How Alex Boylan Built The College Tour and Traveled the World With Nothing

Summary

Podcast Summary

Podcast: The Determined Society with Shawn French
Episode: How Alex Boylan Built The College Tour and Traveled the World With Nothing
Host: Shawn French
Guest: Alex Boylan (Emmy-winning producer, "Amazing Race" winner, creator of "The College Tour")
Date: February 2, 2026

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Overview:

This episode features an in-depth conversation with Alex Boylan about resilience, purpose-driven creativity, and the life experiences that molded him—from a modest upbringing to winning "The Amazing Race" and pioneering educational media with "The College Tour." The discussion also delves into Boylan’s memoir, The Miles That Make You, lessons in discomfort, global travel, and the realities of higher education today. The tone is raw, heartfelt, and motivational, punctuated by meaningful life advice and memorable personal stories.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights:

1. Roots and Resilience

• Alex’s Humble Beginnings
  • Alex opens up about growing up with little money and shopping for clothes at the Goodwill church closet.
  • He emphasizes not being defined by your start:
    • “We can’t control that. It’s life. Get over it. ... This is a set of circumstances you were born with. What are you going to do now?” (01:22, Alex)

2. Birth of "The College Tour"

• Necessity as the Mother of Invention
  • The idea sprang from his niece, Isabel, facing the common barrier of not being able to visit multiple college campuses.
  • Realized there was no authentic platform for prospective students to virtually experience campus life:
    • “Most ideas I’ve done...were like, oh that looks cool, that sounds fun. This was born out of a real problem.” (02:59, Alex)
  • Decided to create a show, letting real students tell their campus stories.
  • Authenticity is fundamental:
    • “Every single first draft of the college tour of that student story is written by the actor...Because if you pull that out, then it’s a bunch of marketing speech. That’s not real.” (06:39, Alex)

3. True Impact: Family and Audience

• Alex’s niece discovered and leveraged the ASU-Starbucks scholarship via the show—ultimately earning her master’s debt-free (08:04–08:40).
• “Not because of College Tour? It was exactly because of the College Tour.” (09:03, Shawn)
• The show is described as "infotainment"—a utility and value-driven program aiding students’ decisions (09:35).

4. Is College Still Worth It?

• Alex addresses the evolving debate around higher education and trade schools:
  • “Is it crazy to be living in society today where we’re asking if education is worth it?” (11:01, Alex)
  • Shares personal and statistical insights:
    • More education equates to higher pay and job security (12:17–12:47).
  • College isn’t for everyone—the right path could be a trade school, community college, or university.
  • Alex highlights value, ROI, and personal responsibility in educational choices, e.g., some community colleges even pay students to enroll (21:44).

5. Fulfillment Beyond Achievement

• The value of completing difficult things:
  • “When you start something, you finish it...The important thing is to see something to completion.” (22:24, Shawn)
  • College as a bridge to independence and community—a transformative experience with broader opportunities now than decades ago (23:04–23:56).

6. Travel, Adventure, and Discovery

• Winning "The Amazing Race"

  • Life-changing adventure that introduced Alex to television production (24:04–25:55).
  • Sparked an epiphany:
    • “These young other 25-year-old producers...I was like, wait, you get paid to do what you’re doing?” (25:38, Alex)

• "Around the World for Free"

  • The genesis: a raw, serendipitous encounter with locals in El Salvador led to the idea of traveling globally without money, relying on kindness and online connections (27:55–31:21).
  • Emphasized universal goodness:
    • “99% of the population on planet Earth is good...they all want to do the same thing, break some bread, share some stories, learn about each other’s culture.” (34:29, Alex)
  • Numerous stories illustrating trust, discomfort, and transformative travel (bus journey from Caracas to Lima, living with monks, etc., 34:12–36:40).

7. Comfort in Discomfort & Staying in the Game

• Lessons from travel and production:
  • Becoming “comfortable being uncomfortable” and thriving when challenged (37:18–37:57).
  • “One foot in front of the other...Half of it is just staying in the game.” (38:00–38:58, Alex)
  • Both host and guest resonate with the idea: progress and creativity thrive outside your comfort zone (39:31–40:24).

8. Parenting, Adversity, and The Weight of the Backpack

• Discusses instilling resilience in children—letting them face just enough challenge (“weight in the backpack”) to build their threshold for future adversity (43:33–44:31).
• Anecdotes about entrepreneurial hustle (selling advent calendars for a trip to Brazil), the importance of communication, and developing social intelligence (46:18–48:58).
• Emotional intelligence and learning from mistakes—embracing failures as crucial growth (49:56–50:16).

9. Motivation Behind the Memoir

• The personal why:
  • Alex initially toyed with writing a book for career reasons but ultimately wrote The Miles That Make You for his parents (legacy) and son (guidance/love) (53:17–57:00).
  • “If three people read it, my parents and my son, I’ll call it a win.” (57:31, Alex)
  • Describes his process as selfless, anchored in service to family connection.
  • Deep gratitude when his mother called after reading it twice, fully seen and valued (58:29–58:53).

10. Chasing Experience, Not Just End Goals

• Alex eschews rigid "end goals" in favor of pursuing excitement, learning, service, and the richness of life.
  • Dreams include expanding The College Tour, building a Costa Rican bed and breakfast, but ultimately:
    • “I love living, Shawn. Like, I love it. ... I just want to keep chasing...how do I do this on the back nine?” (59:51–61:14, Alex)
• Shawn affirms the importance of “learning to love to live” in this era of widespread mental health issues and comparison culture (61:50–62:58).

11. The Value of In-Person Connection & Digital Minimalism

• Alex advocates intentional breaks from technology—forwarding his phone number to a basic Nokia on weekends, using tech as a tool, and fostering face-to-face connection (66:31–67:44).
  • “When you come to the bar, talk to the person...Pick your head up. Life is here going on.” (67:32–67:39, Alex)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments:

• “It’s not about the weight of the backpack you start with. It’s about what you do with it, how you carry it, where you take it, and who you become along the way.”
  — Alex Boylan’s memoir, read and discussed at multiple points (00:58, 40:44)

• “This is a set of circumstances you were born with. What are you going to do now?”
  — Alex Boylan (01:22)

• “99% of the population on planet Earth is good...they all want to do the same thing, break some bread...learn about each other’s culture.”
  — Alex (34:29)

• "Every single first draft...is written by the actor...Because if you pull that out, then it’s a bunch of marketing speech. That’s not real."
  — Alex (06:39)

• “I got really comfortable being uncomfortable. ... I thrive is when I’m a little nervous...That’s magical.”
  — Alex (37:56)

• “If three people read [the book], I’ll call this...all worth it: my parents and my son.”
  — Alex (57:31)

• “I love living, Shawn. Like, I love it. ... I just want to keep chasing...”
  — Alex (59:51–61:14)

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Important Timestamps:

• Alex's origin story and philosophy: 01:22–01:56
• How "The College Tour" began: 02:59–04:55
• Authenticity in student storytelling: 06:39–07:44
• College worth it? Cultural perspectives: 11:01–12:47
• Trade schools and diverse educational paths: 21:44–22:10
• "Amazing Race" impact on career: 24:04–25:55
• The "Around the World for Free" genesis: 27:55–31:21
• Philosophy of universal goodness: 34:29
• Developing comfort in discomfort: 37:18–40:24
• Parenting, adversity, and self-definition: 43:33–44:31
• Memoir motivation and legacy: 53:17–58:53
• Living for experience: 59:51–61:14
• In-person connection & digital breaks: 66:31–67:44

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Takeaways for New Listeners:

• Expect a blend of travel tales, deep self-reflection, and actionable wisdom.
• Alex’s journey demonstrates how adversity, adaptability, and creative risk lead to genuine fulfillment and impact.
• The importance of authenticity—whether producing media, raising kids, or writing a legacy—is at the heart of both his story and advice.
• "The College Tour" isn’t just a show; it’s a life/design tool for students and a model for purpose-driven creation.

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Resources Mentioned:

• The Miles That Make You by Alex Boylan
  • Available: alexboylan.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble
• The College Tour TV series — thecollegetour.com

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Final Words:
Alex and Shawn’s conversation is a thoughtful, sometimes vulnerable dialogue about pursuing meaning, embracing discomfort, and focusing on service to others. Filled with anecdotes, it’s both a masterclass in curiosity and a gentle nudge for listeners: love living and keep moving, regardless of the weight of your "backpack."

Transcript

[Sean]

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[Alex Boylan]

Yeah, right.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

Thanks.

[Sean]

That's heavy.

