Scott Stillman is a 53-year-old writer, backpacker, and desert wanderer who built his life around walking canyon country instead of working full-time. He’s the author of I Don’t Want to Grow Up and seven other books. (scottstillmanblog.com)
Scott traces his evolution from skateboarding teenager to normie bank employee in Ohio to full-time freedom seeker in Colorado. Along the way, he explains why he’s always prioritized time over money, how he and his wife built a life around working as little as possible, and why most people are asking the wrong question when it comes to careers.
We get into the specific ways he pulled this off, from compressing an insurance sales job into two days a week to negotiating a car sales role down to weekends only. Now living in Durango, Scott earns a living from his books—spending about two hours a day on social media—and spends the rest of his time hiking, backpacking, and disappearing into canyon country. He also explains how writing accidentally became his path to freedom, the role a good editor plays, and why he ditched photography to start documenting his experiences with words.
We also get into the philosophy behind his work: why “this reeks of privilege” is the most common critique he hears from young people on TikTok, why he thinks that’s missing the point, how starting with a beat-up car and a few hundred dollars can still lead to a life outdoors, and why you don’t need to have your whole life figured out—you just need to go.
Full transcript: dirtbagrich.com/scott
Recorded in April 2026.
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Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript. Typos and mistakes exist!
Blake Boles (00:00)
Scott Stillman, welcome to Dirtbag Rich.
Scott Stillman (00:03)
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Blake Boles (00:06)
You wrote in your book, Wilderness, the Gateway to the Soul, that a lot of people have told you do what you love and that you love walking desert canyons. And you ask, how do you do that for a living? You’ve been trying to figure it out for half of a lifetime. ⁓ What have you figured out, Scott? Give me all your secrets right on the top here.
Scott Stillman (00:30)
Sure, yeah, that’s a really interesting part of that book and ⁓ it’s a pain point, a major pain point. That book was written at a time of when I was young and vulnerable and questioning life and questioning a life that just didn’t fit and ⁓ walking in nature for days at a time, backpacking.
⁓ is the only thing at that point that felt good. That made me feel like myself, like a real person. ⁓
Blake Boles (01:02)
How old were you when you wrote those words?
Scott Stillman (01:08)
That’s 10 years ago, so 40s. Yep.
Blake Boles (01:10)
Early 40s.
Good. And so what have you been doing in order to spend most of your time outdoors? You have some beautiful books, Scott. I guess I should provide some context here. You’re a really talented writer. You’re good on social media, nice photographs, very quotable, ⁓ shareable stuff on multiple platforms.
Scott Stillman (01:24)
Yeah.
Blake Boles (01:38)
And, I feel like there’s, there are a lot of people who post beautiful stuff about the outdoors on social media. And, ⁓ there’s always a question in the back of my head. It’s the question that you asked right there, which is, how do you go out and spend deep time in nature? ⁓ and also have some sort of like a reasonable income and some form of security at, the same time. What, what have you been doing?
Scott Stillman (02:02)
You know, so I suppose I’ve always been this way. It started as a small child. ⁓ My first love was skateboarding.
and I had no interest in school, I had no interest in any kind of career, all I wanted to do was skateboard, 24 hours a day if I could. Because when you’re young you have that kind of energy. ⁓ So while other friends had, ⁓ you know, I guess they would get a part-time job or they could work at the local pizza restaurant or something like that. ⁓
I decided I didn’t want to waste my time with putting that many hours into just doing something I didn’t want to do. So I’ve always come up with creative ways ⁓ to make income. ⁓ So I’ve always been a bit of an entrepreneur, I would say. So some of the earliest things that I did. ⁓
I would go door to door and offer to mow people’s lawns, shovel snow in the winter. I came up with a deck cleaning business where I’d refurbish people’s decks. And I did my parents deck first. I did exactly half of it. And it took a photo of a half perfectly beautiful deck and the other half of this dingy gray old unrefurbished deck. And I literally was just this little kid walking from door to door with a picture in my hand saying, want your deck to look like this?
Blake Boles (03:29)
Hmm.
Scott Stillman (03:29)
⁓ And I started to realize that I could make a whole lot more money and a whole lot less time if I just worked for myself, I didn’t get a job, if I figured out creative ways to do things. And that evolved. And really, I write about all of this in my book, I Don’t Want to Grow Up, but I’ve done that with every single ⁓ income-making opportunity I’ve ever had. ⁓ In sales. ⁓
I figured out ways, you know, you have to start kind of full time in the beginning, but I figured out ways to work with my employers so that I don’t have to work two days a week.
Blake Boles (04:08)
Hmm.
Scott Stillman (04:09)
And then in businesses, I’ve never had the goal of making money. Money was secondary. I just knew I needed to figure out a way so could be in nature more. So as my life progressed, I figured out creative ways to earn income working very, very little. for example, I talk about this and I don’t want to grow up.
Blake Boles (04:23)
Hmm.
Scott Stillman (04:36)
⁓ I took an insurance job, I split it with my wife, and we got it down to the point where I think we’re only working like four days a month. ⁓
all the other agents were working like 60 hours a week and all this stuff. We didn’t care about that much money. And they were making a lot of money and we weren’t, but we were making enough so that we could travel. And then finally, even that, you know, that four days a month, you know, a lot of people might say, well, that’s ridiculously good. But at some point that even got in the way too much.
Blake Boles (05:06)
Hmm.
Scott Stillman (05:07)
So we even sold everything and simplified our lives into a camper. a lot of people think, oh yeah, you got to have $80,000 to buy a Sprinter van or something like that. That’s what all the kids think today. But that’s not what we did. We traded in our Toyota Corolla and bought a pickup truck, a 1997 three quarter ton pickup truck for $4,400.
⁓ But it was in good shape and I did my research to know what kind of model to buy that which ones were reliable I didn’t just wing the whole thing And then about a camper I think the camper the slide-in truck camper was around $7,000 and I I had that money from selling other Crap that I had Well the other car I guess we had two cars my wife had a car I had a car we sold both cars and had enough for the camper van and that was it and we started traveling full-time on the road and We’re like wow
This is way cheaper than living at home and we’re kayaking every day and camping and backpacking and mountain biking all these things and That’s and that’s where really when I started writing ⁓ So I started writing about that that adventure and and as much as I wanted to write about the things I was seeing
Blake Boles (06:19)
Hmm.
