Welcome to Side Hustlers. This is the podcast that talks to people following a passion outside of their day job. I'm your host from my Heart Radio Carla Marie, and this podcast kind of is my own side hustle. At this point, my day job is hosting my own morning show, the Carla Marie and Anthony Show, based in Seattle on one or six point one Kiss FM. You can listen to it from anywhere in the whole world on our free I Heart Radio app. This week's guest is Danny. He is the creator of National Park Geek and if you know anything about me, I am a national park geek, so I am geeking out. Danny started this side hustle because he also had a love for national parks, and now it's gone from him selling a few t shirts online to actually being sold in national parks for a lot of people. You know, why are you wait? Do you know what you want to do and this is something you want to do and do it. I'm a hustles shot, do it. I'm a hustle do it. I'm a hustle love. Come on ask about me yo yo. It's the side Hustless podcast. We call a little rink. So I'm definitely gonna geek out in this episode and pun kind of intended. I've got Danny from National Park Geek. Here, Hi, Danny, how are you today? I'm good? How are you? Pleasure to be with you? I see you've got your National Park Geek mug. Big fan of that of course. So National Park Geek is a is it gear for National Park lovers? How would you describe what it is? Well? Yes, I have products that I that I sell that have the National Park Geek logo and those kind of things, But but I think more and anything gets a community to kind of share the park spirit, to let others know about what's going on in the park. So whether it be a big park or a small park, you know, try to communicate as much as I can about all the other opportunities that are out there in the park system. There's seventeen different park sites, so a lot to see. And anyone who knows at least me from Instagram or from my morning show knows that I am a huge National Parks fan and supporter. But for me, I'd say that's kind of new. That's about four years at this point since I moved from New Jersey to Washington and that's when I really got to experience national parks. Where does your love for the national parks come from? I think my first park was probably Fort mckennry, home of the Star Spangled Banner. That's where I started, I think, as a kid, right and then being in the Boy Scouts and Healter activities, and it's always been a part of my life to go experience parks for the nature or for the history. So the National Park Geek movement kind of grew out of that a little bit over four years ago. So you started National Park Geek in two thousand and fifteen. So between you being a kid to two thousand and fifteen, there was quite some time, so you did other things. You did other things in between that time, and National Park Geek was your side hustle for a while. So what made you say let me start this company? I know, just kind of that passion urging looking at and seeing other entrepreneurs and hearing their stories, and like I said, it was more of a let me just start to share the spirit of the parks. And my feeling is the more we care about these places, the more we're going to protect them. I think knowledge is important information so people can go, hey, I care about these parks, they can talk to their their legislature, and you can go visit and it can support them through their nonprofits, and I think that's important. Part of it all was to really just kind of show all that's out there. Yeah, for me, it's kind of funny. I think I found you guys on Instagram because someone who followed me had sent me the National Park Geek Instagram account. And then over the last year, I've had three different friends in three different parts of the country visit different parks or places and they'll all mail me either a National Park Geeks sticker or where the patches, And I'm like, it's so cool that they're a thinking of me, but finding your products, supporting you, supporting the parks, and sending it to me. And when we connected, I was like, this needs to happen. You need to be on this podcast because it makes sense. So what was the first product that you created for National Park Geek Sticker in a patch, sticker in a patch. Yeah. Yeah, it was started with a sticker in a patch, and then I had some T shirt designs available online. I'm I'm also a designer, so you know again, it was another opportunity for me to get creative and get out on my own. So it was, you know, a place of creative output. I love photography, so I could share my photos, I could share my designs. And I literally started with a sticker and a patch and now it's basically it's my my full time huscle at this point. Yeah, and you have way more than a sticker in a patch now, you do, off the top of your head, know about how many products you have, between men and women everything. It's a lot. I just added more yesterday for this week's Cyber Monday sale, probably more at least. Yeah, that's incredible. So you said you had a design background. What was your full time job when you started National Park Geek. I was teaching college full time teaching teaching graphic design. Okay, teaching graphic design. And then you found the time, Like, how did you find the time to do this? It was like every entrepreneur right was afternoons, evenings, free time. And I think when you you find something you're passionate about, you tend to find the time to do it. But it was just knowing that you know, I'm going to do this, I'm enjoying it, So it was just kind of making it happen. Luckily, it just kind of was in play and was starting to work, and my my teaching position got eliminated for budgeting issues and it kind of went right into the National Park giking. So you said, you're married and you have a seven year old now, but when you first started, your kid was much younger. You know you're doing this? Was your wife like, really, you're going to start this right now? Uh no, because this is it has been a gradual thing, you know, understanding It was like we're just doing something and we're we're being creative, we're getting ideas out there. Next thing, you know, this has become a full time thing. So it was never set out to be full time. It just will start out and set out to be a thing, and then it turned into type of thing, which I'm happy about. Well, yeah, of course, when did you know it was it was a thing. When did you know that National Park Geek was actually becoming a full time job? Probably about a year in it was getting a little bit more and then I started selling with park visitors centers basically through the park nonprofits that worry of Okay, so you know. I was like, wow, this could turn into something really quickly, and and really within a year it had. So what was the first National park that you were able to get National Park geeks down to Tucson? So how did you get that? Like how did that relationship happen? Did you just call them like, hey, I got some cool gear you want to sell it? Like? How does that