Episode 118: Liz Allan and Ric Boullemier - The Power of Storytelling in the Transition to Net Zero

Episode 118: Liz Allan and Ric Boullemier - The Power of Storytelling in the Transition to Net Zero.

Liz Allan speaks to Ric Boullemier, founder of Generate Media. Through Generate Media and his Sustainable Dad brand, Ric combines creativity, innovation, and a deep passion for storytelling to inspire action toward a greener future. During the episode, they explore the role of content in breaking down barriers to EV adoption, sharing insights from real-world experiences, including the challenges and triumphs of long-distance electric road trips and engaging storytelling techniques. From inspiring personal anecdotes to practical advice, this conversation touches on everything from the importance of sustainable travel to the power of community action in tackling climate change.


Ric Boullemier Bio:
Ric Boullemier founded Generate Media, a dynamic content creation agency specialising in bringing stories to life for brands committed to innovation and sustainability. With nearly six years at the helm of Generate Media, Ric has built a reputation for delivering high-quality, engaging content that inspires positive change. As a journalist by trade, Ric’s passion for storytelling runs in the family; both his parents were journalists, and he has relatives working in radio and television. He began his career at TalkSport, honing his skills in fast-paced, high-pressure environments. Ric is a driving force for change in the EV and sustainability sectors, with a unique ability to combine passion, humour, and expertise.

Ric Boullemier Links:
Website: https://generatemedia.co.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-boullemier-%E2%9A%A1%EF%B8%8F-a711a021

Episode Keywords:
EV adoption, sustainable travel, content creation, electric vehicles, net zero, climate action, storytelling, renewable energy, road trips, electrification.

Episode Hashtags:
#ElectricVehicles #Sustainability #NetZero #EVRoadTrips #ContentCreation #Climat

Transcript

Liz Allan (00:01)
Okay, so on today's episode, I've got the wonderful Ric Boullemier from Generate Media. For those of you who work in the sector of EV charging or EVs or anything, you will know Ric. For those who don't know him, I will take you on a journey today. So thank you, Rick, for joining me. It's lovely to see you.

Ric (00:26)
Thanks. I hope it is much appreciated, and I love your work.

Liz Allan (00:30)
thank you very much. Right. Let's let's start with a little bit. I always talk about people's backgrounds, and I would get to learn more about you. I've chatted to you for a few minutes beforehand, but give me some background about how you got into the role you're doing now at Generate Media. It's your business. You've been going for about six years now.

Ric (00:56)
Yeah, yeah. Well, journalists by trade. So it all started back at uni. I love people talking to people and finding out stories. And my mum and dad are both journalists. And so I guess it runs in the family. I've got cousins who work in radio and TV. So I think we love talking to people, finding out stories and helping to share those stories. And that's where Generate Media came from, which is, you know,

one arm of our brand, which we've built to help share brand stories. And because some people have got amazing products and amazing, you know, stories to tell, but don't quite know how to get it out there. And the same with you. You love finding out about new, cool, innovative stuff. So we helped to get that out there through the Generate Media arm of the brand. And then we've built another side of things: the Sustainable Dad brand, which is me going around roving with a reporter mic and sticking microphones in people's faces and trying to get stories and catch them off guard and get the truth.

Liz Allan (02:04)
And that's what we need. It's really important to get that over. But right, so you've been a reporter for a long time. You said you started at uni. But what did that look like when you first started? Because things now, and it doesn't have to be about the sustainable side or anything, things now are so different, including all the camera techniques and everything that, you know, is digital. I mean, you're not that old, either. Not as old as me anyway. Everything that you use now, probably, I'm assuming, wouldn't have been around when you were kind of just leaving uni and starting and all that kind of stuff. What does it look like then?

Ric (02:48)
If you think about it when it goes right the way back to the Wall Street days of cut and paste where, you know, there was a newspaper, there was TV and radio and cut and paste was literally taking tape, cutting it, pasting it back together. That was how you edited footage, and I see it's translated to what we do now on computers. And then in the radio world, that's where I first started, and I was working, making radio packages and putting together new stories, working for a company called Talk Sport, one of the, you know, one of the best radio stations in the world, according to their, to their team. They're a brilliant company to work for. And it was a good start to my career in journalism because it was so fast-paced. And I love the fact that it was, well, radio is instantaneous, but also, you know, packages that we had to edit and create had to be done really quickly. And that, I think, is, you know, well, is where we are nowadays. People's attention spans are very short. You don't have the luxury of being able to work and edit stuff for days unless you're working on these big documentaries or feature films. Turnaround and speed of turnaround is crucial, which is where I think, you know, my team that generates media and the content ninjas, the guys are so good, they're so quick, they're...
They just love what they do, and it's great watching them work as well. They do all of the editing, and I sort of sit back and help with the presenting and reporting side of things. But I think people need fast-turnaround stuff and fast-turnaround content nowadays.

