Transcription
00:00:10:00 – 00:00:26:09
Unknown
Well, welcome to the American Hunting Podcast. We’ve got kind of a special show today, especially for some of our I don’t know, some of the members, I would say down south, but not really. They’re all over. We’ve got a lot of waterfowl hunters out east, specifically in Maryland, up in Delaware and those kind of places.
00:00:26:09 – 00:00:40:08
Unknown
So we are proud today to have Chad Belding, who’s the host of the Fouled Life Dead Dog Walking, and more recently, his own podcast, The This Life and for Everybody Podcast. We’re just thrilled to have you on the American Hunting Podcast today, Chad.
00:00:40:08 – 00:00:54:00
Unknown
Welcome back. Thank you guys very much. Happy to be here. Thanks for having me. No, it’s a it’s a pleasure. Like I said, we we get heavy and white tails. We talk about it. I know you know that that the white tail kind of drives the industry.
00:00:54:05 – 00:01:08:07
Unknown
But frankly, we’ve kind of gotten into the waterfowl thing. And when I say I’m into it, I’ve, I bought like two dozen decoys, which seems like it’s filling up my garage. I don’t have a trailer that I’m pulling behind me or anything like that.
00:01:08:07 – 00:01:27:11
Unknown
So no, it’s a real pleasure. Before we get started, my, my buddy here, Joel is a huge HIMYM fan. We were actually on your Instagram a couple of days ago. Yeah. And of course I recognize your I favor, you know, went into Joel’s office and I was like hey is adamant that we are there and he goes
00:01:27:11 – 00:01:36:02
Unknown
, You heard a tweet, Guido. My hell yeah. So it was it’s funny. I just like to see when my two worlds collide like that. And I enjoyed watching some of the stuff you guys are doing on live, so.
00:01:38:02 – 00:01:58:15
Unknown
Yeah they the I’ve always thought since I started banded back in 2008 the calm the the theme that we kind of built the brand on and what we’ve developed with the fan life and several of our other brands was hunting is the common denominator that brings all these different lives together and all these different walks of life
00:01:58:15 – 00:02:11:06
Unknown
can come together from, you know, the military to a heart surgeon to a janitor, to a pilot, to an MMA fighter, an actor, a professional athlete. We get to hunt with a lot of country singers out of Nashville and other parts of the country.
00:02:11:06 – 00:02:22:22
Unknown
So it first of all, it’s very humbling to get to, you know, to swap stories with those guys and hang out of the campfire and drink a cold beer and then get in the woods with them or in the marsh or in the hills, whatever we might be chasing that weekend or that week.
00:02:22:22 – 00:02:40:18
Unknown
And it’s just the, you know, hunting duck camp, turkey camp, deer camp. It’s the common denominator that brings all these different lives of different walks of life together. So, you know, mixing it up with Chad Mendez. Monty Mendez, he’s had some incredible fights in the UFC with Aldo and McGregor, and you can go on Frankie Edgar.
00:02:40:18 – 00:02:51:07
Unknown
He’s had some battles. He’s one of the most talented fighters, in my opinion, that I ever seen graced the Octagon. And a lot of people have said that Clay, the carpenter, Guido, he’s a big time fisherman. He’s getting into hunting right now.
00:02:51:07 – 00:03:01:19
Unknown
And and then you got Urijah Faber, who? The California kid who at 40, you know, he’s planning his comeback fight in the next two weeks in Sacramento. And he loves to get out on the water and do a bunch of fishing.
00:03:01:19 – 00:03:12:10
Unknown
And he’s actually getting ready to go on a pig hunt after his upcoming fight. So, again, it’s just one of those things, too, where they they kind of look up to us for what we do and they’re kind of not envious of what we do.
00:03:12:10 – 00:03:22:18
Unknown
They’d like to be in the woods or on the water a lot more. And a lot of times when you’re, you know, you see the lifestyle of a country musician or a professional athlete or somebody you you might want to trade shoes with them.
00:03:22:18 – 00:03:37:14
Unknown
So hunting brings us all together. It lets us pay homage to the military, and it provides therapy for guys coming back from overseas or in theater that are protecting our freedoms and fighting for our country. So hunting, hunting to me, it wraps all of that into one.
00:03:37:14 – 00:03:51:09
Unknown
And when when you’re in duck camp or any kind of hunting camp or fishing camp, you get to experience things that excuse me, that you probably never would on a golf course or or at the beach. Hunting just opens those doors for to get to know somebody on a different level.
00:03:51:09 – 00:04:02:06
Unknown
And again, we’re humbled to get to do so. You know, I spent I spent a lot of time in South Dakota. We owned some property out there. And I’m more familiar with Pheasant Camp than anything else. I’m never you know, Sean and I were just talking about it last week.
00:04:02:06 – 00:04:13:23
Unknown
I’ve never really been a part of a deer camp or anything like that. But getting together with, you know, my uncles and my cousins and some of our friends and, you know, traveling out and living in the middle of Redfield, South Dakota, for a handful of days.
00:04:13:23 – 00:04:23:12
Unknown
And pheasant camp, man, we look forward to it. And so I get it. And you talk about I’ve never heard anyone kind of word the walks of life and how, you know, this sort of lifestyle can bring them together.
00:04:23:12 – 00:04:38:12
Unknown
That’s a great way of putting it. You know, I truly believe that. I think that. I don’t know. It’s one of those things where I take it really personal to get to even be in camp and mark brands have grown to where we’ve attracted attention of a lot of different individuals.
00:04:38:13 – 00:04:55:14
Unknown
That the bottom line is, is that Mother Nature is very humbling and it takes the celebrity out of everybody and it it puts you there in the middle of the woods watching Mallard Ducks do what they do. And it kind of just opens your eyes at the world and how special it is and how how blessed we
00:04:55:14 – 00:05:06:02
Unknown
are and fortunate and privileged we are to get to be an American hunter in a lot of countries. You don’t get that. And and it’s not we can’t fill entitlement to it. We’ve never we’ve always talked and banded about.
00:05:06:07 – 00:05:16:07
Unknown
We’re not entitled to do this. We’re blessed and to get to do it with all these different walks of life, it makes it all the much better. That’s what I love about duck hunting is when your turkey hunting your backs up against a tree, you got to be quiet.
