Cookson Adventures Founder & Chairman: Henry Cookson – Polar Records, Real Wealth, & the Legacy Question

26:42The Gstaad Guy:And the sort of final boss of this whole thing is doing something greater than them and doing something greater than the society they're a part of, which often involves some crazy life experiences, some crazy explorations, sometimes fueled by bragging rights, sometimes fueled by curiosity and desire, and sometimes fueled by wanting to give back to some sort of mission like the one you mentioned with the rhinos but all three of those i think fit within this definitely growing trend for a new type of travel a new type of of experience for this ultra high net worth person with no budget who are part of a community that keeps growing and their desires keep growing and the name that i hear more and more often is cooks and cooks and adventures and your name henry so uh it's a very cool thing to see i think it's it's a it's really cool to see people that once couldn't care less about this sort of thing and cared a lot about the champagne spring and that whole thing now funding expeditions to fuel a conservation effort or discover something new it's uh it's something i'm very happy to hear about and see it's it's good that i've got a few few points on this so i think it's great that that is becoming an awareness i think there's a risk that people will jump on the bandwagon and try and offer things which have a perception of doing good but they're just looking at it as a profit center yeah you know when we do our conservation stuff we never make any margin on any donations stuff like that we cut we charge for our time but that you know every dollar goes those people i I mean, I even get angry.

28:35There's a lot of these small, like, grassroot organizations, they don't have the compliance. They don't have the US 501 charitable giving status. So you need to use another charity to funnel that money in. Some of these charities, they want a 5 % handling fee. Okay, if it's$1 ,000, who cares? But if it's$5 million, I'm sorry. So I get very angry and principled about that. So going back to, like, someone who has success. yeah they have to do the flex and the parting and stuff like that but i would counter you know there you are you're trying on the new clothes you know you've made it you've arrived what sort of people are you attracting because it's very hard to navigate in this world of of where we are totally you know with with meat social media with the way of things it's like material stuff is more important than who you are and so how do you gauge who are the true friends around you you know it must be very difficult growing up in wealth.

29:34When you go to school, is that person being nice to me because I'm a good person? Am I funny? Or is it because daddy has a yacht? So that must be really difficult. So I would suggest rather than hit the party things, get the champagne out, get the girls, get the whatever. And again, we always sort of think in a male sense. And I have to sort of stop myself because we are in this patriarchal world. There's very successful women out there. I don't think they're sort of getting the champagne out or whatever they success you know they're probably a little bit more measured you know there's an alpha testosterone thing about it but maybe maybe start doing that more authentic thing first you know find out who the real people are because you know when the luxury is a little bit suspect but the experience is great you're not going to get a certain type of people and then when you want to party you know you've got your real friends around I don't know just an idea

30:24The Gstaad Guy:I think in theory it's a great idea I think in practice people actually end up doing things they're not totally in control of i think it's it's kind of a uh a story that was written by someone else but they feel like you have to do it they have to but see that's this is you know we talk about like sheep mentality even if you have extreme success you're following a sort of a set playbook yeah you're not you're not being yourself you're not showing your own pathway. And that's where the bravery comes. The people who speak out, stand out, do slightly different things. It's easy just to follow the route, what societal pressure expects us to do.

31:10The Gstaad Guy:You can really see this playbook. Like if someone's curious about seeing this classic story of achieving success, spending a certain way, you can see it in restaurants. Like just the excess in certain restaurants that actually are quite nonsensical, but people do them just because they feel like they have to know, like cover everything with truffle and everything with caviar and everything with... With the salt and the gold leaf. The gold leaf. But there's far more enjoyable dishes in the menu. Of course. You just haven't been told that they're actually better dishes and they don't have the price tag next to them that makes you feel like they're better.

31:46The Gstaad Guy:So it's... I think, though, this is a great time where people can figure that out for themselves slowly or actually they can be told more quickly by people like yourself on social media and they can become more discerned consumers and realize actually this is some marketing gimmick and i'm being ripped off here and this person's right online i should actually think deeper and go on this thing that will grow me on a personal level and and challenge me on a personal level so i'm actually although i do see lots of the the funny business around i'm actually really hopeful about this generation because of the access to knowledge and the pace at which people are figuring out what's fluff and what's value yeah we're the whole system is geared towards trying to sell us stuff we don't need yeah and and authentic i think one thing if i was to use a word which would summarize me as authenticity.

32:52I've stuck to that path. And authenticity out there is just taking a hammering. You know, big brands trying to sort of capture the essence of somewhere. You know, there are places out there that, you know, I had to really work to find. They were just not in the sort of the common lexicon of where, you know, people have knowledge to travel. And now you have social media, these places are all being exposed, and then you get a man and a four seasons just slapping their stuff down. And they try and interpret the local culture. And they also have a nice scent in the lobby, which talks about the bamboo essence, whatever it might be.

