Explorer Mikael Strandberg

Beginning this upcoming week, I will be writing a blog here and be part of a very interesting team of travel writers! I will publish the blog articles here on my own site a week later. First one, as below:

“Mikael, can you please tell me how to get sponsorship?”

I must have heard this question a thousand times from potential explorers and adventurers. I think a quarter of all emails I receive today ask this. They are mainly from young people, the world over, who want to organise their first adventure and just don’t have the means.

Believing you are the perfect prospect for a sponsor is not enough. Most bids fail. No matter how good your idea, sponsorship comes with time and a good track record.

Even then it is not easy: I spend a lot of my time looking for my sponsors. So, to help, I have put together three tips for all those budding explorers keen to get out there.

1. Ask yourself: Do I really need it? I know many first-timers want sponsors because they think it looks cool, professional, and impressive having a lot of logos on their gear. Travelling like I do, in the hope of uniting cultures, one doesn’t want to look like you are competing in a highly commercial Formula One race!

Where keeping a high profile is important, by all means, go for the badges and branding.  But remember, there are other ways to market your potential sponsors. I also know, after dealing with lots of sponsors, that most of them today don’t want to be over-exposed: Being too commercial is the same as not being too serious.

My point is, if you have the funds, it is a better choice to avoid sponsors: Less work, less stress and you run everything the way you want. Don’t worry: if you want to start with a historical expedition, you definitely won’t need money for all the gadgets and the best gear.

My advice is: If you haven’t done a serious adventure before, do one. Then try for sponsors for your second outing.

A potential sponsor wants to see a track record of what you have done. So, a better choice initially is to work and save money!

2. Think: What does a potential sponsor want? What can you offer them, which all the other explorers cannot? Just as an example: I have a friend who is in charge of Canon’s sponsorship department, and he gets 300 requests for sponsorship per day! Only ten per year are successful, and almost all of these are from well-known explorers.

It’s not a hopeless cause, however. Just try a new perspective if you are not already established or famous enough.

3. Plan: Target only sponsors that fit your vision, and find sponsors that will become your friend. Some people will do anything for money. And this applies to some within adventure and exploration circles.

Remember, the future will judge you by who you cooperated with. If your expedition has an ecological theme – most have today, since this sells and looks good – why sign up with a sponsor who has a poor record on these issues and is purely commercial?

I would never deal with a sponsor if I don’t have a personal relationship with them. This familiarity means you both know what you want, and unnecessary problems won’t arise. So find the ones who fit your vision and it will prove a great partnership!

I hope these three tips are of use. Please get back to me with your opinions or questions and I will try to help!

This is our proposed route and if borders close due to the war in Yemen, the blue, which doesn´appeal at all.

Eid al-Adha , The Festival of Sacrifice, is coming up for all our worlds Muslims, 1.2 billion in total, representing  28% of the worlds population. It marks the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca. In Oman it also means that everybody is taking ten days off work, everything is closed, our work is brought to a total stand still and a lot of locals have rushed to all the malls in Muscat to buy presents. My friend Kamil calls it the Muslim Christmas. He and his family will fly for a short holiday to Bahrain, three days of additional shopping. It is a time you spend together with your family. I will write a blog report about it, once Eid is over. We look forward to it very much. Suddenly something big is happening in town! No matter what, we will still leave Muscat and head for Salalah to meet one of my Bedu friends from the Al-Mahra tribe, Mussalem Bin Hassan and at the same time check our upcoming route through the country.

Since I arrived to Oman I have received a fair amount of requests from people who´d like to join the Expedition, which is an honor, from some really good names with in exploration and adventure and I have received an uncounted number of emails from people, all young men, if I can help them find sponsors or how to go about. And I think throughout these 24 years of travelling, and 1000s of emails, this is the most common question I have received. So, inspired by a Facebook friend, Alistair Humphreys, I have spent a fair amount of my thoughts today, whilst sitting in long queues of traffic, dodging shoppers crossing the road, thinking about the issue. So here we go,  3 tips and thoughts on the subject!