00:05:16:07 – 00:05:26:11
Unknown
They got unbelievable vision. You can’t move around a lot. Deer hunting, you’re up in the trees. They enter in a box blind or in a ground blind. You got your bow, your muzzle loader, your rifle, whatever your your your source of harvest is.
00:05:27:05 – 00:05:35:18
Unknown
And you got to be quiet. You got to watch your singing. You all go to bed early. You guys wash your clothes and weird soaps and watch all your sins and you take urine and put it all over trees.
00:05:35:18 – 00:05:51:10
Unknown
The mask you’re sitting, a duck, wine we’re cooking eggs and bacon and sausage and biscuits and gravy. And we’re talking smack and chew and Copenhagen or or sunflower seeds and the dog’s there and it’s wet. And you got the coffee pot going and a lot of joking and ribbing and messing around with your buddies and a lot
00:05:51:10 – 00:06:05:23
Unknown
of camaraderie. And it’s just a it’s a socialization, a social drill and the duck blind where I’m not saying that turkey camp and duck camp can’t supply that when you’re back at camp, but during the entire hunt in the duck blind, you get to you get to, you know, get to know people on a different level where
00:06:05:23 – 00:06:16:05
Unknown
as opposed to, you know, in a deer stay on your on your iPhone, a bunch waiting for a deer to come to your boat to, you know, snort weeds or try to stop them a little bit. And, you know, every kind of hunting is special.
00:06:16:05 – 00:06:30:03
Unknown
And to me, waterfowl hunting just provides that little bit of extra social socialization that allows you to get to know somebody pretty good. Well, you know, the I’ll be honest with you, I was asked to go waterfowl hunting, right, five or six years ago, and it was our first or second week in November.
00:06:30:03 – 00:06:40:21
Unknown
And I was like, well, hell no. I mean, no, I’m not about to take a morning of mine and go sit on the water or over a field. And I remember doing that clearly between three years ago. Another guy asked me and I was like, Sure, I’ll come.
00:06:41:01 – 00:06:52:12
Unknown
And I felt guilty going home that day. It was almost like I was cheating on my wife or my girlfriend. I was like, I like that more than I should have because I didn’t have to take a shower because I didn’t have to be quiet.
00:06:52:12 – 00:07:04:12
Unknown
He was smoking a cigar the whole time we were hunting. And so and then just looking at this guy, I got everything I’ve ever wanted in deer hunting and then some that morning, and I got to shoot my gun about 20 times.
00:07:04:19 – 00:07:19:20
Unknown
Yeah, like, that’s a good morning. That was fun. And that’s what really kind of started me along down the path of, okay, I think I like this. And I, you know, and like a lot of guys in our industry or whatever, I can’t just try it, you know, you got to dove headfirst into it.
00:07:19:20 – 00:07:32:23
Unknown
Right. But yeah, I’ve I’ve looked forward to it. Chad, do you is waterfowl hunting growing in the country? Am I just now aware of it so much that I notice it more? Or do the numbers bear out that no, it’s on the move?
00:07:36:19 – 00:07:55:11
Unknown
I think in certain parts of the country, it’s got a pretty substantial growth rate. I think states like California, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, they continue to to grow along the Mississippi flyway, the Central Flyway as a whole. You know, the demographic of duck hunting is probably small, is one of the smallest forms of hunting.
00:07:55:11 – 00:08:05:00
Unknown
You know, turkey hunting, they say, is around four and a half million. Deer hunting, 13 to 15 million. You hear a couple different numbers thrown out there. Predator hunting, three and a half million. And then you got duck hunting.
00:08:05:00 – 00:08:26:19
Unknown
That’s like 2.2 to 2.5 million. They kind of base that on the number of duck stamps that are sold annually across the country. On the federal level, a lot of those could be collectors as well. So, I mean, we’re dealing with a a smaller demographic, a smaller customer base per se, or a not really a fan base
00:08:26:19 – 00:08:42:05
Unknown
, but just the people that are engaged are interactive and duck hunting. And I think that it has the potential to grow because, you know, getting the word out there, educating people on it, on how much fun it is, how much socializing there is, and how many you know, how active and engaged you are during it with the
00:08:42:05 – 00:08:58:19
Unknown
calling, the vocalizations, the vocabulary, the shooting, the dog work and again, the camp life is there too. But the thing about duck hunting is that it is very, very expensive in a lot of different ways to like you said, if you’re going to go into this deal and like what you guys offer through your services, a lease
00:08:58:19 – 00:09:13:01
Unknown
can cost a lot of money in different parts of the country. Leases can get very expensive, some of them for a 105 day summer for 60 days, summer day leases, whatever it might be. There’s a lot of investigation to do there before somebody signs on the dotted line, which is a great service that you guys provide.
00:09:13:01 – 00:09:29:12
Unknown
And then your arsenal, your dog can have thousands of dollars and thousands of hours wrapped up in training your boat, your motor, your blind, your UTV, ATV, your gun, your ammo, the everything that goes into waterfowl hunting, your decoy spreads have to be, you know, you keep growing them.
00:09:29:12 – 00:09:39:11
Unknown
You got a floating duck spread a floating goose spread a dry land, duck spread dry land goose. Brady got snow. You speckled geese, Canada geese, you got lessers and big ones. And there’s just so much that goes into it.
00:09:39:11 – 00:09:52:05
Unknown
And the more you get into it, the more it gets in your blood, the more money you’re spending it. I don’t know if that kind of throws people off because they don’t want to make that financial commitment. And the other thing is, is that there’s a lot of laws and regulations.
00:09:52:05 – 00:10:08:15
Unknown
You got all the identification process of what ducks you can shoot, what you can’t shoot, how many of each species you can shoot? What’s a hand? What’s a Drake? How do you identify them? By their wing beads, their pattern of flying, their colors, their their texture, their feather, their anatomy, all of the things that go into being
00:10:08:15 – 00:10:22:00
Unknown
able to do it. Now, you got to deal with shooting hours and when you can shoot and when you can’t. And and how do you have to hold your ducks once you have them in your possession? If a game warden does come into your blind and every each hunter has to have their own individual pile.
00:10:22:00 – 00:10:37:06
Unknown
And I think that there’s just a lot that goes into it. And some of it might be intimidating, some of it might scare people away. I really don’t know why the numbers aren’t where they’re at with at least turkey hunting, where you start to get up to 4 to 5 million people that participate in it.
