Dalton Johnson: Adventure Travel Contributing Editor for Men's Journal

Dalton takes us on a journey from his “dirtbag” cycling days, to landing brand photography gigs, to the perfect pitch that landed him an interview and the opportunity to bring adventure travel content to the millennial generation for Men's Journal.

Follow Dalton’s life and work here:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daltonjohnsonmedia   

Men’s Journal: https://www.mensjournal.com/author/dalton-johnson 

Adventure Travel: https://www.mensjournal.com/pursuits/adventure-travel/author/dalton-johnson

Adventure Travel Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/adventure_travel_network 

Adventure Travel Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theadventuretravelnetwork/ 

Water Polo Olympics: https://olympics.com/en/sports/water-polo/

Santa Clara Water Polo: https://santaclarabroncos.com/sports/mens-water-polo 

Rocket Power show: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244926/

Snowshoeing: https://www.mensjournal.com/pursuits/adventure-travel/best-snowshoeing-destinations 

Sedona: https://www.mensjournal.com/pursuits/adventure-travel/the-best-adventures-in-sedona-az 

Arena Group: https://thearenagroup.net/ 

Rock Climbing Olympics: https://olympics.com/en/sports/sport-climbing/ 

Surfing Olympics: https://olympics.com/en/sports/surfing/ 

Outward Bound: https://www.outwardbound.org/                                                                                    

Thank you for listening!  Please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to the Media in Minutes podcast here or anywhere you get your podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/media-in-minutes/id1555710662  

Transcript

Angela Tuell: 0:05

Welcome to Media in Minutes. This is your host Angela Tuell. This podcast features in-depth interviews with those reports on the world around us. They share everything from their favorite stories to what happened behind the lens and give us a glimpse into their world. From our studio here at Communications Redefined, this is Media in Minutes. Today we are talking with Dalton Johnson. Dalton is the contributing editor of the newly formed Adventure Travel channel of Men's Journal. He is also a commercial and documentary photographer and director who works with brands such as Ford, Nike, BF Goodrich, and many more. Dalton is an avid outdoor adventure athlete and a storyteller from behind the lens. Hi, Dalton. Welcome.

Dalton Johnson: 0:51

Hey, thanks so much for having me on.

Angela Tuell: 0:54

Yes, I'm excited to talk with you today. Let's start with you know, you describe yourself as a storyteller with a camera and a pen. When did your love and talent for photography start?

Dalton Johnson: 1:05

Thanks so much for saying I have some talent. It's always nice to hear.

Angela Tuell: 1:08

Ah, yes - your photos are stunning.

Dalton Johnson: 1:11

Next, photography came into life as a joke. As my senior year in college I was looking to have, I got an extra classes to take. And so I asked my like my best friend, I was like, Hey, we've never had a class together. We studied very different things. And he's, he was like, well, let's, let's take a photo class together. And I had to like, it was like some upper division photo class and I'd like begged the professor to get in. And then it was like, really cool. And then I started to work for Outward Bound. And then Outward Bound was like, you're good enough to be a professional photographer. I was like, I don't know what that means. I didn't know you can make money with a camera. And then that's like, how photography got started for me.

Angela Tuell: 1:53

Wow, what were you in school for? What were you going to do?

Dalton Johnson: 1:57

I feel like I was like a typical, like, middle class kid coming in. And like, I'm gonna be a doctor, like, it's what everyone does. And then I did not do well. Like, obviously being a doctor is not for me. I like I hated studying biology. And I was like, if I hate studying this, like, probably shouldn't be a doctor. Right?

Angela Tuell: 2:17

Right.

Dalton Johnson: 2:18

And so I just like, looked around. I was like, okay, like, I'm getting really good grades in math. So I study math, because like, getting good grades. So it's like, I was there playing a sport. So it's really about getting good enough grades to always be playing. And so then it was like, Cool. But then, like, ever since I was a kid, like I always loved writing. So like, I was one class shy of like, a creative, like a minor in creative writing. So I was like, between that and then I was one class shy of having a a minor in history. So it's like, those are both very writing heavy. So it was like I was always always writing. But math was like the the main thing because that's where I would get the best

Angela Tuell: 3:01

Right? And then it all came together senior year grades. where you wait, that was a joke. Yeah, exactly. And then right after school, though, you did cycle touring, right?

