Answering The Call To Adventure - with Adventure Film maker Alex 'Gooch' Ugarte - Becoming Your Warrior

Episode Transcript
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Emma Ritchie (00:01):
Welcome to the Becoming your Warrior podcast.
This is the place where you getto feel inspired and empowered
to step into your very best life.
Hello, hello.
This episode is an absolutecracker and that is because I am
interviewing my good friend andadventure filmmaker, alex

(00:24):
Uchigati.
And Alex and me met probablyabout 18 months ago two years
ago when we were working on theTV show Alone Australia.
We became firm friends.
He just has the most infectious, beautiful, fun, energy and
everyone is just inspired andwants to be around him.
In today's episode, we talkabout why he quit the corporate,

(00:46):
the nine to five, to follow hisown call to adventure, giving
up the safety and the securityof an income, coming in and
actually just going off aroundthe world, learning as he went
and filming these crazyadventures that are now up on
YouTube for you to watch.
Alex is just so infectious andso inspiring, and I just know

(01:09):
the stories that he shares inthis episode are going to help
you to overcome any obstaclesyou might be facing.
Let's get into it, all right.
Well, let's get started.
We both got our cups of tea,we're good to go.
You, okay, you have created thislife now, where you are on the
road, you are on planes, you areliving this wildlife of

(01:32):
adventure and, obviously,filming everything on the way,
and this is the kind of lifethat I know a lot of people
would like dream of.
They'd be like.
You've created my dream life,but have there been any moments
where you've literally been likeI'm out, I want to turn back, I
don't want to do this anymore,I'm done oh, so many, so, so

(01:57):
many.

Alex Gooch Ugarte (01:58):
Um, there is something, so there is something
deep with inside of me that ispushing me forward and driving
me forward towards a vision anda goal, and I know deep, deep,
deep, deep down that I will stayon this path.
Nothing will ever make medeviate or like go back to my
old life.
But, yeah, just the amount ofwork it takes, the amount of

(02:21):
commitment, um, the mental toll,the physical toll, the toll on
relationships as well, like youwon't see your family and
friends as much.
It just takes a lot of sacrifice, a huge amount of sacrifice, to
go down this path and to followyour calling and to chase your
dreams and to do the thing youknow you love the most your

(02:47):
dreams and to do the thing youknow you love the most, um, but
I think it's, it's totally worthit because, um, at the end of
the day, you've really it's sofulfilling to go down that path
and to chase your dream.
You know so, like, for mepersonally, I I don't think I
could live any other way, so I'mgiving all these things up, but

(03:08):
all the greatest, all thegreatest things in life are the
most fulfilling and rewardingthings life take in life take
huge amounts of sacrifice.
Oh, I accept that I keep movingforward, but, yeah, all the
time I want to sort of just giveit all up and walk away and
call it quits and just throw mylaptop against a wall or I don't
know, put my head through awindow or something.

Yeah, You're selling the life of an adventure
filmmaker.
I have to say everyone's like.
Where do I sign up?

The feeling of a sense of accomplishment.
And achievement far outweighsall the hard times and all the
bad times and all the sacrifice.

I'll put it that way let's go back, because
obviously we met when we wereworking on Alone in Australia.
You were obviously a produceron that, but before that and
this is really your journey, andyour journey into adventure
filmmaking started way beforethat anyway.
But can you tell me about yourlife before adventure filmmaking

(04:13):
came to be?
What were you doing?
What were you getting up to?

I was a real estate agent.

It just makes me laugh.
I just can't imagine it.
It's so funny.

Commercial real estate agent, student tie,
slick back hair.
Yeah, that was my life nine tofive, for at least six or seven
years.
It's what I did straight out ofhigh school, yeah.
So I got into that, that, I gotinto that life, um, and yeah,

(04:51):
look, I didn't hate it.
It's not that I hated, I didn'tnecessarily hate that job.
I hate that life.
Um, it was challenging.
It did take a lot of likeenergy and effort and brain
power and problem solving, andso it's kind of kind of similar
like, yeah, kind of similar away to filmmaking, where it's
just all just problem solving.
You know, that's all anadventure filmmaker does is

(05:12):
solving problems logistically ortechnically with your cameras
and stuff.
So similar in that respect.
Um, but the whole kind of likeoffice facade, um, the office
persona that you had to wear,you know to, to work every day,
kind of just wore me down, thefact that I couldn't just be
myself all the time.

(05:32):
You know, as soon as you stepinto that office there's a
certain etiquette, there's a wayof talking, a way of being.

You've got to like almost become someone else to
fit in in that environment and Ithink I will just say sorry for
anyone who's listening who is areal estate agent.
I'm not laughing at theprofession, it's just knowing
you.
I'm just like you are such afree spirit that the thought of

(05:57):
you in real estate is just soforeign to me.
It just doesn't make sense.
So I'm not making fun of theprofession at all, but said you
didn't hate it, but obviouslythere was something about it,
like you know.
You said you didn't likeputting the, the shirt and tie
on and and all that kind ofstuff.
So where, I mean, where wasthis kind of adventure,

(06:18):
filmmaking, like dream or vision?
Where did that come from?
And and and how long were youthinking of that when you were?

I guess in the nine to five, really early
on.
I think that was a spark in myearly 20s when I actually lost
my license for a long period oftime.
All opportunities come in weirdways and that actually made me
go traveling overseas for abouta year and a half.
That actually made me gotraveling overseas for about a
year and a half and I ended upstaying in Budapest in Hungary
for about nine months and Iworked in a hostel there and

(06:51):
that was the first time I wasreally exposed to people who had
different ways of living,thinking, a lot of people that
kind of lived on the fringes ofsociety, um, who didn't conform
to social constructs and norms.
You know, like a lot of artists, a lot of just like strange
people.
You know like if you're youknow 10 years ago, if you're

(07:14):
traveling around in budapest inhungary, you know it was like
wasn't as popular as it is now,um, and that was the first time
where I was like, okay, likethis, you can do other things
with your life.
I never realized you could doanything outside of business.
It just seemed like the onlycareer path.
I didn't realize you could makemusic or make films or write or

(07:36):
do any of those other things.
I thought you just left school,you got a job in business, you
bought a house, you had kids.
You know what I mean?
I just had that typicaltrajectory in my mind, my mind.
I was like, oh, that's my onlypath, I'll just go down that
path, um.
So that was like really thebeginning of like oh, wow, I can
do other things with my life,and um.
But I wasn't quite ready to acton that information.

