Hi there, and welcome to The Business of Adventure Podcast; conversations with entrepreneurs who have built profitable businesses around their passion for adventure activities. In each episode we hear their stories, the challenges they have faced along the way, and take away insights to help you start, grow, and manage your business in the outdoor industry.I'm your host Adam El, and I own and run a surf & paddleboard school in the North East of Scotland. I am starting this podcast as a resource for folks in my position - running a business can be difficult by yourself so it's great to have the opportunity to talk to and learn from others in the same boat. I've found other podcasts hugely useful in helping me grow my own business and giving me a sense of community with others in the same position, and so I hope that this show can help others in the same way!Why listen to The Business of Adventure?As is common in our industry, I have worked for quite a few different activity centres and schools over the years before starting out on my own, and something I've noticed is that sometimes folks have this idea that being passionate about the outdoors and adventure is somehow at odds with being a good businessperson. You know the stereotype of the soul surfer, doesn't care about money or anything beyond getting good surf and living the good life. People like that exist, but I don't think that kind of 'purity' of mindset is very conducive to growing a business at scale. So, my point is that you can be both! Most folks do get into the industry out of passion for whatever activity they are offering, climbing, biking, surfing you name it and the business skills and knowledge tend to come second. I hope this podcast will help bridge that gap with relevant information to help you build and run a business in this industry.It's a podcast specifically about running a business in the adventure activity industry - I talk to relevant people who are actually running successful businesses in the industry so I (and by proxy you) can learn from their experience.I aim to get an interview out every couple of weeks, so if you're interested in following along - please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or visit the website at adventureindustrypodcast.comCheck out the first episode for a bit of a backstory about me and how I came to start my watersports activity business! Cheers, I'll see you in the first episode 🤙