Liz Allan (04:27)
So all of the work that you're doing at the moment with Generate Media and Sustainable Dad has got links to sustainability, obviously, electric vehicles, and, you know, the move to electrification. How did you get there then? What made you decide that that was how you wanted to go?

Ric (04:55)
I've always hated waste and always loved, you know, the planet, you know, that don't want to. By the way, I've got a squeaky leather chair here. It's not like the curry I had yesterday. But if you hear weird noises, it's the chair, honest. But yeah, going back to the question, I guess the main thing for me is I've got a couple of kids now, and I want to leave the planet in a better shape than when I arrived in it. And, you know, we're not doing a very good job.

Ric (05:24)
As a whole, we need to work together to try to do that. So, there are many different ways we can reduce waste. So through our content, we hope to inspire more people to adopt electric vehicles, travel less, not, you know, you need to go on that flight several times a year, know, drive places if you have to rather than flying, cycle when you can walk when you can. So it's more about inspiring that and showing you how to do it. And if we do it in a fun way as well, that's a
definitely a bonus. The first time I drove an electric car was on an electric vehicle road trip in the Middle East many years ago. And they said, Rick, here is the keys to a Tesla Model S P100D. You're driving this car for the first leg of this journey. And I was like, all right, nice. I've heard a lot about Tesla. Let's see what it's got. My God. Unbelievable. What? What a car. You know, it's just. I don't want to swear, but it was flipping fast, a great performance, and an absolute joy. So much tech drives for you as well. You can watch YouTube, you know, all these different games and stuff that have just taken driving to a whole new level. And yeah, that was my first experience with an electric car. And I realised then that that is the future. Know, much as I love petrol cars, racing, driving, and the experience of driving a manual gear stick. It's not the future.

Liz Allan (06:23)
Haha!

Ric (06:50)
It will still have a place on this planet for years and years to come, and people can still drive them, but they're not practical. They're not good for the planet, and they're just not a good daily runaround. Let's face it: most people drive cars just to get from A to B. They're not going, want to rip it around a track or go up this mountain, this mountain pass. There's still going to be a place for that. And I hope, well, I hope there is, but we have to look at more practical ways to get around.

Liz Allan (07:20)
And also you've got a couple of children, haven't you? So that's the other, like you said, it's kind of like making sure that your kids can see you're doing something. I don't know about you, I mean, I'm kind of now past the take dropping off for the school run age now, but the number of parents who used to park outside school and leave their engines running. And we've got small people just walking past their tailpipes, haven't we? And, you know, do they not realise what they're actually, what those kids are breathing in?

Ric (07:55)
People idling outside the school with their engines running is one of my biggest bugbears, and I just turn it off. It's saving you money because you're not burning petrol or diesel. And the fact that the kids are at a low height right next to the exhaust pipes is not good for them. It's not good for us. Not good for the neighbourhood. So, the number one tip is if you're driving a petrol car, just turn it off whenever possible. That's a small way you can do your bit. You don't have to know everyone has to make the switch to electric right now, but look at ways you can reduce your carbon footprint and by not driving. The best thing I've bought as a dad over the last couple of years was a tandem attachment for my bike. So every morning I take the kids to school on this little tandem thing. They help on the back. They love it. We're at school quicker than we would be if we drove. No parking issues, no idling issues. Okay, it's not ideal when it rains, but we get through it, and that's what we have. Yeah. Quantity shows for one and stuff like that. But yeah, get one of those. It will save you so much time. No traffic jams, no parking, no emissions. So get one of those and I can't remember the make that we've got, but it is a brilliant dad hack. So I would recommend.