[Alex Boylan]

So I open this book of like being with my mom. Like I didn't know what new clothes were. I might cry. We had zero money. I would go into the Goodwill closet of the church, you know, I mean, where people like donate stuff. I would do my own shopping there with my mom not having money growing up. It was awesome. This is where I came from. Don't feel bad for me. We can't control that. It's life. Get over it. Right? Well, you can control. This is where you are right now. This is a set of circumstances that you were born with. What are you going to do now? What are the moves you're making in life to, you know, hopefully be fulfilled, hopefully make this planet leave it better than you found it.

[Sean]

That's amazing. What's up, everybody? We're back today with another amazing story. I have my good friend Alex Boylan here with me today who is the founder and creator of the college tour. He won Amazing Race too. He's an Emmy award winning producer, amazing human and again done so many amazing things. He's recently come out with a book called the Miles that make you. We'll touch on that today. We're going to hear his story and there's some good things on the back of the Book that I want to read you because I want to get your perspective of it for the. For the audience here. But, man, welcome to the show.

[Alex Boylan]

Thanks for having me. Congratulations on the show.

[Sean]

Thank you.

[Alex Boylan]

Everything you built here, this is not easy to get what you built here.

[Sean]

Well, coming for an honor, that means a lot coming from you. Because I look at you, I'm like, wow, this guy's doing what I want to do, right? Streaming, you know, 16 seasons now of the college tour. And, you know, that was born during COVID So let's start there with. With that journey. What spurred that? I mean, I know the answer, but the audience. What spurred the college tour? In the creation.

[Alex Boylan]

It's. It's a good story. I mean, the college tour. Each episode tells the story of a different, you know, college through the lens of its students. I've never created a show. This is the first one, by far the most successful out of a real problem. Most ideas that I've done is my background's mostly travel, adventure shows. And it was like, oh, that looks cool. That sounds fun. This was. So my niece, she's from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, names Isabel Paul Nasik, and she gets one trip to go take a look at college campuses. So I live in Venice Beach. What does she say? She's like, I want to see Uncle Alex in Venice Beach. So she comes out to la, and we have this awesome week. We're going around. I haven't thought about college since I was in college.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

And so we're going to ucla, Loyal, Maryland, all these different institutions at the end of the week. And she's there with my sister, her mom, and she goes, okay, I want to go look at some schools in Boston where you and my mom grew up. I want to look at some schools in Florida, like any normal high school kid wants to go travel the country to look at college campuses. And I'll never forget my. My older sister Andrea sitting there. She's like, what do you think we're made of money? Like, I don't know. You know, I can't afford to, like, take you anywhere else. I said, one trip. This is it, Isabel. And so, obviously, that stuck with me. I'm sitting here watching, you know, you're watching your own niece. You want the best for her. And so I go, why don't we get together once a week? This will be an uncle niece, like, cool project, and let's unpack and try to figure out where you're supposed to go to school. And we'll do this virtually, right? Like, over zoom. And I'm like 10 minutes into trying to figure this out, I'm like, where the hell do I go? I think was 4,000 institutions, everyone telling their story in different types of ways, whether it's slick commercials, websites with more content than you could possibly like figure out, social media. And so we think in television in terms of formats. Right. So I was like, oh man, what if there was a tv? Could we bring the campus to these students and create this television show? And so it's very, very early on I saw the shelf and it's usually, I'm sure with you too, it's like when you kind of see, I can already see it from the beginning of, of seeing this problem of how we'll make this show. So that was it. We set off with this one mission. Let's find real stories, real students, put those on, you know, make that into a show.

[Sean]

And that's amazing.

[Alex Boylan]

Boom, it worked. So, and it's hard, you know, because media work, it's, it's not easy to get something to work, you know, it's not. And most people, people see the successes, they don't realize all the other things that took to get there. So I'm, you know, the older I get, the more I appreciate success. And, and this was, this was been a fun one is it's really cool.

[Sean]

Because the thing that I really enjoy because I've watched some episodes.

[Alex Boylan]

Right.

[Sean]

Is how you bring the student culture to the production so they can, they can articulate what they love about the school.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

To the prospective viewers and potential college students. They get to see the conversations with, you know, the president, get to look at the campus and see if it's a fit for them. Because I think a lot of times when you think about going somewhere, you show up and you're like a fish out of water. Like this doesn't look familiar to me. So I feel the college tour does also provide that for these prospective college students. Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

Appreciate that. Yeah, definitely. Well, think about what happens. And I've done a bunch of actual going on college tours now. A lot of it has. Think about your like a tip, let's just take the. I know there's people re careering, all different people going on to higher education. But let's just take the average high school student. You show up on campus and you're going to get a tour either with a group of people or maybe even potentially one on one in certain circumstances. Certain circumstances, the personality of that person taking the tour. Right. And the personality of the person giving the tour, that's huge of how someone's going to feel. Right. And when you think about that. So we take that away. I mean, with this show, you're typically going to see 10 different student stories. So through those 10 different faces and people, you really should get the culture of a place. And no, I have no problem pulling open up the hood of how we make this show. And this is one thing that we've done since episode one till now, over 200 episodes, the first draft of the script. So imagine we're working with the institution. What stories are we going to tell? Let's go, Cassie. Students. We approach this like any other show. Once that students cast it, it's like, okay, cool, we're going to have you tell the story of engineering. Right. The first draft of that script. Instead of like the school's in there, a bunch of producers are on top of it. It's like, take your time. Here's our kind of format. So you get an idea, write your story down. And so every single first draft of the college tour of that student story is written by the actor. I like that. Yeah. Because if you pull that out, then it's a bunch of marketing speech or it's. That's not real. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so we have stayed very, very true to that, like way we make the show. And then of course, producer come in. How are we going to bring this to life? And the school's coming, so there's lots of people kind of putting their hands in the pot to make this episode afterwards. But the core of that story is.

[Sean]

The actual students and the authenticity is very clear when you're watching these episodes. Right. It doesn't seem like this is played up or anything like that. These are real experiences from these kids.

[Alex Boylan]

That's exactly why we do it that way.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

These 17 year olds are going to see right through it. If all of a sudden this is just a bunch of like, this is just a video put together, a bunch of marketing speech from the institution. That's not going to work. That's not what we set off to do. We just set off to. Let's find great stories and great students and let's just like bring those stories to light. But let's make sure it's real.

[Sean]

That's bad.

[Alex Boylan]

Ask. Yeah.

[Sean]

Quick question. Where does your niece end up?

[Alex Boylan]

Oh, great. Follow up question. Okay. So at the time in season one, Amazon was allowing us to drop episodes as they came. Now we drop as seasons. Anyway, so episode three, Arizona State University. At this point, I'm Telling Isabelle, I'm like, hey, watch the show. No more meeting with Alex and doing zooms. Just watch the show and you. Hopefully you can figure this out. So episode three, Arizona State University, we're telling the story of this young woman who has this full ride via the Starbucks program scholarship that ASU and Starbucks do. So my niece is watching that. She's like, I work at Starbucks. She looks into it, gets a full ride to ASU from the Starbucks program.

[Sean]

Holy shit.

[Alex Boylan]

And she ends up graduating with her masters from asu, all full ride. Not because of college touring like that, because of her watching the show and learning about the institution. And then my nephew, her older brother, ends up transferring from one school in Wisconsin over to Grand Canyon, episode six. So I knew from my own family early on, right? Like, I'm watching them pick schools that are on the show. I'm like, oh, this thing's going to work.

[Sean]

I'm going to tell. I'm going to challenge you on something that you said. Not because of the college tour. Yeah, it was exactly because of the college tour.

[Alex Boylan]

Okay, what's right?

[Sean]

Think about that. Like, where she ended up and how it happened, right? It's like you're providing this value. And she learned something about the Starbucks programs, like, wait a second, I work at Starbucks?

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

And now she has her master's and bachelor's from that institution.

[Alex Boylan]

That's badass, dude.

[Sean]

And then your nephew, you said, utilized, you know, episode six or whatever to. To that look cool, dude. That's amazing to me.

[Alex Boylan]

So that.

[Sean]

That's true impact.

[Alex Boylan]

Exactly. I mean, I think that's. I mean, I always try to say, like, what kind of show is the college tour? It's almost like infotainment, right?

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

At the end, end of the day, we built this as a utility show. This job was. There's this. Yeah, we hope we entertain you, but this job is to give you information to help you make a better decision in life.

[Sean]

It's value based, man. It's big.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

You know, there's a lot of things circulating now. I mean, when I went to college, you know, I went because I was a baseball player. And the only way I was able to graduate is because if I wasn't eligible, I couldn't play baseball. And, you know, out at lsu, you have the College World Series hanging over your head every single year. So you want to be a part of that.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

You don't want to miss out on going to Omaha. And then now with social media and all these creators and, you know, there's Podcasts, there's TV shows, there's reality shows and people are becoming famous for just being famous now.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

And so there's a lot of debate I would, I should say on, is college even worth it? We also have all these massive blue collar jobs that are paying a lot of money. And I, I've heard some statistics and I don't know if they are 100% accurate, but out of college, you know, Average salary is 60 to 62,000. You go to trade school, right. And you become a high skill plumber or welder out of the gate, you're looking at 80, 85. So there's a lot of people saying like, I don't know if college is that important anymore. Yeah. But in your mind, is college worth it?

