Discover IT Yourself: Curated Self Guided Adventures in Las Vegas

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hello everyone, this is Howard Fox and welcome back for another episode of the Outdoor Adventure Series, the podcast that celebrates individuals and families, businesses, and organizations that seek out and promote the exploration, stewardship, conservation, access, and enjoyment of the outdoors. Jacob Landry is our guest today. Jake is a Las Vegas native and the founder of Discover It Yourself, the ultimate self-guided adventures in Las Vegas. Jake, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast. It's been long awaited and welcome. Welcome. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Hey, Howard. Well, makeup and hair had a hell of a time with me today, but it's uh I look, I think, somewhat presentable, at least for the the digital folks tuning in today.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

There you go. Well, you know something? We are on video, so we are going to be sharing this out to YouTube. So, but I do appreciate that's a nice cap now.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Is that is that the company logo or is there some other significance of that particular well my logo's right here down here, but this one I recently was in Mexico on Mexico City. I kind of practice when I preach. I like to if if I wasn't chained to the desk trying to build a business, I'd be out on an adventure somewhere. And Mexico City was the most recent of those.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Fantastic. And I have to share too, in the outdoor adventure series, my goal is to put the outdoor in the outdoor adventure series because I spend way too much time at my desk. And so it's it's nice just to get out, even take people out on those adventures. And that's what I really love about the work you're doing, is you're helping to curate adventures for couples and groups. And I'm excited that also you're participating in the the new uh adventure center in Boulder City. That's that's a whole other beast I know we're gonna talk about a little bit. But for our listeners, Jake is here in Las Vegas. We both survived a recent thunderstorm, just passed through. I think it's all cleared up now. It's probably sunny and the ground is probably already dry. But Jake, I would love if we could just start off with a little bit about your background because you mentioned Mexico City. I know you are a world traveler and adventurer. I'd love just to kind of hear a little high-level about this this background and how you got started with this interest.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Well, I'll try not to be too vain and lean into myself, but that's kind of the the hour that I take up here. But yeah, so obviously born and raised out here in '92, Vegas was a much different city back then. If people that have been here uh over the years know that very well. I grew up on the outskirts of town with a horse and a dirt bike. My dad was of the belief that it was better to be outdoors than to be stuck behind playing video games, which eventually I ended up doing anyway. But my first real kind of connection was with my school. I went to uh private school and I had a version of Boy Scouts called the Royal Rangers, which I enlisted in to learn a lot more about the outdoors, learn about the wildlife, hikes, that kind of thing. And uh my dad was a little bit more of a ruffian, liked extreme sports, liked to have some beers, go out to the desert, blow stuff up, big guns, all of the good stuff. And my mom was a little bit more dainty and wanted to do the all-inclusive resorts and and do all of the uh prettier things. So I naturally kind of hitched my pony to my dad and kind of just was reverent to him of just how he just represented masculinity in that good old boy kind of way. And if growing up out here, you don't really have access unless you have somebody that's an enthusiast. A lot of that infrastructure was never in place. A lot of these places are just wilderness or abandon, or you need a four by four all the way out there. And things have changed over the last 30 years, and you know, it's exciting to see that Nevada itself is really trying to hone in on what we have in our own backyard. And as uh as I grew up, I also had the allure of the strip and uh nightlife and and what all of that voted for me when I turned of age, and uh going through school and learning how to finally be somewhat social and in and claim my hierarchy. And one of the things that I always found to be a easier way of getting attention was being the loudest and uh most eccentric in the room. So that kind of cemented me to kind of choose my career. Eventually, I put up my hiking boots for dancing shoes and started working on the strip as a street performer.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Uh okay.

unknown 4:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

So were you up on like Fremont Street? Is that where you were at?

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Yeah, yeah, like 16, 17 years old. Well, my I had like the Partridge family, and then as many people know growing up here, some of the family life did not bode well. My parents got divorced when I was really young, and you know, they never really found their footing after that. So I kind of grew up as that defuncto middle child that needed to flare out and have some attention in my life. So everything I did from flipping signs to selling hot dogs for the pawn stars to dancing on the strip in mascot costumes, I went from being super introverted and kind of quiet to very boisterous and flamboyant. And then I got picked go, I got picked up by nightlife and kind of brought on for the ride of the whole Vegas hospitality scene.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Okay. You mentioned the Royal Rangers, but did you going through that that kind of an organization, the going through high school, did you go on to like community college, university to pick up any classic formal training, or is it the school of just on the job in our knocks life experience?

