The Unity Folks: Unveiling the Outdoor Industry’s Blind Spot with Data-Driven Strategy with Earl B Hunter Jr.

Calling Them In: Earl B. Hunter Jr. on the Data Behind the Outdoor Industry's Billion-Dollar Blind Spot"

📝 Description

Earl B. Hunter Jr. didn't walk into the outdoor industry to make a statement — he walked in to build a business. After nearly a decade at Nokia and years running international sourcing operations across Asia and South America, he stepped into the RV space in 2015 with zero camping experience and, by his own description, a Gucci wardrobe. What he found was a $114 billion industry he'd never heard of — and one of the few spaces in his entire career where he was, by almost every account, the only Black executive in the room.

He didn't see a social problem. He saw a business crisis.

So he did what he's always done: invested in the data. Over $1.2 million of his own capital later, Earl had the research to back what he already suspected — and built The Unity Folks, an award-winning consulting and strategy firm now partnered with some of the largest parks systems, RV dealerships, and outdoor brands in the country, including California State Parks, the largest state park system in America.

In this conversation, Coy sits down with Earl to unpack what it actually takes to challenge an entire industry from the inside — the data, the discipline, the doors that closed, what generational fear really means for a sales strategy, and why Earl has already reserved space on The Unity Folks website for the Nobel Peace Prize. 

🔑 Key Topics

• From Nokia to the outdoors — 11 years in mobile phones, international sourcing across Asia and South America, and how Earl ended up as a VP in an industry he knew absolutely nothing about
• The business crisis, not the social problem — What Earl actually saw when he became one of the only Black executives in a $114 billion RV industry — and why his first instinct was revenue, not representation
• The $1.2 million data investment — Why opinions aren't enough, what the research actually revealed, and how you walk into a billion-dollar industry and ask them to change
• The three real barriers — Generational fear, lack of knowledge, and lack of invitation — and why income and urban residency aren't actually the issue
• 86% and what it means for outdoor retail — The data point on how children are introduced to the outdoors by their parents and why it's the most important number in the industry's long-term strategy
• Growing Silver Sport from under $1M to $22.5M in four years — The relationship-first sales philosophy that drove one of the most dramatic growth stories in outdoor RV history — and 340,000 miles to prove it
• The Unity Folks business model — Why Earl built a for-profit consulting firm instead of a nonprofit, never accepted a single donation, and what that independence actually makes possible
• Calling in, not calling out — The philosophy behind every training, keynote, and partnership the company has ever built — and why it works when everything else hasn't
• Training 15,000 people — What the shift that actually has to happen in a person before they can genuinely welcome someone who doesn't look like them
• Oboz footwear co-branding deal — How the Unity Blaze ended up on over 100,000 insoles and what a real partnership looks like after years of watching everyone else pander
• Brand evolution: Black Folks Camp Too → The Unity Folks — What the data and the market said about expanding to every demographic, every family — and owning "All Folks Can Too" while they were at it
• The 90% stat — Why the vast majority of Black Folks Camp Too merchandise was purchased by white customers, and what that says about invitation and belonging
• Kodak, Cracker Barrel, and halftime — What it looks like when an industry runs the same playbook into the third quarter — and the specific shifts the outdoor industry has to make before it's too late
• California State Parks — The announcement Earl made live on this show about partnering with the largest state park system in America
• Faith, baptism, and leading from conviction — Why Earl got rebaptized as an adult, what it changed about how he leads, and why his daughter started her own company at 13 using his exact framework
• The five-year exit plan — Selling the company by 55, what the second half of life looks like, and what Earl told himself he'd say when he looked back on this conversation
• The Nobel Peace Prize — Why it's already on the website, what Earl says to people who call it arrogant, and why saying it out loud is the point

 ⏱ Timestamps

1. Introduction: Welcome and introduction of guest Earl B. Hunter Jr. and The Unity Folks.
2. Background: Earl's journey from Nokia to the outdoor RV industry.
3. The Unity Folks: Their mission and the business crisis they address.
4. Industry Insights: Challenges as a Black executive, untapped market potential, and the importance of data over opinions.
5. Research Findings: Misconceptions about people of color in the RV industry and the need for inclusive marketing strategies.
6. Barriers and Solutions: Addressing generational fear, knowledge gaps, and the importance of internal education.
7. Successful Strategies: Examples from other industries and The Unity Folks' award-winning approaches.
8. Brand Evolution: Transition from Black Folks Camp Too to The Unity Folks, emphasizing unity and inclusivity.
9. Industry Challenges: The need for demographic diversification and lessons from Kodak and Cracker Barrel.
10. Achievements and Future Plans: Keynotes, partnerships, and a five-year exit plan.
11. Personal Insights: Earl's personal growth, family influence, and advice for entrepreneurs.
12. Closing: Earl's final message and host's closing remarks.

🔗 Resources & Links

• The Unity Folks
• The Unity Folks Map 
• Oboz Footwear - Unity Blaze Trail Insole 
• Instagram 
• LinkedIn
• Youtube 
• Self Discovery Blueprint
• Mental Edge Coherence Diagnostic 
• Books That Built the Life

Connect with the Host

Coy Brown — Email: thisisthelifeispodcast@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Life Is Podcast, where creativity, culture, mindset, and intentional living come together through real conversation. I'm your host, Cloy Brown. Each week I sit out with entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, travelers, and visionaries who didn't stumble into a life they love, they built it. We go deep into how they think, how they reconstructed themselves, and what became possible on the other side. Because when you build from the inside out, life expands. Let's get into it. This week, I'm sitting down with someone who looked at one of the most homogeneous industries in America, the outdoor industry. And saw not just a social problem, but a massive business opportunity that everyone else was too comfortable to notice. Earl B. Hunter Jr. is the founder of Unity Folks and Unity Blaze. He has trained over 15,000 people, grown a company's revenue from under a million dollars to 22.5 million in four years, and invested 1.2 million of his own money into data that proves what most industry leaders refuse to believe. That excluding black and brown Americans from outdoor spaces is not just unjust, it is bad business. Earl is not an activist. He's a strategist. And what he has built is a blueprint for what happens when you combine data, discipline, and a mission bigger than yourself into a company that is profitable, purposeful, and built to outlast him. Here's how he did it. All right, man. Well, hey, good morning to you, Earl. Welcome to the Life Is Podcast. And I appreciate you taking the time. Obviously, uh, you know, hosted by myself, but just grateful to have you on the show. Uh for the viewers listening to hear about your story, really what you're trailblazing and really making a shift in your industry. So, you know, kind of as we as we get into it, if you can, man, as we settle in, can you for the for the listener, listeners, excuse me, can you kind of tell them where you're from, you know, how you started your company, and what what brought you up to this point?

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Well, you know, that's uh it's gonna be a a good podcast because it's gonna be a a great story uh in terms of not only just uh about myself, but about our journey. Uh my name is Earl B. Hunter Jr. I'm the founder and the visionary of the Unity Folks. Uh we also summarize that as TUF, T-U-F, The Unity Folks. And uh I'm from Columbia, South Carolina. I've always been raised, I was born and raised in the South. Uh I live in the most one of the most beautiful areas in the world in North Carolina. Uh we have 250 waterfalls and uh 400 trails and a two, three mile radius. Um, you know, my background is very simple. You know, I build businesses for a living. You know, I help build businesses for a living. Uh, I've been in various different industries. I've been in the mobile phone industry when it first jumped off in 2005 for the most part. Um I used to work for Nokia Mobile Phones, one of the it was the number one mobile phone company in the world. I was a I was a young Thundercat, a young pup, you know, working in that particular space, knew nothing really about corporate America. And Nokia taught me a lot for almost 11 years. Yes. And then I actually transitioned into the international sourcing space. Um I worked for a company that was outside of uh Jonesboro, Arkansas, where I uh did a lot of traveling uh in different countries, Asia uh specifically, uh, and also uh South America, uh North America, and different spaces doing international sourcing, doing uh logistics and things of that nature. So I spent a lot of time on the ground understanding how projects and parts and things of that nature were made, uh in the vice president role in that space. And then I moved into the uh the outdoor industry, which I knew nothing about. You know, I knew nothing about. And uh, however, though, I knew there was an opportunity to drive the business. I knew there was an opportunity to get into this space, to understand this space, to know that there's uh uh an opportunity for me to put my uh strategies in place to actually grow a uh uh a company that hired me to come in as the vice president of sales. And uh again, I knew nothing about the outdoors, I knew nothing about R Ving, I knew nothing about any of that. I always tell folks that I was a Gucci, Louis Vuitton wearing, sports car driver, private plane flying executive, and I had never been camping or anything in the outdoors, and now I'm a camping, RVing backpacking fool, right? That's what I love to do. And so, and so our company uh right now, currently our company, the Unity folks, is built around that. Our company is built around educating the outdoor industry uh how to invite and welcome uh basically sales and marketing, basically outreach, how to invite and welcome uh emerging demographics, non-traditional consumers, and how to get them into this particular space to basically save our industry, if you want to know the truth. Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