Scott Stillman (06:27)
what coming I was like, I want to teach young kids that they can do this because so many kids today think, I have to, you know, I have to go work a regular job and get a degree. ⁓ people that don’t do that are trust fund kids. And they just have a bunch of money already. And that’s the root. That’s why we see these social media posts and this and that, because they just they’re just rich kids. And that’s so that’s just not true. It’s not what I see when I’m on the road. There are other people like me who have figured out and you who have figured out creative ways
to work and make an income, but make it be not the priority of their life, if that makes sense.
Blake Boles (07:03)
Hmm. Maybe it makes
sense. And a lot of the stuff that you write about and post about is really in line with the stuff I wrote about in dirtbag rich. And you wrote a really nice blurb for the book. I appreciate that. ⁓ can you just take me through some of the specific jobs and positions that you and your wife, Valerie have held? ⁓ cause I feel like there’s a lot of people out there who think it’s just hard to find a position where you are not required to work.
Scott Stillman (07:16)
Mm-hmm.
Blake Boles (07:33)
full time. I’m visiting some family on the East Coast right now and they’ve got pretty standard jobs. And I asked a question about like, if you run out of paid time off, can you take more time off that’s unpaid? And some people laughed at me. They’re like, no, that’s not how normal jobs work. And I said, but could they work that way? And so I feel like that’s a big block. And I would love some specific examples from your own life.
Scott Stillman (07:39)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah
Right.
Blake Boles (08:01)
as to how you’ve actually made money in ways that do not require full-time 40 hour plus a week servitude.
Scott Stillman (08:10)
Sure. ⁓ So for example, I mean, I’ve never really wanted a normal job. So I seek these jobs out and a lot of them aren’t jobs. of them are businesses that I’ve created myself, like writing books. ⁓ But I just, it’s all about mindset, right? What is your priority? How many days do you wanna work?
Write that down. How much money do you need to make per month? Write that down. Don’t just willy-nilly it and go look for any old job. Put a list of things on paper of exactly what you want. Then start looking for a job based on those things. And so that’s what I’ve always done. ⁓ When we moved to Boulder, Colorado from Ohio. ⁓
we did not move there to work jobs, we moved there to play. ⁓ So I kind of got an idea in my head of what I wanted to do, part-time, very, very, very part-time work, full-time pay. That was my goal, full-time, ⁓ I’m sorry, part-time work, full-time pay. So I just got out.
I guess what did I do? I probably got on Craig’s list or whatever the internet job listings were at that time. And I started looking through stuff and I saw work from home insurance sales. So I’m like, oh, okay, if I’m working from home, 100 % commission. I was like, okay, could maybe see if that works. so I went and interviewed. And of course I didn’t tell them this in the interview.
like two days a week. I just applied for the job. They gave it to me because these type of jobs tend to hire anyone because they have nothing to lose. It’s a commission job. And so they hired me. They said, yep, we’ll sign you leads each each week and ⁓ and you’re going to go, you know, go to go to these different people that have requested insurance from our company. said, OK, so they trained me how to do it. ⁓ But I had my wife make the calls, so my wife spent ⁓
I maybe an hour a day in the beginning. And then I would run insurance appointments, but I’d only do them two days a week. So she’d just stack me bell to bell, you know, from like 9 a.m. till like 9 p.m. practically, in the very beginning. And sure enough, that worked. mean, that gave us plenty of income to do what we wanted to do. We were living simply. We just lived in a little two-bedroom apartment and drove used cars, you know, no car payments. We live very simple. We’ve always lived simply. And then we just kind
we’re like, well, how can we make this even less work? ⁓ So I don’t know, I could go, I mean, don’t know how long you want me to talk about this. I could go for forever, but.
Blake Boles (11:00)
Well, I would just love to hear if ⁓
you’ve held any other jobs aside from the insurance one, which is a super cool example. especially, did you have any high paying jobs from earlier in your life in your 20s and 30s that allowed you to accrue a large nest egg that then lets you take the risks necessary to enter into this lifestyle that you found in the 40s?
Scott Stillman (11:08)
⁓
No, not really. moved to Colorado. My savings was a credit card with a $10,000 limit on it. That’s what I considered my savings. ⁓ And ⁓ luckily, the person that rented us the apartment was…
Blake Boles (11:34)
Alright, yeah, that’s pretty minimal.
Scott Stillman (11:44)
did not check income and all that. So we had to, again, it came down to, we had to go through a few different organizations to find someone that was good with me moving in without a job yet and things like that. So you do have to get a little creative. You just have to think outside the box and say, even though the rest of the world does it this way, I’m not gonna do it this way. I’m gonna figure out a way to do it my way. ⁓ So.
other jobs. I went and sold cars for a while ⁓ and you know I started full-time because that’s how they had to start me. But then ⁓
you know, they they they had that like open vacation policy, which means, which is pretty funny. I mean, you can take as much vacation as you want, but no one everyone’s afraid to everyone feels guilty for doing it. So actually, it results in no one taking vacation, right? I have so many friends that have this.
Blake Boles (12:39)
That’s what I was asking my family members about, which is can you
just take unlimited unpaid vacation? Sounds like you found a position where you can, yeah.
Scott Stillman (12:45)
yeah, they can, but everyone frowns on
it. So I took my unlimited vacation. So finally they sat me down in the office and said, okay, Scott, you’re taking a lot of vacation. Like how much vacation do you actually need? And so I just threw out a number, said eight weeks.
eight weeks vacation would be good. And then so they gave me that but of course you know I use that eight weeks up in no time at all. So then I came and I said I’m quitting. And you know I’d saved up a little bit of money at this point so they said okay well why are you quitting? I said well I need to I need more free time to do what I really moved to Colorado to do which is to go on these backpacking trips these mountain biking adventures, kayaking adventures and whatnot.
And they said, well, what would it take for you to stay? I said, OK, that’s an interesting question. said, well, the best sales tend to happen on the weekend. So how about if I just work weekends? And they did it. And they gave me that.
Blake Boles (13:44)
Mm-hmm.
Scott Stillman (13:45)
Not
only that, but I did that for I think about a year maybe. And then I quit that job to go live on the road in the camper. And they said, okay, well how long you gonna be in the camper? And I said, I don’t know, maybe a year.
They said, okay, well, we enjoyed having you, if you know, look us up in a year. Well, they wrote, I guess they took note of that. And my manager at the time ⁓ had quit, I guess around right about a year later. And they actually called me up while I was in the camper. And they said, Hey, the manager left. ⁓ We need a management person really bad. Would you come back? And we were about done with that trip anyways. And it was actually a really good salary. So I went back to working full time for like a year, you know, just to kind of save up money again. Cause I just.