Dalton Johnson: 3:12

Yeah, yeah, it was a big, big reflection time of life. I started competitively swimming and being in in the water, again, a pool for athletics at three years old. And so by the time I was graduating, I'd already you know, dedicated over 20 years, to a pool.

Angela Tuell: 3:31

Wow.

Dalton Johnson: 3:31

And, and so then at that point, it was kind of like, what should I do? I definitely, like a life crisis of like, like, my whole dreams in life were like, outside of like, going to the Olympics was to, like, play a sport through college. And it became very obvious, like, you know, freshman year of high school, I wasn't going to make the Olympics, but it's still I could follow the dream of playing a sport through college, but then like, essentially, you've been training for that, since you're, you know, probably acknowledged at about eight years old of like, I could do something like that in college.

Angela Tuell: 4:08

Right.

Dalton Johnson: 4:09

And then, you know, then you start at like, eight years old training three, four hours a day. And then you know, you're 23 or 22, 24. I don't know when you graduate. But like, that age, you're like, Well, what am I supposed to do

Angela Tuell: 4:22

Right? That was your whole life. It was water, now? water polo, right? How did you get into that one?

Dalton Johnson: 4:28

Yeah, that was I was actually a really good swimmer. And so, freshman year of high school, I was an All American. But my brother actually started a water polo team, my freshman year going into high school. And he was a senior, and I was like, oh, like, I'll just play with you. Because it seems cool. It's not not during the swimming season. So it was like that sounds like fun. Like, why not? Yeah, my swim coach because I did the around swimming. She wasn't happy about it, but it was like, oh, like I'll still do my swim practices and just add on top the water polo practices. And then I actually, but the team was horrible, but I seemed to excel.

Angela Tuell: 5:09

Okay.

Dalton Johnson: 5:09

But when I say horrible I mean like I think I think that team won one game. Yeah. And it was like it was terrible. Like we were so bad. But I loved it, it was like it combined like my love for swimming and made it so something that was like, enjoyable, like swimming is very individual. And then with water polo like it's a team sport you get to play with people. It's also a very physical so I enjoyed that aspect. Like, at a certain point like being a teenage boy, it's it's nice to get like a release besides just like swimming as fast as you can. And so yeah, that's that's kind of like where that came in. And

Angela Tuell: 5:50

We're gonna have to link to more information about it in our show notes. So if anyone's not familiar.

Dalton Johnson: 5:55

Yeah. It is an Olympic sport. America was halfway decent at it. We've won a couple golds, some silver's, and maybe a bronze or two, but it's a very Eastern, Eastern European sport.

Angela Tuell: 6:06

Okay, yeah. So how did you go into the cycle touring then?

Dalton Johnson: 6:10

Yeah, so I was totally lost after college. And I think it's like, if you ever heard of the TV show Rocket Power, it was like a cartoon I watched as a kid. It's about these like kids. They just like rip around everywhere on mountain bikes and skateboards. And they're like, super cool. And, and so I was like, I want to be like that. But like, deep down, I was like, Well, I have, you know, two practices every day after school. So like, there's no possible way I can ever go do anything like that. Like, I can't risk getting hurt from falling on a skateboard. I'm very accident prone. And so I -

Angela Tuell: 6:47

The water was good for you?

Dalton Johnson: 6:48

Yeah, the water's great for me. But, but then one thing happens in Rocket Power is, or I think this I call Rocket Power, Team Rocket, I don't know, might be confusing things. But they, they go to New Zealand. And I was like, New Zealand seems amazing. Like, I'm a kid watching your cartoon. And so then when it was like my chance to choose where I want to travel to. Also granted, like I, so I know how earlier I said, like, Oh, I almost got a minor in this and almost got a minor in that. The reason I didn't get those minors is because I graduated early instead of taking those classes, and use that student loan money to go to New Zealand. And then I cycled around the country instead. And so that was like a very much so like, do I finish out and get these like, you know, extra titles or whatever. And I was like, no, like, actually going to New Zealand and cycling around the South Island for two months sounds way more fun.