Liz Allan (09:15)
that's good. That's good to know. And like you say, you're doing what you're doing. You're teaching your children, you know, how to be sustainable themselves moving forward, which will make a massive, massive difference. And going back to what you were talking about about inspiration, I've got to say that when I look at the things you do, they are really inspirational. And when I was saying about, you know, the different kit that you were using ages ago, you know, when you first started the stuff that you guys do now, it's funny. It's, it is inspirational. If you haven't seen it, please check Ric on LinkedIn and the Generate Media website because, okay, away. But just, yeah, all the stuff that you're doing.

Ric (10:03)
And OnlyFans, don't forget that.

Hahaha.

Liz Allan (10:14)
It's brilliant. Was the drive that you did in the Polstar to the Alps earlier this year? Go on, tell us a bit about that because you filmed all that, didn't you, and the guys came with you?

Ric (10:14)
Well, you know what, much of the stuff that we make comes from the inspiration of conversations we have in the pub. And, you know, it would be conversations with your mates who go, no, I'm not getting an electric car because I can't drive from, you know, London to Cornwall for my annual road trip. So, I'm not going to get an EV. Does it make sense for me? Like, well, you ca,n and it does. And we then go and prove that you can. So we've just come back from the Cornwall conundrum, which is how to drive from London to Cornwall and how to charge on the route. And if you need to charge on route, some cars will have enough range to get there. So we show you how to do it using that map, the Paua card, your home charger, plotting your route, and just making sure you plan ahead. Know, Callum, of the Content Ninjas here, know, his biggest advice is if you haven't got someone helping you to navigate, just spend 30 seconds, 60 seconds before you leave, making sure you know where you're going to charge if you need to charge because sometimes you don't even have to. So, that Cornwall conundrum is coming out soon. But the Alps trip was a whole different kettle of fish. We worked with a company called Select Car Leasing, and they said we need you to make a long-distance road trip. And we said, great, well, we'll drive to Cornwall and back. And they went, nah, you need to go bigger than that. And we were like, OK, Alps. And they went, yes. And that was it. You know, we started then storyboarding it, planning the trip and going. You know, what do we need to do? What car do we need? We spoke to Polestar, and they said, "Yep, that sounds great. Here's a Polestar 2, long range." And off we went. And it was a piece of cake. It was a really enjoyable drive, but it goes to show you don't need to fly if you're going on your skiing holiday. You can drive, and you can do it with zero emissions if you get your planning right.

Liz Allan (12:15)
This will perfectly lead to a conversation I had with Ric, one of my friends, this weekend. So I live in Reading, and four of us are going away for the weekend. We're just going to the Cotswolds. So, for me, it's an hour and a half away. But if I pick them up, it probably adds another hour. It's not horrendous. And we've got a small battery, Ionic. It's kind of, it's only three years old now. But, if it's fully charged when I leave, I can probably, and the weather's not horrendous at the moment. Once it drops, I'll get less, but I'll probably get, you know, around 180 miles, depending on on on this, you know, my speed, but I'll make sure I'll bring it down with them in it. And because the Ioniq has the miles per kilowatt hour, you can easily monitor it. And, you know, it's it's it's fairly efficient. One of my friends said there's no charger at the house, and they're all non-EV drivers. And I don't know whether she was in a bad mood anyway. So I said, it's fine. I probably don't need to charge, I only need to top up, you know, if we're going around, we're probably going to go to Diddley Squat Farm Shop, Jeremy Clarkson's, you know, place and places like that. 

Ric (13:33)
Nice. I'm sure he's got a charger. He loves electric cars. He must have a couple of chargers there. James May and Richard Hammond both have electric vehicles and are big fans of them. They were still. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, think, yeah, James May did. They've done all EVs, but they still love petrol cars. And that's fine. But, you know, if you're running around getting an electric car daily.

Ric (14:03)
So, Liz, I jumped in there. You're taking your mates on a long road trip. What are your top tips? What do you do? You've been driving EVs for years. What do you do? What's your tip for anyone who's moving to electric?