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Well, I mean, I so I I I wanted to join the military because at that time when I got out of high school, I started out really wanting to be a pastor in the church and help kids with broken homes. Okay. And life kind of served me up a lot of dysfunction with my family and addiction and things were kind of laden with all of that, especially with my mother and my my father both leaning heavily into those dependencies, which made it really hard to kind of find that support, I guess, in my family. And I don't think that there was no lack of love, but there was a lack of application, I think, in the way that they could they can do it for themselves and and and bring that to the forefront. So I went and completely went in the other way. I kind of didn't rebuke religion, but I was like, I don't really understand it anymore. And that's when I shifted into working on the strip and kind of I dropped out of college. I was gonna join the Air Force, and I took a philosophy course, and then I started reading about the beat generation about Jack Kerouac and Henry Miller, and then I got into Hunter S. Thompson and Bukowski and really kind of went on a literary journey as well as trying to excavate some, or at least before I knew what the term was, but a psychoanalysis of my situation.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

When when did you get the travel bug? Because I remember as I was reading and prepping from your website. I mean, you've been traveling around the world. And so when did this travel bug kind of start to take hold for you?

SPEAKER_01 7:44

So as I was kind of fledgling in the nightlife industry, my first my first job was was a promoter, but eventually led to mood director, which I got to dance on stage and party for a living for one season. It was quite the dream job for a 21-year-old. I got to dance on stage with celebrities, pour champagne, flip in the pool, party up with the pretty girls, all things I wasn't privy to as I was growing up.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

It's a tough life there, Jay. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

I really, I'm really soldiering on for the for the men in the community, right? But I actually wanted it to tap back into my roots. So ironically, I went out climbing one day to uh Red Rock. And because I didn't have a huge dose of hubris in my life, I think the life had to bestow it to me in some capacity. And I tried to jump between um some outcroppings as I was free climbing out there, and I fell about 30 feet. And I at the time didn't know the extent of the damage, but eventually I found out to have broken my tibula and fibula and multiple fractures throughout my left leg. My friend tried to carry me out and he slipped and fell and broke my leg all the way through, which was pretty much one of the worst things I've ever experienced in my life. Just the amount of pain, and and then uh he had uh try to get me out of there, and I was pretty much immobilized. And then the fire department, Clark County Fire, actually had to come and repel in and literally clip me to a bottom of a cable and lifted me out of the canyon.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

So those stories that I occasionally read on what's going on in Las Vegas is big thanks to Clark County Rescue and all the ancillary services. So you are on one of those stories. So I mean, that's what the beauty of Las Vegas is. I mean, there's so many opportunities to get out there and explore. And Red Rock, I mean, as beautiful as it is, or like I found a nice background with the Valley of Fire behind me. And I I've been here six years and I haven't even been to Sloan Canyon yet. I need to get over there. But you know, you've got all this beauty and exploration around you. So you kind of you you had a major break. But when did you decide as you're kind of evolving in your career and what you want to do? I sense there was this love of travel and exploration, but how did the this business discover it yourself in these adventure and these self-guiding tours? How did these come about for you?

