EP 25 - Membership Launch Giveaway

Tayson: So here's the big question, how do we live a life? Full of Adventures travel and memories on our terms without being millionaires without previous experience? And without unlimited amounts of time, that's the big question and this podcast will give you the answers. I'm your co-host Tayson Whittaker and I'm Dave Keim and you're listening to the live ultralight podcast powered by Outdoor Vitals. Hey, what's up? We'll be tribe. Welcome to the live ultralight podcast today. I have some super exciting news. We are releasing something totally new as well as doing a massive giveaway and this may become a big big pivotal day in outer vitals history yet to be determined but I'm definitely excited about it at that level. So what is it? That we're releasing well, I've got myself Dave and Brigham here to join me on the podcast. As we talk about the live Ultra Lite membership that we just took out of beta form today, and are now making available to you the General Public. What is this membership? And what are the benefits? Like, why would you want to be a member? What does it take to be a member? And then how can you get entered into this giveaway? So this giveaway is going to be a 1500 dollar package deal. Basically, you get everything that we have set up if you win this giveaway, and in order to win this giveaway, it is going to be for the members of this membership. And, and we'll kind of dive into some of that. But before you get kind of turned off on this, becoming a member is not what you would think it would mean. And it's we've done some stuff to really keep the focus on just surely benefiting you guys and you guys that are our biggest fallers. So if you're someone who has followed us for a while, has bought here from us. May plan on buying gear from us in the future. This membership is really a no-brainer. It's it's something that will just benefit you and for the rest of you, I think it's still something that's going to be crazy interesting to you. And provide a ton of value for you. So you may be asking why are we doing this? Why are we doing a membership? And the simple answer will get into a little bit more is you know, just helps us innovate faster and bring more product to you that and the exact way that you want. So to Dive Right In like what is this membership? What is like the mean? Potatoes of what is the live Ultra that membership and why you might want to become a customer? So, There's actually seven different pieces to this. So we'll go through these one by one. We'll kind of break them down and talk about why each one is important. So right off the top members are going to get 10% off year-round, site-wide on everything. So, no matter what it is that you want, or you want to get whether it's a 250 dollar sleeping bag, whatever you're going to get 10% off of that. I've already directed consumer prices, so you're gonna be saving overall, big big numbers there and you may be asking, okay, so what does that mean? If we're doing additional sales like let's say it's Christmas time Black Friday sale Something like that. You will you not that the 10% won't add on directly but you will get additional discounts on those times. So you're just counts will be bigger than anything else to the general public. So that's that's number one. That's the first thing you get with the membership is a year round discount to apply for anything. The next thing that you're going to get is free priority shipping on all orders. So the matter is what you want, you'll be able to get that in two to three days. It really kind of helps us One it'll kind of help you compete with Amazon keeps everything in one place for outdoor orders but really it's just a huge benefit to you so no matter whether this is Christmas time or some other time. You're going to get your stuff fast quickly efficiently and one of the things I'll touch on with Dave here is we also prioritize members orders to try to ship them out of the warehouse ahead of other things right? Dave? Yeah for sure. So there's actually on our shipping software, there's a little label. That will tell you if someone's a member or not. So when I do come in in the morning like those are the first things that get shipped out and sometimes it'll get shifted out. Day of an hour after you place it maybe even last of when you actually place the order. So that is one of the benefits of it. It's definitely not only free priority shipping, but I would say like, priority in our shipping system as well. You jumped to the first of the line when it comes to Yep. So that's benefit number two, number three, limited edition gear. So right now I know that we have three in there. We may have a few more but if you are a member, we are going to do some things to Only you can get kind of makes you an Insider in this, I guess. So one thing right now is we have our down jackets, we've got them in a green color and that green color is only available to members. Another thing is we've got some pyro putty. This one's gonna be available to members exclusively for a little while but it's a fire starter. It's a mosquito repellent, it's waterproof, it's New name, it this stuff, it has a handful of uses, it's a super, super cool product, but that is a limited edition members only product right now. Another one is our packable Drifter 16 liter backpack. This is like a two or three ounce little packable backpack. You can shove it in your pocket and then pop it out and you've got 16 liters of capacity to handle some water bottles jackets other gear on any Adventure. I know I like to leave a couple of these in different cars and whatnot so I just always have I don't know man, personal call it but Something. And I'll also stuff that sometimes inside of different backpacks. If I at times will need to carry. In fact, I use one on to Vietnam last. I believe. I would stuff like my books and headphones and stuff in that. And then I put my bigger backpack up in the carry-on section. So those are just a really cool product, but limited edition gear. We've got some right now, more will be developed over time and that'll keep expanding factoring. Now, you can also buy like the Sawtooth pants. The dragon wool on pre-order in the membership backend as well. That's that's kind of a good thing for the members. So that's number three. Number four, you're gonna get early access to sales and releases. So if we do a sell, we'll actually notice how you first. You get a couple days on the sell by yourself. This is going to help you. Make sure that you get stuff before things start stocking out. And so that's a big benefit and the other side of that is for instance, we just released Our new backpack design and it is available for pre-order only to members. So they get, they can pre-order those backpacks ahead of time at a discount. And, and so that's that's also another big benefit. Is that you get early access to sales and new products. You're gonna be the first ones to get it. You know, you may be getting your stuff before other people, or even aware of what it is. So that's number four, number five. Rebates on the best here, from other companies, I'm excited about this one. Bring them. I'll let you talk a little bit about this, but essentially we are vetting other people's gear and putting the stuff that we're not going to make or you know, when we don't make it currently but probably stuff. We're never gonna make and we're going to make that available to you a better price. So how are we doing that? What gear is it that we're putting on their Well, so, think about everything you need for a backpacking trip. We don't make every single one of those items. Just because that's just not within our capability or resources or time. So for example, when you go back backing So you do dehydrated meals. So you want to stove, we're going to sell, you know, items related to whether it's cooking or water, filtration things like that, you know, so we don't make those will probably never going to make a water filter or a, you know, a canister stove but we want people to you know, come to come to us for a lot of the majors the big gear items but also not have to go looking around for something and how we're doing it is really going to just be stuff that that we know is Good stuff that that's functional. That is made out of good quality, materials that most of it or a lot of it is stuff that we all regularly use. So, it'll be well. Very credible gear. Yeah, I don't know if there's yeah I mean that's the whole point is, is there's a big pain Point around. People getting started in backpacking and it's It's it's on top of like the gear it can be sometimes to learning side, but, but it all can sometimes feel overwhelming. And that's a big part of what we want to do. Here is make, we want to demystify things, so if you can come just to us and see, like, oh, this is, I don't know. It's the categorized filter, you know, and it's and it's Type of free strike food and it's and it's this stove. Okay. Like these guys have already vetted this product. And put it on their website. So that's that's like the benefit first benefit. But the second benefit of this is we, you know, we have to work within map pricing, which is minimum advertised price. So that means if we are say retailing, a katadyn filter, I can't sell it to you for, like, a below advertised price of what Canada tells us. What I can do though, is if you are a member, I can give you some store credit to spend in the future. And so what essentially this means is you're always going to get the best possible price on everything Plus on top of that, you're going to bank store credit to spend in the future. And we'll talk a little bit more about the store credit here because that does build on another feature here. But essentially, you're gonna get the best possible price of anywhere on the internet. If you are a member and you buy some of our food, I mean, our retail products, which again for a lot of people like let's say it's just Mountain houses or this other brand called Peak refuel that we're gonna start retailing which has some really premium backpacking food. You can always use more of that, right? And so if we can give you the best possible price on that, that means that you don't have to go shop around different stores. You have to go into stores, you can just order from us, get the best possible price and get credit back at free priority shipping. And so, it's just another benefit that we've been able to build into this. And that's really the whole point of membership is, we want to build in as many benefits as possible to you. And just just done a lot of what we've been working on this for almost 12 months. Now, putting so much of this together. And so that's one of the other benefits. Another benefit number six, I guess here is we are we, we are opening a closed or opening a closed. We have a closed Facebook group specifically for members, where the help