1. Do you really need it? I know many “wannabes” and first timers want sponsors because they think it looks cool, professional and impressive having a lot of logos on yourself and your gear. Travelling like I do, with cultures as the main issue, one doesn´t want to look like a formula one guy. I can understand that climbers, north and south pole skiers…I mean where meeting people and cultures are less important…and so on want to keep a high profile and market their sponsors, but otherwise there are other ways to market your potential sponsors. I have a feeling that potential sponsors in the West understands this, that it is not good to get over exposure, but in this part of the world, it hasn´t hit home yet.

Two of our main sponsors in Siberia......

So my point is, if you have the funds, it is a better choice. Less work, less stress and you run everything the way you want. However, I want to add, I have always had a great partnership with my sponsors and many of them are very good friends today and they have never, ever, had opinions how I use their brand or expose it. However, I have heard other opinions, especially if you involve broadcasting media. (Check the site at www.siberia.nu and the link to partners to see what sponsors I had on the Siberian trip.) I know that Christian Bodegren, who is trying to pass the Sahara Desert, is funding his expedition by himself. I respect that a lot for a first timer.

And, if you haven´t done a serious Expedition before, do one, and than try for sponsors for the second one. Potential sponsors wants to see a track record of what you have done. So better choice is to work and save money!

2. You really have to figure out, what does a potential sponsor want out of it? What can you offer them, which all the others cannot? For example I have a friend who is in charge of Canons sponsorship department and he gets 300 requests for sponsorship per day. He offers sponsorship to ten causes a year, meaning less than 1% of all who asks and almost all of them are well known already. I don´t want to make it look hopeless, just telling you how hard it is. My only advice is, try a new perspective, if you are not famous.

3. Target only the ones which fit your vision and find ones that you will become a pal with. Some people do anything for money, forgetting that the future will judge you by who you cooperated with. After awhile, if you take anything, your vision gets clouded in being looked upon as purely a moneymaker. Many of them in exploration I am afraid. I personally really enjoy working with sponsors. I think it is because I love dealing with people and almost all of them are very good friends to me today, with whom I socialize. Like the legendary Olle Widell at the former Outside Scandinavia. He believed in me from the beginning and sponsored me through many expeditions. I would never deal with a sponsor if I don´t have a personal relationship with them. So find the ones who fit your vision and it will be a great partnership for both!

By the way, have a look at this! (Yeah, I know, it doesn´t have anything to do with sponsorship!)

Satellite equipment sponsored by Tomas and Tina at Explorers Web on the Siberian expedition, they´re two of my best friends today.

Less than 40 years ago Muscat was a tiny little fishing hamlet......today it has moved into the Century of the fast, succesfull, wealthy and modern. However, the fishermen are still there, not far away from our flat in Al Ghubra.

When I turned the computer on this morning I had a dispatch email from Christian Bodegren, who has made it to the Nile! Great start of his Sahara crossing, makes me very happy!

I think it was the Danish philosopher Sören Kirkegaard who said:

“To live, is to dare.”

I don´t disagree with that quote. I am really trying hard to do just that. Right now I am taking a risk bigger than any other I have mastered to do earlier in my life. I have left a relatively secure, safe and pampered life in Stockholm and Sweden to try my luck in a totally different part of the world, were most things are totally opposite to what I have been brought up to believe is the truth, and nothing but the truth. The Arab world and initially Oman. And Oman is actually not the easiest place just now in the Gulf to turn up with a big vision in your head and on paper and hope anybody will buy it. Since doing business in this part of the world is a question of personal relationships, which I like a lot, and it takes time to bond, another thing I like a lot, the world around you could change quickly. It has for Expedition Arabia. When I first came here in January the global economic recession had started to take hold of this part of the world, but people were still positive and vibrant and it felt like I had arrived in a Klondike of possibilities. I felt a sense of pioneering spirit.

Kamil Al-Raisi, one of many good friends in Muscat. Photo taken at The Wahiba Sands. He is worrying as well for his future.

