The Entrepreneurial Story of Travis Rosbach: Inventor of Hydro Flask®

Because if you do, then you know it.

You love it because there's no cooler water bottle than a Hydro Flask.

Now, what I learned in today's episode is that behind a cool brand is an even cooler person.

Because I got to sit down with the guy who created Hydro Flask.

His name is Travis Grossbach.

And he's waiting on the other side of this intro.

His story is one of an entrepreneur, a one who lives his life in segments of five years.

And so the key is you better hurry up and catch him because who knows where he'll be jetting off to next.

Welcome to The Lowdown with Kevin Lowe, the podcast shining light on the inspiring stories of ordinary people choosing to live out anything but ordinary lives.

All in the hope that you will be inspired to live out your best life.

Because this life is meant to be lived.

And this podcast is meant to inspire you to do it.

What's happening?

Welcome back to the podcast.

My name is Kevin Lowe, the creator and host of The Low Down with Kevin Lowe.

And you're joining me today for what is episode number 83.

In the studio with me today is Travis Rossback.

Besides from being the founder of the billion-dollar water bottle company Hydro Flask, Travis is also a serial entrepreneur, world explorer, and overall, he's just an awesome guy.

You know, we we get this idea in our head of what somebody might be like.

And I had in my head that anybody who created a brand as cool as Hydra Flask has to be pretty cool.

But when I talked with Travis for the first time, I was blown away because the guy is totally down to earth.

Super cool, super chill.

And we just got along so perfect.

Today's episode, today's conversation with Travis, it's about his life.

But don't think of like that as something boring.

Because we're talking to Travis Rossbach.

This guy has done it all, does it all, and I don't really see him slowing down anytime soon.

So if you're into adventure, if you're into startups, if you're into entrepreneurship design, you know, you name it, this guy has it.

And today's episode is totally for you.

And keeping up with the excitement, I want to tell you that today's episode is sponsored by a company that I know very well because, well, it's my company, Kevin Lowe Coaching.

And that is where I work as a transformational life and business coach, helping those who have undergone some type of life-changing event, disability, medical diagnosis, or illness that has changed their life forever.

I work with both men and women, but ironic enough for this 5'11 guy with a full beard, my sweet spot is working with ladies.

I guess all those times growing up with a single mom and an older sister watching chick flicks and romantic love stories like when a man loves a woman made an impact on me.

And well, I just kind of connect better with my ladies who are my clients.

And so I get to work with them and helping them to kind of rebrand their life.

They've gone through some stuff in life, and now it's time that they want to take back control of their life.

They want to step into a new career or they want to start their own business, something that is truly something they're passionate about and brings them joy and excitement.

And well, I get to be the one who helps them accomplish it.

So if that is you, well, awesome.

Be sure to check out the episode show notes, where you'll find a link to learn more, and you can go ahead and sign up for a free 30-minute coaching call with me, and we can see if it's a good fit and then figure out things from there.

Alright, if you guys are ready, I'm totally ready because we got Travis waiting for me to finish with all this ramblings, and so that we can get on and talking about things going on in his life.

So without further ado, I introduce you to the man of the hour, Travis Rossback.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my name is Travis Rossback, and I I grew up in Salem, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley of creeping death.

Willamette Valley actually does mean creeping death because of all the mold and everything.

But wow.

Side note though.

When I was uh about, I don't know, I was I was very, very young.

My parents divorced, and um, my mom was single until I was about five.

And she met my uh stepdad, and he was uh ex-Vietnam vet, agent orange, drugs, alcohol, kind of an all-around kind of surly dude.

And uh had a couple brothers, and then uh when I was 12, my mom took off to Romania and adopted my Romanian gypsy sister, which is a whole nother wild story.

And then she divorced my stepdad, and this all kind of happened right about 12 years old.

And then I had a neighbor who was a very successful attorney, and he died one morning.

He went out for a run and never came back.

And my mom was left to do the estate sale, and his sister said, Hey, you can have anything you want, you know, one thing in the house.

And there's like this picture of a naked lady, and I was like, Wow, that's you know, nice artwork, but I didn't really think it was practical since I was 12.

You know, Rolexes and suits and all of this fancy, fancy stuff.

