Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Epic Group Travel Experiences for Those Who Hate Group Travel

Episode Date: April 5, 2018

Have you ever wanted to try solo travel, but you’re not quite ready? But the idea of group travel sounds too crowded and rushed? Dan Pierson founded the Bolt Collective, a travel community that could be just right for you.    Dan’s bringing together kind-hearted, curiosity-filled people to help them access travel experiences that might be too expensive if they did them on their own. Think of the Bolt Collective as group travel for people who hate group travel. He’s already taken a diverse group of people on some incredible adventures, celebrating New Year’s Eve on the beach in Oaxaca and dining in an igloo they built on a ski adventure in British Colombia.    An expert in designing experiences, Dan works with companies like Airbnb, and led Travel Partnerships at the ride-sharing service Lyft.   If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe and forward this show to a friend. If you’re feeling especially kind, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. This helps people discover the show. 🤗   Visit postcardacademy.co for travel guides, tips, and inspiration.    Instagram, Twitter, Facebook       Thank you to Six Miles High Design for creating the brilliant Postcard Academy logo.Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Welcome to the Postcard Academy, your weekly travel and culture podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Micatel. Have you ever wanted to try solo travel, but you're not quite ready, but the idea of group travel sounds too crowded and rushed? Well, my guest today founded the Bult Collective, a travel community that could be just right for you. He's bringing together kind-hearted, curiosity-filled people to help them access travel experiences that might be too expensive if they did them on their own. Think of it as group travel for people who hate group travel. Dan Pearson started the Bult Collective late last year. He's already taken a diverse group of people on some pretty incredible adventures, like celebrating New Year's Eve on the beach in Oaxaca,

and dining in an igloo they built on a ski adventure in British Columbia. Dan is an expert in designing experiences. He's worked with Airbnb and led travel partnerships at the Ride Sharing Service Lyft. He's also created Subway Sets, a concert series bringing New York's best underground musicians to rooftops across the city. Today, we chat about some of Dan's latest adventures, what makes a great experience, and how you can become part of this travel community. Now let's jump into my conversation with Dan. So welcome, Dan. Thank you for coming on the podcast.

Where are you right now? I am in Sonoma County in Northern California. And so I think that you just wrapped up an experience in Canada. Could you tell me a little bit more about that? Yes. So there is exactly one place that has gotten a lot of snow this winter, and that is British Columbia. So I was up in Whistler with my company, Bolts, creating an experience for some of our members at Whistler Blackcomb. So tell me more about this experience.

Sure. So we had this little villa rented out in Whistler. And the primary, this was a little bit different from some of the other experiences that we've, created through bolts. I'll get into a bit of that later, but this is, I mean, the primary function was ski. But at the same time, we did make some room for other, other programming. For example, we built an igloo, ate dinner inside of it, a four-course meal inside of this igloo that we built over the course of a week and some other fun details as well. But with the snow being that good, skiing and a snowboarding was actually the focus.

Very nice. So, yes. So this was all part of the Bolt Collective. which is something that you founded in August. What is this exactly? So I sometimes describe it as group travel for people who hate group travel. As a very independent traveler myself, but one who recognized the value of community and meeting like-minded people and having opportunities to do amazing things. I found this what I think is a bit of an unfilled niche.

So it's a community of like-minded folks coming together and using their collective purchasing power. So pulling their resources to unlock otherwise impossible travel experiences. So a great example of that January, we were down in the British Virgin Islands, and I'd been on the phone of these charter companies saying, hey, we're bringing four boats worth of people down, and we're looking for a 40% volume discount for that rental. So that takes something that normally would cost a couple thousand dollars per person

and really restrict it to a more exclusive audience. It makes a lot more accessible. So it takes something that normally costs a couple thousand dollars. Suddenly it's about $1,200 for a week of sailing a catam around through the BVIs. And yeah, that's one example. And then apart from the kind of like making those kinds of experiences more accessible angle, also trying to bring a really thoughtful sense of designs of these experiences and really try to create pretty amazing moments in time.