Blake Boles (14:12)
you
Mm-hmm.
Scott Stillman (14:32)
lived on the road and spent some. So these things happen. You can say, well, you’re just really lucky because you had all ⁓ these things just line up perfectly for you. But it all starts with intention. So if you have the intention.
that you want these things, then those things come to you. Versus, you know, if you have the intention that, I just want to make a bunch of money, then you might make a bunch of money, but you also might work 60 hours a week. ⁓ So it really just comes down to what you…
Blake Boles (15:02)
Well, it sounds to me like
you were really focusing on sales positions that were results oriented and you negotiated with your employers to find very specific ⁓ terms and timing that worked for you. with the insurance example, it was completely on your own schedule from the very beginning. Did you ever have a normal full-time job? I know you said you never wanted one, but did you ever end up taking?
Scott Stillman (15:18)
Right.
Exactly.
Blake Boles (15:31)
what most people call a normal job at any point ⁓ in your young adulthood or anytime, Scott.
Scott Stillman (15:37)
I did, yeah.
I still lived in Ohio, ⁓ I hadn’t really… Colorado changed everything, because once I moved to Colorado, all I wanted to do was play. Colorado was… I mean, Ohio was surrounded by working people. ⁓ So yeah, I didn’t really see any other way of doing it. So in Ohio, yeah, I worked ⁓ jobs. I worked for a bank as a loan officer for a while. Yep.
Blake Boles (16:03)
here we go. Here we go. This is very
outside of your public presence, Scott. I want to hear this. This is the good stuff. Well, but it is. This is very interesting because there are so many people out there who are wondering exactly how to get from something like a bank job in Ohio into a super outdoorsy, self-sustained lifestyle in Colorado. Tell me about your bank job.
Scott Stillman (16:09)
Yeah, well, it’s not very interesting.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so I worked for a, as a loan officer, so someone who does loans for a bank and that was a full, yeah, yeah, it was a full-time job. ⁓ you know, I was just figuring out life and I didn’t really know what I wanted yet. So yeah, I just got a job and I don’t have a college education. So this is a job anyone can get.
Blake Boles (16:36)
Everyone’s favorite person, yes.
Scott Stillman (16:59)
but what specific questions do you have? What’s up?
Blake Boles (17:00)
I mean, did you have the same personality? Yeah. I mean,
who were you back then? Did you still have this nature wanderlust side to you when you were working at the bank? Or were you like really a different person living a different life?
Scott Stillman (17:13)
No.
You know, I moved from once I got too old for skateboarding and that does unfortunately happen, it hurts too much when you fall. I kind of just…
did what everyone else does in Ohio. Drank too much, partied. That’s really the only thing you do for fun. And if I think back, if I was still there, I would just think about like, I’d be overweight. Drink too much, party too much, eat too much, and probably be miserable because I wouldn’t be living my dream.
Blake Boles (17:34)
Hmm
Hmm. So how long were you-
Scott Stillman (17:53)
But I guess I just did
that job because I didn’t know what else to do.
Blake Boles (17:56)
Yeah, absolutely, it makes sense. And how long were you in that phase of life?
Scott Stillman (18:02)
Let’s see, I’ve probably worked there for five years.
Blake Boles (18:07)
Okay. I mean, that’s significant. didn’t ⁓ pick up any of that in when I was reading a couple of your books. And this is the part that really interests me because I want to know what the first glimmers of change in transition were for you, because there are so many people living some version of loan officer in Ohio, drink too much, party too much. And like, what was your gateway drug?
Scott Stillman (18:09)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
My wife and I finally sat down at the kitchen table. remember this very vividly and I was about to turn 30. My 30th birthday was coming up and I said, if we don’t do something now, it’s never going to happen. We’re just going to get sucked into this suburbia life and I want to explore the world. You know, I have bigger dreams than Ohio. Yeah.
Blake Boles (18:58)
Okay, I’m gonna stop you right there. How did you even get to that point
of saying, I want to explore the world, I have bigger dreams? Like, was it like books or movies or did you have some mentor or friend who inspired you? Cause yeah, yeah.
Scott Stillman (19:09)
It was books. ⁓ I’ve always
been a reader. ⁓ Edward Abbey, John Muir have always been two of my favorite authors. And you read those books and you just want to be there. You just want to be climbing mountains. You just want to be exploring these desert canyons. And I knew they existed, but I knew I couldn’t get to them. And I fell in love with the mountains on a ski trip, a high school ski trip out to Winter Park, Colorado.
Blake Boles (19:22)
Hmm.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Scott Stillman (19:39)
And looking out the window of that train that we took, the Amtrak train, I absolutely fell head over heels in love with the Rocky Mountains. So that planted the seed. And I’ve always had that kind of utopia vision in the back of my mind of, man, wouldn’t it be great to just snowboard every day? So that’s really what was it. When people ask me, why are you moving to Colorado? I said, snowboard. They’re like, well, that can’t be the only reason. I’m like, that is the reason. I want to go snowboarding.
Blake Boles (19:57)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
⁓
If I remember correctly, you did an outward bound trip or semester back in the college years. Is that correct? Yeah, that seems pretty influential.
Scott Stillman (20:14)
I did, yeah. I did, yeah.
Yeah, so I was in college. ⁓
And I was ready to drop out. I was completely disenchanted with all of it. Except the party, and that part was cool. I did like that. But the classes, I would just fall asleep in. It was just so incredibly boring. And I had no interest in any of the careers. So I just started doing research. ⁓ And I found this organization called Outward Bound. And I was like, and they even give college credits for this? OK. I’ll make this part of my curriculum.
So ⁓ I signed up for a three month ⁓ semester long backpacking course with outward bound. ⁓ And that really changed my life more than anything was that trip. It taught me that…
Blake Boles (21:08)
Yeah, you said that this solo was the most intimidating
part, right?
Scott Stillman (21:13)
It was, and it was also the most powerful part because I had never done anything solo and I was scared that I was going to be incredibly bored and I just didn’t know what I would possibly do just sitting by myself for three days. It just sounded like the worst possible punishment you could have. But I journaled and we fasted and ⁓ what came out of me in that journaling
was just this intense connection to Mother Nature. And that as long as I can have this in my life, I can be happy. And it doesn’t cost money. And I think that’s really what it was. Like I don’t have to have money to be happy. All I need is nature and it’s free.