And then we got to the top of the stairs, and all of a sudden, like the angels started to sing, and like I I kind of went through this transformational portal of consciousness.

There was this bookshelf, and I said, I want that.

And she's like, You want the bookshelf?

I said, No, I want all the books on it.

And even before I could see what they really were, we got close to it.

And it was like Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, all of these like inspirational who's who business leader, thought-provoking, awesome books from like the late 80s and early 90s.

And I was like, that's it, that's what I'm doing.

I want that.

So I spent a lot of time grounded, and then in the Valley of the Creeping Death, it rains so much that I, you know, when I could not be outside, I was I was just pouring through these entrepreneurial books.

And then when I was 14, my one day the doorbell rang, and it was my grandpa, and he said, Hey, you want to go down and meet your dad?

I'm like, Yeah, sure, where is he?

Well, he's in the Virgin Islands in St.

Croix.

Okay, is that out by Africa or where is it?

I don't care.

I'm on my way.

And uh took off and met him.

And I was like, okay, that's that's it.

That's what I'm gonna do.

I'm just gonna be a scuba dive master and instructor.

I'm gonna take over the shop, and that's what I'm gonna do for the rest of my life.

So when I turned 18, I took off to the Virgin Islands.

I made it.

So I took off to the Virgin Islands and um started my life as a dive master and a dive instructor.

SPEAKER_02: Wow, wow, wow, wow.

So so was that the first time you had ever met your dad?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

I mean, I I had a like a real vague memory of him when I was real young.

I had just kind of like a I have like a flash being in the van with him for like just a just a like a photographic flash memory.

But really, yeah, when I was 14, I got off the plane and like I didn't even know what he looked like.

I there was there was like three guys, and I thought, okay, I don't know that it's there were three white guys, I should say.

It's like, I see, it's either him, him, or him.

Obviously, it's not the black guys here.

And uh, sure enough, like one by one, the other two kind of walked away, and the third one walked up and Travis, dad, yep, yep, all right, let's go.

And we went out and got drunk at Mexican food.

SPEAKER_02: Wow, and so that was at 14 that that happened.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So now what what was your mom?

Was your mom happy about this?

SPEAKER_00: Well, my mom, you know, after the divorce, she started a daycare.

And I had three, I had three siblings.

I'm down to two now, but I had three siblings that she was very busy with them and very busy with the daycare.

So she wasn't necessarily, you know, I was seven years older than my youngest brother.

And so I was always kind of off doing my own thing and not really a part of the family anymore at a pretty young age.

And then 14 through 18, I was down in the Virgin Islands every single chance I could get, every break, every Christmas, Thanksgiving, summer, every time I could get down there, I'd go back home to the Caribbean.

SPEAKER_02: Wow, wow, wow, wow.

Well, that's awesome.

Well, I I want to ask some more questions about that.

But before I do that, I have to go back to you talking about walking through this guy's house.

And as a 12-year-old boy, you're given this opportunity, choose anything you want in here, and it's yours.

And so I'm wondering, were you a kid who was into reading prior?

Like, because I'm sitting there thinking, like, what 12-year-old doesn't be like, no, I want the shiny watch, or I want, you know, the TV.

Instead, what made you be like, I want those books?

SPEAKER_00: You know, Kev, it's it was otherworldly experience.

I don't even really know what happened.

Everything, I like I I kind of had in mind that, okay, I want to go through the whole house before I make up my mind.

Like, I don't want to jump too soon and pick A when I should have taken C.

And so I I was kind of taking a mental inventory as I was walking through, thinking, okay, that'd be cool.

That'd be cool.

Whoa, that's interesting.

And wow, that'd be fun.

But but I remember like it's such a clear memory.

And I don't, I mean, I have I have some clear memories, but I also suffer a little bit of like can't remember shit sometimes.

So it's like the one of the most vivid memories that I have, where like I put my first foot on the stair and I looked at the top of the staircase, and like the birds were singing, and the the cherubs were fluttering around, and there was harpsichords playing, and the, you know, it was like everything just changed.

Like there was something that I could feel internally that happened that kind of like cracked or it broke.

I mean, we were eating government cheese next door.

We were, I mean, my mom was doing the best we could, but we were, you know, welfare recipients.