33:25It's not real. And, yeah, it serves a purpose. People work hard. They want to just chill. But, you know, we're losing our culture. You know, there's this with the iPhone, the globalization. I get so irritated when you go to remote parts of the world. The airport looks the same. It's the same advertising holiday. You've got Johnny Depp trying to sell you Sauvage, you know, Lay's crisps. you know the same cars the same pop music and and in this globalized world people are sort of becoming lost they don't know who they are and i think culture is so important not in a nationalistic way but your identity you know celebrate that identity and i've seen it through the lens of greece i grew up you know in my summers in corfu and used to go to the little tavernas and it was like you know the paper nap kit the paper sort of tops and the straw sort of uh seated chairs and then the dancing would come out, you'd smash some plates and the guys would dance and they'd pick up the chair and their teeth.

34:21We were there as tourists, but it was proper. And now it's like they're a bit embarrassed about it because it's too touristy and maybe it's a little bit, it's not sophisticated. But that's really important, that stuff. And so what I really encourage people like go back to their roots, revive your cultures. Don't let these giga brands influence us because they're employing the best psychologists, the best marketers, the best videographers, the influencers, to push this stuff that we don't really need. I would take a crappy little fishing boat bobbing around on the sea, the people I like, then 150 meter yacht with everything on it with a bunch of douchebags.

35:00The Gstaad Guy:Of course. But that's what you see. I've seen it. I've seen guests with their sort of renter crowd there. And you just know they're there for the transaction. And it's so sad. Yeah. You know, it's not, it's, it's, it's fortunately with what we do, we attract people who have more meaning and more sort of the type of clients and guests we have, they typically have a bit more discernment that they, you know, so, so they tend to have more authentic people around them and their family. occasionally someone comes through and it's like okay yeah and that's not you know you've made it you've made your money but then what's true nourishment true nourishment is connection it's community it's nature doing cool things that have meaning and we're losing that and that's my sort of personal one of my crusades now you know i've made i've been really lucky you know i did as i said i didn't have a vision to grow a business and become i have a degree of success you know i'm comfortable i can get on a plane i can see who want my business gives me access um but i don't i i'm i've escaped the cage i bought my freedom and i sort of if you use the analogy of an elevator yeah i'm i've got out the third floor i've got a degree of comfort i've got a degree of privilege i don't want to keep on going up because then i also see people who have a whole entourage around them you know fixers and chiefs of staffs and that and and they don't know what's real because these people are paid, you know, just to make things convenient.

36:29But they're also they have a vested interest to look after their own needs. So they never want to take risk. And then you get trapped in your own success. And you've got 10 houses around the world and you show up, you don't know where the light switch is left or right. You don't know the name of the house manager. Someone's built it for you. It's got no feeling. And so I think we just need to just step back a little bit and pause. Like, what is important? COVID for me was really interesting. I think I might have mentioned this on Alex Icon's podcast as well. So for COVID, I think a lot of people had a really tough time.

37:03But for those who had the ability to be somewhere in nature, they weren't overly worried about their finances or even the government gave them a stipend, which allowed them to sort of carry on. People slowed down. People were doing 60, 80, 90-hour work weeks. They slowed down and they picked up the phone. They started speaking to old friends and reconnecting. And they started walking in nature and they started picking up passions, art, baking banana bread, whatever it was. And it made us realize we don't need all this crap. We don't need the stuff. We don't need the brands. And then something happened and someone fired this starter gun and we just went back even more aggressively into this consumerism.

37:49but we don't need much.

37:53The Gstaad Guy:I mean, first I want to say we're both speaking in the context of the Stadgei audience and this world of ultra-high-network people. So I'm saying that so none of these moments are taken out of context because the experiences of the people we're talking about are very different from most of the world. So while we speak about that microcosm, I'm generally an optimist. And I think that although it may seem like COVID was a great little break of positive among all the negatives, of course. I don't think we actually snapped back to the same consumerism, especially in the Stadgei world. I think things snap back quite differently.

38:39The Gstaad Guy:And I think that in the world of luxury business, I do think the supply follows the demand. And I think that every year, the brands are actually, leveling up what they do, possibly in terms of craft, possibly just in terms of extravagance, because the consumer wants it and there's some level of demand for it. And when the demand shifted in many ways within the subset of consumers post-COVID, like the people that had more time on their hands, the people that valued a different type of holiday, the people that valued substance over fluff to speak generally, many of the brands did actually adapt their offerings slightly of course it is still under the umbrella of consumerism it's still under the umbrella of absurdity but i do think that the gray area can go in the right direction and actually continue to go in the right direction as long as the consumer demands continue to grow there i think a great example of that is health tech and wearables you're wearing an aura ring many of my friends wear a whoop many of my friends pre-COVID lived a more passive lifestyle now they live a far more active lifestyle and brands like Laura Piana which I'm a huge fan of post-COVID introduced a collection called Into the Wild where they still gave that material excellence that their best customers love but not to walk around town and just walk around town or go to a formal environment but actually to go hiking, climbing and kind of in a cooks and adventurers way be comfortable with what they know in order to explore what they don't know.