work? We were we were on a family vacation and we were touring parks. That's what you do. So we were going through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and it was a couple of weeks and every park we went to, I would pass out some stickers, say hey, if you have something you were interested to me, you know. And the manager of Sawaro liked it and got a hold of the buyer and we talked and we got into parks and it's just grown scent, you know. Part of it has just been word of mouth and but um, yeah, we're selling now inty different park sites. That's incredible. Yeah, it's kind of cool. It's amazing. Pinch myself every day. Yeah, I mean the thing you've loved as a kid, now you get to be a part of it. It is pretty awesome. Yes, and we're from Statue Liberty to Guam, I mean literally all across Harbor, National Mall, DC Independence in d C Up in your way. We're up in Olympic Creator Lake. So it's just you know, Zion Arches. It's it's just amazing, you know, and you know, numerous battlefields and small historic sites and it's a it's an honor really. The National Park Geek Instagram, which people should go check out. It's National Park Geek on Instagram. It's gorgeous the pictures on there, and I love that you're actually showing like you do have product photos, but most of the pictures are of the actual parks. Yes, and they're all user generated from the community. That's amazing. So they're they're hashtag in National Park Geek. I'm finding them and then we're we're you know, we're reposting to tell whatever the story is that day. Was the name National Park Geeks Like, okay, duh, it's obviously this or was there something you threw around? I was using that hashtag just because I was a National Park geek, you know, and a friend said that's kind of a cool hashtag, right, And I was like, yeah, you know, because I'm just doing out my personal hashtag. And again, it was all these things that clicked. Someone said that I went to a meet up at Joshua Chery, and you know, I was like, wow, there's other people like me. It became an evolution and here we are. What were the things that you would recommend for someone who's got this idea, got this thing that they love and they kind of want to turn it into a business. What was that like early on for you or what advice would you have for someone who wants to take that first step. Do what you love, you know, find things that you're into. I believe if you're more into it, you're gonna put more time into it. You know. You know, it's like it's so find things that you enjoy and and see how they can become your thing. Look, I have a little idea and it's kind of blown up, and there's a brazilion other little ideas out there, and we see it all around us, whether it be you know, through TV show, shark tanking that kind of thing, or just the internet, um listening to your podcast. Just go do it and don't worry about it. You know, you there's never a perfect time. You just have to do it and if it doesn't work, you learn from it and you'll do something else. Yeah. I feel like a lot of people get scared and like, oh, I don't want to fail, But like you said, you learn from it. What I know now I didn't know four years ago. Yeah. I never expected it to be a business of this, you know, this size kind of thing, and it's and there's obviously a lot more things that can happen. But every day you're learning and you're trying to figure it all out, whether it be illegal stuff and accounting stuff or how to build how to put your website up with commerce, or how to make the Instagram where it's a learning process and it but it's a fun time. Well, going back from stickers and patches to now do you have? At that time it was just you, I'm assuming mailing the stickers and patches out on your own. Yes, So where is National park Geek? Now? Do you have employees? Do you have? How does it all work? For the most part, it's just myself and my wife helps and and my my daughter she helps the times and she she does she does product development. She comes up with ideas um and I write them all down because a lot of them are. I'm sure at some point will be like, wow, that's brilliant. I'm gonna make this someday. So yeah, we're still pretty small and pretty nimble. Trying to keep it that way is you know, I don't know we're trying to keep it that way, but it is that way at this point. And you know, like everything else, you will expand as as you need to. Now that it's full time. It's it's it's much more manageable type of thing. And I'm also obsessed with your official title, at least the title that was in your email, Chief geek Ranger, is that title? I love it. I'm a big fan. You said to me that you are a member of one Percent for the Planet. I don't even know what that is, so explain that. One Percent of what Planet is a organization started by Yvonne Shannard from Patagonia. Basically, we're organizations pledged to give back one percent of all sales to environmental organizations and and they they monitor you. You submit documentation of your donations and your your taxes and all that kind of stuff to that they've raised and probably hundreds of millions dollars at this point and you get to pick your organization and you want to donate to. So it could be a local park charity, it could be a organization that does you know, takes care of beaches. Uh, And they're literally a hundreds at this point. I think there's thousands of charities that you can select from. So what do you switch it up? Or do you stick with one? What do you do? I've consistently been going with the Park Conservation Association and uh, the National Park Foundation as big ones, but um, you know, this year I did donations to Sequoia. I tried to switch it up a little bit, but I always keep like the National Park Conservation Association there because they're they're acting on behalf of you know, all the park sites throughout the country. The National Park community there. It's pretty incredible once you get into it and start realizing that these people have the same love as you have. Has there been anything surprising for you as a business owner in that community since you've started. I think the friendships that have came out that have come out of it. Um, you know, I'm friends with with numerous calm geeks. We've I've met many. They're very supportive, and then they have their own little like friendships that have developed. So you know, it started as a little meet up or just posting and sharing through Instagram has turned into physically meeting and going to parks or or just going on vacation together. It's it's quite a really awesome community. Have you you keep mentioning you know that you've met people through National Park Geek. Have you done actual meetups for fans of National Park Geek. Yes, we've done uh several in the past. Um really you know, as we were starting up really pretty small some Joshua Trees, Iron and you know, Saaro. So it's something in the future I want to do more of would be meetups or potentially activities like a photographic workshops or helping