SPEAKER_01 10:16

So I that's kind of where that moment was a very crisis-orientating thing. I was this rising star in the industry, but it felt a little shallow. It really didn't feel like something that I was aligning with, even though I was getting a lot of praise for it. I was out going back out to being in nature and showing people what I grew up doing. And that felt like there was a joy there. After I broke my leg, I decided to, well, didn't decide. I couldn't really work all that well with only the one leg and I couldn't really dance anymore. So I had to have this crisis of like what's next, you know. I didn't know if I was going to heal up in the capacity that I was going to be able to rejoin or do the job anymore. So I had a lot of time to think. And during that time, I actually opened my house that I was staying in to travelers from all over the world. And I would take them on crutches in my truck to my my old F 350 to all of these different locations, to all these different hikes. I'm like, yeah, I would take them for free and just show them all these cool little spots just to kind of be a custodian of my city. And I never really thought of it like that until I had that opportunity to be like, well, I'm immobile, and what do I get to tell people about what it is to be from here? And especially everyone on the strip has very is very transient, and you you don't have a lot of people that are like, oh, but you grew up here. Like, what did you do? So I felt like I was uh I could have turned the mouthpiece up, and I really started to find my headway outside of being just this eccentric person that was just ready to party, ready to dance, ready to chug a Jaeger bomb if I needed to. And that kind of set the route for travels, which eventually I didn't have the tools to understand the business side of things until I came back after about six months traveling abroad through Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal, India, and really kind of had this separation of what it meant to be me and not just being a byproduct of my circumstance growing up here, but also the strip and trying to see a different way of life. And when I went on this adventure, I mean, I ended up in Mount Everest, uh, almost fell to my death there, riding a motorcycle from the north of Vietnam all the way to the south, almost 4,000 miles on a little 110cc bike. I mean, countless adventures. It was like a Bob Dylan album. And I was ramping and rolling around the world, and I came back with this kind of vigor of like, well, how do I do this? How do I start a business? How do I how do I create a life that represents what I am instead of just trying to fit into this niche of what's available to me? So from then from then on, that's kind of where I moved up through back into the hospitality world, ended up being a marketing director, learning a lot of different sides of business. And then right before COVID in December, I started my first company, which was just doing hiking tours in December of 2019.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Okay. So you're taking people on these hiking tours. Are these gonna be some of the same locations that you're curating now with the discovery yourself? Or are these like kind of local doing the tours like through Red Rock?

SPEAKER_01 13:33

So before before I knew any of the the legal hurdles and things like that, my first my first ambition was just showing people hikes for like 50 bucks. Like I was just like, okay, like at the time I was still a marketing manager. I wasn't worried too much about the money. I was just trying to see if there was an audience for what I wanted to do. And I wanted to take people on hikes at night. I knew a lot of lot of liability there now that I've matured into the businessman that I am, but I would take people down to Gold Strike. So yeah, that was my first attempt at writing December of 2019. I'm like, I have this great idea. No one really knows about this hike. It's it wasn't as pronounced as it is today, where there's a lot of infrastructure and a lot of the social media craze really brought a lot of attention to it. But back then I was just like, okay, like no one knows about this. There's arrows spray painted on the wall, and it's such a cool spot. And if you do it at night, it's even more bewitching because you get to go in the hot springs and the stars, and I'm like, that's it. I want to help curate these iconic moments for people. And the first of my first business was called Adventures Anonymous, a play on this whole identity with addiction and trying to use adventure as a way of solving that. And that became the backbone of what was later to be Discovered Yourself, mainly due to the fact that I couldn't clone myself. I started getting a lot of inquiries about, oh, this is so amazing. And like not only is the hike, it's it's a the stories that I would tell them of my travels and how emotional people would get about having these experiences that were kind of just unexpected. I really started to get behind the idea that I'm like, how do I how do I shepherd people without having to be on every one of these? And it wasn't scaling horizontally with more guides and and and and trying to make a living with it. I'm like, the the reality is that as as long as it took me, it took me about three or four years to realize that I want to I want to enable people without just doing it for them. And for a long time, I was the guide and I was the way to make people feel comfortable. But it started away on my heart that I wanted to be like, you can do this. I would tell people like, I'm an idiot, but if I can do it, you can do it, you know, and try to give them that enthrallment and that way of passing the baton of saying, I'm gonna make sure that you're safe, I'm gonna give you all the tools, and then you can go and have this experience and have this adventure where you feel like you're conquering something. That became a big part of how DIY formed. And uh at the time, at the sunset of my last business, I was taking people abroad traveling as well, which became very tedious. And I would be gone for two weeks, come back, do a bunch of tours, go back out to another country. And I took people to Egypt, Vietnam, South Korea, Jamaica, all during the pandemic. And I started to be like, all right, where do I where's my business? I'm just chasing the next high, I'm chasing the next challenge. I'm I wasn't really just thinking about the business because I was the brand, I was everything. And the moment I wanted to build it, I I really didn't have any time because everyone was buying into me.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

There's in the the coaching work that I do, and I mean, I'm I'm fortunate now. I I work for an organization that provides me clients, and I work as much as I want to work. If I was totally dependent on me to grow my business, I'm working for dollars for hours, and there's only so much of me that's gonna go around before I burn out. And I thought what I love about the beauty of Discover It Yourself is you're enabling folks to go out on these adventures. You don't actually have to be if you could if you wanted to, but you don't actually have to be there with them. And it's it's your choice. But I I love the fact that you know you've created the infrastructure to kind of make this happen. And that that's I think that's the beauty and the uniqueness of the product you're you are offering folks that want to come here into the Las Vegas Valley and just kind of explore off the strip in these different places. Can you share a little bit more before we go to your website? How does DIY Adventures work? Who are the clients? Where are they coming from? And how do you get them ready to go out on their experience?