That's who we are, that's who I am. Well, man, I appreciate it too. I appreciate the the man, just thorough introduction for those who are listening, because I think that really kind of pans the story as we go forward. Yeah. I'm actually going to go back a little bit because you talked about, right, um, getting into the RV industry. I laughed because you said you were wearing Gucci and Louis Vuitton, which is you're far from that now. But you walked obviously into the RV industry, right? Didn't know a thing, as you said, into the industry. Uh, but you noticed something was wrong, right? You walked in out to noticed wrong. What did you actually and I wanted to ask you, what did you actually see? Like, when did you realize, like, look, what you're looking at was not a social problem, but a business crisis.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Yeah, you know, I didn't think I, for me personally, I didn't think it was wrong. What I thought was, I thought from an industry perspective, how could the industry be missing so much opportunity to sell and market to other demographics? Uh, when I looked at the RV industry, I was one of the only black, if only black executive in the RV industry, in a hundred and four billion dollar industry. And I think when I say that to folks, people get really upset about that when I say that. Well, why do you keep saying that? Because it was true, right? Exactly. And because I was because I was one of the only black only black executives in this particular space, I saw things from a different, different uh lens. And my lens was not that we needed to have per se more black executives, although I thought that that if you have more black executives, not necessarily from a race perspective, but you have more diversity of mind and spirit and understanding and more experiences to lend to the industry so that the industry can get better. But I also saw the fact that our industry was not capitalizing on the revenue that we're missing because they didn't know how to invite and welcome these consumers into the space. And because I didn't see anybody else that looked like me, I didn't see anybody else that looked like me at the RV shows at the time. And keep in mind now, this is in 2015, uh, 2014 and 15. So I didn't see anybody, I would go to the RV shows and didn't see uh any black families come to the shows. I would be in the meetings myself as an executive. I didn't see anybody that looked like me at an executive level. I didn't see anybody in that space. The first thing I thought was, man, this industry is missing billions and billions and billions of dollars because obviously the industry either doesn't know how to, don't want to, or is really not uh not aware of how or why this particular, these particular folks of different race, age, and genders are not actually RVing into this particular space. And and when you think about RVing, you also think about it as a whole for the entire outdoor industry on why there was not really a big push on to drive this particular space. Now, there's been a big push, per se, of uh of so inviting, not necessarily inviting and welcoming folks, but really a big push of showcasing different groups and clubs. But I think that particular space has been um oversaturated and not done a good job because our industry don't know why these folks don't go in the outdoors in the first place. And when you don't know the why, you can't get to the what, when, where, and how, even with your marketing strategy. And that's why it hasn't really done well. Yep. Right? Yeah, point on. Yeah, you're you're right on.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

And even what you said too, I want to move forward here because you you, you know, we talked off while and you mentioned you you invested, speaking of, you know, strategy, I think you have a great strategy with your business. You you mentioned you invested 2.5 million of your own money into this data, right? Under 4% of college students, um, even I think said near your base, have outdoor experience, right? Which is a significant, obviously, data point. I guess what made you, I guess what made you willing to put that kind of capital behind, I guess really you'd say a problem or really a missed opportunity, if you will, that most people um, you know, we're we're comfortable ignoring. Like you said, they either are not aware or don't know how. Um I guess what made you willing to say, hey, I'm gonna put this money here and this in this parking here and invest a lot of money in this data.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Well, first we we invested 1.2 um million dollars. Um and we probably actually probably 1.5 now if we look at 2026 and where we're going. Well, the reason why we invested the money is because when you build a business, no matter what it is, you have to understand the why before you can get to the what, when, where, and how. And we as a company had to invest into the data to understand how to help the industry. Like, for instance, I can't just go give a one $114 billion industry my opinions and then hoping that they change on my opinions. So what we did was we invested in the data so that we can have the data to back up our strategies and which we're going to share and which we share with our industry, hoping that they would say, wow, these folks invested into the strategies, into the understanding of this. They must know what they're talking about. Well, it's taking a while for our industry to really adapt to what we're saying because our industry only knows what they know. And they don't necessarily, I don't know if they really want to know they what we are sharing with them. But sooner or later, though, they're gonna have to want to know because the bottom line, the uh the revenue is gonna tell the story, right? Right. Uh, I think, you know, so for us, you know, it it had to, and as a as a a business builder or a driver, I have to understand the data first, right? I can't just go on opinions. I can't just go on the coon my dog. I have to understand the why so that I can actually drive the business. In every space I've ever been in, from Nokia, from uh the outdoor, the the sourcing industry, from the outdoor space, from playing football as a kid, from selling candy as a kid, from cutting grass, starting a business cutting grass as a teenager, I had to understand the why before I can get to the what, when, where, and how. And that's how my brain works. And so by us investing in the dollars, getting the data, understanding the strategy, it actually makes us we're smarter because now we can share this data and be able to create these strategies for our partners in the outdoor industry now to do what we've asked them to do, which is hey, or do what they want to do, which is invite and welcome more consumers into the space so there's more revenue flowing in the space. At the end of the day, at the end of the day, we're not doing anything other than what any other business would do. Right? You know, so many people look at us as our company and they think that, you know, we're a group and think that we're a club. Uh, we're not. We've never been. We never even said that. We we we we're not a company. We we we're a company. We never accept the donations. We don't write grants for our business. We're we're business. And the way we make money and the way we do things is creating a um a very sincere, meaningful, measurable, and sustainable strategies for the outdoor industry to follow to make sure that they're invited and welcomed, outreaching and sales and marketing to other consumers. That's who we are, right? And we just have we just we are just good at inviting and welcoming folks into the outdoors because of our our our way to twist people's hearts rather than arms, and rather than calling people in, rather than calling people out. And that makes us a little bit different from everybody else.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Yeah, that's what gets you ahead, too. That's what's putting you ahead.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Well, it gets us ahead, and what it really does is that we're not afraid to tackle the underlying reasons why people haven't been in the outdoors, and that's what our industry has not figured out yet. That you can talk about these reasonings while actually fixing these things. And if you don't talk about them, you're not gonna fix them, and all you'll have is you'll have uh marketing campaigns and strategies that fall on deaf ears and don't work because you're not speaking the right language to the folks you're actually trying to actually invite and welcome to the space.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Yeah. One thing I too, I think for the listeners I'll be listening, you know, at this time when it drops, I think one thing about you, Earl, is that you get to the root. Like you're gonna have to call it. There's no there's no fluff, there's no theater. I'm I'm I'm getting straight to it. And I w I wanna I wanna I want to hit it on the head. Was there anything about the data that surprised you, like you and your team, like when you found out?

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Nah, nothing surprised me. Listen, I've I've been black in America for 50 years in regards to that. And I knew I didn't go in the outdoor industry and the outdoor lifestyle. I knew my friends didn't enjoy the outdoor lifestyle. Yeah. I know, I know in my friends who one of the things that surprised me about the industry though, not about the data. What surprised me about the industry though is how the industry thinks of quote unquote black folks and people of color and brown folks in America as if we can't afford RVs, as if we can't afford camping equipment, as if we can't afford these things, and we can, right? There are pockets of people, just like in every other race, they can't afford certain lifestyles, right? But when you're talking about black folks, man, I felt like the industry, particularly back in 2015, they were putting a group of people, every person of color, in one pocket in one group. And I thought that was unfair to not only to me, and only to my friends who have worked very hard to obtain an incredible amount of uh revenue or lifestyle. But I felt it was unfair to the industry because I knew then that they were actually missing out on a very, not a very select few of people, but a really um uh a large amount of folks who could really help the industry right now uh thrive. And so that surprised me that a lot of the executives in our industry were not aware of the revenue or or the or the GDP or the spin of black American, black folks in America. That really, really shocked me, that that was something that they were surprised about. And and it and it and it really shows though that it's not that those those folks are um that they're uneducated per se or not smart. It shows that they may have been spending too much time uh focusing on one area of uh expertise or one area of revenue generation. And here's what I know about driving the business. Uh I don't care where your money comes from. We want your dollars because at the end of the day, you know, no matter how folks want to make this feel, America's built on capitalism. And everybody's dollars make this work. Well, we just believe there's a certain way and a certain expectation on how you go out to folks' dollars, right? And and we believe that you have to do it with sincerity, you have to do it with some meaning. We believe you have to be able to measure it so it then will be sustainable, period. Right? This has nothing to do with race, this has nothing to do with uh age, gender, ability. This has all to do with how to invite and welcome folks. Period. Right?