with clean ups and helping with parks, restore trails and those kind of things. So they're all on my radar and things I want to again. Now it's funny time to do those things. You know. It's so before it was like finny time to do a Now I've gotten a done. Now I've got to find time for be and you know, just that's the business where it just kind of keeps growing. But I don't want to lose that. I think that's an important part of the National Park Geek idea is to build that community and give back and let other people know about, you know, things that they can do. Yeah. And of course if you get all those people into one place and it's a National Park Kiak, you know, sponsored event, it's just it's better obviously for the brand when you get to meet these people face to face and they get to it always it always does well. But I've done a ton of clean ups here in Washington, and like you're saying, it's always great to get out there with like minded people and do something good. And now that you have that community and that platform, that ability to tell people, hey, we're doing this and we're going to go do good here and you can make that happen, that's incredible being able to turn what you've done into something amazing. So I want to help with that. Whenever you're ready to do one in Washington, or I'll even come out somewhere warm and selling. I'll be there, no worries. So the logo for National Park Kak I love because I'm a huge fan of park rangers. I was one for Halloween two years ago, and I actually between my glasses and the rerangeer hat that I wore, I was, I was, I'll have to show you a picture. But was that the original logo that you wanted? Was that the first thing you thought of? And I'm assuming you designed it yourself, you know, I did it myself. Again, It's a design just kind of evolved over time, right, I mean it was you know, a couple of weeks of working on the design and you know, in this case, working on the logo, and yeah, that was it. That's it's been the same since it started in basically August. Of people, I'm sure just love buying the actual short that just has the logo. Yeah, that's that's definitely. They're the biggest sellers just selling the logo shirts. Yes, definitely. It's so cool, Like I think it's it's so simple and it's so anyone who loves National Parks just gets it and wants it and it's great. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I obviously there's people that follow along and you know, are a part of it, and the people just kind of stumble in and you know, likewise at the park stores or people that are looking for it. But there's people just kind of like Hey, I'm a geek, you know, and they can relate to it. And I think that's why it's worked, because people can relate to it. There's you know, there's a the funness of it all. I think I said, like I said, there's there's a lot more geeks out there than we ever with thought. And it's like true, oh, I'm one too, right, And and it's okay to yeah you could. You gotta own it, you gotta do it. And it's and it's people of all ages to like you said, when you were a kid, yeah you started going, or someone like me who didn't realize how great national parks were until their twenties, and then even people who are older. I mean, have you seen the is it Grandma Joy the road Trip? Yes? Yes, Grandma Joy is amazing. And I was, you know, following along with her before Grandma Joy became Grandma Joy and became world famous. I mean, here's somebody who in her eighties just start to go to parks. And then we've got you know, obviously people are taking to their parks when the kids are babies and you know, doing junior Ranger programs with little kids. And I still do junior ranger and I do my daughter. It'sn't amazing the diversity of them, of everybody. Yes, yeah, it's cool. It's a great community to be a part of. Obviously it's been amazing for you. You know, you found something that you loved and you've turned into a company. But was there any moment, and say the last four years where there was It could be a disaster, a moment, an old crap moment, something that went wrong as a business owner that you've learned from knocking on would There's been no major key tasks. Obviously there's learning, right, there's just learning things of oh, I gotta do it this way or this this will work better, or you know, how do you figure out you know, shipping or you know, I don't know where do you get this from or that from? So I think the hardest part has been like making sure you do it right, but I guess not being afraid to at first, you like, you buy a few stickers and it's fifty bucks. And now you buy stickers and you know you're you're buying hundreds of dollars at a time or more of stickers. So things go up because you're doing more and luckily everything is quoked on. Okay, and you know, I'm confident in what I do and as a designer, and you know, and I'll get feedback from some people. I will like show them this, you give them the ideas, and it's okay to start small and build. You don't you don't need to do with ten thousand units of something or you know, make a million patches. Just do a couple. And you know, that's the great thing about today's world is you can do that. You can you know, do t shirts on demand. You can a few pens made, you can get a few stickers made, and it's not going to cause you a fortune if you're going to be selling those kinds of products. To just go ahead and do it. You know, it's a very unique time where we have this and we have used communication devices, you know, such as your podcast or Instagram or It's an incredible time, honestly, it really is. You know, we can go on and make an e commerce site. It's crazy, It's like, it's mind blowing, right totally, is incredibly amazing what we have literally in our hands, our phones that we can do and you know, with a little computer on the side, you can make a business. It's just it's it's there's no time like this ever. Well, and I'm assuming Instagram must be a huge part of your business. You've got over three Instagram followers and you start like, how did you a build that? Do you find a lot of people coming from there and going and shopping? Yeah? I think, yeah, my Instagram is the biggest push. You know, when I look at where people coming from, Instagram is is definitely it. But I knew all along Instagram is where I wanted to be. I knew just from its visual aspects that uh, this is where I need to build a community. So yes, we have to you know, stuff gets to put on placebook or Twitter. Um, we have trying to do more blog posts on the website, but Instagram has always been it, and you know, it's still probably my favorite platform to work with. So as we head into into a new year, do you, as the owner of a company, have actual, like written down goals. This is what I want to do this year? This is or is it just like you know, let's keep going. It's more just keep going, you know, like we're doing trade show, this is there. It will be a third year with an organization called the Public Land's Alliance, which