direct line access to our staff where we'll do live Q&A videos where you can interact with us. Personally, we're gonna see behind the scenes pieces of gear and information. But really what I like to classify this is in the real benefit to you is. It's basically professional coaching. So if you are having issues with gear, if you're trying to get started and you're you can't decide between this and this you know you've got a lot jump on one of the live Q&A question and answer, you know sessions you can ask me directly Or other members of our team and we can just give you a straightforward answer. And so you get, professional level coaching from our staff for me as well as a place to interact in a very vetted moderated group. To talk about backpacking and see some of the behind-the-scenes stuff. So expert. Coaching number six, So this point you're probably saying, okay, you guys have been talking and trying to like talk about all the benefits that you get from being a member. But what is this going to cost me, right? Like, Membership. There's always cost, there's always, you know, these things and start adding up and I don't know, I don't, I don't have extra money right now or this out of the other, right? But that is actually the best part about this membership. It's really the reason that I did this membership because it is it is the best part and why it was able to get on board with that. And so what that what that looks like is you know if we were to package this all together and attach value to all this you know it may look like something that is a couple hundred dollars a year you know expert coaching for instance like to get on a phone call of near what not you know I've hired my services out to consult people for thousands of dollars a day but that's not obviously what you're going to be paying all that you have to do to become a member and get all of these benefits is load ten dollars worth of store credit into your account every month. So you sign up for the membership and it's gonna Auto load ten dollars worth of store credit into your account every month. So, yes, the membership cost ten dollars, but at the same time, that that charges were applying a credit into your account to spend in the future. And yes, that credit does stack on top of the discounts and see, not only get the discounts, but you're kind of building the savings account for gear over time and that's my favorite benefit. Favorite feature of this membership, is the fact that it literally costs you. Nothing. You get free shipping, you get 10% off, you get limited edition gear, you get Early Access, you get direct access to me and professional coaching, you get the best possible price. I mean, that one alone, as we build out the retail side of things, getting the best possible price with rebates back on other products, and other gear, and food and supplements, hopefully, in the future. And so, on so forth. I mean that's worth saving alone and you get all of it without costing you a dollar. It's just literally transferring money into store credit every month of just 10 dollars which will easily. I promise you, he's able to spend that year whether it is just on food or whether it is you know you need a new sleeping bag or you need this new backpack, we're releasing whatever it is. That's that's just building up in your account like a savings account. So that is the membership and that's why I'm super stoked about it is we were able to offer you all these things and essentially we we don't be asking like what do you guys get like why did you build all of this and and, you know, give this because it doesn't help our profit margins, it doesn't help anything. We have to, we're giving you these different things for literally no additional just like banked Revenue. It's just simply store credit. And so to answer that in a nutshell, what this allows us to do is it allows us to predict slightly more stable income and what that allows us to do is innovate faster release more products to you, it allows us to avoid venture capital and retailers, which allow us to again, focus on you the customer and designing the best possible products for you. We're going to get feedback through that closed, Facebook group in a faster method. And, and by being a part of the group, you're going to kind of Be raising your hand and saying, hey we're like we're like The Devout followers of you guys and so you're input will matter more. So if we're gonna survey we're asked questions about future products to design, we're going to be utilizing you. So really the whole reason we're doing this is just to help innovate faster and avoid anything that might take the focus Off Of You the customers. And that is worth it does. That's worth it does to give you 10% off year round, it's worth it to us, to to, you know, prioritize your shipments and shipment priority. Get that feedback into stabilize that a little bit. So that's the membership. So what did I not cover guys? As far as going over that or what other questions? You think people might have about the liberal trillet membership. I mean maybe just with the ten dollars like a good example is say you put your ten dollars in every month. Tell Christmas time then at Christmas time or at the end of the year December say you have 120 dollars to put towards some some new gear or something like that. It's literally like Free, it doesn't cost anything to do this. And one of the benefits that I was thinking of was the Early Access to sales, especially around Christmas time when potentially, we have limited supply of inventory. There's days that we might run a sale. And by the end of the day, everything's gone like that particular item or a new launch or something like that might be sold out. So there's a possibility that you could be an early sale, you know, participant and then my time at even hits the general public. There's Very handful of actual stock. So for me like looking at the inventory side of it, I feel like that's a really big benefit. Is that early? Pre-sale type of benefit. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you see that firsthand even more than me, you know? If we stock out of something you're gonna be notified, pretty quickly. By our customers were, you know, it's not Available. You never realized like how much you sell for me personally how much you sell of something and tell it's gone and it's like everybody wants it, you know, it's okay. Just just an example of something that I think from maybe the back end of it. Looking at this is is very, you know. Intriguing. Yeah, it's kind of like a side benefit that maybe isn't even ranked as you know, the top reasons to do it. But it's it's an additional benefit that they'll be able to build into this at the beginning of this. I Was remembering. I mentioned that there's a big giveaway. It's your probably also wondering what is the giveaway and how do I enter to this giveaway? So the giveaway is going to be almost one of everything. So you're gonna get like a jacket pair of pants pair of shorts. Dragon will hoodie. You know, the whole Dragon will set up gonna get a sleeping bag. I believe it's a summit, sleeping bag a path. Tent. I mean, basically everything that we offer, you're going to get and that equates to a 15. I think it's over 1500 dollars. Worth of gear that you can be entered into give to this giveaway for, and there's two ways to enter or to increase your odds. so in order to enter into this giveaway, all you have to do is join this, you know, store credit membership before the end of August, as long as you've signed up for the membership. Before the end of August, you will be entered into when 1500 dollars worth of gear. The next part of this is If you spend additional money in the month of August and you are a memory stuff to be a member. But if you spend, let's say you buy a sleeping bag for 250 dollars, our Summit zero or something like that. For every 10 dollars that you spend, you get an additional entry. So let's say you sign up to a member and you buy that 250 dollar sleeping bag, I mean, she'll get 25 entries plus your membership entry. So you have 26 entries to win that 1500 dollars. So the more money you spend whether it's picking up a shirt hat, Tenacious Tape, you know, pillow, I guess would be more like it. Anything like that is going to benefit you in the giveaway and give you more entries to win 1500 dollars for the gear. You might be saying, well, what if I buy a sleeping bag or a tent or something? And then I win the giveaway, then what? Well we'll just refund. You will straight up refund you for anything that you bought in the month of August if you end up winning the giveaway so that you can you can either do that or we can give you two if you prefer to have two of something but So there's no reason not to to spend because if you win will just credit you back. So that's how you would enter into this giveaway. So every ten dollars you spend, you get an entry and to qualify and give you all. So one entry is just sign up for the membership. And again, the membership is simply ten dollars that ten dollars will go instantly into store credit into your new outdoor gear savings account. But we're super stoked about this. We're really the first people have ever done this in particularly the outdoor space. You know, there's some companies out there like REI has kind of their dividend program, but it's a totally different program and we feel like we've built a lot a lot more value into this particular program. And you know, it's got so much in the works. Like I say, I promise you, you're always going to be able to utilize that credit on something, whether it's something that we're making, we're developing, we're releasing. Whether it be something that we're adding from retailers, and you just securing the best. Poll price. So yeah, I'm just super stoked about it. So any other thoughts are or comments on the membership? I mean, maybe a little bit more in-depth of what some of those other outside companies, like what those products are going to be. And I'll bring them briefly spoke about what we're thinking of like, what, like some pots and Pans. So we're actively trying, we're actively, I guess we're securing right now and that process of bringing on titanium pots, spoons. Alcohol, stoves, Water filters gravity water filter systems. Pump water filter systems. also, like Canister style stoves is another one that we've looked at. We're going to have two options maybe more in the future of different food. That's a big one because that's always something that you can utilize and spend on. I'd like to look a little bit more heavily into supplement. So something I use you know is like different Trail packs or different things of when you're out on the trail and you need a boost you need. Feen, you know, nitric oxide something to help you. Maybe it's altitude stuff, you know, like the little nuun tablets. So we'll look at some of those types of