what if I don't? But those moments where I feel like I'm backed up against that corner, like that's where I operate the best because that's when you just, I guess you take action and you move because our brain is wired to keep us safe. There's a lot of people that go, okay, this is risky. There's too much fear here. I'm going to stay where I'm comfortable. But, but for me, if I stay where I'm comfortable, I w I wouldn't be up at 4am this morning, going to the gym and, and, you know, and doing what I, I'd be, I'd be sleeping in having the, you know, shitty food in the morning, just that's comfortable. But for me, when I'm comfortable, I die inside, you know, like literally I don't make the best decisions. So I can really relate to the being uncomfortable. Like, you know, I, I just think it's something so special that I wish more people and for the audience listening is find that uncomfort and marinate in that shit. Yeah. Because that's where it is, right? That's where you learn so much about yourself and that's where you make the most progress in your life. Amen. Couldn't say that better myself. So while we're on the book. Couldn't agree. Yeah. So the miles that make you, this is a really cool memoir. There's something I want to read to you from the back of your book because I really relate to it. And I can think of many times in my life and I hope I don't get emotional when I'm talking about this or reading with it because it's not the words, it's the meaning. Okay. And here it is for you in the audience. It's not about the weight of the backpack you start with. It's about what you do with it, how you carry it, where you take it and who you become along the way. Yeah. Fuck. Yeah, right. Yeah. thanks that's heavy yeah um and where that where that comes from and and where i start this whole journey because i can't i'm not i wouldn't be you wouldn't be where you are without the good bad hard ugliness that's happened prior to it um my dad was a pastor one of four kids grew up on the north shore of boston we had zero money you know what i mean so i opened this book of like being with my mom like i didn't know what new clothes were i might cry new clothes wear probably until 15. You know what I mean? Everything I was handing out to my brother or I would go into the Goodwill closet of the church. You know what I mean? Where people would be like donating stuff. I would do my own shopping there with my mom, you know? And so like, and by the way, I think that is one of the miles that did make me. If it wasn't for that, I don't think I would have been so hungry to be successful because I just, you know, wanted, it wasn't, by the way, my not having money growing up, I don't, like, it was awesome. You know, my parents loved me. I had so many blessings, you know, from growing up. But, um, so I kind of started all, you know, start the whole book from that one place because just because I didn't, and I use it as an analogy, especially with college students. Now it's like, I can't sit here and I speak at a lot of colleges. I don't know where you're all coming from. You know what I mean? Some of you guys are given, you know, um, your backpacks are light. There's nothing there. You know what I mean? It's been, you know, uh, your life's been kind of planned out or prepped as best as possible for you, man, others of you, you got no parents, you know, you got no parents, you know, you had no money or you're like, God knows what you had gone to, to get to where you are sitting in that seat right now. Does that make sense? And so when I look at that, like, it's not about that is not going to define you. I don't care what you have when you grew up, you know, it matters like, what are the moves you're making in life to, you know, hopefully be fulfilled, hopefully make this planet, leave it better than you found it, all those pieces. That makes sense. And so I, I, once again, I can't speak on every one of these college students and where they're coming from. I can just say that this is, I start every speech and like, this is where I came from. Don't feel bad for me. Cause a lot of you guys went through 10 times harder things that I've gone through. And there's other people have 10 times lighter backpack. We can't control that. It's life. Get over it. Right. Well, you can control this is where you are right now. This is the set of circumstances that you were born with. What are you going to do now? So, man, I love that. You know, one of my biggest fears as a parent, And I, I always thought like, I don't want to make it too comfortable for them. Yeah. Right. Because they have a much more comfortable life than I had. Yeah. Than I had, you know, and I had a lot growing up, right. We were, you know, middle-class, my dad worked his ass off and, you know, I had everything that I needed, you know, but the big thing was, is when I, when I read that and it, it, it shifted my perspective to like, man, I got to add some weight to these