Becoming Your Warrior
Hosted by Emma Ritchie, ex-TV producer turned Mindset Coach, hypnotherapist and Founder of The Mindset Redesign, Becoming Your Warrior is a deep, soulful, and empowering podcast designed to help you step into the next chapter of your life with confidence, clarity, and self-love.
Through powerful mindset shifts, guided reflections, and honest conversations, Emma helps you break free from self-doubt, reconnect with your inner strength, and create a life that feels truly aligned. Whether navigating change, healing old wounds, or stepping into your fullest potential, this podcast is your safe space to explore, grow, and rise.
Each episode is filled with insightful wisdom, practical tools, and heart-led guidance to help you become the warrior of your own life—one who stands tall in self-worth, embraces change fearlessly and leads with love.
This is your invitation to step into your power. Your journey starts now. 💫
You can find out more about Emma at www.Emma-ritchie.com
Becoming Your Warrior
Answering The Call To Adventure - with Adventure Film maker Alex 'Gooch' Ugarte
Ever dreamed of leaving it all behind to pursue a life of adventure? In this episode, I sit down with adventure filmmaker Alex "Gooch" Ugarte, whose journey from corporate real estate to paddling the Ganges and cycling through the Australian Outback is nothing short of epic.
We dive into the highs and lows of his unconventional career—losing footage, battling self-doubt, and the relentless mental and physical toll of filming solo expeditions. Gooch shares the raw realities of following your passion, the sacrifices it takes, and why, despite the struggles, he wouldn’t trade it for anything.
If you’ve ever felt the call to adventure—or just wondered what goes into making those breathtaking travel films—this one’s for you.
🔗 Watch Gooch’s adventures on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LifeWithGooch
📸 Follow him on Instagram: @lifewithgooch
#AdventureFilmmaking #Travel #FollowYourPassion #LifeWithGooch
You can follow Emma at:
https://www.instagram.com/emmaritchiewellness/
https://www.facebook.com/emmaritchiewellness/
Welcome to the Becoming your Warrior podcast. This is the place where you get to feel inspired and empowered to step into your very best life. Hello, hello. This episode is an absolute cracker and that is because I am interviewing my good friend and adventure filmmaker, alex Uchigati. And Alex and me met probably about 18 months ago two years ago when we were working on the TV show Alone Australia. We became firm friends. He just has the most infectious, beautiful, fun, energy and everyone is just inspired and wants to be around him.
Emma Ritchie:In today's episode, we talk about why he quit the corporate, the nine to five, to follow his own call to adventure, giving up the safety and the security of an income, coming in and actually just going off around the world, learning as he went and filming these crazy adventures that are now up on YouTube for you to watch. Alex is just so infectious and so inspiring, and I just know the stories that he shares in this episode are going to help you to overcome any obstacles you might be facing. Let's get into it, all right. Well, let's get started. We both got our cups of tea, we're good to go.
Emma Ritchie:You, okay, you have created this life now, where you are on the road, you are on planes, you are living this wildlife of adventure and, obviously, filming everything on the way, and this is the kind of life that I know a lot of people would like dream of. They'd be like. You've created my dream life, but have there been any moments where you've literally been like I'm out, I want to turn back, I don't want to do this anymore, I'm done oh, so many, so, so many.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Um, there is something, so there is something deep with inside of me that is pushing me forward and driving me forward towards a vision and a goal, and I know deep, deep, deep, deep down that I will stay on this path.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Nothing will ever make me deviate or like go back to my old life.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:But, yeah, just the amount of work it takes, the amount of commitment, um, the mental toll, the physical toll, the toll on relationships as well, like you won't see your family and friends as much.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:It just takes a lot of sacrifice, a huge amount of sacrifice, to go down this path and to follow your calling and to chase your dreams and to do the thing you know you love the most your dreams and to do the thing you know you love the most, um, but I think it's, it's totally worth it because, um, at the end of the day, you've really it's so fulfilling to go down that path and to chase your dream. You know so, like, for me personally, I I don't think I could live any other way, so I'm giving all these things up, but all the greatest, all the greatest things in life are the most fulfilling and rewarding things life take in life take huge amounts of sacrifice. Oh, I accept that I keep moving forward, but, yeah, all the time I want to sort of just give it all up and walk away and call it quits and just throw my laptop against a wall or I don't know, put my head through a window or something.
Emma Ritchie:Yeah, You're selling the life of an adventure filmmaker. I have to say everyone's like. Where do I sign up?
Alex Gooch Ugarte:The feeling of a sense of accomplishment. And achievement far outweighs all the hard times and all the bad times and all the sacrifice.
Emma Ritchie:I'll put it that way let's go back, because obviously we met when we were working on Alone in Australia. You were obviously a producer on that, but before that and this is really your journey, and your journey into adventure filmmaking started way before that anyway. But can you tell me about your life before adventure filmmaking came to be? What were you doing? What were you getting up to?
Alex Gooch Ugarte:I was a real estate agent.
Emma Ritchie:It just makes me laugh. I just can't imagine it. It's so funny.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Commercial real estate agent, student tie, slick back hair. Yeah, that was my life nine to five, for at least six or seven years. It's what I did straight out of high school, yeah. So I got into that, that, I got into that life, um, and yeah, look, I didn't hate it. It's not that I hated, I didn't necessarily hate that job. I hate that life.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Um, it was challenging. It did take a lot of like energy and effort and brain power and problem solving, and so it's kind of kind of similar like, yeah, kind of similar a way to filmmaking, where it's just all just problem solving. You know, that's all an adventure filmmaker does is solving problems logistically or technically with your cameras and stuff. So similar in that respect. Um, but the whole kind of like office facade, um, the office persona that you had to wear, you know to, to work every day, kind of just wore me down, the fact that I couldn't just be myself all the time. You know, as soon as you step into that office there's a certain etiquette, there's a way of talking, a way of being.