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Well, so the biggest thing is as everyone in this industry is somewhat reliant on OTAs, at least when you get started, and OTAs are online travel agencies for the non-tourism folks. Now the Vi Tours and Get Your Guides, now they Airbnb, Expedia, they take a commission, but it's a way of pressure testing if your product has lakes. It doesn't mean that it doesn't if they don't buy, but it does give you some insight without you having to involve yourself in the whole infrastructure of building out and raising a bunch of money. And that's how I bootstrap my way to getting this started before I had investors. Now, most of my guests are 40 to 65 year olds that have been to Vegas already, want to do something else, but they don't necessarily want to be on a bus tour. They want to go do something that feels curated and that they get to have their own autonomy. I see a lot of people post-COVID really interested in the idea of having the experience, but just making it simpler for them to do it. Um putting it all together where they're like, awesome, great. Like you're telling me I can go park by the lake somewhere, just sit underneath the stars, have a little fire, and it's all ready to go, and I can just grab the keys. And I'm like, yeah. And that's where I really wanted to take and strip down everything I was doing with AA. I have a weird thing for acronyms. Um and now DIY is kind of that next evolution of that, which also makes it really easy for hotels to pick up. They're like, so you're creating a new amenity, you know, you're creating this idea that I just need a little know-how about the area. I can put together some unique packages of what's available. And and here in southern Nevada, we have so many different types of terrain that you can really put together a lot of different packages, from, as I said, down by the river, having a nice little beachside campfire or paddle board, or they can go up into the mountains and watch the sunset, you know, and have something a little bit more romantic, have a little picnic, a little charcuterie, some of the nuanced things. And the biggest thing is, and our biggest number one product is is stargazing. A lot of people love the idea of it, but fundamentally it's a little bit more, there's more things to it. Having the telescope, the chairs, where to go, where where is it legal to go? How far away? How do I look at the stars? And you're trying to make it just simpler for them to understand and to get into these hobbies. And the way that I say it to people, it's like, you know, I'm the kind of person that if you didn't have an adventurous dad that I help you just anyone can grab this and go and have a good time. Even if it's off-roading, if it's any kind of outdoor recreation, we continue to add new products to the SKU to make it interesting and fun. And as we create more partners and connect with more people, hence why we work with Travel Nevada, of just trying to find areas that need to have that kind of access. And one of the biggest issues in southern Nevada is that our rural towns really have a lot of value. We just, it's hard to get people to understand why they need to get there. And when they get there, what can they do? And that's where I've kind of shoehorned myself in as somebody that's trying to help those rural communities really showcase what they offer, especially in their natural landscapes where they don't necessarily have an operator because maybe it doesn't make sense to have an operator there. But being here and sending them out there, especially on Perump and Baldur City, have been on my heights as well as Lincoln County. And everyone's doing a lot of cool, fun stuff, but you got to get the people there. And the way that I try to do is just stop gatekeeping it, but make it accessible, but don't blow it up where it gets uncomfortable for the people that love the area. I don't want to see trash in places. That's not my game. Like even going down Gold Strike now because of all of the popularity, it gets filthy. So I keep all I keep all of my destinations secret. It's part of the adventure until they come in and book. So that's one way that I try to make sure that locals in those areas never really feel. Pestered, but I'm like if you had a cool little dive bar that's up in the mountains that doesn't get a lot of business, but you're like, you gotta stop there and talk to the owners because they love to have a visitor and they love the patronage. Awesome. And it's just about putting those things together in a way that makes people feel like you've identified the needs and wants that I want to do.

unknown 22:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

We can customize it at scale because we just have that information ready to be plucked through. And we just essentially have built this program to be to be, I dare say, AI friendly, because people are looking for experiences different than how they used to before. And that's where we want to move away from just standard SEO to let's curate something because that's how AI will continue to build products and things in the future.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

So I've got a question then. With the Adventure Center here in Boulder City, and for our listeners, this is a venture with the state of Nevada, travel Nevada, which is the state's travel arm, very well organized, very positive, and a great vision for tourism throughout the entire state of Nevada. Here in Boulder City, we just opened the Adventure Center, of which Jake and his organization are going to be a part of. One thing I noticed at the Adventure Center the other day when I was there, many of these experiences are going to be, let's just say a half a day, a day at the most. Your experiences, I suspect, are not just that half day, but you're actually having to organize around, I would think, a multi-day kind of adventure of get come from the strip, appear at the adventure center, get acclimated, you're kind of pick them up and kind of get them going on their excursion. Is that how it's going to work for the for your participation at the adventure center?

