S1,E39: Erik Nilsson - Small Lake City Podcast (Utah Daily Podcast)

Ever wondered how a podcast can truly reflect the soul of a city? Join us as we turn the tables on Erik Nilsson, the dynamic host of the Small Lake City Podcast, who finds himself on the other side of the microphone in this special interview with Skylar Byttendorf on the Utah Daily podcast. Erik takes us behind the scenes of his own show, sharing the inspiration and journey that brought Small Lake City to life. From the rich art scene featuring talents like John Darley and Micah Christensen to the unexpected depth of local community stories, Erik paints a vivid picture of what makes Salt Lake City unique.

Erik opens up about his multifaceted upbringing in Salt Lake City, balancing interests from lacrosse and chess to gothic music gatherings. He reveals how his love for outdoor activities like skiing, golf, and running has shaped his life. Erik also shares why he chose to return to Utah after his time in Seattle, illustrating the magnetic charm of his hometown. This episode is a heartfelt exploration of Erik's personal journey and the distinctive lifestyle that Salt Lake City offers, providing listeners with a deep connection to the place Erik calls home.

For those wanderlust souls, Erik's tales of road trips and van life will ignite your adventurous spirit. He gives practical advice on navigating RV living, the best routes through Utah’s breathtaking national parks, and the flexibility required for life on the road. But the conversation takes a more introspective turn as Erik delves into intentional living and breaking free from societal expectations. He candidly discusses his faith crisis and the path to redefining his life’s goals. Tune in for inspiring insights and practical tips on living a life true to yourself, all while celebrating the vibrant community of Salt Lake City.

Please be sure to like, review, follow, subscribe and share the podcast with your friends and family! See you next time 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Small Lake City Podcast Interview
• 7:19 Erik's Utah Upbringing and Outdoor Hobbies
• 17:17 Exploring Utah and Road Trip Adventures
• 24:19 Navigating RV Living and Road Trips
• 30:57 Breaking the Mold
• 37:13 Living Intentionally and Following Values

Transcript

Erik Nilsson: 0:11

What is up everybody and welcome back to another episode of the Small Lake City Podcast. I am your host, eric Nilsen, and this week we're going to do a pretty different direction of things. So I was actually hosted on a podcast called Utah Daily a little while ago and wanted to upload the episode that I recorded there here as well. It's an interesting perspective of having me on the other side of the interview and hearing more about me. So I do get into detail about growing up in salt lake, my van life trip, it's starting the podcast, the motivation for that and just a little bit of I mean knowledge I've gotten along the way, so a little bit different, but also a chance to get to know me better. Uh, skylar bittendorf, the host of utah daily, was gracious to have me on there. So, uh, definitely go follow that and listen if you want to hear some more cool stories about cool people in Salt Lake. But otherwise, yeah, enjoy hearing a little bit more about me. This one is a little bit shorter too, so it's a little bit more digestible, but, yeah, hope you all enjoy Cool, I like it.

Erik Nilsson: 1:09

Open book Most things I've shared on the podcast already. It's funny because I'll see people and be like, oh my gosh, I didn't know like this, just like no weird details about me for people like I've never met and I'll be like oh that's right, podcast. I told people this voluntarily. That is on me. It's never like anything bad, but it's just always like little interesting details.

Skyler: 1:28

Here we go, let's do it. Welcome everybody to Utah Daily, the podcast where we interview the doers, thinkers and achievers of Utah. My name is Skylar Bindorp. I'm a podcast host, entrepreneur and just overall curious guy about who's in Utah, what they're doing and what's being built here in Utah Today. I have Eric Nielsen in the studio with me today and we're going to have a little chat about his podcast and things he's doing in Utah. So, eric, welcome to the show.

Erik Nilsson: 1:53

Thanks for coming on. Definitely, Skyler Stoked to be here. Thanks for having me.

Skyler: 1:56

Yeah, of course, anytime. So you started a podcast called Small Lake City, correct? Is it about California, I'm assuming.

Erik Nilsson: 2:08

It's about California, especially the East Coast. No, definitely all about all things. Salt Lake City I mean, as you probably know and most people who are from here know the term Small Lake City. I mean if you run into someone at Trader Joe's you know from high school, this coworker's dating your cousin. It's this feeling of this biggish city but also feels so small at the same time, and highlighting a lot of the cool people that are doing cool stuff.

Skyler: 2:28

Awesome. So how long ago did you start Small Lake City?

Erik Nilsson: 2:31

I mean, the idea was about two or three ago. I started kind of kicking it around and thought about it, but recorded the first episode July last year and released the first episode October 20th last year.

Skyler: 2:41

Awesome, and what's been the response so far?