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah, great question. To me, it's crazy and I in the press, I get that question all the time. Just my position at the college tour, it's crazy. I think in today's society here in 2026, right. That we're asking that question. And by the way, my older sister who's, you know, the mom of Isabel, she has her masters and she was asking that same question when she said too. So this is happening across the board, she's like, should you really go to school? Is it worth it? Is it crazy to be living in society today where we're asking if education is worth it?

[Sean]

It is pretty.

[Alex Boylan]

Go back a couple of generations ago, 1800s, it's like less than 10% of the population was educated. It was like for the elitist class right after World War II. It's still not that much. Go to the 70s. It's like one out of five people had a degree in something. So I think it's funny that we're asking like so to me, in my humble opinion, like, yeah, like everyone, we especially the, where the, where the world is going. Yeah. We need an educated class. This is why America's amazing. We're able to push in so many different industries. All that being said, what is right for you? And I think that's where the college tour came in. It's like to us, the way I look at higher education, we've probably done 30 community colleges, we've probably done 15 trade schools. Right. So yes, we're telling the story of University of Oregon, ASU that have brand recognition like lsu.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

But to me, and what even gets me sometimes like really excited, these schools no one's ever heard of before. So to me it's all about if you go to business, labor of statistics, right. This, this is government data. Let's assume that it's all correct. For every piece of paper you get, your income goes up. Let's just start with high school. If you graduate high school your chance, you're going to make more money than the person who doesn't graduate high school. You can go into certificate, associate's degree, trade school, just way up to your doctorate. You're going to, on average make more money and you're going to have a less chance of being unemployed. Just the simple fact of being educated.

[Sean]

That's pretty cool, right?

[Alex Boylan]

It's a hard one to argue.

[Sean]

Hey, look, man, I don't disagree. I. I can tell you from my perspective, and I think it's the amount of value you get out of college is based on every person, right? For me, it, it was more about connections and leverage, right? Coming from LSU baseball, you know, the networking with the alumni, former big leaguers, and, and when someone would see LSU baseball, my resume, right? College World series participant, it was like. So for me it was, it was worth it. Did I learn everything that I needed to learn? No, because I was stupid and was more interested in going to the Tiger Bar and tailgating and, you know, having the fun stuff that, that came along with being an LSU baseball player. And I look back at it now and for all the parents and, you know, the young kids listening, I regret every minute of not taking my education more seriously. Hey guys, we're gonna take a quick break and we're going to slide into our recovery segment brought to you by therabody. 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[Alex Boylan]

I mean, I'm in the same boat as you. Okay. My college experience. Yeah, no, but I think like, when you really zoom out and this is where we are so blessed to be in this country, everyone. There's almost 4,000 institutions. So to me, that goes into a personal responsibility category of obviously for me, I went up to Jackson University and played soccer and that was right for me. And between myself and my family and scholarship and all that, I couldn't make that. That, that decision made sense. Okay. And so to me, what's cool about this country and what we should be celebrating about higher education. Hey, whether it's you or your family or scholarships and you're going to go afford 100 grand a year at some institution. Sounds great. Hey, if you're someone else that needs to like. Community colleges are amazing system. Sometimes the exact same professors that are at the big schools anyway and that they offer for a service for that community so you can get educated and become a productive member of society and then everything in between. So to me that goes into what we should be having a conversation is like, do some math. If your job is gonna on average make you 45 grand or 50 grand a year and you just spent a half a million dollars on that education, that's not a good roi. No, it's not a good spend that to me, goes into personal responsibility. There's a, there's a, there's a product out there. And it's up to us as, you know, the people who are deciding, the people that are guiding those decisions, figure out what is the right product for you. Right. What's the right institution for me. So I think the. What we should be celebrating. How cool is it that you can go to trade school? You know, like that that's available to you. There's community colleges. There's. There's a community college in Southern California that we did an episode on. They'll pay you if you have.

[Sean]

Which one?

[Alex Boylan]

I believe it's called Santiago Canyon College.

[Sean]

Okay.

[Alex Boylan]

And Santa Ana, I believe, has a college. But there, it's like, if you carry 16 credits, they will pay you to go to school there because they did the math that that community and was like, for someone not having, you know, a degree over someone having a degree is better to like, let's. Let's pump this. It's encourage students to go to school so they can come out and, you know, pay taxes and, and Pay that money back into society so.

[Sean]

And not be poor while they're doing it.

[Alex Boylan]

Exactly. So I think there's a. There's a lot. That's what I said. There's a million pathways to higher education. Hopefully college tours. Taking a small crack out of telling those stories.

[Sean]

That's awesome, man. You know it, it. When you look at it like that.

[Alex Boylan]

Right.

[Sean]

And break it down the way you did.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

It is a requirement. I mean, definitely go get educated. And I think there's. I think for me too, builds these habits where when you start something, you finish it. No matter the process in between it, how bad it gets, how heavy it is.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

The good days, the bad days. The important thing is to see something to completion. And I think a lot of people nowadays aren't seeing things to completion enough.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah. Couldn't agree more. And I think for, you know, once again I'm just, I'll just talk about myself for, for a second. Going to school, maybe it was similar to yours. There was at that era of going to school, it was, it was this bridge from being at home or. You know what I mean, not being as independent to being like fully independent.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

And people forget that. And another thing that I think we don't talk about enough. And I'll use my alma mater as an example here. Jacksonville University. The college experience. And I'm obviously there's lots of different pathways, but the traditional, the lsu, the Jacksonville universities, not that they're exact same school here. The ex. There's probably 250 clubs you can join a ju now there's a beach on campus. They just put in this like Vegas style pool. There's this awesome boathouse bar. So the college experience now at the institution I went to, it's a lot more expensive to go to JU now than it was when I went back in the day. But. But guess what? That experience is ten times better too. Sometimes people forget that. That's where I once again I say like find the right path for you. But you know, you know, I think there was probably like six clubs at JU when I went in the 90s. Right now there's like 300 to choose from. So I think the experience is a lot different. And you know, it's awesome.

[Sean]

Community is important, man.

[Alex Boylan]

Exactly.

[Sean]

Community is very, very important. So. All right, let's shift a little bit here. All right. Amazing Race too. Yeah. You won it, dude.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

That's a wild thing. I told you last night. My dad and his wife was in. They were in season 21 and I think they went to five countries and, and you know, they, they bowed out. But, you know, what was that experience like for you?

[Alex Boylan]

It's amazing. Bad enough. Bad. Bad choice of words. But that's it. Yeah. No punishment there. It's, it was, I mean, it changed the trajectory of my life. And so, like, to me, it was a very. Prof. Season two. Like, I didn't even know what the show was when I was getting cast on the show. So it hadn't aired yet. But imagine you're getting, especially back then, you're getting to do your. There's probably a thousand people, production people to pull off the Amazing Race around the world.

[Sean]

Wow.

[Alex Boylan]

Back then, I don't know exactly what the budget was per episode, but my guess, it's between a million, two million bucks an episode. So you're getting to do that. I mean, we were the first people that ever rappelled on Sugarloaf Mountain in Brazil. You know what I mean? So you're going to do these just monumental adventures and experiences. That money, you can never pay for it a million years unless you got the power of like CVS buying.

[Sean]

Yeah, right.

[Alex Boylan]

So, so that aspect, the adventure was, you know, second to none. That's cool. Amazing. But like the, it was interesting because I, I was kind of lost a little bit. Before Amazing Race, I'd quit my corporate job. I ended up in the Caribbean. I was kind of like, where am I supposed to be in life? And some because I'm about 24 years old and, and the reason why I kind of pivoted my life in this positive direction. Imagine I'm this kid trying to figure out where I'm, what I'm supposed to do, where I'm supposed to work. I hated the corporate world.

[Sean]

I hated it. Right? You mean both.

[Alex Boylan]

And, and here I am, all these like Young, other 25 year old producers running around the world asking me questions, doing jobs. And I was like, wait, you get paid to do what you're doing? I was like, what is this? You know, because back then I was never exposed to it, right? And they're like, oh, I'm a producer. I'm like, well, what does a producer do? This looks awesome.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

And so for me, yes, I wanted to win. I'm competitive. But it was all about like, that gave me the opportunity. I saw a job. I was like, oh, I'm gonna do that for the rest of my life. Whatever these travel producers are doing. That looks awesome. And I've been chasing that high, Sean, to this day.

