The Two Crates I forgot

I set off to accomplish two tasks this week:

I'm happy to say I just finished the GSA email campaign, so now that funnel is entirely complete. The idea is that there will be a QR code at the show that will prompt someone to scan it to run their own numbers. That will take them to the specific landing page where I've built a dynamic cost and ROI calculator. They'll be able to plug in details like:

It will then crunch their numbers and give them an ROI. It will also show them their gross year-one revenue and gross five-year revenue, all in this awesome slick calculator that's on isabellacamping.com/GSA.

The price point for Camp-let is actually our strongest value add, or our strongest competitive advantage, when comparing all the other structures in the glamping industry. While it is a premium product and it is on the higher price point for tent trailers, when considering a cabin or a bell tent that requires a foundation, it's actually very affordable. My thought process was that bringing that to the forefront, by giving an operator a tool that they can literally use on their phone standing in front of a Camp-let, would be one way of bringing that price point to the forefront and showing the ROI. This tool should get them to really think from a business standpoint how this could make sense for them.

There's an offer, or a carrot, where if they sign up and give me their email address, then there is an all-encompassing PDF around an operator playbook, so to speak, for the Camp-let. That then starts them on this campaign that I just completed, so I'm really excited to see how this funnel works at the trade show.

Tomorrow I am going to take a Camp-let Earth and create some content around actually living in it for an evening. The inspiration is coming from a similar video that I did for Camp-let North that has been my best-performing YouTube video and has brought lots of people to our website. Towards the end of June and the beginning of July this year, YouTube all of a sudden started showing it again and it exploded by 40,000 views. It drew a lot of inbound emails asking a lot of the same questions. I then realized I needed to create a landing page, which we now have, and it has an email sign-up and a campaign. The whole system and process is to help answer all the same questions that I kept getting.

Since then I've had direct contact with people interested in buying Camp-let, which has spurred many more conversations and questions. I'm taking all those questions that I've been fielding over the last month and putting that into a shot plan and an overall beat list for what I'm going to talk about for this camping trip in the Camp-let Earth. I'm going to have the annex, side tent, and sun canopy, and I'm literally going to live in it. I'm going to eat and sleep and just try to enjoy 24 hours outside.

I'm feeling optimistic and nervous, because while this is an incredible effort to go do all this by myself, I really hope that all this work is warranted, that it produces something of value, and that those people who are interested in purchasing Camp-let Earth find this to be beneficial and helpful in potentially making their decision to purchase a Camp-let Earth.

I've been spending the morning developing what my overall talk track is going to be in that video. Starting to charge cameras, microphones and extra batteries. I've got a whole bunch of new camping supplies that I purchased to help make it look lived in that I'm also going to take out to the Glamping Show Americas with me. Now off to pack the car.

Today is the day that I am going to the campsite that I rented at the Retreat at Hickory Hills in Indiana. Drove the loaded car, loaded roof box with a Camp-let in toe and arrived at the Retreat at Hickory Hills. It's a beautiful campsite, and I've got a perfect spot.

We've had so much rain in the last few weeks, to the point where we've had, honestly, record-breaking flooding: bridges being torn apart and roads being washed out, absolutely crazy stuff. Finally, I have a break and get to the campsite, and I start setting up. I look at my phone and get a text from home that I forgot two Sidio Crates of stuff, like important stuff that I've spent a lot of money on in the previous weeks in preparation for today. I need it tonight - stuff for making food, coffee, and the lighting - and it's all stuff that just sets the scene.

The Cam-let is setup, but I am hot and frustrated. When you're setting all this stuff up, dealing with the videography piece as a solo filmmaker, trying to record yourself with different angles and trying to capture moments, is just so time-consuming. What should take me 25 to 30 minutes to set up a Camp-let, takes 45 minutes to an hour, because I have to keep moving my tripod around and starting and stopping the camera and making sure I am saying what I need to.