Erik Nilsson: 2:44

from people really gravitate towards people that are doing really cool things, because there's a lot of people who a like you, look around salt lake and you see these cranes in the sky, you see these buildings coming together, you see these economic growth, you see these companies being built, but a lot of the time you don't see who's doing what behind the scenes, and so it's fun to highlight a lot of these people, hear their stories especially, um, a lot of them are very inspiring. A lot of really cool people with a lot of really interesting backgrounds. I a lot of really cool people with a lot of really interesting backgrounds. I mean a lot of people who are homegrown in Utah and Salt Lake City and building their own business enterprise brand, whatever it might be. And there's also a lot of people that are bringing so much talent and so much experience into the city and surrounding areas to really make it a better place and them falling in love with everything that Utah and Salt Lake is and making them stay and becoming residents and small lake citizens for life.

Skyler: 3:36

Have you been blown away by any of the guests? You have, like I, like I've interviewed some people. I'm like I had no idea that this person, this type of person, was even like within 10 miles of me.

Erik Nilsson: 3:46

Yeah, I mean it happens so much is the surprising thing for me because when I first started, a lot of it was with my own network reaching out to kind of the first people, people I know that had done things, and it's kind of just like chipping away at this rabbit hole, that rabbit hole of people. For example, one that I've found myself deep in this rabbit hole is like the art community in Utah, because one of my really good friends growing up is a professional, I mean fine artist, professionally trained, and so I had him on John Darley. But then as I started meeting more I realized like the art scene in Utah I mean punches above its weight, um, for everything that they're able to accomplish, but then, um, understanding more of that dynamic, to the point where I interviewed a guy by the name of Micah Christensen who is a fourth generation art dealer in Utah. Um works as one of the three kind of owners of Anthony's fine arts and antiques down on second South and fifth three kind of owners of Anthony's Fine Arts and Antiques down on 2nd South and 5th East in Salt Lake.

Erik Nilsson: 4:38

But if you want to buy like real art or want to sell real art or understand real art, he is the one that understands it all, not only like from a worldwide perspective, but also from Utah. I mean, he wrote a book. It's essentially like an anthology of Utah artists and it contributed so much to it that he knows everyone and everyone knows him. And if you want to sell art to someone real you have to go through him. So it's these little things that you don't even know exist and all of a sudden you start scratching at it and then you find yourself down this rabbit hole. You're like I didn't even know any of this existed, but I'm so glad to find out that it does.

Erik Nilsson: 5:06

Yeah, was Small Lake City your first podcast that was like hey, I'm going to start a podcast, it's time to figure out what the podcast is going to be. It really started as I had an idea and the kind of this like voice in the back of my head saying hey, there's something where you need to be doing. I mean I was working full time, I was playing a lot of video games with friends, spending time with friends, but there's always kind of this. I mean I had seen around the world. I mean one of the podcasts that probably gets inspired me the most was Armchair Expert Cause.

Erik Nilsson: 5:42

Yeah, I mean Dax Shepard sitting down with people and just having normal conversations, and you get to know these people that you would deem as, like, famous, but you really don't understand what makes them tick, what motivates them, who they are, what they are as a real person.

Erik Nilsson: 5:53

And then, as I thought about that, I was like there's so many people in Salt Lake that are similar, that, like are doing so many great things, but we don't know who they are or like why they do what they do.

Erik Nilsson: 6:02

And so then I mean it was just kind of like kicking the ball down the field of like, well, if I did, what would the outline, look like and if, like I mean, for lack of a better term like shit, I get off the toilet Like it's. Either you're going to do this or you have to put this idea completely away and so put it on pause for a little bit, to go travel for six months around the country with the idea that I was going to find this perfect place, become completely enamored with it. That was going to be my new home, but at the end of the day, what happened was I just became more appreciative and loving of Salt Lake, so came back and then, having this idea that I once put on the shelf, it's like okay, it's time to really like, hit the hit the gas on this and really see what it can become.

Skyler: 6:43

Yeah, well, I we may just switch gears here completely, cause it sounds like you've interviewed a lot of cool people. You've learned a lot of cool things. Have you ever been interviewed on your own show? Probably not.

Erik Nilsson: 6:53

No, that's actually something that comes up semi-frequently and I'm kind of waiting for the right time and also trying to figure out the right person to have. I have a couple ideas, but yeah, it's definitely an idea in motion, but I haven't fully planned that one out yet.

Skyler: 7:06

Well, I'm just going to start getting to know you right here. Then, please, and if people want to know more about you, you can just send them to this episode. Oh exactly, maybe you can even post this on yours. I have people sometimes want to do that. But okay, let's go from the roots. Where did Eric grow up?

Erik Nilsson: 7:21

So born and raised Salt Lake City, utah, up on North Cliff Drive, up in the avenues. One of three kids the baby of the bunch grew up there and then parents split up, moved down to like of like Yelcrest area and kind of got to know a lot of people around there. I mean very typical Utah upbringing. I mean skiing in the winters, water skiing in the summers down to Lake Powell yeah, very, very typical from that perspective. But then kind of grew up and I realized, as I kind of went through I mean let's call it like the maturing time of life of like middle school, high school and really trying to find your identity.