And is this mostly for solo travelers? Are you appealing to them? Yeah, that's a great question. I think it appeals to a lot of different people. One of the things that I'm really focused on that I think is super important is diversity. So some of the folks who have joined are people like myself, who've been lucky to do all sorts of adventure travel kind of things. things long long distance bicycle tours and lots of backpacking and hiking trips and

travel in in less kind of touristed places in the developing world but then on the on the other side of things people who for whatever reason haven't had a chance to travel much internationally at all and might not kind of feel ready to jump into that kind of thing and just want the the benefits of of a community of like-minded folks are really kind of yeah solo travelers folks who have more experienced traveling in groups. I think we have a pretty good next. Yeah, I was just staying at a hostel in Wohaka, and I hadn't stayed in a hostel in forever. It was so nice, and I had forgotten that sort of community spirit where you're sitting down at breakfast and shouting to somebody

you don't know, and the next thing you're hanging out together or having dinner together. But then at the same time, you might not see them again for a few days, and it's totally fine and cool and ebbs and flows. And this sort of bulk collective reminds me a bit of taking that to the next level where you're hanging out together when you want to, but you also have the freedom to do your own thing. Absolutely. And I'm such a fan of hostels as well. I think stayed in hostels all over the world. If we can bring that same, the same benefits of community while at the same time maintaining that flexibility and that, you know, everything is optional, join whatever, every single day on a Bolt experience, there's one bit of programming that everyone is welcome to join,

but it's 100% optional because like that leaves room for serendipity and chance and randomness. And I think we all agree those are some of the things that make travel so magical, the just weird things that can happen. So yeah, I totally agree with you. So you're an expert at designing experiences. You've consulted for companies like Airbnb. be, what do you think makes a great experience? And I guess what have you learned from this type of work that you've applied to creating the bulk collective? I think it really comes down to a set of

adjectives. So I think of wonderful experiences as being unexpected, delightful, interesting out there, and really just not conforming to anyone's expectations. Because I mean, all information, at this point basically is out there. You could hop on Instagram and see any place that you want anywhere in the world and see 100 different people's interpretations of it. But for experiences, what's interesting and what I think is really unique about experiences is that they happen in real time and they'll never really be created again. Can you give some concrete examples of some?

Could you give some concrete examples of some memorable experiences that you you've been a part of and helped create. Yeah, absolutely. So, like, a great example was down in Wahaka, where Sarah just was in one of my favorite places in the world down on the coast of Mexico, all the way of the southern tip of Mexico. And I had a chance to live in this town on the beach for about six months back in 2015 called Masunete, which is just really a very, very, very special place, I think. Sarah, you didn't make it there this trip, right?

But it was something for the next one. I didn't. But yeah, my friend Crystal, who was on Arvisa Oaxaca podcast episode, did mention it as like the next time. It's an absolute must say. Yeah. So down in Oax, so down in Oaxaca, on the coast, there's this town that I lived in for about six months back in 2015 called Masmonte. So it's a place where I know everyone there. And I know all of kind of the hidden little gems in that part of Mexico.

So we were able to take a small group of both members down there for New Year's a few months back. We were able to put together a friend of mine. He runs a Temescal, which is like a native Nishteka sweat lodge. We brought folks into his sweat lodge for a ceremony. And it was just like this group of strangers who over the course of four or five days had really developed pretty special bonds and to celebrate that in a sweat lodge ceremony was a pretty really just amazing experience, I think, for the entire career. Yeah, it's incredible how strong friendships can form in such a small amount of time,

especially when you're doing an experience as intense as that. Yeah, yeah, of course. Before we dive into the details of Bolt, I would love to hear more about your own travel experiences and how they led you to developing Bolt. So you were the travel partnerships lead at Lyft in San Francisco, and then you quit to do what? Yeah. So I was living in San Francisco.

This was back in 2014, and I've been working in technology for about five years and kind of just was tired of the whole lifestyle. And I found myself sitting at my desk and getting up and taking 30-minute long walks during the day and then hour-long walks during the day and then two-hour-long long. hump offs during the day just all around San Francisco. Somehow miraculously, nobody seemed to notice that I was missing, but maybe that speaks to the work I was doing, not being super important. I don't know, but I was checked out.