kids' backpacks, right. like in, in some constructive way, like, I don't want to fabricate adversity for them, but I want them to go through hard shit. You know, I want them to go through the heartbreaks of, of certain things through sports or school, or even just relationships with their peers, because without that weight in the backpack, it, you, you, you don't grow a threshold to get through the serious things in your life. When you get to corporate America, and maybe your company dissolves and now you don't have a job. A lot of people, if you don't go through shit, you're not going to have any resilience to pick that back up and figure it out. Yeah. Amen. I think about a lot with my son. I mean, he's young, but I, you know, you, you want, you want, like it's really good to do hard things, you know? And I'm sure you've heard of some of these things, especially with boys, which is sad, this failure to launch. And granted, I know they had COVID and there's like, you know, there's something that's been happening. That was a movie too. It was a good one. Oh, fairy to launch. Okay. But like that, like that with like, you know, I'm sure it's happening to girls too, but boys are just not like moving on, like going crush life. Right. What's happened here. And I don't know. I'm a psychologist, but as I think about it, I think about it for my boy too. And I, the, you know, I had a lot of freedom as a kid. My parents weren't out my butt about stuff, you know, you're figure it out. You know, like that was the story. And I, and I, I told stories of just, I grew up on the North shore of Boston, And just from like being in like sixth grade or riding my bike three miles to my buddy's house, like what went through my brain. I was like, if I go down the street, those two guys are going to kick my ass. They're older. All right. I better go through the woods here. Like what went through my brain in sixth grade, just to get from point A to point B was a lot of thought. And I think, you know, life's pretty safe right now in a lot of different ways. And so, um, anyway, it's, it's good to one of the things that I bring up another early story. And unless I wrote this book, I don't think I would have found the correlation between this. And I hope this helps with the story and analogy, but I get this offer. Doesn't matter, but I have to get this in my brain. I'm going to be a foreign exchange student, moved to Brazil. Right. And I, my mom was amazing. She was, we didn't have any money, but they were any idea I had. They were like, let's go try to figure out how to make it happen. So that was the biggest blessing I could have ever had growing up. And so she comes up with this idea. It's like $5,000 to us. That could have been $5 million. dollars. And she goes, all right, I can buy these advent calendars, right? I can buy 5,000 or whatever it was, 2,000, 3,000 of these things. And if you sell them, you know what I mean? It's going to cost $1,000 to buy them. You go sell each one of them X amount of costs. We'll be able to fund your trip. And so my mom sets me up and I remember these boxes came and filled this room right now. And I was like, oh my gosh. And so I became this like one man advent calendar, 14 year old selling machine. You sold 2,000. Dude, knocking on doors, right? And so So that one, unless I wrote the book, it was like, that was really hard. Yeah. Really hard. It took me like a year. You know what I mean? Every single day and like sitting outside of grocery stores at 14, like trying to hawk these things. Everybody would buy it. Right. There's this kid again. She said, just buy one. Just buy one. Right. And it was so embarrassing. My mom would be at like football games. Like send Alex to Brazil. Like a big sign, hawking candy away from the actual concession stand. Like she didn't care anyway. And it was, um, but I, I learned so much. And as I, if it wasn't for writing the book, thinking about that moment, learning that skill set of like, Hey, it's going to be hard. It's going to suck. It's going to be uncomfortable. Right. Learn your pitch, all kinds of stuff. I learned in that process. So, you know, I, I think about my little boy and when he goes, as soon as he old enough, like I'm going to add that lemonade. If it's anything, I'm going to teach you. You're going to know how to go door to door, man. Is that there's anything you're going to need to do in life is sell one thing or another. If you can get the skill set of selling, you'll probably be all right. So. See, that's a great point, right? Because as you're going door to door as a 14 year old, that is an intimidating situation. You're opening the door to some happy people, some upset people because you're interrupting dinner and they don't want to buy shit. But it's like you learn interpersonal communication. You learn the sales techniques. You learn how to not sell something, but provide a value to somebody or just be super kind. And they're like, oh, I feel