Angela Tuell: 7:49

Live your dream. That is awesome. So how did you go from that to now at Men's Journal or with Men's Journal?

Unknown: 7:59

Yeah, that's kind of that's kind of like a it was a big gap. So our down so photography kind of took over, I was always writing but like, not a lot of writing would really click. The writing industry is like, really cutthroat. And so it's like, strangely enough photography got me in the door with almost every company that I was interested in working with, and some that, you know, still very much so pursuing. Like, I still have a very solid, freelance career, photo and video. But, um, the writing, like my childhood dream was always to be a writer. And so like, it just like it wasn't working. Like, you know, a certain point. It's like, you're just getting told no or just no responses. And I'm gonna throw Adam Bible under the bus here. He's a he's an editor at Men's Journal. But I think I probably submitted at least 200 Or maybe 250 article ideas to him and never got a response.

Angela Tuell: 9:07

Oh, my goodness.

Dalton Johnson: 9:08

Yeah. And then -

Angela Tuell: 9:09

That's defeating. That's sort of like PR people fail when we send ideas to journalists.

Dalton Johnson: 9:15

Yeah, I can definitely. Yes. And so Adam really never, never really responded all that much. But then Brittany Smith would respond every now and then. And then ironically, I would still send Adam pitches. And then Adam finally said yes to one. Like, never responds. And then he's like, then he just goes,"Commissioned." Like that was it like, he does not say anything. And then I was like, Cool. And then he just responds, like, make sure it's over 1000 words. And then I was like, all right. And then I wrote the article, sent it to him. And then I just that was it. Like, I didn't hear anything else. And all of asudden, like, I just see that it's published one day like I guess it was a good article.

Angela Tuell: 10:02

Are you serious?

Dalton Johnson: 10:03

Yeah. Like Like, yeah, I mean, Adams definitely a good guy. Like, it's just, he's so overwhelmed that for him, it's just like, send it straight to him. It's just a straight

Angela Tuell: 10:13

I can't imagine how many emails he's getting, shooter. you know, not just from freelancers, and then from PR people too, I mean...

Dalton Johnson: 10:21

I, yeah, I can say that I get between 60 and 80 emails a day during non holiday season. The holiday season I was getting 100, 120 a day.

Angela Tuell: 10:30

Wow - it got more. Okay.

Dalton Johnson: 10:32

Yeah. Oh, the holiday? Yeah. Because everyone was talking about everything for the holiday season. Yeah, it's crazy.

Angela Tuell: 10:37

Yeah, yeah. So you did, so you got that article published. And so how did you get from that to about six months ago, launching Men's Journal Adventure Travel, your channel of the outlet? Right.

Dalton Johnson: 10:49

Yes. 100% luck. So I published that first article, it lead to a handful more. And then we were still for freelance, I just remember, on LinkedIn, I was just like, kind of scrubbing through is gonna be totally embarrassing, but I would just send, like I have, I have a couple of templates that I would send out to people like, hey, like, I'm Dalton Johnson. I To hopefully somebody will, you know, open it do photography, writing and video work. Like, I would love to connect. And I, I would have, like, if I, if I'm out on adventures, like doing, you know, shooting projects and stuff, like, the concept of thinking about work doesn't really come up. But when you're kind of sitting at home, like twiddling your thumbs, you know, like, you're like, man, like, I should probably do something. Like, for me, it's like very much like, I'm a hard time, like, sitting still. And so yeah, so for me, it was just like, I would, if I if I was at home sitting still, it was like, I'd send out I try for a goal between 20 and 50 of those a day. And so, I mean, like, at this point, like I'm, you know, probably 10 years into the career. So like, I understand, like, at a certain certain point, it's just a numbers game. up, unless you can get like a good intro. And so just cold calls, you know, like, no one really?

Angela Tuell: 12:16

Yeah, it's like sales almost.