I guess it's a better way of saying that. So I, after, I don't know, two weeks of taking those two hour-long walks, I was just like, this is not what I'm supposed to be doing right now. So I quit my job, and I went up to Seattle, Washington, and I started riding my bicycle from Washington State down to Florida. And I said, if I get to the Florida Keys and I still have money and I still have motivation, I'm going to find a boat headed to Cuba because I'd always wanted to go there. Did you have a plan on this bike ride or did you just get on and go wherever the day took you?

I had a general idea. There's a famous route called the transcontinental route, Transamerica route that goes from Astoria, Washington to Virginia. and there's a couple more. There's actually I have about 40, but cross-country routes, there's the northern tier, which starts in Washington State and goes all the way to Maine, and then a southern tier that starts in Southern California and goes all the way to Florida. So basically, I was, I left my job in August and started this trip soon after.

So I was kind of very much at the tail end of the season. So I started all the way north, and I was basically just heading east and south to try to escape the weather, which I did for the most part, you know, apart from getting snowed off, Rocky, Mount Anandshould Park and getting a, having to hitchhike down to Estes Park, Colorado with, with a park ranger and 12-degree nights sleeping in in 45-degree sleeping bags and various other adventures. But yeah, definitely, it was, it was a really great experience. And I can't recommend highly enough traveling by bicycle. It's just an amazing way to see places. Were you doing this mostly by yourself?

Yeah, I did that trip 100% by myself. I don't think anybody else. I was literally the last, I think the last person riding on most of those roads for the year because I departed so late. So I was definitely very stella. And were you staying in hostels across America? I was camping mostly. Sadly, hostling for whatever reason isn't as popular in the United States as it is. in many other parts of the world for as great an option as it is and economical and other benefits.

So I was mostly camping. I'd spring for the odd hotel every once in a while and then staying with friends along the way too. Okay. So you made it to Florida. I didn't make it to Florida. Oh, you didn't. Okay. Did not make it. No, no, no. That's, that's great. I'd started out, I'd start out with Florida as my intended destination. So kind of a big old line. down, down and across the United States. But I got to New Orleans and a series of, you can call them spiritual or coincidences or in New Orleans, maybe you call them voodoo. This kind of series of events culminated in me realizing that the bicycle trip was over,

whether it was spiritual or whether they were completely coincidental. And that's just the way the universe works. but I had some very, very kind of close to me folks pass away or die from like pedestrian safety issues. So my roommate in San Francisco was hit by a truck crossing the street in SF. I mean, couldn't be a more random thing than that. Anyway, so all and other just kind of those issues are close to my heart. And I realize being in the southeast, the southeastern part of the United States, that there isn't the same kind of attention and respect paid to cyclists as in other parts of the United States,

like the Northwest or like California where people are much more aware of the need to like respect cyclists and pedestrians. And there was, so there was this whole kind of series of events that culminated in being in a hotel lobby on December 17, 2014, and seeing the announcement be like the reproachment of relations between the United States and Cuba that was brokered by the Pope and seemed to be this. I mean, now, I guess it was about two and a half years ago, three years ago, but it seems like about a hundred years ago in the context of everything happening in the world right now. But that seemed like a really kind of powerful moment in history to see these these two countries that have been so antagonistic for 50 or 60 years. 60 years start to come together. And I remembered that that was the kind of intended, Cuba was the intended destination of the trip the whole time. And I'd had my whole identity wrapped up in this bicycle trip and then I've lost it because I needed to stop riding the bicycle. And all that to

say, made some very quick decisions. And about a week later, found myself walking across the island of Cuba. So, yeah. So you, okay, so I believe you walked 500 miles across Cuba, and would you recommend this type of adventure to someone? You know, having traveled at 70 miles an hour in cars and eight miles an hour, nine miles an hour on a bicycle, and three miles an hour walking, and that's three miles an hour is probably, overly generous. I think my my happy speed is eight miles. But that said, apart from kind of my mode of transportation, Cuba, that's definitely a place that I think is well worth visiting. It's one of the most beautiful, mystical, confusing places, I think, in the world.

