The Peanut Butter and Mountains Podcast

Four years ago I quit my 9-to-5 to film hiking videos. This is my year-four update, and I’m putting it next to my first two update videos so you can see what’s changed and what hasn’t.In this one I get into how the business actually makes money now. UGC retainers used to pay most of the bills, and they’ve been replaced by drone aerial work, local marketing clients, freelance retainers and a rental unit. I also talk about why I retired the Outdoor Creator Academy, and why my gear reviews get 8–9x the views of my documentaries. Then there’s my real numbers on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, why I dropped my email list, and how I handle seasonality. I compare a 2023 day in the life to a 2026 one, and break down the $40/month AI stack that saves me hours on every video.Whether you’re thinking about going full-time or you’re already in it, I hope this helps.👇 What’s your biggest hurdle as a creator right now? Let me know in the comments.🎙️ If you’re into the Peanut Butter and Mountains podcast, a 5-star rating on Spotify would be huge. I’m trying to hit 150 reviews by the end of the year.💻 TOOLS I USEDescript (editing): https://get.descript.com/jke9lik4cqb9vidIQ (thumbnails): https://vidiq.com/chad06My hunting & self-reliance channel: https://www.youtube.com/ ⁨@TheWestWay25⁩  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━📲 MY SOCIALS📸 Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/chadahooche_/📸 TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@chadahooche_?lang=en🎙️ Podcast → https://open.spotify.com/show/4uqC8SiipEHirRPPOACQCX

In today’s video, I review the Starlink Mini after using it for a full month while camping in the woods, sharing the biggest pros and cons and who it’s best for. I explain why I bought it (to stop driving into town for service), what it costs ($149 as of Oct 24, 2026), and how easy setup is using the Starlink app by pointing it north. I cover performance in trees (works well but can drop with obstructions), data usage on the 100GB plan (video calls and FaceTime burn data fast), and how it compares to hotspotting for online work like editing in Descript. I also test using it while driving with a magnetic roof case, discuss power needs and battery draw on a power station, and explain plan standby vs canceling.

👊USE LINK SO WE BOTH GET $100
https://starlink.com/?referral=RC-DF-14951196-75484-10

📲 MY SOCIALS📸 Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/chadahooche_/📸 TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@chadahooche_🎙️ Podcast → https://open.spotify.com/show/4uqC8SiipEHirRPPOACQCX━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⛰️ MY COMPLETE OUTDOOR GEAR LIST → https://app.rockporch.com/prflink/chadahooche_━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Train for the Mountains Without Burnout: My Fun, Efficient Year-Round Plan (4-Quarter Breakdown)I explain why most people quit mountain training due to boredom, not injury, and share my approach to staying consistent year-round. After years of endurance and mountain objectives—including nearly finishing the Colorado 58 fourteeners and training for a 2024 Grand Canyon rim-to-rim-to-rim that started to feel like a job—I refined my philosophy into three rules: keep variety to avoid mental burnout and overuse injuries, make it fun or I won’t stick with it, and be efficient by letting mountain activities do the training. I outline how I rotate priorities each quarter—Q1 strength, jujitsu, and splitboarding; Q2 adding hiking, trail running, mountain biking, and some climbing; Q3 peak season with hiking, hunting, and reduced gym/jiujitsu to avoid injury; and Q4 returning to strength, jujitsu, and winter cardio—plus I use resting heart rate and HRV to monitor recovery.

👇 GEAR IN VIDEOSekkaf Polarized Sunglasses - https://amzn.to/4ywkm7mTatuo Neck Cover - https://amzn.to/4k8EU1ZTrado Trail Gaiters - https://www.tradogear.com/collections/entire-collection?sca_ref=12612135.O3LsgGvrI1HIhComVelcro - https://link.amazon/B0cRu2XsPStarlink Mini - https://starlink.com?referral=RC-DF-14951196-75484-10Starlink Mini Magnetic Roof Mount - https://amzn.to/4k8GJMnJOYROOM Starlink Mini Car Adapter - https://amzn.to/4i0bGRBBlack Diamond Distance Z FLZ Carbon Trekking Poles - https://app.rockporch.com/prdlink/Ykz1i5x5RQAmazon Essentials Men's Lightweight Water-Resistant Packable Hooded Puffer Jacket - https://amzn.to/4dP2bCl━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━📲 MY SOCIALS📸 Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/chadahooche_/📸 TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@chadahooche_?lang=en🎙️ Podcast → https://open.spotify.com/show/4uqC8SiipEHirRPPOACQCX━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⛰️ MY COMPLETE OUTDOOR GEAR LIST → https://app.rockporch.com/prflink/chadahooche_

In today’s video, I share six pieces of hiking and camping gear I didn’t leave the trailhead without this year, along with why each one earned a spot in my kit. I cover $14 polarized Amazon sunglasses that look and feel similar to Oakley Sutros, a budget neck drape for sun protection with better airflow than a sun hoodie, and Traedo gaiters that seal higher on the ankle to keep dirt out—especially great with Altra shoes. I also explain why the Starlink Mini has been a game-changer for getting Wi‑Fi while car camping and working remotely, including pricing, power options, and a referral code. Finally, I review adjustable Black Diamond Distance Carbon Z FLZ trekking poles and a $40 Amazon Essentials down jacket that packs small and stays warm.
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👇 GEAR IN VIDEO
Sekkaf Polarized Sunglasses - https://amzn.to/4ywkm7mTatuo Neck Cover - https://amzn.to/4k8EU1ZTrado Trail Gaiters - https://www.tradogear.com/Velcro - https://link.amazon/B0cRu2XsPStarlink Mini - https://starlink.com?referral=RC-DF-14951196-75484-10Starlink Mini Magnetic Roof Mount - https://amzn.to/4k8GJMnJOYROOM Starlink Mini Car Adapter - https://amzn.to/4i0bGRBBlack Diamond Distance Z FLZ Carbon Trekking Poles - https://app.rockporch.com/prdlink/Ykz1i5x5RQAmazon Essentials Men's Lightweight Water-Resistant Packable Hooded Puffer Jacket - https://amzn.to/4dP2bCl

In today’s video, I talk with Myllene about how she ended up hiking the Teton Crest Trail after her friend Dan planned the permits and logistics, and why she now prefers less research and fewer expectations after learning on the PCT that real experiences rarely match pre-hike hype. She shares how through-hiking built confidence and reduced overthinking, but also raised new concerns like proper food storage in grizzly country, where she still hopes to finally see a grizzly. She describes how the TCT’s constant views and abundant wildlife—especially pikas—made it one of her favorite hikes, while shorter mileage days felt both relaxing and occasionally boring. We also cover her growing interest in mountaineering, including climbs of Adams and Baker, an attempted Rainier summit stopped by altitude sickness and group issues, and the humbling value of turning back. She also mentions trying a 50K trail race and wanting to learn skiing and mountain biking.

📲 MY SOCIALS
📸 Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/chadahooche_/📸 TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@chadahooche_?lang=en
🎙️ Podcast → https://open.spotify.com/show/4uqC8SiipEHirRPPOACQCX━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⛰️ MY COMPLETE OUTDOOR GEAR LIST → https://app.rockporch.com/prflink/chadahooche_━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━