Blake Boles (22:00)
I think that’s a pretty dicey concept that’s worth unpacking. I don’t think we need to spend our time doing that here, but I mean, have you ever had someone push back against you on that idea that accessing nature is free?
Scott Stillman (22:14)
I have, but I don’t quite, I guess I don’t quite understand it because ⁓ yes, you do need money to go into a national park and you do need money to camp at a campground, but those things have never interested me. I have board national parks like they’re the play because they’re so crowded and there’s fees for every single thing you’re trying to do. But just to walk into a BLM land or a national forest does not cost any money. ⁓ And it’s something that I’m very grateful for as an American.
Blake Boles (22:43)
Mm-hmm.
Scott Stillman (22:44)
these things exist and people like John Muir and and Roosevelt and people like that did the things that they did to preserve these lands and to make them but the whole idea was that we need to keep some things free for all Americans and and if we’re not enjoying these things what’s the point in having them is kind of what I’ve always figured.
Blake Boles (22:54)
Mm-hmm.
Hmm. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Well said. Let’s get back to your life story, Scott. I want to see if I get this correctly. You grew up in Ohio. You love skateboarding. Didn’t want to have a normal job. Did some college, but didn’t graduate. and then in your twenties had like more of a normal, I don’t know what else to do except get a job and make money and drink and party, ⁓ work in Ohio. That’s what everyone else is doing. ⁓ but then
Scott Stillman (23:13)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Blake Boles (23:34)
You sat down with your wife at the end of your twenties and you’re like, we got to do something else because I’ve been reading these books by, ⁓ you know, these amazing people who are, and you already had this, this kind of exposure to Colorado and the outward bound trip earlier in your life. And so in your thirties, you were in Colorado and trying to get these jobs, like the sales jobs you mentioned, where you can earn a good amount of money without spending too much time working. So can go outdoors and play in Colorado, which is why you’re there.
Scott Stillman (23:58)
Great.
Blake Boles (24:05)
but it wasn’t until your forties that you kind of entered into this modern stage of life as a writer and a full-time, ⁓ writer, because, ⁓ as you told me, you wrote those words, ⁓ in, for your first book, wilderness gateway to the soul, ⁓ in your early forties. And, ⁓ did I pretty much get this correct? Are those the main deck, decadal phases of your life Scott?
Scott Stillman (24:05)
Right?
Right.
Yes. Yes, I would say you did.
Blake Boles (24:33)
Yeah.
Are there any turning points that I’m missing here? Like watershed moments, literally or figuratively?
Scott Stillman (24:42)
No, you know, it’s always been a journey of how can I make this, how can I make nature even more part of my life? And really that first thing you said in the beginning of this interview is ⁓ how do I walk desert canyons? I’ve been trying to figure this out for half a lifetime. That is, that’s always been at the forefront of all of it. And I think it’s been working my way towards books, writing books.
Blake Boles (25:08)
Hmm.
Hmm.
Scott Stillman (25:09)
because
writing was never the goal. I had no goal to ever be a writer. ⁓ But writing just happened from being out in nature and ended up being the business that led to ultimate freedom. And so I look back at all these things and they were all working their ways towards figuring out writing. They were all pointing me on this path. ⁓
to writing and inspiring other people that yes, they can do these things and it might not be working an insurance job or following the same path that I did or starting off at a bank or selling cars or any of it. And I don’t think any of it that actually even matters. It’s a mindset of I’m going to prioritize lifestyle and I’m going to prioritize freedom and
It’s a philosophy and that’s really what the I Don’t Want to Grow Up book is about. It’s not these are the steps that you do. It’s a philosophy that you can use for any line of work or any phase of your life, whether you have a bunch of money or you have nothing to your name but a credit card like I did. ⁓ It’s possible. It’s 100 % possible for anyone to do this.
Blake Boles (26:27)
Yeah. Yeah. I, I think the reason I love getting into the nitty gritty and even what feels like the boring details and backstory is that, like you said earlier with young people looking at social media posts and saying, ⁓ the only people who can afford to go spend most of their time in nature must be trust fund babies. I feel like with, with pure philosophy, can lead to those sorts of, negative thoughts.
Scott Stillman (26:34)
Sure.
Right.
Blake Boles (26:56)
also. And I think there’s actually something super humanizing about knowing that you had like a full-time bank job and you’re kind of miserable for almost a decade. That’s why I love to do these interviews and to dig into the backstory here. I do want to move on to your modern existence as a writer because what’s pretty clear to me and
Scott Stillman (26:57)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Blake Boles (27:23)
clearly thousands of people who have reviewed your books online, is that you have this ⁓ pretty unique way of describing in basic accessible language, like the experience of, to me, it’s the experience of being a city person going into ⁓ wilderness and feeling this spiritual level connection ⁓ with, ⁓ you mostly are documenting the Western United States in your books, as far as I can tell.
Scott Stillman (27:46)
Mm-hmm.
Correct,
Blake Boles (27:53)
Rockies
Scott Stillman (27:53)
yes.
Blake Boles (27:54)
and West. ⁓ And a lot of what you’ve written, I’m sure you’ve heard this like a bajillion times now, but a lot of what you’ve written is really descriptive of what I have felt in my time in wilderness and have not been able to put so eloquently in such words. ⁓ And so you’re telling me, Scott, that writing was never the goal or the intention, but somehow you were able to put these nature
experiences, these wilderness immersion experiences into very clear writing. like, where did that come about? I feel like this is another question that lots of people want to know, which is like, if you can write like this and you didn’t start as a writer, where did it really gestate?
Scott Stillman (28:30)
Correct.
Yeah.
Yes, so it started ⁓ as an experiment. ⁓
I took photography in college, that was the one thing that I really loved. So I’ve always been into photography. so when I went backpacking, ⁓ I would spend my time, I’d bring my digital SLR camera, and I’d spend a lot of time taking photographs, and I found that very enjoyable. So I was leaving for a solo trip, I would do these solo backpacking trips all the time. Sometimes I went with my wife, sometimes not, but a lot of times not. So told my wife, hey, I’m gonna do an experiment, I’m gonna leave.
the camera at home. She’s like, really? Okay. And I said, yeah, I’m gonna, I’m gonna write about what I see this time. And she’s like, okay, cool. Well, see how it goes. So I did that. I went to the desert. And, ⁓ and I wrote each evening and each morning about my experience. When I came home. ⁓ I read it to her and she was like, yeah, that’s pretty good. You should put it into a like a blog or something.