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Yeah, and I and I appreciate all that that feedback too. I actually want to go actually a little bit further here as we move forward because you're talking about data, also just uh inadequacy of uh maybe tailoring the message, the language, like you said, to the audience which you're trying to obviously um you know invite to the industry. Right. We talked offline, many, and you talked about the data shows that like 86% of children introduced to outdoors is by their parents. Um and hopefully if that happens, typically they they typically, as where they grow up, they love outdoors as well. Um it also shows that black children were legally barred from state and national parks until six 1964, which is the year my mother was born. Um obviously you put those two facts together for me.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

What does that mean for you know where we're at right now when you look at Well you think about you think about this, and and a lot of folks don't have like to have these conversations, but let's just get right into it. Yeah, yeah. Like I said, the data, the data says that 86% of children that are introduced to the outdoors by their parents are more likely to love the outdoors as adults. I want to I want to say that again though, because that's really important for our industry to understand. 86% of children who are introduced to the outdoors, camping, RVing, uh backpacking, everything in the outdoors by their parents are more likely to love it as adults. Well, the reason why that's so important for us to share that, because like I I think the groups that take children in the outdoors are fine. I think they're amazing, right? I think that folks who do that, I think they're great. But but based on the data as a business that actually is selling products to adults, that didn't help me very well. Because that says that because the data says only about 16% of those children, or or 16% of those children actually grow up to love the outdoors as adults. And probably a quarter of them actually um buy things um that actually that I can use in the outdoors. Well, how's that translate to the outdoor industry? Well, that translates to the fact that we don't sell product to children. And we don't sell product to uh we we don't, you know, children don't have any money. But if they try if but it but if we hit but if we start to have that particular conversation, work that data into our marketing sales strategy, then we'll understand how we can get those children then, and those parents, when they start to introduce their children to the outdoors, we then will culminate all of that into driving um those particular individuals to love the outdoors as adults. And then they at some point, they at some point will then want to spend their dollars with our particular brands. Um and and and and and people sometimes get confused and they always say, well, it's always about the money. Well, if you're in business, it is about the money. Correct. But you can be a do-good company and make money. That's what we are. Yeah. We're a do-good company promoting unity in the outdoor community and beyond, but also we want to make money. We have a staff, right? Yeah, you have your pay. Right. So the second piece of that is that, you know, you talk about black America specifically. You know, there are many state and national parks that were segregated until 1964, right? Uh there are campgrounds out here that actually, they don't really want to say this, but the truth of the matter is, many of them don't want to see folks to look like me, right? Because if they did, they would actually promote and market to these folks based on the fact that their numbers are down, right? And and I always tell folks, we're not in the business of calling folks out. And if you are a private company, you own a campground, it is your prerogative to invite and welcome whoever you want, right? However, though, I mean, if you really want to stay in business though, you probably don't want to invite everyone, right? You want to invite everyone, you want to make everybody feel welcome. And if and if you don't, and if you don't, if you if you don't have a problem with inviting and welcome everyone up based on their race, age, and their ability, just go ahead and tell them then. Why not just tell them that, right? Yeah, be able to do that. And so that's what we believe in. We believe in, you know, you know, building strategies to make sure that folks truly want to invite and welcome everyone because everybody got some money.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Yeah, yeah, correct. And they'll spend what they want, right? We talked about it.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

They'll spend what they want to do, yeah. You know, you know, folks who folks who spend, listen, I don't go anywhere that I don't feel welcome. I don't spend my money there. I don't want to spend my money there. And this is the thing I have to tell our industry, and this is very important. Brown folks, black folks, or people of different race, 80s, genders, and abilities, they'll go, they can go their whole life without spending money in the outdoor industry and have an amazing life. But the outdoor industry won't survive without those same people spending their money in the outdoor industry. It just won't survive. The data says that. It just won't happen. Yep. Right? So, so we have to shift. Our industry has to shift to stop thinking um in a way that these particular consumers need them. Our industry needs to be thinking that we need these particular consumers, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Speaking of uh kind of the barriers, right? Because I know you said, you know, earlier, you know, you're not the barriers are not primarily, you know, income or or um, you know, urban residency residency. It's actually generational fear that you come from offline, lack of knowledge and lack of imitation. What does it actually look like to address those three things specifically rather than the ones the industry assumed were the problem?

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Well, the the first thing is, you know, you you know, the industry, we get this question a lot. The industry is like, well, how do we address and address, you know, what the consumer, particularly the black consumer or the person of color is could consider. And by the way, let me just let me let me just let me just help help the industry understand this. Because I know someone's gonna be listening to this, and and all I always get this question. Every race, every gender, every ability in this country, in this world can have generational fear, lack of knowledge, and lack of invitation to go in the outdoors. Right? Yep. In regards to particular people of color and black folks, though, that is based on what our data is, that is the number one reason why the majority of black folks or people of color don't go in the outdoors because of generational fear, lack of knowledge, and lack of invitation and welcoming by the outdoor industry, the industry that actually needs to make revenue to survive. And the question is, why haven't you invited and welcomed these folks and get their money? Right? And I think that when you say that, when you talk about that, people have a very uh a different understanding of that. You know, they they they mean the same. Nobody's calling you out because you haven't done that. I'm just calling you in so you can do it, right? Right. And so our biggest thought process is that you think about the generational fear. Um, you know, one of the things that we tell uh our industry is that the way you address this is by educating yourself about it. That way, and educating your, your, your, your marketing team, educating your sales team, educating people in your whole company so that when you start to actually do these marketing strategies, it won't look foreign. To them. They won't start asking questions like, why are you doing this? Why are you singling this out? Why are you doing these things? Well, you're doing these things based on the history and where the where we are from a consumer perspective. This is not uh you're doing something because you're um you you're trying to put someone over someone else. You're doing it so you can actually speak to them, right? And if you're not willing to learn how to speak to someone, your communication is not going to be good. And we all know when communication is not good, we all know what it means to send a text message or send something online that somebody reads it. Yep. And they read it and it's not fitting to their soul, we already know what happened. So, what our job is, is to teach companies how to have this conversation with consumers, no matter what their race is, no matter what their gender is, no matter what their age is, no matter what their ability is, to invite and welcome them to be a part of our $1.3 trillion industry, which is the outdoor industry. Period. Right? Love that.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Is there any, actually just curious too, is there any one of those three that I mentioned that are the hard are hard to, I guess, hard to tackle?

SPEAKER_01 23:11

I think the biggest, the hardest one to tackle is getting the industry to realize that generational fear is real. Yeah. It's real because most folks in 2026, they can't believe it. They can't believe that folks that are still afraid to go in the woods, afraid to go in the outdoors because of what their great-grandmothers told them. But if you think about this, we all are like this. If your great-grandmother told you that baseball, you'd be scared of the baseball. Because if they throw it, the baseball will hit you in your face. You'll probably never play baseball. Right, right. Well, my great-grandmother told me don't go in them woods, right? And she told me don't go in those woods because of some of the most heinous things that happen to her and her family members in the woods, right? And so, and so when you when you have that, those particular thought processes, those are those are generational mentions. Every generation you have that, right? The only way you break that, the only way that is broken is by other folks that may or may not look like you, invite and welcome you into the outdoors, right? You know, or folks who love the outdoors, invite and welcome you in the outdoors. All we're saying to our industry is learn how to invite and welcome folks that you may or may not have ever dealt with into the outdoor industry, into the outdoor lifestyle, into the outdoor space, and our industry will be better. It'll be better for it, right?

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Yeah, it's crazy. No, just you're speaking, man. I'm I'm listening. I'm like, it's crazy to think that like we haven't got to that point yet.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Yeah, you know, we're in 2026. Like, but you know, there are a lot of, listen, there are a lot of businesses that have gotten that industry, gotten to that space. The car industry, yeah, you know, uh, the the bar industry, oh, they've gotten really good at it, right? Uh, you know, a lot of industries gotten really good at it understanding, look, Disney World, Disneyland, the music park, they gotten really good at saying that, look, we want everybody's dollars. Uh, but our outdoor industry hasn't gotten good at it. And hadn't gotten good at it for a lot of different reasons. And the biggest reason is because it's not really willing to learn how to. And that's important. I'm just, and that's not calling folks out, that's calling them in. You know, I've been in this business for our company started in 2019. And I'm gonna tell you right now, it's one of the toughest things that for me has been is sharing with our industry that you have to get educated about this. And there are a lot of companies out there that are willing to understand this, which one of my favorite companies out there is Oboe's Footwear. Like, they understand it. I mean, they understand this is a ship, not a speedboat. Like, it's gonna take some time to figure this out. You know, the Space Disguise camp rounds, right? Those folks, um, Alexandra and her crew, they understand that we have to sell and market to everyone. We also have, they also understand they have to make sure their employees understand why they're doing this so that when they start to implement these marketing strategies, it doesn't look foreign to them. But for the most part, though, a lot of this right here, um, the reason why it's taking so long is because a lot of the a lot of our industry, they also have generational fear. They have fear of going outside the box because of what the pe what their their their mass or their majority of their consumers are gonna think about them. Um they they have they have lack of knowledge on how to uh engage with this consumer, and they really haven't been invited and welcomed by other folks to engage as well. And so this is being vice versa. You know, we we want them to invite and welcome the consumer. We want them to get educated about their what they do and do not know. We want them to understand the consumer's generational fear. Well, as a company, we understand our partners in the industry's lack of knowledge, their generational fear, and also their willingness. Uh, and we're invited and welcome them to learn more. I mean, this is this is not rocket science, man. And and and and here's the thing, of course. We understand as a company that it takes time.

