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Episode #112: David Brodie

Founder & CEO

Voyascape Podcast Network

Episode #112: David Brodie
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Guest Bio

David Brodie is the founder and CEO of Voyascape, one of the world’s first travel podcast networks. David launched the Travel in 10 podcast in 2005 and continues to host and produce it, alongside co-hosting the Journeytelling Podcast. He has extensive experience in the travel industry, having led award-winning campaigns for Tourism Australia, Destination British Columbia, Emirates, and Expedia during his tenure as the Global VP at an award-winning PR agency. David is also a former senior advisor to the Canadian Prime Minister. With a passion for travel, David has visited over 50 countries.

Show Summary

In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with David Brodie, founder and CEO of Voyascape and co-host of the Travel in 10 podcast. David shares his unique journey from politics to travel podcasting and how the medium of podcasting has evolved over the years. They discuss the power of storytelling in travel podcasts, how travel brands can engage with audiences through this format, and the challenges of podcast discovery. David also reflects on his experiences with family travel and perceptions of destinations like Jordan and Russia.

Key Takeaways

  • David Brodie is a pioneer in travel podcasting – Hosting his podcast for 20 years, David helped shape the travel podcasting industry.
  • Creative risk-taking in travel marketing – Travel clients are often more open to creative marketing strategies, especially in podcasting.
  • The power of storytelling in podcasts – Storytelling is key to building connections with podcast listeners and creating engagement.
  • Podcasts offer unique opportunities for brands – Travel brands can use podcasts to engage audiences, especially with high ad completion rates.
  • Podcast discovery remains a challenge – Despite podcast growth, creators still face difficulties in being discovered by new listeners.
  • Travel perceptions often differ from reality – David shares insights from his travels in Jordan and Russia, highlighting misperceptions.
  • Family support plays a key role in a travel career – David reflects on how his family supported his travel journey and career transitions.
  • Brands should explore podcasting – David advocates for travel brands to explore podcasting as a medium for building stronger connections with their audience.

What You’ll Find on Voyascape

  • ✓ Over 20 years of experience in travel podcasting and content creation
  • ✓ Innovative strategies for podcasting and brand engagement
  • ✓ Expertise in marketing campaigns for leading travel brands
  • ✓ Valuable resources for travel brands looking to engage with their audience
  • ✓ Insight into travel trends and how to leverage podcasting for success

Learn more about Voyascape Podcast Network and connect with David at:

https://voyascape.com/

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Podcast Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.

Jason Elkins (00:01.204)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. Today I’ve got a fellow podcaster. He’s been doing it a heck of a lot longer than I have and definitely in this, this travel space. So I’m super excited to have a conversation with David Brodie. David is the founder and CEO of Voyascape and he’s also the cohost of the Travel in 10 podcast. David, welcome to the show. Happy to have you here.

David Brodie (00:24.718)
Thanks, Jason. Really glad to be here.

Jason Elkins (00:26.388)
Yeah, I’m super excited about this. You and I had a conversation over here in the last few weeks or so, just kind of an initial conversation and was really fascinated by what you do. I’ve looked at, know, I’ve spent some time on your website. You got a bunch of different podcast things going on and we’re definitely going to dig into that a little bit. But before we do that, let’s give our listeners kind of a what’s the 30 second elevator pitch? What’s Voyascape? What’s what? What should they know before we start talking about your childhood?

David Brodie (00:53.56)
Sure. Voyascape is a network of travel podcasts. So we’ve got multiple different shows with hosts in cities all around the world, really aiming to have a podcast for pretty much any destination you would want to go to. We’re up to hundreds of destinations at that stage. We’ve got about eight different shows and adding shows on a monthly basis to the network. really a place that if you’re looking to kind of

be a bit inspired about where to go next. We’ve got lots of great shows to give you that inspiration and some ideas for your next trip. And if you’ve already decided where you’re going, certainly some shows that really help you dig into some of the how to get there, where to stay, what to do, all the logistics of the trip as well.

Jason Elkins (01:37.65)
That’s very cool. And what a great fit because anybody that’s listening to this podcast would benefit from, you know, I’m going to have the, link in the show notes, take a trip over to David’s website, take a look at it and, you know, find a show and it’s, there’s some good stuff on there on this particular show. We don’t talk about a lot of the details about where to go, you know, what you need to know, all that stuff. It’s really about the person and the people that work in this space, because I have found.

that people are passionate about travel are usually pretty interesting people. So we’re going to see no pressure, David. But I know you have a fascinating story, so I know you’ve got a fascinating story. And I’m curious what I think what I want to know. And I trust my listeners want to know is like, how the heck did you get into this? What was going on early on that caused you to grow up and get a job doing travel podcasts and all that stuff? So how far back do we need to go to get a feel for that, David?

David Brodie (02:12.078)
Hopefully I don’t disappoint.

David Brodie (02:33.07)
a while to be honest, because I have believe it or not, I was I was just checking the other day and I have been hosting my travel podcast travel in 10 for 20 years now it is going on 20 years later this year. So it has been a very long time. It was literally as far as I could tell it was the second travel podcast on the Apple podcast or when I when I started it. guy Yeah.

Jason Elkins (02:45.096)
Wow.

Jason Elkins (02:55.036)
Wow, okay, there’s a few that have been added since then and you’ve been involved in adding quite a few of them yourself. So definitely a pioneer. What were you doing before podcasting?

David Brodie (03:07.374)
Before that, I’d worked in politics, actually. worked in… So I’d worked for the… Coming out of university, worked with the Canadian Prime Minister as a kind senior advisor, doing tour and travel, and as a policy advisor as well. So I was doing a lot of travel around the world as part of that. But then as happens in political jobs, you know, there was a change in government in an election. And my wife and I basically took a year off to go travel around the world. And it was during that time, back in 2005.

that we did some work on an NGO project in Thailand. We traveled all throughout Southeast Asia. We got to Japan and we had work permits, but no kind of job secured. My wife landed a great job right away working with Hyatt Hotels, but I was kind of kicking around Tokyo figuring out what to do. And that was right when the iPod and the Apple Podcast store came out. So that kind of inspired me to start going around the city and doing…

started with sort of 10 minute clips every week of what to see and do in Tokyo. And then as we continued our travels around the world, you know, incorporated other other places. And as we inevitably came back to Canada and sort of got it got on with our careers, it really, it also became kind of a side hobby. was something that I would update once every six months or once every year for many, many years and kind of let it languish a bit.