Erik Nilsson: 7:56

I was really this kind of like jack of all trades, like I had my core friends but I had all of these other friends. Like I played lacrosse in high school so I had like my like jock, like sport friends and then I had my I mean core friends that lived in my neighborhood with me. I had like the kind of like more like grungy or like almost like gothic friends that I would still hang out with and we would go, I mean listen to music and do stupid stuff and then I would have, um, I was in the chess club, I was in the math club, like I was just all of these different things, but it made me have, like, all of these friends, but like also it's part of my nature because I'm just like a very curious person and like if I could like draw the perfect life, I would totally be this cat of nine lives and picking all of these different things and all these experiences. But unfortunately that's not how life works. And so, yeah, I had this great experience in high school and great experience in Utah.

Erik Nilsson: 8:43

Did a two-year mission in Washington, spanish-speaking, up in the eastern side, where all your favorite fruits are grown and picked and distributed from there. Came back, went to the University of Utah, studied finance for four years, then moved up to Seattle for four years, worked up there, love the Pacific Northwest, love everything Seattle. Learned a lot about who I was and who I wanted from there and then came back with a fresh perspective because I mean, utah, especially Salt Lake, is the ultimate like boomerang city in the world, and especially growing up. You see these people leave and you're like, oh, they did it. Like, oh my gosh, like good for them. Then all of a sudden they come back. Like what? No, you had you got away? Why did you come back?

Erik Nilsson: 9:21

And then me being one of those people and talking to so many of those people, you really do get understand why. I mean the proximity to the outdoors, the cleanliness of the city, the economic optimism, the niceness of the people, the centrality of the geography of Salt Lake, having an international airport I mean the list goes on of what makes this place so great. I mean it's not perfect, there's always going to be issues, but it was fun to kind of understand all of that and have this foundation. That truly made me appreciate it.

Skyler: 9:47

Yeah, sounds like there's a lot of reasons why you enjoy Utah, one of them being the outdoors.

Erik Nilsson: 10:00

You sound very outdoorsy. What's your favorite outdoor activity, or maybe a handful, oh, I mean.

Skyler: 10:02

Well, it's funny you mentioned that, because last year I had to put a hard stop on a lot of my hobbies, because I realized why.

Erik Nilsson: 10:04

Because I don't have time for all of them was the main thing. Because I kind of had this uh, come to jesus moment last year. I was like, all right, we can't do mountain biking, road biking, golf golf, trail running, running, um, I mean yeah, like the list goes on and build a podcast and build a podcast social life.

Erik Nilsson: 10:20

Exactly. And so I was like all right, we can pick two. And so I picked golf and running, because I do. I mean golf aligns with all of my values in life. It's competitive, but it also doesn't have to be competitive. It's with friends, it's outside, it's good time, like you can be as serious or unserious as you want to. It's something that you can build, you can do forever. And then with running, I mean I love spending time in the mountains, I mean trail running, finding myself on the top of a mountain, but then also just like mentally just checking out for both. So and I realized if I didn't focus then I would never have achieved them.

Erik Nilsson: 11:04

Like for running, I really wanted to get into it because I was the first year. I was like identified as a runner. Like before it was just like constant battle, like yeah, I've got a race, but I'm not a runner, like I don't love this, it's just something I'm doing. And I kind of was like all right, fine, I'm a runner, I'll do this. I ran, I think, like four or five half marathons, did my first marathon down in St George, so that took a lot of time to train for.

Erik Nilsson: 11:30

And then with golf, I really wanted to. I like a lot of my kids and are married and so we started just golfing like every morning, probably like two to four mornings during the week, teeing off at six, being done by like 8 30 go to work at nine. It's kind of nice morning routine and so a lot of really great reconnecting with them and then like reconnecting these bonds, but then also just obsessed with this game and trying to get as good as I can and it's frustrating and as many headaches as it gives me yeah, I need a sport or something outdoors to do that doesn't take all day, because I love skiing, snowboarding, and so when I go it's it's like kind of an all-day thing.

Skyler: 12:03

You know, wake up at, you know 7, 30, get back maybe two, three, sometimes like four, so it's kind of the whole day. But I like how the golf for you is like you can do it the morning and then you can go to work after or you can do something else. So so I feel like I need to find something like that. Do you ski or snow? Yeah, ski, I mean you still do that I do.

Erik Nilsson: 12:21

it's been kind of an interesting relationship with skiing because, like I'm used to the skiing, I mean especially in like high school and college, where I'm not going to go to third or fourth period, I'm going to go up to park city and go do some laps at the train park and then now I can uh, sorry, college is the same thing where I mean done with class at like 10, 30 or 11 skis are already on my car. Go up, go get some runs in, come back, do work, homework, whatever it might be. And then you change that to now where it's like, okay, I'm up at seven, I'm in line just off the exits, uh, to get to big cotton or little cottonwood, I wait for two hours. I get there, oh, there isn't any parking.

