The creative art of making a living as an adventurer, with Alastair Humphreys

“The worst of what adventurers do is an exercise in vanity, chasing a scrolling, envious audience. At best, an adventurer makes people smile, challenges them to think, brings about change and inspires action.”  –Alastair Humphreys

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Alastair talk about what the task of an “adventurer” is these days, and how Al got his start in adventure travel (2:00); how one might approach becoming an adventurer in this day and age, and how to balance embracing versus recording the adventure (7:30); the nuts and bolts of managing things like sponsorships and social media (19:00); communicating with one’s audience, including optimizing blog posts and email newsletters (35:00); working with agents, and when and why to self-publish books (47:00).

Alastair Humphreys (@Al_Humphreys) is an English adventurer, author and motivational speaker. Alastair was the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2012, and has written thirteen books, most recently Ask An Adventurer.

Notable Links:

• Bill Tillman (20th century English mountaineer)
• Bear Grylls (British adventurer)
• Microadventures, by Alastair Humphreys (book)
• Buffer (social-media managing application)
• “Five-Bullet Friday” (Tim Ferriss email newsletter)
• Google Forms (survey software)
• Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, by Gary Vaynerchuk (book)
• Alastair Humphreys newsletters
• Austin Kleon weekly newsletter
• Kindle Direct Publishing (self-publishing platform)
• Creative Penn (website for writers)

The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

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