00:10:37:06 – 00:10:50:15
Unknown
In turkey, hunting is like a religion in the south and southeast, but so is duck hunting. And I think that a lot of it has to do with the what those two those two variables, one, the cost and to the the amount of, you know, knowhow and dedication.
00:10:50:15 – 00:11:03:03
Unknown
I’m not saying that you don’t have to have that with deer, but when you’re dealing with a ton of different species and you’ve got to know exactly what you can shoot in and and what you can’t, then it makes it kind of difficult in some instances.
00:11:03:21 – 00:11:16:15
Unknown
Yeah, it really does. I mean, it makes it I mean, just what you just laid out for me, I started to think, yeah, jeez, I guess I do think about all that. But in particular, when there’s different species flying inland and in front of us, that’s the thing.
00:11:16:15 – 00:11:31:05
Unknown
And I’m not there yet. I’m not there to I mean, I know mallards, obviously, but yeah. Yeah, there’s a lot to take in there for sure. So hey, I got you do of the first time we saw you was a trade show here in Indianapolis a couple of years ago.
00:11:31:23 – 00:11:46:13
Unknown
From a marketing standpoint, you do a lot of trade shows. Do you still go to trade shows? I did a lot more, to be honest with you. I’m pretty particular about the speaking engagements or the seminars, things I do.
00:11:46:23 – 00:11:56:06
Unknown
We’re getting into some live podcasting here pretty quick with a couple of our different partners in different parts of the country, different regions. But I have an eight year old daughter. I don’t I don’t talk about her a lot.
00:11:56:06 – 00:12:08:18
Unknown
I don’t bring her into the public eye very much. But she’s at that age now to where it’s hard to be away. So sure. Back in the day when we first started Banded in the Fowler life, it was every every Wednesday you’d leave and then Thursday you would start a show.
00:12:08:18 – 00:12:23:23
Unknown
And then Friday, Saturday, Sunday after set up, you’re promoting the brands and and you’re talking to consumers or you’re at a trade show like 80 or shot shows or the NWT convention. As far as a consumer show goes in Nashville or the Cabela’s used to have a lot of them, all the waterfowl, weekends, Bass Pro Day.
00:12:23:23 – 00:12:34:12
Unknown
Ed Rogers still has a very successful one in Kansas City, Mack’s Prairie Wings and Stuttgart. We bounced around to a couple of them, but nothing like it used to be when we were really getting the brands off the ground.
00:12:34:18 – 00:12:48:03
Unknown
And I think you have to do that if you’re trying to start a national brand and you’re trying to get the word out and create a consistency in marketing and consistency and messaging, you can’t do it. From Reno, Nevada, we have offices in Reno, Nevada, now, Memphis, Tennessee, Springdale, Arkansas.
00:12:48:12 – 00:13:00:22
Unknown
And we to build those brands, you had to get out there and get the word out to different parts of the country. You know, like you’ve seen us in Indianapolis there. That’s a very successful show to where thousands of people watch it in a three day time period.
00:13:00:22 – 00:13:13:15
Unknown
You got the one up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that’s now run by the NRA. That’s like ten or 12 days long. And it’s a lot of dedication. It’s a lot of investment to get a booth there, set up the booth, man the booth, get all the inventory there.
00:13:14:04 – 00:13:26:15
Unknown
We still do them. We just fortunately, we we’ve gotten to the point to where it’s not just us that has to go out and and do the whole, you know, you know, run the mill the entire year. And again, we’re very humbled by that.
00:13:26:15 – 00:13:39:00
Unknown
And it took a lot, you know, we started Bandit in 2008 with the TV shows and and then banded really started getting its momentum in 2011. And now here we are almost, you know, eight, nine, ten years later in May.
00:13:39:00 – 00:13:53:02
Unknown
And it’s become a pretty it’s it’s an honor to say we started it and where it’s gone and where we’re planning on taking it. And the fowl life is getting ready to air season 11 starting on July 1st, you know, just in about one month from now.
00:13:53:02 – 00:14:08:23
Unknown
And to have a TV show to run that long with with the fan base and the viewer base that we have, I attribute a lot of it to what you’re what you’re talking about of those early days of going out and standing in front of live audiences and asking questions and and trying to, you know, not get
00:14:08:23 – 00:14:21:10
Unknown
on a soapbox and preach per se, but get out there and just tell them a little bit about what has helped us or made us successful in the field or what we’ve witnessed across the different flyways or Canada or wherever we might be chasing birds or or predators.
00:14:21:10 – 00:14:40:08
Unknown
And I think that that’s, you know, kind of like America’s built around the melting pot theory or ideology. I think that’s that’s very important to somebody that wants to be successful in this field, whether it’s in the field and being successful as a hunter gatherer, conservationist or fisher or wanting to have that entrepreneurial spirit and and and
00:14:40:08 – 00:14:57:15
Unknown
learn how to build a brand and all of the different moving parts that go into that. And one of the main things that I attribute to the success of our brands is our network and our ability to deliver in our ability to develop friendships and partnerships with not just brands like Benelli or Federal or Mojo or Real
00:14:57:15 – 00:15:08:19
Unknown
Tree, but with individuals that have helped us or opened doors for us. I think there’s always a potential to open a door and you should never, you know, say no to you got to say no sometimes, don’t get me wrong.
00:15:08:19 – 00:15:23:01
Unknown
But getting out there and traveling nonstop when when the brands were young and we were trying to nurture them and grow them through their adolescence phases. And and now here we are ten years into it. And, and we don’t have to travel as much.
00:15:23:01 – 00:15:33:09
Unknown
So I know that’s a long winded answer, but yeah, that was the main reason we were nonstop on the road and we don’t do it as much anymore. We’re very particular about the ones that we go and do, but we do take a lot of pride in them.
00:15:33:09 – 00:15:46:23
Unknown
We give it our all. When we do get invited. We’re humbled to be invited on the podcast like this or go speak in front of an audience. But it’s just gotten to the point now to where I’m a little bit pickier on the ones I choose, because my personal time with my family and, you know, getting on
00:15:46:23 – 00:15:59:03
Unknown
a boat and just being around the lake in the summertime is very important to me now. And that’s not to say that we’re not dedicated to the brands and always focused on them. It’s just as a business grows, we’ve we can hire employees.