But then about a year and a half ago, a good friend of mine, a travel writer named Tim Johnson, me and him had been talking about working on some projects together. He’s an award winning travel writer, a great guy. And I had a chance to work with him on a project for tours in Australia a few years ago when I was working in PR. And we were talking about the podcast and decided to kind of relaunch that first and get that going. And we managed to get it to the number one travel podcast here in Canada and

sort of building up an audience around the world and then came up with this idea of really building out a network of shows. We’d seen there’d been some really successful podcast networks in the sports category or business category, but nobody had really started to aggregate together sort of the best travel podcasts from around the world and make them easily discoverable for people who are looking for information on different destinations.

Jason Elkins (05:00.18)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (05:16.372)
That’s, um, it’s very cool. I definitely, you know, I have a personal interest in the podcasting and the history of that and kind of everything around that. And I want to discuss that a little bit more. And I have a sneaking suspicion. We need to go back a little further.

into your past because you mentioned always in politics, but I was doing, you know, tourism advisor for prime minister, all this stuff. So I suspect there was something that was going on before that. So let’s we don’t need to talk about your young childhood, but what was like, what was growing up? What what got you into the travel stuff in the first place?

David Brodie (05:48.982)
I mean, it just had always had a huge passion for travel. Didn’t do a ton of travel as a kid. I mean, we probably only really did one international trip when I was growing up. I think to Disneyland in Mexico was our only really big international trip while I was growing up. But then my parents could tell I really had a strong desire to go see, we kind of grew up in a smaller rural town in Alberta, in Canada, and had a desire to definitely go out and see more of the world and do more travel.

And their deal with me was if I sort of did well enough my last year of university, I could get a ticket to go wherever I wanted. So I picked the furthest destination I could at the time, which was Australia, spent about a year traveling there. And that’s where I first got to work a little bit in the tourism industry. I worked at Club Med in Australia for a while. I worked on a sailboat taking people out to the Whitsunday Islands on cruises throughout Australia. And that really sort of instilled that.

love for travel even more and really sort of instilled it being something that I would want to do throughout my career and throughout my life. And I’ve been lucky that then in sort of every phase of my career since then, travel has been a huge component of it. I when I was working in politics, doing a lot of tour and travel, and then post that, I worked for a number of years here in Canada running a large advertising agency or PR agency and advertising agency that most of the clients that I was working with, a good portion of them were in the travel and tourism industry.

Jason Elkins (06:59.572)
That’s.

David Brodie (07:15.534)
spending a lot of time.

Jason Elkins (07:16.177)
Were the clients, were the PR agency, were most of their clients travel or did you just happen to kind of specifically pursue those types of clients for yourself to work?

David Brodie (07:27.054)
I mean, I ended up being within the agency, one of the people who really sort of specialized in travel and ended up leading our global travel and tourism group within the agency. you we had offices in the US, UK, Canada. And, you know, when I started, I think we had worked for quite a few years for destination BC, the DMO here, where I’m from in British Columbia. But we didn’t have a lot of other travel and tourism clients. But I started working with my colleagues in the US, the UK to really try and…

build that base of clients. I mean, we ended up working with Expedia, with Tourism Australia being their agency of record across North America for about seven or eight years, with Emirates Airlines, with Rocky Mountain Rail Tours, Pursuit Hotels, a long, long list of great, great clients. And that was always, you know, we worked with a wide variety of clients, but I certainly very much gravitated towards the travel clients. And they were always the most fun to work with.

Jason Elkins (08:22.322)
I suspect that and that was going to be my kind of my next question is when you first started there, presumably you had a larger mix of non travel clients that you’re working on. Then it sounds like you obviously built up that business and went after that. And I’m just curious, like, did you kind of realize kind of early on that, I really want to do the travels. Like, I guess what I want to ask you is that, did you just feel like some of the other stuff was kind of boring to you?

I mean, it’s late enough now that your past clients may not listen to this. They might. But did you ever think, my gosh, if I do one more makeup promotion, I’m going to lose my mind or cars or, you know, that type of stuff.

David Brodie (09:02.69)
launch, launch of a new baby diaper or yeah, mean, we did, we have a large variety of clients in a large variety of sectors. And the thing I would say is about with the travel clients is like they did tend to be a little bit more, they were, they were not risk adverse. They were willing to take creative risks, which is something that I was very much attracted to. you know, that really ended up being why I gravitated towards working with a lot of those clients because

You know, you can come with to them with really creative out of the box ideas and they were always willing to jump on it. I mean, I remember one that one that comes to mind for me is our team was was lucky very early on one of our team members had gone down to the South by Southwest Conference, a big kind of tech and advertising and cultural event that happens down in Austin, Texas every year and managed to get hold of one of the beta kits of the earliest made.

Oculus Rift, the first VR headset that you could use. And when he brought it back to the office, we were all blown away and just like amazing what you could do with it. And this is a very immersive experience that we had never really seen before and instantly saw a huge potential for some of our clients in the travel and tourism sector. So we worked with Destination BC, who we were working with at the time, to basically the idea we pitched to them was, know, fam trips. I’m sure you’ve heard of before, familiarization trips are very popular.

Jason Elkins (09:57.502)
Wow.

Jason Elkins (10:21.074)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

David Brodie (10:24.354)
you know, tactic in the travel and tourism industry where you bring, you know, travel journalists and others to your destination to kind of get immersed in it and see it. We pitched them on idea of kind of creating these virtual fam trip experiences where we went down to New York and Los Angeles, various cities, you know, using the Oculus VR headset, where we’d created some amazing, you know, hikes in British Columbia that you take or skiing in British Columbia that you could do with with the headset on. And then also created kind of installations around it. So one of them was in a, you know,

hotel suite in New York that we took over and put like a campfire in the middle of it and the tent and you put on the headset and you felt like you were in a campsite in the middle of British Columbia. And because nobody had really seen VR yet then they had seen the Oculus headset and we’re getting a chance to see that for the first time but see our content around being inspired to travel to BC it got tremendous amount of coverage and interest and attention and so those were always the types of clients.

Jason Elkins (11:04.211)
Wow.

Jason Elkins (11:19.272)
Yeah, sounds pretty cool. Yeah.

David Brodie (11:21.782)
Yeah, the types of clients and projects that we’re exciting to work on for sure.