I think a lot of Americans are confused now about whether they can still go to Cuba, whether they can't, they still can. Yeah. How did you, what visa did you need when you went? Because I went right after this announcement was made, but before any of the particulars of the the legislation, or I guess it wasn't even a legislation, it was just something that Barack Obama kind of penned the executive order, whatever it was, I went before any of that actually took effect, so I couldn't legally go to Cuba either. So I went through Mexico, through Mexico,

through Mexico City. So I flew from the United States to Mexico and then Mexico to Cuba. And now, I mean, it's still, it's still, I think, extremely complicated. I mean, no, as far as I know, and I'm certainly not a lawyer, so take this at face value. But no American has been prosecuted for going to Cuba or spending money in Cuba since 1983. Anything could change, especially in this kind of climate, but I don't really think anyone has much to be worried about for traveling to Cuba. Now, I mean, there are these direct flights from the United States. We'll see how long that lasts because I just don't think the demand is going to be there now that Trump has rolled back a lot of the changes that were made.

But, yeah, I think there's definitely a lot of research maybe to be done before booking a trip. Yeah, well, go while you can. people go well you can. Yeah. Yeah, it's a super special place. What was so special about it to you? What was your favorite part? I was staying in Havana for about three weeks before I started this walk in a building in

Santo Havana. And it's funny. The building is called Supercake, like Supercake because there's a bakery at the bottom of this big kind of Soviet-style apartment building. So they kind of the building, therefore. or it's called Super Cake, like in classic stupid fashion. But I was in the apartment building, in the elevator, waiting to go down. I met this artist, a 21-year-old kid.

He kind of took me under his wing, is one way to put it, and introduced me to so many interesting people doing interesting things and took me around the city. And we kind of just really just tore through Havana for about three weeks. And yeah, so that experience, I think, formed me to the creativity and passion and just raw, like, intelligence of the Cuban people. They are just, I mean, can fix anything, amazing artists, amazing musicians, and just bring this kind of vitality to life that having visited many, many other places around the world,

I just haven't seen anything that could really, really equal the Cuban people's just, just raw, like life force. So yeah. What made you want to walk across Cuba rather than, I guess, biking or driving? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a great question. It was a couple of things.

I felt after spending three or four months riding the bicycle, I still felt this desire to continue to slow down in different facets of my life. And that was very much included the kind of, just this yeah this feeling that like everything is always moving so fast and if we make conscious decisions to to slow down I think we can we can catch a lot more I also one of my heroes is this guy named Paul Solopec and he is this he's a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who's done amazing reporting work all around the world and his current project is called out of Eden and he's walking around the world.

So he started, I want to say, in the Rift Valley in Africa and it's basically it's tracing human migration across the millennia. So starting in Africa and then he made his way up into the Middle East into, I guess, I think it was present day, Syria and he was in Syria as everything was happening there as the Civil War began a few years back. And so that was definitely something that was something that was. And he talks a lot about slow journalism and the stories that you miss when you're traveling more quickly. So I've been reading his work at the time.

And then some simple bicycle logistics of trying to transport this bicycle from the United States to Mexico to Cuba. So it all kind of fell into place. And I was like, you know what? This is this feels right. And it's easy in different ways, much more difficult in others. and I decided that the walk would be a good way to see that place. And did things mostly go smoothly? I think you did have a run-in with the police when you were down there.

Yeah, they did until they didn't. I mean, Cuba has a culture. I mean, really their culture is this balance between community versus individual liberty. That's, I guess, the philosophical battle. that every single country tries to answer. And in Cuba, obviously, as a socialist, in some ways, communist country, it tilts much more towards the communal side of things. So, of course, the obvious manifestations of that are like the universal health care that they have there,

this wonderful health system, and access to education and guaranteed work, even though it's going to be paying $40 a month or whatever it is. But one of the downsides, I think, of that system of government is that they're super laser focused on, like, what they consider to be the safety of the population as a whole. So there's a complete aversion in Cuba to any kind of, like, adventure sports. And it's starting to change a little bit now. And there's like, I mean, you hear these amazing stories about people building, surfboards out of like the insulation inside of refrigerators and surfing off the coast of Savannah and like there's a very small kind of nascent rock climbing community and vinyales in the

west of Cuba but by and large like there just hasn't been a culture of adventure travel or adventure sports or just doing things that are a little bit riskier on the island of Cuba so all that to say I had a run in with the Cuban National Revolutionary Police, and they just didn't really understand why anybody in their right mind would spend three months walking across an island. And maybe they were right, hey. So were they interrogating you about your journey? Yeah, interrogating. I would not say interrogating. I'd try to like, yeah, I try to use careful language around it.