kind of brings together the park associations that will be in DC this year. It kind of moves around um next year I think is in Portland. So I belong to that association and I'll have a little booth there to potentially make more make make me new clients and meet old clients and existing clients. So yeah, that's definitely like one of those gold I'm gonna, you know, how do I do it better and get ready for the trade show. So there's there's goals like that, but nothing formalized like oh, I need to do more sales here there. You know. It's like I know there's things that I could be doing more. I'm trying to do those, but I also don't want to lose the spirit of what is here. You know. It was like I don't want to push product every day on my Instagram. You know, I probably should be pushing more, and I know that's a fault of mind, but I'm like, I just want to share the beautiful pictures and the beautiful sights and I want to inspire, like I'm inspired, right, and you get those people inspired, then they're gonna want to suppre and and show off that they are National Park giks. So I think it's a good plan and it's working. So it's like I don't need to be the more ahead to go buy a T shirt. I mean I have T shirts, and yeah, you'll know I have T shirts. And if you didn't know, hopefully you'll be a follow one. You'll see that we do sell T shirts. But I don't want to hit you over ahead every day, and you know that I need to keep the community there. It's smart. It's you figured out what works and the fact that you do have a community. Not every business or every industry has a community, especially like the National Park System does. So it makes sense that you are just keeping the community alive and not, like you said, jamming products on everyone's throat because everyone else is doing that anyway. Yes, yes, okay, So then I want you to give me one last pitch, one last why someone should go support National Park Keek, I want to pitch why you should support National Park. I'll take it because if we don't support these places, they're gonna go away, plain and simple. Whether it be a big beautiful park like Yosemite or Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, bits and pieces will slowly be taking will go away, and so we have to protect these places and show that we love these places and these are an important part of our our heritage as a country. So whether it be the big parks or the small little you know, battle field or historic houses, and they tell the story of like Harriet Tutman, they tell the story of you know, women's rights and gay lesbian rights, and you know, they still tell the story of the battles that we fought as a country and these are important parts of our our own country and our heritage. To me, that's important, and that's I think partly why I started National Park Geek is to make sure people know these stories and they don't just think of Yellowstone or your semity. They also think of you know, places like the National Mall or Ford's Theater or you know General Grants Memorial or the Statue of Liberty. You know, these places all need care and protection and that's why people should be a National Park Geek so they can share those stories. With that support, these places will continue and they needed. There's billions of dollars of backlog maintenance and repairs, you know, and it's like, you know, we need to do that. And then if and if we spent all the money today to fix it, it's still not going to fix it forever. Or we have to continue that, and if we don't continue, the house will continue to fall apart. It's true, we need to keep the house fixed and and add more money to make it a little bit nicer, and but if we don't, it will go away. You're right. I work um closely with a Washington National Park Fund here, and I didn't realize how much money they as an organization have to raise, or how much money they do raise to help the Washington National Parks. And everyone just assumes, oh, it's government funded, They're fine, But they raised so much money as a private entity to help support them. And it's like you're saying, you know, there's ways to support By just going to a park, you're supporting a park. You don't have to donate money. You don't have to, you know, go to a big event and and spend all this money. But you just by going to a park and being aware of just the knowledge, then yeah, you are supporting a park, and that is probably one of the biggest things you can do. But yeah, national parks aren't just going to run on their own. They need our help. And it's not like you said, it's not just national state parks. And yes we're we're focused on national parks because it's it's big, it's nationwide and and all that, but every state has incredible parks, state parks, local parks, and we need to support all of them. We need to have these places that we can go and get outside and explore nature and and become one again. So yes, supporting the parks, state, local, federal are definitely, I think incredibly important. If you're at a park or to their visitors center by a sticker, you don't buy my sticker, I don't care by buy something right, all of that helps and people don't realize that. You know, these are nonprofit associations that are running these little visitors centers and taking care of things, and all that money that proceeds, all that goes back into the parks and and they need it. Whether it be trail maintenance or programs, junior ranger programs, or hiking talks. They need these things. So it's these kind of items that will allow these places to exist. Well, I agree with everything you just said, and listen, I've been preaching it on my Instagram all the time. I don't talk much about I don't get to talk much about national parks on this podcast specifically, so I am selfishly glad that I got you on here to talk about this, and thank you so much. I want everyone to go support. It's National park geek dot com, and then you can go to Instagram National park Geek, and then on Twitter it's mp understore Geek. I get it all right, all right, Danny, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Get out there and support our parks. They are our country's greatest treasure. Even if you just go to one, I promise we'll go to more after that. But get out there, support the parks and support Danny. It's National park geek dot com, National park Geek on Instagram. You'll see his pictures fall in love. I guarantee you you'll book a trip next year. Thank you so much for listening to side Hustlers. I've got something cool coming up the next three weeks. I'm actually gonna have the best of moments, some of my favorite episodes this year. My producer Houston has been putting all the clips together, so shout out to him because I know It's not the easiest thing, but I'm excited for you to hear over the next three weeks some of the coolest moments of side hustlers this year. You can follow me on Instagram at the Carla Murray. Always rate and review this podcast. That is a huge help. And until next week, keep hustling.

