Check Out Travis Lindley’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Travis Lindley.

Hi Travis, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We are Element Outdoors, an overland and adventure vehicle rental company based in Grand Junction Colorado.

Our customers come to us from all over the world and spend time traveling Colorado, Utah, and the rest of the US on more extended trips. I started the company after 21 years of public service working as a park ranger and wildland firefighter. My love of the outdoors and a passion for connecting people and places inspired me to build a company where I’d have the opportunity to play a bigger role in helping people find new adventures.

My love of overland travel and vehicles provided the perfect chance to bring my passion to the growing overland and adventure travel community. It’s been a blast building trip plans, sharing my camping and vehicle knowledge how, and using that to help others have an experience that’s adventurous but within their comfort zone. We’ve grown from one Jeep to a full offering of vehicles from campervans to full-size overland trucks that provide the right tool for that perfect experience. And of course, with my past experience as a ranger, I’m excited to make a positive impact and help foster a future of responsible land use and stewardship with those that are just getting started in their outdoor pursuits.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The overland and adventure travel community is growing quickly. One of our biggest priorities is to be sure we are setting our customers up for success. On our website, we say “we know everyone thinks of something different when they hear the word adventure”. Renting out a vehicle is the easy part.

But getting to know our customers in a way that helps us provide a service that creates the opportunity for them to have a unique and memorable adventure is more complicated. It’s the part I enjoy most and when we get it right is incredibly rewarding. We spend a lot of time with our vehicles, exploring new places, and having new experiences ourselves.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a small business, I’m doing a lot to make adventures like this happen. From building vehicles, planning trips, detailing rigs and answering phone calls my work is still driven by the want to be part of what makes our customer’s trips a success. But I do have a love for working on vehicles, spending hours pouring over maps, and learning new things. One of the best things about what I do every day is the variety of tasks.

The variety helps me keep from defining too much of my time as work. I just have a good time and embrace the challenges along the way. We’ve responded to calls from our renters to branch into the retail, fabrication, and installation world. So it’s a new challenge and I’ve really enjoyed being able to watch some of our customers go from renting a vehicle for their first outdoor adventure to building their own vehicles and planning awesome trips.

Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Risk-taking is a fun topic for me. A love of rock climbing fostered my desire to work in the outdoors and taught me a lot about risk and balance. Taking risks can be exciting and make experiences more rewarding. I’ve always taken the same approach to risk. I think it’s mostly about consequences, but I recognize to reap the benefits of risk-taking sometimes we only need to perceive risk. Riding a roller coaster might feel scary, but the consequence of doing so should be of little concern.

I believe knowing and considering this has helped me provide experiences that balance adventure and real risk. But for me personally, I’m much more aware of the risk and simply use my knowledge, skill, and ability to overcome challenges with a reasonable amount of risk-taking. The business world is still something very new to me and as I learn and grow I find decisions come easier and my view of risk changes as I gain a better understanding of things.

Pricing:

• $125-$350

Contact Info:

• Website: www.element-outdoors.com
• Instagram: @element.outdoors
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/Elementadventure
• Youtube: @elementoutdoors257