SPEAKER_01 23:58

So the adventure center is going to be unique to see where the guests inevitably kind of where they want to plant their flag. I think right now the biggest thing that we do is about five to six hours to kind of keep it digestible for tourist traffic.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Okay, so it is five to six. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Yeah. But at the same time, we do overnights in in national parks and adding in things like that where it's more curated. Maybe they want to camp, maybe they want us to book a couple hotels for them and build out that entire experience. Right. That is something that we continue to expand upon. But right now for our bread and butter, it's about just grab and go. Your convention guests that want to have access, they want convenience. The thing we're not like other tour companies is we can essentially 30 minutes, you give us notification, set the car up, and you're ready to go. You don't have to worry about any of those other kind of logistical challenges to get them out there. And same thing with the adventure center, as we kind of build that shuttle system and things like that. We want to be able to have a turnkey system that no matter if people are there late night, if the adventure center is closed, you can still have autonomous pickup. You can have the adventure kind of go out if you're out there, or you can come back to our main hub, which is just outside of the airport by McKinley Harry Reid.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

All right. Let's go to the website now because I do want to share with our listeners got a nice website. It's kind of walking folks through. And I know we'll we'll keep on our schedule tod for today. I'm gonna the miracle of technology now. Your website should be appearing. That's the one. All right. I love the view. I saw there's definitely a drone involved here, so I love that. Very organized. So take us on a little tour of the of the website, Jake.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Yeah, so for me, uh, simplicity is is easiest. It's it's hard enough to kind of convey. I know all different types of people walk into my office, whether they want to have this symposium of information. That was kind of awesome with the light. It was not planned, but or they just want to say, tell me how to buy it, because that sounds great. And they're very decisive. And this is from all different demographics. So I try to have a nice middle ground. For us, it's just about how do we convey a vast amount of information of going on your own adventure and making it bite-sized so you can be like, okay, I'm gonna pick up the Jeep, I'm gonna get told how to do everything, and then I'm gonna go. The way that I like to convey it to people is kind of like how they did on the founder with McDonald's, where he came in and he's like, You wait, I just throw it away. You're like, Yep, it's all in a nice system. We systematize this whole thing to be like, here's this cool adventure, retrofit it to whatever you need it, and then we send you on your way. If you want to customize it, sure, but otherwise, we have our standard offerings through our our experience tab, whereas you guys will scroll down, you'll see some of those signature experiences. Just uh just again, some of those cool places that people know, but we keep it ambiguous on purpose. We don't want to tell people exactly where this is because we don't want people just blowing it up and and making it a little bit harder for logos to and enjoy those areas. So all of it was secretive in that capacity. They have to book, they don't get that information until they book, and then they go out and have this wonderful little experience that they feel like it's theirs. And some of the folks have really started to drum it up, but they also don't reveal those locations either. They're like, you have to book to see, and then that's that intimacy of that area and region alive. And that's with all of these, they are kind of pretty standard for a lot of people that know the area. You know that you can do all these different activities, and even some of the more novelty ones. Movie night is a big hit during the spooky season where you get to go watch your favorite scary movie out in the forest, going and carving pumpkins with the kids and really just making it an event and getting people out there so they can go have a unique experience. But, you know, we find their favorite movie, find their favorite snacks, and it's just ready for them to go. So it's trying to take that simple idea and just elevating it by bringing it into a new area, bringing people outdoors, educating them about the area, and giving locals a newfound way to explore with also that safety and thought put into it.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Now, I I I love the fact that this potentially, well, it could be couples, it could be families, but I would also imagine some of your experiences could be geared towards like the groups that are coming in for a convention and they want to do some type of say team building exercise. Absolutely. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