40:20The Gstaad Guy:And that's the gray area I'm quite hopeful about of like, yes, we didn't go from consumerism to Burning Man, Kumbaya energy, right? And I don't think that will ever happen. But I do think that through knowledge, the exposure to knowledge, even people listening to this podcast alone, I think there's an effect, an impact that can compound very quickly on the ways people consume and the brands do follow suit in the luxury world. I think in the Lays world, which you mentioned in the airports, it's a whole different thing. There's a societal manipulation happening there which we can't really control and they don't even listen to the consumer.

40:59The Gstaad Guy:They actually manipulate the consumer at that scale with the millions of people. But in the Stadgeir world, I think there's less manipulation, more listening because there's less people and there's it's a luxury five percent of these people control 50 of the top line and luxury businesses so i assume that it's actually a very similar case in your business that if one customer says they want this one thing you can go above and beyond and adapt a trip accordingly because there's big rewards they could work with you for 10 years and could be huge for the business could be huge for the conservation impact as well um so just wanted to underline that luxury difference yeah okay you know again i can't say i'm a i know much about the luxury space i've always i think you do you're an expert in the space maybe i don't know i mean i think it's authenticity be real yeah um and yeah i mean i i see what you're saying i still think at every level we're still manipulated to an extent of course you know what is what is the true value of a clothing item of a watch you know the markups you know you buy a rolex for instance what they produce a million a year where's the scarcity in that you know that's my rolex sponsorship out the window but it's like you know to be swiss made it needs to be a certain proportion needs to be like assembled in switzerland it's most of it comes from other parts of the world you know but but it's like because of the branding because Roger Federer will wear it.

42:26It's like people want to have that thing. And I just think the delta between, you know, perception, reality and perception is just growing and growing. These brands get better and better at that manipulation. And what is advertising? Advertising is almost it's causing an insecurity. It's telling you you're not good enough to have that. You're not good enough to have that type of partner. You're not good enough to have that car, that brand. So it is a sense of manipulation, whatever level you're at. And then there are different brands who some have a higher purpose, they have good environmental record, they give back, they make sure their supply chains are intact, and there's no, you know, sweatshops or whatever it might be.

43:07But you know, we need to, we need to be better. You know, we have the knowledge, you know, we are more educated than ever in history, We have history to look back on. Yet we're doubling down on everything. And our planet is struggling. I've seen the difference. I've seen the changes. It's terrifying. We've lost 72 % of our wildlife in 50 years. That's like a fraction of geology. It's like a hedge fund guy losing his portfolio, 70 % value in a nanosecond. You'd be fired. and this world this is our life support system we only have one mars is a pipe dream that's not happening speak to any proper physicist and i'll say it's all fluff we don't have a living planet we don't exist so you know part of my mission is is to to show people that you know we have very inventive clever people who've created these brands these businesses these empires what's their legacy you know you can open a school you can put a name on a university but but you know being a rich guy anymore is no longer a legacy there's always gonna be someone bigger and more inventive and more whatever true legacy is like how do we fix the problems of our society how do we fix this planet because we are really killing it and it does not get reported how bad it is and i don't want to put a downer on our chat but you know just recently the uk government buried a report saying our ecosystems are on the verge of collapse.

44:43And with that, that means food supply. That means chaos. And we're all talking about, you know, celebrities and the next art thing and the next fashion campaign, distracted by stuff happening in Greenland, whatever it is. The climate thing, the environment thing does not go away. It's terrifying. And I've had to do a lot of work on myself with my depression and stuff and i've been grieving nature you know i can go i go to a beautiful tropical beach turquoise sea jungle behind you you can take a picture most people are like hashtag paradise i know that beneath the surface the shark numbers are decimated behind you the jaguars are gone yet we still carry on it's just conveniently sort of shoved away and I think someone like yourself with this incredible voice, the power that you have, you can make that difference.

45:38I'm privileged to be here. This is a wonderful opportunity just to make some people just slow down, think a little bit. Think about the future for your children because it's bleak. It really is. We've got to be optimistic. We've got to have hope but carrying on current trajectories we don't get out of it and it's not far away.