things in the future. Those are, I mean, those are all things that are kind of more in the worksheet now but you know, long term we would open this up to more and more. But again it's kind of stuff that maybe we're not doing, maybe it's trekking poles, maybe it's Boots. Maybe it's I don't know Garmin watches because I'm looking at Brigham's there, you know? Like it could be really anything and it could be something that that our members could tell us. But it would, but the the caveat, the always the caveat here is that it's something that we personally use. And we personally approve of we won't put anything on our store that we don't think. Should belong there and then we personally wouldn't give to our best friend or spouse or you know partner because we've we've tested it, we've used it. We know it works. Yeah, I think. I think the way that we're going to work, executing this membership concept is Very beneficial. All the way around for us. And for, for the, for the members, the customers because Let's say, somebody listening is they're already an avid Backpacker. Well You know, it gives them a way to have a discount and have kind of Insider knowledge on on New Gear people. An avid Backpacker is wearing things out, right? So, They probably are tell. Okay, wait, I gotta stop right there. Wearing things out. What happened to your pretty dang new water filter just the other day. Oh that was pretty bad. Well, I just it's middle of summer, water's pretty critical, but No, I a planned water source. Ended up being really nice and clear, but it also ended up being surrounded by cows and cow manure. And I did have to, I didn't have a choice, but to filter the water right there, but it was, it was disgusting. I so I filtered my fold up all my water bottles and containers and One bout a mile or two down, the trail set up my camp and made my heated up, my meal was just a mountain house and when I opened the mountain house, like a big poof of what smelled like cow manure, came out and I had boiled the water too, so it's filtered water out of a cat eye for which, which I love that filter. It's totally proven and then I boiled it. And then it sat in my meal for 10 minutes and it still smelled like cow poop? Well, the whole meal, tasted Like what? I now know. Cow poop taste like Because that's what it was. It was beef stroganoff flavored with cow poop. but like so then I'm like all worried some smell like I smell my pot and my filter and the filter just stunk like It was just disgusting. So yeah, that piece of gear was worn out. I I thought he could resurrect it but he just tossed it straight, it's done. That's it. Just it made me gag smell it. Like after eating the the food and then just smelling all my water bottles and It's stunk, anyway, we digress a little bit but back to, you know, somebody interested in backpacking or Avid already a current Backpacker, as, as you anticipate gear, kind of wearing out or needing to replace a piece of gear. If you're a member, you're basically already setting money aside for that, on top of getting your discount and then it allows somebody to kind of keep an ear to the ground with For example, our new backpack or other gear that's coming up and it just so happens to be that item that you plan on replacing say in six months or nine months. That's a, that's a huge benefit and then two if anybody's listening that's interested in backpacking or getting started with backpacking. It can be a daunting thing. It can be a little bit intimidating and In the ultralight World, we're all about simplifying and kind of just making things simpler. And when things are simple, they're more approachable. And the nice thing about the membership, is it? It simplifies things and like with the the retail gear that we're going to be doing, I feel like it really does that because it makes for the most part of One Stop Shop where If somebody is a member there, getting a lot of the interactions through the face group Facebook group, whether it's, you know, coaching or advice or mentorship and then they're getting inside or knowledge on upcoming products. They're setting site money for these purchases that they meet may need to make. But then when they say they get here meeting like they get to our website or whatever, whatever the however they land there. they're able to outfit themselves without a lot of thought because they're a member it really simplifies the process kind of the way that I think of it is just Takes it. It's like kind of living the I guess like the Ultra Lite mentality just by going to one place that you're not going to be You know, if you're buying a even a spoon, or maybe a light in the future or food, it's all stuff. That's proven invaded by us. So really simplifies the process. Yeah. And, and, you know, to add there to like, there's times, we're gonna have multiple options. There's gonna be times when, you know, we may have mountain house but we may have a more premium meal, you know, and see kind of might have two options there. Like, oh, I found houses don't sit well with me, let's try this other one or, for instance, you know, like, when it comes to like the titanium writer that we're trying to get, you know, we're trying to get provider that we feel like is super fair price. Like we're not trying to go premium but when it comes to say water, filters the beef free, if it's just the one that we're trying to get on there is it's a little bit more expensive, but we feel it's well worth it after using mini filter's over the years and that's something. So, like, we're never gonna put something on there. That's just expensive to be expensive. We're definitely, you know, keeping all things in consideration when it comes to our members, our customers, what's important to you guys. And, you know, that's just another benefit. It's not just like this is the best possible gear. It's also like, you know, considering all factors this is our choice. And so that's another benefit. And it makes it easy for for you to sometimes make decisions and make less decisions and which is always nice to have to do. So. Yeah. I feel like it's nice. We're just like building a community. Almost for me. Working customer service in the past. Few people that would reach out and, you know, I feel like I knew them from just answering questions and then telling me about their trip, I'm telling them about, you know, someone that I might have been and getting crypto reports and things like that. So, hopefully that is awesome. One of these benefits is, you know, with the Facebook group is you're building a sense of community and there's some people that probably I could reach out to and go on a backpacking trip with them if I was in their neck of the woods and, you know, vice versa. If they ever came here, gladly take them on a trip. You know, you're teasing. Another thing was talked about the membership. Yeah, I mean, But that's kind of how I look at it, too. On the you know the customer relations side of it. It is nice to maybe put a name to a face on the on the Facebook, you know, sign of it or a Q&A or something like that. So, Yeah. definitely that sense of community that we hope to develop, you know, maybe someday that came to even develop into group, Gatherings, group trips, meetups meetups things like that, but Two other things that popping my mind is sort of talking about these is, you know what if what if someone's like? Well, what if You know, I don't know. Say they're in college and they're like, I just can't afford this or something like that, I don't know. So what happens if I cancel, if you cancel, you get to retain all of your store credit, we don't like wash away your store credit. It's yours, it's yours forever. And so it's really I guess no downside as far as like there's no contracts. There's no terms conditions rules that apply, you know, this is, you know, we're trying to benefit you or not trying to to hold you to something here. Another thing I just wanted to kind of note on is That, you know, obviously we're growing company. We're trying to continually produce the best possible gear, but one thing about joining this membership is you really voting with, you know, With your dollars. What you want in the future, meaning, you know do you want more direct to Consumer companies to develop your products or do you want retail system companies to develop your products? Do you want, you know, corporations to be running things and making decisions? Or do you want like a family-owned business to run and do things? And so the membership really is kind of like you voting for the future that you want to see in the outdoors, you want to see companies has active give back programs or do you, do you not as something that's important? You know and it's all always you know, look at things as like as if you're voting with your dollars because that's exactly what you're doing and and hopefully you know we've we've earned your trust and we've earned your I don't know your your Favor in the sense. And and, you know, you join us in this membership because I think that the benefits are going to be great. So Let's go ahead and wrap this up, but just to kind of recap really quick. You know, here, again our what you get by joining the membership, you're gonna get a 10% off year round. Plus, you know, additional sale discounts. You can get free priority, shipping, plus priority ship. If you jump the line, when it comes to shipping. And I would say to that, like part of shipping alone is worth ten dollars. Yeah, you know what I mean? That's what we charge per shipment. Yeah. So you're getting your my back right there. Right. Right. Limited edition gear. So there's going to be specific gear. That only you have access to different colorways, things like that, early access to sales, and releases such as the, the new Shadow light, backpack that you can now pre-order inside the membership, you get rebates on the best gear, the vetted gear from us, so you're gonna be able to get the best possible pricing for that gear. You're going to get limited, you're going to get closed Facebook group access, I'm gonna be able to get professional coaching and and have a place to interact there. You're going to have the ability to also give us feedback and help us design the products that you want in the future. And then last Costume anything it's just simply loading store credit into your account every month. So that's the membership in a nutshell. If you have any interest in this, I highly highly recommend you join it right away so you can be entered into that giveaway. Again, that's 1500 dollars worth of gear. That we're gonna ship to some happy customer somewhere, some happy member somewhere that's gonna get 1500 dollars worth of gear. We'll work with you if you want different gear, I mean, heck, we could, we could change and manipulate it because if you're a member, you may be already ordered stuff from us and so we can definitely work around those