Emma Ritchie:You've got to like almost become someone else to fit in in that environment and I think I will just say sorry for anyone who's listening who is a real estate agent. I'm not laughing at the profession, it's just knowing you. I'm just like you are such a free spirit that the thought of you in real estate is just so foreign to me. It just doesn't make sense. So I'm not making fun of the profession at all, but said you didn't hate it, but obviously there was something about it, like you know. You said you didn't like putting the, the shirt and tie on and and all that kind of stuff. So where, I mean, where was this kind of adventure, filmmaking, like dream or vision? Where did that come from? And and and how long were you thinking of that when you were?
Alex Gooch Ugarte:I guess in the nine to five, really early on. I think that was a spark in my early 20s when I actually lost my license for a long period of time. All opportunities come in weird ways and that actually made me go traveling overseas for about a year and a half. That actually made me go traveling overseas for about a year and a half and I ended up staying in Budapest in Hungary for about nine months and I worked in a hostel there and that was the first time I was really exposed to people who had different ways of living, thinking, a lot of people that kind of lived on the fringes of society, um, who didn't conform to social constructs and norms. You know, like a lot of artists, a lot of just like strange people. You know like if you're you know 10 years ago, if you're traveling around in budapest in hungary, you know it was like wasn't as popular as it is now, um, and that was the first time where I was like, okay, like this, you can do other things with your life. I never realized you could do anything outside of business. It just seemed like the only career path. I didn't realize you could make music or make films or write or do any of those other things. I thought you just left school, you got a job in business, you bought a house, you had kids. You know what I mean? I just had that typical trajectory in my mind, my mind. I was like, oh, that's my only path, I'll just go down that path, um. So that was like really the beginning of like oh, wow, I can do other things with my life, and um. But I wasn't quite ready to act on that information. That was like my first call to adventure, but I rejected it. So I came back from overseas, got a job with, like one of the world's largest commercial real estate agencies. It's supposed to be like the job you know that everyone wants when, um, when they get into commercial real estate, um. And so I was in that for about three or four years.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:At the same time, once a year, every year, I was going to something called the banff mountain film festival, which is a film festival for adventure films, and it'd come to australian shores once a year, every year, and I was going to see that, and every year I'd be like, hmm, it's like kind of like what these guys are doing. You know, I kind of something resonated with me. I was like I feel like I could do this. I don't know why, like I don't have any skills at that time. I don't. I don't know how to use a camera, I don't know how to tell a story, I don't know how to go on an adventure, I don't know how to hike, I don't know how to bike pack and I don't do anything. Um, but just something was speaking to me and I was like, okay, I've got to listen to this little voice that's speaking to me.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:And so I went year after year after year, and then one of the years I was just like you know what? Like I think I can do this. And then, at the very end of the festival, the credits were rolling and I was sitting there in my seat and everyone's like shuffling in their seats and chairs, like ready to exit the cinema, and I just made a promise to myself in that moment I just said you know what, no matter what happens, I'm making a promise to myself right now that I'm going to become an adventure filmmaker and no matter what I need to do, I'm just going to have to do it. And so from that point on, I just started like organizing my life in my world so I could start exiting this business realm and then setting my life in a new trajectory towards this adventure filmmaking life.
Emma Ritchie:And so I mean, obviously it sounds like the way you're describing it is like, yeah, I just made this decision and I jumped, but, as we both know, there are a lot of skills you need from a camera person, shooter perspective, from a storytelling perspective, you know, getting all the equipment, planning everything. I mean, where did you first start to skill up? How did you start to acquire the skills that would then lead on to being an adventure filmmaker?
Alex Gooch Ugarte:such a long journey. It's just so gradual, isn't it like once you start, I feel like once you start on your path, then doors and you start action make like putting actions in place and like actually doing things that are that are going to like um produce a result. Like on your path, um doors start opening. You know, like I feel like once you decide to go down a certain path, things start happening. The universe starts conspiring to help you and kind of like you get little drops of packages of help that you know drop in your lap along the way, you know like nice little surprises, but um, it just starts with low-hanging fruit, like what can you do, you know? And so for me it started with um, a traveling podcast, and I was like, okay, I can't afford camera gear, I can just get like a couple of microphones together and stuff.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:I got my laptop, I think I had an ipad at that point and I was like I'm gonna go to central america and I'm just gonna like travel through the country and then like meet people and then um, and then interview and then meet people who are living their passion in life. Um, and I did that for like a year and a half traveling to central america. You know, I'd stayed in a town called santa teresa for a while and I met a guy and I'm like started borrowing his camera, started using that, and I was like terrible at it. You know, I didn't know what I was doing, but you just got to start using it. You know, you start using things, you know, and just practicing, um, and just when you first start using anything, it's gonna be crap, it to be terrible, but just keep using it and just keep getting better and better and better. But that's kind of how it all started.
Emma Ritchie:I want to talk more about the challenges that you have faced as an adventure filmmaker, not only on the road, but also like the internal challenges and obstacles that you've had to overcome. Also like the internal challenges and obstacles that you've had to overcome, what do you think has been like one or two or three big challenges that you have chosen to overcome?