Liz Allan (14:08)
Yeah, yeah, so You're interviewing me now. I like this; it's good. So, well, okay, make sure if you're going on a long journey, try not to always charge up to 100 % anyway, but if you're going away on a longer trip, I do tend to charge up to 100%, so then I tend to map it out. I'll work out if I'm going to go pick up my friend Kelie, and then she'll be in Maidenhead. So, Reading to Maidenhead is that many miles if I'm picking up Emily, I am a bit only retentive. Emily and Vicks will be there as well. So that'll be up in Buckingham. Right, this is how many miles I've got. Right, okay. I've got 50 miles or 80 miles to play with. You don't need to do much other than top up on the way back. Or if I do, I'll do some opportune charging and look at that map. I've already looked at that map and said, all right, okay, so there are some seven-kilowatt chargers not too far away from where we're staying. I can always chuck it on for an overnight charge or there's a 22 kilowatt. You know, there are no loads where we're staying, but it's all right. So it's not, it's not a faff, but my friend Vicky said it's a faff this charge in Malarkey, but she doesn't drive one yet.

Ric (15:33)
Think about when people join you on a road trip, and that's what we try to do with our car content: invite people along for the ride, and they can see how simple it is. And if you have the right planning, and if you do charge, or if you're able to charge at home, it does mean you can start fully charged. So I've got a seven-kilowatt Zappi charger. Now seven kilowatt Zappi is, you got one as well. I couldn't live without it, I love it, and it's brilliant, and it's very smart, there are loads of other things, but ultimately, it means when you get home from work, you can plug your car in and go to bed or go about your daily life. You don't need to sit and watch it charge. It's just like plugging it and charging up, this guy. Know how often you charge that up overnight. If you wake up the next morning, it's fully charged. You're good for the rest of the day. It's the same with electric cars. But if you haven't got a home charge, you need to know where your where your favourite ones are, whether it's, you know, an Osprey or a grid serve or a POGO or

Liz Allan (16:15)
Yeah, plugging your phone in.

Ric (16:32)
Fastned, know, so so many different charging options out there now, and these guys are fast So the 7 kilowatts is happy 7 kilowatts means it charges pretty slowly still, but you want like a 50 kilowatt for a really fast charge or 150 or even a 350 kilowatt and you know, we were at the London EV show this year They've got 400-kilowatt charge now for I think even 450 which means, you know, they're future-proofing it and charging electric cars only ever going to get better. And at the moment, yeah, people are still struggling with it. I've got a Tesla, which is 10 years old now. It's done nearly 90,000 miles. It doesn't have CCS charging. So it only has a type two charger, which means it can't take super-fast charges. But I've never noticed. I've not had a major issue with it because I always charge at home. So it does make it easy. But it's kind of knowing your charge rates and how to get optimal charge when needed. So charging when you can, not when you have to, is another good tip as well. If you know that you can, say if you were coming to my house for a cup of tea and you wanted to charge your car for an hour, it's not going to give you full charge, but it'll put 20 odd miles in, which will be enough to get you back to reading nearly.

Liz Allan (17:45)
And you top-up. That's what I was thinking, because I just thought, do you know what? I'm not going to say anything now. We think she was having a bad day, so let's go in the EV, and I won't make a big thing of it. If I see a charger and we're somewhere, I'll just go and pop it on there. You're all right. I'm just going to... And then we go for a couple of hours, come back and then go, look, well, I've got this much extra. It's not a faff.

Ric (18:18)
Do you find yourself going to bat for electric vehicles and having the stress of convincing your man that wind's up to you? Do you stress that you want your friends to love this electric car?

Liz Allan (18:34)
I do, and it's hard, it's hard, Ric, and, you know, can't be, I've got to remember, I can't just be evangelical about all of this. You know, I can't just push it because it's not right for them; it's not right for them at the moment. It doesn't mean that it will be kind of soon.

Ric (18:49)
Mm-hmm. But how many miles a day does Vicki do in her car?

Liz Allan (18:58)
So she drives from Amersham to Slough. God, that's how many miles? I don't even know how many. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, so 30. Yeah, something like that.

Ric (19:04)
15 miles, 15 miles, 20, max. Vicki, stop complaining. That's why you're killing the planet. No, joking. I'm only joking. But you know, generally, if she's only doing 20, 30 miles, 40 miles a day, and the average is 25 miles a day, the average commuter or driver in the UK, that's how much they do. So if you think about it, most electric cars now have a range of over 200 miles. So you're only going to need to charge probably, you know, once a week at most. My charger was empty for probably six days a week, probably more, because I just don't drive that many miles in a Tesla.