9 months later the recession has hit harder than expected, it seems, since funds for corporate businesses are less, the swine flu is terrifying the authorities, that much that the famous Muscat festival will be suspended this year, the great neighbor in the west, Saudi-Arabia, has hit back at al-houthi rebels who has crossed the common border with Yemen, and some people of authority seems to believe it could spread and that borders will close. There´s a dark cloud over the Omanis that I didn´t see during my former 5 visits. A lot of people just don´t seem to dare at all. Frustrating, yes. But time to train what I am really rotten at, patience.

In all this negative light I arrive with P, who is doing the same journey, she has left a life, to try a new. We have a very small amount of money to live on, after a divorce which has totally cleared me. And life in Muscat is more expensive than London and Sweden! It is almost impossible to stay here for less than 2500 dollars a month as a temporary visitor, because you need a car to get around, I don´t think I have seen a public bus yet, one needs a flat were you can set up and run the Expedition professionally, a living which is proper enough to invite people for business meetings and socialize in expensive venues, Internet connection is a must and on top of that, you have to eat. We have been eating a lot of chicken, potatoes and rice lately…haha, we ain´t suffering, on the contrary. And we work from very early in the morning till late night, most days 12 hours.But we are still very positive and very hopeful to find a solution how to get the Expedition on its feet, but it is still far off…

Where we live.....

However, let me state this, we wouldn´t survive without our very good friends here. Like Robby George, this amazing wizard and joker from Kerala, with his sharp brain, business know-how and common sense and will to always help, no matter what. Kamil Al-Raisi Al-Baluchi, the soccer fan who is also a tour guide and so full of Arab spirit and willpower.  Wael Lawati, who probably one of the smartest guys I have met and extremely helpful in every way and always ready to find a solution or offer a razor sharp analysis of the situation. But the spider in the wheel of help, understanding and love is my great friend Talib Omar. Even though he is extremely busy, since he is a very successful business man, father and husband, he always finds time to encourage me, find solutions, book meetings, find the right people and explain for me the often very difficult etiquettes of Arab business and social behavior. I have met an angel.

By giving you this story of today, I just want to say that to become successful in life, you need good friends. And, almost as important, you need to be at the right place, during the right circumstances at the right time in history to become successful as such. Whatever successful means. So even if you have everything needed as a person to become successful and great visions, if it is during the wrong historical circumstances, nobody will ever hear about it. I hope we are here at the right time in history. People here just need to dare a bit more. And worry less.

One of many meetings. Robby to the right.

What do we do during the days? Well, we write an enormous amount of emails all over the world to gather information, ask for help finding needed contacts, we phone people and converse and sell, we meet people, we train 1-2 hours a day, basically a brisk walk on the beach on the top photo here and we read a lot of local newspapers of the Gulf to get an idea of the region. It is really interesting work in many ways, one impressive story was this editorial about the great leader of Oman, Sultan Qaboos and his yearly royal tour!

And we will continue to do this until we have enough funds and support to go through with this expedition. Somehow, everything taken into account, taking away Kirkegaards thoughts of reason, it seems fated to be. In this part of the world, some locals think it is written in the stars…

The Sultans mosque by night...not far away from our flat.

I think communication between human beings is the most important aspect of life. If we humans would communicate better and more, we would have less wars and aggressions, there´s no doubt about that. And if I have anything, regarding my abilities to do Expeditions and making them into a success, to brag about, it is my ability to listen to people and get them to talk, to communicate. And only talk when I have to motivate other people to comprehend the necessity to understand what I am doing and why.

The same applies when you go looking for sponsors before a major expedition, because I reckon the upcoming Expeditions, both of them, or should I say, all three, they will cost a huge amount of dollars. Therefore, the last week I have started looking for partners, but it takes a lot of work. And meeting a variety of people who can help, inspire and give you ideas is extremely important and that is what I have done for a month now.

Today I went to Travellers Club of Sweden to listen to a lecture by a well-known Swedish TV-anchor, Arne Weise, and shared a table with my friend and new partner Anders Åberg and a very good friend of his, Claes Ahlin, a lawyer with a big smile. We were able to shoot some ideas around and now we have one very good idea of a possible major sponsor with international connections. See how it goes, I will keep you updated on the developments. And to give you an idea what I look for regarding the choice of sponsors, just have a look at the sponsors from the Siberian Expedition here.