Alex Gooch Ugarte:I would say probably the biggest would be self-doubt. It's really when you go off on your own um in the way that I did and because you're really quite isolated in a lot of ways as well. Like, I went from working in a traditional office environment to now where I literally work with no one. So I'm in a, I'm in a vacuum, you know. So I'm shooting in a vacuum, I'm producing in a vacuum, I'm editing in a vacuum. I do have people that I bounce um ideas off and that I show um drafts of my adventures to, who give me honest feedback. I do have you know, but they're just friends um. But because you're in that isolated space and then you're comparing yourself to you know, much more established people and much more skilled people and stuff like that, it's really really easy to start doubting yourself Am I smart enough? Am I skilled enough? Am I funny enough? Am I? You know all those things, all those questions.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:For me personally, I think that's the hardest thing I've had to overcome. I think also the amount of time that it's taken hardest thing I've had to overcome. I think also um the amount of time that it's taken um for me. In my head I was like yeah, like in a few years I'll be crushing it and I'll be killing it, you know, and I'm like probably, I'm like how many years in am I? Like five, six, six years in or something, six years in since I've left, um real, you know, and I'm still only just at the beginning, you know, only just scratching the surface.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:You know I've got a lot of good things going, but it takes a lot more time and energy and effort than I ever thought, than I ever imagined and also that I ever thought I could put into something. You know, I never thought I was even capable of putting this much time, energy and effort into anything in my life. And it's lucky that I do love it and I am passionate about it. Otherwise I just wouldn't make it. And that's some advice I would give to people. I'd say that unless you do really love it and you are really passionate, you probably won't do that.
Emma Ritchie:Extra 10%, 20 takes to, like you know, make something you know, really great um, absolutely, and I think as well, like something that a lot of people, um, maybe, who aren't in the industry or haven't been in in tv or film or adventure filmmaking is when you watch something on TV. When you watch like an hour of television, you kind of just go, oh yeah, that was cool, but it's taken like months, not just. I mean in your case, I mean talk me through, say, for example, talk me through one of your adventures from start to finish, including the editing process, like what goes into, like man going to the ganges, you know oh man, even at the moment, like I'm in the phase um of finding an adventure.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Even that is like that's also so hard, because first I have to set like I've got a system and a process that I've like put in place from. You know that I've learned. But, um, you know, first I need to set a framework so you know what's my budget, what's my time frame, what's what, what, what um can I achieve with my skills and the camera gear that I own? You know, is there red tape? Are there political issues there? Um, do I need filming permits? Do I need a drone permit? Do I need visa? How long can I stay in the country? It's an endless list.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:So first I've got to find all these adventures that fit within that framework, but they've also got to be like relatively unique and interesting adventures. They can't just be like something that everyone else is doing. So even that process is exhausting and extremely time consuming. It could take me two weeks just to like settle on an adventure, and that's even before I start putting in production and like proper planning. That's just finding an adventure that fits. You know the framework that I set out. Then for the ganges of like, for that one specifically, I gotta like find someone who's done it before and be like, hey, what's the go with this thing, like is it possible? I found like one guy who's done it before and he's like, yeah, there's a dam here and a dam there and there's crocodiles here and there's dangerous people here, don't paddle through here and you can charge. You've got to think about power. He's like you can charge in this village and it's even just like organising the adventure is exhausting. So I feel like I'm tired by the time I even make it into the field, which is crazy to think about.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:And at the same time as I'm putting the adventure together, I'm also filming myself, putting the adventure together. So I've already started principal photography and so I'm already thinking about what scenes do I need? Okay, I need myself talking to a mentor, so I need myself talking to this guy on a zoom chat. I need, I need to shoot it with three different camera angles, I need to get the audio right, I need to ask the right questions. So I'm like thinking about like technically, technically, which asked like what I need to shoot. I'm thinking about how I can produce that scene, but also like trying to organise the adventure and put together this mammoth 30-day trip at the same time, and that's just to get it off the ground. So that's the start.
Emma Ritchie:So tell me a bit about your series that's currently on YouTube.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Yeah, cool. So I've got two. I've got a three-part series on the Ganges and I've got one episode of me cycling through the Kimberley region, the Australian outback. The Ganges adventure was. That was, yeah, that was a big trip that took my soul, which was what made it so great. I think it was really popular, it did really well and I think a part of the reason it did so well is because everyone just got to ride the genuine highs and lows with me.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:But long story short, in a nutshell, the adventure is me starting out at the bottom of the Indian Himalaya, the foothills where the Ganges begins, and then I pack, rafted over a thousand kilometers down the Ganges solo to the ancient city. I finished in the ancient city of Varanasi and that took me 30 days, and that took me 30 days, and so I was sleeping on riverbanks, in the jungle ashrams, people's homes, in remote villages, under shop awnings, pretty much wherever I could really. And yeah, it was very much like both a physical, mental and cultural journey. And you really see me for the broad spectrum of highs and lows of the human condition in that series. I'll say that much.
Emma Ritchie:And also, am I correct in thinking that's where you actually lost some footage as well? You had to, yeah.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:No, well, I lost, lost it. I don't know when you're first starting out, right, you're an amateur. So, um, I wasn't backing up my footage, I was just shooting everything and keeping it on one hard drive. So I don't know when the hard drive corrupted. But I got back home and I tried to um, upload the footage I had on this one hard drive and it was the first section of the trip, which was a three-day adventure over the rapids, because there's rapids in the first section, because there's glacial waters coming down from the Himalaya. And I lost those whole first three days. So I had to fly back to India.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Well, I thought about it for a while and I was like, look, I can start my adventure from Haridwar and lose those first three days, or I can fly back and I can do it again. And I felt like I had to go back. So I flew the whole way back and did that whole first three days again, going down, um, yeah, going down the ganges through the rapids. Which was it. It worked out. All hit.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:All things happen for a reason, right, and that did happen for a reason, because I actually crashed my drone into the side of a cliff on the very first day. So I didn't have any drone footage so and drone footage is massive, and especially in a spectacular scenery like that so I'd gotten my new drone, my replacement from dji, and so I went back there with my drone and got epic drone footage of those first three days and I think that really made a difference, um, in the level of quality in what I got. And so it happened for a reason, but it was just. Yeah, it was surreal doing that all again, because I mean, that part of the world is surreal in itself. You know just as it is.