Welcome to Side Hustlers. This is the podcast that talks to people following a passion outside of their day job. I'm your host from my Heart Radio Carla Marie, and this podcast kind of is my own side hustle. At this point, my day job is hosting my own morning show, the Carla Marie and Anthony Show, based in Seattle on one or six point one Kiss FM. You can listen to it from anywhere in the whole world on our free I Heart Radio app. This week's guest is Danny. He is the creator of National Park Geek and if you know anything about me, I am a national park geek, so I am geeking out. Danny started this side hustle because he also had a love for national parks, and now it's gone from him selling a few t shirts online to actually being sold in national parks for a lot of people. You know, why are you wait? Do you know what you want to do and this is something you want to do and do it. I'm a hustles shot, do it. I'm a hustle do it. I'm a hustle love. Come on ask about me yo yo. It's the side Hustless podcast. We call a little rink. So I'm definitely gonna geek out in this episode and pun kind of intended. I've got Danny from National Park Geek. Here, Hi, Danny, how are you today? I'm good? How are you? Pleasure to be with you? I see you've got your National Park Geek mug. Big fan of that of course. So National Park Geek is a is it gear for National Park lovers? How would you describe what it is? Well? Yes, I have products that I that I sell that have the National Park Geek logo and those kind of things, But but I think more and anything gets a community to kind of share the park spirit, to let others know about what's going on in the park. So whether it be a big park or a small park, you know, try to communicate as much as I can about all the other opportunities that are out there in the park system. There's seventeen different park sites, so a lot to see. And anyone who knows at least me from Instagram or from my morning show knows that I am a huge National Parks fan and supporter. But for me, I'd say that's kind of new. That's about four years at this point since I moved from New Jersey to Washington and that's when I really got to experience national parks. Where does your love for the national parks come from? I think my first park was probably Fort mckennry, home of the Star Spangled Banner. That's where I started, I think, as a kid, right and then being in the Boy Scouts and Healter activities, and it's always been a part of my life to go experience parks for the nature or for the history. So the National Park Geek movement kind of grew out of that a little bit over four years ago. So you started National Park Geek in two thousand and fifteen. So between you being a kid to two thousand and fifteen, there was quite some time, so you did other things. You did other things in between that time, and National Park Geek was your side hustle for a while. So what made you say let me start this company? I know, just kind of that passion urging looking at and seeing other entrepreneurs and hearing their stories, and like I said, it was more of a let me just start to share the spirit of the parks. And my feeling is the more we care about these places, the more we're going to protect them. I think knowledge is important information so people can go, hey, I care about these parks, they can talk to their their legislature, and you can go visit and it can support them through their nonprofits, and I think that's important. Part of it all was to really just kind of show all that's out there. Yeah, for me, it's kind of funny. I think I found you guys on Instagram because someone who followed me had sent me the National Park Geek Instagram account. And then over the last year, I've had three different friends in three different parts of the country visit different parks or places and they'll all mail me either a National Park Geeks sticker or where the patches, And I'm like, it's so cool that they're a thinking of me, but finding your products, supporting you, supporting the parks, and sending it to me. And when we connected, I was like, this needs to happen. You need to be on this podcast because it makes sense. So what was the first product that you created for National Park Geek Sticker in a patch, sticker in a patch. Yeah. Yeah, it was started with a sticker in a patch, and then I had some T shirt designs available online. I'm I'm also a designer, so you know again, it was another opportunity for me to get creative and get out on my own. So it was, you know, a place of creative output. I love photography, so I could share my photos, I could share my designs. And I literally started with a sticker and a patch and now it's basically it's my my full time huscle at this point. Yeah, and you have way more than a sticker in a patch now, you do, off the top of your head, know about how many products you have, between men and women everything. It's a lot. I just added more yesterday for this week's Cyber Monday sale, probably more at least. Yeah, that's incredible. So you said you had a design background. What was your full time job when you started National Park Geek. I was teaching college full time teaching teaching graphic design. Okay, teaching graphic design. And then you found the time, Like, how did you find the time to do this? It was like every entrepreneur right was afternoons, evenings, free time. And I think when you you find something you're passionate about, you tend to find the time to do it. But it was just knowing that you know, I'm going to do this, I'm enjoying it, So it was just kind of making it happen. Luckily, it just kind of was in play and was starting to work, and my my teaching position got eliminated for budgeting issues and it kind of went right into the National Park giking. So you said, you're married and you have a seven year old now, but when you first started, your kid was much younger. You know you're doing this? Was your wife like, really, you're going to start this right now? Uh no, because this is it has been a gradual thing, you know, understanding It was like we're just doing something and we're we're being creative, we're getting ideas out there. Next thing, you know, this has become a full time thing. So it was never set out to be full time. It just will start out and set out to be a thing, and then it turned into type of thing, which I'm happy about. Well, yeah, of course, when did you know it was it was a thing. When did you know that National Park Geek was actually becoming a full time job? Probably about a year in it was getting a little bit more and then I started selling with park visitors centers basically through the park nonprofits that worry of Okay, so you know. I was like, wow, this could turn into something really quickly, and and really within a year it had. So what was the first National park that you were able to get National Park geeks down to Tucson? So how did you get that? Like how did that relationship happen? Did you just call them like, hey, I got some cool gear you want to sell it? Like? How does that