bad for this kid. I want him to go to Brazil so he can enrich his life, you know, by the damn calendar, whatever the reasoning is, you, you had to go through the process and do that hard thing. Yeah. I know adults that won't go door to door. Totally. Well, I think it's funny as I, and I have the more we're sitting here talking about it and I'm thinking about it. It's like, you know what you're also learning? You're learning to read the room really fast. And I think there's something with all the social media and technology, everything, you know, it's like, it's important as we talk about our kids. It's like, I want them to have social intelligence, read the room, buddy. Like understand what's happening here because I think that is going to be a skill set you know back in my day if you were and not to knock my friends that were communication majors but that was kind of known like oh took in communication was like almost like a joke right it's like hey I'm just now I look at it now it's probably one of the most vital skills you can go get because you're not getting it in life so much and you got to learn to communicate with people so now and have a conversation like we're having and read the room dude EQ is so important emotional intelligence uh my son who's 12. He has, that is built in for him. Like two years old, dude, like two, I was having a bad day. He come up and it was, you know, he'd always hug me, you know, and, and come up to me. But on the days I was having a bad day, even still he'll come up and he'll sit right next to me and I'll, and I'll put his hand on my, on my leg. I'm like, thank you, buddy. I needed that. He goes, I know. Oh, it's like, dude, it's, it's, I know, man. Yeah. Now, now my middle daughter, a little different. The gang and gang going on. Yeah. She, you know, not knowing how to read a room yet, but very highly intelligent. And my youngest is, is very emotionally connected. She's an empath and that, so is my wife. So it scares me because I know what that looks like. Yeah. But, but yeah, man, I think emotional intelligence and learning how to read a room and knowing what to say around who and how far you can go, where's the line. I typically can find that out within five to 10 minutes. Yeah. Right. And it's a gift. It's something that I've worked on because trust me, I've been on the other side of that shit too, where I've said the wrong thing in the wrong room at the wrong time in front of the wrong people. It blew up in my face, but you, you have to make those mistakes. And I think it's truly important to understand that mistakes are there to lead us. Failures are there to lead us, not temper our growth. Totally. I think it's important. I agree more, couldn't agree more. Yeah. I mean like that, that, and I would say that trip, cause there's, I, and I, I had this to like my Max God, my, my son's godfather. I'm like, Hey, listen, something happens to me. I got two non-negotiables for this kid. It's it. One, you will do a foreign exchange when you're in high school and you'll do another one in college. Because that trip to Brazil, you know, granted it's, it's the nineties. Yeah. Nine flights going into like, my parents are going to call me once a month, $600 in traveler's checks stuck to me. I was like, I'll see you in a year. Yeah, totally. That's what it was like. What happens of growth. I came back to high school in America. I was like, oh my gosh. Like I have more experience in life than these teachers do. Yeah. And so what happened in that was, it was huge. And then being able to get into do that in college, those two experiences is, uh, are my non-negotiables for my son. That's bad. You're going to get out there. You're going to get on call. You learn a lot when you get outside your comfort zone, um, living in another culture. And, um, so yeah. I found from some advent calendars. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Was it the candy ones? The chocolate, chocolate ones. Yes. I can still see it. I can still see selling these, this thing. Yeah. Yeah. that's hysterical. You know, I, I always find too, when we're talking about doing the uncomfortable thing, like, you know, traveling and learning about other cultures and doing what you did and what you're acquiring of your son, the fears that we do have about certain situations, most of them never come to pass. Yeah. Right. We worry about things before they happen. We make it a reality when in reality probably not going to happen. You're going to have a better experience than, than you anticipated. Yeah. You know it interesting to me Oh yeah We put a lot in our own We we humans are interesting Yeah I was thinking about when you were talking about something of like getting things over the goal lines I find my selfies and some like I'm a big, like do three or four things a day, kind of short checklist, right? I'm with you. Super tight. Like, Oh, I'm going to accomplish these. This is my number one task. And here's