And yet this guy's got Rolexes and nice, you know, fancy, fancy, fancy things that I'd never seen, I'd never experienced, maybe on TV, but absolutely never in real life.

And there was something about the bookshelf that was just like I could feel that there was a direct correlation between his success and this bookshelf for some reason.

And sure enough, I it it turned out to be the books that that do help with success.

So there must have been something there.

SPEAKER_02: No doubt, man.

Well, I I just that's a really just awesome, awesome story.

And uh wow, I I mean, my goodness, that's that's so cool.

So now so life, so now you're you you've moved down to the Virgin Islands, which I can say from visiting the Virgin Islands on cruises and stuff, oh my goodness, absolutely breathtaking.

And and so, so down there, so kind of where did life go from from that point?

I mean, because I don't know.

I I mean, I guess thinking, you know, once you're there, do you ever leave?

SPEAKER_00: You know, yeah.

Well, yeah, it it that was the million-dollar question.

That was always the biggest thing that I struggled with was I don't want to ever leave.

And it was, you know, a lot of times it was very dangerous.

There was lots of debauchery, a lot of fun, a lot of jovial, happy, happy memories.

But I never really wanted to leave.

But I realized as I would typically what would happen is in the wintertime, we'd get super busy.

I'd save up all of my money.

I'd I'd work, you know, relentlessly 24-7 as a dive instructor, dive master, uh, eventually as a boat captain.

And and I'd just save up all my money, all my tips, all my money in the season.

And then in the summertime, when it got really slow, not as much tourism, I'd take off and I'd go travel to the far side of the world and I'd go and experience other countries and other worlds.

And I realized, I was fortunate enough to realize at a fairly young age, probably, you know, I don't know, 20 or so, that the Caribbean's a really good place to go to die.

Like if you're old, you go down to the Caribbean and you drink yourself to death or you partake in debauchery until you're dead.

At 20, I realized I'm too young to be here.

Like I need to go into the rest of the world.

I need to go have my adventures and go, you know, find the proverbial chalice, and then I can always return home when I'm, you know, pushing 80 or so is a great way to just go down there and and wrap up life.

So I was glad that I broke away, but at the same time, I I miss it so much.

It's like it's such a it's it's a struggle to stay.

I mean, it was nine degrees here this morning in Bend.

So it's like my hands are starting to hurt.

Can I go home?

But uh I've got a daughter now, and I did leave to have uh, you know, a family because I knew that I I couldn't really have it's just not a conducive place to raise children.

And so, you know, I'm here for now, but yeah, if ever I don't answer, it's because I'm I'm back home in the in St.

Croix.

SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.

Well, so so I just have to say, like, just knowing the little bit that you shared so far, coming from, you know, a family with your mom, you guys are on welfare, to then, you know, this this kid who gets an opportunity to go down to the Caribbean, yet you kept knowing that there was more that you were supposed to be doing, not getting stuck in that environment, not letting, you know, your current circumstance kind of dictate your future.

And I think that says a lot about you as a person.

The fact that you kind of kept knowing, like, you know what?

I I I gotta keep going.

I'm I'm made for more.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Yeah.

It it felt like we were one of the kind of prominent families really in St.

Croix, anyway, having the dive shop and my dad had had the the company for well, now, you know, it's like 10, 15 years, you know.

So he'd been down there for quite a while.

And so we had a pretty well-established family name.

And, you know, we we knew a lot of people.

I mean, we stuck out, you know, A, just being white, but B, because we were there for so long and we knew dang near almost everybody.

There's only, I think, like 50,000 on the island at the time.

And I remember having a very real big fish, small pond type thing, where it's like, okay, I've outgrown the pond, you know, and like as much as I love this pond and and I love all the fish in it.

Well, not all of them, some of them that were, you know, the bad fish are not fun, but the good fish were were awesome.

And yeah, there was a sense of, okay, you know, I may never be a big fish in a big pond, but that's okay.

I at least need to go swim in the big pond for a while, and then I can always come back home to this pond.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no doubt, no doubt.

So, so then from from that point, I mean, when did you embark on this just true entrepreneurial journey?

I mean, especially, you know, coming up, you know, with the whole invention of the hydro flask.

And I mean, where did that all come from?