Emma Ritchie:Yeah, and I mean I want to talk about your mindset, because obviously you said well, everything happened for a reason, right? So the hard drive corrupted, obviously. You got back home. I mean, I can only imagine how devastating that is when you're like I've just done this massive trip to India, I've lost the first three days, which is where it all begins, and you've got to make that decision there. And then now I know a lot of people who might just go like I've balls this up, forget about it, I'm either going to quit or I'm going to, you know, or I'll just cut my losses and I'll just start from where I've got the footage. So what is it? What happened in your mindset that made you go? I'm going to go back and I'm going to, you know, travel all the way from australia back to india, go through this whole journey again, like what? What was going through your mind that that made you kind of make that decision?
Alex Gooch Ugarte:um, that's a really good question.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Um, I was just I'm so passionate about what I'm doing at the moment and like I care about it so much, and it meant so much to me that I was like I just I need it to be the best it can possibly be and for this series to be as good as it can possibly be, and for me to make it as good as it can be, I have to go back and and I have to get this first section, because that that first section is it's a whole episode in itself and a whole 45 minute, 50 minute episode in itself, and that kind of really that, really that whole, that whole first section sets up the adventure.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:And I was like I just I can't, like I already did 30 days on the Ganges, I just I can't cut it short, I need it, I need to give my audience everything, I need to give it all. Um. So I guess it really stemmed from just like caring so much about the quality of the content and the story and the integrity of the story, um, and I just knew that, no matter how hard it was going to be, that it was the right thing to do yeah yeah, I bet you swore a few times when you I didn't talk to anyone for like three or four days I was.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:I was, honestly, I've never been that, like I was almost in shock. I've never been that. Because I didn't, because, at the same, because also, you're gonna remember at the same time, like I'm not what, all I'm doing is working on youtube. I'm barely doing other jobs, so I don't have any money either. So it's not like. It's like oh yeah, I can just like easily fly back. It's like how am I gonna afford? You know how do I go back? You know I got no money to recapture this thing. Like you know, I'm already living hand to mouth. How am I even going to do it? And so I thought it was just gone. You know, gone, gone for good. And um, yeah, it was more.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Just, I was just in shock and I kept having this positive mindset of like, uh, you know, I'm going to get it back because I sent it to, I sent the hard drives to like professional data recovery people and I sent it to one, sent, sent it my hard drive to one guy data recovery people and I sent it to one, sent, sent it my hard drive to one guy locally and I'm like he's gonna get it back. He's, you know, I'm gonna get a phone call from him any day and he's gonna be like Alex, I got good news. But you know, first phone call is like dude, like it's gone, and I was like no, I don't believe it. Not yet another company who like does data recovery for like the government and like really high level companies, and I'm like you're gonna get it back for me. I know it. And it was the same. It was just white, you know, and um, so it took me a long time.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:It was like the stages of grief. You know, it took me a long time to get acceptance. Then, when I did, I was yeah, I didn't really, I couldn't talk for like two or three days. I was broken and yeah, and then it started that idea. I was like what if I go back? I'm like, oh, maybe I could go back. And then it just yeah, it ended up being the best thing ever, ended up being the right thing. So that's just life. It just does that to you.
Emma Ritchie:Yeah, incredible, and obviously you mentioned in there you know like financially and you know this is I think this is something that's really common with people who are following their passions, like financially, like, like you said, you're doing things on YouTube lack of finances, you know like a lack of security. I mean, how do you juggle that as an adventure filmmaker, like how, how do you I'm not asking for your processes or your you know but like how do you mentally get through that?
Alex Gooch Ugarte:it's extremely tough. Um, you've got to make sacrifices. For me, I moved back in with my parents, um, so I had that, so rent was gone. I had a safety net, um, so you've got a. There are sacrifices um, 100 and um, so that's the first thing, you know. You got to start setting aside you know, big nights out with your friends and putting that to the side and start making this the most important thing.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:And then you've just got to really look at your life and think how can I balance taking on a little bit of contract work here or getting another job in something else? Maybe I can start working in a cafe casually and I can work two, three days a week. If I'm at home with my parents, I work at a cafe two days a week, have enough money to survive. That gives me three days a week or four days a week to work on my passion. You know and I think you really need to look at it that way I'm not a huge believer in working like still working a full-time job and then following your passion outside of those hours. If you can do that like you know, praise to you. But like that's hard, because if you really do want to become, um successful at something, um, to be able to like build that outside of already working a full-time job, I think would be really be really. Yeah, it would take an inhuman effort. I'm sure it's possible, but I wouldn't have been able to do it Like I was already so tired after my full-time job that I wouldn't have anything left in the tank.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:You know, mentally to work on something else, but I feel like a lot of fear when you're getting into um, your passion or like moving into something else is just fear of the unknown. It's fear of like, oh, like I don't know what's going to happen next. You know, am I going to run out of money? Um, am I going to be bad at the thing that I'm pursuing? Are people just going to laugh at me? What are people going to think about me socially? You know it's not socially. You know normal to like go and just pursue this thing, but that's all just fear of the unknown. Like I've found that for the most part people are really supportive, and not only that, but they're really impressed, you know, by what I've done and, like a lot of friends will see me as an inspiration.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:So, yeah, a lot of the fear of like getting into something new, I think is just fear of the unknown. And like, once you start pursuing that thing you're passionate about, the world will start conspiring to help you and you'll be surprised by how many things start to fall in your lap. Like there's been so many times where I thought I was going to be completely broke or I thought, you know, on an adventure that my, you know, my backpack will fall into a river and I'll fill up with water and all my camera gear will be destroyed. But it never is. Like something always comes together and rescues me or gives me like a little cash injection or something. Yeah, something always comes to my aid, you know, but you've just got to be on the right path.
Emma Ritchie:Yeah, I think a big part of it I've started to realise is trust as well. Just this like obviously it's not just sitting there, like you know, in a meditation posture, kind of just going. I trust deeply, you know, but it's it's, you know, I mean that's beautiful and I'd love to be able to do that and have someone pay all my bills, and but you know there is like, obviously there's action that you take. But I do think a lot of it and you know there were so many parallels when you were just talking then about like, um, you know, just fear of like, self-doubt, am I going to be good enough? Comparing myself to other people, like do I have the skills, am I going to fail at this?