my two other three other things I want to get done to. And I'll call it, I'll call it a win. And sometimes like, why is it that I'll go to these easier tech, you know, this is the one that's going to move the needle with the business. This is the one that's going to move the needle. And I'll find myself procrastinating. I'm always like, what the hell is that? You know, what is that? There's something in the DNA that- Yeah, it's just resistance, man. It's just resistance. But the important thing is that you complete it. Like, I don't believe anything needs to be done in an order, right? If you have, you know, a moment where, you know, you have one, two, three, four things to do, but the number one thing that you have to do, it's a little heavy for you right now. Do the other tasks, right? And I also do believe do the hard thing first, but the hard thing could be so many things. It could be getting up and reading. It could be getting up and walking, lifting weights or whatever that is. So you prep your mind to do the hard shit before you need to do it. But sometimes I will find myself the hardest part of my day, the hardest part of the work task for all this. I will wait until I'm mentally ready to do it because I know if I'm not present in that moment, I'm not ready to execute it. I'm going to shit the bed. It's not going to work. Right. So I have to be ready to do it. Well said. Yeah, man. I take your advice on that. Yeah, dude. It happens. You said something interesting last night and it said a lot about you. I already liked you. You know, we've been communicating for a while. First time we met in person yesterday, which I felt like I already knew you. Like, hey, great to meet you in person. I'm like, fuck, we haven't met. Like what's going on? That's just the power of connection and alignment, right? But you talked about your premise of writing the book and why you did it. And I thought it was so selfless and heartwarming. I want you to share that with the audience because most people write books, including myself, right? Because it's an authority thing. Like you have a book, then you have something, you're an expert on a certain subject and you can leverage that in your business and in your show or whatever it is. But yours was so wholesome, man. I want you to share that. Do you want me to go the whole story with Ashley and everything? Yeah, man. Might as well. Okay. So it's not like I haven't thought about writing a book. I've thought about it. didn't really have a main purpose to do it. Um, but it's, I'd say it's been lingering in the back of the head, kind of like, I should probably do that at some point in time. Um, but why, how all that was not, not, not existent, but with the college tours, I'll start up right now. You know, I'm on two college campuses a week. I'm talking to thousands of college kids all the time being asked to speak. And so there was a little bit of me being like, Oh man, like I've kind of learned what they need to hear. Right. And it's a little bit about like, here's my story. Here's a life lessons to learn along the way. And then if I was sitting in your shoes right this second, And this is what I would do to make sure you're teeing yourself up for a dream job. That's kind of what I do in let's call it my speeches or workshops. So that started kind of resonating like, oh, that could be interesting as a book. Anyway, really, it's another human. The name's Ashley Spence. She worked for us on Around the World for Free. She's amazing. And she writes this book. And my business partner, Burton, calls up. He's like, you got to read her book. So I read her book. It's a horrible story. She was horribly raped in college and what she had to go through. And she's in the process of changing these laws across the country from her book. And it's, it's, it's empowering. It's, it's horrific. It's empowering. It's like every type of emotion. So I call her up and I was just like, actually I imagine she's like working with around the world for free. I had no idea that this happened to her and call her. I'm like, I'm just so sorry. I don't even know what to say. And I was like, also like that book, I mean, I loved everything about it. It's like a hundred, it was short, snackable. You can get to it. And it was exactly right. It wasn't like war and peace. And it was just so well-written and how it like tied together. So she was like, Oh yeah. Like, and she kind of gave me the blueprint of what she did to kind of get that over the goal line. So now it's like really in my head. And so I was like, yeah, I've been thinking about it. And she kind of, she goes, Alex, you got to do it. Got to write the book. So now it's like the first human I kind of say it out loud to. And sometimes you need, and she's saying, you got to move forward. And so as I'm thinking about all the different, like, oh, how can this help my business? This could be a great thing to have. I can scale my speeches kind of things and