but basically they brought me in I was on the south coast of Cuba outside of San Puegos and I was walking along the coast for about a 50 mile stretch which was super remote and I ran into a police officer there off duty this guy actually was in his underwear like a cigarette and I asked him for directions and we started into this conversation and then his radio goes off and it turns out he's a police officer so so he's a was like, oh, this is a curious thing. This guy from the United States walking across Cuba, so he rated

up to his supervisor and his supervisor. And then they got his boss involved. And suddenly it was dealing with like the guy who was in charge of running security for the entire state of San Fuego. And so I was brought back to the city in a hilarious

clown car of a 1980s Soviet-style police car. Like literally it didn't have an interior. It was just like a metal shell and I think a gas pedal and a steering wheel and like barely a couple of seats and sat down for about six hours of questioning across whether I'd been in the military and what my parents did for work and whether my phone had GPS and what I thought about the relationship between the United States and Cuba and where my relatives were from and what my answer was and

These questions spanned literally about six hours, and they kept bringing in different folks. And finally, I think they realized that I was not a harm to myself or to anyone in Cuba or to this coming together of Cuba in the United States. And I mean, their primary concern I felt at the end of it was for my safety. and this guy, the head of the entire San Fuego's, like, police department, he gave me his personal cell phone number. He's like, if you have any problems, you know, you let me know. And, yeah, kind of, it was an experience for sure. But one, that I ended up feeling very positive about and gave me further insight into the kind of mystery that is, that is Cuba. That is intense. And what language was that six-hour conversation?

conversation and Spanish. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, luckily my Spanish is very, very good. And experiences like that have, have definitely helped to give me more confidence in it. But yeah, at the end of six hours of talking to police in Spanish, your brain feels like a big pile of mush. Well, you got a six hour Spanish class for free. Nice. Yeah. And the private phone number. I like that. There's a bit of it.

There you go. So, okay, you've been doing all of this traveling around by yourself. So where did the idea, like where and when did the idea for the Bullet Collective come into your mind during this time? Sure. So all of this awesome independent adventure travel, other bicycle tours and places like New Zealand and backpacking trips. in the Sierra Nevada and trips to Southeast Asia and Europe and different parts of the world. But like I always felt, even though I was meeting people, really awesome people in all these places, I was like, man, it would be amazing to have these kinds of experiences with other like-minded folks.

And running alongside all those individual travel experiences, I kept having pretty awesome. trips with friends and family that I would mostly put together. So whether that was like going down to New Orleans for Jazz Fest and renting a house and creating kind of a set of experiences with friends that work in the music industry for my friends who weren't as familiar with New Orleans or last year, I guess it was two years ago now over Christmas and New Year's putting together a sailing charter down in Panama through the San Blas Islands or ski houses in Colorado or all of these these these these more kind of group travel experience I was like man how could we incorporate and

I guess bridge the gap between that more kind of self-supported independent individual travel and add in some of the benefits of having access and being together with other really awesome people so I guess I've just been thinking about that for some time And then before any of this had a name, before any of this had a website or anything, I was in a bar in New York City with a couple of folks that I used to work with at Lyft. And I was telling him just the broad strokes of this idea that these experiences were going to be at cost and not profit. And it was going to be like a community style organization that was supported by annual membership dues to keep the organization up and running. and both of these guys that I used to work with, one of whom was my former boss at Lyft.