Erik Nilsson: 12:57

Like that sort of dynamic is so hard like, because if I wasn't from here I mean especially even comparing to like skiing in seattle, where I remember when I went the first, I was like, all right, I want to do this before I leave, like, cool, I'll pick you up at six I was like, what do you mean? Six? Yeah, yeah, it's like. Well, yeah, it's a two drive there, and then we ski all day and there's a two hour drive back, so we'll probably be back by seven. And like my mind was blown, I didn't understand that. Like I'm used to hopping in a car, 30 minutes later we're there, 30 minutes, we're done. Don't have to ski all day and do that. And so if I didn't have this like appreciation and understanding of what it had been before now, but it just becomes there's so many other things that are taking up time in my life it's it's kind of been the one that's gotten a little bit of the shaft but still make time for it, especially like to spend time with friends.

Skyler: 13:41

Yeah, Cause you can have like your two main hobbies. But then you can still go mountain biking every once in a while, go skiing every once in a while. It's not like you're divorcing them and never seeing them again, it's just hey, we're you know dating on the side, Exactly, so no, that's cool. Uh, you talked about chess. Are you like a chess master?

Erik Nilsson: 13:57

I go in and out of it. So there was a time I remember when I was in the van, I downloaded, like the chesscom app. So chesscom is like the ultimate, uh, like like it's. It's so funny because it's a central thing within the chess world, and so that when I was in the van I was like, oh, like I think I was listening to a podcast and they had talked about it. I think it actually might've been armchair expert. He had a grand chess master on. He was talking about chesscom ratings. I'm like, what does this mean? So I download the app and I'm starting to do you want to play chess, like once a week we can just hang out and like eat and remember, like yeah, that'd be sick, but not something I'm looking to spend a ton of energy in towards.

Skyler: 14:37

What I've thought about doing is having this podcast or maybe another podcast where, as we're going, we're playing a game of chess.

Erik Nilsson: 14:43

Oh yeah, I've thought about that, have you Okay. But haven't done it yet it's like it's almost like the hot ones, but like the chess ones, yeah.

Skyler: 14:51

Because I've also thought about having, just like different restaurant owners come in, bring their food and we can eat their food, talk about it, promote them on the podcast, and then it's like hey, I know some people Get all this free food which isn't the point, but also it's like a huge benefit.

Erik Nilsson: 15:05

The benefits can sometimes be unintentional.

Skyler: 15:10

It's an equal exchange of value. You promote them, they bring you some food win, win, exactly Right. It's like the ultimate bartering. Yeah, so have you ever thought about starting other podcasts? It sounds like you've kind of thought about some different dynamics of doing it. Like, tell me about that.

Erik Nilsson: 15:23

Yeah. So like the blessing and I don't want to say curse, that's probably not the right one, but restriction, let's say of like my podcast, small lake city is there's a very specific Tam that I can, or like total addressable market that I can cover. I mean salt lake city people interested in salt lake city surrounding areas, and so there's definitely part of me that hums and haws and still thinking about kind of like a like a general population or broad podcast that I could market, cause like again, like trying to grow. This one is a little bit different of a battle than if I had like a generalized podcast that would be applicable to more people. So definitely something that I think about and brainstorm on, but nothing actionable yet.

Skyler: 15:59

Yeah, it sounds like you're creative. You like to think of new ideas and things to do.

Erik Nilsson: 16:03

Yeah, that's been. I mean honestly like leaning into like this creative part of me has been probably one of the most fulfilling parts of my life within the past like two or three years. Like last january I started like a painting class because I again I had this creative itch. I didn't know where to take it and I always wanted to paint and so a friend of mine got me like a 10 week, um kind of like painting 101 class. And I mean I think everybody has had like an experience in like school of some sort, where it's like an art class, where you're like, oh, I can't do this, I'm not really trying, I don't, I suck at this. Or someone tells you you're not creative, you don't do it.

Erik Nilsson: 16:35

But then it's funny. Once you become adult, you mature, you understand how you can get better at things. Then all of a sudden you're like, oh wait, I want to do this, but I want to try. And where there's a moment I was, like I finished one of my first paintings, like wait, this isn't bad, like I bad, like I actually can do this, and so now that's been again. I guess going back to hobbies and how they've come has been one of my hobbies that I've leaned into a ton, especially in the winter, where I mean I can't go run really Cause I'm a baby when it comes to snow and cold and inversion. So spending a lot of time painting and creating like works a whole different side of my brain than than others. But, yeah, definitely, definitely more of a creative mind than I've thought in the past and leaning more into that and seeing where it goes.

Skyler: 17:13

Yeah, no, I think. I think it's really cool, Like how much you're doing and want to do and how much you're creating Cause. You also talked about traveling. Do you travel a lot still?

Erik Nilsson: 17:22

I try to, but like also there's so much and and I think a lot of people who are from Salt Lake can attest like, especially me, growing up here we didn't do a ton of like hikes around the Valley, we didn't do a lot of like national parks, and a lot of that just has to do with, like my family dynamic, and I mean obviously my parents split up so it's not like they were spending time together and doing family trips and such.