The ZV-E1 continues to overheat because it's close to 90 degrees outside. I'm sweating my balls off, knowing that I have to drive one hour back to my house and then one hour back to the campsite, losing more than two hours of time. Time wasted not setting up and filming the setup of the Annex and Side Tent.

Now I'm driving back. I'm about 29 minutes away, and it's 3:17 p.m. I still have two more things I have to set up: the annex and the side tent. I have set up an annex once before, so there's a little bit of familiarity there. It has been a year since I've set up an annex, so it's not gonna be as quick as something I've done before, but the side tent is something I've never set up before.

I'm looking at another hour and a half to two hours of moving the tripod around, starting and stopping the camera, filming myself, just to get what I have set out to do. Meanwhile, I need to remember the script and be detail-oriented with the things I'm trying to say and so forth. Needless to say, it's been slightly frustrating getting today going, but I'm hoping that I can report back at the end of the evening with everything set up and my filming done, and be in a much better state of mind.

I'm sitting here. It's 9:52 p.m., laying in the sleeping cabin of a Camp-let after having a gruesome day. True to my nature, I forgot a very important part, which was all my lighting and all my utensils: two crates full of everything I needed to round out my evening.

Having to drive all the way back to Indianapolis was not the best use of my time, but I managed to eat lunch on the way back. When I arrived, it was back to business, and I managed to set up the side tent, the annex, and the sun canopy. I have set up an annex before. This was my second time. It went up very quick.

All in all, I think I spent close to three hours getting everything set up today. I'm not sure. I think by 5-ish, I was just about done. In retrospect, just the heat and the sweat made it seem longer, which is good, because throughout the entire day I kept thinking, "Okay, so I am actually using the product that I've been developing websites for and marketing material and talking to people about and making recommendations for, and now I'm here using it. What are some of the things I'm finding difficult? What can I keep in memory to make sure that inevitably, when someone else experiences the same challenges for the first time, I'm able to articulate them? What can I be proactive about? Can I start to create better directions or tutorials that inevitably will be asked for?"

It was very rewarding to be able to cook a steak and some foil potatoes and sit down at the table outside with a nice Belgian beer and watch the sun go down and have the Camp-let sitting behind me, feeling resolute, feeling confirmed about the enjoyment that I feel for this product and what it enables me and the people who decide to buy it to experience. There's no shortcutting the fact that there is work involved to get everything up. But when it is up, there is an incredible satisfaction and a sort of connection with the outdoors, knowing that you're staying in canvas.

I kept seeing the neighboring campers coming in and out earlier today, and I couldn't help but think that every time they saw me, they were like, "Man, I'm glad I'm not that guy, because he's sweating his balls off." Now, as I hear the crickets and I hear the night, and the temperature has dropped down, and I'm sleeping sitting here in my black draped fabric sleeping cabin that's inside of a tent, I can't help but think that I'm better off. I barely saw the people in the RV six camping spots down get out of their RV. They drove off at one point, came back about 30 minutes later, and walked their dogs a couple of times. Otherwise they were cooped up in their RV the entire time. Probably scrolling or watching TV. All in all, I feel like I have the better experience.

Just packed up camp. Everything's loaded, and now I am heading home, feeling refreshed to have been able to wake up outside.

Although it was very tight to make that happen this week, I'm really glad I did, ahead of Düsseldorf next week and Glamping Show Americas in about a month. Now let's see what I can do with all this footage that I recorded in making a compelling YouTube video.

Next week is an exciting one, as I'm off to Düsseldorf to participate in the Caravan Salon trade show, which I believe is the world's largest RV trade show by square footage. It's the first trade show in Europe that kicks off the following season, so everyone starts displaying all their new products, which is really exciting.

Next year is Isabella's 70th anniversary, so we're doing one of our large Rhein River cruises in the evening with food and drink and live music. I get to meet nuCamp's founder and owner. He will be there to get ideas for product development here in the United States. I'm excited to take him around the Isabella stand and for him to have a fun evening on the boat with over 300 Isabella employees and dealers.