things. But remember, you have to be a member. You have to sign up in the month of August or have already been a member previously. Like, if you're a part of the membership, when it was in beta format, you'll obviously be opted into this giveaway immediately. And then for every 10 dollars you spend, after you remember, you will gain access additional entries. You could. If you if you spend it before, you join the membership in the, you know, you spend some on August 1st and join the membership August. 4th, we'll still count that towards the Gateway. As long as you're a member by the end of the month and every ten dollars additional, you spend you'll be entered into win 1500 dollars worth of gear and you'll be something the first people to get it right. I mean we're talking about Kickstarter stuff that's not released talking about backpacks that are released. You're gonna get stuff earlier. We may even Be able to send you a backpack off of a sample, backpack, liquor, salesman sample models. And hanging on how stocks Situation's are, but you're gonna win some really, really killer stuff by signing up for the membership this month rather than next month or rather than Christmas time. When you're like, oh, I want to save 10%, let me sign up for that membership, right? Now, you, you may as well sign up now, so you can enter that giveaway and start building up a little bit of credit for Christmas. Let's say so anyways, that is the membership in a nutshell. Thanks for tuning in. We're super excited about this. This is really going to drive, outer vitals to the next level. It's going to allow us to hopefully maybe get faster at turning out more products. It's going to allow us to do a lot of really good things that will all benefit you. So we appreciate your support here and you tuning in. So make sure you're subscribed to the podcast. Make sure you give us a review. We're really appreciative of those that you share this with friends and remember, go sign up for the podcast during the month of August. If you like to help us spread the word about the live Ultra Lite lifestyle, please give us a five star review and tell your friends to subscribe where available on Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, and have you made you listening app as well as little Ultra light.com. So, thanks for listening. So here's the big question,