(08:00):
That was like my first call toadventure, but I rejected it.
So I came back from overseas,got a job with, like one of the
world's largest commercial realestate agencies.
It's supposed to be like thejob you know that everyone wants
when, um, when they get intocommercial real estate, um.
And so I was in that for aboutthree or four years.

(08:21):
At the same time, once a year,every year, I was going to
something called the banffmountain film festival, which is
a film festival for adventurefilms, and it'd come to
australian shores once a year,every year, and I was going to
see that, and every year I'd belike, hmm, it's like kind of
like what these guys are doing.
You know, I kind of somethingresonated with me.

(08:42):
I was like I feel like I coulddo this.
I don't know why, like I don'thave any skills at that time.
I don't.
I don't know how to use acamera, I don't know how to tell
a story, I don't know how to goon an adventure, I don't know
how to hike, I don't know how tobike pack and I don't do
anything.
Um, but just something wasspeaking to me and I was like,
okay, I've got to listen to thislittle voice that's speaking to

(09:02):
me.
And so I went year after yearafter year, and then one of the
years I was just like you knowwhat?
Like I think I can do this.
And then, at the very end ofthe festival, the credits were
rolling and I was sitting therein my seat and everyone's like
shuffling in their seats andchairs, like ready to exit the
cinema, and I just made apromise to myself in that moment

(09:25):
I just said you know what, nomatter what happens, I'm making
a promise to myself right nowthat I'm going to become an
adventure filmmaker and nomatter what I need to do, I'm
just going to have to do it.
And so from that point on, Ijust started like organizing my
life in my world so I couldstart exiting this business

(09:47):
realm and then setting my lifein a new trajectory towards this
adventure filmmaking life.

And so I mean, obviously it sounds like the way
you're describing it is like,yeah, I just made this decision
and I jumped, but, as we bothknow, there are a lot of skills
you need from a camera person,shooter perspective, from a
storytelling perspective, youknow, getting all the equipment,
planning everything.
I mean, where did you firststart to skill up?

(10:18):
How did you start to acquirethe skills that would then lead
on to being an adventurefilmmaker?

such a long journey.
It's just so gradual, isn't itlike once you start, I feel like
once you start on your path,then doors and you start action
make like putting actions inplace and like actually doing
things that are that are goingto like um produce a result.

(10:47):
Like on your path, um doorsstart opening.
You know, like I feel like onceyou decide to go down a certain
path, things start happening.
The universe starts conspiringto help you and kind of like you
get little drops of packages ofhelp that you know drop in your
lap along the way, you knowlike nice little surprises, but

(11:08):
um, it just starts withlow-hanging fruit, like what can
you do, you know?
And so for me it started withum, a traveling podcast, and I
was like, okay, I can't affordcamera gear, I can just get like
a couple of microphonestogether and stuff.
I got my laptop, I think I hadan ipad at that point and I was
like I'm gonna go to centralamerica and I'm just gonna like

(11:29):
travel through the country andthen like meet people and then
um, and then interview and thenmeet people who are living their
passion in life.
Um, and I did that for like ayear and a half traveling to
central america.
You know, I'd stayed in a towncalled santa teresa for a while
and I met a guy and I'm likestarted borrowing his camera,
started using that, and I waslike terrible at it.

(11:50):
You know, I didn't know what Iwas doing, but you just got to
start using it.
You know, you start usingthings, you know, and just
practicing, um, and just whenyou first start using anything,
it's gonna be crap, it to beterrible, but just keep using it
and just keep getting betterand better and better.
But that's kind of how it allstarted.

I want to talk more about the challenges that
you have faced as an adventurefilmmaker, not only on the road,
but also like the internalchallenges and obstacles that
you've had to overcome.
Also like the internalchallenges and obstacles that
you've had to overcome, what doyou think has been like one or
two or three big challenges thatyou have chosen to overcome?

I would say probably the biggest would be
self-doubt.
It's really when you go off onyour own um in the way that I
did and because you're reallyquite isolated in a lot of ways
as well.
Like, I went from working in atraditional office environment
to now where I literally workwith no one.
So I'm in a, I'm in a vacuum,you know.

(12:56):
So I'm shooting in a vacuum,I'm producing in a vacuum, I'm
editing in a vacuum.
I do have people that I bounceum ideas off and that I show um
drafts of my adventures to, whogive me honest feedback.
I do have you know, but they'rejust friends um.
But because you're in thatisolated space and then you're

(13:18):
comparing yourself to you know,much more established people and
much more skilled people andstuff like that, it's really
really easy to start doubtingyourself Am I smart enough?
Am I skilled enough?
Am I funny enough?
Am I?
You know all those things, allthose questions.
For me personally, I thinkthat's the hardest thing I've

(13:40):
had to overcome.
I think also the amount of timethat it's taken hardest thing
I've had to overcome.
I think also um the amount oftime that it's taken um for me.
In my head I was like yeah,like in a few years I'll be
crushing it and I'll be killingit, you know, and I'm like
probably, I'm like how manyyears in am I?
Like five, six, six years in orsomething, six years in since

(14:02):
I've left, um real, you know,and I'm still only just at the
beginning, you know, only justscratching the surface.
You know I've got a lot of goodthings going, but it takes a lot
more time and energy and effortthan I ever thought, than I
ever imagined and also that Iever thought I could put into

(14:25):
something.
You know, I never thought I waseven capable of putting this
much time, energy and effortinto anything in my life.
And it's lucky that I do loveit and I am passionate about it.
Otherwise I just wouldn't makeit.
And that's some advice I wouldgive to people.
I'd say that unless you doreally love it and you are
really passionate, you probablywon't do that.

Extra 10%, 20 takes to, like you know, make
something you know, really greatum, absolutely, and I think as
well, like something that a lotof people, um, maybe, who aren't
in the industry or haven't beenin in tv or film or adventure
filmmaking is when you watchsomething on TV.
When you watch like an hour oftelevision, you kind of just go,
oh yeah, that was cool, butit's taken like months, not just

(15:11):
.
I mean in your case, I meantalk me through, say, for
example, talk me through one ofyour adventures from start to
finish, including the editingprocess, like what goes into,
like man going to the ganges,you know oh man, even at the
moment, like I'm in the phase umof finding an adventure.