Erik Nilsson: 17:42

But now that I've come back I'm like, oh, I never. Like, for example, I grew up I mean even like hiking above there, like up on dry Creek or up above city Creek, like I never really did any of that, and so then I moved back. I'm like time for me to explore all these things that I didn't even really know were there, could appreciate and be able to experience them now. So there's a lot of me that does want to experience so much of home, because there's a point when I realized when I came back I was like I know Washington and Oregon and have seen so much of that than I have of Utah, where I'm from, and so that's been kind of like my motivating factor is really kind of getting into the nitty and gritty of Utah. But then also I mean I'm heading to Austin in a couple of weeks to go see a friend, probably go up to Pacific Northwest to visit my cousin up in Willamette Valley outside of Portland. So there's always I'm always in for an adventure there's always.

Skyler: 18:32

I'm always in, in, in for an adventure. Yeah, I want to do a lot more road trips. I just bought a truck and want to get a rooftop tent and then just go on a bunch of bunch of uh uh road trips around Utah Cause, like I, there's all these places in the world or around the United States I want to go, but I feel like I haven't really explored the own, like where I live, that much. Are there any places in Utah that you haven't been yet, or maybe have been, that are like everyone needs to go to these places.

Erik Nilsson: 18:54

I mean it's hard to get away from, kind of like the iconic places of Utah, because they are iconic for a reason.

Erik Nilsson: 18:59

I mean your Zions, your Arches, your Moab, your St George, your Snow Canyons. I mean all of these things are so like it's almost seems like cliche. Like it's almost seems like cliche but at the same time it gets that um reputation because it is so great. And so I feel like there's kind of like the breadth that you can understand, but then, once you can understand that there's so much more depth to it, uh, I think it is the best way to go, cause, like a lot of people have been to like Moab and seen um, I mean um delicate arch, but it's like, oh, have you been to Dead Horse Point? Have you been? I mean all these areas around here that are also so beautiful and can do. But it's hard to like really explore that way. But I think the best way to do it is, like you said, like you have a truck, let's put a topper on there, let's put like a camper on the back.

Skyler: 19:42

I can't tell you how I'm excited to do that.

Erik Nilsson: 19:51

Like it is the best, okay, I'm going to buy a flight, I'm going to fly here, we're going to stay in a place, we're going to come back. What you don't realize is like everything from A to B and then B to A is so much part of the experience and like when I was in the van, like it was so fun to be, like, oh, I can hear the accents change, I see the geography go from Rocky Mountains to Midwest to like Appalachian mountains, and so it's so fun to understand what connects all of everything, instead of just being like, oh cool, I've been to new york, I've been to miami, I've been to dallas, austin portland, san francisco, whatever that might be, but you'd lack so much of the context of how to get there and everything in between.

Skyler: 20:24

There's this app called I think it's called road trippy. Have you have you heard it? Yeah, so you put in where you're at and where you want to go, but it shows you all these cool little stops on the way. Is that right? Yeah, it's been a while since I've had the app.

Erik Nilsson: 20:35

Yeah, it's fun and you can be like well, I don't want to detour this much, but if it's like right off the exit, I'll do this. And there's so many cool things. I mean even in like central California, on the north side, it's like the, and people probably see it like I google if you want to, but like the hole in the tree where you can drive through the tree. Oh yeah, and there's like that one. I mean in oregon. There's like sea lion caves, which is cool, but again like right off the freeway. So there's like these little like. They seem like kind of like kitschy tourist attractions, but then you go, you're like, okay, actually this is kind of cool. I mean, I'm in, I'll take my 10 bucks, you win.

Skyler: 21:09

Right, and a lot of these places like have you done that where you just road trip all around or were you flying, like mostly flying to these destinations? I mean, I was in a van.

Erik Nilsson: 21:19

Like one of those life vans. Yeah, I mean it was kind of like a. I mean it would be technically classified as an RV, but it's I mean the same size as like a sprinter van, just kind of a little bit more comfy. Oh, you did that.

Skyler: 21:30

Yeah, oh, that's so sick. Yeah, okay, I want to talk more about that then. So it was it your van, did you build it?

Erik Nilsson: 21:38

Bought it. So me and my partner at the time, we were coming up on the end of a lease in an apartment building. We knew we didn't for sure if we wanted to be in Utah. And so we're like, hey, what if we just rented a van? Or like, bought a van and went and traveled the country for the rest of the year six months, nine months a year, whatever. And we're like, well, again, like the same thing as a podcast. It's like, oh well, if we did what would that look like? What would the model we did the winnebago echo was? It gave us the comfortability we had, the storage and we didn't feel like we had to rough it too much. Yeah. And then it's like, if we did go get a sprinter van and convert it, like we didn't have the time because we had to act faster than that. I definitely didn't want to rely on someone else's craftsmanship, especially when insurance and a lot of like model builds isn't as nice as you'd like. And so being able to have that comfortability, mobility, um, and flexibility is what made it the best.

Erik Nilsson: 22:37

But then you add to your point. It's like, oh cool. Like here's a state park over here, let's go check out that. Or like, oh, here's this BLM line, let's go over here and kind of have this like loose road trip. But then the nice thing is about those road trips. It's like, oh, we have this plan, let's deviate from the entire thing, take a hard left turn, go do something completely different. There is no restrictions, there are no like promises or anything you have to make. Like there's certain times where we'd be like, oh, we have to be here because we have like family in Oregon we want to go see. Or there's a half marathon we ran in Rhode Island that we should be to at this date. So we had like a couple loose dates we had to align with. But again, like the path to get there completely up to us.