45:58The Gstaad Guy:I agree entirely. And I think it starts with the consumer. Yeah. And, but how do we motivate the consumers? Because at the moment the brands and the corporations, you know, they, they push this. How do we awaken the consumer to, as you said, start pushing that demand? Yeah. Because the communication channels are sort of controlled by certain people. How do we get through? Because I know people who are trying to make differences and they get suppressed. The right agenda gets put out. There's too few people who control the narrative. So rich, poor, right, left, whatever nationality, whatever background, we're one people living on this planet.

46:42We all swim in the same fish tank. And without some sort of direction of how do we change this, we don't have the Mother Teresas, the Nelson Mandelas. Anyone who comes out now and puts their head above the parapet to do good on the world, they just get slammed. They just get torn down. All in the name of just corporate profit-driven motivations. And that's what we need to push back on. These corporations, they're too powerful. They're too multinational. They're too global. No one can stop them. But the consumer can, and I agree with you on that. But how do we get that message out? And you're a part of that.

47:22You have this amazing audience.

47:23The Gstaad Guy:This podcast is brought to you by Pubelle, bringing you interchangeable charm jewellery hand-painted with enamel on styling silver, allowing you to celebrate all the things you love and all the things you might question through interchangeable styling silver bracelets, bangles, whoop, charms, mini charm, bracelets, rings, cufflings, and much more. And all customizable through our 3D Builder on Pubelle.com. That is poubelle, P-O-U-B-E-L, dot com. Thank you so much for watching. And now back to the podcast. Recently had Brian Johnson on the podcast. And he said something which I found really interesting.

48:08The Gstaad Guy:And he was saying that what is and isn't high status in society is always changing. Right now, being healthy is becoming high status. being healthy was a cool thing but it was more a medical thing in the past it was more something behind closed doors but now signaling wellness and an activity is high status I think the way many people change a way of doing something at once is most easily fueled by status I think as a species we care about being perceived well we care about what people think about us and I think the consumer making a step in the right direction will be fueled by consumers thinking that direction is cool.

49:05The Gstaad Guy:Sounds so simple, sounds so primary school but I really think that's the truth. So I think storytelling about how cool something is may seem insignificant, but I really think it's part of this bigger picture of changing what high status is, caring about the planet as high status, reducing consumption, or at least being more mindful in the ways we consume. I think that's how consumers can make an impact. Changing what's cool, changing what's cool to talk about at school if you're a young listener or universities or even in office buildings. but I'm seeing a lot of that, to be honest. Like one of our dear mutual friends, Naxan, remember, who has also been on a few of your trips.

49:59The Gstaad Guy:He's a part of that conversation in my world, even like Alex Icon as well, one of our other mutual friends. In their worlds and in their minds, being pro-conservation, being pro-challenging yourself and challenging your beliefs is high status so if you're at dinner with both of them the person who's doing that at dinner and saying oh i did this and did that even if they're naked like doesn't matter what they're wearing or what watch or anything they think that's what's high status and i think the world doesn't exist in extremes so i can't expect everyone to be alex icon or nax and mimram but i do think the gray area is true and and reality does exist in this nuance where slowly there will be more Naxons, more Alex's and the things you're communicating I hope will become cooler and cooler and it will transcend through knowledge through people being more mindful about what they consume both in terms of physical product which could have a harmful impact on the world by buying too much of it of course but also the media that they consume people can choose to listen to this podcast until this point and beyond and learn more about your story and learn more about how their story can be different and they can instead listen to the gossip celebrity drama that you're talking about as well and i have hope that the former will be true what you're saying you know that that mirrors in a slight from a different perspective you know my mission no it is it is storytelling it is communication is is the front line that's how we that's how we change this thing and we need to make the the the desire to care and make a difference cool with that storytelling and and as you said the matchings the Alex Icons I have a whenever I meet someone who I think is like morally centered and and useful in my notes of my my iPhone contacts I have a GPG the good people group And I encourage everyone to do that.

52:02Like, who do you want behind you in your team if you want to make a difference to the world? That network effect. So you're now going to be a GPG. I appreciate that. I don't think I've earned it yet, but I appreciate it. I appreciate it. But we need to make this stuff cool.

52:18The Gstaad Guy:Yeah, I agree. Just wealth and status itself and having material things should not be a thing to overly celebrate. And the system is geared to that. lots of the listeners of this podcast and followers of Shtadgai have immense spending power and I still don't think they realize how much the companies that their customers of listen to them these companies on the inside all they really do it's their job is to follow the money this thing is going well we'll do more of that to make more money from that this thing is not going well we'll do less of it and this very small community of very high spenders, even just a little mention of, by the way, I would spend my money on this thing, we'll make them listen.