Even that is like that's also so hard,
because first I have to set likeI've got a system and a process
that I've like put in placefrom.
You know that I've learned.
But, um, you know, first I needto set a framework so you know
what's my budget, what's my timeframe, what's what, what, what
um can I achieve with my skillsand the camera gear that I own?

(15:56):
You know, is there red tape?
Are there political issuesthere?
Um, do I need filming permits?
Do I need a drone permit?
Do I need visa?
How long can I stay in thecountry?
It's an endless list.
So first I've got to find allthese adventures that fit within
that framework, but they'vealso got to be like relatively
unique and interestingadventures.
They can't just be likesomething that everyone else is

(16:17):
doing.
So even that process isexhausting and extremely time
consuming.
It could take me two weeks justto like settle on an adventure,
and that's even before I startputting in production and like
proper planning.
That's just finding anadventure that fits.
You know the framework that Iset out.
Then for the ganges of like,for that one specifically, I

(16:38):
gotta like find someone who'sdone it before and be like, hey,
what's the go with this thing,like is it possible?
I found like one guy who's doneit before and he's like, yeah,
there's a dam here and a damthere and there's crocodiles
here and there's dangerouspeople here, don't paddle
through here and you can charge.
You've got to think about power.
He's like you can charge inthis village and it's even just

(16:59):
like organising the adventure isexhausting.
So I feel like I'm tired by thetime I even make it into the
field, which is crazy to thinkabout.
And at the same time as I'mputting the adventure together,
I'm also filming myself, puttingthe adventure together.

(17:20):
So I've already startedprincipal photography and so I'm
already thinking about whatscenes do I need?
Okay, I need myself talking toa mentor, so I need myself
talking to this guy on a zoomchat.
I need, I need to shoot it withthree different camera angles,
I need to get the audio right, Ineed to ask the right questions
.
So I'm like thinking about liketechnically, technically, which
asked like what I need to shoot.

(17:40):
I'm thinking about how I canproduce that scene, but also
like trying to organise theadventure and put together this
mammoth 30-day trip at the sametime, and that's just to get it
off the ground.
So that's the start.

So tell me a bit about your series that's
currently on YouTube.

Yeah, cool.
So I've got two.
I've got a three-part series onthe Ganges and I've got one
episode of me cycling throughthe Kimberley region, the
Australian outback.
The Ganges adventure was.
That was, yeah, that was a bigtrip that took my soul, which

(18:28):
was what made it so great.
I think it was really popular,it did really well and I think a
part of the reason it did sowell is because everyone just
got to ride the genuine highsand lows with me.
But long story short, in anutshell, the adventure is me
starting out at the bottom ofthe Indian Himalaya, the
foothills where the Gangesbegins, and then I pack, rafted

(18:51):
over a thousand kilometers downthe Ganges solo to the ancient
city.
I finished in the ancient cityof Varanasi and that took me 30
days, and that took me 30 days,and so I was sleeping on
riverbanks, in the jungleashrams, people's homes, in
remote villages, under shopawnings, pretty much wherever I

(19:19):
could really.
And yeah, it was very much likeboth a physical, mental and
cultural journey.
And you really see me for thebroad spectrum of highs and lows
of the human condition in thatseries.
I'll say that much.

And also, am I correct in thinking that's where
you actually lost some footageas well?
You had to, yeah.

No, well, I lost, lost it.
I don't know when you're firststarting out, right, you're an
amateur.
So, um, I wasn't backing up myfootage, I was just shooting
everything and keeping it on onehard drive.
So I don't know when the harddrive corrupted.
But I got back home and I triedto um, upload the footage I had
on this one hard drive and itwas the first section of the

(20:08):
trip, which was a three-dayadventure over the rapids,
because there's rapids in thefirst section, because there's
glacial waters coming down fromthe Himalaya.
And I lost those whole firstthree days.
So I had to fly back to India.
Well, I thought about it for awhile and I was like, look, I

(20:30):
can start my adventure fromHaridwar and lose those first
three days, or I can fly backand I can do it again.
And I felt like I had to goback.
So I flew the whole way backand did that whole first three
days again, going down, um, yeah, going down the ganges through

(20:50):
the rapids.
Which was it.
It worked out.
All hit.
All things happen for a reason,right, and that did happen for a
reason, because I actuallycrashed my drone into the side
of a cliff on the very first day.
So I didn't have any dronefootage so and drone footage is
massive, and especially in aspectacular scenery like that so

(21:11):
I'd gotten my new drone, myreplacement from dji, and so I
went back there with my droneand got epic drone footage of
those first three days and Ithink that really made a
difference, um, in the level ofquality in what I got.
And so it happened for a reason, but it was just.
Yeah, it was surreal doing thatall again, because I mean, that

(21:33):
part of the world is surreal initself.
You know just as it is.

Yeah, and I mean I want to talk about your mindset
, because obviously you saidwell, everything happened for a
reason, right?
So the hard drive corrupted,obviously.
You got back home.
I mean, I can only imagine howdevastating that is when you're
like I've just done this massivetrip to India, I've lost the
first three days, which is whereit all begins, and you've got

(21:58):
to make that decision there.
And then now I know a lot ofpeople who might just go like
I've balls this up, forget aboutit, I'm either going to quit or
I'm going to, you know, or I'lljust cut my losses and I'll
just start from where I've gotthe footage.
So what is it?
What happened in your mindsetthat made you go?

(22:20):
I'm going to go back and I'mgoing to, you know, travel all
the way from australia back toindia, go through this whole
journey again, like what?
What was going through yourmind that that made you kind of
make that decision?

um, that's a really good question.
Um, I was just I'm so passionateabout what I'm doing at the
moment and like I care about itso much, and it meant so much to
me that I was like I just Ineed it to be the best it can
possibly be and for this seriesto be as good as it can possibly

(22:57):
be, and for me to make it asgood as it can be, I have to go
back and and I have to get thisfirst section, because that that
first section is it's a wholeepisode in itself and a whole 45
minute, 50 minute episode initself, and that kind of really
that, really that whole, thatwhole first section sets up the

(23:18):
adventure.
And I was like I just I can't,like I already did 30 days on
the Ganges, I just I can't cutit short, I need it, I need to
give my audience everything, Ineed to give it all.
Um.
So I guess it really stemmedfrom just like caring so much
about the quality of the contentand the story and the integrity

(23:39):
of the story, um, and I justknew that, no matter how hard it
was going to be, that it wasthe right thing to do yeah yeah,
I bet you swore a few timeswhen you I didn't talk to anyone
for like three or four days Iwas.
I was, honestly, I've never beenthat, like I was almost in
shock.
I've never been that.