SPEAKER_02 27:11

We understand that.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

That's why we don't call folks out. That's why we call folks in. We've been doing this since 2019. We're not just a company, we're an award-winning company. We want awards for our strategies because our strategies are true. That's why we have some of the some of the biggest partners in the world right now, you know, at least a couple of them, right? Yeah. Because our strategies.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

Yeah. I want to move forward because you talked about training too. And you told me you trained with like 15,000 people, which is crazy. So from park staff, right? And when they're going through your your train there, Earl, um, obviously they came back with improved confidence and engaging and diverse visitors. I guess my question is like, what are you actually teaching them? Not the not the content, but like what is the shift that has to happen in that person before they can genuinely, as you said earlier, like actually connect with someone who may not look like them.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Or well, you listen, you would, yeah, you're right. We you would think that. You would think that public lands or private companies, yeah, you would think that everyone in America uh have had interaction with one another of different people of race, age, gender and ability, but that's not true. It's not true. People, there are a lot of folks out there that have never had a conversation with somebody that doesn't look like them. And if they and if they go by what they see on social media, on TV, and they have a skewed view of what this person is, they will approach them differently. Well, we have had conversations with state parks, national parks, uh private campground owners, RV dealerships, um outdoor retailers who've never had a conversation with a person that doesn't look like them to invite and welcome them to the outdoors. And because they have not had had the practice of doing so, they don't know how to engage. Well, our courses and what we do teach folks how to engage. And honestly, we thought some of the courses, when we first started doing the courses, I was like, man, this stuff is so elementary. I can't believe folks haven't done this. Well, that's where my empathy comes in for folks, right? My empathy comes in with that that we had to create a course that was so um so amazing that it didn't make people feel like they were ignorant, but it also made them feel like they can engage. And so our our strategy is to start folks at the toenail of the elephant. And what that means is start at the beginning and help them understand that uh you're not ignorant because you don't know how to have this conversation with folks. You just hadn't had the opportunity to. So that way that relationship and that handshake is meaningful. Yeah. And it's not awkward. And it's in a way that, you know, that that most people would say, that's pretty easy to do. Yeah. It's not easy for everyone. And not just because people don't know how to communicate. Uh some people tell me this all the time, well, I'm not really a I'm not really a person that talks like you, or I don't, I don't know how to, yeah, but uh, if if you're not really a person that talks like me and you're in a business that that that requires you to engage with the customer, uh, well, you probably need to find you somewhere else to go do business at then.

SPEAKER_02 30:13

Because it's not gonna work for you.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

So I wouldn't you I would tell folks, don't use that excuse, man. You need to get educated on how to engage with people. Because we are because that the bottom line is, the bottom line is, you know, we believe this based on data, man. We believe like 80% of people in America, listen, we got more same than matter of fact, everybody, we have more same than differences. We have more same than differences. So, you know, let's focus on the same rather than the differences, and we'll have a better communication. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Is there any resistance? I guess what's the most common resistance uh that you may encounter when you're training? Do you have any resistance or anything?

SPEAKER_01 30:49

I think probably the I don't think there's a resistance, but I think the the hardest thing is for folks to think that in 2026 that we still have to talk about the past. Yeah. But but yeah, but you have to do that to understand it and then move past that and get to the what, when, where, and how. But you gotta start at it again, you have to start at the toenail of the elephant to understand the why. Like you can't move past that. You have to understand that piece. And that's hard for a lot of people to hear because you because they think you're talking to them. They think that, they think that they are personally, they're taking it personal. And I don't take this personal in regards to the data. The data, it is what it is, right? What I take personal though is fixing this, right? Because I know that my colleagues and my friends who are in the outdoor space, I know they're struggling right now. And I know they're going through it right now. And I know that the only way we're gonna fix this is by them being able to stand on it and to go out and get them a new consumer. This is not going to be fixed by having a conversation with the current consumers right now. Because let's just keep it real. The consumers, the current consumers in our industry, the majority of them are aging out. Right? And, you know, there's only so many RVs and backpacks and tents and hiking poles and shoes that you can buy before you decide I have enough. Well, what has to happen is our industry has to start turning their attention to other consumers. And just so happen we have strategies to help them do that. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

Before we keep going, if what Earl just shared about who has been left out of the outdoor space and why is landing for you, Unity folks and Unity Blades are how you get involved. Whether you want to volunteer, attend an event, or just show up, go to the link in the show notes, reach out directly, and mention code LifeISPOD10. This is the work. Come be a part of it. Perfect. I'm gonna I'm gonna put a pause here because we're gonna come back to all this on the back end, but I want to dive in for the viewers to kind of get a little insight about obviously your growth as you got here because you grew uh as we talked about, you grew a company um that you worked with called called Silver Sport from under a million dollars of revenue to 22.5 million in four years, right? Which is which is uh phenomenal growth in that short period of time. Um can you walk me through kind of the thinking behind that growth? Like what did you understand um about how to build relationships in that market that the previous maybe approach or the business owners maybe had missed in that in that arena?

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Well, when I got into the when I first started in the outdoor units in 2015, I did go work for a company, um, Sylvan Sport. It was a company, it was they were a small boutique towel uh outdoor equipment company, made RVs, pop-up campers, and then we moved into uh then they moved into uh a small travel trailers, and then also some, while I was there, we moved into some outdoor gear. Um, one of the things that I loved about the company is that the the products were amazing, right? Uh the products were incredible. What what what I what I found in my particular space when I started there was I needed about two, three weeks to really understand, not necessarily the product, but understand what the strategy was, right? Yeah. So I had to put the very things that I know best is I had to make sure that what I was doing was sincere. I had to make sure that it was meaningful what I was doing. I also need to make sure that I can measure my strategy and also it my strategies can be sustainable, right? And so my thought process was let's not take the the uh the bump shot approach where trying to get every customer. Let's take the approach of taking the shotgun approach where we just get one customer at a time. And so what what we did and to drive the business from uh a million to almost uh $20 million a year is, I mean $20 million in four years, is you know, to have we want, I wanted us to have the type of relationship with RV dealers and the consumer as we wanted people to have relationships with one another. I wanted someone, I wanted RV dealers to love us, to love me so much that they will tell other people how great I am and we are. And that's exactly how it happened. You know, we I remember putting a trailer on the back of a truck and driving almost 340,000 miles around this country from North Carolina to Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia to BC, BC to San Diego, San Diego to Miami. This covered this whole entire country, going from dealer to dealer to dealer. Got a lot of no's about our product because it wasn't really a uh a traditional product, but it got a ton of yeses though. And those yeses became not only just yeses at that moment, but they came yes when other dealers would call each other and say, hey, listen, tell me about Earl, tell me about our product. And folks had rave reviews talking about myself and talking about my style of delivering product, understanding the product, but also understanding how to service a consumer that they may not know or knew who was actually out there, right? And so again, the same approach that we took, that I took with Silver Sport is the same approach we're taking now here at the Unity folks. First, understand what the what the issue is, the why, and then get to the what, when, where, and how. This is not rocket science, right? You either want to do it or you don't, right? And and and we just so happen to me, I just want to do it, right? I want to do it, and I want to show other people that can be done. And and we just have a model. Our model works. No one can debunk our model. That's what I'm gonna get to next. No one can debunk our data. No one. No one can debunk, no one has come to us and said your data is wrong or your process is wrong. No one has ever said that to us. Now, there's been a lot of folks say we we don't want to do that process. Well, and I always say to them, that's your prerogative. Right, that's your choice. That's your choice to do that or not. But I can tell you this one thing, it works. We know that for sure.

SPEAKER_00 36:44

Yeah, that's proven. And speaking of your model, right? You're consulting, like you're consulting, you need folks. Your consulting model charges uh state parks and a large RV dealership, fees in the hundreds of thousands, I think you mentioned, and it obviously promises back-end uh revenue. So obviously you said earlier, you're not a nonprofit, which I think a lot of people thought you were, or a group. Right. Uh you're not dependent on donations.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

No, we never accepted a donation ever. We've never written a grant.

SPEAKER_00 37:09

How did how did you decide on the, I guess, on that business first model, you know, was right for the structure for this mission, and what does that independence give you that the grant-funded organizations do not have?

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Well, you know, I I this is the thing I also need to share to all my nonprofit friends out there and all my folks who received grants and donations. Look, we're not over here thinking that we're better than anybody else. Because, you know, honestly, you know, uh last year was a tough year for us. It was a really tough year for us in a lot of different ways. So we're not over here bragging that that that because we didn't accept donations or didn't write grants that we didn't need the revenue. Yeah. However, though, I felt like I wanted to build a scalable company. I needed to show the folks that we're actually having conversations with that we're in the same boat as you. If we don't move our feet, we don't eat. Right? And I wanted to be able to write my own, write, write my own letters and write my own, my own ticket and say, listen, we can build a sustainable business model that will help the outdoor industry. And we want the outdoor industry to understand we're in the same boat as you. You know, we're business. We pay taxes like everybody else. We have to go drive the business. And we really thought that our industry would respect us for that. We thought the industry would say to us, you know what, we let's get on board with these folks because they think like us. Right? And so, and so what that meant, what that meant for me is that, you know, we tell our, we tell our I tell our staff all the time, you know, we want to do such a good job that we run ourselves out of business. We want to do such a good job that we run ourselves out of business. Here's the thing though, when we say that though, you know, our business is everlasting because unity is forever. It's forever. And I just so happen that our business model is true and it's incredible. It's in it's absolutely incredible. I wake up every morning, Corey, every single morning, with the ideal and the notion of selling and marketing unity through a revenue-driven process, through a data-driven process. And a process that I know that no one has ever said that does not work.

unknown 39:25

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

No one has ever said that, right? And if they did, I would say to them, show me the data, man, that it doesn't work. Because we have the data that it does. Right? Yep. Uh and so, and so, you know, I'm I'm I'm I'm in the greatest, I'm in the greatest, I have the greatest career ever. Greatest career ever, man. And I wake up every day thinking that way.