So, I like, that’s a pretty good idea. So I started a blog. And I started, every time I go on a backpacking trip, I would put my blog posts up. And I ended up bringing the camera eventually too. So I’d have a few photos to go with the things I was writing. And, you know, of course it was friends and family. Probably had a list of 30 people or something on my blog. But I got a lot of encouragement. People seemed to like it. They’d share it, and it grew.
It grew to several hundred people and then several thousand people. And I kept doing this over the years and finally people were like, ⁓ you should put this into a book. And I’m like, nah, I don’t know, this is a book, these are just blog posts.
and people are more more likely to put in a book so i was like well i guess this really if you look at some of the abby stuff in the time your stuff and you know a lot of stuff that they if they have they are journal entries if you look at it and uh… so okay fine i’ll take my journal entries and i’ll put them into a book and i did that and honestly i didn’t think it was that great and it wasn’t that great it really wasn’t but um… i uh… i left this part of my job history out for that but uh…
I ⁓ wanted to know how to publish books. So of course I got online and I started doing research and I even ⁓ I wasn’t this disenchanted with my current job. I don’t remember what it was. But so I found I found a company, a self publishing company. I can’t remember the name of them right now, but there was hiring.
It’s like, this would be great. I can make some money and I can get the inside scoop on how to publish. So I did that. I went and worked for the self-publishing company. It was basically a company that like, if you write a book, you then go to them and they’ll like help you like get editors and they’ll help you format the book and get it on Amazon, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, kind of like that. So,
Blake Boles (31:27)
I love it.
Yeah, a vanity publishing company, yeah.
Scott Stillman (31:45)
I had no idea about any of this. I had no idea how any of this worked. this was a huge learning experience. And so I learned about editors and I started to watch the process where people would send their manuscript in and it’d be crap, right? And then the editor would get it and it’d be pretty decent after the editor was done with it. I’m like, wow, so these editors really do a huge, huge job. So anyways, after working for this, I ended up getting fired.
for this company. The only job I’ve ever actually been fired for, for taking too much time off. So I, ⁓ what I did, it was a work from home position, right? So ⁓ I trained behind the scenes. I didn’t tell them I was doing this. I guess this is why I got fired. But I taught my wife how to do my job as well. So that when I left, she would do it. So I was out on like a two week backpacking trip and my wife was doing the
Blake Boles (32:18)
Really? Please, tell me. Okay.
Scott Stillman (32:45)
the
job that I was supposed to be doing and they found out. And I was like, I got back. like, why do you care? It’s like, she’s doing a great job. You know, I guess I should have told you, but you know, that everything’s happening like it should. Well, they fired me anyways. And then of course, once that manager ⁓ actually, that manager ended up leaving and then the other manager called me and tried to hire me back like a few months later, but I had already moved on. But that’s another story. ⁓ Fact is I learned about publishing and I learned that how you find an editor,
good editor is to interview lots of them. So I reached out to all my favorite authors, Craig Childs, ⁓ several of these other guys. Craig was great. ⁓ And ⁓ they all gave me editor referrals, people that were in my genre. And I finally ended up meeting a woman, ⁓ Emma Murray, who’s been my editor since day one. ⁓
⁓ She was in Boulder, right where I lived, and she met with me and she agreed to be my editor. She was affordable, at least for me, and… ⁓
and I was just, I became just enchanted with the process because my journal entries were scribbling in a notebook and I would type them out and I’d send them off to her and she sent them back with all these red marks all over. You you already said this, you repeated this word 16 times. You know, this needs to be cleaned up, this and that. And together we cleaned up my writing so that it actually sounded, it was good. I thought it was good.
Blake Boles (34:20)
Hmm.
Scott Stillman (34:22)
And I was like, wow, editors, who knew? that’s, anytime I’m talking about people that are like, oh, I want to be a writer, but I don’t know how to write, I’m like, everyone thinks they don’t know how to write. Everyone does. Just write.
write, write, write, write to your heart’s content and then get a good editor and I’ll show you how to do that and together you can make your writing good. And soon as I figure that out, I’m like, I’m gonna do this for the rest of my life because I can just literally write, write, write, write, write and then with a good editor, we can clean it up together so that it flows. And once it has that flow, it’s a beautiful work of art but it doesn’t happen just because of me. You know, that’s Emma.
Blake Boles (34:53)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Scott Stillman (35:07)
using her expertise to turn my thoughts that were just scribbled on a piece of paper into something beautiful. And it’s a pretty neat creative process, to be honest.
Blake Boles (35:19)
I think that’s great that you essentially discovered paid professional editors and that totally convinced you to go down this. I mean, it’s striking to me how the same people who will pay many thousands of dollars for a new piece of outdoor gear or a bike or a vacation, something like that, will not dedicate that same amount of money to editing their own writing or,
professional editor for your videos or whatever your creative output might be. Because somehow it feels like you’re cheating. It’s like, no, now it’s not just me and my original authentic voice. And it’s like, get over yourself. No one out there has some pure original authentic voice that gets no assistance from anyone else. And invest in it. Invest in sharing your thoughts and feelings with the rest of the world. ⁓
Scott Stillman (35:50)
Right, exactly.
Exactly.
Blake Boles (36:15)
It seems to me, Scott, that you are doing for other people what Edward Abbey and John Muir did for you in your 20s, which is trying to open people’s eyes to the beauty of nature and wilderness experience and then to say sometimes more directly, sometimes indirectly, you don’t have to keep living in this kind of miserable, repetitive fashion if that’s what you’re experiencing. You can spend more time.
out here too. It really is possible. It’s accessible. It’s not only for people who are magically rich or lucky. Yeah, that seems to be the message behind a lot of what you post on social media. ⁓ You’re really trying to be an inspiration. Yeah?
Scott Stillman (36:50)
Right.
Yes, yes, I’m trying to do exactly what you said.
Those off, think books are so important. Everything I’ve learned in this life is from books, whether it be nature books, self-help books, Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. It blew my mind when I read that for the first time. It basically just taught me that you can do anything with your life if you set your mind to it. And I find that to be 100 % true. So yeah, if I can help people understand that, there’s the youth of today,
Blake Boles (37:10)
Hmm.
Scott Stillman (37:34)
It’s just, they make me sad because there’s such a I can’t attitude out there right now. And a lot of those are for good reasons. get it. The traditional lifestyle is expensive. Houses are $600,000 now. Car, the average car is $55,000 somewhere in there. ⁓ It’s not, life is expensive the traditional way.
