34 min
Exploring the intersection of outdoor recreation, conservation, and the economy with Matador’s Tim Wenger [EP 363] Outdoor Biz Podcast
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Today I’m joined by travel journalist, author, and snowboarder Tim Wenger. After finishing a BA in Communications from Fort Lewis College, Tim jumped into the back of a Ford Econoline and spent a few years playing guitar in dark bars while falling in love with adventure travel. He's been unable to rest his pen (or his feet) ever since.
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The Outdoor Biz Podcast
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I'd love to hear your feedback about the show!
You can contact me here: email: rick@theoutdoorbizpodcast.com
or leave me a message on Speakpipe!
Show Notes I gotta hear about those years in a Ford Ecoline playing guitar in the dark bars while falling in love with adventure travel. Where, first of all, where'd that idea come from?
So basically I played guitar in a punk band for about a decade. A couple of them over that time, but primarily one that was more serious and, we toured around the Southwest, playing bars and now and then when we’d open for a bigger band and we'd get to play in a theater. But usually, it was bar-level gigs and sleeping on people's couches and, trying to imitate our heroes. We never quite became the next Blink 182, but, we certainly tried. I always tell people, playing in a rock band is a great thing to do when you're in your twenties, right? Because you're staying out till 2:00 AM all the time, which you'd probably be doing anyway. You're hanging out at rock clubs, you're getting in a van, driving around. It's fun, but it's not something I'd wanna do now.
So is there a particular story or event from that experience that was maybe uniquely fun or maybe not fun?
I would say that my favorite thing about it, traveling as a musician, was the camaraderie among the other bands. You know, when you are a working band showing up at a rock club in some random place, you have an instant connection with the other people that are there with the other bands that are going through the same things that you're doing. You know, everybody's got a crappy day job back home and, you're trying to be like your heroes.
How did you become a writer?
I went to school for communications. Journalism was kinda my thing. I was on the high school newspaper staff, yada, yada, yada.
And after the band, you know, I started getting a little older, mid-twenties, starting to get into my upper twenties. I didn't know what I was gonna do. Obviously, this isn't paying the bills, so I started looking for writing gigs and ended up getting a weekly gig for a website that paid $50 a week to do a column about the local music scene in Denver. So that was, that was my first actual paid byline that I ever had, was writing for these guys. And that sort of gave me some clips that I could send out to other publications. It allowed me to be out on the town saying, Hey, I'm writing a story about this. Do you wanna talk to me? And then that leads to more connections. So it's a very self-starting thing, very much like being in a band. So I was kind of able to borrow some of those skills and move them over to keep networking my way into better and better writing gigs.
Your Matador bio says that you're the transactional content at Matador. What is the transactional content editor?
Basically, it's a fancy name for affiliate marketing. So I run all of our affiliate marketing content, be that Airbnb roundups or product reviews, or hotel features. I oversee that stuff and I also do a lot of outdoors content. I'm more of the outdoors content, whereas I'm editing the affiliate stuff most of the time.
You write for a number of other folks also other than Matador, right?
Right now I have three active contracts of which Matador is the largest. I also write edited a company called Static Media also, and I'm currently working on the Fodors travel guidebook for Colorado that will publish, I believe, next July. So I'm doing four. I'm updating and fact-checking four chapters of
Today I’m joined by travel journalist, author, and snowboarder Tim Wenger. After finishing a BA in Communications from Fort Lewis College, Tim jumped into the back of a Ford Econoline and spent a few years playing guitar in dark bars while falling in love with adventure travel. He's been unable to rest his pen (or his feet) ever since.
Facebook Twitter Instagram
The Outdoor Biz Podcast
Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!
Sign up for my Newsletter HERE.
I'd love to hear your feedback about the show!
You can contact me here: email: rick@theoutdoorbizpodcast.com
or leave me a message on Speakpipe!
Show Notes I gotta hear about those years in a Ford Ecoline playing guitar in the dark bars while falling in love with adventure travel. Where, first of all, where'd that idea come from?
So basically I played guitar in a punk band for about a decade. A couple of them over that time, but primarily one that was more serious and, we toured around the Southwest, playing bars and now and then when we’d open for a bigger band and we'd get to play in a theater. But usually, it was bar-level gigs and sleeping on people's couches and, trying to imitate our heroes. We never quite became the next Blink 182, but, we certainly tried. I always tell people, playing in a rock band is a great thing to do when you're in your twenties, right? Because you're staying out till 2:00 AM all the time, which you'd probably be doing anyway. You're hanging out at rock clubs, you're getting in a van, driving around. It's fun, but it's not something I'd wanna do now.
So is there a particular story or event from that experience that was maybe uniquely fun or maybe not fun?
I would say that my favorite thing about it, traveling as a musician, was the camaraderie among the other bands. You know, when you are a working band showing up at a rock club in some random place, you have an instant connection with the other people that are there with the other bands that are going through the same things that you're doing. You know, everybody's got a crappy day job back home and, you're trying to be like your heroes.
How did you become a writer?
I went to school for communications. Journalism was kinda my thing. I was on the high school newspaper staff, yada, yada, yada.
And after the band, you know, I started getting a little older, mid-twenties, starting to get into my upper twenties. I didn't know what I was gonna do. Obviously, this isn't paying the bills, so I started looking for writing gigs and ended up getting a weekly gig for a website that paid $50 a week to do a column about the local music scene in Denver. So that was, that was my first actual paid byline that I ever had, was writing for these guys. And that sort of gave me some clips that I could send out to other publications. It allowed me to be out on the town saying, Hey, I'm writing a story about this. Do you wanna talk to me? And then that leads to more connections. So it's a very self-starting thing, very much like being in a band. So I was kind of able to borrow some of those skills and move them over to keep networking my way into better and better writing gigs.
Your Matador bio says that you're the transactional content at Matador. What is the transactional content editor?
Basically, it's a fancy name for affiliate marketing. So I run all of our affiliate marketing content, be that Airbnb roundups or product reviews, or hotel features. I oversee that stuff and I also do a lot of outdoors content. I'm more of the outdoors content, whereas I'm editing the affiliate stuff most of the time.
You write for a number of other folks also other than Matador, right?
Right now I have three active contracts of which Matador is the largest. I also write edited a company called Static Media also, and I'm currently working on the Fodors travel guidebook for Colorado that will publish, I believe, next July. So I'm doing four. I'm updating and fact-checking four chapters of
34 min