SPEAKER_00 39:47

Yeah, and you can I I'm sure the people who are listening, you can you can feel it by, you know, I mean you you stand by what you say, by what you do, what your company does. Like this is not a uh, you know, flute. This is this is it. Like I'm in it. You know, I I wear it on my chest. I want to also kind of switch gears to, because you talked about, is it oh is it oboe's? Is that how you say it? Oboe's footwear, yeah. Obo. So you so you negotiate obviously a co-brand deal with them, obviously, um, and you sold a lot of, uh, as you mentioned, a lot of over a lot of installers. Yeah, installs combined. Uh, and obviously earning a road because on those sales. Yeah. I guess how did you build the build that kind of deal? And what does it require you to bring, I guess, to the table, right? To make a company like Oboe see the value in what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

Well, one of the things is first, Oboe's itself had to really want to understand what we were doing. It took them a while, just like everybody else, to really understand what we were doing. Yeah. Right? Because again, we came along when the company, the country was under social unrest. Yeah. Right? When George Floyd was killed. You know, people, every outdoor company in America was reaching out to us because at the time we were promoting the quote unquote black folks can two brands. So every company in America was reaching out to us, and a lot of them were just pandering. Matter of fact, almost 99% of them were just pandering and wanting to be a part of a company like ours. And they were sending donations. We were sending the money back to them. We're like, we we don't, that's not how we operate. And I think a bunch of them got mad at us because we didn't let them help us in that way. Right. Right. But but oboe's were different. Oboe's was really different. Oboes really asked us, hey, listen, what can we partner on that makes sense? And we share with them, no, why don't we just uh utilize our our brand, which is our our Unity Blaze, which we believe means that you're invited and welcome. Why don't we we we we license out that that our our brand to you and put it into uh these beautiful insoles right there? And it has the Unity Blaze at the bottom. And then you all sell, will we sell the, we'll help you drive the business, we'll help you drive sales through retail, through individual sales, we'll help you drive that. We make a royalty, and then we also use those dollars along with you all to now go educate more consumers on inviting and welcoming into the outdoors. Listen, it's a beautiful motto. It's a beautiful motor. It's not that they're giving us anything, we're earning it based on their style of doing business, right? And so now the respect level is there for me. Like I respect them for allowing us to uh have an amazing conversation with them. Matter of fact, as soon as I'm off the call with you, I have a conversation with them to talk about how do we actually move our unity blaze in that space.

SPEAKER_02 42:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:26

But but the other thing is there there are a lot of, there were a couple other companies that were on board at the time. And again, those companies are no longer with us because they were thinking strategically. They weren't thinking like like like we thought. Like, how do we now drive this notion of unity in the outdoor community and beyond? Right. Right. And it's gonna take some time. It's not like uh something that you can jump on and jump off. There's so many companies that did that in the last five years, j partner with companies of color and now they're no longer. And it's because number one, many of them didn't have if they they were sincere, and they probably were meaningful, but they didn't have a measurable and sustainable approach. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

Quick pause. If you are a brand, a dealership, a park system, or organization trying to reach communities you have not been able to connect with, Earl's Consulting Work is exactly what you need. He does not just talk about inclusion, he builds a strategy that makes it profitable. Go to the link in the show notes, reach out directly, and mention code LIFESPOD10 to start the conversation. Yeah. Speaking of Unity Blaze, that's what I want to go to next, right? Unity Blaze, the kind of the evolution of the of the brand, right? From black camps to to Unity.

SPEAKER_02 43:36

Black folks camps too, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:37

Yeah, kind of go from there. So obviously you expand it from black black folks camp to Asian camp, you know, Asian folks camp to mixed folks camp too. You pretty much got any any any anything you think of, you got it, right? Um I guess behind that, right, that strategy behind all the marking data, and obviously doing this not because of any external political uh pressure, but what did the data tell you that made that expansion? Uh, the logical next move, right? Going from Black Family.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

Well, the logical next move is this, you know, you know, our company at the time was Black Folks Camp 2, which is one of the most incredible branding names of all time, right? Well, we figured, we figured we were, we, our mission hadn't changed, right? Since the day we started this company, we promote unity in the outdoor community and beyond. We've always done that. This this campfire right here always represented unity, right? It's a Unity Blaze. Um, well, we figured if we're going to invite and welcome everyone, we wanted to make sure that Unity, first of all, was in our company name. So we evolved to the Unity folks. Well, when we evolved to the Unity folks, we decided, okay, we want people to feel that understanding of that. And so now we have brands of Asian folks camp to, Latino folks camp too, Hispanic folks camp too, black folks camp too, white folks camp to disabled folks camp too, military folks camp too, church folks camp to, uh, Asian folks camp to, all folks camp to mixed folks camp to, right? Everything up under the sun, military folks camp too, right? And anything else we want to add to that, because we own folks camp too. We also own folks hype to folks RV to, right? So we, again, as a business, we started thinking, how do we reach and attract more folks to our brand, which is the Unity Blaze and the Unity folks? That then will make it stronger for our partners who are out there wanting to attract more folks through this notion of unity, then no one feels left out. And then the second thing is honestly, also, we got tired of folks saying the one thing that bothered us the most when we had our brand and it was black folks camp too. Well, what about all folks? Well, we own that too. Yeah, all folks can too. So there you go. Now go buy a t-shirt.

SPEAKER_00 45:50

Yeah, yeah. Speaking of that, uh speaking of t-shirts, I want to get to that next because you shared something, man, offline. You said um I think you said 80, no, or 90% of your purchase for black folks camp two products um were made by white white customers. Which was which was Well, and here's why.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

Because most white folks who contact us and talk to us, their emails to us and their conversation with us is like, I love your brand. I love that black folks camp two brand. Um, I can't get my black friend to go camping with me. I can get them to go everywhere with me, but I can't get them to go camping with me. So they buy a t-shirt and they send it to them, and they always say, see, black folks do camp, right? As if they were encouraging them to camp. And here's what I always say to them: buy two t-shirts. They were like, why? You wear it too. Exactly. You work black folks' camp too. It don't say black folks camp only with black folks or black folks camp by themselves. It says black folks camp too, and two means also and as well. So now, if you really want to, you can go to our website and buy white folks camp too. We don't care.

SPEAKER_00 46:52

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 46:53

We don't care who camps. And in terms of the industry, the industry should feel that way as well. They shouldn't care who camps, who buys RVs, who RVs, who hikes. Everybody should be hiking and enjoying the outdoors and doing all these things, right? Because if we don't, there are gonna be some other there's other lifestyles out there that are actually causing folks not to want to go camping, causing young families not to want to go camping. And we really need to be really need to be touching these folks' hearts and also their pockets before these other spaces do so.

SPEAKER_00 47:23

Yep. Yeah, you gotta get there first. I want to kind of dive deeper because you've kind of talked about this idea already, kind of the vision of the company, but right, you said explicitly that you're not trying to create segregated outdoor spaces, right? You're promoting integration, which is unity, right? It's in your company name. In a moment of a lot of um, right, in a moment when a lot of diversity work trends uh towards separate, right? Or, you know, being distinct, you're building kind of toward a unified outdoor community. What does that vision look like in practice? And why do you believe integration is the right direction um as a whole?

SPEAKER_01 47:52

Well, well, number one, the practice is right because um the practice is right because it because we all human, right? Everybody got something going on and this campfire, which is our Unity Blaze, we want everybody around that. We don't care about your race, age, and the ability, because once you get around the campfire, again, you're gonna find that you have more same additions. It don't really matter. Yeah. Look, if you haven't, if you're having problems in your life, uh, you got something going in your life, uh, I'm sure that somebody else has the same problems, right? Yep. It doesn't matter. Um, I think one of the other things is too, you think about public land, you know. We all pay for 640 million acres of public land here in America, right? And we all should be enjoying it. And the one thing I always tell folks, I don't, I don't care if people go in the outdoors with um certain groups and things of that nature, but I just don't think that should be the norm. I don't think that I should have to call up in the morning every day and call my friend who my black friend and go camping with my just my black friend. And if they don't want to go camping, I don't go camping at all. Yeah. Like I don't think that should be the norm. I don't think that folks should be calling me. Um, the industry folks should be calling me and using these words. Hey, Earl, we want to know uh how can we get involved in your community? And we're like, what's our community? And I'm like, uh, because our community is everyone, right? And so if you're com if you're thinking that, great. But if you're thinking that we just want to uh focus on one demographic, then you're wrong, right? Because I don't believe that's a very scalable model in regards to how do we actually, particularly in America is not a very scalable model. Yeah, for sure. Right. And so, you know, there's so many mixed families in this in the in America, there's so many mixed families around the world. Um, I don't want to um I don't want to make anyone feel like they're not invited and welcome. And that's why the Unity folks has been so incredible to us. That's why our name evolved. That's why us as a company that if we're asking the industry to evolve, then we have to be able to evolve too. Right? And we did. And so you know, the the the the biggest piece of the puzzle is this, Corey, is this is that if if if folks want to enjoy the outdoors with their families and with people that look like them, by all means, man, do that. That is your prerogative. We're that's your prerogative, that's what you do, that's how you want to do it, that's great. But what we're saying is to our industry, to the industry, you're not going to be able to survive if all you're doing is sales and marketing to one demographic. It's not gonna happen. You're not gonna win. You're gonna fail, actually.