Liz Allan (19:42)
Mmm. And I'm not doing so much at the moment, to be honest. I'm not driving too far. So I drive to Harrow and back on a Tuesday, and I'll probably be doing Northolt and then back on a Wednesday. You know, so that's kind of, I think it's about 30 odd miles one way or 30 to 40 miles. It's not, so I'll probably charge more than you would in your Tesla. But like you say, just literally coming home, parking up, plugging in, coming in, you know, and I know that it will charge overnight at the cheap rate, which is three quid for us. Yeah, yeah, because ours is a small battery.

Ric (20:19)
How much is that? If you're listening Jeremy Clarkson could you fuel up your Range Rover for three quid?

Liz Allan (20:30)
I know, and it's the same with Vicks and her Kia. So I can't remember what she's got. I think she's got a Sportage. So, but it's kind of, it's yeah, exactly. And she lives up a hill that's like one-in-one. So she wanted something that, you know, that did that. So she's got it, but it's like, okay, she knows that.

Ric (20:36)
Yeah, great, little cars and you, but she needs a four-by-four and something with good torque as well. And I guess that's that's another thing. You know, a lot of electric cars now come with all-wheel drive. So you've got all those different options. But I will say this: when you go uphill, your battery goes. It does fall off a cliff when you're going downhill. You've got regenerative braking, which means you brake as soon as you take your foot off the accelerator. Kinetic energy and the momentum of the car force more electrons back into your battery and giving you additional range.

Liz Allan (21:26)
I love it; I get very excited. It's very sad, but I get excited when I see a mile going back onto my range. It's just one of those things, you know, I do, I do, because this, going from where I am in Caversham, which is just north of Reading, up to cutting through all the little side roads up to Oxford, you know, into Oxford, onto the M40. There's one road where that's probably not quite one-in-one, but it's sort of like that. So I'm just like, right, let the regen take it and come on, come on, give me a mile, give me a mile. So it's just great to see that, you know, that coming back, and you can't get that with a petrol or a diesel car, can you? It's just different.

Ric (22:07)
Why not? You know, even like, so, okay, let's play devil's advocate here as well. Cause a lot of people do need to drive very long distances, and they don't want to be faffing with charging. So, plug-in hybrids. Where do you stand on those? Ooh, that's not, that's not a happy face.

Liz Allan (22:17)
I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan. Well, OK, so so my unhappy face for those of you listening, my unhappy face is because I've had other friends asking about plug-in hybrids and it wasn't until I did, I took because our our decision was to go straight to electric. That's for us. I didn't know much about hybrids and plug-in hybrids until I researched, and I realised that the range isn't massive. And obviously, you've also still got a combustion engine in there. actually I wouldn't say that that was it. I don't know who that I'd be suitable for, because maybe I just don't know enough about it. You tell me what you think.

Ric (23:07)
If you get a plug-in hybrid, a car with an electric battery, you can use electricity to drive your car, which is great around town, doing the school drop, commuting or whatever. But then, if you need that extra range, you also have a petrol engine. But the problem is, many people will get this plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, and 
they'll just fill it with petrol. They'll forget to fill it with electricity, which means you're dragging around a heavier car because you've got a battery in there, and the motor is driving that around. So you've got to remember to charge it up as well. It's so much cheaper to drive an electric car than it is to drive a petrol car. Plus, you know, there is less maintenance for an EV versus a petrol or diesel car.

Liz Allan (24:07)
I've had conversations with people about team members who are working for a company. They thought that they had a fully electric vehicle because it was a plugin, even though it's a hybrid. They were still calling it rubbish because they don't have a big range, you know, and things like that. So I suppose it depends on the business they're working for to educate. I know that people don't like the word educate, inspire, and get them to understand what they are driving. It isn't a fully electric vehicle. So you can't really judge it the way you would with an electric car. So that's kind of, that's what I'm hearing about hybrids from other people. I don't know whether you had the same.

Ric (24:58)
I know there's no silver bullet to this massive transport shift, but get an electric vehicle for people who can afford one and don't drive loads of miles daily. It's a no-brainer. You all love the experience. I think I've met one person who has gone back to petrol because they got an electric car with a very low range and drove all the time. So it didn't suit their lifestyle at the time. But we know that batteries are getting better and that cars are getting better. As the ranges improve, it will be available for, or it will be possible for everybody.

Liz Allan (25:37)
And your Tesla, sorry, no, your Polestar 2 that you took to the Alps, the long-range one what was the maximum range you got out of it then?