00:15:59:03 – 00:16:11:02
Unknown
We have a pro staff, an ambassador program. And and I was once there back in 2000 when I started Pro Staff and for Avery outdoors, I used to travel nonstop for them and taking photos of hunts and and doing videos.
00:16:11:02 – 00:16:21:08
Unknown
And then I went on the road with Ducks Unlimited and do you Water Dog and Zinke calls in and I was just I was just a nomad. I was rocking it as a gypsy hunter all over and trying to spread the love.
00:16:21:08 – 00:16:35:06
Unknown
And and then that turned into me getting opportunities. And once you get that foot in the door, you try to knock them down and and and develop brands. So, again, it’s it’s one of those things, too, where I don’t think you can do it sitting in an office in Reno, Nevada.
00:16:35:06 – 00:16:47:14
Unknown
And I had to be out. They are beaten the road down a little bit, back in the back in the beginning of the company. And now we’re a little bit more picky. I mean, I want to unpack something you were talking about with the evolution of your brand when you were first starting out and you said you
00:16:47:14 – 00:17:02:21
Unknown
were putting the boots on the ground, the miles in, and trying to build it to where you’re at now. What are the are the challenges for maintaining the brand and continue to grow? Are they the same when you were just starting out or is it a whole, whole different set of challenges to try to to maintain and
00:17:02:21 – 00:17:18:18
Unknown
solidify what you’ve built over the last eight, nine years? Yeah. That’s a pretty complex answer to a question like that one. You know, the quality control of our you know, what our designers do and what our manufacturing has become now is on a completely different level, as it was day one.
00:17:18:18 – 00:17:39:00
Unknown
So the growing pains and the retention rate of something like our waiters back in the day or not being able to edit the TV show like we do today because we could barely even record audio back when we first started filming on our first trip to Saskatchewan in 2009, actually fall 2008, we went there in 2009.
00:17:39:00 – 00:17:52:09
Unknown
So the ability to evolve and learn and be a sponge and be coachable and try to learn from people that were once mentors, that now might be competition. I think that some of the things that I see, you know, is our brands do get bigger.
00:17:52:09 – 00:18:06:06
Unknown
Is is it’s hard not to pay attention to your competition because it’s so vivid and it’s so out there and it’s so in your face with the ability to turn on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or open a magazine and see all the competition out there.
00:18:06:09 – 00:18:20:07
Unknown
It’s all about staying in your lane. Stay in focus, stay in, you know, 100% on track and keeping your team on track and keeping the momentum building and trying to have good leadership and good messaging and follow through on that.
00:18:20:07 – 00:18:30:06
Unknown
And and when you were first start and you’re just so scatterbrained because you’re like, well, we want to do this product, we got to do that product, but we got to try this. And you want to be original, you don’t want to be a me to company and copy that.
00:18:30:06 – 00:18:50:13
Unknown
And yeah, we’ve always tried to be innovative. We’ve always tried to bring a different flavor to the game as far as our product, our TV production, our podcasts go. And we’ve done that. We were fortunate enough to purchase Avery and Avery sporting dog and green headgear decoys in August of 2015 and and put it under the Banded
00:18:50:13 – 00:19:02:22
Unknown
Holdings umbrella. And it was humbling to get to do that because that was one of the companies, myself, personally and several of us involved in banded cut our teeth with back in the late nineties in the early 2000s and to see it come full circle like that.
00:19:03:19 – 00:19:19:03
Unknown
The reason I tell you that is because when we did get to purchase the Avery and those brands, its sister brands, we had to reinvent it kind of because it was kind of not in a downhill spiral, but it definitely wasn’t where it was back when it was at its heyday when Green Headgear first started.
00:19:19:03 – 00:19:35:08
Unknown
And they they, you know, overtook the decoy market. And since then, there’s been several very strong decoy companies that have come into effect that give green headgear a run for their money. Back then they would have. And today I’m sorry, guys, they push us to to be better.
00:19:35:08 – 00:19:48:01
Unknown
So I think that to answer your question as honestly as I can, is that I think we still try to keep that same core values of what we started the brands with, but we’ve gotten a lot better at things.
00:19:48:01 – 00:20:02:17
Unknown
But we also try to stay ahead of the curve. So we’re trying to tell different stories. We’re trying to be innovative with product, we’re trying to be creative with our music, our audio capture, our digital ads, our our, our, our print ad campaigns, our commercials.
00:20:03:09 – 00:20:20:21
Unknown
We’re trying to create curiosity. We’re trying to disrupt the market where there’s a lot of competition. You start dealing with Sitka, who’s got an unbelievable marketing team and budget to do so. You got you got companies like avian eggs that have been bought by big conglomerates that have you know, I don’t know how much money they can
00:20:20:21 – 00:20:31:18
Unknown
afford to put into marketing, but I guarantee it’s more than we can afford and we keep that in mind. But we don’t let it keep us from staying true to what our beliefs were that we we are a band of brothers.
00:20:31:18 – 00:20:42:14
Unknown
We are banded. The name is significant with waterfowl hunters due to the banding initiative by the Federal Government. But it’s more than just a piece of metal on a leg band or a duck’s leg or a goose’s leg.
00:20:42:14 – 00:20:55:08
Unknown
It’s it’s more of a brotherhood, you know, like Michael Waddell is created with with with bone collector, with T-Bone and Nick. Mike And I believe that Michael Waddell is the best by far the best TV personality of all time in the industry.
00:20:55:08 – 00:21:10:02
Unknown
I know Sharkey’s good. I know Nugent’s got his fan base, but the way that that that Michael Waddell does it is is very inspiring to us. So I think that that being inspired and finding inspiration in things is what my job is now.
00:21:10:02 – 00:21:23:09
Unknown
Today is, is as one of the leaders and in trying to build the brands is to find inspiration in somebody like Waddell or find inspiration in a company like Sitka and not copy them, but not but not down them either, just because they’re competition.
00:21:23:09 – 00:21:40:15
Unknown
So I know again, that’s long winded, but in short form, I think it’s know that your competition’s there, know that we that we serve a purpose in the space and try to keep developing credibility in that space. We have a lot of credibility in waterfowl, but we ventured off into Turkey and we got to develop credibility there
00:21:40:15 – 00:21:52:19
Unknown
. And if we go into deer, we got to develop credibility there. And now we’re into fishing and now we’ve got to, you know, strive for that credibility to where it doesn’t just look like, hey, we have the ability to manufacture a shirt, we’re going to put some different colors on it and call it a fishing shirt.