Skyler: 23:12

Yeah, and you did that for, say, six months.

Erik Nilsson: 23:15

Yeah, six months.

Skyler: 23:21

Six months. And how was that? Not having like an actual apartment or house to live in, like you're just always on the go, like what about, like I don't know showering, or what'd you do for food? And you know like, and there's stores all over, did you have a fridge in it?

Erik Nilsson: 23:29

Yeah, so we had I mean actually two fridges, actually two stokes. There's like an indoor, there's an outdoor fridge, indoor fridge, indoor stove, outdoor stove, I mean full bathroom, if we needed it. But then also, like you realize how many amenities there are to you, like I before then I never stayed at like a campground where you pay, and it's like I mean monitored and managed and and it's like I mean monitored and and managed, yeah, and it's like, oh, we'll stay there, like there's a full shower, they're all really good and fine, uh. But then also, like one of the secrets of like van life that people do is everybody pretty much gets a membership to planet fitness. Yeah, whether you work out or not, because you will always have a shower there and there's usually one within 20 minutes of wherever you might be.

Skyler: 24:10

Yeah, so did you do that?

Erik Nilsson: 24:12

Yeah, lots of lots of planet fitness. I have lots of opinions of planet fitnesses. Okay, that's awesome.

Skyler: 24:20

So I'm thinking about putting the rooftop tent on my truck and just loading it up with gear. I I'll be able to fit my mountain bikes, skis, hiking gear, whatever I want in it. What's your opinion? Or take on having like the F one, 50 with the rooftop tent, versus having like a van.

Erik Nilsson: 24:36

I mean it depends. And then, like that's the thing is like, from like a class ARV you think of like a tour bus, compared to like a class BRV, which would be like your sprinter van, to a class three is like a baby of the two together. And then you have I mean your trucks with your toppers and you can have a uh, I mean a pop-up tent on top. You can have a full built out, um, a camper on the back.

Erik Nilsson: 24:57

There's so many different ways to do it and it all depends on kind of the experience you want and I didn't really realize that until I got. I was like, oh, like I get this now. Like the difference between having like an RV or a trailer, a van or a car and doing it all these different ways, um, but yeah, I mean the way. I mean that way is great. I mean you can go down to Moab, go stay in BLM land all day, every day, and you're taken care of. I mean you can get a little camper stove and be set to have a cooler, be great. Or you can just say we're going to go eat at restaurants and do it that way, like there's so many different ways to make it happen and there's so much creativity and flexibility to be able to do it the way that you want to.

Skyler: 25:32

Yeah, cause I'm like I'm thinking like, okay, for food, probably just get a cooler. You can get ice almost at probably any gas station, um, and I feel like I've got plenty of room to fit all the gear and everything I want to bring. Um, but I just don't know what. I don't know, you know, like, are there? Are there any things that most people don't think of they need to bring, that they probably should have with them when they're going to spend a week or two on the road?

Erik Nilsson: 25:54

I mean, I think, to echo your point, like we live in a world where, I mean, as long as I have a smartphone, I can get anything I need to at any given point.

Erik Nilsson: 26:02

And even if you're in like more of a rural area or a place where you might not have Uber, eats or Grubhub, there's still I mean gas stations, there's still grocery stores, there's still a lot of the places that we need and rely on and that'll always be there for the most part. But I think I'd say key things to think about is like how long do you want to be gone for? Like, do you want to be gone for a weekend? Do you want to be gone for a month, two months, six months? Like that'll change a lot of what you want with you and how to think about how much space that you need.

Erik Nilsson: 26:28

But but then also like where you want to stay, because, again, you could do I mean campsites at national parks, state parks, whatever that might be. You can stay on BLM land, you can stay on there's, like different apps where you can, I mean, stay in people's like backyards, wineries, churches, businesses, whatever. And so I think, just kind of thinking about the experience you want to have, and working back from there is the best way to go about it, okay.

Skyler: 26:52

No, yeah, I like that. Did you stay more at campgrounds or on BLM land? I'd say mostly Walmarts yeah because you can stay overnight there, right.

Erik Nilsson: 27:04

Walmarts, cracker, barrels, cabela's are always welcomed.

Skyler: 27:08

Yeah.

Erik Nilsson: 27:08

I'd say that's the one thing that people don't realize. Always welcomed. Yeah, like I'd say that's like the one thing that people don't realize. It's like it's not like every morning you wake up and there's this beautiful sunrise over this perfect mountain top and you just get like the birds are chirping and it's great, like there's not. There's. There's a lot of those, but there's also a lot of just waking up to the freeway cars people.