all for the business side of it. But then I step back and I'm looking at, my parents are in there like, you know, mid to late eighties now. right? Love them to death. I dedicate the book to them. They hear the stories, but they really understand like what happened, what the influence I, they, they had on me. And, and I, and, and I sit in this other thing and I have a one-year-old son. So I sit in this like really interesting place in life where my parents are, you know, to the point where it's like, they need an extra help. And they're at this, you know, era of life and I have the son and this other era of life. You know what I mean? And it's just, I don't even have a word to describe it, Sean. Like I just sit in this very weird place where I'm two people, family, that means so much to me on either end of the spectrums of life. Right. And I was like, no, I got to do it. Like that becomes the motivation because I'm like, okay, I want my parents to know the story and I want my son to have his North star and guiding light. You know what I mean? And so that becomes like, you know, cause it's, it's, you know, with everything else you got going on, as you know, you know, I'm, I'm busy. Yeah. And so that becomes like, you know, you can ask my wife, that becomes like, you know, nine o'clock I'm going back to the office and working to one, you know, for, for a few months to get that over the goal line. So, but I am so happy I did it because the best thing I ever got me, obviously my son can't read yet. Um, so hopefully down the road he will. And that's, and that became my why I said it all the time. I don't know if it was a defense mechanism, but I said, if there's three people who read it, I'll call this a, it was all worth it. My parents and my son read the book, I'll call it a win. So that became like this, like, who cares what happens to the book? That becomes my why, you know what I mean? And I'm pushing forward. So, So, yeah. It's beautiful, man. Yeah, thanks. Well, I mean, I feel like if we start doing things for our own gain, right? Or we have the goal of doing something big, but it's for me or for you, right? We can tend to back off of that a little bit and negotiate with ourselves at times. But when it's for a bigger purpose and it's for someone else, the accountability portion is so much greater and the completion actually happens because you're wanting to give somebody something. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, man. Yeah, that was it. Like I'd say like that one of the happiest moments was like within. So before, and I didn't tell anyone, I think the agency I'm working with, Freeling agency, they're awesome. Uh, my wife, me, my two business partners on college, like no one knew I was doing this. So when it was done, and that was another thing. So I was like, I don't know. Once again, another thing, maybe defense mechanism. I didn't know if I was going to get this thing over the goal line. how it was all going to come together. So when my family found out, I was like, Hey, this is going to be released in a week. You all have copies coming to you in the mail. You know what I mean? They didn't even know what's happening. So imagine my, I was like the first people I wanted to read this thing was my parents. My mom's like, Oh my gosh. And I dedicated. So like the next day she calls, she's like, I read it twice. That just meant the world to me. You know, like it was awesome. Alex, she was obviously I'm in at tons and you, you know, you sing my praises. So she feels like a star. And so, so what is, you're validating the love that they gave you and what they taught you as they were raising you. And they, and they model great behavior for you. Right. And now you're able to give that to your son. I just think it's, I think it'll be all right. I think so. I think you'll be all right. You're doing, you're doing just fine. You're doing just fine. You know, like, dude, it's, it's so crazy because I'm sitting here, you know, uh, you know, I was telling Pat, we were talking about it before, like we got it and we've talked about it. Like, I just love doing things with you. I love talking with you and we got to find a way, man, to do some shit. We got to do some stuff together. Yeah, it'd be fun. It'd be really fun. Where can the people pick up the book, man? Is there a website? Yeah. I mean, they can get it anywhere you get your books though. Amazon. Amazon. Barnes & Noble. Barnes & Noble. Alex Boylan.com. Okay. I'd say those are my two kind of plays. Alex Boylan.com to get the book. And then. That's amazing, man. Yeah. That's amazing. What's next for you, dude? You know what's funny? And I, okay. So I. Such a loaded question. Yeah. It's a great question. And I write this in the book. Cause I didn't know how to like, Oh, the last chapter is a letter to my son back. Cause he's just born. Right. So it's like kind of like everything I've learned in life. I kind of pack it to the end. I'm like, Hey