Tayson: how do we live a life? Full of Adventures travel and memories on our terms without being millionaires without previous experience? And without unlimited amounts of time, that's the big question and this podcast will give you the answers. I'm your co-host Tayson Whittaker and

Brigham: I'm Dave Keim and you're listening to the live ultralight podcast powered by Outdoor Vitals.

Tayson: Hey, what's up? We'll be

Tayson: tribe. Welcome to the live ultralight podcast today. I have some super exciting news. We are releasing something totally new as well as doing a massive giveaway and this may become a big big pivotal day in outer vitals history yet to be determined but I'm definitely excited about it at that level. So what is it? That we're releasing well, I've got myself Dave and Brigham here to join me on the podcast. As we talk about the live Ultra Lite membership that we just took out of beta form today, and are now making available to you the General Public. What is this membership? And what are the benefits? Like, why would you want to be a member? What does it take to be a member? And then how can you get entered into this giveaway? So this giveaway is going to be a 1500 dollar package deal. Basically, you get everything that we have set up if you win this giveaway, and in order to win this giveaway, it is going to be for the members of this membership. And, and we'll kind of dive into some of that. But before you get kind of turned off on this, becoming a member is not what you would think it would mean. And it's we've done some stuff to really keep the focus on just surely benefiting you guys and you guys that are our biggest fallers. So if you're someone who has followed us for a while, has bought here from us. May plan on buying gear from us in the future. This membership is really a no-brainer. It's it's something that will just benefit you and for the rest of you, I think it's still something that's going to be crazy interesting to you. And provide a ton of value for you. So you may be asking why are we doing this? Why are we doing a membership? And the simple answer will get into a little bit more is you know, just helps us innovate faster and bring more product to you that and the exact way that you want. So to Dive Right In like what is this membership? What is like the mean? Potatoes of what is the live Ultra that membership and why you might want to become a customer? So, There's actually seven different pieces to this. So we'll go through these one by one. We'll kind of break them down and talk about why each one is important. So right off the top members are going to get 10% off year-round, site-wide on everything. So, no matter what it is that you want, or you want to get whether it's a 250 dollar sleeping bag, whatever you're going to get 10% off of that. I've already directed consumer prices, so you're gonna be saving overall, big big numbers there and you may be asking, okay, so what does that mean? If we're doing additional sales like let's say it's Christmas time Black Friday sale Something like that. You will you not that the 10% won't add on directly but you will get additional discounts on those times. So you're just counts will be bigger than anything else to the general public. So that's that's number one. That's the first thing you get with the membership is a year round discount to apply for anything. The next thing that you're going to get is free priority shipping on all orders. So the matter is what you want, you'll be able to get that in two to three days. It really kind of helps us One it'll kind of help you compete with Amazon keeps everything in one place for outdoor orders but really it's just a huge benefit to you so no matter whether this is Christmas time or some other time. You're going to get your stuff fast quickly efficiently and one of the things I'll touch on with Dave here is we also prioritize members orders to try to ship them out of the warehouse ahead of other things right? Dave?

Brigham: Yeah for sure. So there's actually on our shipping software, there's a little label. That will tell you if someone's a member or not. So when I do come in in the morning like those are the first things that get shipped out and sometimes it'll get shifted out. Day of an hour after you place it maybe even last of when you actually place the order. So that is one of the benefits of it. It's definitely not only free priority shipping, but I would say like, priority in our shipping system as well.