Emma Ritchie:And I think anyone like for me, when you were saying that I can totally apply that to my stuff and I know there's so many people out there that have exactly the same things. You know you look at people who are following their passions and I think you just go like you know, I look at you and I'm just like, oh my God, alex is doing it. You know he's rocking. But then it's really beautiful to have you say, yeah, I actually experienced a lot of self-doubt and comparison and all that kind of stuff, because I think that it's human to go through those things and I think when you are following your passion or following that call to adventure, you know following that it's, it's um, things are like life is going to fall away in some ways to make space for this new version of you absolutely it's coming in and yeah and that can sometimes include the finances and the you know and that can feel scary absolutely.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:It is scary and it's funny that you say that you're like alex is absolutely rocking, because I'm here at my laptop. I'm here at my computer editing, going. This is all falling apart. Nothing's working. Nothing's working. Everyone else is better than me. That's what's going on in my head when I'm here working, and then someone else might be, you know, it's just perspectives like someone else you know, but I don't feel that way, because I'm always comparing myself to you know, like someone way above me.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:You know I'm never comparing people, you know, like at the same level or below. You know I'm always like looking up, so yeah.
Emma Ritchie:Yeah, which is? I mean, that's a beautiful thing, right, because it's inspirational, it's like somebody's you know, but but also it's remembering, like where you are right now. They were there, you know. It's almost that you have to go through this. There's that beautiful analogy of, like you know, the caterpillar that goes into the cocoon and when it's in the cocoon, it's it, it just breaks down into this like dirty brown goo. That's what happens. But so sorry, caterpillar I'm pretty descriptive, I like you know really painting the picture, but it's in this cocoon. It all it is is gunk, it's like this gooey jelly mud. But within that goo is this one tiny piece of DNA that remembers in that goo how to become a butterfly, and so it reforms. I think people think the caterpillar goes in and it just grows wings and then it comes out. It doesn't. It completely disintegrates.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:I didn't know that oh.
Emma Ritchie:I thought you'd be all over that.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:No Gosh.
Emma Ritchie:well, I centigrade andi some yeah, I thought you'd be all over that gosh. Well, I'm glad I impressed you with that one but it's yeah.
Emma Ritchie:So there's this. So it completely breaks down, turns into like mud, essentially, and then it it. There's a piece of dna in there that remembers how to become a butterfly and it completely reforms and then it comes out of the cocoon and it flies right. So it becomes a bigger, more expansive version of itself. But it has to go through some kind of challenge and disintegration of who it is and it kind of feels like that's what you've been on on your journey.
Emma Ritchie:It's like, obviously, you had this corporate job. You're doing really well in it. That's what your vision was, because you didn't have the vision then for who you are. But it's like you're doing really well in it. You know that's what your vision was, because you didn't have the vision then for who you are. But you know it's like you've gone through these challenges. You know you've lost this footage.
Emma Ritchie:You've like ran out of money and kind of had to go back to India, and yet it's like you're now putting all this amazing content out onto YouTube and I know it's not about the followers, but I mean your numbers are insane, um, for for how much you've got out there. So it's like you're actually, I feel from the outside, looking in, like you are 100% on your path, you're 100% following your passion. And now it's like you know, people are responding to that. You know, and, like you said, just even things dropping like low-hanging fruit, like people coming into your life who are like, hey, there's this tv job, and people are responding to that. You know and, like you said, just even things dropping like low hanging fruit, like people coming into your life who are like, hey, there's this tv job and hey, there's this and hey, there's that. It's amazing, right when you, when you're following your, it is amazing.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:It's really nice that you said that. But, yeah, I feel like I feel like people, um, can feel when you're, you're on your path, you know, and you're pursuing your passion. Are you doing so? You're creating something that you love? Because I feel like it tends to resonate with them, right, like because I am putting my heart and soul into everything that I'm doing, like everything that I write, everything that I, you know, edit of, shoot and edit and make even this conversation.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:You know, I'm trying to be as authentic as possible, so I'm always putting my heart and soul into everything. I feel like that really resonates with people, because it's just a human condition, so we're all going through the same thing, so people see themselves reflected in me and in my plight and my successes and my failures, and they'll be doing the same with you. So I feel like, the more authentic I am and the more I am following my passion, I feel like the the more, um, yeah, it resonates with people, the more people can can feel that and that that's a really nice that that takes um a certain level of letting go and also a certain um level of leaning into your fears, and I feel like that's what a lot of chasing your passion is.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:It's um, and as joseph campbell put it and obviously I love a lot of joseph campbell quotes he says you know, the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek, and that's just so true in the fact that, like I've just found time and time again, it's leaning into your fears and going into that cave that you're afraid of. That's when that's the beautiful things are on the other side of that. So it's like in life you've got to go through the challenges and lean into your fears and that's when, um, yeah, you start learning more about yourself and life and who you are, and um start getting more rewards.
Emma Ritchie:I think yeah, absolutely, and just more expansion, it's.
Emma Ritchie:It's kind of, I think it's like anything, you know, when you go through something that's hard, right, like, let's just say, a marathon or an iron man, something that I I haven't I've done anyway, but let's just say you're going through like some sort of physical challenge.
Emma Ritchie:Yeah, um, it's like the, the lead up to that, you, you have to put a lot of work in and then the big day comes, and then you do it and it's hard and it's hot and the weather conditions aren't what you expected, and you know you're, I don't know, your body isn't working the way that you expected it to on that day, but when you cross the finish line, it is such a feeling of I don't know, just like there's a, there's a confidence and there's like this accomplishment and there's like I said what I was going to do and I did it, I followed through, and I think that is something that can be applied to anything that's hard that we go through in life. It's like some things happen and we don't wish them on anyone, right, but at the same time, it's like when you come through that and you integrate, whatever the lesson was like, you have the capacity to inspire or to help others with that, and I feel that you know that's what you're doing now, to help others with that.