SPEAKER_00: Well, later on, after uh I was a charter pilot living in Florida, you know, fast forward through the Caribbean up to Florida.

And I was flying jet charters.

And one day I realized, like, oh, like I've been flying every single day for the last year.

And then all of a sudden I haven't flown in three days.

Something's amiss.

What's going on?

And I went into the office and I asked them, like, what's the deal?

Why am I not flying?

And they said, Oh, well, you know, there's this thing on your record, and we had to let you go.

Like, well, were you gonna tell me that you were gonna let me go?

And then, and like, what thing on my record?

And they, you know, we talked about it and they realized that, oh, no, never mind.

You know, that that was a mistake, our bad.

Please, you know, go jump in the jet.

We got a flight for you.

You know, it's like, well, hold on a second.

Wait, no, I'm, you know, so my head starts to trip.

I'm like, what the hell?

Like, how can you like if I could just get fired like that and not even be told that I was fired, and for something that wasn't even my fault, and it was just complete error on their part, like I felt very unstable.

I felt like, man, I don't get paid enough money to have this kind of insecurity of you know, income.

And so I quit.

I said, I no, I'm I'm done.

Like, you guys, yeah, you can't fire me.

I quit.

And I and I did.

I was like, I'm done.

And I had a girlfriend at the time who she had her business degree and she had had a couple businesses before.

And so we started a real estate investment company there in like kind of like Stuart, Palm City, Florida, down in your neck of the woods.

And it it didn't go well.

Like I wasn't enthralled with like I mean, we were offering people pennies on the dollar for their houses, and we were gonna take them and flip them, and it just didn't feel good.

I just I just didn't like it.

So I said, hey, I'm going back to Oregon and you can come with me or you can stay here, but I'm on my way out.

And she's like, Oh, well, I don't have anything really going on.

I'll come with you.

So we got back to Bend and started a fence company, just kind of on a whim after a bottle of wine, and had like this really super duper successful fence company.

And about a year later, I realized, oh, it's nine degrees and I'm digging holes in the ice.

Like, this sucks.

I need to warm up.

Took off to Oahu for like a really long time.

I was like in Waikiki for like nine days, which is a long time to be on holiday in Waikiki.

It's super expensive.

And I fell in love.

I was like, I live in Oahu.

This is it, this is where I need to be.

And so returned back to Bend, sold that, and I told her, I said, hey, you can keep the company or you can sell it.

But either way, I live in Oahu now.

And she's like, Oh, well, yeah, I'm I'm super down to go move somewhere warm.

So we sold and uh first we were in Maui for a little while, and then we moved over to Oahu, and kind of again, it was just kind of one of those, what do we do now?

Well, you know, like I must have seen, I don't know, I don't remember the exact moment that I realized that I wanted to do signs and banners.

I'd I always had kind of a fascination with printing for some reason.

I have no idea what it is, but I I enjoy the concept of like embellishing a blank white canvas slate with color.

And like I guess that's probably why I love tattoos, because it's like I just see this open canvas that needs to be that they can be, you know, beautiful with colors and stuff.

So I don't know.

I I haven't really thought about what what the what is the word genesis of Oahu signs and screen printing was.

But I so we started a a sign company and we quickly kind of grew into this like agency where we were just helping businesses with any stage, with anything that they needed business cards, brochures, banners, big outdoor signs, embroidery, you know, merch, swag, swag stuff.

We all get shit.

We all get all of that we produced.

And then one day I was thirsty, and from my rock climbing days, I knew of Nalgene water bottles.

So I went into the sporting goods store in in Honolulu and the whole shelf was just completely empty.

There were there was only two water bottles left.

And I was like, hey, what happened?

And the guy says, Well, there's the stuff.

We're not really sure about it, but it's called BPA, and we don't really know what it is.

But as a precautionary measure, the owner pulled all the bottles.

And I said, Well, who's going to fill up this wall?

And the guy says, Nobody.

There's there's no other brands.

And it, I, you know, like it was one of these weird things, Kevin, where it just comes in the back of my head and right out my mouth.

And I said, I will, I will do that.

And from the time I said it to just a millisecond later, he laughed at me.

And in the middle of that, yeah, just before, you know, that transition or that that pivot point there, I saw the future.

And I saw myself up on stage talking about this highly successful water bottle company.