SPEAKER_00 50:27

Yeah, right. You're gonna cut yourself offshore too. Yeah, all that's over here and you're just focused on one area.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

Right. It what it does, it it it it truly does make other folks think you don't want them into your your space. And if that's the case, then stop trying to fool me then. Then stop paying us so much money then and to to do this work. Just tell us straight up. You know, we just uh we just don't really want that, right? Right, you know, and that's fine. But I know I know if you say that, if you truly mean that though, I know you won't be in business long.

SPEAKER_00 50:56

Yep. Yeah, there's this uh ticking ticking time on that case. It is ticking time, yeah. Speaking of uh kind of moving forward here as we kind of go to the back end here, right? We kind of switched gears talking about your discipline, your faith, and your philosophy, really the long game with the within the company. Um, you know, you you can compare business discipline, right, to sports team dynamics, coordinated effort, accountability, and really no room um for complacency. You've signed it obviously a Kodak where we talked offline and and crack a barrel at the cautionary tales of companies that failed to evolve. What does that look like when a company starts losing its discipline from the inside? And what are the early signs when it comes becomes a crisis?

SPEAKER_01 51:33

Well, I think a lot, well, my my biggest thing is I play football at a pretty high level. Yeah. And one of the things I know in football, there's a halftime. And and one of the things about halftime is it's the most uh irrelevant time in sports. It's the most irrelevant time in sport in terms of the game, not the entertainment, but the game. And here's why. You can be winning at halftime and end up losing. Or you can be losing at halftime and ending up winning based on your strategy. Because when you go in a locker room and halftime, particularly playing football, if you got some real coaches and they really getting down to it, that means they've studied the first half and know that we got to change the things in the second half to make sure that we actually either continue to win or to come back and win, right? And our industry right now is at halftime. Well, our industry is past halftime. Our industry in the third quarter. And and and and they haven't really done a lot of shifts. And so you think about this, our industry right now, the particularly the outdoor industry, the outdoor industry right now is operating from the same playbook that it started with. And because they operate in terms of in terms of the consumer, and because they're operating from the same playbook in terms of consumer, um, and and and and that consumer is no longer um no longer maybe the majority of the consumer in this particular space, um, it has to change the playbook. It has to change the strategy. And so with that being said, you know, you think about, we talk about Kodak, you know, I don't think Kodak understood that what mobile phones were doing. They didn't understand what Nokia was doing at the time by adding cameras to their phones. Instead of them changing and perhaps going to buy a mobile phone company, uh, I think they just put their dollars in making disposable cameras to sell at drugstores. And I don't, I don't understand, I don't think they understood that. In terms of Cracklebarrel, I don't think Cracklebarrel truly understands that their customers are aging out. And they really needed to go that way of uh making sure that they reached out to a younger audience, an audience that understands that, you know, some of the some of the artifacts that they have on the wall, they didn't want to come in and see a lot of those things, right? Um, you know, but but as I always say, you know, I like to uh spend 100% of the time um on our business and 100% of the time staying out of other folks' business. And so our business, yeah, our business, what we want to be able to do, and our business is the outdoor industry, is tell them, listen, the the time is up for thinking that the old way of doing business is going to yield revenue for you because it's not. And and I don't know how, and I and I and I I don't want to say it with a lot of passion, um, that we our industry has to shift. And it has to shift in a way that soon you're gonna have to shift like a it's gonna have to shift like a speedboat.

SPEAKER_00 54:15

Yeah, it's gonna be forced.

SPEAKER_01 54:16

And one thing about speedboats, though, they disrupt a lot of things because they're moving so fast. And when you're disrupting a lot of things, people get upset because you probably miss some things. Well, our industry needs to operate like a ship and start to to start to shift and turn right now, particularly in the RV and the outdoor industry. And bec and and it has to do that. If it does not do that, we're going to fail. We're showing signs of it now based on uh based on our sales right now, based on our inventory right now. And and and and and in order to fix this, in order to fix this, it can't be fixed by just uh changing uh shoes. This has to be fixed by making sure your your your shoe, your your foot actually fit in the shoe first, right? Um because it may not be your shoe, it may be your feet.

SPEAKER_00 55:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, jokingly I'm thinking, you know, it's you know, metaphorically turn into the Titanic if they don't turn the ship around, get past this iceberg. But also to your point, I think just me listening throughout your whole story, I think people have to want to, right? There's gotta be, like you said, there's gotta be a want to wanna to want to learn.

SPEAKER_01 55:28

Well, well, the only thing that I know that makes people change in America is money. Right. You know, I don't know anything in our country that ever changed really without capitalism. And I don't know why folks like to deviate from that. Because this is the truth. I mean, I don't know that, I mean, yeah, you know, and and I mean, and your family, I mean, but at the same time, though, I mean, I we we have to stop thinking that that's a bad thing, you know, particularly our industry has to stop thinking this way, man. We gotta stop thinking that, you know, by sales and marketing to other demographics is a bad thing, or if you don't know how to do it, you know, you that's why we built our company. So we built our company, you know. Uh we built our company to help our industry understand this. But because if we help our industry do a good job of inviting and welcoming folk, then our end goal will work. And our end goal is to get more folks in the outdoors together.

SPEAKER_00 56:20

It works. I got a couple got a couple more questions for you, but if just for a loser or a listener here, kind of take a second, speaking of Unity folks, I I I forgot to ask you earlier, kind of how did you approach when you first got started? How did you approach certain companies or parks? How did that look? What did that look like, I guess, is what I'm asking you. And on a daily basis, what does that look like? You know, are you going out here and just educating and setting up appointments, seminars? I think to kind of feel for someone who may be listening, uh, you know, what does that look like?

SPEAKER_01 56:48

Well, you know, one of the things is, you know, I had sort of a uh my track record is sort of known to a lot of folks, right? My track record of building business is kind of known to a lot of folks, right? And a lot of folks, they when they saw me building this company, they were wondering what I was doing. And when they started digging into what I was doing, everybody was like, wow, wow, it that sounds amazing. Although they didn't quite know what we were doing. Yeah, they leaned in, they leaned in a little bit. They kind of leaned in, like, what exactly are they doing, right? And our company would have been well off, more better than we are had COVID not happened. And I tell you why. COVID gave the outdoor industry a sense of um uh a foundation that thinks everything is gonna be all right in regards to the industry. But we knew in 2019 our industry had the outdoor industry had problems. We knew that based on this, I was in the industry on based on sales and and things of that nature, which is the reason why I started the company in the first place. Well, the day-to-day for me, um, you know, for the first three years of our company, all I did was keynote. I keynote around this country 265 times now in the last what six years, right? Whether it be Zoom or also in person. And one of the things that we've been able to do is, you know, we won an amazing war with State Park. We won the, in 2021, I believe, we won the National State Park Director's Presidency Award. And it's because of our strategy, right? And so because we won that award, state parks, we're like, wow, what these folks are doing, they come, they have a different strategy the way they do things. And and I'm and and so, you know, I'm really proud to say this, and this is, I'm I'm I'm introducing this to you, which the people will hear later on. Um, but I'm introducing to you that today we have partnered with the largest state park system in America, probably in the world, which is California State Parks, right? Yeah, California State Parks has inked the mo to deal with us to do what they've already been doing. Because California State Park has done a good job of inviting and welcoming folks. They've done a good job of this already. But if a company, if an organization, an organization like that already is doing a good job and they see a benefit in what we're doing, because they believe that we can actually also take them to the next level of inviting and welcoming folks by educating their staff, right? We believe that why wouldn't other parts systems want to do that? Yeah, why wouldn't you? And so, and so, you know, again, we understand that, again, we're not twisting folks' arms to do business with us. We just know that sooner or later, there are gonna be a lot of folks ask the question, why aren't you promoting unity? Why wouldn't you want to fly that unity blaze flag? Why wouldn't you want to attach to a company that's all they've done is promote unity in the outdoor community and beyond? What is your answer on why you wouldn't want to partner with a company that's promoting unity? And what we're saying is to companies and organizations out there is that um, no, just don't get caught in the curve. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 59:43

Yeah. Caught in the curve. And I and I appreciate that too. I just wanted to, I forgot to ask you earlier, and I thought, you know, if someone's listening, they probably want to hear a little more feedback on what that process looked like, what that kind of day day looked like as well. Yeah. Um kind of getting more slowed down here, a little more um I guess more personal, maybe on a deeper level. You know, you talked about your um I guess your faith, right? And obviously getting baptized and and kind of letting off those burdens, right? Um, which is a really significant moment for you. So congratulations to you. But what was that burden, I guess? What was what what what changed in you um and how that maybe changed how you lead and how you build after that, after that happened.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:20