[Sean]

See, that's what's Amazing to me. And that's what I really respect about you because you said you were lost. You're in the Caribbean. You kind of like, what am I gonna do with my life? And you took an opportunity to take a risk and go do the show, but you found what you love.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

And that's why I always, like, I talk to my kids and I talk to people that. But I mentor a little bit. Like, don't judge any situation.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Go in there and just be present because you don't know what's going to come out of it. You built your whole career based on that.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah. Lots of great advice on what you just said. Right. It's like sometimes you find your. Some of the best opportunities in my life from college tour because I was like, kind of down and out before college tour. Like, you know, if you've been in the entertainment business long enough, most people aren't riding out here. It's just kind of roller.

[Sean]

I feel like. I feel like I spend most of my time here.

[Alex Boylan]

I mean, listen, me too. I mean, like, it's this roller coaster. And most people have really been in the trenches for long periods of time. Will tell you the exact same thing. Very few people are just, like, hanging at this, like, certain level. So. But every time in the bottom of a trough is when something like I was in the bottom of trough of life. An Amazing Race hit. You know, I was kind of covered. Was hitting, you know, this past business I was working on. What's the show was not working. Called dream jobbing. Really. And then college tour came out of it. So sometimes you got to kind of be in the sock, you know. And also, I think it makes you appreciate. At least for me, as I reflect on. It's probably God's lesson of teaching me, like, just to be positive, you know, It's. It's. And appreciate every little thing along the way.

[Sean]

Yeah, man. Gratitude goes along it. Doesn't it?

[Alex Boylan]

Totally.

[Sean]

So you traveled the world, right?

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Spending $0.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sean]

That's a crazy concept to me.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah, totally. It's like the original vlogger.

[Sean]

Yes. Like, how did. How did that happen? Like, how did you. So I met you. You hitchhiking? Are you. Are you. What are you doing for food? Are you washing dishes?

[Alex Boylan]

Okay. So. Yes. I should tee it up. This is around the World for Free we're talking about. Right. So it's the first online interactive show kind of ever produced. And if. If. How long do you want this story? But I'll back up just a second. I hear it, baby, just to see where I'm at. So I'm. I'm. I'm hosting shows. So my career is kind of starting off. It's after Amazing Race, I'm down shooting a surf documentary in El Salvador, right? And everything goes wrong. Like, the. A hurricane, like, hits the coastline, Volcanoes erupting. It's like an earthquake. So, like, they put us in this hotel.

[Sean]

End of days.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah. And they put us in this, like, little hotel. Well, we're staying in this hotel. They took our security away. It's pretty gnarly where we're kind of filming, and they don't move out of this hotel until we bring security back. And so we're in this town called La Livertat. And you look behind our hotels, it's like favela, right? This kind of, like, shanty, you know? You know, tougher area, let's call it. They say it. And so the whole time, every locals, like, if you go up there, you'll die. Keep saying this over and over.

[Sean]

Holy.

[Alex Boylan]

And so Jolt Luca, one of my guys I've filmed around the world with, we're both kind of sitting back, and we're kind of, like, laughing, like, drinking beers, being like, what? We're gonna die by walking up there, you know? And so we said, all right, when this. When the storm clears, let's try to make it to the top of the mountain without dying. Like, we kind of make this bet to each other like that, right? And. And so right before we go, Joel grabs the camera. So, you know, and so we're still not back filming this documentary that we're doing at the time. And so he's like, I'm gonna film you, right? I'm like, all right, cool. So I just start walking to see what happens, right? What do you think happens? People are like, hola, amigo.

[Sean]

No.

[Alex Boylan]

Like, gringo's ever walked up into that community ever before. And they're like, come on, next. You know, I'm being invited inside. There's, like, the ovens are trash cans cut in half. They don't even have much food, but they're bringing out food and trying to cook for us. And we're, like, going through this labyrinth of houses and favel. It's just a funky place. I've never seen it before. And Jolt is following with this camera. So of all the stuff we had, like, spent time pre producing all this stuff, the most exciting thing that happens is this raw moment, like, living with locals, right? So that one idea kind of sticks is like, oh, man. What happens when you kind of, like, don't plan anything and just try to force yourself to live with locals. And that's the beginning of around the World for Free. Right. And so I'm actually working with Pine Ridge Film and Television, doing a bunch of shows. This idea I can usually. I'm sure this happens to you when. When I'm waking up in the middle of night thinking about something I know, and I'm a lot better about it now, knowing that's a good idea.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

This thing's burning a hole in my head, man. I think I can make it around the world with no money. Just live that way. And, like, let's go tell the story at that point. Not to knock the shows that I'm hosting. Very grateful for those shows, but imagine I'm giving a script show up here. Dude.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

Kind of like a parrot, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, sounds good. I'll do this. Yeah, you're just kind of told what to do. And I love the rawn. Like, I loved Amazing Race and the rawness of just being with real people, seeing what happens. And so kind of go back to LA with this idea, like, armed, and join up with this guy named Burton Roberts. We've been business partners for 20 plus years. And with this idea, I was like, the. Let's. Let's do this show. Originally, it was just this, can I make it around the world? And then Facebook's not out yet. YouTube comes out. YouTube's just starting. Right. And I was like, oh, man, could this be, like, short form? Could we do this on. Could we do, like, you know, could we shoot the show kind of, like, live? And so anyway, that's the beginning of, like, now it's like we all do it on our cell phones every single day with social media that doesn't exist. Right, right.

[Sean]

The.

[Alex Boylan]

So we set off with this mission. Can we make this. It's so out of the box. I mean, Burton and I were getting kicked out of every single room. Like, ah, it's cool, it's interesting. What is it again? It's all mine. Like, no one really got it and kept hearing no after no, after no. Got this one no, but felt like a yes from this gentleman named Gan Maynard, who is credited with bringing Survivor Amazing Race and all the big, like, basically creating rally TV with inside the network. And. And we had met with him as the second time he said no, but he wrote me this awesome email and I'm a young producer at this point in time. He goes, alex, this reminds me of the early days of Survivor where everyone did not get it and didn't understand it, became this juggernaut. He's like, it's a no from CVS again, but I think you should go do it. And so it was almost like enough of like. So I was getting these, like, tiny. Sometimes in life you just need those tiny wins, right? Just someone validating you or agreeing or thinking you can do it. So. And eventually, it's a long story, but this lady named Ann o' Grady, who I owe so much of my career to, she's the head of market at cbs. We get this meeting with her and she's like, why isn't CBS doing this? And. And she funnels us to the CBS EARLY Show. And so we set off. We built the website at that point in time, which you could do on a Facebook page right now. Cost us like 150 grand just to upload like a, you know, a two minute video and then have someone be able to write a message just to try to build that, just understand, like the time period we are in.

[Sean]

Right?

[Alex Boylan]

And the technology that was needed was so out of the box. But the CBS early show, we get this meeting with the executive producer, There we go, and do the whole document. This is what the show is going to be about. I'm going to leave and have no, no money, but everyone's going to check in with me every single day. And I'll never, like, I'll never forget it. The guy, like leans back in his chair, he's like smoking a stoke and he's like, there's never been a stunt I don't like. Kid, you got the early show. And I'll never forget that moment. And so we had, so now we had the early show that's willing to follow us every sing, do live check ins. So that was enough, like big media to be like, all right, let's do this thing. So we kind of bootstrapped it. Jolt Luca one camera guy. I mean, our backpacks were so heavy. Walking off the CBS show with one mission. Can we make it around the world using the help of the online. Like, basically living with locals the whole way through the, through the help of the online community. And, and fortunately that once again, it's like, it worked, you know? Wow. Yeah. 16 countries, 45,000 miles went down. Like the east coast of the US through the Caribbean into Venezuela, west coast of South America, up the east coast, Africa, across Southeast Asia, all like living with monks, living with locals. Every one of those we could have a podcast about. So it's like just a Crazy journey. And we broke the backs of a new honesty that that's what launched around the World Productions for my life 10 years because no one was doing online interactive content. So that CBS came in, we did two more seasons of that show and then Rachel Ray shows like hey, can you do that for our audience? We became around the World Productions basically in the 2000s became that go to, you know, what everyone is now run and gun guerrilla type of like filming and short form content near real time. And it was a really fun time.

[Sean]

Yeah, I'm hearing all the destinations and I am also. What's not lost on me is a difference in culture and how, you know, Americans are viewed. What was that experience like, you know, for you going through Venezuela, going through all those different countries and that.