brother, here's your, here's your, here's your steps. Here's what I'm going to advise you on. Hope you can like live on that. And then, um, but I write because it's like, I don't have an angle. And you know, some people have an angle and like, to me, I love living John. Like I love it. And so to me, as long as I'm going to keep chasing, trying to be excited about whatever the hell I'm excited about right now, it's been amazing building the college tour. I hope to God that number goes away. I want to keep building that, but like, dude, I want to have a beach ranch in Costa Rica and have like a, you know, and run a hospitality cause I love people, you know? And so I have a dream of having my own, like, you know, bed and breakfast on a surf break with the goats and rams running around. So where I go in life, like I don't, I don't know, but I don't, I definitely, I don't know what's next. I don't know what the end goal is. To me, it's like, I'm just want to keep chasing. I've been blessed to have fun. It's a lot of work, a lot of heartache, lots ups and downs. Sure. I've loved the journey. And to me, what was fun about writing that book is like, man, that was the first great, the first, first chapter of my life has been pretty awesome. Yeah. How do I do this in the back half? You know what I mean? So how do I do this on the back nine? What does that look like? Well, one thing I'll tell you is Matt loves bed and breakfast. So he'll be there. All right. He'll be there. Hey, listen, you know, it's time. I think, I think he stayed in a word hostile here in Naples. You know, if I can, I don't know. I don't know what he's doing over there. I, I thought about driving by just to make sure he was okay, but he doesn't share his location with me, which you need to start doing so I can check on you from time to time. But, um, but yeah, man, no, I just, I just really feel that you chase experience and you chase feelings. Yeah. And, And, you know, I do have an end goal, which I think sometimes hurts me. Right. But I also chase the feelings inside of those moments just so I know I'm on the right track. Because if we set too many North stars, like this is the angle, this is where I'm going to end up. And I want to be there by this time. Then if you don't get there by that time, you're upset and you feel like you failed yourself. But if you don't get it to completion, then you tend to feel like it's a failure. but there's so many other things involved. And the one thing that I really want to stress the audience to, to, to hang on to, as you said, you love living. And I think we're in a time right now where people struggle with that. There's a lot of mental health issues going around, you know, social media has, you know, for me blessed my life, but for some, they get stuck in the comparison thing and, and their mental health and their wellness goes down the hill, goes down the, you know, goes down whatever. And, but learning to love to live, I think is such an important statement because that's what we're here to do. And we have all these amazing people that, you know, like. How cool is it? There's 8 billion people. Like life would be the fact that we argue as countries or people, even within the U S dude, this is what makes life awesome. You know, if we all were the exact same thought the same looked the same did the same ate the same food that'd be boring it'd be boring it's like come on everyone can we get over it a little bit you guys were all over me last night for not having to drink and not eating desserts i was like damn i feel shamed it's like i pissed in the corner and everybody's like no bad dog but no but that's the thing though you have to have those contrasts right yeah and that's what's beautiful about it i i truly enjoy that yeah it was it was this crazy i was telling um matt yesterday and i want to share it because and I don't mean it in an arrogant way. I mean it in a sense of it's just, it was a big moment for me yesterday and I'm going to get to it, but it humbled the shit out of me. I'm sitting there thinking, you know, hey, I wonder if these guys, because, you know, I'm old, I'm 47. I'm like, after my son's soccer game, they won eight nothing, by the way, championship tomorrow. I'm really, yeah, I'm so jacked for him. Oh, it's awesome. Cannot wait for that stage. It's going to be a blast. Have fun caravanning. But just ask Pat. He knows. Because soccer. It's Saturday. I'll be soccer dad all day long. Oh, yeah. It's cool, man. It's kind of about being a fan. Because I don't know shit about it. So I just enjoy it. Why is he offside? He just beat the guy. Isn't that the point? Anyway, I digress. So I was thinking, I wonder if some of these guys are just going to bail out. They've been traveling. I'm kind of tired. And then I kind of laughed at myself. I'm driving down the road and I'm like, then it hit me. When I first started this show and started everything I'm doing, there was nobody. There was nobody