And about 10 years in the future.

And I was like, okay, this is it.

This is what I'm doing.

And uh sure enough, 10 years later, I was down in California up on stage at a university going, oh geez, this is this is the this is what I was seeing 10 years ago, like major deja vu.

Oh my God.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

Wow.

So, okay, so though, back up to Hawaii.

So we've moved from Florida to Oregon.

We we did the fence business, then we said, okay, it's too cold.

We're moving to Hawaii.

Now we're in Hawaii.

You you guys are selling merch the promotional goods, all that kind of stuff.

You go to grab a water bottle, you have this vision, you come back to the girlfriend.

What do you say to her?

SPEAKER_00: Hey, guess what?

Yeah, yeah.

Well, the first thing I did was we had an employee.

Like, I always like to have employees that are younger than me, so I can kind of keep up with what's hip and cool and trending.

SPEAKER_01: Yes.

SPEAKER_00: And I asked the employees, I'm like, what do I do for a water bottle?

And they they gave me their opinions and I went out and I bought them.

And then I asked my brother, and I went out and I bought it.

There were only two other ones on the market at the time.

And I tried them and they sucked.

And I think after, you know, and this was back when water bottles were plastic, andor they had aluminum, and the aluminum had BPA in them also.

And or there was a single wall company that was making single-wall bottles.

And they all just sucked.

They just were not as cool as I thought that they could be.

And as I was starting to do more and more research, I remember her asking, like, why do we have three water bottles in the house?

Like, this is unheard of, you know.

I'm doing the market research.

I had this idea for this water bottle company.

And then pretty soon I drove all over the island buying like pot bottles and milk bottles and juice bottles and any kind of bottle I could find to measure the mouth opening and what's a good size and what's too big and what's too small.

And I started drawing up.

And it's ironic.

I just realized this week that the very first hydro flask looks just like a scuba dive tank.

It's it's like it's pretty wild.

SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.

So so explain to me, describe one of these bottles to me.

Like material, like how it feels, colors, like yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: So my grandpa had a uh like an old school big coffee thermos.

And I always remember, actually, I still have it right here, but it was like real heavy and it was it's kind of stunk, and it wasn't it was it was good for coffee, but if you don't drink coffee out of it, then it it wasn't really any good for water or for anything else besides just hot coffee.

But I it made me think that maybe there that technology could be morphed into something different, and we could take out the glass and we could put in another wall of of stainless steel metal and you know make it make it more like uh like a water bottle, like something we could actually drink water out of.

And so that's kind of how it started.

I just started drawing up like kind of like what the you know single-use plastic water bottles looked like, but with the better mouth size and just just a better all-around double wall vacuum insulated 18.8 stainless steel food grade powder coating, so it's super durable, food grade powder coating, so it's non-toxic.

And originally I think we had maybe like six colors to choose from, and then every sort of season we would change out one or two or add two or three more.

And it just kept growing like that.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

Wow.

So now at what point?

I mean, was there was there any like pivotal point when you knew, wow, this is going somewhere big?

SPEAKER_00: I think yeah, I mean, it it was pretty dang quick.

The very first time we sold the bottles was up at the Portland Saturday market.

And the very first day they told us, no, you know, nobody's gonna buy water bottles.

We don't, we won't let you in to get a booth.

I was like, well, you know, you're letting other people in.

Why don't you let us in?

They're like, because nobody buys water bottles.

Everybody buys, you know, framed beetles and framed butterfly, dead butterflies, but nobody buys water bottles.

I'm like, well, that's not cool, but okay, you know, and so she, so the woman running the market put us out on the train tracks.

And by golly, we made our first sale, and then our second, and then our third.

And then pretty soon the line wrapped around in front of her office and she got pissed.

She's like, What are you people doing standing in line out here?

Well, we want to get those water bottles.

Nobody buys water bottles.

What do you mean?

And she walks up and she sees us, you know, throwing water bottles and catching cash.

And she's like, Okay, fine, you guys can come into the market.

So, like, getting that first 10 by 10 booth at the Portland Saudi market was a pretty big day.

You know, it was like it took us two weeks, but by golly, we got on the inside and we were selling bottles.

And then, you know, within a month or so, people were coming to the market just to buy second, third, fourth, fifth bottles.