[Alex Boylan]

It's a little. Because 2008, when we launched the first season around the World but you know, it's fresh on our memory. Just to give everyone some context of time. 911 is not too far from that. Right. And that changed the, you know, fabric of, you know, is the world safe and all. You know, I mean, so there was this and people good out there, everyone's bad. So it's just interesting time kind of not too far what's happening culturally right now a little bit. But anyway, so that was a big thing because I had been fortunate to, you know, prior in my life living in Brazil and Germany and kind of see the world. That was a big mission that I thought was a misconception of both Americans and probably citizens worldwide is like 99% of the population on planet Earth is good. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. And they all want to do the same thing, break some bread with you, share some stories, learn about each other's culture. It's like this tiny minute population that kind of screw things up a little bit. So that was a little bit of the mission that we were setting off to be, if I was going to get into the philosophy of things is like, let's prove that people are kind of good out there. And so, yeah, culturally, I mean, yeah, I mean here we were in Venezuela. It's me. It's interesting what's happening right now down there because Chavez was in power and that's really the guy who kind of like, you know, turned this in a very socialistic and near dictatorship country. And we told the story of two different, you know, via around the world for free. Half the time I stayed with this guy who's packing his family up, he's ready to roll. He's like, I can see everything that's happening here. We got to go. And then another guy that's like, here, why you leave? Like, you know, I mean, we can't have all the good people, like, leaving. Stay. Let's make change. This is Venezuela. It's our country. Wow. And so it was. It was a really fun time to tell those two different stories, two different paths of. And then. Yeah, it was crazy, man. I mean, you took a. I think we were talking about last night, but I. We took from Caracas. It was supposed to be like three or four days, but it ended up being like a eight day bus track with like, I'm talking chickens, goats and everyone. And half these people, they're like, smug. I'm like, I actually helped. There's a. There's a shot of me taking these two young girls across the border because everyone's trying to get out of Venezuela at that point in time. And. And that bus went from Caracas, Venezuela, to Lima, Peru. So I think Colombia, Ecuador, just breaking down every five seconds. And so I was like, yeah. What was supposed to be 48 hours turned into like seven days. But it was a hell of an adventure.

[Sean]

I went to South America for the very first time in July. We went to my wife's home country. We went to Quito, Ecuador. And that was my favorite vacation I've ever.

[Alex Boylan]

That's cool.

[Sean]

I didn't want to go home. I wanted to stay, man. Playing in volcanic water, looking at volcanoes and, you know, the Andes Mountains. Beautiful country. Yeah, beautiful. Got a really good question for you. Like, you know, we go through life's experiences and it shapes who we are, and we learn different lessons in different seasons. What did Amazing Race 2 and, you know, travel around the world for free teach you about yourself other than what you found that you wanted to do?

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah, I think. And it's funny not to plug my book here, Sean.

[Sean]

We're gonna get to.

[Alex Boylan]

And I'm not trying to, but it's like, it's kind of like the ethos and it was. It took me to write the book to learn this about myself. And that's where I. I talk so much about, like, just what happened from a young age. And it incrementally grew because the story starts back, you know, my dad. We don't need to go there. But like, I had some really cool experiences happen as a kid. And so for me, I got really. And I still am very comfortable being uncomfortable and in that moment. And where I think I personally thrive is where I'm a little nervous and I pull this off.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

But I'm feeling alive as hell.

[Sean]

You know, I was just thinking.

[Alex Boylan]

And it's this magical place that's hard to get to. Right. But if you can find that sweet spot for me, that's what I learned about myself from all those moments. Because you're just like, can I pull this off? Is this gonna work? Is every. Everyone think I'm a fraud? You know, I walked off the CBS Early Show. Our technology, by the way, is like half working. Because so many people could come from the CBS early show on our website. It's, like breaking down. I'm like, not even getting messages. And so I'm just like, oh, my gosh. I'm like, this whole thing would just like, blow up. So if I told you how many times in my life, like, I just thought the whole thing was going to blow up in my face and you just got to like, keep it cool. One foot in front of the other. Yeah, man. Hang in the game as long as possible. And one of that's a piece of advice I tell most people in the world of entertainment when they want to get into that. Like, oh, I wanna, you know, production doesn't matter. Whatever it is, I'm like, just hang in the game. Half of it's just staying. If you can stay in the game long enough, you'll probably be successful, you know, but too many people, you know, if you, as, you know the statistics, you know, after one year and after five years, it'd be just hang in the game.

[Sean]

Yeah. And, you know, it's. It's funny because you talk about you got really comfortable with being uncomfortable. And I live in that energy constantly. And I always ask myself and ask, you know, Pat, Dan, Rowan, Matt, and in production, like, you think I can pull this off?

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Like, what if I don't?

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

But those moments where I feel like I'm backed up against that corner.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Like, that's where I operate the best. Because that's when you just, I guess you take action and you move. Because our brain is wired to keep us safe.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

There's a lot of people that, okay, this is risky. There's too much fear here. I'm gonna stay where I'm comfortable. But, but for me, if I say where I'm comfortable, I would, I wouldn't be up at 4am this morning going to the gym and, and, you know, and doing what I'd be, I'd be sleeping in, having the, you know, shitty food in the morning. Just. That's comfortable.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

But for me, when I'm comfortable, I Die inside.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

You know, like, literally, I. I don't make the best decisions, so I can really relate to the being uncomfortable. Like, you know, I. I just think it's something so special that I wish more people and for the audience listening is find that uncomfort and marinate in that. Yeah. Because that's where it is.

[Alex Boylan]

Right.

[Sean]

That's where you learn so much about yourself and that's where you make the most progress in your life.

[Alex Boylan]

Amen. Couldn't say about myself.

[Sean]

So while we're on the book. Yeah. So the miles that make you. This is a really cool memoir. There's something I want to read to you from the back of your book because I really relate to it and I can think of many times in my life and I hope I don't get emotional when I'm talking about this or reading with it, because it's not the words, it's the meaning.

[Alex Boylan]

Okay.

[Sean]

And here it is for you in the audience. It's not about the weight of the backpack you start with. It's about what you do with it, how you carry it, where you take it, and who you become along the way.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Thanks.

[Sean]

That's heavy.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah. And where that. Where that comes from and. And where I start this whole journey because I can't. I'm not. I wouldn't be. You wouldn't be where you are without the good, bad, hard ugliness that's happened. Prior to it, my dad was a pastor. You know, one of four kids, grew up on the North Shore of Boston. We had zero money, you know what I mean? And so I opened this book of like being with my mom. Like I didn't know what new clothes were. I might cry. New clothes were probably until 15, you know, I mean, everything I was. Hand me down to my brother or I would go into the goodwill closet of the church, you know, I mean, where people like donate stuff. I would do my own shopping there with my mom, you know, and so like. And by the way, I think that is one of the miles that did make me sure it wasn't for that. I don't think I would have been so hunger to be successful because I just, you know, wanted. It wasn't, by the way, my not having money growing up. I don't like. It was awesome. You know, my parents loved me. I had so many blessings, you know, from growing up. But so I kind of started all, you know, start the whole book from that one place because. Just because I didn't. And I use it as an Analogy, especially with college students now. It's like, I can't sit here and I speak at a lot of colleges. I don't know where you're all coming from. You know what I mean? Some of you guys are given, you know, your backpacks are light, it's nothing there, you know what I mean? It's been, you know, your life's been kind of planned out or prepped as best as possible for you, man. Others of you, you got no parents, you know, you got no parents, right. You know, you had no money or you're like, God knows what you had gone to to get to where you are sitting in that seat right now. Does that make sense? And so when I look at that, like, it's not about that. It's not going to define you. I don't care what you had when you grew up. You know, it matters, like, what are the moves you're making in life to, you know, hopefully be fulfilled, hopefully make this planet leave it better than you found it. All those pieces that makes sense. And so I, I, once again, I, I can't speak on every one of these college students and where they're coming from. I can just say, like, this is, I start every speech and like, this is where I came from. Don't feel bad for me, you know what I mean? Because a lot of you guys went through 10 times harder things. Yeah. Gone through. And there's other people have 10 times lighter backpack. We can't control that. It's life. Get over it. Right? Well, you can control. This is where you are right now. This is the set of circumstances that you were born with. What are you going to do now? So, man, I love that, you know.

[Sean]

One of my biggest fears as a parent and I, I always thought, like, I, I don't want to make it too comfortable for them. Yeah, right. Because they have a much more comfortable life than I have.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Than I had, you know, and I had a lot growing up, right. We were, you know, middle class, my dad worked his ass off and, you know, I had everything that I needed, you know, but the big thing was, is when I, when I read that and it, it shifted my perspective to like, man, I gotta add some weight to these kids backpacks, right? Like in some constructive way. Like, I don't want to fabricate adversity for them, but I want them to go through hard shit, you know, I want them to go through the heartbreaks of, of certain things, through sports or school or even just relationships with their peers. Because without that weight in the backpack. It, you, you, you don't grow a threshold to get through the serious things in your life. When you get to corporate America, maybe your company dissolves and now you don't have a job. A lot of people, if you don't go through, you're not going to have any resilience to pick that back up and figure it out. Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

Amen.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

I think about a lot with my son. I mean, he's young, but I, you know, you want, you want, like, it's really good to do hard things, you know, And I'm sure you've heard of some of these things, especially with boys, which is sad. This failure to launch. And granted, I know they had Covid and there's like, you know, there's something that's been happening.