Dalton Johnson: 12:18

Yeah. They don't really go that far. Like you have to land at the perfect time and all those things. And that's kind of like, what happened is this, I didn't even know. So the Arena Group bought Men's Journal about a year ago, at this point, actually, yeah, a year ago, December, in 2022. And so I didn't even know that. But I was just sending these emails. And then I was like, oh, like, I clicked on one guy's profile. I was like, Oh, this seems like it could be a good fit. And so I just sent him my photo portfolio. And then he, like, instantly responds. He was like, Can you write? And I was like, luckily, I like literally just had a publication in Men's Journal. And then I was like, yes. Here's this one. And I have, like, I think at that point, I had like, over like, 300 or 400 publications, and I was like, I have a lot of other publications if you want to see them. But you know, just like, Okay, I guess this guy cares about writing. And then he was like, he was like, This is great. And I was like, okay, he's like, let's set up an interview. No, I was like, okay, that's like a strange thing. Like, why would you like, yeah, I was like, why would you want an interview. And then we just hopped on a phone call, I think that was like, June, or mid a little bit earlier than June, so May. And then he was just like, Mark was just like, hey, so we're looking to relaunch this program, or like, relaunch the, the Adventure Travel channel. And you seem like you have enough information, like, you seem like you have the capabilities of doing it. We had, like, we need to vet you more. But would this be of interest to you? I was like, I don't even know what that means. You know, it's like, the concept of like, sit exactly. Yeah, I was like, I don't really know what it really entails. Like, I've never really managed people. Like, I've managed, like a team on the set. And like, shoot, like for that. But it's not like, I've never managed, you know, like, people and their deadlines. And like, you know, it's like, I've worked with exactly like, I've not had all of that to me, let alone like, budgeting for thinking about quarterly returns and stuff like that. I was not there was like, he started like laying out all these things. And I was like, wow, I mean, that sounds like kind of a fun adventure. Like, I don't know, like, let's, let's give it a try. And so I said yes. And, you know, and that's kind of like where it ended up. And then we launched. It took, it took longer than expected to launch. We talked about launching in in late June, early July, and it took all the way until middle of August. To start getting some stuff up, it's really cool because like, you know, you're going from, you know, zero views, zero articles to like, building up. And I think we're just crossed over 300 published articles, you know, and I don't know, the total number off the top of my head, but I think I think we're projecting somewhere over 100,000 pageviews this month, you know, so like, that's within, within the first, like, three and a half months, you know, like, we went from zero to something that's kind of substantial. Like, to me, like, that's really cool to think about. And just know that it's growing, you know, and that what you're doing is working and you're building something, which feels really cool. And, yeah, so it's, what I really like, is because it's the blend the photo and video world, with the writing world all together, because like, a lot of it's like relying on my archive, or it's relying, you know, like, resource wise, like, all go out on like PR and fam trips and, and like, I'll actually shoot a lot of the content that will then end up on the website. And like, we have a big push for social media coming up, we kind of just launched everything, about a month and a half ago. And then now we're really like, this next year. Like that's a really big focus, as well as like a few other things.

Angela Tuell: 16:21

So what is - tell us a little bit more about the Adventure Travel Channel part of Men's Journal. You know, what you learned and what you're doing with it?

Dalton Johnson: 16:29

Yeah, so right now, it's a lot of building a baseline. So like, but there's no there's no content as like, where I kind of came in. And so it's like, we talked about adventure travel. The issue with the term adventure travel is no one searches, "adventure travel." So it's like, a term that's, it's a concept, but no one searches like so. If you if you want to go rock climbing, you don't type in "best adventure travel, rock climbing places," you just type in "best rock climbing places." So the concept is like it's adventure travel. So it's anything that you would go do that most people would classify either as an extreme sport or just an adventure. So I think like, the most typical ones are gonna be like rock climbing, backpacking, surfing, skydiving, but it doesn't. Like those are like mountaineering, like, those are the those are the things that most people look at. And then there's, you know, there's tons of other things like just pure hiking, you know, like, going for, like, just like cool places. Horseback riding, you know, fishing, fly fishing. Yeah. So, like, for us, we don't necessarily have to only cover the big hitters at the very top, we get to dive into other things that, you know, like, we wrote a handful of like snowshoeing articles recently. Like, you know, like, yeah, snowshoeing in terms of search volume is very low. Like, it's not, in a lot of ways. It's not, it's not an ideal target market, but it's like, that is adventure travel, but we get a parrot with, like, cool places. So it's like, you know, we just did a big project in Sedona, you know, and so like, it's like, like, it's gonna be a 28 to 32 articles all about Sedona. So it's like, you get a highlight a space. And we get to highlight all these really cool activities around there.