That's where we've started to scale some of these because normally I have a couple go out and they're like, that was amazing. What can I do for 20 people? Okay. So we started to kind of get into the group sales side of this and and start curating some kind of off-the-wall ideas because the nature is an open platform. We've been doing dinner parties out in the desert. That's kind of our best seller, trying to find unique locations to host corporate events all within the legal parameters now, making sure BLM's okay with it, making sure every we have all of the insurance and everything to host these areas and doing it with a lot of thought, but also trying to tap those local communities, whether it be Perump, Laughlin, Boulder City, to add in their flair. Maybe it's their catering, maybe it's an art program from the native community.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

So you're kind of partnering with the kind of the local businesses as well. It's not just you providing the service, but we we need a local caterer, or maybe we we're gonna do some history, or we're going to teach people how to stargaze and show them the constellations, but you're getting the locals in participators.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

I love that. It's about it's again at the end of the day, I foresee this becoming more of just bridging out to all these different partnerships and making essentially this way of bringing all of these businesses and ideas together and being able to highlight any any one of them with any of these products. As a seasonal one, the Winter Wonderland is going to be a big hit as it was last year, of getting people to just go out and see the snow and go out and have some hot cocoa with the kids. And then you have a four-wheel drive so you don't get stuck. And you can go and make a snowman and then go support Lee Canyon and go up for their events. And they love the idea of bringing those elements together too, of tackling a lot of the challenges of logistics and liability and getting people to get up there and have a good time, whether you're a tourist or or a local.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

Okay. Now, if they want to reach out to you, I know we've got your you got a contact page. There's some little information about yourself, how the whole program works. I see you're on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and you've got you have your booking mechanism right here. Besides yourself, I have no doubt you you just go out there and get things done. But I would imagine, though, the reality is there a team that that's there supporting you and helping to make this.

SPEAKER_01 31:05

So I I've I was doing it all myself, just like the name. You know, I I wanted to keep it lean and make sure I found the right methodology. And now we've kind of started to expand to different layers from people managing the office and some of the everyday while I kind of chase and grow the business. Most of that time that I was stuck and chained to the desk, I couldn't go to these beautiful soirees and grand openings and things because I was taking tours out and making sure everyone had their s'mores for their stargazing experience. So that's how we built the team. And then also we have folks helping us on the marketing side now, in addition to don't worry, I have my hand in everything being multifaceted. I've I've never thought that I wanted to just juggle everything forever. It's always be with the intent to bridge that gap. And also the quality control is always close to an entrepreneur's heart. Like you want to make sure that these guests are having these life-changing experiences. And that is something I still aim to do. And I love to have a touch point on every tour that goes in and out. But the reality, as we scale, I want to still keep that authenticity. So, again, for me, this is about again making sure that the product is executed well and that they connect with the guest. I don't want to scale to the point where we get to a place where we lose our kind of humanity and just kind of turn it into a grindhouse. And with that, that means we can run with a lean staff and we don't need to have this robust team to do this and execute well.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Okay. I love the fact that you've got the a lot of testimonials here. That's important. I think it's this great website. Great. I mean, it's visually appealing. It is giving anybody that visits it a kind of a sense of the types of adventures that can await them. And they they have their choice and be as daring as they want, or go out, watch movies, and you know, have some hot chocolate and s'mores and during, hey, we're Halloween coming up tomorrow. But I love this. And I'm really excited about how this is going to evolve again as you're working with the adventure center and trying to figure out what those more uh shorter term, say half day or so adventures are going to be. Because I think it's going to be extremely popular. Because yeah, I mean, maybe the first time I'm out here, I'm going to go, I'm going to stop sharing, by the way. I'm going to go out and do paddleboarding or kayaking. But then these adventures are unique. And I think that's what's really cool about it. And they're actually very economical too. It's not going to cost you that arm and a leg. So, Jake, I'm excited about this and where you're going to go. And I am curious, as you kind of look back, I mean, you've led a very interesting life growing up, Las Vegas native, the family element, just the school, do it, you know, learning the way you learned, okay? You're you're at Las Vegas and the strip and everything in the mountains were kind of your agents of education in a way. And where you're at now with Discover It Yourself, I think is very exciting. As you look back, though, and you kind of think about where you're at today from where you were, when do you like pinch yourself and say, Wow, I get to do this. This is my aha moment.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

Well, you know, it's just uh when you drive out and you see the same sunset every night, or you get to see the stars, or you get to see these customers have this kind of inflection period where they're like, I mean, when I read some of the reviews, it's it's kind of chilling just to think that I've I've been so gifted in my life to have this mass amount of experience and and and get to see the world and to experience people first and foremost, and to watch others really get to have that chance is something that reminds me every day that I've created a life that I've been very lucky to just do what I want for the most part. I don't like washing dishes so much, my girlfriend can attest to, but I don't blame you.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

