In today's episode, I have a conversation with Stevie Boyle of Ocean Vertical based in East Lothian, next to Edinburgh in Scotland.

Stevie has worked in the outdoor industry for over 25 years, starting out following a passion for being outdoors by pursuing outdoor education before working in recreational outdoor centres to build his experience and skill set. He then moved into youth work, focusing on personal and social development for all with an organization called Strive Adventure before in 2018, setting up his company, Ocean Vertical. Ocean Vertical runs adventure activities throughout the year, focusing on helping people make the most of the amazing opportunities Scotland has to offer from coastal adventure sports to winter mountaineering. The company now has a core team of four and works with a stable of freelancers from their beautiful base in Dunbar.

This was a really interesting conversation in which we talk about having co-founders in an adventure business and how roles and responsibilities are split, how becoming a trainer assessor for other instructors has been important for Stevie's career, the elements of marketing adventure activities, sourcing ethical and environmentally friendly equipment and the challenge of neoprene, and how getting hold of Ocean Vertical's building last year has impacted the business and helped it reach new markets.

Podcast: adventureindustrypodcast.com
Guest: oceanvertical.com

On today's episode, I have a conversation with Ben Bullen of Ben Bullen Adventures in the Southeast of England. Ben started his career doing youth work in a local church before getting the opportunity to work delivering outdoor activities for young people with his local council, allowing him to get a variety of activity qualifications. After a few years, he then set out on his own, setting up his business to offer Duke of Edinburgh expeditions for school groups. Ben Bullen Adventures now runs over 120 expeditions and training days each year and has a team of about 45 freelance instructors.

In our conversation, we talk about starting a business with kids and a mortgage, doing what you have to do to make things work, taking calculated risks and ultimately taking that leap of faith. Ben shares some tips from his experience hiring and managing freelance instructors and talks about the concept of distributed leadership in a big team of freelancers. We also talk about how he built up his initial client base with local schools and how it's grown since then.

Podcast: adventureindustrypodcast.com
Guest: benbullenadventures.co.uk

Welcome to The Business of Adventure podcast, I'm your host, Adam El. In this first episode, I introduce myself and share my journey into the adventure activities industry and my current successful venture as well as talking about some of the successes and failures I've learned from previous projects along the way.

Podcast: adventureindustrypodcast.com
Guest: adamelnaggar.com