00:21:52:19 – 00:22:03:11
Unknown
No, we have to really go out and live that lifestyle and become ingrained in that culture and say, Hey, Banded belongs here because if you fish, you might duck on. If you turkey hunt, you might duck. And if you duck, you might do this.
00:22:03:11 – 00:22:20:11
Unknown
So it’s just. Engaging process daily to to try to stay ahead of that curve and to stay in your lane as well. Yeah, I hear what you’re saying, man. We’re at a we’re at a point, you know, with L.A., where, you know, we were the small guy a few years back.
00:22:20:11 – 00:22:37:13
Unknown
And the goal was, let’s disrupt this market, let’s do something different. Let’s give people a different option because it seems like they want it. And, you know, within the last year and a half, two years, we’re starting to see competition, do things that we thought was a good idea.
00:22:37:21 – 00:22:48:13
Unknown
And now it’s like imitation is the best form of form of flattery. But at the same time, you see you see competition doing that, you recognize it and you kind of go, hey, we’re on to something here. What’s what new can we do now?
00:22:48:13 – 00:23:02:16
Unknown
How can we push the envelope? What what can how can we be creative in different ways to stay ahead of the curve? So I hear what you’re saying, that it really it’s resonated resonated with me. I said, well, we’ve added some services here, you know, over the last six months, and I think it’s important you kind of
00:23:02:16 – 00:23:11:22
Unknown
touched on it, is that when we add a service, we don’t just out of service because we can throw it out there and hope it works. We have to perfect it first. We have perfect the first of all to make sure our customers want it.
00:23:12:09 – 00:23:24:08
Unknown
If they want it, we need to perfect the process. We need to make sure it brings value to them. And then even as an association in general like this podcast, this podcast doesn’t make Jack, but it’s we’re trying to bring value.
00:23:24:12 – 00:23:36:16
Unknown
We’re just trying to show our members, our customers that, you know, we aren’t concerned with this lifestyle. We live this lifestyle. And we want to bring you the thoughts and the the the guidance and just whatever of the chad buildings of the world.
00:23:36:16 – 00:23:46:18
Unknown
And, you know, that’s I think you bring up a good point that when you do venture off, you’ve got to perfect it before you just throw it out there, because then you kind of get I don’t know, you kind of get called out the fraud really.
00:23:46:18 – 00:23:59:01
Unknown
You can. Yeah. You know, they’re just trying to shotgun approach on everything. So yeah, I mean, I would never bring up a company’s name or Brand’s name, but I’ve seen it done. I’ve seen, you know, brands tried to, to.
00:24:01:03 – 00:24:14:20
Unknown
Stay. You know, stay profitable or stay relative in the industry by, you know, just knocking products off all the way down to the packaging. And I don’t agree with it. I don’t like it, but it’s part of the game and it’s always going to be part of the game.
00:24:14:20 – 00:24:30:19
Unknown
And there’s a lot of things that you got to deal with in being in a brand like we have in manufacturing. You got to deal with the evolution of the customer base, the Amazons, the online ordering, the catalog ordering the, you know, the bass pros and Cabela’s becoming one.
00:24:30:19 – 00:24:43:16
Unknown
And and then, you know, then you got all the mom and pop and independent dealers across the country and to to take on the responsibility of saying, hey, we’re going to provide this product and we’re going to, you know, have this much marketing behind it.
00:24:43:21 – 00:24:53:20
Unknown
And we want people to go in there and light your cash register up. It’s a big responsibility to take on. You don’t want that dealer to have those customers walking in and saying, hey, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is torn out.
00:24:53:20 – 00:25:07:09
Unknown
This is and we try to perfect the perfect the product through rigorous hours of product testing in the field and putting it through the rigamarole, you know, and we do that with a lot of our partners, from Benelli shotguns to different animal.
00:25:07:09 – 00:25:23:14
Unknown
We do product testing for a lot of them, and we fly those flags and we do get paid to fly those flags. But we also, with our own brands and the products that we work with and the brands we work with on the shows and in the podcast, we help them develop better product through hours of product
00:25:23:14 – 00:25:38:12
Unknown
testing and our knowledge and the, the, the, the feedback that we can give them. So we don’t look at it as, hey, here’s just another product because we have the ability to make it. Here’s a podcast because I have the ability to talk, know I want to bring a different flavor to a podcast.
00:25:38:12 – 00:25:55:06
Unknown
I want to have engaging guests. I want to have very diversified guests. And I want to I want to show people that that the hunting culture is is in a lot of different areas. And we might touch on fitness one day in a Trager recipe, the next day in a military, military guests the next day.
00:25:55:06 – 00:26:06:11
Unknown
But the common denominator, again, is hunting everything that we that we get to do from going to a Zac Brown concert to getting to go into Mac’s Prairie Wings and be part of the fall fest is because of a mallard duck.
00:26:06:11 – 00:26:17:17
Unknown
In our passion for that mallard duck and going and developing the banded brand and the quality of products, the quality of the TV show that we feel that it has a high quality standard that we hold to it.
00:26:18:01 – 00:26:35:12
Unknown
And now the podcast and our new duck call company jargon and in a bunch of the different things that we’re involved in, we don’t want to just be another meet you. We want to do exactly what you said perfected and then bring it out and let and hopefully it might not the podcast might not never become $1,000,000
00:26:35:12 – 00:26:51:11
Unknown
, you know, entity of the organization. But it spreads that word. It gets people excited, it gets people curious, and it gets people involved in what we’re trying to do. And if they if they want to live through vicariously or sink their fingernails into you or ride along in that front seat of the truck and become part of
00:26:51:11 – 00:27:10:00
Unknown
it, then you might have abandoned customer for life. You might have a guy that trust you guys to lease the rest of his hunting grounds or properties from your organization. And whether you’re an outfitter or a guide or a manufacturer or a leasing program like yourselves, when you when you take that stance or that responsibility on that
00:27:10:00 – 00:27:23:23
Unknown
, I am going to take another human being’s money to provide them a service or a product, or I’m going to outfit them or take them on the quote unquote hunt of a lifetime. Then you better have your act together and you better be able to serve them and say, Hey, Mother Nature does play a big role in
00:27:23:23 – 00:27:36:16
Unknown
it, but as far as our part is concerned, we’re going to go above and beyond and we’re going to give you a good podcast. We’re going to provide you with the best lease. We’re going to provide you with protection and security and insurance or whatever it is that comes along with it.