Erik Nilsson: 27:25

Exactly. And you and you and you learn, like truck stops and like you kind of learn that that's just kind of part of it. And once you get used to it, it's fine because you realize like once windows are closed, everything's locked, like you're still in the back of a van, it doesn't really matter where you are. But yeah, to your point, still like a lot of campsites, a lot of, yeah, a lot of campsites. And it was fun too, because it's really hard to get campsites in a lot of places, like I remember the first time I ran into I went to Big Sur and I look on the app and there's not a single campsite available for the next like three months.

Erik Nilsson: 27:56

And I'm like shit, what am I going to do? And so I pull up to the welcome window and it's like hey, I'm here, I don't know if you have any cancellations or people not show up. They're like yeah, we got three, you can have this one. We're like cool. And so that happened more often than not when I would just show up, be like hey, I'm here, do you have any cancellations? Or no shows, like, yeah, cool, here's your site, here's, pay us x amount and have a good one but you're like it's already paid for.

Erik Nilsson: 28:19

You're like it's like, if you're charging them, do you really need to charge?

Skyler: 28:24

that's awesome. No, that's so cool because this has been something like what wanted to do for so long, but I always feel like there's been one thing or another that stopped me. But, um, coming in, like, so I'm gonna get married in like three or four months, congrats, and so our thank you. So our plan is to get one of those and just do a bunch of road trips, probably just a bunch of weekend stuff, but at the same time, like I think it'd be fun to go, just take a week off and go wherever we want. Exactly.

Skyler: 28:47

Yeah, that's what I love about is the, the freedom, and with the and I've seen a lot of light, uh, the, do you call them life vans? Yeah, okay, yeah, so I've seen a lot of those where the storage is really good. Um, but like I, I still am really confident with with the truck because I know I can put the mountain bike in the back or really anything that I want. Um, what about for, like, emergency gear or safety gear? Like did you ever have like a satellite phone on you or flare guns or some way to contact people if you were out of service?

Erik Nilsson: 29:17

Not really, and I, thankfully I was never truly like off grid, no service, no, nothing. I mean there were times where I was, but not for too long, because I was working remote the whole time, yeah, so I always had to have some sort of mean and like cellular hot spots, which is the main way to do it. So I always had to be within or like close proximity to cell service. So there wasn't ever any like huge like oh no, if this happens, this could go wrong. But then I mean, the only time that ever became an issue was when went up to like bamf in canada and slowly realized that their uh telecommunication infrastructure is eight years behind ours, oh yeah, and learned that we yeah, it was not a place where I could just work remote and make it work, but more of a let's take some days off and go enjoy Banff and Jasper and come back down.

Skyler: 30:02

Yeah, well, that's cool. I'm glad this popped up so we could talk about that Before we go. This is we've talked a lot about the cool, the good, the happy stuff, the fun things. You've done what's been one of the most challenging things you've been through in your life.

Erik Nilsson: 30:19

That's a great question, I would say. I mean I'll preface it with this. So I mean, we see a lot of statistics and facts and insights into kind of where people are right now. You hear about how lonely men are. You hear about the mental health crisis that we're going through, kids skyrocketing and ADHD and anxiety.

Erik Nilsson: 30:49

Friends is there's a lot of them and us that are getting to this point where we've kind of done everything that we were told to do we went to school, we got married, we they had kids, all of these different things, we did these careers that would pay out. And then kind of getting to this point and like I mean early mid thirties being like, wait, none of this I did for me, I did just because I thought it was I was supposed to do. I don't know what makes me happy. I. I don't know what makes me happy, I don't know what I want, I don't know what the rest of my life looks like, and really taking that introspective view of saying who am I, what do I want, what do I want to go through, and so for me, I'd say the thing that kicked that off was, I mean, something that happens a lot in Salt Lake in Utah as I went through my faith crisis ended up, I mean leading the Mormon church and really going from kind of knowing how the rest of my life was going to look to what do I want, and building back from there. And so kind of coming back to some of the earlier things I talked about, that's when I was like, oh well, I have this itch of like feeling I need to do something else. What is that? Let's explore that. I have this itch of needing to do something more creative. What is that? What do I need to do?

Erik Nilsson: 31:45

And I think the biggest thing that helped me kind of get through that and get through a lot of things is really just being action oriented, because I'm someone who I could get away with procrastinating in school.

Erik Nilsson: 31:54

I'm someone who I mean ADHD and is really hard for me to just kind of like do things in general, and so I think that's one thing that's helped me is just being really action oriented. And even if I didn't know where I was going to go, or didn't know what the outcome was going to be, or confused, just knowing that if I took steps forward, I would either figure out, hey, this is not what I need to do, come back and go, try something else or be like cool, this is what I want. Let's keep going down here. And so it's got me through a lot, of, a lot of dark times and a lot of dark, dark places. But it's nice to know that and it gives like that kind of confidence of like I can do this. I can do a lot of things. I can do hard things, because it's not like they're never going to come back.

Skyler: 32:32

Yeah, excuse me. Uh, that's something I like. I went through something similar with that, but I it was wild to me looking back, like how many decisions I've made for other people and not because it was truly what I wanted. Sounds like that's what.