(24:01):
Because I didn't, because, atthe same, because also, you're
gonna remember at the same time,like I'm not what, all I'm
doing is working on youtube.
I'm barely doing other jobs, soI don't have any money either.
So it's not like.
It's like oh yeah, I can justlike easily fly back.
It's like how am I gonna afford?
You know how do I go back?
You know I got no money torecapture this thing.
Like you know, I'm alreadyliving hand to mouth.
How am I even going to do it?

(24:22):
And so I thought it was justgone.
You know, gone, gone for good.
And um, yeah, it was more.
Just, I was just in shock and Ikept having this positive
mindset of like, uh, you know,I'm going to get it back because
I sent it to, I sent the harddrives to like professional data
recovery people and I sent itto one, sent, sent it my hard
drive to one guy data recoverypeople and I sent it to one,

(24:43):
sent, sent it my hard drive toone guy locally and I'm like
he's gonna get it back.
He's, you know, I'm gonna get aphone call from him any day and
he's gonna be like Alex, I gotgood news.
But you know, first phone callis like dude, like it's gone,
and I was like no, I don'tbelieve it.
Not yet another company wholike does data recovery for like
the government and like reallyhigh level companies, and I'm

(25:06):
like you're gonna get it backfor me.
I know it.
And it was the same.
It was just white, you know,and um, so it took me a long
time.
It was like the stages of grief.
You know, it took me a longtime to get acceptance.
Then, when I did, I was yeah, Ididn't really, I couldn't talk
for like two or three days.
I was broken and yeah, and thenit started that idea.
I was like what if I go back?

(25:26):
I'm like, oh, maybe I could goback.
And then it just yeah, it endedup being the best thing ever,
ended up being the right thing.
So that's just life.
It just does that to you.

Yeah, incredible, and obviously you mentioned in
there you know like financiallyand you know this is I think
this is something that's reallycommon with people who are
following their passions, likefinancially, like, like you said
, you're doing things on YouTubelack of finances, you know like
a lack of security.
I mean, how do you juggle thatas an adventure filmmaker, like

(26:13):
how, how do you I'm not askingfor your processes or your you
know but like how do youmentally get through that?

it's extremely tough.
Um, you've got to makesacrifices.
For me, I moved back in with myparents, um, so I had that, so
rent was gone.
I had a safety net, um, soyou've got a.
There are sacrifices um, 100and um, so that's the first
thing, you know.
You got to start setting asideyou know, big nights out with

(26:43):
your friends and putting that tothe side and start making this
the most important thing.
And then you've just got toreally look at your life and
think how can I balance takingon a little bit of contract work
here or getting another job insomething else?
Maybe I can start working in acafe casually and I can work two
, three days a week.
If I'm at home with my parents,I work at a cafe two days a

(27:06):
week, have enough money tosurvive.
That gives me three days a weekor four days a week to work on
my passion.
You know and I think you reallyneed to look at it that way I'm
not a huge believer in workinglike still working a full-time
job and then following yourpassion outside of those hours.
If you can do that like youknow, praise to you.

(27:29):
But like that's hard, becauseif you really do want to become,
um successful at something, um,to be able to like build that
outside of already working afull-time job, I think would be
really be really.
Yeah, it would take an inhumaneffort.
I'm sure it's possible, but Iwouldn't have been able to do it

(27:50):
Like I was already so tiredafter my full-time job that I
wouldn't have anything left inthe tank.
You know, mentally to work onsomething else, but I feel like
a lot of fear when you'regetting into um, your passion or
like moving into something elseis just fear of the unknown.
It's fear of like, oh, like Idon't know what's going to
happen next.
You know, am I going to run outof money?

(28:10):
Um, am I going to be bad at thething that I'm pursuing?
Are people just going to laughat me?
What are people going to thinkabout me socially?
You know it's not socially.
You know normal to like go andjust pursue this thing, but
that's all just fear of theunknown.
Like I've found that for themost part people are really
supportive, and not only that,but they're really impressed,

(28:32):
you know, by what I've done and,like a lot of friends will see
me as an inspiration.
So, yeah, a lot of the fear oflike getting into something new,
I think is just fear of theunknown.
And like, once you startpursuing that thing you're
passionate about, the world willstart conspiring to help you
and you'll be surprised by howmany things start to fall in
your lap.
Like there's been so many timeswhere I thought I was going to

(28:55):
be completely broke or I thought, you know, on an adventure that
my, you know, my backpack willfall into a river and I'll fill
up with water and all my cameragear will be destroyed.
But it never is.
Like something always comestogether and rescues me or gives
me like a little cash injectionor something.
Yeah, something always comes tomy aid, you know, but you've
just got to be on the right path.

Yeah, I think a big part of it I've started to
realise is trust as well.
Just this like obviously it'snot just sitting there, like you
know, in a meditation posture,kind of just going.
I trust deeply, you know, butit's it's, you know, I mean
that's beautiful and I'd love tobe able to do that and have
someone pay all my bills, andbut you know there is like,

(29:39):
obviously there's action thatyou take.
But I do think a lot of it andyou know there were so many
parallels when you were justtalking then about like, um, you
know, just fear of like,self-doubt, am I going to be
good enough?
Comparing myself to otherpeople, like do I have the
skills, am I going to fail atthis?
And I think anyone like for me,when you were saying that I can

(29:59):
totally apply that to my stuffand I know there's so many
people out there that haveexactly the same things.
You know you look at people whoare following their passions
and I think you just go like youknow, I look at you and I'm
just like, oh my God, alex isdoing it.
You know he's rocking.
But then it's really beautifulto have you say, yeah, I
actually experienced a lot ofself-doubt and comparison and

(30:21):
all that kind of stuff, becauseI think that it's human to go
through those things and I thinkwhen you are following your
passion or following that callto adventure, you know following
that it's, it's um, things arelike life is going to fall away
in some ways to make space forthis new version of you
absolutely it's coming in andyeah and that can sometimes

(30:43):
include the finances and the youknow and that can feel scary
absolutely.