Angela Tuell: 18:22

Yeah, what does your team look like? Is it mostly freelancers that write for you?

Dalton Johnson: 18:27

In terms of, of writers, we have a hand. So technically, everyone would be freelance, no one is, is full time. With that said, some people contribute significantly more than others. We're working on figuring out how. So the thing with relaunching the division is that, you know, we started at zero, and we're building, we're working as an internal startup. So like, all of our resources are allocated in the same exact manner based off of our performance, if we don't have a ton of ad money coming in, we don't have a ton of resources. And so it's a it's a double edged sword of like, we have, like, I have to be very strategic. If I'm gonna comission articles and pay for them then the return has to be there. Like, that's the thing is like, I get pitched so many amazing stories every day. And the hard part is that like, it's like, hey, like, your story is absolutely amazing. But it will never get a return on its investment.

Angela Tuell: 19:31

Do you work on the advertising side of things at all or mostly about SEO, you know, looking at the value for the SEO?

Dalton Johnson: 19:39

I don't control like what ads show up to you if you're on the website.

Angela Tuell: 19:42

Right and you don't have to sell them. I mean, you're not involved in like,

Dalton Johnson: 19:45

I don't sell the space. People do reach out to me and asking for like things like sponsored posts, like we can do sponsored posts. There's there's a little bit of bureaucracy behind it. Like we said, we have a We have a sales team, like the Arena Group has a sales team. So we have to, like, pass it upward to, to the, you know, the VPs of business development people, people in that manner. Because I don't know, like, the contracts that we have, you know, some, some contracts might be exclusive, some contracts might not be exclusive. So it's like, I can't say yes, without passing it up, and then it coming back down. So like, that's, that's like, the, the process there. But on the flip side, they never talk down. Like, they never tell us like, you have to do this.

Angela Tuell: 20:38

That's great.

Dalton Johnson: 20:38

I haven't had like, you know, like, any, any of that of like, they're okay. Like, you have to, like write these articles. And but like, yeah, I don't know how that would necessarily work.

Angela Tuell: 20:47

That's good because there's so much of that now, crossover, in a lot of outlets. And so it's, it's pretty good to hear that. How would you describe your average reader?

Dalton Johnson: 20:57

We're pretty much on par with Men's Journal, but we're slightly younger. And the only reason for that is because of the topics that we cover. Whenever we read about fly fishing, things like that, you can see for those couple of days that will spike up a little bit older. But on a typical day to day basis, where were about five years younger than typical Men's Journal, which so puts you right around mid 30s to it goes all the way up to like 60 and a little bit older. Men's Journal has a really big following when it was like a print magazine taken. And like that had like a cult following. And all those majority of those readers stayed once it went totally digital. And, and so like that audience has like, kind of grown up with Men's Journal.

Angela Tuell: 21:45

Yeah. So it gets older, so they get older.

Dalton Johnson: 21:48

Yeah. But one of the big things of like, of my channel is to bring the age range down. And to get to become an authority on a younger spectrum. Like adventure travel is really popular for like millennials. And so, and like a little bit younger, and a little bit older, you know, like rock climbing is now in the Olympic surfing is now in the Olympics. So those two get a lot more press.

Angela Tuell: 22:14

Yeah, and this sounds like a really silly question, but, you know, how much of your readership are women? Is it really 100% men? Or do you see a...

Dalton Johnson: 22:22

Oh no - not at all.

Angela Tuell: 22:23

Yeah, yeah. I say I love the articles so it's not just me, right?

Dalton Johnson: 22:29

No, it's like 60/40. 60 men, 40 that ebbs and flows. But yeah, for the most part 60/40. You know, the gender spectrum doesn't. It's not like a binary or even like, solo like this is meant. Sometimes. Sometimes we do, right, like men only articles. But even those men only articles get usually read by women.