work? We were we were on a family vacation and we were touring parks. That's what you do. So we were going through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and it was a couple of weeks and every park we went to, I would pass out some stickers, say hey, if you have something you were interested to me, you know. And the manager of Sawaro liked it and got a hold of the buyer and we talked and we got into parks and it's just grown scent, you know. Part of it has just been word of mouth and but um, yeah, we're selling now inty different park sites. That's incredible. Yeah, it's kind of cool. It's amazing. Pinch myself every day. Yeah, I mean the thing you've loved as a kid, now you get to be a part of it. It is pretty awesome. Yes, and we're from Statue Liberty to Guam, I mean literally all across Harbor, National Mall, DC Independence in d C Up in your way. We're up in Olympic Creator Lake. So it's just you know, Zion Arches. It's it's just amazing, you know, and you know, numerous battlefields and small historic sites and it's a it's an honor really. The National Park Geek Instagram, which people should go check out. It's National Park Geek on Instagram. It's gorgeous the pictures on there, and I love that you're actually showing like you do have product photos, but most of the pictures are of the actual parks. Yes, and they're all user generated from the community. That's amazing. So they're they're hashtag in National Park Geek. I'm finding them and then we're we're you know, we're reposting to tell whatever the story is that day. Was the name National Park Geeks Like, okay, duh, it's obviously this or was there something you threw around? I was using that hashtag just because I was a National Park geek, you know, and a friend said that's kind of a cool hashtag, right, And I was like, yeah, you know, because I'm just doing out my personal hashtag. And again, it was all these things that clicked. Someone said that I went to a meet up at Joshua Chery, and you know, I was like, wow, there's other people like me. It became an evolution and here we are. What were the things that you would recommend for someone who's got this idea, got this thing that they love and they kind of want to turn it into a business. What was that like early on for you or what advice would you have for someone who wants to take that first step. Do what you love, you know, find things that you're into. I believe if you're more into it, you're gonna put more time into it. You know. You know, it's like it's so find things that you enjoy and and see how they can become your thing. Look, I have a little idea and it's kind of blown up, and there's a brazilion other little ideas out there, and we see it all around us, whether it be you know, through TV show, shark tanking that kind of thing, or just the internet, um listening to your podcast. Just go do it and don't worry about it. You know, you there's never a perfect time. You just have to do it and if it doesn't work, you learn from it and you'll do something else. Yeah. I feel like a lot of people get scared and like, oh, I don't want to fail, But like you said, you learn from it. What I know now I didn't know four years ago. Yeah. I never expected it to be a business of this, you know, this size kind of thing, and it's and there's obviously a lot more things that can happen. But every day you're learning and you're trying to figure it all out, whether it be illegal stuff and accounting stuff or how to build how to put your website up with commerce, or how to make the Instagram where it's a learning process and it but it's a fun time. Well, going back from stickers and patches to now do you have? At that time it was just you, I'm assuming mailing the stickers and patches out on your own. Yes, So where is National park Geek? Now? Do you have employees? Do you have? How does it all work? For the most part, it's just myself and my wife helps and and my my daughter she helps the times and she she does she does product development. She comes up with ideas um and I write them all down because a lot of them are. I'm sure at some point will be like, wow, that's brilliant. I'm gonna make this someday. So yeah, we're still pretty small and pretty nimble. Trying to keep it that way is you know, I don't know we're trying to keep it that way, but it is that way at this point. And you know, like everything else, you will expand as as you need to. Now that it's full time. It's it's it's much more manageable type of thing. And I'm also obsessed with your official title, at least the title that was in your email, Chief geek Ranger, is that title? I love it. I'm a big fan. You said to me that you are a member of one Percent for the Planet. I don't even know what that is, so explain that. One Percent of what Planet is a organization started by Yvonne Shannard from Patagonia. Basically, we're organizations pledged to give back one percent of all sales to environmental organizations and and they they monitor you. You submit documentation of your donations and your your taxes and all that kind of stuff to that they've raised and probably hundreds of millions dollars at this point and you get to pick your organization and you want to donate to. So it could be a local park charity, it could be a organization that does you know, takes care of beaches. Uh, And they're literally a hundreds at this point. I think there's thousands of charities that you can select from. So what do you switch it up? Or do you stick with one? What do you do? I've consistently been going with the Park Conservation Association and uh, the National Park Foundation as big ones, but um, you know, this year I did donations to Sequoia. I tried to switch it up a little bit, but I always keep like the National Park Conservation Association there because they're they're acting on behalf of you know, all the park sites throughout the country. The National Park community there. It's pretty incredible once you get into it and start realizing that these people have the same love as you have. Has there been anything surprising for you as a business owner in that community since you've started. I think the friendships that have came out that have come out of it. Um, you know, I'm friends with with numerous calm geeks. We've I've met many. They're very supportive, and then they have their own little like friendships that have developed. So you know, it started as a little meet up or just posting and sharing through Instagram has turned into physically meeting and going to parks or or just going on vacation together. It's it's quite a really awesome community. Have you you keep mentioning you know that you've met people through National Park Geek. Have you done actual meetups for fans of National Park Geek. Yes, we've done uh several in the past. Um really you know, as we were starting up really pretty small some Joshua Trees, Iron and you know, Saaro. So it's something in the future I want to do more of would be meetups or potentially activities like a photographic workshops or helping