And I think that’s the reason I want to show these young people that there’s a way that’s not traditional. That can be very enjoyable and yet maybe more risky. ⁓ Maybe it’s not ⁓ quite as predictable. But…
you’re not waiting until you’re 65 years old or 55 years old to finally live, you get to live now. And it’s so if I can expire a young person or any person, any person of any age to live their life now rather than waiting to the point where they don’t have the energy and they don’t have the the knees, they don’t have the body to to do the things that they deep down inside their soul, they’re being called to do. Then to me, I’ve succeeded
Blake Boles (38:23)
Yeah.
Scott Stillman (38:46)
a human being.
Blake Boles (38:47)
Hmm.
Hmm. ⁓ we’ve talked a bit about your wife, Valerie, but, ⁓ I’m curious to learn a bit more about her and, and also learn if, you know, she’s been working and if you were like a tool to income household and that enables you to, do all the stuff you’ve been doing. Also, you mentioned that you’ve gone off on a number of adventures while she’s back at home. Is she off on adventures too? Does she go with you? Does she does her, do her own thing? Tell me more about her.
Scott Stillman (38:54)
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
⁓ You know, she’s she’s always been a free spirit and kind of go with the flow kind of girl She
She’s never really had like a career, I guess. ⁓ but she’s had a lot of, she’s had a lot of just random jobs like I have, ⁓ part-time jobs, a couple of full-time jobs. she, she’s always been open to help, to helping me. Like I said, I taught her, taught her how to do the publishing business. I taught her how to do the insurance calls. Like, you know, she’s just kind of open to whatever allows us to keep living this free freedom kind of lifestyle. Cause she’s like me, she loves to be in nature as much as possible.
So she does help now with a lot of my editing. I found out that she is a great editor ⁓ So she will read my books like I’m not even exaggerating maybe 50 times before I Before I publish them And she finds things that the other editors miss so she she helps him with that. She helps it with my social media ⁓ the posting and ⁓
Blake Boles (40:16)
so all those nice
photos and little quotes are not actually you, huh? That’s Valerie.
Scott Stillman (40:22)
You know, a lot of them, most of them is me. ⁓ But she kind of helps, she helps manage it, I should say. Yeah.
Blake Boles (40:28)
alright.
Yeah.
And is she off taking backpacking trips too? You’re pretty clear in your writing that like backpacking is your thing. That’s how you connect with nature. Like what does she do with her time wealth and, and her freedom?
Scott Stillman (40:48)
She’s happy as can be hiking. She goes hiking every single day. We live in Durango, Colorado now where we’re surrounded by absolutely beautiful mountains and hiking trails. So she hikes, she kayaks the river. ⁓ Yeah, does yoga. Goes out with her friends.
Blake Boles (40:50)
Yeah.
Fantastic. So a
bit more of a day adventurer rather than like a multi-night overnight adventurer, which is what you seem to gravitate toward.
Scott Stillman (41:14)
Yeah,
and she’s gone on backpacking trips with me, but I feel like over the years, you know, the ground gets harder, the bugs bite harder, the wind blows harder, all that kind of stuff.
Blake Boles (41:26)
Sure.
And just for the record, do you or Valerie have any family support or any secret income sources that make this possible? Or are you two hacking it out together in the wilderness of American capitalism?
Scott Stillman (41:46)
Yeah, definitely no, no financial ⁓ assistance or trust funds or inheritances or anything like that. All the money I’ve earned, I’ve earned by working by making it. Yeah.
Blake Boles (41:59)
Yeah, yeah.
So do you have much like face-to-face interaction with younger people who are really hungry to learn how to live somewhat alternatively? Or is it mostly through writing or through social media interaction?
Scott Stillman (42:17)
It’s through writing and social media ⁓ interaction. I would like to. And I can see maybe that happening in the future. I think that would be very rewarding to do something like that. ⁓ But, ⁓ you my… ⁓
Blake Boles (42:23)
Yeah.
Scott Stillman (42:34)
My I Don’t Want to Grow Up book blew up on TikTok the last few years. so I have that’s that’s a big reason for some of my recent success. It’s really it’s really blown up in the last couple of years. And that’s from TikTok. And TikTok is a very young audience. I would say I mean, I’m talking daily to anywhere from 16 to 20 year olds and comments. Yeah.
Blake Boles (42:50)
Yeah.
Like through comments or direct messaging?
Comments, yeah.
Scott Stillman (43:02)
Comments, thousands and thousands and thousands of comments, which I agree I do have Valerie help me with. So ⁓ I try to respond to as many of them as I can, but sometimes it might be Valerie. But ⁓ we just want to get back to everybody. And if we can help in any way we do. And if you look at the comments, they’re not just one word comments. We definitely have conversations with these people and try to help them that way.
Blake Boles (43:06)
Huh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I’m curious, what are the biggest questions or practical concerns that you hear through those TikTok comments? And also, what kind of pushback or criticism or what about-ism might you hear from that age group?
Scott Stillman (43:49)
⁓ they love to say this reeks with privilege you’ve probably seen that huh? This reeks of privilege and it’s
Blake Boles (43:56)
Sure. How do you respond to that?
Scott Stillman (44:03)
Sometimes I don’t. ⁓ I’ve came up with this philosophy that I don’t respond to negative comments anymore because a lot of them are what I would call haters and ⁓ the best thing you can do to validate their comments is to respond to them. ⁓ So I just kind of just let them sit. And I find that actually other people will respond instead.
and I found that they come up with some really interesting things that actually even are more helpful than I would come up with. So I kind of just leave the negative comments to the other people in the comment section. And that’s worked really well and it’s just, go ahead.
Blake Boles (44:35)
⁓ like.
Yeah.
⁓ Can you give
me an example of what other people might respond to the privilege critique?
Scott Stillman (44:50)
I love when someone says we’re all privileged. Anyone that lives in the United States is privileged. And I do think that that’s true. And probably in other countries too, but I can’t speak for other countries that I haven’t been to. So I can only speak for the one that I live in. But I think if you live in the United States, you are privileged. Most people have a roof over their heads. Food to eat. What else do we need?
Blake Boles (44:55)
Mm-hmm.
So,
so essentially you’re saying you’re not living in actual destitute poverty. And as long as like your legs function and you can get to a trailhead, then you can do some version of what I’m advocating.
Scott Stillman (45:20)
Right.