And it's like, okay, you know, like I think this just may work.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

No, man, that is so awesome.

So well, I can tell you that the other day, I guess about a week or so ago, I was actually talking with a buddy and he lives out in out in uh Los Angeles in California.

And and he was asking me about the podcast.

I'm like, yeah, I'm like, well, I'm actually, I said, I'm getting ready.

I'm got an interview with with Travis.

He's the one who invented the hydro flask.

And he's like, oh my, he's like, we've got we've got two sitting on our counter right now.

I'm like, yeah.

I'm like Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: And that was always the like that, you know, like we had the added benefit that drink water, get healthy.

Like we have a good product that does good things.

And so I never had any qualms, you know.

I had qualms buying and selling and flipping houses because I didn't feel real ethical about it just to make money.

But selling water bottles, yes, I believe I firmly then and now still firmly believe everybody needs multiple water bottles to drink water out of.

And the more you hydrate, the better you feel, the better your life gets.

And so I'd never had any issues selling them.

And I think that that passion really kind of shone through.

And then as we started to pick up employees, we would look for that same kind of attribute that, you know, like how passionate are you about hydration?

You know, and everybody, you know, would say that they were, but we would find that that some were more than not.

And the ones that were more adamant, they had had a personal firsthand experience with going from non-hydrated to hydrated, you know, those were the employees we were looking for.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

Yeah, that that's awesome.

That's awesome.

So now now you ended up, did you end up selling the company eventually?

SPEAKER_00: I did.

Yeah.

There was a a point at which like the season was over.

And after about four or five years, I tend to get kind of bored.

Yep.

And uh yeah, I just I got to the point where I kind of re relay it to like when I was a pilot and I had a goal and a dream of flying, I don't know, you know, a number, 25 different airplanes or so.

And once I flew about 22, 23, 24 airplanes that were on the list, it kind of got to been there, done that kind of thing.

And I I sort of had that with Hydro Flask, where it's like, okay, we got into REI, we got into the military, we got into these really big dicks and cabela's and you know, sportsman's warehouse and Canadian.

We were international in Europe, and we had a Japanese or a South Korean and a Japanese.

You know, so we were an international brand.

And I found that it was going a lot more corporate than I really wanted to move myself.

And my brother had just died, and I'd had a bunch of different like just stuff going on in my life, and I was ready for the next adventure.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

Gotcha, gotcha.

Well, that makes sense.

And and one thing I was sitting here thinking about, what I would love to ask you about is what I find pretty cool about your entrepreneurial journey is I've never heard anything about college, getting a big business degree.

Uh-uh.

That never happened?

SPEAKER_00: Nope, nope, it never did.

So I was a boat captain on a yacht, or excuse me, I was a first mate on a yacht, and but I was I was a boat captain.

I had my captain's license, but I was on a yacht as a first mate.

And I I got tired of the captain, and I didn't, they wanted me to take over his position, but I didn't like him and I didn't want to.

And I one day I just quit and I was walking down the boardwalk, and I thought, oh, geez, that was more money than I'll probably ever see in my entire life.

And I just walked away from it.

What am I gonna do?

And it hit me, you're a pilot.

And I literally had like six dollars in my name.

And I got this piloting magazine and I started calling all these flight schools.

They said that I needed a college degree and I needed all these hours, and it's gonna be about$180,000.

And I was like, I have six bucks.

Like, what can I get for six dollars?

And finally, one of the schools said, Well, you need student loans, you need student aid.

I'm like, Oh, okay, yeah, that I don't know what that is, but it sounds good.

So I started online through Utah Valley State College to get my aviation degree so that I could go work for Seaborne Airlines.

And then I started flying for the airlines and they didn't care if I had a degree or not, so I stopped.

So I did about four years of aviation, but I never did cap it off with a bachelor's degree, though.

I because I was flying for the, I was doing exactly what I wanted to do with the degree and didn't need it.

SPEAKER_02: Exactly.

Exactly.

Well, well, that's cool.

So, but but so kind of I guess to my my point with all that is the fact of because I mean, I I think college is is amazing for the right person.

But I feel my personal belief is that I don't really feel like college is necessary to do a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00: I've never found it to be.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

Okay.

Well, I'm glad we're on the same page.