Angela Tuell: 22:53

Yes - trying to understand.

Dalton Johnson: 22:55

Exactly. Yeah.

Angela Tuell: 22:57

So I have to know, you know, what advice do you have for PR professionals to obviously, you gave a little bit of that it's important, not the, you know, the SEO part of it, the story ideas. But to get in front of you with these ideas. What advice do you have?

Dalton Johnson: 23:11

The hard part is like, no matter what, yeah, it'll have to start with a cold email.

Angela Tuell: 23:16

Yeah.

Dalton Johnson: 23:17

Which like it[I get them every day and there's nothing wrong with them. So one thing I will say is, I actually don't, this is super specific to me, I answer my inbox bottom up.

Angela Tuell: 23:31

Okay.

Dalton Johnson: 23:32

So, I obviously I look at the top five to see if like, you know, I'm going on a trip. And, you know, it's like, I have to figure out, Is this itinerary correct or is it not? You know, exactly. It's like, I look at that, you know, it's like, or if, like, somebody says, like, you know, like, I had one this morning, it's like, we have a slight correction. And one of the articles like, a link is broken. You know, so it's like, next, like, you know, it's like, I need to see those and I needed to address them. But like, in terms of, like, connecting with me out of nowhere. The people who always bump it, because of how I enter, like, respond to my emails, yeah, they're always putting themselves in a purgatory. What I found is like, the PR people that I actually enjoy responding to, it's like, we had, like, yes, the big one of like, these are my clients. And it's, it helps me understand like, okay, like, I take notes, like, every, every person I save, and then I write down who their clients are, what, like, what type of, like, I'll categorize. I'm like, Oh, this person's tourism, this person's, you know, products, you know, whatever it is, like, like, I'll categorize them in that context. And so, like, I have a general idea of like, what is like, who I'm talking to, in terms of like, what and how we can work together. But if it's like, so it's like, once we break the barrier, the first one, it'll eventually, like, the people who send me like five emails a week. Like, I'm like, that's like, I don't think Yeah, yeah. But like, it's like I know their names. I see them all the time. I'm not gonna throw anyone under the bus. But I've told some names. Like I've told some of them like, I know your name. Yeah, that was a very good job, like, I officially know who you are. But you're sending me too many.

Angela Tuell: 25:19

Not necessarily on your nice list.

Dalton Johnson: 25:24

So for me, it's really like, I need to know who and what clients you have, because then we can start a dialogue.

Angela Tuell: 25:30

Okay. Okay. So what about media visits and hosting you for trips? What are your preferences and anything you wish, you know, PR pros and clients knew that would make your life easier for you?

Dalton Johnson: 25:40

I mean, I think I love PR trips. I think they're amazing. I think, so like, we can always write listicles. Like, it's really easy to read a listicle about how amazing a place is. But like, we can't like BS a first person story about how amazing a place is. You know, and so like, I think, to get really good articles, like I just came back from one in Scottsdale. And it was like, perfect timing. It came on the tail end of us doing a project in Sedona. So it's literally an hour away or two hours away.

Angela Tuell: 26:17

Yeah.

Dalton Johnson: 26:18

And so it was like, timing, everything was perfect. It was it was an amazing trip. It was super fun. On the flip side, like, we don't have many articles written about Scottsdale. So like, I can now write a ton of articles about Scottsdale, and I think I have like eight of them mapped out. And so like, you know, they're like that one trip is gonna yield a ton a ton of content.

Angela Tuell: 26:44

Yes. That's amazing.

Dalton Johnson: 26:45

Which is great. I think they're great. So that way you get honest first person, articles about the experience. You know, I know, LinkedIn had a big thing about like, guaranteed and articles, the worst thing you could ever do, I disagree with that. Like, you, they're putting so much marketing behind it. You know, those dollars those companies like, you know, like, they're, they're trying to survive, like I don't like your whole job is literally to write. Like, show up, have a good experience and write an article like, yeah, to me, that's, I don't understand that one.

Angela Tuell: 27:24

And before we go, I need to put a little plug in and ask you aside from working with Men's Journal you are also a successful freelance photographer and writer who has worked with brands such as Ford, BF Goodrich, Nike and many more. Can you tell us a little bit more about that work?