Well, you know, man, I'm I grew up in church, man, eight days a week. I used to go to church eight days a week. You know, as a matter of fact, for the listeners out there who booked me to come keynote, they know that I sing a song right before I keynote.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:32

Um, one of the things I have a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old kid, both are phenomenal athletes, right? Yeah, yeah. They've seen their dad at a very high level in business. They see me in a very high level and doing a whole bunch of things. I wanted my children to see me and my faith and how I think and what I believe in, and hopefully, and I wanted to trans um transfer to them and how they feel and how they think. And I know for a fact that everything that I do, everything that I've done is a reflection of my faith. And I wanted to be bold in that. You know, particularly if we own a brand church folks camp too. I wanted to be bold and being able to go to churches and go to uh other different folks and uh different religions and things, and they just let them know, listen, we come with love.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:15

Yeah, we come with love.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:17

Uh and then they also too, you know, there are a lot of there are a lot of folks, particularly in these trying times, right? They don't, you know, I'm a positive gentleman, man. I I I I'm I I think this way all day. I think that I think tomorrow is gonna be better than today. Every day. I think tomorrow is gonna be better than today. But there's a lot of my colleagues out there who are entrepreneurs out there. There's a lot of people, my there's a lot of people that I encounter. They don't necessarily feel that way. And I needed to, I needed them to understand that, you know, I'm not just thinking this because from a human perspective, I'm thinking this from my faith, from my journey, and from understanding this. And I had to have some things to rely on to share that with them. And I'm not pushing my faith on them. I'm just telling them where I am and how I feel and what I believe in. Uh, not asking them to believe in what I believe in. Right. I'm asking to let them, I want them to see the joy that I have. And by the way, you you're talking to an imperfect man, an imperfect person before I was baptized and after I was baptized. It's imperfect. However, though, um, you know, I needed to do that again as an adult because I didn't understand it when I was getting baptized as a child. I didn't understand what that meant, but now I do.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:24

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:25

So that's powerful. Thank you. So that's you know, that's that's where I am, man. You know, um, man, I'm my my my stripes don't change, man. I'm I'm still I'm a I'm still uh I'm a thoroughbred, man. I always tell folks, you know, I like to, you know, you're not gonna stop me from running. I thoroughbreds want to run. Exactly. Yeah, they get the thing. One thing I want to do is like when I come into the come I come in after the race, man, just take that sponge, throw it at me, get me some, get me some nice, you know, get me cooled off and put me back in the stable and let me run again.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:55

I'm ready to go.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:56

Yeah, ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:58

You talked about, you talked about obviously your five-a-year exit plan, right? Selling the company at a certain age frame, maybe 55, 54. Um, and obviously just as you said, your kids, right? You're stepping into more family, more travel. What is, I guess, what does that specific timeline do for you and how like how you build right now or in the next couple of years?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:15

Well, I have two children, you know, and um my children are very active athletically. They're very smart kids. Um, I always tell folks, I'm a good time kid. I grew up in the hood. My children are huxtables, you know. They grew up, they they grew up a little bit different from me, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything my children do athletically, academically, I want to be there. And I like being there. And I missed the early parts of their lives when they were five and six, seven years old because I was out traveling and trying to make a living for them. That's why I feel I understand how other folks have done that, right? And and made a sacrifice. I used to get this all the time. People would say to me, Well, Earl, you know, you're you're gone a lot, man. You're missing your kids. Well, yeah, I do. However, though, my children have experienced me going out and seeing me drive the business. Well, my daughter has started her own little company at 13 years old. She started a small nail company, right? And when she told me about it a few months ago, man, I cried because I was like, my baby saw me and thought about me, and she said it. She said, Dad, I my business is sincere, my business is meaningful, my business can't be measured, and so I know it's gonna be sustainable. Well, you know, children see everything, the good, bad, there ain't different, right? And so, you know, in terms of, you know, where I want our company to go, we have an amazing staff, right? And what I hope the one day that we build and scale an amazing company, that someone comes along and says, we see the value in this company and we want it. And we want to be able to say to them, well, let's figure out a way for acquisition to happen so that I can go do the very things that I want to go do, which is go spend the second half of my life with my babies, with my family, to understand that. And I guess listen, if you understand building businesses and understand scaling businesses, um, some people want to scale and do it for the rest of their lives. I don't. I don't. I I I feel like I've done enough. I as a matter of fact, Corey, let me tell you this. I turned 50 in January, brother. Listen at this. And I can truly say this. I have done everything that I've ever wanted to do in my life. Everything. Everything that I've ever wanted to do, I've done it. Done it. Right? And so now I believe it's really imperative that you know that I spend the second half of my life uh enjoying my my family and my children and and really making sure that they uh that they have the life, they have the life. Yeah um and to experience life, to experience it in the way they want to experience it. Right. Yeah, get my favorite. So the time frame, hopefully the time frame is in at 55, maybe it's before, but I do have a time frame though.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:00

I just hope that and honestly, and I hope that I get to decide that time frame.

unknown 1:06:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:04

Yeah, that's a different thing. Because at the end of the day, we don't even know what's going to happen to you, man. Yep. So hopefully I get a chance to do that. And I hope this, I hope this um this conversation with you, uh, we look back on it in five years and we say, hey man, you said it. There it is. We out of it you you did it, dog.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:18

2031. Right on. Yeah, yeah. And I pre and that too, I want to mention too, even having the presence is important. You know, we talked offline, just having the presence of being your kids' life. That's that's that's that's that's in you know, priceless, but very important to just be there. And I know the kids I mentioned that. Um, last three questions for you, and I'll let you hit the exit. So obviously, you talked about also you want your company or wanting your company to win a Nobel uh Peace Prize for the work your company's doing, right? And they say no small ambition. I love that you said because you said it boldly, right? Absolutely. What does this tell you about yourself that you can say that out loud, right, with a straight face and mean it?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:55

Well, because I know where this, I know where our industry is. I know some of the, I know some of the trials and tribulation that our industry is in in regards to uh how to invite and welcome folks. I know the struggle of folks of of color who have not really been in the outdoors. I know what's kept us out of the outdoors. And I just believe that, you know, we've won all other types of awards. If you go to our website and theunitfolk.com and click um click about us, you'll click and see all those amazing awards we've won. And I just I figure why can't we win the Nobel Peace Prize?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:24

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:25

That's actually. As a matter of fact, if you go to our website, it says right there, reserve for the Nobel Peace Prize. And a lot of folks be like, that's so arrogant. Who would think like that? Well, I've always been taught if you want something, you say it. Yep. You say it and you do it. And I just believe that our model of promoting unity in the outdoor community and beyond is going to give so much to not only people, but also to our industry that somebody's gonna say, we want to nominate these folks. Got to. Got to. We want to nominate these folks. And I just believe we're gonna win it.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:56

Yeah, I'll tell that, man. As I said, I hope people listen at the conviction, right? The conviction.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:01

Absolutely. Yeah. You know, and uh I I had this one lady say to me, Well, that's not really for you to be saying you should let other people say that about you. I'm like, listen, if I waited on other people to tell me that I was great, and I never said it, particularly knowing how people are, nah. I tell myself I'm great every day in the mirror. I have to think that, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:20

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:21

Because if I don't think that, I'm not gonna tell you how great you are, Corey. Yep. If I don't think that about myself, it's hard for me to think that about you.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:28

Yeah, that's that's a that's a word right there. That's right on, brother. Who picks that up? So I wanna I want to finish here as we wrap up. You know, you said you're um you said children obviously watch their parents uh inherit their habits and values, right? And you're obviously building your company, doing a great thing, a legacy, and living a life that you want to live, uh that you want your children to see as well. What do you most um want them to learn from watching you do this work of what you're building?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:54

That's a really good question. Um, you know, you know, during COVID, you know, when our children are at home and they couldn't go to school. Yeah, yeah. And we did everything on Zoom. I never forget that my children were, I was taking my calls from my bedroom and in my smaller office. And I remember my children, both of my children in the bed, and they would kind of, because they were sleeping, going to bed late and waking up late. And I remember that they would be in the bed or they would be listening to me and they'd be hearing these questions. And when I would get off the call, at first, when we first started doing it, it wouldn't say anything. After about 10, 12 calls, I would hear my kids repeat and repeat some of the things I was saying and then challenge me on some of the data and ask these questions and say things of that nature and say, Dad, why do you feel this way? Dad, I'm not really sure that's proper. I don't, I don't know that. So, what company were you talking to now? Did they really understand that? And then they would hear people talking and they would say, Dad, I don't think they really understand. Based on the question that they were here through Zoom, they would say, Dad, I don't think those folks really understand who you are. Maybe you should take this approach. Maybe you should say this, maybe say that. But other thing is, I gotta tell you something, Corey, this is a very good question. So I've taken both of my children on trips with me while I go keynote. And they have two different reactions. I don't know if this is a the male, the boy thing, or the female deal. Well, I go to, my son went to the most significant, the most, he'd he'd been the mo he'd been to the most significant thing. As a matter of fact, my son was with me when I actually named the company because he was on a trip with me around the country. But then I took him to another event that we were keynoting that we built our course off of, our Unity Blades course off of in Missouri. Yep. Um I built the course off and I took, he was in the audience, and I got a standing ovation, right, for the keynote. And after everybody was gone, I tapped my son on the shoulder and I said, Hey man, I said, uh, how did I do? My son said, My dad fishing for compliments. But I'm like, come on. You know what I mean? But on the other hand, my daughter, I took her to a very significant space in Indiana when we were brought on Indiana State Parks. Yeah. And she said it was an audience. And as soon as I was done, I didn't have to say anything to her. She came up to me and gave me a hug, and she said, Dad, you did amazing. Yes, and and so it it does not surprise me that my daughter has now started a company and is talking about how what kind of margin she can make. How she can drive revenue, how she can enhance her company. Or just yesterday she asked me, Dad, can you order this for me so I can build some more margin onto my business? I'm like, boy, this is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:34