I was like, oh, but I don't know where this is going.

SPEAKER_00: Hopefully it's not gonna be a fight, but I would I would love to get into a fight with you, Kevin.

I'd love to see how that would go.

I can't imagine that that would ever happen.

So therefore, I think it'd be super fun.

SPEAKER_02: The ratings could go through the roof.

SPEAKER_00: The low down goes viral.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the download numbers on the podcast will be soaring.

Kevin and Travis face off then interview.

SPEAKER_01: That would be cool.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: Well, so so I'm curious, kind of like, what does life look like for you now?

I mean, I guess, I guess it's one of those things.

I mean, I mean, I don't need you to reveal your age or anything, but just talking to you, you're not like some old guy who's who's spent his whole life building up this water bottle business, sold it, and now he's you know, just sitting on the back porch, you know, uh drinking uh country time lemonade and and waiting for for bedtime.

I mean, so you strike me as as though you're probably somebody who who life's still just uh charging forward.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, for sure.

I I think I sold, I'm I don't know how old I was.

I was probably like maybe 33 or so when I sold.

I'm 43 now.

I I don't know, maybe I was 35 or so.

Yeah, after I sold, you know, it was like the first time I was able to pay off my student loans and pay off our.

I had friends and family on my side that really heavily invested in Hydro Flask.

And due to, you know, poor legal contracts, they were never paid off.

And I owed them personally.

And so I was able to pay off all of the early friends and family investors and pay off my student loans and aviation loans and everything, and just the credit card debt from starting the company.

And after that, I was like, you know, hey, now what do I do?

And and so of course I go back to travel.

And I mean, that's really why I do most anything that I do is just so that I can pay for my addiction of travel.

And I work really hard for about five years, and then I try to take, you know, four or five years and do something that either I am really, really passionate about or kind of take off and just do not a lot, but but travel.

And so I did that.

I took five years and traveled, and and then all of a sudden yoga like kind of struck me.

I got struck by yoga and got into yoga quite a bit, traveled around doing festivals and trainings and teachings and things like that.

And then I returned back home to Oregon and I bought some property that has a bunch of juniper trees, which are non-native species, and they drink up all the groundwater for the ponderoses that need them, need the water even worse.

So I got some chainsaws and started chainsawing.

I watched a YouTube video on how to run a chainsaw, and I just got like I like it's almost a an addiction, I guess.

I guess I couldn't say, I guess I have to admit it is the first step, but I'm almost addicted to chainsawing juniper trees now.

SPEAKER_02: It's like uh I don't know if they have a program for that.

Like, you know, like that, like the Alcoholics Anonymous or something.

I'm not sure if they have something for that addiction, but I'm sure I can Google it.

SPEAKER_00: Chainsawers Anonymous.

If we need to get you in a program, it honestly does take over my life.

There are times where I don't want to do anything else other than fire up the chainsaw.

So yeah, I I guess it is kind of becoming an issue.

SPEAKER_02: But it may be here now today.

Well, I'm thinking I well, I was sitting there thinking, wow, Kevin, maybe you were wrong.

He does sound like that old guy on the on the back porch drinking, drinking his country time lemonade, living life on the slow lane, looking at trees to cut down.

You know?

SPEAKER_00: Well, it's it's one of these things where like now I have a daughter also that, you know, so I'm a single dad and I don't ride my motorcycles anymore.

I don't go rock climbing much at all anymore.

I don't really go travel to third world countries where I put myself right in the middle of dangerous situations anymore.

And so cutting down trees is the closest thing to like getting in, like I get into the zone when I cut the trees.

Because when I cut a big ass tree and it could fall on me or it, you know, like and I cut them flat so that they fall a lot faster, but it's a lot more dangerous because I never know which direction they're gonna really fall.

And so it's like the most excitement that I can have and still stay close to home.

Like death is is here, but it's you know, I I do it in a fairly like, well, maybe not a safe way, but a manageable way.

So yeah.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, no doubt.

Well, man, that's too funny.

Too funny.

Now, are you surprised that that you're back in the state that you grew up in?

SPEAKER_00: Uh yes, I am, but I am about three hours away, so we have much nicer blue skies.

It doesn't rain as much.