Jason Elkins (11:25.51)
And how do you do that with, you know, some of these other brands, you know, I mean, that’s a, that’s a fun project that you just described. And it’s like, I don’t know, maybe a video game companies. don’t know where else would be a good fit, but I love the, I love the time. I’m curious on a project like that. Cause I’d never, never heard of it. I hadn’t run into it. Hadn’t come across that was the return on vest and investment. Pretty good. Were you able to continue to keep doing that or yeah.

David Brodie (11:36.808)
Yeah

David Brodie (11:52.014)
substantial. mean, yeah, we got massive news coverage out of it, right? I mean, it led stories on, know, CNN travel and leisure, the travel channel, you kind of every travel outlet across North America at the time picked up a story about it. And as a result, you know, was talking about travel to British Columbia. So very much, you know, very strong return on investment in terms of

you know, strong earned media coverage that really raised awareness around the destination.

Jason Elkins (12:24.946)
So I feel kind of, I’m a little embarrassed to admit, I’ve never put one of those Oculus headsets on. I’ve never seen it. I don’t know why, but as I’m listening, I mean, I’m aware of it and I’m envisioning, and I haven’t been to a travel show in a while. I’ve been to a few travel shows in a while, but I mean, haven’t, like, man, if I had a lodge in the Bahamas or something in the Amazon, I can see where, you know, if I’ve got a table at a travel show, what a great thing to just bring along.

David Brodie (12:33.378)
Yeah.

David Brodie (12:53.464)
For sure. Well, if I was working with a travel brand today, probably rather than doing it with Oculus, I would be doing it with the new Apple Vision Pro. mean, their new headset is way more immersive than Oculus ever was and creates an even more impactful experience. So I think it’s got great potential for travel brands. It’s something I’ve been suggesting to some people that I’ve been talking to in the travel industry lately is that if you have the newest

Jason Elkins (12:54.324)
You know?

Jason Elkins (13:02.472)
Okay.

David Brodie (13:21.26)
version of the iPhone, the iPhone 16 Pro, actually lets you shoot in that sort of immersive format for VR headsets and specifically for the Apple Vision Pro. And the Apple Vision Pro is still very much a niche product with very few people buying it. But I think as the cost comes down, the technology, I mean, if you ever go do a demo of it, it is really pretty amazing. And I think as the cost comes down and more people do adopt it, it would be…

well advised for brands to have some of that content already shot and ready because there’s lots you can do with it.

Jason Elkins (13:56.276)
I’ve my, my brain is already rolling. I’ve just spent before we get on this call, I spent some time putting together some marketing offers for some of my clients. And, and now as I’m listening to you, I’m like, Oh, I think I see a whole nother thing. You know, and I, I’m a single guy and I’ve been traveling full time for the last three and a half years. So I’m happy to just go to places, help them get it set up. And it’s all right. Very cool. Well, that’s a, that’s a, that’s a, pretty, pretty cool idea.

David Brodie (14:08.514)
some good ideas. There you go. Well, I’m glad I can help.

David Brodie (14:20.619)
Absolutely.

Jason Elkins (14:25.198)
I did want to, don’t, you’d mentioned something about Australia and I kind of want to go back to that. I’m not sure if I still have the same train of thought, but you said you went there for about a year and a half and you were working there. Is that because you were you able to do that legally because of the Commonwealth? Okay.

David Brodie (14:43.658)
Exactly, because of being a Commonwealth country together with Canada. And actually, not just Commonwealth countries, there’s probably about, I don’t know, 20 or so countries around the world that Canada has these kind of reciprocal agreements with that if you are between, at the time when I went, I think it was you had to be between the ages of 18 and 30. I think they’ve increased it a bit now. You could get it kind of it was called a student work abroad visa, essentially where

you know, if you were still within that age range, they would give you kind of a one year of work permit to go over and spend some time traveling and experience the country.

Jason Elkins (15:19.988)
Wow. What was your first job? You mentioned Club Med. I think you mentioned, you mentioned something about a sale. What was the first? Well, yeah.

David Brodie (15:26.198)
My first job was terrible. My first job was in a place called Bundaberg, which I’ve been back to since it is a lovely place in Australia, but it’s a very agricultural area and big on, you know, bringing in foreign workers to help pick out the fields. And so my first job in Australia was picking green peppers out in the fields in Bundaberg. And we had to start at about four in the morning because it would get so hot later in the day.

Jason Elkins (15:44.244)
okay.

David Brodie (15:53.908)
there were snakes in the field there were demanding farmers yelling at us all day so I lasted about six days I think and then kind of took a flyer with with some friends and and headed down to a place where we knew a club med was opening this is kind of an interesting story we went in and I’d always kind of dreamed about working at a club bed at that point I’d heard that they had these you know lots of activities that you could I’d worked as a ski instructor during high school and I knew one of the club beds hired

ski instructors and some of the tropics hired people to do diving instructors and stuff.

Jason Elkins (16:26.322)
Yeah, so you mentioned you grew up in small town Alberta, right? So yeah, I can see we’re working at Club Med. It sounds amazing.

David Brodie (16:29.91)
Yes, yes, yeah.

Club Med would be pretty aspirational. But we had heard about this town, Early Beach in Australia, where a new Club Med had just opened up. And I kind asked around, trying to find out if they were hiring, and went into the temporary agency that was hiring people. And they said, no, we’ve we’ve hired everybody, sorry, we’re not looking at everybody. We check back in a couple of weeks. But I was at my backpacker’s place where I was staying that night, 19 years old at time, and having some drinks with some guys around the bar.

And one of the guys says, Hey, I just got hired on at the golf course. And they told me they’ve got like a brand new yacht that they’ve just built. That’s going to take us to the island tomorrow morning. We’re supposed to be there at 6am. But he’s like, nobody asked my name. Nobody asked anything. Why don’t you just come along? I’m like, absolutely. So we got in the morning, we jumped on the boat, we got over to the island and they started dividing everybody up and said, okay, who’s here to work on the restaurant? Okay, they counted out who’s here to work on the golf course. I just kind of shuffled along with those guys. The guy counted. He’s like,

this doesn’t see right. He’s like, Okay, come on. I guess you’re all you’re all here for the golf course. was hired.