And if you’re on TikTok, you’re privileged, right? You have a phone, you have internet. So ⁓ I think that we’re all privileged in that way. ⁓ But what I wonder sometimes they’re saying is that you have family inheritance if you’re that kind of privileged. And obviously I’m not, ⁓ but you can’t just say that in the comments because people will doubt you, right?
Blake Boles (45:54)
Hmm.
And ⁓ yeah. Okay. So tell me about the positive ones or the practical concerns that you’re actually able to address.
Scott Stillman (45:56)
So I just kind of leave those ones alone.
Yeah, so. ⁓
Gosh, there’s so many different comments that come up. I just take them one at a time. ⁓ I try to give people hope. ⁓ There’s a lot of depression, a lot of anxiety with these young people. And ⁓ if I can just give them hope that, there’s another way to live. You don’t have to…
Figure out what you want to be for the rest of your life right now. And I think that’s an immense, that’s immense pressure that kids today have. They think that right now when they’re 18 years old or 17 years old that they have to have their entire life figured out exactly what they’re going to do. And I’ve never had that figured out. I still don’t know what I’m going to do for the rest of my life. I have no idea. But to try to reassure them that they do not have to have that figured out. Take it one day at a time.
and it’s okay not to follow that traditional path.
Blake Boles (47:05)
So I wonder how much of this is related to school and higher education pressures. And especially if you are age 18 and you don’t have parents who can pay for ⁓ higher education, then you’re looking at sizable student loans, in which case the question of what do I want to do, and if by that we mean what do you want to do to make money, ⁓ then that probably does take on a very outsized.
Scott Stillman (47:12)
Yeah, a lot of it is.
right.
right.
Blake Boles (47:32)
importance and must feel very high pressure because if you’re about to take on 20, 30, $40,000 in student loans, then that actually is a very big decision that you don’t want to get wrong. Yeah, I
Scott Stillman (47:36)
right?
yeah, right. And I think
kids today ⁓ shouldn’t jump into that. If you have something, if you want to be a doctor, then you have to go to college, that’s obvious. But if you have no idea what you want to be, then just going to college and not knowing and then curing that student debt, ⁓ I would think twice about that.
Blake Boles (48:07)
I’m on board. That’s what my second book was all about. ⁓ Is there anything else that strikes you as like a big theme of concern among young people who see your posts, who want to be out in nature and wilderness, but they feel this block? ⁓ Is there anything else where you’re like, ⁓ people are really concerned about this thing. It doesn’t seem like a big deal to me, but they sure think it’s a big deal.
Scott Stillman (48:10)
Yeah
right? Start with what you have, you know? Get this whole Sprinter Van mentality, think is really… ⁓ People now think that to enjoy nature you have to have like over a hundred thousand dollars, which is ridiculous. Our first ⁓ earth roaming vehicle was a… ⁓
Blake Boles (48:40)
Mm-hmm.
Scott Stillman (48:54)
early model Toyota Corolla with a roof rack loaded down with kayaks, mountain bikes, backpacking gear in the trunk and ⁓ a jug of water and maybe few cans of denti more beef stew rolling around in the back seat. ⁓ Start with what you have. ⁓ I love reading books about the old… ⁓
ski bum mentality where where people would just move to a ski town with nothing but a sleeping bag and a pair of skis and a beater car and they would just figure it out and I think kids are so afraid to do anything like that now ⁓ to just go somewhere that you want to go with the clothes on your back maybe you know 100 bucks in your wallet whatever and just figure it out once you get there because what you find out you start doing these things and I know you you know this Blake you do figure it
Blake Boles (49:42)
Hmm.
Scott Stillman (49:48)
out. You do figure out how to make it work and how to get a job and how to earn some income and finally meet somebody who needs a roommate. You’re not going to just move there and suddenly move into a $3,000 month apartment and have a job all lined up. But I think that’s what kids think. They think you have to have everything all lined up perfectly before you take that first step.
Blake Boles (50:09)
Hmm. Mm-hmm.
Scott Stillman (50:09)
I say take the first step now. Figure it out
as you get there. Figure it out as you go along. That’s how you It’s like the shortcut to life. It’s just go. Just go. Figure it out once you get there.
Blake Boles (50:15)
Yeah.
Hmm.
I like it. I agree. ⁓ Scott, I would be remiss if I did not probe you on some specific wilderness areas that are dear to you. And I remember ⁓ reading that you consider that the desert, the high desert, canyon country area between Moab and Hanksville, Utah, to be the creme de la creme.
Scott Stillman (50:48)
Yeah.
Blake Boles (50:51)
in terms of wilderness? Does that title still hold for that area? Because that’s a nice specific thing that people can go ⁓ Google. And if it’s not the top contender anymore, do you have any other specific wilderness areas where you just think like, man, it does not get any better than this?
Scott Stillman (50:52)
Mm-hmm.
⁓ yeah, I Utah it’s It’s like at one hand you don’t want to tell anyone about it. But at the same on the on the other hand, there’s There’s so many canyons There’s so many canyons and I still go into these these canyons. I was just on a backpacking trip last week walked into a canyon and I’m not talking about a popular one that you’re gonna
Blake Boles (51:19)
Exactly.
Scott Stillman (51:36)
you’re going to find on the internet. I’m just talking about any canyon. You can still walk into a canyon in Utah and not see anyone for days, probably even weeks. And to me, that’s true adventure. these are on BLM lands or wilderness areas where there’s not advanced reservations, there’s not permits, there’s not ⁓ fees. You can go have a real adventure, very similar to the way people did hundreds
Blake Boles (51:47)
Hmm.
Scott Stillman (52:06)
of years ago and you can do that today. To me that is true wilderness and it does require some adventurous spirit and some safety of course of letting someone know where you’re going and ⁓ not ended up dead in the desert but you can truly have a wilderness experience in these canyons of Utah ⁓ if you play it safe.
Blake Boles (52:07)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
I agree and I my friends in Europe that the most underrated part of the US is a canyon country in Utah and Northern Arizona, maybe even Western Colorado. They don’t have the big glitzy national parks, aside from maybe arches you might’ve heard of. And you can go out there and immediately there’s no cell phone service. You’re on your own. It would be the same as if you were there 300 years ago.
Scott Stillman (52:45)
Yeah.
Of course.
Blake Boles (53:02)
And good luck to you, be careful. But it’s beautiful and very few people talk about it, very few people go there. ⁓ Great.
Scott Stillman (53:05)
Yeah.