[Sean]

That was a movie too. It was a good one.

[Alex Boylan]

Oh, fairy to launch. Okay. But like, that, that, like that with, like, you know, I'm sure it's happening to girls, too, but boys just not like, moving on, like, going crush life. Right. What's happened here? And I don't know. I'm a psychologist, but as I think about, I think about it for my boy, too, and like, the, you know, I had a lot of freedom as a kid. My parents weren't out my butt about stuff. Yeah. You know, figure it out. Yeah. Like, that was the story. And I, I tell stories of just. I grew up on the North Shore of Boston just from, like, being in, like, sixth grade or riding my bike three miles to my buddy's house. Like, what went through my brain? I was like, if I go down that street, those two guys are going to kick my ass. They're older. All right, I better go through the woods here. Like, what went through my brain in sixth grade just to get from point A to point B was a lot of thought. And I, I think, you know, life's pretty safe right now in a lot of different ways. And so anyway, it's. It's good to. One of the things that I bring up another early story. And unless I wrote this book, I don't think I would have found the correlation between this and. I hope this helps with the story and analogy. But I get this opportunity doesn't matter. But I have to get this in my brain. I'm going to be a foreign exchange student, move to Brazil. Right. And my mom was amazing. She was. We didn't have any money, but they were. Any idea I had, they were like, let's go try to figure out how to make it happen. So that was the Biggest blessing I could have ever had growing up. And so she comes up with this idea. It's like $5,000 to us. That could have been $5 million, right? And she goes, all right, I can buy these Advent calendars, right? Talking about 5,000 or whatever it was 2,000, 3,000 of these things. And if you sell them, you know, I mean, it's cost $1,000 to buy them. You go sell each one of X amount of costs will be able to fund your trip.

[Sean]

Wow.

[Alex Boylan]

And so my mom sets me up and I remember these boxes came and filled this room right now. I was like, oh my gosh. And so I became this like one man advent calendar. 14 year old selling machine. You sold 2,000, dude. Knocking on doors, right?

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

And, and, and so that one, unless I wrote the book, it was like, that was really hard. Yeah, really hard. It took me like a year, you know what I mean? Every single day. And like sitting outside of grocery stores at 14, like trying to hawk these things, anybody would buy it, right? And there's this kid again, she said.

[Sean]

Just buy one, just buy one.

[Alex Boylan]

Century. Right? And it was so embarrassing. My mom would be at like football games, like send Alex to Brazil. Like a big sign hawking candy away from the actual concession stand. Like she didn't care anyway. And it was. But I, I learned so much. And I was like, if it wasn't for writing the book, thinking about that moment, learning that skill set of like, hey, it's going to be hard. It's gonna suck. It's gonna be uncomfortable. Yeah, right. Learn your pitch. All kinds of stuff I learned in that process. So, you know, I, I think about my little boy and when he goes, as soon as he old enough, like, I'm gonna have that lemonade. If anything, I'm gonna teach you. You're gonna know how to go door to door, man. Because that there's anything you're gonna need to do in life is sell one thing or another. If you can get the skill set of selling, you'll probably be all right. So.

[Sean]

See, that's a great point.

[Alex Boylan]

Right?

[Sean]

Because as you're going door to door as a 14 year old.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

That is an intimidating situation. You're opening the door to some happy people, some, some upset people because you're interrupting dinner and they don't want to buy. But it's like you learn.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Interpersonal communication.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

You, you learn the sales taxi techniques. You learn how to not sell something, but provide a value to somebody or just be super kind. And they're like, Oh, I feel bad for this kid. I want him to go to Brazil so he can enrich his life, you know, by the damn calendar. Whatever the reasoning is, you. You had to go through the process and do that hard thing. Yeah, I know adults that won't go door to door.

[Alex Boylan]

Totally. Well, I think it's funny as I and I have, the more we're sitting here talking about and I'm thinking about it, it's like, you know what you're also learning? You're learning to read the room really fast. And I think there's something with all the social media and technology, everything, you know, it's like, it's important as we talk about our kids. It's like, I want them to have social intelligence. Read the room, buddy. Like, understand what's happening here because I think that is going to be a skill set. You know, back in my day, if you were not to knock my friends that were communication majors, but that was kind of known, like, oh, took a. Communication was like, almost like a joke, right?

[Sean]

It's like, hey, I'm just.

[Alex Boylan]

Now I look at it now, I'm like, it's probably one of the most vital skills you can go get because you're not getting it in life so much. And you got to learn to communicate with people. Sit down, have a conversation like we're having and read the room, dude.

[Sean]

EQ is so important and emotional intelligence. My son, who's 12, he has that is built in for him.

[Alex Boylan]

Amazing.

[Sean]

Two years old, dude. Like a two. I was having a bad day. He come up and it was, you know, he'd always hug me, you know, and. And come up to me. But on the days I was having a bad day, even still, he'll come up, he'll sit right next to me, you know, and he'll put his hand on my. On my leg. I'm like, thank you, buddy. I needed that. He goes, I know. Oh, it's like, dude, it's. It's.

[Alex Boylan]

Oh, my gosh.

[Sean]

I know, man. Yeah. Now. Now my middle daughter, a little different looking.

[Alex Boylan]

Yang going on.

[Sean]

Yeah. She, you know, not knowing how to read a room yet, but very highly intelligent. And my youngest is. Is very emotionally connected. She's an empath. And that. Wow. So is my wife. So it scares me because I know what that looks like. Yeah, but. But yeah, man. I think emotional intelligence and learning how to read a room and knowing what to say around who and how far you can go. Where's the line? I typically can find that out within five to ten Minutes. Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

Right.

[Sean]

And it's a gift. It's something that I've worked on because trust me, I've been on the other side of that shit too, where I've said the wrong thing in the wrong room at the wrong time in front of the wrong people, and it blew up in my face. But you, you have to make those mistakes. And I think it's truly important to understand that mistakes are there to lead us. Failures are there to lead us, not temper our growth.

[Alex Boylan]

Totally.

[Sean]

I think it's important.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah. I mean, like that, that. And I would say that trip because there's.

[Sean]

I.

[Alex Boylan]

And I. I had this to like my Max. God, my. My son's godfather. I'm like, hey, listen, something happens to me, I got two non negotiables for this kid. It's. It. One, you will do a foreign exchange when you're in high school and you'll do another one in college because that trip to Brazil, you know, granted, It's. It's the 90s.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

Nine flights going into, like my parents are gonna call me once a month. 600 in traveler check stuck to me like I can. A year. Yeah, totally. That's what it was like. What happens of growth? I came back to high school in America, I was like, oh my gosh. Like I. I have more experience in life than these teachers do. Yeah. And so what happened in. That was. Was huge. And then being able again to do that in college, those two experiences is. Are my non negotiables for my son. That's badass. You're. You're going to get out there, you're going to get on. You learn a lot when you get outside your comfort zone, living in another culture and so.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah. Some Advent calendars. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah.

[Sean]

Yeah. Was it the candy ones?

[Alex Boylan]

The chocolate. Chocolate ones?

[Sean]

Yes.

[Alex Boylan]

I could still see it. I could still sell any of this thing. Yeah. Yeah.

[Sean]

That's hysterical. You know, I always find too, when we're talking about doing the uncomfortable thing, like, you know, traveling and learning about other cultures and doing what you did and what you're acquiring of your son, the fears that we do have about certain situations, most of them never come to pass.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

We worry about things before they happen. We make it a reality when in reality probably not going to happen. You're going to have a better experience than. Than you anticipated.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

You know, it's interesting to me. Oh yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

We put a lot in our own. We're. We're. Humans are interesting.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

I was thinking about when you Were talking about something of, like, getting things over the goal lines. I find my selfies and some, like, I'm a big, like, do three or four things a day, kind of like short checklist. Right.

[Sean]

I'm with you.

[Alex Boylan]

Super tight. Like, I'm going to accomplish these. This is my number one task. And here's my two other three other things I want to get done to now call it. I'll call it a win. And sometimes, like, why is it that I'll go to these easier? You know, this is the one that's going to move the needle with the business. This is the one that's going to move the needle. And I'll find myself procrastinating. I'm always like, what the hell is that?

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

You know, what is that? There's something in. In the DNA that.