We get snow versus rain, but um, you know, and now we've got, I think we just had like I don't know what the exact number is, but it feels like we had about four million Californians move in.

And so we got uh we got a lot more culture, I guess you could call it.

You know, there's a lot of beautiful women, a lot of beautiful people that just moved in.

So that's that's nice.

And we have new restaurants and things here in Bend, but I would have, yeah, I would have not ever, especially at like 1920 when I was on the far side of the world, like I would have never believed I'd be back in Oregon.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, I I just I think it's funny because I think life, life has a has a really kind of weird way of of taking us full circle in in different aspects of life.

And you know, and and so sometimes you feel like it's like some type of gravitational pull, like you know, like like there's something greater working in the universe that that I'm supposed to be in the same spot where it started, you know?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's it is.

I there is a bit of a prodigal son returning type of feel to it.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Well, Travis, man, super awesome to have the chance to meet you, to have you on the podcast today.

Any any last words for those listening from your awesome uh wisdom self?

SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, if you want to get a hold of me, right now I'm doing the Tummel O group, and we help businesses kind of go from wherever they are to wherever they want to be.

And we help a lot of people who have an idea for a product or a widget and they want to bring it to market and they want to bring it to life.

We help do sourcing and find factories to work with to bring that product to life and engineers and drawing, you know, graphic design and the whole nine yards.

So yeah, Travis at Tumlow T-U-M-A-L-O group, g R O U P dot com or info at tumlow group.com.

I'm also on LinkedIn, Travis Rossback, R-O-S-B-A-C-H.

And yeah, if anybody has an idea or you know, they have a business or they just you know want to chit chat, let me know.

I I'm always interested in interesting people.

SPEAKER_02: That's that's super awesome.

Super awesome.

I'm glad you mentioned that.

So when did you start this business?

SPEAKER_00: I started this about four, four and a half, five years ago.

Five years it's been.

And I just had so many people.

Oh, you think I'm coming towards the end?

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because that's what I was saying.

There, I thought I'm like, please tell me he just started it so I could tell everybody listening.

Listen, you need to quit contact him.

You've only got a few years left, but now we're down to mere month.

SPEAKER_00: Actually, that's so ironic.

I just put this together, but yeah, we just had a like, I just brought on a an like a like help, like an employee.

And we're having a major overhaul and a major shift of focus and everything else.

We're going more towards the advising and helping companies go from overseas manufacturers to more domestic, Mexico, United States, Canadian-based factories.

And so, yeah, that's funny because I hadn't even put that together till just now, Kevin.

Like, we are right now going through this major transition, but still offering everything that we've always offered.

But I just built a studio, like an office.

And so, like, I know I'll be here.

Well, now I have a daughter too.

And so I've got an another decade or so before I can go walk about again.

So you've got about a decade to contact me before I'm out.

SPEAKER_02: All right.

Well, that sounds good.

Sounds good.

And for for those of you listening to this in the future, this this is in the year 2022.

So get him, get him while he's out.

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_00: Yep.

And then there's gonna be a point where I get old enough to where I can go back down home to the Virgin Islands.

And yeah, I I will not even have a flip phone then.

So now is the time.

SPEAKER_02: You know what?

There is something to be said about when you're when you're down in the Caribbean and time stops for a reason.

And and like you said, at that moment, it is it's truly forget about the technology, forget about the phone, and just live in the moment, you know?

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00: Well, I missed that.

SPEAKER_02: Well, Travis, again, man, I want to thank you so much for for being a guest here on the podcast.

And I uh I just truly thank you for your time today.

SPEAKER_00: Kevin, thank you so much for having me.

It's always so much fun to talk to you.

I never know where we're gonna go, and I always love every direction that it ends up going.

So thank you so much for having me on the lowdown.

SPEAKER_02: Awesome, man.

Well, thank you.

And uh for you listening today.

I hope you enjoyed today's conversation as much as I did.

And uh, well, you just uh be sure you're getting out there, living life to the fullest, and take this guy for a little inspiration.

Uh if you don't like where you are, look at your timetable.

If it's been over five years, make it change.

Yep.

And that's the lowdown with Kevin Lowe.

I hope today's episode inspired you, motivated you, and excited you to get out and enjoy life, no matter what obstacles may be standing in the way.