53:05The Gstaad Guy:So I think speaking up as a big spender and as someone with lots of access to capital can really have a huge impact without even much effort. Just saying, I think you should do less of this thing, more of that thing. This material you're using is actually bad. How about we do this instead? that small suggestion can go really long ways. I really recommend that anyone listening today that is a VIC of a brand, a very important client, they have people from the brand on WhatsApp asking them if they want this new thing from the new collection. If you want something different from the world and you want the brand to act better or act differently, let them know because they listen to someone who spends like you do.

53:51That's powerful.

53:53The Gstaad Guy:I don't know how powerful it is, but i appreciate it i think it is i see myself as a messenger you know i've been told by people i'm a visionary i see patterns i have a good instinct for stuff and and my my depression as well it gave me a perspective it gave me humility it helped with my empathy and if if there's just one of your vic's ultra high net worth whatever who's following this podcast they're inspired a little bit about what our conversation is, then that's a win. I think so too. And so those people in turn have these conversations with their other networks. What are we going to do to make a difference?

54:34The world is sort of in turmoil at the moment. Not many people are speaking out. There's just silence. We're going into an old world order. We're going into a world of might over right. No one's saying anything.

54:51The Gstaad Guy:we've spoken a lot about what the consumer can be and what we believe they should be in many ways but i'd love to talk about what the consumer is and what the demands are today and how you service those demands with the incredible business you run so the business model itself is really tough. What we're doing is we're set. The word bespoke gets thrown everywhere. And essentially what we're doing, we're starting with a blank canvas each and every time. I have 35 people in London. We're doing 40 projects a year. It's a huge amount of uplift, a lot of production that goes into these. You create this experience, this journey around one principal and their friends, family, whoever their guests are.

55:40You deliver it, you execute it. At the extreme end, it could be multiple millions of dollars for one trip for one trip and then it gets shelved and yeah you could use it as a template and you learn from it start all over again well and so that's not a great business model you know you should create a trip and then just keep on selling it repeating it and leverage that but to me that's not real i want to do something which fits the individual the group each and every time and so from very early on um i got burnt horribly by a by a Russian guy. We did so much work and reinvented this and all over the place and like hundreds of hours of work.

56:21And then he just, when we finally pitched the final thing that got to him and he said, okay, I like this. You know, what's the cost? And so, well, we'll need about 30 grand to actually put the idea into reality because we're doing stuff that's never even toyed with. It was okay. And then we leave the room and then five minutes later, his chief of staff calls me, he goes, my principal thought he could do the whole trip for 30 ,000. And the instructions were he never likes to see his clothes packed or unpacked. He only flies in private jets and helicopters. He wants to meet the president of the country, all this stuff.

56:54Each one of his events was 30 ,000. And so then I was like, okay, we need to charge for our time. Because some people are genuine and they approach you, but the type of people that is your audience, they're distracted. There's lots of shiny little baubles everywhere. You know, they may want to go and do an amazing experience, but then someone goes, hey, we can go to a party in Mykonos. So just even a small investment in the planning of what you're doing, it focuses people. No one likes to throw away money. And it also allows us to take the time to really develop and evolve that project and change and adapt.

57:29The normal travel business model is they get a client come in, they rush them across the line because they want to just close the trip and move on to the next one. Volume, volume, volume. as an architect why would i give my plans to someone without some sort of fee yeah so i like these at architects basically the architecture model yeah yeah and some people don't get that and they get a front here that you should charge them for a planning fee others get it but we stood the test of time and it's now really proving itself you know people are really banging down our door and sometimes we're slightly out of capacity um and we have we stood that route You know, we want to keep on pushing the boundaries of what is interesting.

58:09The world has become very small. A lot of people, when I started doing this thing, the map was sort of blank. You go into somewhere, there wouldn't be a fix or a local supplier. You had to find the people. Like when I did my first big Antarctic yacht trip back in 2012, we wrote the rule book. No one had taken submersibles down there. No one had done commercial helicopter operations and heli-skiing. We weren't allowed to call it heli-skiing. had to call it heli-assisted ski touring but we wrote that rule book and because we were doing on a charter model you know we had to deal with the the owner of the yacht we had to deal with two separate helicopter owners we had to bring down the whole team we had to do the permitting um we even had to modify that the yacht to do twin helicopter operations um and we blew the stuff out the water we made it up as we went along and then suddenly uh there's a yacht called legend that went down there the owner actually great story he started doing barge parties in netherlands and And then from that, he bought his first sailing yacht.