Yeah, she's catching on now.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:36

She's catching on. So, you know, at the end of the day, the work that I'm doing, and it's not only just for my children, Corey, and I'm glad you asked that. I want everyone's children, everybody, our children, children, children, long after we're gone, brother, that they don't even have to talk about these issues anymore. Correct. I I don't want them that feel like they have to talk about these issues anymore, that we've done us such a good job as parents that we've actually fixed this for them. Yep. Yep. I'm in the business of fixing this, right? I'm in the business of those people who say, oh, this will never be fixed. I'm in the business of telling them, yeah, yeah, it's fixed. Yep. It's fixed, right? I know it's gonna take some time. I know it's gonna take some work. I put my life on the line, my money, my time, everything on the line to fix this, right? And so with that being said, I I know it's gonna get done. I have no doubt in my mind it's gonna get done.

unknown 1:12:26

Period.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:27

It's already there. It's just it's just timing. Yep, it's sir. So it's speaking of that, right? So you talked about, you know, for someone who obviously is listening right now, and that's where I want to kind of go to, because if you know, if someone's listening who's an entrepreneur, right, a community builder, someone who sees a problem that everyone else is comfortable either ignoring or doesn't want to obviously tackle, what do you say to that person about how to actually begin?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:50

Well, I always tell folks to start at the toenail of the elephant, right? And what I mean by to start at the beginning, you will never be able to handle an elephant at the midsection of it, right? You gotta start at the toenail and understand it, right? Um, use less of your opinions and get some facts. Like we have too many folks building businesses and building operations and strategies off of opinions. And opinions is gonna leave you with other opinions. I'd rather build off of facts. And and and once you're able to get the facts, you're able to build strategies around the facts that no one can debunk. Well, that's what we are. That's why I stand so bold in front of folks and tell them and talk about it, because no one can debunk the facts. They may not like the facts, but they can't debunk it. The second thing that I would tell folks, let your passion overflow. Let your passion overflow, man. And when you wake up in the morning, don't let anybody tell you that it can't be done. Don't let anybody tell you it can't be done. Because there's a lot of people out there that say it can't be done, not because they're being mean, it's because they haven't done it.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:54

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:54

Some people have every tried, they've probably tried it before, and it didn't work for them. They're not you. They're not me, right? A lot of people, when I've been the first, when I first started this company, this guy told me, he said this to me, why are you doing that, man? There's other people already doing that. Well, I'm doing it because I want to do it. And I think we can do it a little bit better.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:12

Yeah, they do like me.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:12

You know, that's not that I'm saying I'm better than them. It's just that I believe I can do it, you know? Uh the same thing why uh like Chevrolet started a company when Ford started. When GM started, I mean, GM started because of Ford.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:24

Right. So, and and the third thing is I would tell someone who sees an issue that really wants to change it, is that um be positive. Don't let fear stop you. Fear, fear will fear stops more people from doing anything. I'm I'm a little I'm I'm I'm fearless right now. Because my faith is intact.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:48

Yeah, you can tell. Yeah, you ain't got no fear. That was honestly, those those answers were like spot on. I so like I said, I hope someone who's listening takes takes that, applies it, and runs with it, because uh it's true. You know, you can get past all those and especially the fear part. You know, someone of us.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:05

Well, you know, at the end of the day at the end of the day, we all got something going on in our lives, man. Yeah. Everybody got something that's gonna hold them back. There's a lot of things I can think of right now that could hold me back and could keep me from doing some of the things I want to do and how I want to do it. But at the end of the day, but I have a mission. I have a mission for my children, children, children, and your children, children, children, that I believe that this symbol, which is the Unity Blaze, will be, and I don't just believe it, I know it, that this symbol will be the symbol of unity in the outdoor community beyond. It's gonna be one of those symbols where people be like, hey, yo, that's the Unity Blaze. Just like they see the Nike swoosh.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:43

Why not?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:44

That's right. Why not? Why not? Why not? My last question right here as we hit the exit is you know, where where can people find you, right? Follow black folks camp to Unity Blaze.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:53

Actually, our company's called the Unity Folks. Or yeah. Yeah, the Unity Folk. Don't worry, I get that. I I do that sometimes too, because we because our name changed, uh, evolved in July of last year. Our company is the Unity Folks. The Unityfolks.com. The T-H-E-UnityFolks.com. Go to our website and thumb through our website. You may not understand everything about our website. People get that all the time. I really don't understand what you all do. Well, it was designed that way, right? Because we want you to go through the website and really read some things and understand it, right? The second thing is click the map. Click when you get there to our website, click the map, and you'll see all of our Unity Blaze partners. And hopefully by the time, and maybe not by the time this actually airs, you'll see all those California State parks on there. May or may not be there, but they're coming. And also, you know, go to our website and also look up the Unity Blaze. Click Unity Blaze, and more importantly, uh go to the Unity Blaze way. We're teaching you and telling you how to invite and welcome more folks in the outdoors. Secondly, make sure you go to our shop. Order some stuff. Order the Unity Blaze. I'm wearing our sweatshirt right now. Wear some wear some gear, man. You know? Why not? And then why not? Yeah, why not? What about social media page, the Unity Folks? We post almost every day. And we post positive messages every day. Yeah, you do. We don't call people out, we call them in, and we don't twist arms, we twist hearts, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:22

Yes, sir. Well, well, thank you. My my last question, man, because you hit it right there on the head, is I always ask people my guests on the show, right? Because as you know, the show is called the Life Is Podcast. So if you you know, if I said life is and you had to fill in that blank, whatever that phrase or word you want to add in there, right, what would you fill in there? Life is incredible.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:41

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. It's incredible. As a matter of fact, um, to all your listeners, to all the viewers, to you and to your family, to everyone, uh, I do have one thing I have to leave with them. And I want to know if you're ready for this yet, though.

unknown 1:17:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:56

Okay, I'm ready. Well, listen, brother. Listen, I don't care what you got going on in your life, what you heard on this particular podcast, what's going on, your past life, your future life. I hope you and the folks that are listening to this have the most amazing day of their life today, and I hope tomorrow is.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:10

Thank you. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:11

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:12

Right on. Well, I think that's it, Earl. Man, you came ready, high energy. As always, I expected it. Right on. A lot of information. And uh, man, just the love, the passion, the energy, the the, like I said, the conviction. Um, and just trailblazer, man. I I I truly, I truly appreciate getting connected with you a couple months back, being to speak with you, um, just your wisdom um and just leadership that you know you just zuberate and just oozes out of you. Um, just everything that you have. So thank you. Um thank you. And man, we we we can't thank you enough for joining the show and uh sharing uh your journey and and also what you guys are doing. We're gonna change the world, one camp fry at a time, brother. That's it. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Like I said. Well, hey, take care. And uh, like I said, we'll see you on the other side, man. Sounds good, brother. Well, Earl shows today is that the most dangerous thing you can do in any industry is assume that the way it has always been is the way it has to stay. He looked at a room full of people who looked nothing like the country they were trying to serve. And instead of adjusting his own expectations downward, he went and got data. He invested 1.2 million in proving what he already knew. He built a consulting model that earns in the hundreds of thousands by delivering millions in return. He grew a brand from under a million to twenty-two point five million in four years, and through all of it, he stayed clear about something that most people never fully name. That inclusion is not charity, it is strategy. And a strategy without a mission behind it is just numbers on a page. Earl has both. That is coherence. Life expands a proportion to internal coherence, and Earl B. Hunter Jr. is living proof of what the expansion looks like when you refuse to let the comfort of an industry become the tilling of your vision. See you in the next episode. That's a wrap on today's episode of the Life Is Podcast. If something in this conversation landed for you, a shift in perspective, a reminder, or something you needed to hear, don't let it stay there. Take it with you, put it to work. If you're ready to go deeper, I have tools built specifically for this journey, a self-discovery blueprint, a diagnostic designed to show you exactly where your foundation needs attention. Links are in the show notes. And if this episode out of value, share it with someone who's building, leave a review, help us grow this community of intentional people doing real work. Remember, the film isn't fine. It's built. Life is our motion, and you are the artist. Till next time, keep building.