Jason Elkins (17:38.388)
There’s some wisdom in that story for anybody that’s listening that is sitting there waiting for somebody to respond to an email they sent off asking for a job or a resume that they sent off waiting for a job. Sometimes it’s just a matter of showing up. Maybe it’s a little harder now because I feel like people have more likely have a phone with a list in their pocket and they can pull it out and say, now wait a minute.

David Brodie (17:52.908)
That’s right. That’s right.

David Brodie (18:01.07)
That’s right. Who is this guy?

Jason Elkins (18:06.844)
I don’t see your tax records, your stuff, all that stuff you should have submitted before you just showed up. But that’s group. OK, so how long did that job?

David Brodie (18:16.302)
that was, that was probably about three months or so. So that was immediately following the picking green peppers was straight on to working at a golf course at Club Med, which was a significant step up. and then from there spent about the same amount of time working on a, on a sailboat, taking people on tours through the Whitsunday Islands as well.

Jason Elkins (18:17.342)
before they found out that you…

Jason Elkins (18:34.9)
I’m curious when they were saying, okay, who’s here to work in the restaurant? Who’s here to work in the golf course? Were you tempted to wait and see how much better the, like, cause the next one might’ve been who’s here to, who’s here to apply sunscreen on the beach? But probably it could’ve got worse. It could have after the golf course, you didn’t walk away. Then the next one, okay, who’s working in the trash bed or who’s, who’s doing the landscaping.

David Brodie (18:44.342)
the offers would get.

I didn’t push my luck quite that far, right?

David Brodie (19:02.26)
I could have suddenly been a diving instructor with no dive certification or something, I don’t know.

Jason Elkins (19:05.204)
You

It’s a very, very cool story. So it sounds like your parents were fairly supportive. They’re like, you do okay in school. I think you said do well in school. So I guess I’m paraphrasing, do okay in school, graduate. Then they would get you a ticket to go anywhere you wanted to go. Were they happy you chose Australia or could you see the look on your mom’s face when you said, I want to go as far away from here as possible? Did you pick up on anything? Can’t you just go over to, you know?

David Brodie (19:22.583)
Yup.

David Brodie (19:33.102)
You know?

Well, I will say being a parent now and reaching my oldest is 16 and so I have a much better perspective now. And yeah, my parents for sure were a little upset to see me go at the airport for sure. And I can certainly empathize with that a lot now.

Jason Elkins (19:38.484)
I don’t know, somew-

Jason Elkins (19:55.06)
Do think they at least maybe felt, I don’t know what the perception is. I grew up in Wyoming, Montana, which is basically Southern Alberta. So it’s kind of very similar. but I’m curious, I mean, Australia is a reasonably considered reasonably safe, except for this, the snakes and the sharks and the Crocs, the spiders and all that. Other than that, it’s pretty safe. Do you think that you would have gotten more resistance if you said, know,

I’ve spent a lot of time in Columbia and at that time Columbia was not a great place to go. So like if you’d picked another place like Columbia or somewhere in the middle East, do think they would have rescinded that offer?

David Brodie (20:32.622)
100%. Yeah, I think there would have been more discussion and more concern, think, for sure. I think they definitely saw Australia as being a pretty safe destination. And it was. It really was a great place for being 18, 19 years old and getting that first travel abroad experience. You really couldn’t ask for a much better place than Australia in the 90s. mean, it was very easy to travel around. The people were incredibly friendly.

Jason Elkins (20:46.804)
Hmm?

Jason Elkins (21:00.926)
There you are, yeah.

David Brodie (21:01.855)
and just so much to see and do there as well.

Jason Elkins (21:04.102)
Yeah, I was fortunate to go for a few months when I was, geez, I was only 12 when I went there. But I have such fond memories of all the people and it was just such a cool place to be. So I can appreciate that. What did you study in school?

David Brodie (21:19.554)
Political science and you know, I was aspiring to go work at, you know, Canadian embassies abroad to be part of the Foreign Service. But the year I wrote the Foreign Service exam, think there were were something like 20,000 or 30,000 people who wrote the exam and about eight who got hired on. So I did not make the cut that year. And then subsequently, I just happened to, you know, because of studying political science and kind of volunteering on some campaigns, managed to get a great

Jason Elkins (21:20.968)
Okay.

David Brodie (21:48.654)
job offer coming out of university to go work as a summer student for the Minister of Finance here in Canada at the time. that, though this is post Australia. So this is more in the kind of my mid twenties coming out of university. Australia I did straight out of high school.

Jason Elkins (21:56.542)
Did you do that before you went to Australia or?

Jason Elkins (22:07.764)
Okay, I gotcha. No, I appreciate the clarification there. So yeah, you said graduate. Okay, so you had the gap year kind of experience, which is so cool. And then you went back to, so other than you’d mentioned that your parent, you guys had taken a trip to kind of Disneyland, Mexico. Other than that, what was going, and other than growing up in small town Alberta.

David Brodie (22:16.307)
Exactly, exactly.

Jason Elkins (22:35.442)
which means a lot. What was it that had that travel thing going on? Were you watching documentaries on TV? Did you have the National Geographic subscription? What was it?

David Brodie (22:46.346)
All of the above for sure. mean, just any anything, anything related travel I very much very much flashed on to. And the other thing is, I mean, we did a lot of stuff in the outdoors, you know, lot of hiking, camping, skiing, which also just furthered my interest in wanting to do more of that in other places. mean, Alberta is such a great place for incredible skiing and the Rockies and incredible hiking. You know, it’s still one of my favorite places in the world to go skiing or to go hiking, but

Jason Elkins (22:47.984)
I suspected that.

David Brodie (23:15.072)
It certainly also piqued my interest in doing more of that in other parts of the world as well.

Jason Elkins (23:20.148)
Sure. Did you have siblings growing up that I’m just kind of curious if you did and kind of did they kind of go a similar direction or what?

David Brodie (23:27.948)
Yeah, I have a sister who worked a little bit in the hotel industry early on in her career and she likes to travel but certainly was not as obsessed with the travel bug as I have ended up being throughout my career in life, I wouldn’t say.

Jason Elkins (23:41.94)
You and I are kind of similar in that regard. It’s, and if you don’t have it, think it’s hard for people to understand what is your problem. I mean, I get, I get that I’ve been traveling alone for three and a half years and I meet people and they’re like, why are you here? And you don’t have any family with you and kind of just look at like, what is wrong with you? And then of course my family, you know, when I told them, you know, I, I’m

51. So three, four years ago, you know, when I bought a one way ticket to Columbia, my family acted as though I was 18. You’re like, what, why are you doing that? And I remember my mom, my mom denies it to this day. But I remember, I remember her specifically saying, why Columbia? Can’t you just like go to Seattle or something? Which seemed like such a weird response. And then I mentioned it to her.