It is scary and it's funny that you say that
you're like alex is absolutelyrocking, because I'm here at my
laptop.
I'm here at my computer editing, going.
This is all falling apart.
Nothing's working.
Nothing's working.
Everyone else is better than me.
That's what's going on in myhead when I'm here working, and
then someone else might be, youknow, it's just perspectives
like someone else you know, butI don't feel that way, because

(31:12):
I'm always comparing myself toyou know, like someone way above
me.
You know I'm never comparingpeople, you know, like at the
same level or below.
You know I'm always likelooking up, so yeah.

Yeah, which is?
I mean, that's a beautifulthing, right, because it's
inspirational, it's likesomebody's you know, but but
also it's remembering, likewhere you are right now.
They were there, you know.
It's almost that you have to gothrough this.
There's that beautiful analogyof, like you know, the
caterpillar that goes into thecocoon and when it's in the
cocoon, it's it, it just breaksdown into this like dirty brown

(31:48):
goo.
That's what happens.
But so sorry, caterpillar I'mpretty descriptive, I like you
know really painting the picture, but it's in this cocoon.
It all it is is gunk, it's likethis gooey jelly mud.
But within that goo is this onetiny piece of DNA that

(32:08):
remembers in that goo how tobecome a butterfly, and so it
reforms.
I think people think thecaterpillar goes in and it just
grows wings and then it comesout.
It doesn't.
It completely disintegrates.

I didn't know that oh.

I thought you'd be all over that.

No Gosh.

well, I centigrade andi some yeah, I thought you'd
be all over that gosh.
Well, I'm glad I impressed youwith that one but it's yeah.
So there's this.
So it completely breaks down,turns into like mud, essentially
, and then it it.
There's a piece of dna in therethat remembers how to become a
butterfly and it completelyreforms and then it comes out of
the cocoon and it flies right.
So it becomes a bigger, moreexpansive version of itself.

(32:45):
But it has to go through somekind of challenge and
disintegration of who it is andit kind of feels like that's
what you've been on on yourjourney.
It's like, obviously, you hadthis corporate job.
You're doing really well in it.
That's what your vision was,because you didn't have the
vision then for who you are.
But it's like you're doingreally well in it.
You know that's what yourvision was, because you didn't
have the vision then for who youare.
But you know it's like you'vegone through these challenges.

(33:08):
You know you've lost thisfootage.
You've like ran out of money andkind of had to go back to India
, and yet it's like you're nowputting all this amazing content
out onto YouTube and I knowit's not about the followers,

(33:30):
but I mean your numbers areinsane, um, for for how much
you've got out there.
So it's like you're actually, Ifeel from the outside, looking
in, like you are 100% on yourpath, you're 100% following your
passion.
And now it's like you know,people are responding to that.
You know, and, like you said,just even things dropping like
low-hanging fruit, like peoplecoming into your life who are
like, hey, there's this tv job,and people are responding to
that.
You know and, like you said,just even things dropping like
low hanging fruit, like peoplecoming into your life who are
like, hey, there's this tv joband hey, there's this and hey,
there's that.
It's amazing, right when you,when you're following your, it

(33:53):
is amazing.

It's really nice that you said that.
But, yeah, I feel like I feellike people, um, can feel when
you're, you're on your path, youknow, and you're pursuing your
passion.
Are you doing so?
You're creating something thatyou love?
Because I feel like it tends toresonate with them, right, like
because I am putting my heartand soul into everything that
I'm doing, like everything thatI write, everything that I, you

(34:15):
know, edit of, shoot and editand make even this conversation.
You know, I'm trying to be asauthentic as possible, so I'm
always putting my heart and soulinto everything.
I feel like that reallyresonates with people, because
it's just a human condition, sowe're all going through the same
thing, so people see themselvesreflected in me and in my
plight and my successes and myfailures, and they'll be doing
the same with you.

(34:35):
So I feel like, the moreauthentic I am and the more I am
following my passion, I feellike the the more, um, yeah, it
resonates with people, the morepeople can can feel that and
that that's a really nice thatthat takes um a certain level of
letting go and also a certainum level of leaning into your
fears, and I feel like that'swhat a lot of chasing your

(34:56):
passion is.
It's um, and as joseph campbellput it and obviously I love a
lot of joseph campbell quotes hesays you know, the cave you
fear to enter holds the treasureyou seek, and that's just so
true in the fact that, like I'vejust found time and time again,
it's leaning into your fearsand going into that cave that
you're afraid of.
That's when that's thebeautiful things are on the
other side of that.

(35:16):
So it's like in life you've gotto go through the challenges
and lean into your fears andthat's when, um, yeah, you start
learning more about yourselfand life and who you are, and um
start getting more rewards.

I think yeah, absolutely, and just more
expansion, it's.
It's kind of, I think it's likeanything, you know, when you go
through something that's hard,right, like, let's just say, a
marathon or an iron man,something that I I haven't I've
done anyway, but let's just sayyou're going through like some
sort of physical challenge.
Yeah, um, it's like the, thelead up to that, you, you have

(35:52):
to put a lot of work in and thenthe big day comes, and then you
do it and it's hard and it'shot and the weather conditions
aren't what you expected, andyou know you're, I don't know,
your body isn't working the waythat you expected it to on that
day, but when you cross thefinish line, it is such a
feeling of I don't know, justlike there's a, there's a
confidence and there's like thisaccomplishment and there's like

(36:13):
I said what I was going to doand I did it, I followed through
, and I think that is somethingthat can be applied to anything
that's hard that we go throughin life.
It's like some things happenand we don't wish them on anyone
, right, but at the same time,it's like when you come through
that and you integrate, whateverthe lesson was like, you have

(36:35):
the capacity to inspire or tohelp others with that, and I
feel that you know that's whatyou're doing now, to help others
with that.
And I feel that you know that'swhat you're doing now.
It's kind of like you're pushingthrough, you're going through
your David and Goliath rightit's like this big, massive,
monumental thing that normally abig production company would
organize this, like Red Bull orwhoever you know, like a big

(36:58):
adventure company would organizethis for you, and you'd go up
there and you'd have sponsorsand all this kind of stuff, and
it's like, no, it's you, you'rethe production manager, the
shooter, the event coordinator,the logistics, the travel, you
know the, the person doing theadventure, while filming it on
multiple cameras you know, andthen coming back and editing

(37:21):
every single second of it formonths.