with clean ups and helping with parks, restore trails and those kind of things. So they're all on my radar and things I want to again. Now it's funny time to do those things. You know. It's so before it was like finny time to do a Now I've gotten a done. Now I've got to find time for be and you know, just that's the business where it just kind of keeps growing. But I don't want to lose that. I think that's an important part of the National Park Geek idea is to build that community and give back and let other people know about, you know, things that they can do. Yeah. And of course if you get all those people into one place and it's a National Park Kiak, you know, sponsored event, it's just it's better obviously for the brand when you get to meet these people face to face and they get to it always it always does well. But I've done a ton of clean ups here in Washington, and like you're saying, it's always great to get out there with like minded people and do something good. And now that you have that community and that platform, that ability to tell people, hey, we're doing this and we're going to go do good here and you can make that happen, that's incredible being able to turn what you've done into something amazing. So I want to help with that. Whenever you're ready to do one in Washington, or I'll even come out somewhere warm and selling. I'll be there, no worries. So the logo for National Park Kak I love because I'm a huge fan of park rangers. I was one for Halloween two years ago, and I actually between my glasses and the rerangeer hat that I wore, I was, I was, I'll have to show you a picture. But was that the original logo that you wanted? Was that the first thing you thought of? And I'm assuming you designed it yourself, you know, I did it myself. Again, It's a design just kind of evolved over time, right, I mean it was you know, a couple of weeks of working on the design and you know, in this case, working on the logo, and yeah, that was it. That's it's been the same since it started in basically August. Of people, I'm sure just love buying the actual short that just has the logo. Yeah, that's that's definitely. They're the biggest sellers just selling the logo shirts. Yes, definitely. It's so cool, Like I think it's it's so simple and it's so anyone who loves National Parks just gets it and wants it and it's great. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I obviously there's people that follow along and you know, are a part of it, and the people just kind of stumble in and you know, likewise at the park stores or people that are looking for it. But there's people just kind of like Hey, I'm a geek, you know, and they can relate to it. And I think that's why it's worked, because people can relate to it. There's you know, there's a the funness of it all. I think I said, like I said, there's there's a lot more geeks out there than we ever with thought. And it's like true, oh, I'm one too, right, And and it's okay to yeah you could. You gotta own it, you gotta do it. And it's and it's people of all ages to like you said, when you were a kid, yeah you started going, or someone like me who didn't realize how great national parks were until their twenties, and then even people who are older. I mean, have you seen the is it Grandma Joy the road Trip? Yes? Yes, Grandma Joy is amazing. And I was, you know, following along with her before Grandma Joy became Grandma Joy and became world famous. I mean, here's somebody who in her eighties just start to go to parks. And then we've got you know, obviously people are taking to their parks when the kids are babies and you know, doing junior Ranger programs with little kids. And I still do junior ranger and I do my daughter. It'sn't amazing the diversity of them, of everybody. Yes, yeah, it's cool. It's a great community to be a part of. Obviously it's been amazing for you. You know, you found something that you loved and you've turned into a company. But was there any moment, and say the last four years where there was It could be a disaster, a moment, an old crap moment, something that went wrong as a business owner that you've learned from knocking on would There's been no major key tasks. Obviously there's learning, right, there's just learning things of oh, I gotta do it this way or this this will work better, or you know, how do you figure out you know, shipping or you know, I don't know where do you get this from or that from? So I think the hardest part has been like making sure you do it right, but I guess not being afraid to at first, you like, you buy a few stickers and it's fifty bucks. And now you buy stickers and you know you're you're buying hundreds of dollars at a time or more of stickers. So things go up because you're doing more and luckily everything is quoked on. Okay, and you know, I'm confident in what I do and as a designer, and you know, and I'll get feedback from some people. I will like show them this, you give them the ideas, and it's okay to start small and build. You don't you don't need to do with ten thousand units of something or you know, make a million patches. Just do a couple. And you know, that's the great thing about today's world is you can do that. You can you know, do t shirts on demand. You can a few pens made, you can get a few stickers made, and it's not going to cause you a fortune if you're going to be selling those kinds of products. To just go ahead and do it. You know, it's a very unique time where we have this and we have used communication devices, you know, such as your podcast or Instagram or It's an incredible time, honestly, it really is. You know, we can go on and make an e commerce site. It's crazy, It's like, it's mind blowing, right totally, is incredibly amazing what we have literally in our hands, our phones that we can do and you know, with a little computer on the side, you can make a business. It's just it's it's there's no time like this ever. Well, and I'm assuming Instagram must be a huge part of your business. You've got over three Instagram followers and you start like, how did you a build that? Do you find a lot of people coming from there and going and shopping? Yeah? I think, yeah, my Instagram is the biggest push. You know, when I look at where people coming from, Instagram is is definitely it. But I knew all along Instagram is where I wanted to be. I knew just from its visual aspects that uh, this is where I need to build a community. So yes, we have to you know, stuff gets to put on placebook or Twitter. Um, we have trying to do more blog posts on the website, but Instagram has always been it, and you know, it's still probably my favorite platform to work with. So as we head into into a new year, do you, as the owner of a company, have actual, like written down goals. This is what I want to do this year? This is or is it just like you know, let's keep going. It's more just keep going, you know, like we're doing trade show, this is there. It will be a third year with an organization called the Public Land's Alliance, which