David Brodie (24:17.206)
Yeah, yeah.

David Brodie (24:31.764)
Seattle or California.

Jason Elkins (24:39.784)
you know, several months later, I think I said, and you wanted me to go to Seattle and she’s like, what are you talking about? Well, that’s what I thought. I thought, what are you talking about? So yeah, that doesn’t change. then, so what about other people? No, no, I actually chose Columbia. So when I made the decision, I had worked in the travel industry, I’d worked in adventure tourism. I’d been fortunate to visit quite a few places. And at one point I had the opportunity to visit Columbia.

David Brodie (24:50.582)
And have you traveled to Columbia before that or was that just you?

Jason Elkins (25:08.724)
been invited on a fam trip basically and my boss at the time was like well I just don’t know if we can really sell Columbia and But I guess you could go and then I was so excited And I went home and told my wife at the time. I’m like, I’m going to Columbia and she said no, you’re not As there was a little bit of resistance there and I chose not to go so then Fast-forward several years and I’m divorced and single and I decide I’m gonna go travel the world

So I sold all my stuff. So the first place I wanted to go was Columbia because there was no one really that had the say on to tell me that I wasn’t going to go. Yeah. And I fell in love with it. it’s great. What up?

David Brodie (25:47.256)
There we go. is a country I have not been to yet, but I have heard is incredible. It’s supposed to be some great, well, a ton of things to do there.

Jason Elkins (25:56.112)
It’s amazing and my plan was to go there for a month or so and then just kind of continue on down and down and through other parts of South America that I hadn’t visited.

You know, it’s three and a half years later and I look back and I’ve probably spent two and a half of those years in Columbia. I just got there. like, man, this is amazing. The weather was perfect and the people, the culture, everything was so exciting. All that stimulation that someone like me needs. And yeah, so I definitely anybody that’s listening to this, it’s a great spot. And I remember.

David Brodie (26:15.969)
Yeah.

David Brodie (26:26.391)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (26:32.244)
so many times just walking down the street or sitting there having a coffee and a croissant, know, they do a lot of croissants there or, um, epinadas or whatever. Just thinking, wow, there’s so many people that are never going to experience this because of stories or things in their head or images they saw in the news 20, 30 years ago. And it was a big moment for me just to realize, man, you know, just.

I mean, there’s some places I probably, well, no, I’d probably go just about anywhere, but I might take different precautions depending on where I go. But Columbia is like such a, you I mean, there’s precautions everywhere you go, but it’s pretty great.

David Brodie (27:05.058)
Yeah.

David Brodie (27:09.751)
What?

I mean, I had a very similar experience about a week ago, actually two weeks ago now, I guess I was in Jordan, which of course, you know, borders on Israel on one side, it’s got Syria, Iran, Iraq, you know, it’s it’s a lot of the people there described Jordan to me as a quiet house in a very noisy neighborhood, which I thought was a very apt description. And I think a place that a lot of people, know, with with

Jason Elkins (27:17.854)
Hmm.

Jason Elkins (27:32.371)
Mm-hmm.

David Brodie (27:37.518)
particularly with what’s happening in Israel right now, would be hesitant to go to. And clearly that’s having a huge impact on tourism there. Tourism was down in some of the areas that we were traveling to by 70, 80, 90%, depending on where we were traveling. But at the same time, I have been fewer places where the people were friendlier, where the culture is more compelling. I felt incredibly safe the entire time we were there. I mean, I think people don’t realize how different…

Jordan is from some of its surrounding neighbors in terms of, I mean, it’s been a very stable country for very many years and very moderate and very easy to travel around. it’s probably of all the places I’ve traveled to, one of ones where I would say the perception versus the reality when you get there are just so incredibly different.

Jason Elkins (28:23.678)
I got that impression. actually interviewed a gentleman that runs a tour business there in Jordan. one of our, one of the first interviews that we did. And it was fascinating. He was just, I, by the end of the conversation, I’m like, I’m going, it’s a, you know, he just, he just talked about the hospital, hospitality of the people there and just the warm graciousness. Now, had you visited other countries around Jordan as well?

David Brodie (28:48.046)
A bit. mean, a year earlier, I had done a little bit of travel in the Middle East as well. So I’d been to Oman. I’d been to Abu Dhabi and Dubai. But not extensively throughout the Middle East, but everywhere I’ve gone in the region only makes me want to go see more of it, for sure.

Jason Elkins (29:04.902)
It’s, it’s interesting. I have not been to the middle East other than one stop in, geez. One, one stop at an airport and I don’t think it was Dubai. I don’t even remember at this point, but, the people I’ve met traveling while traveling in other places that are from the middle East is just, wow, they’re some of the nicest people. Even when I was still living in Phoenix, Arizona, my son and I went in and found this little market that looked interesting. went in there, turned out it was owned by a family from Iraq.

And they were so sweet. They were just so wonderful. And they were giving us little treats to hear, you got to try this, you got to try that. And it just really, everybody that I’ve met anyway, or come across from the Middle East has been that way. I know there’s issues obviously, but there’s issues everywhere.

David Brodie (29:51.864)
Yeah, for sure. And I think that’s exactly right. mean, anywhere you travel around the world, you’ve certainly got to be aware of what’s happening and kind of research the destination. But I find everywhere that I’ve traveled around the world that people are basically the same and, you know, looking to, looking to, you know, build a good life for themselves and then and make the most of the day and that you can find people who are incredibly friendly and helpful in pretty much every corner of the world.

Jason Elkins (30:21.446)
Yeah, I actually start, mentioned you kind of started your podcast when you were in Asia and specifically in Japan. I actually started this show. was my first trip to Southeast Asia or to Asia period. And it kind of came from that sense of, wow, this is a long ways away physically, but the people here are not that much different. You know, you might see a woman and a burka or a job or whatever, and her kids are climbing all over her and her husband’s there with the daughter underneath his arm.

you know, they love their kids just this, just as much as we do. And, you know, and they can be so incredibly gracious. And that was kind of, it just inspired me as like, I just want to get, I just want to talk to people from a bunch of different places and get these conversations going. So people can kind of not feel like there’s so much, a big difference, you know, between wherever you’re from and wherever, you know, maybe you haven’t visited or just go visit. And who carries David, have you.