[Sean]

Yeah, it's just resistance.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

And it's just resistance. But the important thing is that you. You complete it. Like, I don't believe anything needs to be done in an order. Right. If you have, you know, a moment where, you know, you have 1, 2, 3, 4 things to do, but the number one thing that you have to do, it's a little heavy for you right now. Do the other tasks. Right. And I also do believe do the hard thing first.

[Alex Boylan]

But the.

[Sean]

The hard thing could be so many things. It could be getting up and reading. It could be getting up and walking, lifting weights or. Or whatever that is. So you prep your mind to do the hard before you need to do it. But sometimes I will find myself the hardest part of my day, the hardest part of the work task. For all this, I will wait until I'm mentally ready to do it, because I know if I'm not present in that moment, I'm not ready to execute it. I'm gonna.

[Alex Boylan]

The bed.

[Sean]

Like, it's not gonna work right. So I have to be ready to do it.

[Alex Boylan]

Well said. Yeah, I'll take your advice on that.

[Sean]

Yeah, dude, it happens. You said something interesting last night, and it said a lot about you. I already liked you. You know, we've been communicating for a while. First time we met in person yesterday, which I felt like I already knew you. Hey, great to meet you in person. I'm like, we haven't met. Like, yeah, what's going on? That's just power of connection and alignment. Right. But you talked about your premise of writing the book and why you did it, and I thought it was so selfless and heartwarming. I want you to share that with the audience because most people write Books, including myself.

[Alex Boylan]

Right.

[Sean]

Because it's an authority thing. Like, you have a book, then you have something. You're an expert on a certain subject, and you can leverage that in your business and in your show or whatever it is. But yours was so wholesome, man. I want you to share this.

[Alex Boylan]

You want me to go the whole story with Ashley and everything?

[Sean]

Yeah, man.

[Alex Boylan]

Might as well. Okay, so it starts. So it's not like I haven't thought about writing a book. I thought about it. Didn't really have a main purpose to do it, but it's. I'd say it's been lingering in the back of the head, kind of like, I should probably do that at some point in time. But why? How? All that was not. Not existent. But with the college tourists, I'll start up right now. You know, I'm on two college conferences a week. I'm talking to thousands of college kids all the time, being asked to speak. And so there's a little bit of me being like, oh, man. Like, I've kind of learned what they need to hear, right? And it's a little bit about, like, here's my story. Here's the life lessons I learned along the way. And then if I was sitting in your shoes right this second, this is what I would do to make sure you're teeing yourself up for a dream job. That's kind of what I do in. Let's call it my speeches or workshops. So that started kind of resonating like, oh, that could be interesting as a book. Anyway, really, it's another human. The name's Ashley Spence. She worked for us on around the World for Free. She's amazing. And she. She writes this book. And my business partner Burton calls up and said, you gotta read her book. So I read her book. It's a horrible story. She was horribly raped in college and what she had to go through. And she's in the process of changing these laws across the country from her book. And it's. It's. It's empowering.

[Sean]

It's.

[Alex Boylan]

It's horrific. It's empowering. It's like every kind of emotion. So I call her up, and I was just like, ash. I imagine she's like, working with around the World for Free. I had no idea that this happened to her.

[Sean]

And call her.

[Alex Boylan]

So I'm like. I'm just so sorry. I don't know what to say. And I was like, also like that book. I mean, I loved everything about it. It's like, hunter, it was short, snackable. You can get through it quick. And those are the kind of books exactly right. It wasn't like War and Peace and it was just so well written and how it like tied together. So she's like, oh yeah, like, and she kind of gave me the blueprint of what she did to kind of get that over the goal line. So now it's like really in my head. And so I was like, yeah, I've been thinking about it. And she kind of, she goes, alex, you got to do it. Got to write the book. So now it's like the first human I kind of say it out loud to. And sometimes you need. And she's saying, you gotta move forward. And so as I'm thinking about all the different, like, oh, how can this help my business? This could be a great thing to have. I can scale my speeches kind of things and all for the business side of it. But then I step back and I'm looking at my parents are in the, are in there like you know, mid to late 80s now, right? Love them to death. I dedicate the book to them. They hear the stories, but they really understand like what happened, what the influence I, they, they had on me. And, and I, and, and I sit in this other thing and I have a one year old son. So I sit in this like really interesting place in life where my parents are, you know, to the point where it's like they need an extra help and they're at this, you know, era of life and I have the son in this other era, life, you know what I mean? And it's just, I don't even have a word to describe it, Sean. Like, I just sit in this very weird place where I'm two people, family, that means so much to me on either end of the spectrums of life. Right? And I was like, not gonna do it. Like that becomes the motivation because I'm like, okay, I want my parents to know the story and I want my son to have his North Star and guiding light, you know what I mean? And so that becomes like, you know, because it's, it's, you know, with everything else you got going on, as you know, you know, I'm, I'm busy.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

And so that becomes like, you know, you ask my wife, that becomes like, you know, nine o', clock, I'm going back to the office and working to one, you know, for, for a few months to get that over the goal line. So. But I'm so happy I did it it. Because the best thing I ever got me, obviously my son can't read yet, so hopefully down the road he will. That's. And that became my why I said it all the time. I don't know if it was a defense mechanism, but I said, if there's three people who read it, I'll call this. It was all worth it. My parents and my son read the book. I'll call it a win. So that became like this, like, who cares what happens to the book? Yeah. That becomes my why. You know what I mean?

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

Pushing forward. So. Yeah.

[Sean]

So it's beautiful, man.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah. Thanks.

[Sean]

Well, I mean, I. I feel like if we start doing things for our own gain. Right. Or we have the goal of. Of doing something big. But it's for me or for you. Right. We can tend to back off of that a little bit and negotiate with ourselves at times, but when it's for a bigger purpose and it's for someone else.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

The accountability portion is so much greater, and the completion actually happens because you're wanting to give somebody something.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

[Sean]

Yeah, man.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah. That was it. Like, I'd say, like, that one of the happiest moments was, like, within.

[Sean]

So before.

[Alex Boylan]

And I didn't tell anyone. I think the agency I'm working with, freeling agency, they're awesome. My wife, me, on. My two business partners, on college. Like, no one knew I was doing this. So when it was done, and that was another thing. So I was like, I don't know. Once again, another thing, maybe defense mechanism. I didn't know if I was going to get this thing over the goal line.

[Sean]

Right.

[Alex Boylan]

How it was all going to come together. So when my family found out, I was like, hey, this is going to be released in a week. You all have copies coming to you in the mail. You know, they didn't even know what's happening. So imagine my. I was like, the first people I wanted to read this thing was my parents. My mom's like, oh, my gosh. And I dedicated to, like, the next day she calls, she's like, I read it twice. That just meant the world to me, you know? Wow. Like, it was awesome. Alex, she was. Obviously, I'm in it tons. And you, you know, you sing my praises. So she feels like a star.

[Sean]

And so, dude, is. You're validating the love that they gave you and what they taught you.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

As they were raising you and they. And they model great behavior for you.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Right. And now you're able to give that to your son. Yeah. I just think it's. I think you'll be all right.

[Alex Boylan]

I think so.

[Sean]

I think you'll be all right.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

You know, you're doing. You're doing just fine. You're doing just fine. You know, like, dude, it's. It's so crazy because I'm sitting here, you know. You know, I was telling Pat, we were talking about it before, like, we got it, and we've talked about it, like, I just love doing things with you. I love talking with you. And we gotta find a way, man. Do some.

[Alex Boylan]

We'll do some stuff together.

[Sean]

Yeah, it'll be really fun. Where can the people pick up the book, man? Is there a website?

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah, I mean, they can get it anywhere you get your book. So Amazon, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, alexpoiland.com.

[Sean]

Okay.

[Alex Boylan]

I'd say those are my two kind of places. Alexpoiland.com to get the book and then.

[Sean]

That's amazing, man. Yeah, that's amazing. What's next for you, dude?

[Alex Boylan]

You know what's funny? And I. Okay, so.

[Sean]

Such a loaded question.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah, it's a. It's a great question. I write this in the book because I didn't know how to, like. Well, the last chapter is a letter to my son, Mac, because he's just born, right? So it's like, kind of like everything I've learned in life, I kind of pack it to the end. I'm like, hey, brother, here's your. Here's your. Here's your steps. Here's what I advise you on. Hope you can, like, live on that. And then. But I write because it's like, I don't have an angle. And, you know, some people have an angle. And, like, to me, I love living, Sean. Like, I love it. And so to me, as long as I'm gonna keep chasing, trying to be excited about whatever the hell I'm excited about right now. It's been amazing building the college tour. I hope to God that never goes away. I want to keep building that. But, like, dude, I want to have a beach ranch in Costa Rica and have like a. You know, and run a hospitality, because I love people, you know? And so I have a dream of having my own, like, you know, bed and breakfast on a surf break with the goats and rams running around. So where I go in life, like, I don't. I don't know, but I don't. I definitely. I don't know what's next. I don't know what the end goal is. It's like, to me, it's like, I just want to keep chasing. I've been blessed to have fun. It's a lot of work, a lot of heartache. Lots ups and downs.