kind of brings together the park associations that will be in DC this year. It kind of moves around um next year I think is in Portland. So I belong to that association and I'll have a little booth there to potentially make more make make me new clients and meet old clients and existing clients. So yeah, that's definitely like one of those gold I'm gonna, you know, how do I do it better and get ready for the trade show. So there's there's goals like that, but nothing formalized like oh, I need to do more sales here there. You know. It's like I know there's things that I could be doing more. I'm trying to do those, but I also don't want to lose the spirit of what is here. You know. It was like I don't want to push product every day on my Instagram. You know, I probably should be pushing more, and I know that's a fault of mind, but I'm like, I just want to share the beautiful pictures and the beautiful sights and I want to inspire, like I'm inspired, right, and you get those people inspired, then they're gonna want to suppre and and show off that they are National Park giks. So I think it's a good plan and it's working. So it's like I don't need to be the more ahead to go buy a T shirt. I mean I have T shirts, and yeah, you'll know I have T shirts. And if you didn't know, hopefully you'll be a follow one. You'll see that we do sell T shirts. But I don't want to hit you over ahead every day, and you know that I need to keep the community there. It's smart. It's you figured out what works and the fact that you do have a community. Not every business or every industry has a community, especially like the National Park System does. So it makes sense that you are just keeping the community alive and not, like you said, jamming products on everyone's throat because everyone else is doing that anyway. Yes, yes, okay, So then I want you to give me one last pitch, one last why someone should go support National Park Keek, I want to pitch why you should support National Park. I'll take it because if we don't support these places, they're gonna go away, plain and simple. Whether it be a big beautiful park like Yosemite or Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, bits and pieces will slowly be taking will go away, and so we have to protect these places and show that we love these places and these are an important part of our our heritage as a country. So whether it be the big parks or the small little you know, battle field or historic houses, and they tell the story of like Harriet Tutman, they tell the story of you know, women's rights and gay lesbian rights, and you know, they still tell the story of the battles that we fought as a country and these are important parts of our our own country and our heritage. To me, that's important, and that's I think partly why I started National Park Geek is to make sure people know these stories and they don't just think of Yellowstone or your semity. They also think of you know, places like the National Mall or Ford's Theater or you know General Grants Memorial or the Statue of Liberty. You know, these places all need care and protection and that's why people should be a National Park Geek so they can share those stories. With that support, these places will continue and they needed. There's billions of dollars of backlog maintenance and repairs, you know, and it's like, you know, we need to do that. And then if and if we spent all the money today to fix it, it's still not going to fix it forever. Or we have to continue that, and if we don't continue, the house will continue to fall apart. It's true, we need to keep the house fixed and and add more money to make it a little bit nicer, and but if we don't, it will go away. You're right. I work um closely with a Washington National Park Fund here, and I didn't realize how much money they as an organization have to raise, or how much money they do raise to help the Washington National Parks. And everyone just assumes, oh, it's government funded, They're fine, But they raised so much money as a private entity to help support them. And it's like you're saying, you know, there's ways to support By just going to a park, you're supporting a park. You don't have to donate money. You don't have to, you know, go to a big event and and spend all this money. But you just by going to a park and being aware of just the knowledge, then yeah, you are supporting a park, and that is probably one of the biggest things you can do. But yeah, national parks aren't just going to run on their own. They need our help. And it's not like you said, it's not just national state parks. And yes we're we're focused on national parks because it's it's big, it's nationwide and and all that, but every state has incredible parks, state parks, local parks, and we need to support all of them. We need to have these places that we can go and get outside and explore nature and and become one again. So yes, supporting the parks, state, local, federal are definitely, I think incredibly important. If you're at a park or to their visitors center by a sticker, you don't buy my sticker, I don't care by buy something right, all of that helps and people don't realize that. You know, these are nonprofit associations that are running these little visitors centers and taking care of things, and all that money that proceeds, all that goes back into the parks and and they need it. Whether it be trail maintenance or programs, junior ranger programs, or hiking talks. They need these things. So it's these kind of items that will allow these places to exist. Well, I agree with everything you just said, and listen, I've been preaching it on my Instagram all the time. I don't talk much about I don't get to talk much about national parks on this podcast specifically, so I am selfishly glad that I got you on here to talk about this, and thank you so much. I want everyone to go support. It's National park geek dot com, and then you can go to Instagram National park Geek, and then on Twitter it's mp understore Geek. I get it all right, all right, Danny, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Get out there and support our parks. They are our country's greatest treasure. Even if you just go to one, I promise we'll go to more after that. But get out there, support the parks and support Danny. It's National park geek dot com, National park Geek on Instagram. You'll see his pictures fall in love. I guarantee you you'll book a trip next year. Thank you so much for listening to side Hustlers. I've got something cool coming up the next three weeks. I'm actually gonna have the best of moments, some of my favorite episodes this year. My producer Houston has been putting all the clips together, so shout out to him because I know It's not the easiest thing, but I'm excited for you to hear over the next three weeks some of the coolest moments of side hustlers this year. You can follow me on Instagram at the Carla Murray. Always rate and review this podcast. That is a huge help. And until next week, keep hustling.