Yeah, I bet you're right.
I think, like going throughthose challenges, you get that
real sense of like any sort ofchallenge.
You just get that like rewardsystem, of that sense of
achievement you know ofovercoming something.
But also when you're goingthrough those challenges,
whether it be physical or mental, you're just learning so much
about yourself all the time andyou're just growing all the time
.
And so for me, when I'm goingthrough all the different

(37:45):
challenges, wearing all thedifferent hats that I do, I'm
growing and growing and growing.
And so when I'm learning allthis new stuff, I can share it
with people and that's thebeauty of it.
As you go into the challenge,you overcome the challenge, you
learn something about yourselfor life or whatever, and then
you can share that with otherpeople and I think that's a
really um special thing about it.

(38:06):
I think that's really um wasone of the most important things
for me in terms of like contentcreation is I want to make
stuff that benefits people andhelps people.
You know it is just anadventure filmmaker channel, but
it's also about you know mylife philosophies and my growth
and answering the call toadventure and how you can do
that, and I'm also going tostart um releasing um

(38:28):
information on, you know,planning, editing, shooting
adventure films and stuff, but Idon't just want to make content
that's just, like you know,riffraff scroll, like social
media stuff.
I do want to make stuff that, um, where I am imparting all the
lessons that I learn when I goon these big adventures, um, and
that's a big part of it for meyeah, and I think I think that's

(38:48):
a really beautiful thing aboutyou is you know, you're very
authentic.

It's like even you know, even sharing you know,
because I think there's thisidea with perfectionism, right
especially online at the moment.
It's like, okay, this is thefinal picture, this is what it
looks like, where you're like Iwent to India and I didn't back
up my hard drive and it's like,okay, adventure filmmaker, rule

(39:12):
101 is like back everything upon a couple of hard drives, but
you had to learn the hard way.
But I think it's reallybeautiful and very authentic of
you to like just being open tosharing that, because that is
something that is going to helpsomebody else as well.
You know, it's not just likehey, I nailed it, like my first
adventure on the Ganges, Iabsolutely nailed it.

(39:33):
Here's the finished product.

It's like no, there was an absolute shitstorm
of events that happened in thelead up and during that happened
in the lead up and during, yeah, so, um, that really resonated
with a lot of people, becausethat scene where not even that's
it just like people havementioned that thing happening
to me out of all my adventures,they've mentioned that the most,

(39:56):
I think, out of anythingthey've gone.
Oh, my god, you and in the endyou lost your footage and like
so, obviously, yeah, I guessthat that sort of stuff is
resonating with people.

So that's, I think , that's, yeah, I think I think
it's definitely authentic, butit just comes back to like
admitting your mistakes, rightand learning from your mistakes
and it's like, had you notshared that, people would have
just been like oh, like Ihaven't seen gucci for a little.
You know you're back on planesand back in India and like
re-editing stuff and no onewould have known the difference.

(40:27):
But I just think that's what theworld needs right now is just
more authenticity, morevulnerability more people just
kind of, you know, just owningup to stuff and being like, yeah
, I kind of messed up, but it'sokay, you know, I fixed it or
whatever.
So, yeah, I agree wholeheart,like yeah, I kind of messed up
and, but it's okay, you know Ifixed it or or whatever, so um
yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so I mean in terms of likepeople really tend to

(40:52):
romanticize adventure.
I think you know people havethis idea.
I mean, especially I'm an 80sgirl, so you know, like I I
think about you.
Know you you're kind of IndianaJones, you know like there's
this romantical kind of.
But I mean, what is for you andyou may have touched on this

(41:13):
already what is the hardest part, not just of the adventure but
of being a filmmaker at the sametime?

Um, it's just like for me it's just wearing
so many hats at once, like,especially being in a place like
india.
I'm by myself, no one speaksenglish, I'm in a remote place.
Let's just, for example, um,let's say I've been paddling on
the ganges for 10 hours that day.
At 6 pm the sun's starting toset.
I've got to find a little town,um, to see if I can.

(41:44):
You know, they've got somewherefor me to stay.
I pull up there.
But I can't just pull up thereand like try and find somewhere
to sleep and find some food andwhatever, and I'm like already
obviously spent from paddlingfor 10 hours.
I'm completely shattered.
But I've got to think about thestory, so I've got to go.
Okay, I'm entering this, so Ineed to put on, you know, my
wide shot cam that's lookingback on me.
I've got to put on my POV.

(42:05):
I might even get out my um, mypiece to camera cam and I've got
to record me, you know, turningup to this town and meeting the
people and all that stuff, youknow, and think about what I'm
going to say to them and how Iwant to frame it and how I want
to tell this story of, like,arriving at this town and
finding somewhere to stay, atthe same time as already being
completely shattered and barelyI barely have the mental

(42:29):
capacity to even, you know,function.
At that point, you know, let'ssay I'm 20 days in on the trip,
you know um, um.
So yeah, it's just the extremeamount of um mental energy that
it takes um to put to dosomething like that.
You know, like, especially onthe ganges I wasn't sleeping a

(42:52):
lot, you know, I'd maybe getlike four hours a night at best,
because sometimes I'm sleepingin the jungle and it's like poor
conditions or I can hear crazyanimals outside the tent and I'm
there with my oar you know,half my oar next to my bed, like
aiming it at the, aiming at thedoor of the tent, you know.
And then the next morning Iwake up at 5 am, then I'm back
in the boat and I'm in the boatfor 10 hours and then I find my
next place to sleep, but at thesame time I'm trying to shoot

(43:14):
all this and tell a story and um.
So I guess it's just for me,it's just um, you need an
extreme amount of um stamina andit just ties back to what I was
saying earlier.
Is you just have to really loveit, because if you don't, um, if
you don't love it, then you'renot.
You're not gonna do that.
No one in their right mind isgonna do that.

(43:38):
You know.
You have to really, um, bepassionate, and for me, there's
like it's a beautiful, uh,marrying of a few different
passions, where I, like I lovetraveling, um, I like you know
extreme physical challenges, I Ilove mixing with cultures and
and having cultural experiencesand I love filmmaking.
So it's like I have this nice,um, all my passions kind of like

(44:01):
get to sort of melt into one inone thing, and so it allows me
to do that.
But, um, yeah, it's just, yeah,it's just hard work, it's
really hard work, I think.