Dave: You jumped to the first of the line when it comes to Yep. So that's benefit number two, number three, limited edition gear. So right now I know that we have three in there. We may have a few more but if you are a member, we are going to do some things to Only you can get kind of makes you an Insider in this, I guess. So one thing right now is we have our down jackets, we've got them in a green color and that green color is only available to members. Another thing is we've got some pyro putty. This one's gonna be available to members exclusively for a little while but it's a fire starter. It's a mosquito repellent, it's waterproof, it's New name, it this stuff, it has a handful of uses, it's a super, super cool product, but that is a limited edition members only product right now. Another one is our packable Drifter 16 liter backpack. This is like a two or three ounce little packable backpack. You can shove it in your pocket and then pop it out and you've got 16 liters of capacity to handle some water bottles jackets other gear on any Adventure. I know I like to leave a couple of these in different cars and whatnot so I just always have I don't know man, personal call it but Something. And I'll also stuff that sometimes inside of different backpacks. If I at times will need to carry. In fact, I use one on to Vietnam last. I believe. I would stuff like my books and headphones and stuff in that. And then I put my bigger backpack up in the carry-on section. So those are just a really cool product, but limited edition gear. We've got some right now, more will be developed over time and that'll keep expanding factoring. Now, you can also buy like the Sawtooth pants. The dragon wool on pre-order in the membership backend as well. That's that's kind of a good thing for the members. So that's number three. Number four, you're gonna get early access to sales and releases. So if we do a sell, we'll actually notice how you first. You get a couple days on the sell by yourself. This is going to help you. Make sure that you get stuff before things start stocking out. And so that's a big benefit and the other side of that is for instance, we just released Our new backpack design and it is available for pre-order only to members. So they get, they can pre-order those backpacks ahead of time at a discount. And, and so that's that's also another big benefit. Is that you get early access to sales and new products. You're gonna be the first ones to get it. You know, you may be getting your stuff before other people, or even aware of what it is. So that's number four, number five. Rebates on the best here, from other companies, I'm excited about this one. Bring them. I'll let you talk a little bit about this, but essentially we are vetting other people's gear and putting the stuff that we're not going to make or you know, when we don't make it currently but probably stuff. We're never gonna make and we're going to make that available to you a better price. So how are we doing that? What gear is it that we're putting on their

Tayson: Well, so, think about everything you need for a backpacking trip. We don't make every single one of those items. Just because that's just not within our capability or resources or time. So for example, when you go back backing So you do dehydrated meals. So you want to stove, we're going to sell, you know, items related to whether it's cooking or water, filtration things like that, you know, so we don't make those will probably never going to make a water filter or a, you know, a canister stove but we want people to you know, come to come to us for a lot of the majors the big gear items but also not have to go looking around for something and how we're doing it is really going to just be stuff that that we know is Good stuff that that's functional. That is made out of good quality, materials that most of it or a lot of it is stuff that we all regularly use. So, it'll be well. Very credible gear. Yeah, I don't know if there's

Dave: yeah I mean that's the whole point is, is there's a big pain Point around. People getting started in backpacking and it's It's it's on top of like the gear it can be sometimes to learning side, but, but it all can sometimes feel overwhelming. And that's a big part of what we want to do. Here is make, we want to demystify things, so if you can come just to us and see, like, oh, this is, I don't know. It's the categorized filter, you know, and it's and it's Type of free strike food and it's and it's this stove. Okay. Like these guys have already vetted this product. And put it on their website. So that's that's like the benefit first benefit. But the second benefit of this is we, you know, we have to work within map pricing, which is minimum advertised price. So that means if we are say retailing, a katadyn filter, I can't sell it to you for, like, a below advertised price of what Canada tells us. What I can do though, is if you are a member, I can give you some store credit to spend in the future. And so what essentially this means is you're always going to get the best possible price on everything Plus on top of that, you're going to bank store credit to spend in the future. And we'll talk a little bit more about the store credit here because that does build on another feature here. But essentially, you're gonna get the best possible price of anywhere on the internet. If you are a member and you buy some of our food, I mean, our retail products, which again for a lot of people like let's say it's just Mountain houses or this other brand called Peak refuel that we're gonna start retailing which has some really premium backpacking food. You can always use more of that, right? And so if we can give you the best possible price on that, that means that you don't have to go shop around different stores. You have to go into stores, you can just order from us, get the best possible price and get credit back at free priority shipping. And so, it's just another benefit that we've been able to build into this. And that's really the whole point of membership is, we want to build in as many benefits as possible to you. And just just done a lot of what we've been working on this for almost 12 months. Now, putting so much of this together. And so that's one of the other benefits. Another benefit number six, I guess here is we are we, we are opening a closed or opening a closed. We have a closed Facebook group specifically for members, where the help direct line access to our staff where we'll do live Q&A videos where you can interact with us. Personally, we're gonna see behind the scenes pieces of gear and information. But really what I like to classify this is in the real benefit to you is. It's basically professional coaching. So if you are having issues with gear, if you're trying to get started and you're you can't decide between this and this you know you've got a lot jump on one of the live Q&A question and answer, you know sessions you can ask me directly Or other members of our team and we can just give you a straightforward answer. And so you get, professional level coaching from our staff for me as well as a place to interact in a very vetted moderated group. To talk about backpacking and see some of the behind-the-scenes stuff. So expert. Coaching number six, So this point you're probably saying, okay, you guys have been talking and trying to like talk about all the benefits that you get from being a member. But what is this going to cost me, right? Like, Membership. There's always cost, there's always, you know, these things and start adding up and I don't know, I don't, I don't have extra money right now or this out of the other, right? But that is actually the best part about this membership. It's really the reason that I did this membership because it is it is the best part and why it was able to get on board with that. And so what that what that looks like is you know if we were to package this all together and attach value to all this you know it may look like something that is a couple hundred dollars a year you know expert coaching for instance like to get on a phone call of near what not you know I've hired my services out to consult people for thousands of dollars a day but that's not obviously what you're going to be paying all that you have to do to become a member and get all of these benefits is load ten dollars worth of store credit into your account every month. So you sign up for the membership and it's gonna Auto load ten dollars worth of store credit into your account every month. So, yes, the membership cost ten dollars, but at the same time, that that charges were applying a credit into your account to spend in the future. And yes, that credit does stack on top of the discounts and see, not only get the discounts, but you're kind of building the savings account for gear over time and that's my favorite benefit. Favorite feature of this membership, is the fact that it literally costs you. Nothing. You get free shipping, you get 10% off, you get limited edition gear, you get Early Access, you get direct access to me and professional coaching, you get the best possible price. I mean, that one alone, as we build out the retail side of things, getting the best possible price with rebates back on other products, and other gear, and food and supplements, hopefully, in the future. And so, on so forth. I mean that's worth saving alone and you get all of it without costing you a dollar. It's just literally transferring money into store credit every month of just 10 dollars which will easily. I promise you, he's able to spend that year whether it is just on food or whether it is you know you need a new sleeping bag or you need this new backpack, we're releasing whatever it is. That's that's just building up in your account like a savings account. So that is the membership and that's why I'm super stoked about it is we were able to offer you all these things and essentially we we don't be asking like what do you guys get like why did you build all of this and and, you know, give this because it doesn't help our profit margins, it doesn't help anything. We have to, we're giving you these different things for literally no additional just like banked Revenue. It's just simply store credit. And so to answer that in a nutshell, what this allows us to do is it allows us to predict slightly more stable income and what that allows us to do is innovate faster release more products to you, it allows us to avoid venture capital and retailers, which allow us to again, focus on you the customer and designing the best possible products for you. We're going to get feedback through that closed, Facebook group in a faster method. And, and by being a part of the group, you're going to kind of Be raising your hand and saying, hey we're like we're like The Devout followers of you guys and so you're input will matter more. So if we're gonna survey we're asked questions about future products to design, we're going to be utilizing you. So really the whole reason we're doing this is just to help innovate faster and avoid anything that might take the focus Off Of You the customers. And that is worth it does. That's worth it does to give you 10% off year round, it's worth it to us, to to, you know, prioritize your shipments and shipment priority. Get that feedback into stabilize that a little bit. So that's the membership. So what did I not cover guys? As far as going over that or what other questions? You think people might have about the liberal trillet membership.