around. And it was just me, you know? And at times it felt like I was a martyr, right? It's like, oh, I'm just, this is me. I'm doing this all by myself. And there's no, there's no audience. There's no nothing. But then I realized something special yesterday. Everybody in the audience can't see, but everybody here in this room, was here because of what I created. How cool is that? And it hit me right in the heart. And like I said, I didn't feel it in an arrogant way. Oh, they're here for me. No, no, no, no. I'm like, oh, they're here for me. That's impact. That's emotional. That is something that means so much to me. And you were a part of that. So thank you. Well, yeah, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. it's an honor to, to be here. Thanks for having me on and just everything you're built. And I know that, and like, you're so great at being vulnerable and just speaking the truth because nothing starts great. It all starts from nothing. I know. And it's good that you talk about that because that's the reality, you know, and congrats on everything you're building here. It's awesome. Thank you, man. Much more to come, dude. Much more to come. Lots of fun collabs. And you know, me and you will do some stuff with the teams and uh you know um but thank you for traveling all the way out here with all the planes you hop on you got a young son and a wife and and you have a life and and so when you come out here it means something to me i appreciate it i'm a big and i think like just like it's important that we get together in person it's awesome the technologies that are around anymore and uh we're talking about before we started recording it's so important to get together in person. It's everything, man. Yeah. It's you're talking about the mental health like that. Get together in person. That's going to help you. You know what I mean? Talk to someone face to face. It's a great, it's a great thing. Another thing that I've done with this whole, I am social media as a tool and all these great things, but I got an old Nokia phone. Oh wow. You play snake with it? That you can play snake with. And a certain weekends I'll just wire that foot's a new number and everyone knows it's, I call it my surf line and like my, I'll just plug that phone. We'll wire my iPhone will wire to that. And just to give, I think everyone needs space and a break. And that's an easy little thing. Everyone can just say, try one day you got a phone. It's like, that is bad. But yeah. And I'll just run around with that. It's like, you want to hold, you want to get ahold of me? I'm available. I'll talk to you. But like, just cause I'm bad. It's just like everyone else. I listen to podcasts all day. My wife's always like, what do you listen to? I'm just constantly listening to content and just stopping that noise. And honestly, picking your head up. Yeah. Like when I talk about this bed and breakfast down in Costa Rica, one of the rules I'm going to have is no technology in public. Oh, that's beautiful. Just, Hey, when you're at the bar, yeah, you want to go to your room and do business. That's great. When you come to the bar, talk to the person, you know what I mean? Pick your head up. You know what I mean? It's the life here going on. It's so cool. I love that. I love that. I, uh, I didn't know you could do that with a phone. Yeah. Yeah. You can, what you can, you can forward a phone super easy. Go ask them. It's like 20 bucks. It's a $20 a month decision that can just give you that break and you're still connected to someone. That's pretty cool. It doesn't surprise me. You know what the battery life is on a Nokia now? It's like 12 days. 70 days. There's nothing because you're not going on social media. You're not. I mean, I think you can text on that thing, right? Yeah, but it's like 1111122222. Oh, it's one of those? Oh, yeah. That's so badass, dude. Missed those days. Remember those days? I'm not surprised you figured it out, though. You have a house. You have a bungalow. You're talking about getting a houseboat. I mean, this fucking guy, dude. You're all over the place. Gotta keep living, right? Gotta keep living, man. Gotta keep living. Well, thank you again, man. Thank you. For you guys, please share the show with someone you know, love and trust. Let us know what you thought about it. And again, Alex Boylan dot com to go see what he's doing. And also to purchase the miles that make you or Barnes and Noble, Amazon, whatever you want to do. I thank you guys for listening and tuning in and really digesting Alex's story. And I've had a lot of public figures, a lot of authors on. and I really encourage you to learn more about Alex because I think you're going to be very, very impressed. I think you'll find somebody that can provide a lot of value to you in educating your child on the best college to go to, but also truly even for you is how to enjoy these moments and live your life. And until next time, stay determined.