Emma Ritchie:And I feel that you know that's what you're doing now.
Emma Ritchie:It's kind of like you're pushing through, you're going through your David and Goliath right it's like this big, massive, monumental thing that normally a big production company would organize this, like Red Bull or whoever you know, like a big adventure company would organize this for you, and you'd go up there and you'd have sponsors and all this kind of stuff, and it's like, no, it's you, you're the production manager, the shooter, the event coordinator, the logistics, the travel, you know the, the person doing the adventure, while filming it on multiple cameras you know, and then coming back and editing every single second of it for months.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Yeah, I bet you're right. I think, like going through those challenges, you get that real sense of like any sort of challenge. You just get that like reward system, of that sense of achievement you know of overcoming something. But also when you're going through those challenges, whether it be physical or mental, you're just learning so much about yourself all the time and you're just growing all the time. And so for me, when I'm going through all the different challenges, wearing all the different hats that I do, I'm growing and growing and growing. And so when I'm learning all this new stuff, I can share it with people and that's the beauty of it.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:As you go into the challenge, you overcome the challenge, you learn something about yourself or life or whatever, and then you can share that with other people and I think that's a really um special thing about it. I think that's really um was one of the most important things for me in terms of like content creation is I want to make stuff that benefits people and helps people. You know it is just an adventure filmmaker channel, but it's also about you know my life philosophies and my growth and answering the call to adventure and how you can do that, and I'm also going to start um releasing um information on, you know, planning, editing, shooting adventure films and stuff, but I don't just want to make content that's just, like you know, riffraff scroll, like social media stuff.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:I do want to make stuff that, um, where I am imparting all the lessons that I learn when I go on these big adventures, um, and that's a big part of it for me yeah, and I think I think that's a really beautiful thing about you is you know, you're very authentic.
Emma Ritchie:It's like even you know, even sharing you know, because I think there's this idea with perfectionism, right especially online at the moment. It's like, okay, this is the final picture, this is what it looks like, where you're like I went to India and I didn't back up my hard drive and it's like, okay, adventure filmmaker, rule 101 is like back everything up on a couple of hard drives, but you had to learn the hard way.
Emma Ritchie:But I think it's really beautiful and very authentic of you to like just being open to sharing that, because that is something that is going to help somebody else as well. You know, it's not just like hey, I nailed it, like my first adventure on the Ganges, I absolutely nailed it. Here's the finished product.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:It's like no, there was an absolute shitstorm of events that happened in the lead up and during that happened in the lead up and during, yeah, so, um, that really resonated with a lot of people, because that scene where not even that's it just like people have mentioned that thing happening to me out of all my adventures, they've mentioned that the most, I think, out of anything they've gone. Oh, my god, you and in the end you lost your footage and like so, obviously, yeah, I guess that that sort of stuff is resonating with people.
Emma Ritchie:So that's, I think, that's, yeah, I think I think it's definitely authentic, but it just comes back to like admitting your mistakes, right and learning from your mistakes and it's like, had you not shared that, people would have just been like oh, like I haven't seen gucci for a little. You know you're back on planes and back in India and like re-editing stuff and no one would have known the difference.
Emma Ritchie:But I just think that's what the world needs right now is just more authenticity, more vulnerability more people just kind of, you know, just owning up to stuff and being like, yeah, I kind of messed up, but it's okay, you know, I fixed it or whatever. So, yeah, I agree wholeheart, like yeah, I kind of messed up and, but it's okay, you know I fixed it or or whatever, so um yeah, yeah, yeah.
Emma Ritchie:And so I mean in terms of like people really tend to romanticize adventure. I think you know people have this idea. I mean, especially I'm an 80s girl, so you know, like I I think about you. Know you you're kind of Indiana Jones, you know like there's this romantical kind of. But I mean, what is for you and you may have touched on this already what is the hardest part, not just of the adventure but of being a filmmaker at the same time?
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Um, it's just like for me it's just wearing so many hats at once, like, especially being in a place like india. I'm by myself, no one speaks english, I'm in a remote place. Let's just, for example, um, let's say I've been paddling on the ganges for 10 hours that day. At 6 pm the sun's starting to set. I've got to find a little town, um, to see if I can. You know, they've got somewhere for me to stay. I pull up there. But I can't just pull up there and like try and find somewhere to sleep and find some food and whatever, and I'm like already obviously spent from paddling for 10 hours. I'm completely shattered. But I've got to think about the story, so I've got to go.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Okay, I'm entering this, so I need to put on, you know, my wide shot cam that's looking back on me. I've got to put on my POV. I might even get out my um, my piece to camera cam and I've got to record me, you know, turning up to this town and meeting the people and all that stuff, you know, and think about what I'm going to say to them and how I want to frame it and how I want to tell this story of, like, arriving at this town and finding somewhere to stay, at the same time as already being completely shattered and barely I barely have the mental capacity to even, you know, function. At that point, you know, let's say I'm 20 days in on the trip, you know um, um. So yeah, it's just the extreme amount of um mental energy that it takes um to put to do something like that. You know, like, especially on the ganges I wasn't sleeping a lot, you know, I'd maybe get like four hours a night at best, because sometimes I'm sleeping in the jungle and it's like poor conditions or I can hear crazy animals outside the tent and I'm there with my oar you know, half my oar next to my bed, like aiming it at the, aiming at the door of the tent, you know. And then the next morning I wake up at 5 am, then I'm back in the boat and I'm in the boat for 10 hours and then I find my next place to sleep, but at the same time I'm trying to shoot all this and tell a story and um. So I guess it's just for me, it's just um, you need an extreme amount of um stamina and it just ties back to what I was saying earlier.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Is you just have to really love it, because if you don't, um, if you don't love it, then you're not. You're not gonna do that. No one in their right mind is gonna do that. You know. You have to really, um, be passionate, and for me, there's like it's a beautiful, uh, marrying of a few different passions, where I, like I love traveling, um, I like you know extreme physical challenges, I I love mixing with cultures and and having cultural experiences and I love filmmaking. So it's like I have this nice, um, all my passions kind of like get to sort of melt into one in one thing, and so it allows me to do that. But, um, yeah, it's just, yeah, it's just hard work, it's really hard work, I think.