Ric (25:48)
You know what? It's difficult to say because we had so many mountain ranges. We decided to make that trip in two stints. So we left really early from London, and they went straight to Folkestone, and they've got charges down at Folkestone. So when you're waiting for the Eurotunnel, you can plug in while you go and grab a coffee, use the toilet, and in, you know, 10, 15, 20 minutes it takes to do that. You're fully charged again because of how quickly Polestar 2 can charge. And then it's a case of just working out how long you will be driving. I think we were driving for six hours before we needed to charge. So we got to a place called Rheim or Rheim or Rheims, whatever you want to call it, somewhere in France. We had no idea what the charging setup would be like, but we looked at that map and said, you've got some rapid, ultra-rapid charges there. And it's got a cafe, it's got whatever. So we pulled in and plugged in; it was raining, so we were as quick as we could. And by the time Calum and Lewis, who were with me as well, the Content Ninjas, by the time we'd gone to the toilet, grabbed a croissant and a coffee, it was, I was like, come on, let's go, let's get back on the road because we were fully charged again. So then it was the mountain range. So, going up mountains, as I said, your range drops a lot, especially when it's very cold. But we knew we had a charger once we reached our destination. It wasn't as if, you know, all we needed to do was make sure we got there within a few per cent range. I think we got there with a 20 per cent range left, say plenty, plenty left over. So it wasn't too squeaky bum time. But also, because we were driving, we could stop off whenever we wanted. Whereas if you fly to your ski holiday or your Alps trip, you know, you're stuck in coaches and planes and then coach transfer. With this, we got to see some of the planet's most beautiful wildlife, countryside, and nature. There's a place called Anasie, which many people might not have heard of, but it is stunning. And it's on the way. Well, it's a huge lake at the bottom of the Alps. And we spent a few hours there just mooching around and having another croissant. I know you have to say croissant. So yeah, that's why driving opens up so many more adventure possibilities.

Liz Allan (28:17)
So, wasn't that your journey with select car leasing? How? It's not just the journey that you have. It's kind of like, obviously, the information that you're providing to people who are watching those videos. I'm going to use the word educational. And, like I say, being able to demonstrate that; It's fantastic. And especially because you do things in a very different way to a lot of other, I'm going to say, Content Ninjas, know, the things that you're doing, like putting drones up, you've got, I mean, you've got to talk about that because that to me, when you're kind of when you're filming, I'm kind of, watching how you're, you know, it's been edited and going, how the hell did they do that? You know, how the hell do you do that?

Ric (29:19)
Ha ha ha. Brilliant. That's what we're looking for. We are generally always looking for whenever we make our videos, you know, it's always like, what's the wow factor where we want people to go, how have they done that? How have they got that shot? And, know, you know, we've got the sort of traditional cameras like these, these Sony's, which are brilliant and shoot beautiful footage, but they're heavy. It can be a bit bulky as well. It's not as agile as that might be. So sometimes you have a bit of camera gear, and the best camera is the one that's in your hand. Still, we've also got it as if by magic, we've got this guy. This is the Osmo pocket, and it's a significant bit of kit. Yeah, this is the DJI Osmo Pocket, and what it does is fit well in your pocket. Still, we also use this for a lot of our travelling shots so that we can suction this onto the front of a car, and it just means that we can get some really nice top gear-esque shots, which look good in the final edit, and it's very useful for fast content as well. But I'm just going show you as well this, another great bit of kit, which is the 360 camera that we use for a lot of our shots, and I think this Liz is one of the things that you go how do they get that shot, and it's generally through something like this. This has two cameras that give you an amazing 360-degree angle for every shot you want, so you can't take a bad angle. It also does some very clever stitching. It takes a lot of editing. That's the downside. You know, editing and getting it right is difficult, so we might spend a few hours filming something, but we spend a few days editing it. So it's getting that balance right between what the client wants. Do they want something that's just going to be fast turnaround, or do they want something that, you know, it can go on their website forever or can go onto TV or can be used as an advert? So it's trying to sort of work out the balance between that. But yeah, as I say, we love making content. I love making stuff that has precisely the reaction you said. How do they do that?