Brigham: I mean maybe just with the ten dollars like a good example is say you put your ten dollars in every month. Tell Christmas time then at Christmas time or at the end of the year December say you have 120 dollars to put towards some some new gear or something like that. It's literally like Free, it doesn't cost anything to do this. And one of the benefits that I was thinking of was the Early Access to sales, especially around Christmas time when potentially, we have limited supply of inventory. There's days that we might run a sale. And by the end of the day, everything's gone like that particular item or a new launch or something like that might be sold out. So there's a possibility that you could be an early sale, you know, participant and then my time at even hits the general public. There's Very handful of actual stock. So for me like looking at the inventory side of it, I feel like that's a really big benefit. Is that early? Pre-sale type of benefit.

Dave: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you see that firsthand even more than me, you know? If we stock out of something you're gonna be notified, pretty quickly. By our customers were, you know, it's not Available.

Brigham: You never realized like how much you sell for me personally how much you sell of something and tell it's gone and it's like everybody wants it, you know, it's okay. Just just an example of something that I think from maybe the back end of it. Looking at this is is very, you know. Intriguing.

Dave: Yeah, it's kind of like a side benefit that maybe isn't even ranked as you know, the top reasons to do it. But it's it's an additional benefit that they'll be able to build into this at the beginning of this. I Was remembering. I mentioned that there's a big giveaway. It's your probably also wondering what is the giveaway and how do I enter to this giveaway? So the giveaway is going to be almost one of everything. So you're gonna get like a jacket pair of pants pair of shorts. Dragon will hoodie. You know, the whole Dragon will set up gonna get a sleeping bag. I believe it's a summit, sleeping bag a path. Tent. I mean, basically everything that we offer, you're going to get and that equates to a 15. I think it's over 1500 dollars. Worth of gear that you can be entered into give to this giveaway for, and there's two ways to enter or to increase your odds. so in order to enter into this giveaway, all you have to do is join this, you know, store credit membership before the end of August, as long as you've signed up for the membership. Before the end of August, you will be entered into when 1500 dollars worth of gear. The next part of this is If you spend additional money in the month of August and you are a memory stuff to be a member. But if you spend, let's say you buy a sleeping bag for 250 dollars, our Summit zero or something like that. For every 10 dollars that you spend, you get an additional entry. So let's say you sign up to a member and you buy that 250 dollar sleeping bag, I mean, she'll get 25 entries plus your membership entry. So you have 26 entries to win that 1500 dollars. So the more money you spend whether it's picking up a shirt hat, Tenacious Tape, you know, pillow, I guess would be more like it. Anything like that is going to benefit you in the giveaway and give you more entries to win 1500 dollars for the gear. You might be saying, well, what if I buy a sleeping bag or a tent or something? And then I win the giveaway, then what? Well we'll just refund. You will straight up refund you for anything that you bought in the month of August if you end up winning the giveaway so that you can you can either do that or we can give you two if you prefer to have two of something but So there's no reason not to to spend because if you win will just credit you back. So that's how you would enter into this giveaway. So every ten dollars you spend, you get an entry and to qualify and give you all. So one entry is just sign up for the membership. And again, the membership is simply ten dollars that ten dollars will go instantly into store credit into your new outdoor gear savings account. But we're super stoked about this. We're really the first people have ever done this in particularly the outdoor space. You know, there's some companies out there like REI has kind of their dividend program, but it's a totally different program and we feel like we've built a lot a lot more value into this particular program. And you know, it's got so much in the works. Like I say, I promise you, you're always going to be able to utilize that credit on something, whether it's something that we're making, we're developing, we're releasing. Whether it be something that we're adding from retailers, and you just securing the best. Poll price. So yeah, I'm just super stoked about it. So any other thoughts are or comments on the membership?

Brigham: I mean, maybe a little bit more in-depth of what some of those other outside companies, like what those products are going to be. And I'll bring them briefly spoke about what we're thinking of like, what, like some pots and Pans.