Emma Ritchie:I think when I look back the recording of this, I think hard work is going to show up quite a few times, but that's the thing, right, you're obviously so passionate about it. It's like, yeah, it is hard work yeah it is draining, but yeah here you are.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Yeah, here I am. But I even find, like the work back here. You know, editing can be sometimes just as hard, like God, the battles I've had. Editing is just like it's. Yeah, it can almost seem as exhausting as the adventure.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Because I've got like so for the ganges trip, I've got 30 days worth of footage, I've got three different cameras and a drone um, it's just me by myself. So, you know, I've got to sort through 30 days. You know however many hours I'm filming every day of footage and I've got to get through that and I've got to cut that down and then even that in itself was its own journey. And then, um, yeah, I've got to cut that down and then even that in itself is its own journey. And then, yeah, I've got to, you know, make a story, like construct a story, and then do the colour grading and the audio correction and you know the transitions and the sound effects and all the different drafts and reworking it and getting people to look at it and rework that and then even uploading it to youtube is its whole own thing, because so it's just yeah, you're right, hard work is is a theme. Um, that I guess, um, kind of kind of runs through everything that I do, but yeah, it's a labor of love but, absolutely.
Emma Ritchie:And also I think the interesting thing as well is because obviously you are filming yourself on these adventures like you're. Essentially it's your journey, it's your. You know, as you're like getting smashed as you go down the uh, the ganges by all the waves and stuff and falling out, and you know you've got cameras strapped onto everything, but then to edit all of that you're editing yourself, right?
Alex Gooch Ugarte:so I mean is that?
Emma Ritchie:do you find yourself being kind of? How do you find that process of editing yourself, especially when you're trying to tell a story? Do you find yourself being critical because you didn't say something at the right moment, or you know, or what's that like?
Alex Gooch Ugarte:let me just put it this way. You know how everyone hates their voice uh-huh you know when they hear their voice on a recording or whatever.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Yeah, I have to stare at myself for 30 hours giving interviews to camera and talking to people, and so I not only hate my voice, but I've got to look at myself for ages. It's really hard. It's very, very hard to produce yourself and direct yourself. Um, because you, especially after spending so much time with the footage, you start to sorry first, to first answer your question. Sometimes I am like bummed out that I didn't ask a question here or there or I might have missed something.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:But there's a lot of kind of stuff you can do in editing to magic around some stuff that I missed a lot of the time and I do have shot lists and stuff like that that I do follow in the field. But my mentor did tell me, tim Noonan. He did tell me it's like it's really hard to like edit and direct yourself and when, when you're editing yourself, it's like it's it's really difficult. And he, that advice ended up being so right. Unfortunately I can't afford an editor, but, um, not for the amount of footage I've got. But, um, you start to lose perspective on you know what, if the content's any good, if you know what you said is funny or if it's poignant or if it works in that space, because you spend, so first of all.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:You're in the field and you shoot it all and then when you get back, you're just spending so many hours watching the same scenes over and over and over again that sometimes the scenes start to even lose meaning to and you're like, is this scene interesting? Is anybody gonna care? Is, and it's. It gets really weird after a while because you just you're too close to it. It's first of all it's you up there, but then you're just too close to the footage, like you just spent too much time with it. So that's why I get like other people to review it, like really close friends who I trust their opinions and stuff to review it and have a look at it and just give me really honest feedback, which always sucks.
Emma Ritchie:Because they're like it's great. It's great or you know or no.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:What do they say? No, my mate will be like, no, I don't like that scene, it was horrible. And I'll be like, no, I don't like that scene, it was horrible. And I'd be like what? It's not like a week making that. He'd be like, no, that sucks. No, I didn't like that. But that's what I need. I need that kind of criticism, but it is really hard to do it all yourself. It does get weird and sometimes I feel like I get closer to burnout editing than I do any other part of the process.
Emma Ritchie:it really well, I think it's. It's all that. It's all that screen time, because when you're on the adventures right, you are in nature, even though you're like filming. You're like on the Ganges, you're up a mountain in the snow, you're like, you know, on a bike up in the Kimberleys, like you're immersed in nature, and so you're outdoors and you're moving. Where I feel like the editing process is, yeah, you're sat on your ass in a room by yourself for like a couple of months 100% and completely isolated, like you're not working with people, you're not seeing people.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:You know you might see your friends, you know, once a week or once every couple of weeks or whatever, but you're very isolated. It's just you and this adventure that you've been staring at for three weeks. You know over and over and over again. You're just in a little room. It's always dark, you know, I get the room dark and it's just like it's very, it's very. It can be very isolating and, um, yeah, you can start to really lose perspective on the story, so it's difficult yeah, yeah, I can, I can relate to that.
Emma Ritchie:I I've never was made. I tried when I was in tv. I tried to do post-production a couple of times and it just was not for me. I just, yeah, I'd forget, which you know, sometimes when you're editing and you take a piece out and then you're like, oh, did I take that piece out or did was that in another scene? Now, where did I move that?