David Brodie (31:10.392)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (31:19.568)
Ever done a podcast episode about a place that kind of sounds like, you don’t want to go there. I mean, have you, has that ever been the gist of the, of the message or have you been to a place where you’re like, I’m not going to do a podcast about it because I don’t want to tell people not to go there.

David Brodie (31:31.041)
It-

David Brodie (31:35.702)
Yeah, no, you know, honestly, it hasn’t been because I really have not encountered many places like that around around the world. And yeah, I’ve been really fortunate in my travels to have had great experiences virtually everywhere that we’ve gone. I mean, for sure, there’s been, you know, if you you travel extensively around the world, you’re going to have some some

instance, since some hiccups here and there. For sure. Russia, I think I had a few, a different places around the world. Yeah, Russia, I did find of probably all the places I’ve traveled around one of the more challenging ones for sure. And I think it, and I’m sure now would be a very challenging time to travel around Russia as well. Just, you know, a whole whole variety of reasons it was

Jason Elkins (32:00.114)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (32:04.821)
I think we’re getting ready for a story here. us, you mentioned Russia. What happened?

David Brodie (32:28.878)
you know, that frankly, the level of corruption there was really high during the time we were there. And, you know, you just kind of ran into incidents wherever you went, you know, kind of kind of various different things that came along. mean, probably the

Jason Elkins (32:43.38)
What were these mostly incidents with? Because when I hear corruption and traveling, think of police that, you know, want bribes or that type of thing. that kind of what you’re talking about?

David Brodie (32:53.678)
Absolutely like cross crossing borders and things, you know, I remember for example, you know, I had planned my trip on fairly short notice my my wife was going over to Russia to see family of hers and kind of a week or two before her trip I figured out I had enough arrow plan miles that I could go along on the trip as well and thought it would be relatively easy to get a visa.

it was not. And it was there was a lot of there was a lot of process there and even going to the embassy and the prices fluctuated a lot and who you needed to talk to to get a visa. It was a weird and wild process to get a visa. She did until until 18 and then moved to Canada for university after that.

Jason Elkins (33:25.821)
Uh-huh.

Jason Elkins (33:30.878)
Did your, did your wife grow up there in Russia?

Jason Elkins (33:37.49)
So I’m curious when you said, I’ll go with you. Was she excited about this? She’s no, it’s gonna be a pain in the ass. Or she was, she probably didn’t realize how much of a pain in the ass it was gonna be for you.

David Brodie (33:43.548)
yeah, for sure. No, no, she was very much excited. Yeah, I don’t think either one of us had any sense of it. mean, just things like, for example, the embassy issued me a visa, but I didn’t, I don’t mean partially my fault as well, but they put the wrong dates on it. And I suspect that was probably purposeful because then when we arrived, they wanted…

you know, an additional fee, of course, to change those dates and lots of things like that that would pop up all the time.

Jason Elkins (34:15.572)
So the guy that initially issued it was looking out for the guy that was going to be at the border control when you came through and they’re all kind of in on the same thing. And did it leave a bad feeling for Rush? mean, would you go again? You just kind of like, okay, well, at least I kind of know what to expect or…

David Brodie (34:38.22)
I mean, to be honest, I would love to go again. Like, I would love to say, see, we didn’t make it to St. Petersburg. I would love to see that. I would love to see lots. I don’t know in the current political climate. If I would go, I mean, I think it’s it’s yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Jason Elkins (34:49.332)
Well, yeah, right now is a tough time. And tell me more about Kenny, your wife and you’re traveling together. I’ve heard you mentioned a few times in the conversation. We went here, we went there. So does she travel with you most of the time, some of the time? And is she as enthusiastic about it as you are?

David Brodie (35:07.566)
For sure. mean, we’ve done a large portion of our travels we’ve done together. Of course, some of the stuff I’ve done for the podcast and some of the stuff I’ve done for work travel, she hasn’t been able to come along. But I think, you know, of the 53 countries I’ve been to around the world, she’s probably been to 40 some of them or so. So she’s kept up pretty well. And our kids as well. I mean, I think our kids who are now 13 and 16 are probably both up.

Jason Elkins (35:25.544)
Wow. Okay. And as a podcaster.

David Brodie (35:36.106)
in the high 20s, 30 countries that they’ve been to as well. So we’ve been very, very fortunate to give them a chance to see a good chunk of the world as well.

Jason Elkins (35:38.45)
Wow, that’s that’s cool.

Jason Elkins (35:45.116)
If they were sitting here in this conversation with us right now, I would love to, you know, just ask them, so what’s this? Is this weird? Do the kids at school think you’re weird that you go to these places? Did a do you, you know, so do your best if you could just share with me kind of what insights you’ve gotten from your kids about growing up in a family that does travel a lot and it goes to these places. Cause I know I have that experience with my son. He’s

He’s only been to 10 countries with me now, but it’s like sometimes his teachers just don’t want to hear about it, whatever. So I’m curious what experience your kids are having.

David Brodie (36:19.234)
Well, we’re very fortunate that they love to travel as much as we do. mean, they have very much been bitten by the travel bug themselves as well. And the great thing is they’re now at an age where they’re starting to get very actively involved in the travel planning also. You know, very keen to kind of think of where we can go next and, you know, super good at finding the most efficient ways to get places. you know, they have certainly taken, I think, a lot of

some of my advice in terms of how to find good travel deals and things and take it on that advice. so there often, my daughter a few weeks ago found a great deal to Mexico while I was away on a business trip and convinced my wife that they should go for four days to Mexico. She was able to find such a great deal that it was hard to say no. yeah.

Jason Elkins (37:09.008)
Nice, nice. So is she not at the point yet? And maybe she’ll never, maybe I don’t want to put it this out into the universe because maybe it won’t happen, but is she at the point where, no, I want to stay home, spend my summers with my friends and I don’t want to go on vacation. You haven’t seen that, huh?

David Brodie (37:23.275)
Not at this stage. And surprisingly, mean, when we’re no and when we’re back home, I mean, she certainly as all 16 year olds, probably wants as little to do with this as is possible. When we’re traveling, still loves to spend time with us. So that’s good.