00:27:36:16 – 00:27:46:19
Unknown
If we’re a guide, we might go out there and we might not see a million ducks, but we’re going to have a great a great opportunity to see them. We’re going to have the best spot. We’re going to scout for hours.
00:27:46:19 – 00:27:57:08
Unknown
We’re going have the best train dog. Our boat motors going to start on the first pool where we’re going to be safe, we’re going to be ethical, we’re going to have our morals in line, and we’re going to provide an experience that’s going to have you talking when you go back.
00:27:57:08 – 00:28:08:04
Unknown
We might only shoot a one day out of three, but again, it’s that responsibility of taking that on. And it’s not about just saying, Oh, I’m a guide. Waking up one day and say, I’m going to start an outfitting company or leasing company or a manufacturing company.
00:28:08:04 – 00:28:22:11
Unknown
It’s it’s not that easy. And a lot of people see it on TV or the places we get to hire, the people we get to interact with or the locations we get to go, whatever it might be. There’s a lot of backstory to that, and a lot of times people don’t take the time to learn the backstory
00:28:22:17 – 00:28:32:19
Unknown
or the origins or pretty much the roots of a company. The story of a company, the culture of a company, the life blood of a company. And when they do that, they might have a little bit different perspective.
00:28:32:19 – 00:28:44:20
Unknown
One of the questions I get asked in seminars or online or instant messaging or direct messaging all the time is How do I become a professional hunter? And I’m like, How do you answer that? Yeah, yeah, I’m a world champion.
00:28:45:01 – 00:28:56:19
Unknown
I’m a world champion duck caller. And I go, Well, I know a lot of those guys. Yeah. You know, can you make a living being a champion archer? Can you make a living being, you know, shooting a 195 Boone and Crockett or a 195 popping young buck every year?
00:28:56:19 – 00:29:15:03
Unknown
No, it’s it’s different to go into the. To be a professional hunter or make a living in this game. It takes all of the skills it does to become, you know, the entrepreneurial spirit and networking and and being able to develop momentum and get people excited about your vision.
00:29:15:03 – 00:29:31:13
Unknown
And you could go on and on about it forever. But it’s not about I want a duck calling contest. I want to be a professional hunter. And I don’t I always want to be upfront and transparent with people about that is that it takes a lot of hours and a lot of ingenuity to get a brand, you
00:29:31:13 – 00:29:42:17
Unknown
know, evident where people are talking about it. And that’s when the momentum starts. And and what exactly what you guys are touching on is that you can’t just you can’t just put it out there and hope that it grows.
00:29:42:20 – 00:29:53:12
Unknown
Well, we podcast that you guys are working on takes hours and hours of your time. And, and one day it’ll, it’ll either go away or it’ll turn into something that was worth starting it in the first place. And it just takes a lot of work.
00:29:53:23 – 00:30:03:18
Unknown
Yeah, we, we, I get asked quite a bit from my son in law and his friends or whatever they might say, you know, how do you get in? I want to be an industry. How do you get to be you know, I want to make a living hunting.
00:30:03:18 – 00:30:19:21
Unknown
And the first thing you do is learn Excel. Okay? Because ten months out of the year, we’re talking about spreadsheets. We’re in meetings. We’re talking about metrics in our lives. Yeah, exactly. So that’s what I would tell you to do first is learn about being in business and then, quite frankly, you can apply that to anything.
00:30:19:21 – 00:30:32:20
Unknown
Then hopefully and I think you’ve done this and you’ll get tired of me saying this, but then you just find out what your passion is. You know, if you if you’re passionate about what you’re doing every day, if your passion for it, your paycheck is your passion, then you don’t work a day in your life.
00:30:32:20 – 00:30:43:00
Unknown
And I mean, we’ve all heard that said, but it’s so true. Yeah. You know, I wish that for everybody. I would ask you, Ted, are you now you’re several years into this, you’ve been very successful. Is it fun?
00:30:43:00 – 00:30:55:05
Unknown
Every day you wake up every day, like unbelievable. I still get to do this. Or the bigger you get, does it become more like a job? I love it every day. I mean, I’m 44 years old now. And I we started banded, like I said, in 2008.
00:30:55:05 – 00:31:09:19
Unknown
I started working in the industry in 2001. Excuse me, guys. At the time I was a you know, I owned a portable toilet company with two partners and I started pumping toilets and I started putting toilets on job sites and stacking them down for the wind.
00:31:09:19 – 00:31:25:08
Unknown
And I started building towed behind trailers and putting them on road construction crews and special events like Burning Man out here in Nevada. And I started learning at an early age about how important networking was and being able to walk into a superintendent or a project manager’s office and and being able to look him in the eyes
00:31:25:08 – 00:31:35:21
Unknown
and say, hey, I want you to use my toilets. And he’d say, Why? And I’d say, This is why. And then if you get that opportunity, you crush it and you take it to the next level. And then it becomes a no brainer for him to put your toilets on his job.
00:31:35:21 – 00:31:44:23
Unknown
And then he tells the other project managers and superintendents, and then the other guys and the other companies start seeing your toilets out there more and more. And they’re like, Whoa, there’s some credibility. What’s going on with this company?
00:31:44:23 – 00:31:54:08
Unknown
Who are these guys who create that curiosity? So I started learning at a local level, and now that it’s on a national level, I’m even excited about it more and more every day. I love to be in the duck blind every day.
00:31:54:08 – 00:32:05:03
Unknown
I love hunting season, I love the off season. I love waking up and looking in the new Wildfowl magazine and seeing our new print ads and our two page ads for our Duck Call company in upcoming episodes that are getting ready to launch.