I think when I look back the recording of this,
I think hard work is going toshow up quite a few times, but
that's the thing, right, you'reobviously so passionate about it
.
It's like, yeah, it is hardwork yeah it is draining, but
yeah here you are.

Yeah, here I am.
But I even find, like the workback here.
You know, editing can besometimes just as hard, like God
, the battles I've had.
Editing is just like it's.
Yeah, it can almost seem asexhausting as the adventure.
Because I've got like so for theganges trip, I've got 30 days
worth of footage, I've got threedifferent cameras and a drone

(44:56):
um, it's just me by myself.
So, you know, I've got to sortthrough 30 days.
You know however many hours I'mfilming every day of footage
and I've got to get through thatand I've got to cut that down
and then even that in itself wasits own journey.
And then, um, yeah, I've got tocut that down and then even
that in itself is its ownjourney.
And then, yeah, I've got to,you know, make a story, like
construct a story, and then dothe colour grading and the audio

(45:16):
correction and you know thetransitions and the sound
effects and all the differentdrafts and reworking it and
getting people to look at it andrework that and then even
uploading it to youtube is itswhole own thing, because so it's
just yeah, you're right, hardwork is is a theme.
Um, that I guess, um, kind ofkind of runs through everything

(45:40):
that I do, but yeah, it's alabor of love but, absolutely.

And also I think the interesting thing as well is
because obviously you arefilming yourself on these
adventures like you're.
Essentially it's your journey,it's your.
You know, as you're likegetting smashed as you go down
the uh, the ganges by all thewaves and stuff and falling out,
and you know you've got camerasstrapped onto everything, but
then to edit all of that you'reediting yourself, right?

so I mean is that?

do you find yourself being kind of?
How do you find that process ofediting yourself, especially
when you're trying to tell astory?
Do you find yourself beingcritical because you didn't say
something at the right moment,or you know, or what's that like
?

let me just put it this way.
You know how everyone hatestheir voice uh-huh you know when
they hear their voice on arecording or whatever.
Yeah, I have to stare at myselffor 30 hours giving interviews
to camera and talking to people,and so I not only hate my voice
, but I've got to look at myselffor ages.
It's really hard.

(46:46):
It's very, very hard to produceyourself and direct yourself.
Um, because you, especiallyafter spending so much time with
the footage, you start to sorryfirst, to first answer your
question.
Sometimes I am like bummed outthat I didn't ask a question
here or there or I might havemissed something.

(47:08):
But there's a lot of kind ofstuff you can do in editing to
magic around some stuff that Imissed a lot of the time and I
do have shot lists and stufflike that that I do follow in
the field.
But my mentor did tell me, timNoonan.
He did tell me it's like it'sreally hard to like edit and

(47:29):
direct yourself and when, whenyou're editing yourself, it's
like it's it's really difficult.
And he, that advice ended upbeing so right.
Unfortunately I can't afford aneditor, but, um, not for the
amount of footage I've got.
But, um, you start to loseperspective on you know what, if

(47:51):
the content's any good, if youknow what you said is funny or
if it's poignant or if it worksin that space, because you spend
, so first of all.
You're in the field and youshoot it all and then when you
get back, you're just spendingso many hours watching the same
scenes over and over and overagain that sometimes the scenes
start to even lose meaning toand you're like, is this scene

(48:12):
interesting?
Is anybody gonna care?
Is, and it's.
It gets really weird after awhile because you just you're
too close to it.
It's first of all it's you upthere, but then you're just too
close to the footage, like youjust spent too much time with it
.
So that's why I get like otherpeople to review it, like really
close friends who I trust theiropinions and stuff to review it
and have a look at it and justgive me really honest feedback,

(48:34):
which always sucks.

Because they're like it's great.
It's great or you know or no.

What do they say?
No, my mate will be like, no, Idon't like that scene, it was
horrible.
And I'll be like, no, I don'tlike that scene, it was horrible
.
And I'd be like what?
It's not like a week makingthat.
He'd be like, no, that sucks.
No, I didn't like that.
But that's what I need.
I need that kind of criticism,but it is really hard to do it
all yourself.
It does get weird and sometimesI feel like I get closer to

(49:08):
burnout editing than I do anyother part of the process.

it really well, I think it's.
It's all that.
It's all that screen time,because when you're on the
adventures right, you are innature, even though you're like
filming.
You're like on the Ganges,you're up a mountain in the snow
, you're like, you know, on abike up in the Kimberleys, like
you're immersed in nature, andso you're outdoors and you're
moving.
Where I feel like the editingprocess is, yeah, you're sat on

(49:35):
your ass in a room by yourselffor like a couple of months 100%
and completely isolated, likeyou're not working with people,
you're not seeing people.

You know you might see your friends, you know
, once a week or once everycouple of weeks or whatever, but
you're very isolated.
It's just you and thisadventure that you've been
staring at for three weeks.
You know over and over and overagain.
You're just in a little room.
It's always dark, you know, Iget the room dark and it's just
like it's very, it's very.
It can be very isolating and,um, yeah, you can start to

(50:06):
really lose perspective on thestory, so it's difficult yeah,
yeah, I can, I can relate tothat.

I I've never was made.
I tried when I was in tv.
I tried to do post-production acouple of times and it just was
not for me.
I just, yeah, I'd forget, whichyou know, sometimes when you're
editing and you take a pieceout and then you're like, oh,
did I take that piece out or didwas that in another scene?
Now, where did I move that?
And my brain doesn't work likethat.
My brain is like people,conversations, connections, but

(50:34):
if I'm like putting a jigsawpuzzle back together in 500
different ways, my brain justcannot handle it.
It doesn't work that way.
So I feel your pain and I'msending you like love bubbles um
, you know, so you don't burnout, but what a job, what a job
okay.
So I just want to.
I want to ask a couple morequestions.
So, just in terms of, forsomebody who's starting out,

(51:00):
what advice would you give them?
Like, for someone who's like inyour shoes you know, let's say
they're in a corporate jobwhether it's adventure,
filmmaking, or whether it's justfollowing?
Actually, yeah, let's make itmore about following their
passion, like really going forit.