Emma Ritchie:And my brain doesn't work like that. My brain is like people, conversations, connections, but if I'm like putting a jigsaw puzzle back together in 500 different ways, my brain just cannot handle it. It doesn't work that way. So I feel your pain and I'm sending you like love bubbles um, you know, so you don't burn out, but what a job, what a job okay. So I just want to. I want to ask a couple more questions. So, just in terms of, for somebody who's starting out, what advice would you give them? Like, for someone who's like in your shoes you know, let's say they're in a corporate job whether it's adventure, filmmaking, or whether it's just following? Actually, yeah, let's make it more about following their passion, like really going for it.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Like, what advice would you give someone who's feeling the call to adventure, the call to their path yeah, I think the advice I would give would tend to like trend rather than like, um, like in terms of how to approach it. It'd be more philosophical in terms of like, if I, if I could look, if I could talk to myself when I was first exiting real estate and chasing my passion, I would just say don't put so much pressure on yourself and don't be so hard on yourself. Like, it's a long journey. You're in it for the long game. It's going to take a long, long time. Everything takes longer than you think it's going to.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:So you know, you might have these lofty goals of like, yeah, I'm going to be here in five years, but you won't. It'll take 10 years, but that's okay because a lot of beautiful things are going to unfold and happen in that 10 years and you know it'll work out perfectly for you. But, um, yeah, I would just say don't put so much pressure on yourself. Just trust in the universe and things will start working out once you, once you decide, you know, make that hard decision to like, definitively follow your passion, um, and start pursuing it. Yeah, just yeah. So trust in the universe and don't put don't put so much pressure on yourself, I think yeah definitely, because for me that's kind of like what didn't start my growth.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:But it's just. There's a lot of stress in those early years. Even now I still stress too much. Um, I think that's a work on for me, but I think a lot of people might um feel the same way.
Emma Ritchie:You know it's oh god, yeah, absolutely it's. I mean, that's the thing I, I think, from my perspective, like I think I've always grown up, you know, maybe maybe you were the same where it was like cool, you know, get the job, like keep the money coming in, like take care of yourself, you know all that stuff. And obviously that is important, right, nobody wants to end up on the streets or anything like that. But I think you know, stepping away from that big media career or the corporate career or whatever, there is going to be a period of time where you do take a hit financially, whatever you're trying to do. And so you know, I love your approach of, um, yeah, just like, if you can like go part-time so you can work on your dream, and then, you know, slowly start to come away from that.
Emma Ritchie:And I know people will have different opinions about that. People will will be like, no, you've got to go all in, quit the job, but that's not going to work for certain people. You know you've got bills, kids, you know, whatever. So it's like, I think, just follow your passion to the best of your ability with where you're at. But there is going to come a day, if it really truly is a passion, and it really truly is a passion and it really is truly something that you want to do full-time, where you are going to have to step off the ledge, so to speak, and just hope, you know, just know, you just trust that you're going to be looked after, trust that you know.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:But it's scary, it is scary I couldn't agree with you more and I think, and I think, just accepting the fact that life's going to get unconventional life, your life isn't going to look like what everyone else is doing, and that's okay.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:You know there is no set path. You know there's definitely no set path. Once you set out on your path, then the path starts unfolding in front of you. But it could be, it could take you in any which way, in any direction.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:For me it started out with a podcast and then I was over in london for a little while. Then I came back and I was working in a cafe and trying to figure out cameras for a while and then I met um, a mentor, and then I went off on like a little, a little bicycle adventure, you know, and I started figuring out cameras with that and then so in my mind I had, like, when I was leaving real estate, I had this idea of like what it, what it was going to be like, and it was nothing like that. It was completely, you know, just a crazy path that goes in all different directions. But you just gotta accept that it is going to get unconventional and you are going to go down different paths that you never thought you would. But just go with the flow and, um, if you're following your passion and it feels right in your gut, then you're going in the right direction and just keep going, going in that direction.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Listen to your gut and not your head.
Emma Ritchie:Yeah, easier said than done, but yeah, it's great advice. So tell us a little bit about you know where we can watch your amazing adventures, and tell us a little bit about what we can expect as well, when you know what.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:What's what what are your adventures about and where are they? Yeah, cool um. So you can find my adventures on my youtube channel life with gooch and um and also be releasing some short form stuff and some smaller bite-sized pieces little side quests, little side stories from overseas um. On my instagram channel, which is also at life with gooch and um. Oh, what can you expect? I've got some really unique adventures coming up.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:Um, you can expect some really raw, authentic adventures, um, where I um, I experience a lot culturally. I'm going to some like pretty remote places where, um, I'll be learning a lot about different cultures and I'm learning a lot about myself. And basically, on each adventure it's, I guess you see, a lot of a combination of both like physical, the physical adventure, where I'm putting in place like a lot of skills and I have to overcome something physically. Um, but a lot of what happens on my adventures is mental and I like to share that with the audience as well. So I'll be sharing my doubts or insecurities and the things I'm going through or the scenes I'm trying to shoot. I'll be sharing some behind-the-scenes stuff as well and, yeah, I just really want the audience to ride the journey with me, be as open as I can, be as authentic as I can and, yeah, and experience the lowest of lows and the highest of highs, basically as I trek through mountains and pack raft through valleys and get myself into all sorts of weird and wonderful situations.
Emma Ritchie:Yeah, amazing. Well, I'm definitely enjoying watching the journey unfold so far. There's um I think you've got about five or six adventures up there already on on youtube and lots of other shorts as well and it's um yeah, it's really inspiring. So, yeah, just so inspired by you and thank you for being so vulnerable and authentic and sharing some of your story with us. And um, yeah, just jump on to life at gooch. It's g, double o, c, h, um and uh, yeah, look forward to checking in in the future with you, my friend. Thank you so much thank you very much.
Alex Gooch Ugarte:This was amazing. I really appreciate it and I appreciate your time.
Emma Ritchie:Yeah, I appreciate you too, mate. Thank you, thanks for listening today, and if this episode helped or inspired you, just remember to share it to friends or family who could also use some inspiration. Today, we are all about sharing the love.