He pulled out his phone and Benmoed me, like, transferred me electronically. The money for the membership dues and the other guy did it. And I'm like, okay, well, I guess we're off to the races and now I have to figure out how to actually make this work. So that was back in September of last year. And by December, we were in Wahaka, the first Bolt experience. Wow. So what does the name mean? For me, when I was thinking about it, like it evokes.

like excitement, but also the opportunity to to very quickly and dramatically take yourself out of your daily situation into something brand new. And then I think like a collective takes on a lot of different forms in this capacity. It ties into that idea of group buying and like what's possible when you organize a committed community into like a cohesive unit. I think there's a lot of really interesting things you can do that aren't available to solo travelers. So that's, yeah, that's the bold side of things and then that idea of like of a collective as well. And so membership isn't guaranteed. You actually have a phone call

with applicants. What type of people exactly are you looking for for this community? And there's actually, there's a couple phone calls. So the first is just you, you know, I chat with somebody and I kind of give them an idea of what we're up to and of course, answer any questions. And the second phone call is with a current member, just to get a 360-degree fit of, yeah, the kind of things that I think, or the kind of people that I'm hoping we attract and that are interested in joining something like this are folks who are curious and adaptable and adventurous. And, I mean, of course, just really nice people, folks who are just genuinely kind and nice. And the other folks you want to sit next to you on a plan for six hours, like,

there's a lot of different ways you can build a community and you can try to form like a cohesive or like a concept that people will identify with. And a lot of communities are based around things like similar interests or what you do for work or who you know. And I think what we're trying to do is a little bit different in that it's organized around like those adjectives that I mentioned. So yeah, yeah, curiosity and kindness and just. Yeah, adventurousness, adaptability.

Those are the words that come to mind when I think of folks who I think would be a really good fit. Yeah, and you had mentioned before diversity, people of any age. Do we have to be super fit to be on these trips? Is this like adventure travel or? That's a great question. I mean, the experience themselves, and you're totally right in that there's a very diverse group of people that have joined in terms of age. I mean, from I think probably our youngest members. about 25 to our oldest member is into their 60s.

I mean, I think the experiences themselves really vary in terms of thematic kind of concept. So, like, for example, New Orleans, we have in May, the beginning of May, we have a New Orleans Insiders Jazz Fest experience, which I kind of alluded to before as something I'd done just for friends and family and now bringing a lot more structure to it. And I'm just trying to like, I lived in New Orleans for about seven years and just trying to really take all of my knowledge and connections and experience and enthusiasm for New Orleans and share it with a group of folks that are members that are coming down. So that's something that wouldn't really require any fitness at all, apart from being able to stand up at a, or I guess sit down and shoot at a crawfish table and eat a lot of crawfish. So maybe an aversion to seafood that would rule some people out. Well, the vegetarians, we can just drink.

The vegetarians. And whatever. Yes, yes. Yes. That is definitely what I'll be doing also. I'll be at the hurricane table. Yeah. And then something like our June experience is a trip down the middle fork of the salmon

river, took a seven-day rafting expedition. So that's something that would require a bit more physical fitness. So it's really just a bit of a mix. What other trips do you have coming up? Yeah, one that I'm really, really excited about is at the end of May in an abandoned ghost town in the hills of Northern California. Oh, that sounds so cool. Yeah, yeah, it's going to be a really, really fun one. So there's this town on the banks of the Feather River that was developed in the 1800s.

It's a gold rush town and it's since been abandoned and there's a woman that's put really just a tremendous amount of work into rehabbing it and bringing it back. So you can rent out this whole town and we're putting on this kind of like Old West murder mystery meets party like it's 1899 experience. So yeah, it's a little different from kind of what we normally kind of get into. But I think it's going to be a really, really fun one. So I'm really excited for that experience right there at the end of May. That sounds so fun.

You mentioned that the experiences are, at cost. So could you just talk a little bit more about logistically how the collective works if we wanted to become a member? The experiences are all at cost. They're designed to be not profit or non-profit. So basically to break even and get to zero. So like let's say there are 16 people going to the Caribbean on that that sailing experience and it costs $16,000 total to dues everything, the cost for them at each member would be $1,000. And that represents just breaking even. So the organization itself, which right now is me working with a couple other people part

time, but hopefully we'll get the chance to expand and we can do more things and offer more amazing experiences for members is supported by annual membership dues, which gets you access to the community and access to these not-for-profit experiences. So those are $300 per year right now. They're going to go up to $400 when we hit 100 members probably in the next month or so. And yeah, that's this kind of like experimental business model that we're kind of adding to the mix as a way to hopefully create a more kind of conducive, cohesive community. So we pay the $300 membership fee. and then we have access to go on any of the trips,