00:32:05:03 – 00:32:24:02
Unknown
And I love the innovation behind our product and getting boxes from from the factories and prototypes and putting them through the wringer and making sure that they’re what we want and working with guys with our sponsors and upcoming initiatives, whether it’s in marketing or sweepstakes or social media and or this new part of this live podcast we’re
00:32:24:02 – 00:32:39:18
Unknown
getting ready to launch across the country and there’s just so many moving parts. It’s hard not to be excited, but again, you can get wrapped up in too much. And that’s what I tend to do sometimes is that I say yes too much and I’m so excited and so gung ho about it too, where sometimes I got
00:32:39:18 – 00:32:51:05
Unknown
to pump the brakes. My good buddy at Federal Federal Black Cloud, Bryan Kilmington, taught me this like seven years ago. He’s like building. You need to pump the brakes because I’m always go, go, go, go. And then I got to I learning.
00:32:51:05 – 00:33:06:05
Unknown
I’m learning every day, too, and enjoy the ride and enjoy the story and enjoy the experience and, you know, getting the opportunity to be in, you know, first of all, I don’t know if it’s God given. I don’t know if it’s genetics.
00:33:06:05 – 00:33:15:09
Unknown
I don’t know how you get the entrepreneurial spirit. I know you can go to business school and I know you can get a four year degree and a doctorate in a Ph.D. or whatever it is in business, business management, business communication.
00:33:15:14 – 00:33:32:14
Unknown
You can go into finance, you can become an accountant, you can go all the way to CFO. You might be a CEO one day. There’s a lot of different parts in business, but having the entrepreneurial spirit to be able to see something in, vision it, launch it, nurture it, grow it and maintain it and keep evolving it
00:33:33:00 – 00:33:43:20
Unknown
. That’s I think it’s a talent. And I’m not saying that I’m the best that it I’m nowhere near that. But I’m very humbled to say that I feel that I have a little bit at least a little bit of the American entrepreneurial experience.
00:33:43:20 – 00:33:59:04
Unknown
And when this started, it all started by one duck hunting trip to where after the trip was done with this certain production crew, I was contacted by the owner of the production company in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and he said, We’re interested in doing a show around you and your life and your personality.
00:33:59:04 – 00:34:13:07
Unknown
Would you be in your. And I’m like, Well, I’m a toilet pumper that likes to hunt dogs, but heck, yes, let’s try this. And one thing leads to the next, and we start growing this and talking to potential sponsors and going to shot show and coming up with all these different ideas and be trying to be creative
00:34:13:07 – 00:34:23:19
Unknown
and innovative. And at the very end, he calls me and says, My mom just got diagnosed with this. We need to put her in the Mayo Clinic. I am so sorry I can’t do this. And I said, I’m very sorry to hear this.
00:34:24:02 – 00:34:37:02
Unknown
Do you mind if I try it on my own? And he said, Please do, and keep me updated. And I hung up the phone in my toilet office. I look to my left and I got a big pedestal now that has nine green headed mallard ducks coming through real Arkansas timber.
00:34:37:02 – 00:34:50:15
Unknown
The trees are actually from the state of Arkansas on a pedestal with this false water and in a no trespassing sign with all these baby holes in it and all that, nine ducks are banded and there’s a little plaque on the on the Mount that says Strike up the band, that I name the mouth.
00:34:50:21 – 00:35:01:09
Unknown
And I said, I’m going to try to name a company banded. And I call my intellectual property attorney at the time, Bryan Hardy. And I said, Try this with the USPTO, the Patent and Trademark Office of America. And we got it.
00:35:01:09 – 00:35:12:04
Unknown
And I was like, we just got banded, trademarked, and then we got the foul life trademarked and we got Dead Dog Walk and trademarked. And it just kept, we kept building that intellectual property. And then we started filming it and we launched our own company.
00:35:12:04 – 00:35:20:02
Unknown
I didn’t know what I didn’t even to this day, I don’t know how to turn a camera on. I don’t know how to edit, I don’t know how to record audio. I don’t take I don’t take credit for any of it.
00:35:20:02 – 00:35:33:15
Unknown
It’s all the behind the scenes guys that make our shows as strong as they are, our creativity or our design or our branding, our marketing. But it was that vision and seeing it and then just kept building it and not taking no for an answer, getting my foot in the door, knocking it down.
00:35:33:21 – 00:35:43:19
Unknown
And I think that that story, those roots and how humbled I am that here we are ten years later and bandits and all these dealers and the foul life is this big in jargon, has the potential to be this big.
00:35:43:19 – 00:35:58:11
Unknown
And we have avery and green head gear and all that. I mean, I can’t think of a better life. I can’t think of a cooler life. Then, first of all, to be a hunter and a gatherer, I don’t think that there’s a better life that you could ever pick or build than to be a provider, to wake
00:35:58:11 – 00:36:12:10
Unknown
up, live off the land, kill your meal, show your daughter and your son how to process it, butcher it, cook it, serve it. See the look on your wife and your friend’s face as they eat that chuckle bird to that doctor, that pheasant or that mule deer, that white tailed deer, whatever it is, that’s a cool life
00:36:12:10 – 00:36:24:03
Unknown
. But then be able to live that life and to make a livelihood off of it and to drive passion and story and to be able to share it with all of these different walks of life that have come together because of a mallard duck or a turkey or a deer.
00:36:24:08 – 00:36:33:11
Unknown
There’s nothing cooler in the world. I don’t care if you shoot scratch on a golf course every day or you’re the best surfer in the world or the best surgeon in the world, you’re probably going to hunt when you’re done doing all that.
00:36:33:11 – 00:36:47:02
Unknown
So I don’t think there’s a cooler life in the world than living in the hunting industry, being a hunter and American hunter gatherer and getting to talk to guys like you and then get to get off this phone and go out and go over an episode that we’re getting ready to send it to the network that’s going
00:36:47:02 – 00:36:56:09
Unknown
to air nationally in its 11th season, that people are going to get along to get in that truck and ride with us and be be in the blind with us. And it just I just I don’t think it can get better.
00:36:56:13 – 00:37:11:18
Unknown
I’m humbled by it. And that’s that’s why I have so much pride in talking about it. And and I just love it. So, yeah, the answer to your question again, long winded but short form, I’m more excited today at 44 for duck season to start and for the new line of branded product and our new decoys that
00:37:11:18 – 00:37:22:12
Unknown
come out than I’ve ever been in the history of the brands. Well, your passion is undeniable. Yeah, yeah. And it’s fantastic because everybody wants to hear from somebody like you. I have a couple of questions for you and let me paint a bit of a picture, John.