I don't blame you.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

Yeah, I I I'm not the best at being consistent, I'll tell you that. I I love the novelty and I love the intimacy of life. And I I try to sh try to make sure that I've twisted the knob in the other direction to be a little bit more humble entrepreneur and know that it does take the time, it's the unappreciated hours. It's not it's it's putting in the in the seat time to make it something real. And I've been more of a creative and an artist most of my life, from the dance to from writing to everything else. And now I'm like, it's kind of unique to I'm only 34, but I feel this kind of paternal need to show people things and to well, you're you're you're curating.

SPEAKER_00 35:55

I mean, we used the term earlier, you're curating experiences for people, much like an artist who's curating uh or like a museum curator, the Las Vegas Valley, the like the Peronsa Mesquites, Laughlins, the parks, they're your canvas, and uh, you get to curate an experience for the people who are coming to you. That is pretty special. Again, it's and uh, and I love the fact you have truly put the outdoors and the outdoor experiences, by the way. You don't have to sit at your desk and just get tied to it. I love that. Jake, before we head out, I know we're we're gonna put in the show notes our website, discoverityourself.com. Just confirming we've got a Facebook page, we'll provide a link to Instagram, TikTok. Anything else you want to share before we head out today?

SPEAKER_01 36:47

I I think it's just to be bold. You have one chance at life, and I I think that it doesn't have to be as scary to go and and and and have an adventure like you shared earlier with with the e-bikes. I think it's important just to see what you're capable of within reason. But at the same time, it's part of this glorious pursuit of what life can really bestow those that that go out and seek and try and attempt. And I think if you are nervous, there's plenty of support here at DIY that we can help you figure out how we can get you out there. But regardless if you use us or anything, we're here to support the outdoors, we're here to support the community, we're here to really be a part of Nevada and its growth. And as you know, a native, it's so cool to just start being part of the conversation and and start to feel a little less selfish with all of my adventures and a little bit more that I can give back. And and I can give people jobs that they love. And the people that work with me are amazing, and they really do love sending these people out the same way I do. And I think if you give us a chance, I know you won't regret it. And I know I appreciate you as well, Howard, for giving me some time and to turn my mouthpiece on for what we're doing here. And I appreciate what you guys are doing with the adventure series. And yep, that's pretty much uh wrap from me.

SPEAKER_00 38:16

Sounds good. Sounds good, and I appreciate that. Listen, stay in the line. We're gonna do a real quick close and we'll have a final chat. And it's just before I even start down that path, I'm really again, I'm really excited about how Discover It Yourself is going to evolve within the Adventure Center's model because, from my vantage point, everyone a lot of those experiences I see myself going on. Now, I don't have a significant other in my life. I don't, so I don't want to do it by myself. I'll figure something out.

SPEAKER_01 38:45

But I could save my beard for you.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

You do what you got to do. But in any case, in any case, listen, it's been great to have you on the podcast. And again, I'm very excited you're a part of the Adventure Center and some of the future programming that we have in store for you and the other tenants, and how we use some of the podcast medium to help promote these offerings at the Adventure Center. So I'm like very excited. Listen, we're yeah, we're gonna do a quick close, and you and I can have a final chat. And I know you've got some clients that you got to send them on their way for their adventure. Okay, just give us one second. All right, folks. We've just been chatting with Jake Landry. He is the founder of Discover It Yourself. And what a wonderful business model. I mean, it's literally the ultimate self-guided adventures in Las Vegas. So many wonderful experiences await you here off the strip. And you're gonna want to take a look at this at this business and hopefully either directly through Discover It Yourself or through the the Adventure Center in Boulder City. There's gonna be there's gonna be something for everyone. I know you're gonna have a great experience. Now, we are gonna provide a backlink to the website, discoverityourself.com. We'll also have links to the Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok social accounts as well. Now, this episode, you'll be able to find us on our website, outdooradventureseries.com. We're also on LinkedIn and Facebook on our outdoor adventure series pages. The video of this episode, which includes the tour of the Discover It Yourself website, will be up on YouTube. And of course, you can listen to this podcast wherever you get your podcast from. All right, folks, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, go out there, have a fantastic day. And we look forward to having you join us on a future episode of the Outdoor Adventure Series podcast. Take care now.