Enjoy this quick read on how and why I started Galveston Unscripted. It is by no means all-encompassing but gives you a good idea of my intentions and how it has redirected my life.

I grew up in and around Galveston and went to college on the Island. After a few years of chasing money in Houston, My wife and I moved back to the Island. In 2019, I started Galveston Running Tours after discovering that running tours are popular worldwide. What is better than going to explore Galveston Island's historically dense areas? Exploring the areas while sweating with strangers. I have taken hundreds of people around historic districts on Galveston Island by way of running shoes, and I learned so much history while teaching it to people from all over the world. 

If you do not know me, what is easy to see about me is that I can not sit still for very long. In early 2020, I had the wonderful opportunity to work from home and cease my daily commute to Houston for the foreseeable future. My opportunity-focused gears began turning. I wanted to scale my ability to teach people about the place I grew to love, Galveston Island. I wanted to take the Running Tour to the next level, but how? 

I wanted to create an audio guide for the existing running tour route. That would put me in a position to teach people about Galveston history without having to go on a physical tour with you.

With my newfound 10 hours a week that I was no longer commuting, I grabbed my phone, went into a nice soundproof closet, and began recording historical information I would usually give on my running tour. Something like "The historic East end of Galveston, blah, blah, blah," and then upload it to my website. The new website was named "Galveston Unscripted." The "Unscripted" comes from the way I enjoy giving tours or have conversations. If we went off track of the regular tour or guests wanted to see something that I had not prepared, no problem. I absolutely love going off-script and holding nothing to strict rules. 

I created a very rudimentary location-based map and audio guide to apply the audio. I hosted the audio on a website that could push that same 3 or 4-minute audio clip to a podcast feed. Without thinking, I pushed the audio to Apple Podcast, Spotify, and the rest. This was the beginning of the Galveston Unscripted Podcast & Audio Tour. This project would change the trajectory of my life. 

Although it was not my TRUE intention to create a podcast, a podcast has the potential to reach a global audience. I wanted people to find the audio tour, so why not throw the most extensive "cast net" possible? With the proper website preparation, transcriptions, and accessible techniques that can be learned for free on youtube, the Podcast feed was very "discoverable." The website began to rank on google when a person searched "Galveston History" or similar terms. 

A couple months passed, and I continued expanding beyond my basic running tour route, adding audio guides. I started covering as much history as I could on the Island. The podcast downloads began to exceed website visits. I was successfully placing short Galveston historical stories in front of a global audience and engaging visitors in the audio tour. A bell went off, and I said, "Hey, this could be something cool. I need to get somebody to help me tell these stories." 

The concept had been proven. Now I needed to level up. 

I began having guests on the podcast, including Mr. Sam Collins III to discuss Juneteenth, Artist Doug McClean discussing the outstanding Italian sculptors we have had here in Galveston, Brent Leggs, the Vice President of the National Trust of Historic Preservation, discussing African American history and preserving stories from all to tell the full story. I have hosted doctors from UTMB and authors like Ed Cotham, who wrote a book about the Battle of Galveston during the Civil War. 

In 2022, I recorded over 12 hours of historical interviews and many more hours of my voice telling the story of Galveston. 

 I figured, okay, what's another way I can have people visiting the Island, not only find it on a podcast feed or through Google or Facebook. How can I get people to listen to this content, even if it's just one episode or one audio guide? How can I get people to understand how rich Galveston's history is and how it ties into Texas and American History? How can I do that at scale? 

Galveston has seen a BOOM in short-term rental properties such as Airbnb and VRBO from 2018 through 2022. No matter how you feel about 'em, they're everywhere. The latest number I have seen is between four and 5,000 on the Island alone.

I designed and printed easy-access plaques at FastSigns that have little QR codes and NFC tags applied to the plaque. An NFC tag is one futuristic step past a QR code. You just tap your phone on the plaque, and it immediately opens up the audio guide. No app. No friction. Just tap and learn.

We have hundreds of them installed in the Island's short-term rental properties and businesses. This allows people on the Island as a tourist or day-tripper trying to find an activity or history about something on the Island without friction or cost to access educational, fun, free content. 

In a short-term rental right by the door or in the kitchen, you just tap your phone, and there are historical references and location-based audio guides on Galvestonunscripted.com right at your fingertips. 

You don't have to download an app. All you need is a smartphone. And you have direct access to all these interviews that I've been conducting to tell that story of Galveston and how amazing this place is. Even if it's just in that three-minute clip. Some podcasts are over an hour, and some are three minutes. You never know what you'll scroll down that podcast feed. 

When was the last time you saw a young person reading a book? Especially a history book? The barriers between picking up a history book vs. looking at it on your phone or listening to an audio guide couldn't be further apart. The friction is so reduced that you just tap and open. I believe this podcast-to-audio guide model can be used anywhere in the world.