And
even if you just like hike into a canyon for a mile.
Like it doesn’t have to be this great big excursion. I’ve gone on backpacking trips where I’ve literally backpacked in for a few miles, set up camp and not left for three days. Just meditating, soaking in nature, riding, reflecting on life and watching the buzzards soar. So it doesn’t have to be some big 2,500 mile through hike. It can literally just be even a day hike into a canyon with a backpack and a bag of nuts.
Blake Boles (53:28)
Yeah.
Hmm.
Scott Stillman (53:46)
and that can be your adventure and it can be great.
Blake Boles (53:50)
And unlike ⁓ one of the established thru-hiking trails, there’s not the accumulated feces of thousands of other people along the one same minuscule corridor, the one trail to rule them all. That’s right. You can have your own little canyon out there in Utah. All right, give me ⁓ one other area. How about this? One other underrated wilderness area.
Scott Stillman (53:58)
Yeah, the one trail yeah, yeah, yeah
Blake Boles (54:16)
that you’ve run into out there. I know you’re not gonna give us your absolute favorite, because you probably don’t wanna talk about that publicly. Give us your second favorite one. ⁓ Yeah, blow my mind, Scott.
Scott Stillman (54:23)
I mean really any wilderness
any wilderness area the ⁓ Eagle Cap wilderness in Oregon go there Eastern Oregon Eastern Oregon yeah, yes, yes ⁓ I’ve only been there once but it was absolutely astoundingly beautiful and ⁓
Blake Boles (54:34)
I’ve never heard of that. Which part of Oregon is that?
Okay, nice. Like East of Bend?
Yeah.
Scott Stillman (54:51)
There are, if you go by the lakes, you’re gonna see people, because people love lakes. But ⁓ if you don’t and you don’t wanna camp by a lake, you can find total solitude out there as well. But there’s so many, don’t just go there. I mean, any place in Idaho, any wilderness area in Idaho is gonna be fantastic. Montana, ⁓ you can find solitude for weeks out in these places.
Blake Boles (55:15)
And do you have any trips coming up later this year, 2026, that you’re especially excited about?
Scott Stillman (55:27)
⁓ you know, I don’t have them really planned. We just went to Indonesia. So I’m starting to do more. I’m wanting to do more international travel. So we’re in Indonesia for a month ⁓ and I’m really starting to fall in love with the ocean more and the wilderness, the vast wilderness of the ocean where you can also find solitude for days and days and days. ⁓ So I’m getting more into a sport called wing foiling.
Blake Boles (55:51)
Hmm.
Scott Stillman (55:56)
which is ⁓ it’s like windsurfing with a hydrofoil and ⁓ so i’m starting to think about doing more ocean exploration and really connecting more with the ocean so i don’t really don’t really know i plan to train to plan my trips last minute so there’ll probably be many of these trips in 2026 but nothing nothing is planned yet but it will probably be somewhere tropical
Blake Boles (56:22)
And if I’m correct, Scott, you’ve got eight books out there kicking around in the world. And do you have any others that you’re working on?
Scott Stillman (56:34)
⁓ I have lots of ideas. I always have a ton of ideas for books I have not landed on what what the next book is going to be yet But I will say my last book came out last September. So it’s still pretty new that’s my introvert book and about solitude as a ⁓ as a path to as a gateway to creative genius and ⁓ so I’m still kind of just
Blake Boles (56:59)
Hmm.
Scott Stillman (57:05)
kicking back after writing that book and trying to do little bit more marketing on that one. that’s where some of my efforts are.
Blake Boles (57:11)
And how much time do you spend doing book marketing or maybe you and Valerie combined in an average week Scott? Does that take up a lot of your time?
Scott Stillman (57:18)
Yeah.
It depends on what you mean by that, I spend about two hours a day on book marketing.
Blake Boles (57:28)
Okay, cool. But that’s pretty much your work, right? Aside from the actual writing.
Scott Stillman (57:33)
That
is my work. And my writing, I’m not your typical writer where I sit down and I write every day. I go for weeks without writing anything. I mainly write while I’m out in nature around the trail. ⁓ So I don’t write every day like a fiction writer might.
So I spend, really, that really only, that really is my only work ⁓ is that two hours a day I spend in the morning on social media. And I find that that works well. And then once I’m editing, might spend, heck, I might spend five, six, seven, eight hours a day when I’m editing a book. But that only goes on for maybe a month.
Blake Boles (57:55)
Yeah.
Hmm. And one more practical question for you, which is, you find it harder to go away on longer backpacking trips or wilderness excursions now that you have a minor social media empire to maintain? Do you feel more tethered to the computer?
Scott Stillman (58:34)
⁓ I try to be very conscious of that and I don’t let it interfere. So if I want to go on a backpacking trip, I just go. And the social media is going to be there when I get back and I don’t care that I didn’t do anything for a few days. But the days that I’m home, I do work every day just because I’m home and why not? I mean, I’m here, but no, I would say not. I don’t let it interfere because that’s still my number one goal in life is that freedom.
Blake Boles (58:48)
Hmm.
Hmm.
Scott Stillman (59:03)
and
that will never change.
Blake Boles (59:05)
think that’s a good place to end. If people want to find you and you’re writing online, Scott, where should they go? What should they check out?
Scott Stillman (59:14)
Yeah, so it’s pretty easy just to Google Scott Stillman and everything will come up that way. Or you can go to my blog, scottstillmanblog.com and all my books are there. ⁓ I also have a growing Substack group, I guess I could mention. So if you want to look at me up on Substack. ⁓
Blake Boles (59:24)
Fantastic.
Yeah, was going to say substack both
following your official newsletter there, but also following your substack account because you do a lot of substack notes that seem pretty popular.
Scott Stillman (59:44)
Yeah, my niece recommended Substack to me a while back. I’m like, okay, I’ll check it out. And I just, on a whim, just signed up and started posting some stuff and…
Substack’s pretty cool. It really is. It’s much more reader, like writing, like real actual writing. It’s not all this political BS that you see on Facebook and sites like that. It really seems tailored to writing. So I’ve kind of embraced that. I really like Substack and the people that are on there.
Blake Boles (1:00:00)
Yeah.
Hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, good.
Well, I look forward to interacting with you online Scott and maybe crossing paths out in Durango or someplace in the wilderness someday soon.
Scott Stillman (1:00:26)
All right, Blake. Thank you. All righty.
Blake Boles (1:00:28)
It’s been a pleasure, thanks Scott.