Jason Elkins (37:36.744)
That’s all right. That’s pretty cool. My situation with my son is, since I’m traveling full time, he’s 18 now and the last several years he’d come spend his summer with me. I remember last year, his mom dropped him off out in front of the airport. So he was 17.

He wanted to go check into the saw. So she dropped him off at the front door, went sat in the parking lot just to make sure, you know, and he went, got checked in, got his flight to Columbia, you know, and flew all the way to Columbia, came through customs in Columbia by himself. And he came out of customs. He was so proud of himself. He’s like, man, you know, that was pretty cool. And I think Jackson.

just think you can go anywhere now. And now he’s got a job, so he even has money, so that’s good. And it’s like, you can literally buy a plane ticket, get yourself to the airport, you’ve got your passport, you can go anywhere in the world. And I’m like, so where are you going to go? And he said, well, I just kind of want to focus on work and my friends. I’m like, oh, geez. So we’ll see, maybe later on in life, he’ll.

David Brodie (38:40.23)
Well, I’ve been really lucky this last year and a half or so since I’ve started building out my podcast network and running my own business that I’ve done a ton of business travel in the decades before this. often 99 % of the time my family couldn’t come along on those trips versus now running my own business. I was able to bring my daughter along to a travel conference I went to over in France. And we spent a couple extra days in Germany, a couple extra days in Spain afterwards, which was amazing.

Brought my son to a travel conference that I attended in New York and you know, then we stayed over a long weekend and had a great chance to explore together then and that’s been really one of the huge benefits here in the last year and a half or so having my own businesses having the chance to do that for sure.

Jason Elkins (39:27.208)
Kind of, kind of nice, isn’t it? have that, kind of flexibility. And I’m curious. And I suspect that every time you go anywhere, you kind of work kind of mixes its way in because you do podcasts about travel. So I’m curious when you are, when your wife’s traveling with you, when the kids are traveling with you, do you ever get any grief from them about dad, quit taking notes, dad, just relax and be present in the moment.

David Brodie (39:30.552)
for sure.

David Brodie (39:51.95)
Yes. Yes, is the short answer to that. Absolutely.

Jason Elkins (39:57.62)
I had a feeling. It’s kind of like if somebody’s job is maybe a restaurant reviewer or something, you could probably never really go out to dinner with them and enjoy dinner with them because whether they’re writing review or not, it’s just part of their nature.

David Brodie (40:15.788)
writing review and taking photos of the food and yeah, that’s right.

Jason Elkins (40:18.42)
yeah. Yep. Yep. So, all right. That’s, that’s pretty cool. So what do you, let’s, let’s just talk about kind of the growth of podcasting and some of that stuff, kind of, know, you’ve got a whole network of people that you’re working with. like when you said you got started, was like maybe one or two, different, you know, people doing some sort of podcast or something like that, travel based anyway. So what is, what kind of some of your, your observations over the years?

David Brodie (40:49.324)
Well, it’s interesting as I mean, even though I’ve been doing it for, as I going on 20 years now, this later this year, people still talk about podcasting as being this new emerging medium. And it’s still, I think, you know, still got a ways to go in terms of growth. But I think it really has now, probably the big difference now is it has very much reached the mainstream. I mean, I think when you when you say you you’re hosting a podcast, 90 % of people now kind of nod their heads know what you’re talking about versus

Jason Elkins (41:17.684)
you

David Brodie (41:18.894)
It was, you know, that 90 10 ratio was probably the inverse when I when I started. So that that’s definitely been a big difference. There’s so much content out there now. And I think one of the one of the challenges the podcasting industry still has and I’m hoping you’re starting to see some some positive signs on this. But discovery is still a really not a great it’s far easier to discover to discover content on YouTube or

Instagram or elsewhere than it is within the podcast ecosystem. I mean, one great thing about car has is you get very wide distribution, right? Because once you publish your podcast up to a podcasting platform, it’s picked up on Apple on Spotify on Amazon music. I mean, it runs in 100 different places. But all of those places have different ways to search and surface content. And I think that continues to be a big challenge for the podcasting industry for sure.

Jason Elkins (41:47.348)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (42:14.548)
It is a challenge because if you pull out your phone and you’re like, want to listen to travel podcasts and you go to Apple and podcasts or Spotify, whatever, and you say, you know, search adventure travel, whatever, you know, some results are going to come up, but only some results is probably the same results over and over. And anybody else that maybe is doing a great show, it’s, it’s can be kind of a challenge for them to get in front of people. So I’ve noticed that it’s still very much a.

David Brodie (42:34.967)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (42:43.924)
There’s a lot of outreach. There’s a lot of social media that, you got to get it. You got to find other avenues to get people aware of it. Once they get aware of it, that’s great. Are you doing, do you do video for your podcasts as well? Is that something that you’ve uploaded? Are you doing the shorts? And I mean, that seems to be quite a common way to get out there.

David Brodie (43:02.37)
For sure, do some short form video content on Instagram and YouTube shorts and elsewhere to help promote our podcast episodes. But part of the premise behind building out a network of shows is, one of the things that we’ve clearly seen and that kind of research bears out is that the number one place people discover podcasts is on other podcasts.

Jason Elkins (43:18.9)
That’s another podcast, which is why we’re having this conversation today, right? That’s why you agreed to come on here.

David Brodie (43:21.966)
Part of it for sure why why why we have conversations like this, but also I mean, that’s why you know in building out a network I mean part of what we do is you know, we run ads on behalf of travel brands and DMOs and others But also, you know a big portion of the advertising we’re running on our network is for all of the shows on our network essentially helping them all all grow so making sure that you know people who are already listening to travel podcast content are

Jason Elkins (43:43.294)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

David Brodie (43:48.75)
kind of having an easy opportunity to discover other like content and that you’ve got kind of a high intent audience who’s specifically looking for information about travel and thinking about where to go next that you can kind of expose to this whole network of content.

Jason Elkins (44:05.332)
So I think you’ve done a really good job of sharing some information and kind of your insights there. And I’m curious because I believe that a lot of the listeners to this show are tour operators, guides, outbound tour operators, DMCs, wide variety of people that kind of in the business that may, you know, they’re listening to this show. So they’re aware of what podcasts can do for travel, but I’m curious, what would you want to say to those, those tour operators out there that maybe you’re thinking.

Should I have a podcast or should I take my time and effort to get on other people’s podcasts or just like for somebody that’s kind of that’s rolling around in their head, what would you want to say to them?

