By: Jen Richardson
BANGOR, ME – On March 19th, 2016 a Facebook page by the name of “Explore Until You Die” launched with a trailer of a trip to Acadia National Park. This marked the official launch of the lifestyle company founded by New England School of Communications student, Mitchell Watson.
The name and company itself is inspired by Watson’s aunt and uncle. About ten years ago, his aunt was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. This is a nervous system disease that weakens muscles and impacts physical function. She was given only a year to live, and her condition worsened. Rather than watching her spend her last days at home in pain, her husband quit his job, sold everything he owned, and bought a handicapped van. The couple decided to travel the country and she lived ten years longer than anticipated with the help of her husband, whom she considered her guardian angel.
Inspired by his family and his own passions, Watson decided to start the company.
“You don’t know how much time you have,” he says. “I knew what I was passionate about and that was travelling, and I wanted to make a lifestyle brand that other people could follow.”
Watson started the company himself on Instagram by creating a logo, and beginning to post photos of his own travels, and others’ photos as well. His first photos accumulated a few hundred “likes” each. Within a few short months his follower count grew to over 30,000, and he realized he needed help. He turned to friends and NESCom students Jillian Wilson, a Junior Marketing Major, and Cody Chiasson, a Junior Video Production Major. Both jumped at the chance to be a part of the company.
“Mitch talked a lot about what he wanted in the future, and that was to travel the world and shoot video, and that really aligned with my goals after college. I definitely wanted to get involved in the project in any way that I could, so I started with doing video, but now I’m bridging into marketing with Jill’s help.” Chiasson says.
“I’ve always been a traveler, I have a hard time staying in one place. So that really drew me into understanding this lifestyle. After I worked with them on my first shoot I just don’t think I could ever turn back, we’re a great team.” Wilson adds.
So far the company has brought them to Acadia National Park, Castine, Portland, and other places throughout Maine. The company quickly gained followers, and more students wanted to get involved however they could. Although they have only released a few videos so far, that doesn’t mean their logo hasn’t travelled further than they imagined. The company released shirts and stickers with the logo on them, and people started buying them right away. At first the shirts were featured in photos taken by the Explore Until You Die team in Bangor and surrounding areas. Shortly after, photos emerged from Death Valley National Park in California, Bryce Canyon in Utah, Australia, Iceland, Canada, and more.
At any age or point in life, it’s hard to start and maintain a company. It’s a challenge the EUYD team has faced time and time again. Being college students they only have so much extra time to work on things outside of class. Getting shirts printed and sent out, calling other companies, organizing trips, and putting out content are all time consuming tasks on their own, especially on a budget. But unanimously these students find it all worth the effort, “We all have our own lives, but we’re trying to make this the one thing we can do.” Watson says.
The Instagram page alone has accumulated over 40,000 followers, and gets thousands of “likes” on each photo, and it shows no signs of slowing down.
Currently, the company wants to see their followers and customers’ content so they can share it on social media. Not only do they want to encourage the lifestyle, but they want to hear the stories, too. Though the company’s story has to do with Watson’s family, marketing specialist Wilson says, “We want to hear everyone else’s story… There’s a different reason for everyone to explore, that’s why we created this.”
The company’s main videographer Chiasson adds, “When you have the Explore Until You Die logo on, you’re exploring with us. We want to hear the story, we want to see the pictures, and we want to share that for other people. We do want it to become a lifestyle and a way to live your life of always having that attitude to get out there and explore. Instead of sitting at home, see the world and do all you can to push yourself to see places that you didn’t think you could see.”
Though Watson graduates in May and moves to Australia in the fall, the company plans to keep up the content and has big plans for the summer. They have trips scheduled to work with Aroma Joe’s and Travel as Volunteer India.
So, get out there and explore! No matter where you are, what your reason, Explore Until You Die. Make sure to check out the company on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube to see what’s next for these NESCom Students!