[Sean]

Sure.

[Alex Boylan]

I've loved the journey. And to me, what was fun about writing that book is like, man, that was the first great. The first. First chapter of my life. Been pretty awesome. Yeah. How do I do this in the back half? You know what I mean? So how do I do this on the back nine? What does that look like?

[Sean]

Well, one thing I'll tell you is Matt loves bed and breakfast, so. He'll be there.

[Alex Boylan]

All right.

[Sean]

He'll be there.

[Alex Boylan]

Hey, listen, you know, it's time. I think.

[Sean]

I think he's saying a word. Hostel here in Naples, you know, I don't know. I don't know what he's doing over there. I thought about driving by just to make sure he was okay, but he doesn't share his location with me, which you need to start doing. So I can check on you from time to time.

[Alex Boylan]

But.

[Sean]

Yeah, man. No, I just. I just really feel that you chase experience and you chase feelings.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

And, you know, I do have an end goal, which I think sometimes hurts me.

[Alex Boylan]

Right.

[Sean]

But I also chase the feelings inside of those moments just so I know I'm on the right track. Because if we set too many north stars, like, this is the angle. This is where I'm going to end up, and I want to be there by this time. Then if you don't get there by that time, you're upset and you feel like you failed yourself. But if you don't get it to completion, then you tend to feel like it's a failure. But there's so many other things involved in. The one thing that I really want to stress the audience to. To. To hang on to is you said you love living. And I think we're in a time right now where people struggle with that. There's a lot of mental health issues going around. You know, social media has, you know, for me, blessed my life. But for some, they get stuck in the comparison thing and. And their mental health and their wellness goes down the hill, goes down the. You know, goes down whatever. And. But learning to love to live, I think is such an important statement because that's what we're here to do. And we have all these amazing people that, you know, like, how cool is it?

[Alex Boylan]

There's 8 billion people. Like, life would be the fact that we argue as countries or people even within the U.S. dude, this is what makes life awesome. You know, if we all were the exact same, thought the same look the same, did the same Ate the same food. That'd be boring.

[Sean]

Be boring.

[Alex Boylan]

It's like, come on, everyone. Can we get over it a little bit?

[Sean]

You guys were all over me last night for not having a drink and not eating desserts. I was like, damn, I feel shamed. It's like I pissed in the corner and everybody's like, no, bad dog. But. No, but that's the thing, though. You have to have those contrasts, right?

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

And that's what's beautiful about it. I. I truly enjoy that.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

It was. It was this crazy. I was telling Matt yesterday, and I want to share it because. And I don't mean it in an arrogant way. I mean it in a sense of. It's just. It was a big moment for me yesterday, and I'm going to get to it. But it humbled the shit out of me. I'm sitting there thinking, you know, hey, I wonder if these guys. Because, you know, I'm old. I'm 47. I'm like, after my son's soccer game, they won eight nothing, by the way. Championship tomorrow. I'm really.

[Alex Boylan]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean]

I'm so jacked for him.

[Alex Boylan]

Oh, it's awesome. Cannot wait for that stage to be a blast.

[Sean]

Have fun caravanning. But just ask Pat. He knows.

[Alex Boylan]

He.

[Sean]

You know, because soccer, you know, like, it's Saturday.

[Alex Boylan]

Every but I'll be soccer dad all day long.

[Sean]

Oh, yeah. It's cool, man. Because I don't know about it, so I just enjoy it.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Why is he offsides? Like, he just beat the guy. Like, isn't that the point? Anyway, I digress. So I was thinking, you know, I wonder if some of these guys are just gonna bail out because they've been traveling. I'm kind of tired, and I'm like, no, no. And then. And then I'm. I kind of laughed at myself. I'm driving down the road and I'm like. Then it hit me. When I first started this show and started everything I'm doing, there was nobody. There was nobody around, and it was just me, you know? And at times, it felt like I was a martyr. I was like, oh, I'm just. This is me. I'm doing this all by myself, and there's no. There's no audience. There's no nothing. But then I realized something special yesterday. Everybody in the audience can't see, but everybody here in this room was here because of what I created. Yeah. How cool is that? And awesome. It. It hit me right in the heart. And. And like I said, I didn't feel it in an arrogant way. Oh, they're here for me. No, no, no, no. I'm like, oh, they're here for me. That's impact, that's emotional. That is something that means so much to me, and you were a part of that, so thank you.

[Alex Boylan]

Well, yeah, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Yeah. It's an honor to. To be here. Thanks for having me on. And just everything you're built, and I know that. And like, you're so great at being vulnerable and just speaking the truth. Because nothing starts great. No, it all starts from nothing, you know? I know. And it's good that you talk about that, because that's the reality. Yeah. And. And congrats on everything you're building here. It's awesome.

[Sean]

Thank you, man. Much more to come, dude. Much more to come. Lots of fun collabs and yeah, you know, me and you, we'll do some stuff with the teams and, you know, but thank you for traveling all the way out here with all the planes you hop on. You got a young son and a wife and. And you have a life and. And so when you come out here, it means something to me and I really do appreciate it.

[Alex Boylan]

I'm a big. And I think, like, just like, it's important that we get together in person. It's awesome. The technologies that are around anymore and we were talking about before we started recording, it's so important to get together in person.

[Sean]

It's everything, man.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah, you're talking about the mental health like that get together in person. That's going to help you. You know what I mean?

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

Talk to. Talk to someone face to face. It's a great. It's a great thing. Another thing that I've done with this whole. Social media is a tool and all these great things, but I got an old Nokia phone.

[Sean]

Oh, wow.

[Alex Boylan]

You play Snake with it that you can play Snake with. And certain weekends I'll just wire that foot to new number and everyone knows it's. I call it my surf line. And like my. I'll just plug that phone, will wire my iPhone wire to that. And just to give. I think everyone needs space and a break and that's an easy little thing. Everyone can just try one day you got a phone. It's like, that is badass. But yeah. And I'll just run with that. It's like, you want to hold you. You want to get a hold of me. I'm available. I'll talk to you. Yeah, but like, just because I'm bad, just like everyone else, I listen to Podcasts all day. My wife's always like, what do you listen to? I'm just constantly listening to content and just stopping that noise and honestly, picking your head up. Yeah. Like when I talk about this bed and breakfast down in Costa Rica, one of the rules I'm gonna have is no technology in public. Oh, it's beautiful. Just, hey, when you're at the bar.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Alex Boylan]

You want to go to your room and do business. That's great. When you come to the bar, talk to the person, you know what I mean?

[Sean]

Pick your head up.

[Alex Boylan]

You know what I mean? It's the life here going on.

[Sean]

So cool.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah, I love that.

[Sean]

I love that. I, I didn't know you could do that with a phone.

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah, yeah, you can.

[Sean]

What?

[Alex Boylan]

You can, you can forward a phone super easy. Go ask them. It's like 20 bucks. It's a 20amonth decision that can just give you that break and you're still connected to someone.

[Sean]

That's pretty cool. Well, it doesn't surprise me.

[Alex Boylan]

You know what the battery life is on a Nokia now? It's like 70 days. Yeah, yeah, 70 days. Like there's nothing.

[Sean]

Because you're not going on social media. You're not. I mean, I think you can text on that thing, right?

[Alex Boylan]

Yeah, but he's like, one, one, one, one, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, two. Oh, it's one of those. Oh, yeah. It's like, that's so bad, dude.

[Sean]

Miss those days.

[Alex Boylan]

Remember those days.

[Sean]

I'm not surprised you figured it out though. You have a house, you have a bungalow. He talked about getting a houseboat. I mean, this guy, dude all over the place.

[Alex Boylan]

Well, you know what I mean. Gotta. Gotta keep living, right?

[Sean]

Gotta keep living, man. Gotta keep living. Well, thank you again, man. Thank you for you guys, please share the show with someone you know love and trust. Let us know what you thought about it. And again, Alex boyen.com to go see what he's doing. Then also to purchase the miles that make you or Barnes and normal, Amazon, whatever you want to do. I thank you guys for listening and tuning in and really digesting Alex's story. And I've had a lot of public figures, a lot of authors on and I really encourage you to learn more about Alex because I think you're going to be very, very impressed. I think you'll find somebody that can provide a lot of value to you in educating your child on the best college to go to. But also, truly even for you as to enjoy these moments and live your life. And until next time, stay determined.