Liz Allan (31:49)
It just is, honestly, like some of the things that I've seen you put out. I have just gone flipping out how, and I wouldn't have a clue, you know, but it's just amazing. And some of the stuff. You work with the EV Cafe and Paua because you were with Paua on the EV rally and, know, just a lot of the things, especially the EV Cafe. I've got to ask you, were they the things that say, for example, think you didn't get them going up and down fully, brown, fully charged on a scooter or something like that? Was that all your ideas, or did they come up with them? Yeah, they are.

Ric (32:26)
I mean, they're up for anything that lot, which is great. I think that's we always ask the question and say, would you be up for this? More often than not, people will say, yeah, why not? And if they don't want to, we move on. But with my energy as well, those guys are brilliant and great fun. They're up for anything. Select car leasing as well. We suggest things, and they're like, go for it. And it's great to find, you know, partners that have got a bit of a loose screw, let's say. Yeah, I think the EV Cafe also falls into that category. But you look at the OGs in the business, which are fully charged, and they raised the bar and set the standard. And it's great to see what they've achieved and what they're doing. We take a lot of inspiration from what they do. Obviously, we're working in a different sphere from what they're doing, but their YouTube channel is epic. I guess it's, as you know, asking people, you know, do you think you can fit in the front of this Rivian R1C Sarah Sloan? Yeah, of course I can. You know, setting them a bit of a challenge, and yeah, it also looks good in the shots. So, you know, we try to be a little bit different and stop scrolling because it is difficult to do so in a very busy place as a content creator. So it's hard to try and cut through that. But we're doing our best.

Liz Allan (33:34)
Gosh, you did that, you? Yes. Yeah. And I think you do stop the scroll for definite, you know, because of the fact and because of what you're doing and how you're doing it. I was going to ask you what the trickiest thing you filmed was. I mean, maybe you're not the one who's doing all the editing. It might be one of your guys, but what is, you know, to get the shots you wanted, what's the trickiest one you've done?

Ric (34:20)
Anything with kids or animals is so true. Kids can be a right pain, the cold, the wet, the heat. When it's hot, your camera's overheating, when it's really cold, you've got cameramen freezing. Filming in the Alps was also fairly tricky, getting the drone up and the right shots. But anything with the drone is always squeaky bum time because you never know when you will get hit by a pigeon or a gust of wind could take you, of course, so that's difficult. I lost one in Ibiza. That was hard. But we were filming on a glacier once for Nitro Rallycross over in Greenland, and we put the drone up and got some lovely shots. And suddenly, the drone just decided it would not come down. It was about, you know, was probably about 40 feet up in the air, and it just wouldn't move. And I was like, I'm going to lose another drone and, you know, graduate emergency return to home home thing. But that was, yeah, that was a bit dangerous. So, yeah, we've lost we've lost camera gear. We've lost lenses. We've lost this and that. it's, you know, it's part of the course, I guess, Liz.

Ric (36:03)
Well, it nicely illustrates why we're doing all this: Inclement weather conditions are changing, and we need to start thinking about all of our actions. And it's not just big companies doing it. Individuals have to do their bit to slow down climate change and reverse it. Obviously, everyone does their bit with recycling, but just turn the engines off. As Robert Llewellyn and the team say, stop burning stuff. It's a great start.

Ric (36:34)
But I think with our content as well, we're trying to encourage people to look at better ways to do things, whether that's getting a heat pump, getting solar or getting a bike. You know, it doesn't, you know, it doesn't have to cost the earth. Whenever we go on our road trips, we're always looking at ways to inspire more people to travel sustainably without costing the earth. So, hopefully, we're taking a few boxes and inspiring a few people along the road to net zero.

Liz Allan (36:48)
Yeah. Absolutely. So, what would you like to see happen over the next few years? Obviously, we've got those zero-emission vehicle mandates, which means manufacturers have to reduce the amount of petrol and diesel vehicles they manufacture. They're upping the numbers of electric. But is it just that?

Ric (37:24)
I would like to see the UK government throw money at the problem. I'd like them to go. We've got abundant wind in this country, from the likes of Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg and all around the coast. We've got, you know, it's not the sunniest place, but we've got enough solar. We live on an island, so there are loads of tidal, and we should be leading the charge regarding innovation in renewable energy. Electric cars will be straightforward once we've got that sorted. But currently, charging is too expensive when you're on the road. You know, I think those costs need to come down a lot. The actual costs of electric cars needs to come down, we need to be investing more in battery technology. And we had a great opportunity to do that with places like British Volts up in Northumberland. And that was allowed to come and go. And I'm very depressed to see that. Our politicians and the people that are making the decisions are making the wrong decisions and aren't acting fast enough.