59:04And then he bought an old wreck and he developed it. And that was an 18-passenger, 70-meter yacht. And then he leveraged up and he converted this icebreaker called Legend. And then he took it down to the Antarctic for the whole season with its permitting done, the team there. And then that changed it because then any travel agent, yacht broker could book a trip on this thing and get out of the Antarctic. It took away the expertise. and that's happening all around the world you can just go you know you can go to a trade travel conference now you can meet 60 different fixes you have your laptop you set up your website something you're an expert but you're all getting delivered the same sort of thing with a little bit of a twist you know we're pushing the frontier yeah we'll do the the normal stuff we'll go to iceland we'll go to kenya we'll go to scotland you know we'll take people to to rio and then beyond but but what we're also doing we're seeing more of a demand is is this frontier travel You know, the last couple of years, we've just done a trip down to Somaliland.

1:00:05We supported archaeological digging, which might reshape our understanding of African history. We've got people going to Chad to this incredible landscape. You know, you go by helicopter, there's no one there. Apart from these like raw tribal people just come out of nowhere. And they have their camels and there's huge gorges. And you feel like you've been transported just like biblical times.

1:00:28The Gstaad Guy:And that's what you call frontier travel. Frontier travel, yeah. You're one of the first to do it. One of the first to do it. I mean, there are other people who've been out there, but they've done it in a level of not much comfort, and it's taken three weeks to get in there. We'll reposition, helicopters, put fuel in, bring a beautiful camp, chef. So there's that comfort, that safety blanket that's something you'll come to know with. So let's say I call you, and I am a successful tech founder who has done the whole circuit, the summer circuit, the winter one too the whole shebang and i'm now curious about frontier travel i want to be where very few have been i want to grow but i don't know how or where how do you discover that with me and decide on what the right trip is for me so as i said we won't go through a pa or chief of staff ideally we get them on the phone these guys are busy girls are busy everyone's busy perfect world if they really want to go for it, me or one of my team will jump on a plane and spend time with them.

1:01:33Get in on there, the psychology of it. We had a family who'd sold a very successful business out of Holland. And they sent an email and I sold our business. We've got a 60 meter yacht on order, world cruising capacity. We want a five year sabbatical. Send us an itinerary. P.S. we sent this to three other people and we'll decide who we're going to go with. I told my team no. I'm not interested in this. How can we interpret what these people want? They've worked all their life to reach this pinnacle moment, the most amazing five years, and then chance it with someone who's going to try and second guess.

1:02:09They rang up straight away. They got that no email. They were like, what? I said, look, if you want to do this properly, we need to get to know you. I went and spent time with them. I was staying with some friends in Saint-Tropez. They had a villa next door. I went and spent the morning. We drank coffee. I got to understand things about them which were really quite raw. So then you could really build something that meant something to them. But then at the same time, I gave them some advice. I said, look, you're going on this wonderful five-year journey. You're going to hit the ground running, and you want to have a kitty in a sweet store.

1:02:39You're going to want everything. But you'll max out. You'll just over-censorize yourself. It will become too much. You'll have too many guests on. You'll be exhausted of hosting. So make sure you pace it. You don't need to dive every reef. You don't need to climb every mountain. You don't need to see every cultural dance. Just make sure you pace that. Take time off the boat. Make sure you have time for yourselves. Because otherwise, you'd start to resent it. And in the end, we set them off. And they didn't need our hand-holding for the whole trip. We're there for the big events. We've given them the themes.

1:03:13We actually sort of helped them recruit their crew. And gave them expedition specialists on the crew side. So, you know, and they're off. And they'll hopefully have a wonderful time. And then when they go somewhere really extraordinary, which is harder to work with, the Galapagos, for instance, we've done next level stuff in the Galapagos, then we can come in and we can enhance that event. What's typically the profile of person that wants to go on these

1:03:38The Gstaad Guy:winter travel trips? It's a mix. I mean, again, we're only doing 40 trips a year. A lot of our guests are repeats. So there isn't sort of a data set. I mean, all of them cash-rich, pretty much cash cash cash time poor the one sort of difference of opinion is always the time they're going to spend if you're going halfway across the world you're doing this huge setup and uplift you're going for six days you know are you really going to truly immerse yourself there especially with the the ubiquitous availability of wi-fi no one ever switches off now again it's sort of this post-covid sort of thing people starlink starlink i mean we've had literally people with backpacks and starlink walking around someone because they're so sensitive to you know market shifts and things.