Dave: So we're actively trying, we're actively, I guess we're securing right now and that process of bringing on titanium pots, spoons. Alcohol, stoves, Water filters gravity water filter systems. Pump water filter systems. also, like Canister style stoves is another one that we've looked at. We're going to have two options maybe more in the future of different food. That's a big one because that's always something that you can utilize and spend on. I'd like to look a little bit more heavily into supplement. So something I use you know is like different Trail packs or different things of when you're out on the trail and you need a boost you need. Feen, you know, nitric oxide something to help you. Maybe it's altitude stuff, you know, like the little nuun tablets. So we'll look at some of those types of things in the future. Those are, I mean, those are all things that are kind of more in the worksheet now but you know, long term we would open this up to more and more. But again it's kind of stuff that maybe we're not doing, maybe it's trekking poles, maybe it's Boots. Maybe it's I don't know Garmin watches because I'm looking at Brigham's there, you know? Like it could be really anything and it could be something that that our members could tell us. But it would, but the the caveat, the always the caveat here is that it's something that we personally use. And we personally approve of we won't put anything on our store that we don't think. Should belong there and then we personally wouldn't give to our best friend or spouse or you know partner because we've we've tested it, we've used it. We know it works.

Tayson: Yeah, I think. I think the way that we're going to work, executing this membership concept is Very beneficial. All the way around for us. And for, for the, for the members, the customers because Let's say, somebody listening is they're already an avid Backpacker. Well You know, it gives them a way to have a discount and have kind of Insider knowledge on on New Gear people. An avid Backpacker is wearing things out, right? So, They probably are tell. Okay, wait,

Dave: I gotta stop right there. Wearing things out. What happened to your pretty dang new water filter just the other day.

Tayson: Oh that was pretty bad. Well, I just it's middle of summer, water's pretty critical, but No, I a planned water source. Ended up being really nice and clear, but it also ended up being surrounded by cows and cow manure. And I did have to, I didn't have a choice, but to filter the water right there, but it was, it was disgusting. I so I filtered my fold up all my water bottles and containers and One bout a mile or two down, the trail set up my camp and made my heated up, my meal was just a mountain house and when I opened the mountain house, like a big poof of what smelled like cow manure, came out and I had boiled the water too, so it's filtered water out of a cat eye for which, which I love that filter. It's totally proven and then I boiled it. And then it sat in my meal for 10 minutes and it still smelled like cow poop? Well, the whole meal, tasted Like what? I now know. Cow poop taste like Because that's what it was. It was beef stroganoff flavored with cow poop. but like so then I'm like all worried some smell like I smell my pot and my filter and the filter just stunk like It was just disgusting. So yeah, that piece of gear was worn out. I I thought he could

Dave: resurrect it but he just tossed it straight, it's done.

Tayson: That's it. Just it made me gag smell it. Like after eating the the food and then just smelling all my water bottles and It's stunk, anyway, we digress a little bit but back to, you know, somebody interested in backpacking or Avid already a current Backpacker, as, as you anticipate gear, kind of wearing out or needing to replace a piece of gear. If you're a member, you're basically already setting money aside for that, on top of getting your discount and then it allows somebody to kind of keep an ear to the ground with For example, our new backpack or other gear that's coming up and it just so happens to be that item that you plan on replacing say in six months or nine months. That's a, that's a huge benefit and then two if anybody's listening that's interested in backpacking or getting started with backpacking. It can be a daunting thing. It can be a little bit intimidating and In the ultralight World, we're all about simplifying and kind of just making things simpler. And when things are simple, they're more approachable. And the nice thing about the membership, is it? It simplifies things and like with the the retail gear that we're going to be doing, I feel like it really does that because it makes for the most part of One Stop Shop where If somebody is a member there, getting a lot of the interactions through the face group Facebook group, whether it's, you know, coaching or advice or mentorship and then they're getting inside or knowledge on upcoming products. They're setting site money for these purchases that they meet may need to make. But then when they say they get here meeting like they get to our website or whatever, whatever the however they land there. they're able to outfit themselves without a lot of thought because they're a member it really simplifies the process kind of the way that I think of it is just Takes it. It's like kind of living the I guess like the Ultra Lite mentality just by going to one place that you're not going to be You know, if you're buying a even a spoon, or maybe a light in the future or food, it's all stuff. That's proven invaded by us. So really simplifies the process.

Dave: Yeah. And, and, you know, to add there to like, there's times, we're gonna have multiple options. There's gonna be times when, you know, we may have mountain house but we may have a more premium meal, you know, and see kind of might have two options there. Like, oh, I found houses don't sit well with me, let's try this other one or, for instance, you know, like, when it comes to like the titanium writer that we're trying to get, you know, we're trying to get provider that we feel like is super fair price. Like we're not trying to go premium but when it comes to say water, filters the beef free, if it's just the one that we're trying to get on there is it's a little bit more expensive, but we feel it's well worth it after using mini filter's over the years and that's something. So, like, we're never gonna put something on there. That's just expensive to be expensive. We're definitely, you know, keeping all things in consideration when it comes to our members, our customers, what's important to you guys. And, you know, that's just another benefit. It's not just like this is the best possible gear. It's also like, you know, considering all factors this is our choice. And so that's another benefit. And it makes it easy for for you to sometimes make decisions and make less decisions and which is always nice to have to do. So.

Brigham: Yeah. I feel like it's nice. We're just like building a community. Almost for me. Working customer service in the past. Few people that would reach out and, you know, I feel like I knew them from just answering questions and then telling me about their trip, I'm telling them about, you know, someone that I might have been and getting crypto reports and things like that. So, hopefully that is awesome. One of these benefits is, you know, with the Facebook group is you're building a sense of community and there's some people that probably I could reach out to and go on a backpacking trip with them if I was in their neck of the woods and, you know, vice versa. If they ever came here, gladly take them on a trip. You know,

Dave: you're teasing. Another thing was talked about the membership.

Brigham: Yeah, I mean, But that's kind of how I look at it, too. On the you know the customer relations side of it. It is nice to maybe put a name to a face on the on the Facebook, you know, sign of it or a Q&A or something like that. So,

Dave: Yeah. definitely that sense of community that we hope to develop, you know, maybe someday that came to even develop into group, Gatherings, group trips,

Brigham: meetups

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