Liz Allan (38:28)
Yes. And I think it feels a bit like the government. We've still got a relatively new government. It feels a bit like, you know, that tanker that got stuck down, you know, kind of the straight and yeah, you know, I don't know. There's also.

Ric (38:44)
The Costa Concordia. No, not that tanker, it was a cruise ship. Yeah.

Liz Allan (38:52)
You know what you want to mean anyway. I know where they were basically trying to get it out of. I can't even remember. My mind's just gone totally blank now. But it just feels like the government is moving a very, very slow-moving tanker that probably needs to take some of its weight off and move a bit quicker.

Ric (39:10)
Well, I think there should be harsher on misinformation as well. And, you know, we look at the media, and you must always see this. And whether it's, you know, online, in newspapers, or on TV, there are not enough people who know what they're talking about. We're, you know, part of a group called the Decade of Doing group, which we're not allowed to talk about. It's top secret, but it's a cool and big WhatsApp group—ping, ping, ping, ping. When we put our drone up, the WhatsApp group on DoD knows that my drone is up, and I ping. I've got loads of messages. Anyway, I digress. So I think helping to share that that knowledge and just being passionate about what we do and encouraging more people to to get bumps on seats in electric cars. But vans as well. I know Paul Kirby will back me up on this one. We need better commercial vehicles because they're the ones that spend more time on the road. So, anything we can do to inspire that change would be very important.

Liz Allan (39:45)
That's right. No, I look forward to seeing all of this start coming to fruition, and like you say, if we can start moving forward a little bit faster rather than thinking that we're not people. Some people believe we are going fast enough with what we're doing, but we're not.

Ric (40:27)
I think that goes the same for life as well. We're here for a good time, not a long time, and it's just a short visit. So you need to make the most of that and think your actions have consequences. Do you want your kids to turn around to you in 10, 15, 20 years going, you had a chance to do something, you've done bugger all. Yeah, so I don't want that to happen.

Liz Allan (40:51)
Yeah, thanks. Thanks for that. You can imagine. Thanks for leaving this place in such a mess. Come on. Did you not tidy the place up before you left the keys to us?

Ric (40:56)
Yeah, you wiped your feet on the way out. But it's true. Yeah, but it's true. We know we've got to do a better job, and we've got to act fas,t and yeah, you even, see, I'm not vegan or vegetarian. Still, I do try to reduce the amount of meat I eat because I know the terrible consequences they have; you know, the meat and dairy industry is so counterproductive to climate change. So we need to think about those as well and reduce them. And anything that we do in our day-to-day lives, having quicker showers, having less hot showers, and just being, just using your brain. Go on, people. And as Eric Cantona said when we spoke to him at Goodwood Festival of Speed this year, we must behave. And he's right. I think it's a bit lost in translation, but we need to behave as a planet.

Liz Allan (41:55)
Absolutely. It's been, do you know what? I do like the fact that you interviewed me a bit during this. It's just it's been really interesting talking to you. Like I say, I think a lot, all of the stuff you're doing is making a difference. And actually, do you know what? Hopefully, all of what I'm doing will also make a little difference. If we're all doing something, you know, then hopefully we will get there. So, on that note I just want to say thank you. Thank you ever so much for joining me. I will share all of your details in the show notes. It's been really interesting. Please check him out. Honestly, he's usually around for a variety of events and things like that. So yeah, please do. But yeah, thank you very much for talking to me.

Ric (42:39)
Hahaha It's an absolute pleasure, Liz. Keep up the great work, and yeah, keep doing what you're doing as well because it does all make a difference. Yeah, we'll hopefully get there in the end. Once again, apologies for my very fatty, squeaky chair. 

Liz Allan (43:00)
I'm sure nobody heard it, honestly, Ric; so, on that note, I want to just thank everybody for listening and, you know, listening to the podcast and watching it. Obviously, there are people who want to hear Ric's squeaky bum chair, so please share it. I've started to say this at the end of every podcast: please share, please subscribe.

Ric (43:18)
Hahaha.

Liz Allan (43:27)
Please share this information with others because we want to bring as many people as possible on this journey with us, and the only way to do that is by sharing it with everybody else. So, on that note, I'm going to say thank you for listening and watching, and I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.