1:04:21And it's like, when are you ever really switching off? So that's a discussion that's always had. Just go for a few more days. I'm not trying to get you to spend more money. You know, the uplift is here. We reposition the yacht. We're building the camp. We're doing all that stuff. You know, whether you stay another two or three days, it's not going to materially affect your budget. You know, enjoy it. Switch off. Really get under the skin. You're not going to go back to Papua New Guinea or East Timor or the Atlantic again. You know, you have a long bucket list you have a long menu of things to do i'm going to sound like the delusional optimist

1:04:52The Gstaad Guy:in this podcast but i feel like one of these customers can do one of those trips per year without starlink but maybe four with so the gray area sounds pretty good because then they can do more of these things as long as they don't disappear for a month a year if you look at the trajectory of what has occupied our attention throughout the last 150 years yeah it used to be chats, reading books, newspapers, walking, working, whatever. You're bringing back the landline. Yeah. You have to go back to the kitchen. Yeah. Pick up the landline. But our phones just dominate our attention. You know, it used to be split between the television and, you know, emails and whatever.

1:05:31Everything isn't that one thing.

1:05:32The Gstaad Guy:On this podcast, we always play a game of à la poubelle versus fantastique. Can you share a couple of things that you would throw à la poubelle and a couple of things you would celebrate and call in a very stardew fashion fantastique? I mean, I could be naughty and I could say influences. Let's take it up a level. Why do you think that is? I'm not offended, by the way. Well, maybe the wider of social media. I think social media takes a disproportionate level of our attention. I think it is influencing us in a negative way. It's taking us away from the connection to each other. We are losing our connection.

1:06:19We're becoming more and more individual. There is a sort of void, a hole in us. And how do we fill that hole? With material goods that we don't necessarily need. We've lost that sense of community. And I think social media is a big, big part of that. And you can go into the disinformation space, everyone's personal algorithm. Having debate is healthy. but now people are so ostracized if you're on this side of the politics or you're in for this agenda or this this this situation people get so angry and then they just dismiss them that's the other thing people need to sort of rise above it if you know i've met people who are in the sort of the let's save the planet sort of space but we have a difference of opinion say on vaccinations because we disagree on that whole thing they're prepared to write off our relationship it we need to sort of step back and go okay i don't agree on that thing our main focus is in that let's just agree to disagree but social media is just just just aggravating it yeah um and then you know you can go into the micro side of our kids and they're not talking to each other they're not developing their social skills and i think it's great that someone like australia has banned social media below 16 and you know european countries would grow some bloody balls and start doing that.

1:07:34And again, our listeners, you have clout. Go to your headmasters, go to your head mistresses, speak to your school, ban phones, ban social media. I think that would be a really important shift. And then going down to the influencer thing, I think what influencers is doing in a way, again, there are so many different levels of it. It's taking away people's putting the effort in, being curious. It's like everything is just exposed. It's all easy. and then going back to that delta between what is real and what is perception. And it's an arms race. If anyone new gets discovered and there's something, everyone's there in their doorway, in their picture.

1:08:14You know, just, we need to dial it down. You know, the unknown is a great thing. I mean, some of the best trips I did were the recce trips because you didn't know quite what would happen and it all went a little bit wrong. You know, we're very good at executing very well-prepared trips and it pretty much always hits where we're trying to get to. But it takes away that sort of uncertainty. Now, for some people, uncertainty is like, I don't need this stuff. For me, that's great. That's living. So, yeah, social media and influence is maybe dialed down a little bit. Okay. I hear you. Can I do another poo bell?

1:08:48Please. AI. Okay. AI is definitely a tool that can be useful. But I think it gets such a disproportionate airtime. You know, again, it's going back to what's real. is about getting curious we've had guests call us up wanting to do a trip okay this is what i'm gonna do you know they have high expectations they want to do everything this is where we are budget-wise i just put it into chat gpt it says i can do this this this and this for 20 grand be my guest it doesn't you know it's i'm a subject matter expert in certain things so if i ask these models certain things and they deliver something, there's so much rubbish in there and there's so much stuff they miss.

1:09:37Now, it's a useful tool when you are a subject matter expert because you can tweak it and you go, well, you've missed that. That's rubbish. Start fine tuning it. And then it becomes a learning thing and is useful. But most people are approaching the thing with no subject matter expertise and they've just been fed this garbage. And maybe it will get better. But at the moment, going back to the state of our planet, there are other things that are more important. And AI is not going to save the world. That's waiting for the magic wand. We need to get on with it now. And looking at how the internet evolved, it's just been consolidated in the hands of a few people now.

