We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Trevor Carlson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Trevor below.

Trevor, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Back in 2017 I had taken some time off after working at a health tech startup and gotten a job at a local marketing company. I felt like on the outside my life looked like it was going well and I was successful but I didn’t feel like I was exactly where I wanted to be. Around that time I started The Formula Podcast to interview people much more successful and interesting then myself. I stumbled upon the possibility of traveling the world while working and decided to dive in further, meeting folks like Peter Awad who had taken his family on a tour of the US in an RV while running his company. This instantly became my dream. Fast forward a short time later, I ended up leaving my job at this marketing company and starting my own, Fresh Fuel Marketing. I had a couple of clients and the math added up so I bought a one-way ticket and trusted that things would work out. Right before I left I lost 2 of the 3 clients leaving me with an income of around $1,200 per month. I had a choice to stay back and establish a stronger income or have faith that things would work out. I had a feeling that this was a test to see how badly I wanted to do this, so I jumped. I couch-surfed, stayed in hostels, met the most amazing people from cultures I’d only read about in books, met war survivors, and had my eyes opened to wonderful, delightful experiences. My business grew, not without a few headaches here and there, while being able to experience the most phenomenal, beautiful parts of life. This led to me meeting my fiance and starting a travel youtube channel, Lost & Lore. That project alone has provided numerous unforgettable adventures with people I will never forget. I was terrified when I took this leap, it was extraordinarily scary but I just felt like it was right and it would all work out. With film opportunities coming in from Lost & Lore (currently writing this from the village in India where the Dalai Lama lives) to travel to remote parts of the world and a marketing company that paid the bills for many years I have been incredibly lucky for the life that came out of taking that risk.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Trevor Carlson, I got my start in the tech world at a health tech startup. I learned all about user testing and customer discovery which is basically just talking to people to figure out their problems. I leveraged this into starting my own marketing company, Fresh Fuel Marketing, where marketing is really just about positioning how you help the customer improve their life in some way. How can you help them? They are the hero in their own journey so our job is to show how we help them get what they want. It’s not about you or your product, it’s about them. So we provide marketing services such as paid ads management and CRO (conversion rate optimization) to help clients improve their sales and the effectiveness of their ad spend. Our other company, Lost & Lore, provides film making and marketing services for travel companies to increase their client base as well as creating our own films. Our films focus on positive members or organizations in communities like CHAP Foundation in the Himalayan mountains who provide training for local villagers to create handicrafts and help them sell them at local markets. They provide a wide variety of other services but we created a video highlighting the founder, Apurna, and the impact that she has on her community.

The thing that I take the most pride in all of my work is highlighting and promoting people and businesses who have a positive impact on their community.
What sets our organizations apart is bringing the human side into things. We make things relatable, for example, on a previous video shoot in Peru, I got nasty altitude sickness on the Ausungate trek. Instead of hiding it or making it seem like a dream trip, we told the story of how wrecked I was and how they helped me recover enough to finish the hike. There are some unflattering moments but it’s real life and that builds a lot of trust with people who might want to travel with that particular client.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been twofold. One is to go where my clients are. That means go to conferences, attend meetups, join masterminds, and doing things that my clients would enjoy like hiking or golfing. Just go do things to be around the people you want to work with, many of them are free so just go. You never know what might happen.

The second is hosting a podcast (The Formula Podcast) where I invite my target customer on as a guest. I promote their brand and what they are selling so I’m giving them free exposure before I ever ask them anything. I’m giving to them and building a relationship before I ever ask them for anything. Business is about people and most people don’t like to be sold to but they love working with their friends, especially friends who can deliver.

I have found that these two approaches have been substantially more successful than cold outreach.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

Yes, so although I have two separate companies I have leveraged my marketing company to get travel companies to trust us enough to deliver on our travel videos for them. I then let them know that after we’ve made the video we can help them get exposure for their travel company through our marketing business. So we get a 2-for-1 deal, video + marketing services giving us creative ways to package those services and improve our revenue on each deal.

Contact Info:

• Website: freshfuelmarketing.com, lostandlore.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trevor.carlson4/ or instagram.com/lostandlore
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lostandlore/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevorcarlson1/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LostandLore

Image Credits
just me :)