and they could range in price from, what would you say right now, like $500,000? Yeah, so weekly they tend to run between like $500 and $2,000, just depending on what the experience is. Like another great example is I'm talking to a friend who owns a safari company in Africa in Tanzania, and he's like, you know, my biggest expense isn't paying guides or running the land rovers or you know he says the biggest expense is marketing so he's like if you can bring a group of 12 people and fill up to

two land rovers for your own private safaris like I'll just give you like an absolutely screaming deal on a safari like that's like 50% off the normal retail cost of like what you would charge other people um so That's another example of that kind of like collective purchasing power of a community working together instead of independently. And I might have gotten away from your question. So if I did, just remind me and I'll try to track back to it. Well, I think it sounds like even with the membership fee, with the deals that you're

able to get for the group, it's still going to be a more affordable trip than most packages that I've seen out there. Oh, yeah, totally. And I think, like, the reason we're able to do that is because you have this committed group of people who are coming together, who are coming together with their collective purchasing power. And the $300 annual membership is that you pay, get you access to as many experiences as you'd like.

So, like, we're trying to just keep the overhead of the entire organization very, very small so that, like, we can keep the membership dues. low while still like affording access and being able to make make pretty awesome experiences happen. Yeah. And plus you're going to be going with cool people. I think that's one of the biggest fears of group travel for people who maybe be averse to it is that they don't want to go on a trip where you might be stuck with like a bunch of complainers who don't really like doing anything or they don't like being bossed around and having a pack schedule of like 12 hours when they actually want to spend more time in a particular site.

Oh, totally. Totally. And like one thing that's, I think, been probably the most exciting development of all is just like the range of people who have expressed interests and like have ended up joining Bolt. And like, I mean, we have this guy who's a, he's a paramedic in Afghanistan. It's like a contractor working there. And he gets four months off a year.

And he's like, what can I do to maximize some of that time? He's like basically anywhere that I can catch a flight from Dubai. He's like I can be there in 14 hours and like he wants to join some of these experiences. And yesterday I spoke with a woman who lives in Chicago, but she works most of Europe in Alaska on boats up there. And she's looking for a community of people who she can enjoy her vacations, her like leisure time with or her time off. And we just, yeah, we just have this really broad group of like super interesting people that have done really interesting things. and hopefully going to keep kind of adding to that roster of people who like I'm super excited to meet and hang out with and learn from. All right, Dan. So other than Bolt, what's keeping you busy these days?

Still finding time to see new places and kind of do things on my own. Like I'm trying to sneak in a bicycle tour in Sri Lanka later this year. I mean, really, Bolt does keep me pretty busy trying to kind of keep all these spinning plates. in the air at the same time. But also another project that kind of falls under the umbrella that experience to design is music, promotion and production in New York City, which is something I jumped into as a side project about five years ago and still try to kind of keep my finger in. That was how I was involved with Airbnb as a consultant was helping them launch their New York

city, Airbnb music experiences. So yeah, all those things together, definitely, definitely keep me engaged. Well, this has been a really fun conversation. Where can people find out more about you and the Bolt Collective? I'm on the internet just by my name. It's like on Instagram and Twitter. It's at Dan Pearson. It's P-I-E-R-S-O-N. And then for Bolt, yeah, just just good Google finds us pretty easily. Bolt, like a Lightning Bolt Collective. Our URL is www. boltcollective.com.

And yeah, it should be able to find us pretty easy. And I'm always happy to chat with anybody about anything. So we'd love to hear from those terms of any questions about travel questions about any of the places I mentioned or want to learn more about bolts. Yeah, look forward to hearing from folks. Definitely. thank you so much for having me on, Sarah. I really appreciate it.

That's awesome. Thanks again, Dan. Take care. New Orleans is celebrating its 300th anniversary this year, so I'm sure the Bult Collective's trip there will be incredibly special. And the Ghost Town Murder Mystery also sounds like so much fun. As Dan said, you can find out more by visiting boltcollective.com. You can find out more about me and get other travel tips and inspiration at postcardacademy.com.

Come on over and say hello. So that's all for now. Thanks for listening and have a beautiful week wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarahmicatel.com slash blank no more.