David Brodie (44:43.35)
Yeah, I mean, I think I think one of the things about one of the kind of unique things about podcasting is that if you look at how people consume podcasts, they tend to be deeply engaged with the content, right? They will listen to where we’re on YouTube. They’re typically watching for two to three minutes per video and a podcast there exactly or on Instagram, even even less, right? It’s eight to nine seconds and then scrolling on to your next your next reel.

Jason Elkins (45:03.228)
I get bored. I’m on to the next thing. Yep.

David Brodie (45:11.704)
podcasts, I mean, they’re attending most podcasts, you know, across art or we’re seeing, like 90 % of the of the show typically being listened to at least. And they’re often you know, they can be 30 minutes, 60 minute or longer, sometimes shows. So people are becoming deeply engaged within the topic. So there’s a there’s a lot of a, there’s a strong storytelling opportunity there. And you know, you’re reaching an audience who is like deeply engaged with and interested in in the topic as well. So I do think

Jason Elkins (45:21.278)
Mm-hmm.

David Brodie (45:40.494)
they present a unique opportunity to advertisers. doesn’t podcast don’t drive the same type of because of that, that deeper engagement and people are spending a lot more time with specific podcasts. You don’t see the massive download. You know, you’re not going to find any travel podcast in the world that’s getting millions of downloads a month where you might find that on an Instagram account. But you know, where I would also often say to a brand is like if you were to have 500 people, 1000 people, 1500

Jason Elkins (46:02.537)
Yeah.

David Brodie (46:10.35)
people come to an event and listen to information about your destination for an hour, that be of interest with you, like, how excited would you be about that? Well, that’s exactly what you’re doing when you’re on, you know, a monthly podcast that’s getting 2000, 3000, 5000, 10,000 downloads a month, right? I mean, really bringing together that, that group of people and

Jason Elkins (46:16.148)
You

Jason Elkins (46:27.092)
Yeah, it’s a really good point because a lot of the potential advertisers on your shows or on my show are just, I mean, I don’t have anybody advertising and I haven’t made an effort to do that. But I guess what I’m saying is, a typical operator, let’s say you run safaris in Africa and you think, okay, I need more people from the US.

And you know there’s a trade show in Denver. You know, you’re going to go to Safari International Club or Safari Club International Show or whatever. Because you’re going to get a table and you’re going to get an opportunity to speak with, I don’t know, 100 people. Really have a real conversation if it’s a really good show. And it’s only, you know, five, 10 minutes. And then they’re going to go talk to someone else at the next table and the next table and the next table. So you spend all this money to go to a show like that.

David Brodie (47:08.204)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (47:20.864)
to meet a few people or you could just go on a podcast and maybe that podcast only gets 100 downloads but there’s a hundred people sitting there listening to you you know listening hearing your story getting feeling the connection with you for an hour that’s like and it generally doesn’t cost much to go on a show maybe a sponsor show sponsoring episode whatever but the cost it can be very very cost effective i believe so i i’m happy to hear you describe it that way it’s it makes a lot of sense

David Brodie (47:36.046)
for sure.

David Brodie (47:43.116)
Yeah.

David Brodie (47:49.646)
And it’s quite unique in terms of an advertising format as well, is that when you look at how people consume podcasts, it is quite rare for them to, you know, I think one stat I said saw us was something like 98 % of ads on podcasts are listened through to completion. And that makes sense when you think about how people are consuming podcasts, right? It’s usually in the car or in the gym, you’re on your bike, you’re doing something else and you’re listening. You’re usually listening hands-free, right? And so

Jason Elkins (48:07.472)
Jason Elkins (48:16.626)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

David Brodie (48:19.694)
It’s not the same as kind of scrolling behavior where it’s a lot easier to skip through those ads.

Jason Elkins (48:26.28)
Yeah, if your phone is sitting on the nightstand or something and you’re, you know, or, or in the car or whatever, it’s easier just to listen to the short ad than it is to scramble for your phone and try and fast forward through, know, just says that that makes a lot of sense.

David Brodie (48:37.644)
and try and skip through it. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (48:42.024)
The other thing, there was something else I wanted to ask you, but honestly, it just floated right out my head. So, we’ve spoken about quite a few things. I would love to come back and just continue the conversation on some other day. And I’m curious, what did I forget to ask you? What should I have asked you? Or what do you want to make sure that our listeners either know about you, your business, or just philosophical stuff before we wrap up?

David Brodie (49:08.92)
Well, you’ve been pretty thorough. You’re a very thorough interviewer there, Jason. So I think you’ve covered off the vast majority of what I can think of. guess I would just say that, you know, I think obviously if people are listening to your show, they understand the power of podcasts and podcasting. And, you know, for those who are in the travel and tourism space and looking to reach new audiences, I think podcasting represents a really unique opportunity. And, you know, certainly that

Jason Elkins (49:23.688)
Mm-hmm.

David Brodie (49:39.01)
The user base of podcasts has for as many years as I’ve been involved in it every year, continued to grow usually with double digit growth almost year over year. It is has very much became, can become a mainstream medium now. And it’s one that not a lot of travel brands are thinking about yet. You know, I saw some research the other day going through all the various different social channels and kind of where brand managers and CMOs are prioritizing them. you know, podcasts were certainly on the list.

But it’s certainly not their first place for consideration. I think that opens up a unique opportunity for those brands who do jump in and try something in the podcasting space.

Jason Elkins (50:23.504)
I it. And on that, I just mentioned a moment ago, I don’t have any sponsors on this show. I’m having pursued sponsors, but maybe it’s a good time to say, you know, this episode is sponsored by Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Marketing. Because, because honestly, David, I was just before we get on this call, I was building out a page to offer, you know, podcast publication support for clients and stuff like that. So this was a great comfort, very timely conversations. So we might have some clips of this spreading around on the internet somewhere.

David Brodie (50:35.97)
There you go.

David Brodie (50:48.632)
There you go.

Jason Elkins (50:52.5)
David, thank you so much. Fascinating conversation, a lot of fun and hope to collaborate on some projects with you again soon in the future.

David Brodie (50:54.136)
Thank you, Jason, really.

David Brodie (51:00.332)
Would love to that really enjoyed the conversation. Thanks for having me on.

Jason Elkins (51:03.98)
Thanks Dave, talk to you soon. Bye.

David Brodie (51:05.57)
Thanks.

 

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