Alex, so I've got a funny question for you.

You're a professional athlete that doesn't play on a team or compete in tournaments.

Like, how does one actually go about being a professional climber?

So in general, I think the path to becoming a professional climber basically starts with

low-level sponsorship from various brands, at least this is the path that I took, where a few

different climbing-specific companies will offer you free product and maybe a little

bit of money to wear their gear or use their hardware or whatever from there if you're good

if you're a good athlete you know if you represent the brand well whatever then they'll bring you on

for like a salary or a stipend or something and you'll start actually making a living from

those companies. Typically, most professional climbers are sponsored in every product category.

So say apparel, which, you know, your clothing sponsor is normally the most money you can make

because apparel makes the most money of any of the companies. You know, if you think about

a clothing company makes a lot more money than a climbing hardware company. But you typically get sponsored in each category. So say,

apparel, footwear, hardware, maybe ropes and things like that, maybe some, you know,

sort of side specialty categories. Like, I mean, nowadays, there are tons of people making money

off like CBD companies and

things like that, which I think is not that cool. But if you're really lucky, you might get

sponsored by a bank company or something like that. Then beyond that, you're always trying to make

money on the side by, say, writing articles, participating in film projects, doing the occasional professional speaking event,

things like that. And I think at the beginning as a professional climber, you're mostly appearing

at very climbing specific events, like showing up at a real rock showing for your sponsors,

or speaking for a climbing club at a university, things

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