Skyler: 32:47

I realized big time Do you feel like most people are making decisions and going down the I don't know the conveyor belt path of high school, college, get married, get a job, buy a house, like? Do you feel like most people are kind of living on autopilot and what they see other people doing, or do you feel like people are actually making their own decisions?

Erik Nilsson: 33:05

I think we're entering an interesting time where and one of my friends, scott Paul, has called it like the awakening of, where we're realizing like everything we were promised didn't really come to the way. It was Like the American dream from like the boomers is like oh yeah, cool, go to war, come back, buy a house, have kids, get a decent job. Everything works out. And we were told that. And then all of a sudden like hey, go to college, Costs are skyrocketing, college educations are what we thought they were going to be and way too expensive. Now you're in all of this debt and it's not really working and wages haven't grown nearly as much as costs have. So it's like we almost felt, like we're like hey, we were promised this and it didn't work out. And so people are starting to say, well, if not this, then what? Which?

Erik Nilsson: 33:53

I'm a for lack of a better term of value that I've lived in my life. And it's something that's been on my Instagram I don't think it's there anymore, but it said not an NPC. And so for the people who don't know what an NPC is, it's those people that like. And for those who don't know, an npc is someone who's like. It's part of just getting the game narrative progressed. They don't really have an actionable part, their background character and just like just living, just following the program, exactly just following the program.

Erik Nilsson: 34:25

And so for me, I took this point in life. I'm like I'm not going to just follow, I'm going to live intentionally, I'm going to be purposeful in everything that I do, I'm going to be present in everything that I do, because if I don't, I know that I will wake up one, five, 10, 20 years from now and be like why was never at the control of anything and I'm in a situation I never agreed to, and the more that I've realized that, and then continue to iterate on what I want, what I need and living to my values. That's what's brought a lot of the best things into my life.

Skyler: 34:55

I think that speaks to a lot of people, because I think a lot of people actually feel that and think those things deep down, but they don't say them like this, like a lot of people aren't willing to express like this is truly what I want or don't want, but because there's this pressure from family, from friends, seeing what your friends are doing, feeling like you have to follow that same path. Or parents go to college, go to college. For some people it makes total sense to go to college, but for a lot of people that go, it doesn't, and so I think that speaks to a lot of people. As we wrap up here, do you have some advice for someone who's really not sure what they want to do and they kind of feel like they're just following the conveyor belt path? Do you have any advice on how they can break out of that or start to make their own decisions and find out what they really want?

Erik Nilsson: 35:38

I would say just get out of the reactive mindset, because I have a couple of friends, one in particular, who doesn't really think about oh well, where do you see yourself in one, five, 10 years which is such like a cliche question to ask, like that job interview. And where do you see yourself in five years, like I don't know, hopefully have this job? Um, but to really understand what decisions you were making on a daily basis, the actions that you were doing, and how that correlates to where you want to be in x amount of time, like if someone wants to be a millionaire but you're not saving any money or investing or thinking about how to do it, you're're never going to get there, no matter how much you do want that. So and again, that comes back to doing the things that you want to do and drive towards the purpose in life that you want to have, and which also takes that extra step of saying what do I actually want and being actionable to get there. Because, to your point, like you were saying, there's a lot of people that feel kind of trapped and stuck and the only way out is some sort of action.

Erik Nilsson: 36:29

There's a quote from Brad Pitt I love in a world war Z, where he's trapped in this apartment with this Hispanic family and they're there for a night. He's like, all right, we got to go. And he's like, no, no, no, we're safe here, we're going to. He's like, no, no, no. Movimiento is Vida, movement is life. Like we have to keep moving.

Erik Nilsson: 36:43

If I need to be actionable, I need to start moving forward, and so, for those people who feel like they might feel that way, just do something. It could be the stupidest thing to do, but if you're doing something different, you're probably going to be finding different outcomes. Because I always tell people, if nothing changes, nothing changes, and the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, hoping for a different outcome. So, just making sure that you are a living intentionally of what you want, knowing what your values are and making sure that you're spending your time, effort and money according to those values, and making sure that your life is going in a way that you want it to, not doing what everybody else wants you to do or living for someone else, because otherwise you never actually live to the life that you need and want to be happy.

Skyler: 37:37

I have nothing to add to that. Beautiful, so true, well, so thanks for that. I think that resonates a lot to me and my experience and I think, a lot of people that are listening. If they want to get to know you more or get in contact with you, how do they do that?

Erik Nilsson: 37:48

Yeah, so my Instagram handle the Rockaflocka. There's a whole different story of why that name came to be that I'll cover when I do eventually get interviewed on my podcast, small Lake City Podcast. If you want to find it on social Small Lake Pod, Instagram, tiktok, linkedin, everywhere you can, podcast is called Small Lake City Podcast. Listen to wherever you prefer to listen to podcasts. Episodes release weekly. And, yeah, come, join, come hear more about me and some of the cool people doing cool stuff around salt lake awesome, well eric thanks for coming on.

Erik Nilsson: 38:18

Absolutely, scholar, thank you for having me yeah, anytime.