Dalton Johnson: 27:42

Yeah. I think I talked about how Outward Bound early on told me I could be a professional photographer.

Angela Tuell: 27:51

Yeah.

Dalton Johnson: 27:52

And so we're definitely going full circle here. Yeah, he I was told her back I was a rock climbing dirtbag. I lived on a bicycle. Like I wasn't even like a fancy enough to like live in a car. I lived on a bicycle.

Angela Tuell: 28:08

Did you have a tent or, or a sleeping bag at

Dalton Johnson: 28:10

Yeah, yeah. I did. That's where like the bike least? touring really took off. But there's actually there's a hilarious story of me being in a cave like living out of a cave and getting in trouble because they saw the smoke from the fire I was using to keep warm. It was negative degrees outside so I thought it was justified but I got in trouble for it. But But yeah, so photo career essentially took me from being told dirtbag to you know, having having a good career. I mean, when you're cashing checks from Ford and you know BF Goodrich, Nike, things like that. They're good paychecks. The work is for the most part very fun. I got to shoot the a lot of the Ford Bronco stuff. Ford was actually a full circle. So Ford when they released the Bronco invested, donated, did a tax write off - I don't know what you say but like something with a million dollars to Outward Bound and then Outward Bound called me up and so it was like really cool like full circle with like Outward Bound gave it to me and I'm now their, you know, the inside. I thought that was really cool. I'm really grateful for Outward Bound for that.

Angela Tuell: 29:29

It's all about relationships.

Dalton Johnson: 29:31

But then, yeah, that that first photoshoot with with the Ford Bronco led to I think six more. And so I did a lot of the work that was released for the Ford Broncos. The BF Goodrich was like thrown in there because BF Goodrich Ford. They all work together. Yeah, so all these is all adventure travel based outside. A lot of like really high adrenaline I've tried a lot of like documentary work. So like I've been up on Denali. I've been on two of the seven summits have been in big waves. Been at Mavericks. Yeah. So it's, it's always a blend of like commercial work, documentary. So-

Angela Tuell: 30:16

Are you going to continue that work as well?

Dalton Johnson: 30:18

Yeah, it's something I love. I mean, it's so much fun. And, yeah, it's, it's, I mean, it's, to me, shooting campaigns is so much fun. And it actually complements really well. Because, like, what I can do now is essentially shoot a campaign. And there's always an experience. Like, right, like the Ford Bronco. I mean, we did stuff in eastern Syria, we did stuff on the Appalachian Mountains, we did stuff down in Baja, like, I can now write about all those things, because I've been there, you know, like, a lot of like, you know, like, Nike stuff, it has been in Lake, Tahoe. So now I can, you know, I have assets that Nike didn't use, or, you know, maybe they only commissioned five images, but we shot for a week and I have 5000 images, you know, it's like, I have tons to pull from, you know, I can extend strip, I can, I can extend a trip for a little bit longer and stay to write stories or gather information. So they really do complement each other in a lot of ways. And so I think it's important to maintain both, and build alongside of each other.

Angela Tuell: 31:29

That's wonderful. So how can our listeners connect

Dalton Johnson: 31:32

Yeah, I mean, you can do really anything. with you online? LinkedIn, you can shoot me an email, you can, just don't put yourself in Purgatory.

Angela Tuell: 31:45

Don't keep following up.

Dalton Johnson: 31:47

Yeah, just just let it let it wait out. And then, and then send me a different email. Not though. Don't bump it because you bump it you get put in Purgatory, but if you submit a different one, it'll be there. Yeah, I think those are, those are probably the best ways to do it.

Angela Tuell: 32:01

Well, thank you. This has been so fascinating.

Dalton Johnson: 32:04

Yeah, hopefully it was helpful. Hopefully, the people that's listening, it's helpful for them.

Angela Tuell: 32:09

That's all for this episode of Media in Minutes, a podcast by Communications Redefined. Please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to our show. We'd love to hear what you think. You can find more at CommunicationsRedefined.com/podcast. I'm your host, Angela Tuell. Talk to you next time.