Like, what advice would you give someone
who's feeling the call toadventure, the call to their
path yeah, I think the advice Iwould give would tend to like
trend rather than like, um, likein terms of how to approach it.
It'd be more philosophical interms of like, if I, if I could
look, if I could talk to myselfwhen I was first exiting real

(51:38):
estate and chasing my passion, Iwould just say don't put so
much pressure on yourself anddon't be so hard on yourself.
Like, it's a long journey.
You're in it for the long game.
It's going to take a long, longtime.
Everything takes longer thanyou think it's going to.
So you know, you might havethese lofty goals of like, yeah,
I'm going to be here in fiveyears, but you won't.
It'll take 10 years, but that'sokay because a lot of beautiful

(52:00):
things are going to unfold andhappen in that 10 years and you
know it'll work out perfectlyfor you.
But, um, yeah, I would just saydon't put so much pressure on
yourself.
Just trust in the universe andthings will start working out
once you, once you decide, youknow, make that hard decision to
like, definitively follow yourpassion, um, and start pursuing
it.
Yeah, just yeah.

(52:21):
So trust in the universe anddon't put don't put so much
pressure on yourself, I thinkyeah definitely, because for me
that's kind of like what didn'tstart my growth.
But it's just.
There's a lot of stress inthose early years.
Even now I still stress toomuch.
Um, I think that's a work onfor me, but I think a lot of
people might um feel the sameway.

You know it's oh god, yeah, absolutely it's.
I mean, that's the thing I, Ithink, from my perspective, like
I think I've always grown up,you know, maybe maybe you were
the same where it was like cool,you know, get the job, like
keep the money coming in, liketake care of yourself, you know
all that stuff.
And obviously that is important, right, nobody wants to end up

(53:00):
on the streets or anything likethat.
But I think you know, steppingaway from that big media career
or the corporate career orwhatever, there is going to be a
period of time where you dotake a hit financially, whatever
you're trying to do.
And so you know, I love yourapproach of, um, yeah, just like
, if you can like go part-timeso you can work on your dream,

(53:24):
and then, you know, slowly startto come away from that.
And I know people will havedifferent opinions about that.
People will will be like, no,you've got to go all in, quit
the job, but that's not going towork for certain people.
You know you've got bills, kids, you know, whatever.
So it's like, I think, justfollow your passion to the best
of your ability with whereyou're at.
But there is going to come aday, if it really truly is a

(53:45):
passion, and it really truly isa passion and it really is truly
something that you want to dofull-time, where you are going
to have to step off the ledge,so to speak, and just hope, you
know, just know, you just trustthat you're going to be looked
after, trust that you know.

But it's scary, it is scary I couldn't
agree with you more and I think,and I think, just accepting the
fact that life's going to getunconventional life, your life
isn't going to look like whateveryone else is doing, and
that's okay.
You know there is no set path.
You know there's definitely noset path.
Once you set out on your path,then the path starts unfolding

(54:22):
in front of you.
But it could be, it could takeyou in any which way, in any
direction.
For me it started out with apodcast and then I was over in
london for a little while.
Then I came back and I wasworking in a cafe and trying to
figure out cameras for a whileand then I met um, a mentor, and
then I went off on like alittle, a little bicycle
adventure, you know, and Istarted figuring out cameras
with that and then so in my mindI had, like, when I was leaving

(54:45):
real estate, I had this idea oflike what it, what it was going
to be like, and it was nothinglike that.
It was completely, you know,just a crazy path that goes in
all different directions.
But you just gotta accept thatit is going to get
unconventional and you are goingto go down different paths that
you never thought you would.
But just go with the flow and,um, if you're following your
passion and it feels right inyour gut, then you're going in

(55:07):
the right direction and justkeep going, going in that
direction.
Listen to your gut and not yourhead.

Yeah, easier said than done, but yeah, it's great
advice.
So tell us a little bit aboutyou know where we can watch your
amazing adventures, and tell usa little bit about what we can
expect as well, when you knowwhat.

What's what what are your adventures about
and where are they?
Yeah, cool um.
So you can find my adventureson my youtube channel life with
gooch and um and also bereleasing some short form stuff
and some smaller bite-sizedpieces little side quests,
little side stories fromoverseas um.
On my instagram channel, whichis also at life with gooch and

(55:49):
um.
Oh, what can you expect?
I've got some really uniqueadventures coming up.
Um, you can expect some reallyraw, authentic adventures, um,
where I um, I experience a lotculturally.
I'm going to some like prettyremote places where, um, I'll be

(56:10):
learning a lot about differentcultures and I'm learning a lot
about myself.
And basically, on eachadventure it's, I guess you see,
a lot of a combination of bothlike physical, the physical
adventure, where I'm putting inplace like a lot of skills and I
have to overcome somethingphysically.
Um, but a lot of what happenson my adventures is mental and I
like to share that with theaudience as well.

(56:32):
So I'll be sharing my doubts orinsecurities and the things I'm
going through or the scenes I'mtrying to shoot.
I'll be sharing somebehind-the-scenes stuff as well
and, yeah, I just really wantthe audience to ride the journey
with me, be as open as I can,be as authentic as I can and,
yeah, and experience the lowestof lows and the highest of highs

(56:56):
, basically as I trek throughmountains and pack raft through
valleys and get myself into allsorts of weird and wonderful
situations.

Yeah, amazing.
Well, I'm definitely enjoyingwatching the journey unfold so
far.
There's um I think you've gotabout five or six adventures up
there already on on youtube andlots of other shorts as well and
it's um yeah, it's reallyinspiring.
So, yeah, just so inspired byyou and thank you for being so

(57:26):
vulnerable and authentic andsharing some of your story with
us.
And um, yeah, just jump on tolife at gooch.
It's g, double o, c, h, um anduh, yeah, look forward to
checking in in the future withyou, my friend.
Thank you so much thank youvery much.

This was amazing.
I really appreciate it and Iappreciate your time.

Yeah, I appreciate you too, mate.
Thank you, thanks for listeningtoday, and if this episode
helped or inspired you, justremember to share it to friends
or family who could also usesome inspiration.

(58:08):
Today, we are all about sharingthe love.

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Answering The Call To Adventure - with Adventure Film maker Alex 'Gooch' Ugarte

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Answering The Call To Adventure - with Adventure Film maker Alex 'Gooch' Ugarte