1:10:14That wonder of it was so cool. It's the Wild West. There's no way these guys are going to hand over the rewards of AI to the people. They have a motivation. They want more money. They want more power so i don't think it's going to be that magic bullet that gets us out of the problems

1:10:31The Gstaad Guy:they're going to use it for their own i think we should have we should have a meal just to discuss your three out of the bells yeah because my optimism kicks in again and i i actually love ai i don't think anything will solve the world and i don't think anything will ever happen that's extreme but i think i think ai ai will be part of the good and part of the great advancement of our generation i also i hope so personally i hope so and on the influencer side of things i think markets are efficient and the bad will get flushed out the good will be celebrated and the algorithms only adapt to demand you can't feed someone something they truly don't want to eat eventually i think once or twice it can happen by accident but eventually if they say i don't want this the algorithms adapt the platforms adapt and the supply will follow the demand i think with kids it's a whole different thing kids are literally fed yeah and that should be controlled so hats off to australia i think that's a great thing but with grown-ups you can turn your phone off if you don't like the influencer and you can turn it on if you like them say that but but you know the world's best psychologists are there to tweak and hook i have a problem with these bloody phones the phones yes yeah yeah they're designed to capture our attention any which way and it's shown you know that the more extreme the news or the event and the more the emotional reaction the more the demofamine hit and so we just pushed in these different directions there's no nice central middle ground that's true the new ones are dying unfortunately what about fantastiques fantastiques um oh well going back to what we started with authenticity people should be on a mission for authenticity and inspire the friends around them and if you have the ability to take friends less fortunate than you or other friends who are fortunate take them and experience and thought you know authentic things that doesn't have to be a cookson adventure it just could be cruising into a little mountain village and getting to know the locals and with that um You know, we are a society becoming increasingly pushed further and further away in terms of the haves and the haves not.

1:12:44And I think people who have privilege, you see people who treat people not too well. Smile. Say thank you. Say please. Even if you're having a shitty day and you don't genuinely believe it, that person, it will make their day a bit better. They're going to be better service. And then they're going to go home and they're going to be nicer to their partner. And the whole thing feeds back. So just behave a bit better. Say something nice. Like what I love in Verbier, it's like I'm on the chairlift, you start chatting to someone. Hey, where are you from? It's like that. Cool. Have a nice day. And when I used to go to the States, that whole, you know, curiosity, hey, have a nice day.

1:13:20Maybe it's superficial, maybe it's not. But it gave you a sort of spring-a-nil step. And then you come back to London and you'd open a door for someone, like a lady, and go, hey, how's your day been? And they look at you like you're about to jump on them. It's like, you know, we should become more connected. We should get closer. Like going back to COVID, when you used to like bang your pan at night for the nhs i didn't know anyone in my street because i was always traveling and suddenly you got to know these really interesting people just bring back community be nicer be kinder you know that sets things into motion as well so that's a fantastic okay fantastic there are thousands of meters of super yachts expedition yachts the majority of them they hang out in central pay north coast same arts be original come on go to the more interesting place in the world you have your your comfort bubble moving hotel you have a comfort bubble yeah that is your security and you can dip your toe in the water or not i've been talking at super yacht conferences for so long about it But there is a resistance because the yacht-breaking industry, and they're going to hate me for this.

1:14:30If you have your client books a couple of charters a year, Caribbean, whatever, that's a nice little gravy train. And then maybe one day that client might do the mother load and purchase a yacht, and then you're really set up. Now, that's easy. You know it. There's no complexity. So then they go, well, I want to go to the Antarctic. I want to go to the Galapagos. And then that broker is like, shit, I've got to go and trust someone else with my client. He's probably going to steal my client. And then things could go wrong. and then and then my relationship gets screwed up and then i'd rather stick to monica so so there's this there is no incentive for these people they're the gatekeepers of the industry to push people out there you know i just please if you're an owner out there you want to do a cool around the world trip or something and you're also minded to charter it you know we can mitigate that we can create the most extraordinary trip you do your thing and then we can get guests to come on as well you know you should share your costs people see the world everyone wins including cooks and

1:15:24The Gstaad Guy:adventures that's cool i like that yeah i love that well henry i really appreciate you taking the time to be on this podcast today i've heard great things from friends who have had the pleasure of enjoying your trips and i've heard great things about you and i think we should keep these conversations going and uh i hope to actually firsthand experience cooks an adventure one day maybe even a frontier one maybe i need to work my way there i think a regular one we don't want to I want to scare you off. Then a Frontier one. Exactly. I want to see my Orca. Fulfill the Orca dream one day. We'll certainly do that.

1:15:59No, but it's been a pleasure. And even though we're here doing a podcast interview thing, you know, I can see there's a true you coming out. And I see you have a mission. That's really encouraging. That's nice. Knowing the audience you have, you know, it gives me hope. I'm moving more to the optimism side. There we go.

1:16:17The Gstaad Guy:Let's work together. Optimism 2026. Perfect. I'll buy that. Thank you, Henry. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Stardguy podcast. If you're keen to learn more, please follow along by engaging with our social channels on Instagram, TikTok, Spotify, YouTube and Apple podcasts. And we look forward to seeing you next week. Merci beaucoup. A la prochaine and a big hug from the Stardguy.