00:37:22:13 – 00:37:35:13
Unknown
I have a lease here in central Indiana that we predominantly I told you of deer hunted on. We have a pond. It’s about an acre, maybe eight acres. It’s an acre pond in the middle of this big field crop field should be corn this year.
00:37:35:13 – 00:37:49:19
Unknown
But because of all the damn rain we’ve gotten, I don’t think it’s going to be will be beans again the the wood ducks early season pile into this thing okay every morning they’ll be 100 150 wood ducks blow off of it when we’re in our stands.
00:37:51:08 – 00:38:04:09
Unknown
Can how can we hunt those wood ducks without busting them up? And, you know, and again, this is you know, I’ve got the I’ve got the waterfowl expert on here. I’m going to ask you a couple of questions here to just because, you know, out of selfishness, is there a way to hunt ducks if they’re already on
00:38:04:09 – 00:38:19:07
Unknown
the roost when we get there in the dark? Or is that like a deer in his bed and you just can’t blow them out of their. Woodchucks are different. I mean, there’s a couple different answers to that question, too, but we’ll stick with the wood duck if it’s full of mallards in the morning.
00:38:19:07 – 00:38:31:17
Unknown
And it’s obviously that they’re sleeping there. It’s it’s kind of you can go in there and hunt them in the evening because they’re probably going to start coming back in there after their afternoon feed. And it just depends on what time.
00:38:31:19 – 00:38:40:23
Unknown
You know, ducks can be nocturnal. Ducks can see in the dark. They migrate in the dark a lot. Wood ducks are the same way. So it might be too late by the time they start coming back in there.
00:38:41:05 – 00:38:54:15
Unknown
You could walk in there early in the morning and jump shoot them off of there. If you really want to jump, shoot a duck just to eat a wood duck because they are very delicious. The wood ducks one of the best, but I see it like this is that if you’re just going to center and pinpoint and
00:38:54:16 – 00:39:05:11
Unknown
focus on those wood ducks, I would look at it as they’re going to be an active duck. They’re going to be active through the day. I don’t know how many creeks or tree lines are around there. It sounds like there’s probably a lot of timber around there with your deer stands.
00:39:05:11 – 00:39:21:23
Unknown
Yeah. If you’re hunting deer in that area, you’re just I would I would use spinning wing decoys and I would use lay down blinds along the bank. If you don’t like the laid down variety, I would use a panel blind and create a false line of bushes where I go and get natural vegetation, natural tumbleweeds or branches
00:39:21:23 – 00:39:31:14
Unknown
off of trees and and get a good panel. And we make one with avery green head gear. There’s several good ones on the market. Or you can construct a homemade one out of chicken wire in two by fours if you want.
00:39:31:14 – 00:39:42:01
Unknown
But I would blend it in and I would get it out there just like a box blind or a ground line. You want it to be out there for a little bit and let them get used to it and and swim around and fly in there still.
00:39:42:01 – 00:39:55:09
Unknown
But then the use of a mojo spinning wing decoy, they actually have one specifically for wood ducks that would ducks are very attracted to motion. They’re very attracted to that flash like tiller. So that would be the way that I do it.
00:39:55:09 – 00:40:12:19
Unknown
My envision, though, for that place would be December, Indiana. It’s cold. It starts to ice up. You guys got a generator out there with a mallard view’s outdoor ice heater. You open up a hole, you got some full body goose decoys and full body mallard decoys up on the shoreline.
00:40:12:19 – 00:40:24:04
Unknown
In the shallow parts of it, you got a floating rig out in those ripples that are being created by that ice eater. As long as you check your local regulations and know that you can hunt over an ice eater, some states you can, some you can’t.
00:40:24:10 – 00:40:35:21
Unknown
But that ICE leader, that Air Raider, is going to keep that water moving. It’s going to keep it from icing. It’s going to keep those those ducks and the geese in the area, because as long as there’s food and not a ton of snow on the ground, they’ll stay in that area as long as they have somewhere
00:40:35:21 – 00:40:49:00
Unknown
to sleep as well. So if you’re not by a big river and they’re going to use that pawn to roost, I’d I’d keep it open in the colder months with an ice eater, and then it becomes like a magnet to migrating or local geese and ducks.
00:40:49:07 – 00:41:06:17
Unknown
And then I would, you know, obviously work on your concealment in your hide big time with with getting the wind at your back and having different locations you can set up around that pond and hide really good. But those farm ponds, those cal ponds, they can become unbelievable in Oklahoma, even up in Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, you
00:41:06:17 – 00:41:14:09
Unknown
get out in the middle of a wheat field in one of those ponds, you can have a stellar hunt and. But you got to hide. You got to you got to you got to make sure that your decoy rig is right.
00:41:14:09 – 00:41:26:19
Unknown
If it’s not a windy day, you got to have a jerk line. You got to create ripples. You want that that water to look like chocolate milk because ducks are active, even when they’re sleeping, they’re kicking their feet, they’re stirring up the vegetation, the sediments in that pond.
00:41:27:02 – 00:41:36:12
Unknown
Then you don’t want it just to be like a sheet of cement or glass out there. You got to have ripples. You got to have movement, you got to be because from far away from the sky, ducks are moving.
00:41:36:12 – 00:41:46:18
Unknown
And they, they’re, they’re they’re attracted to that flash. But once they get closer, you’ve got to be even more real. You got to have ripples, you got to have chocolate milk, you got to have good sound and quality calling.
00:41:47:01 – 00:42:00:01
Unknown
And then you can get them in there to 15, 20 yards to where they can’t get out. Well, there’s a couple of things in there that there’s some red meat right there. Yeah, we can get into that. The Mojo’s just kind of quickly when we set up a mojo, we want the ducks to land behind the mojo
00:42:00:01 – 00:42:13:11
Unknown
or fly over it and land in front of it. I mean, Mojo’s are they’re they’re a tool. There’s something to wear. It’s a good question, because a lot of people think that they’re going to land exactly where you put it in sometimes early season they will.
00:42:13:11 – 00:42:27:07
Unknown
But we try to maneuver and really strategize with where we place our Mojo’s and how the ducks are going to approach them. And and we try to envision the hunt before the birds actually start to commit to the decoy spread.
00:42:27:07 – 00:42:43:00
Unknown
So the first thing I would say is that I would never put my Mojo’s behind me because you don’t. That creates an unsafe situation, in my opinion. If ducks are trying to get behind you and you’re trying to call the shots depending on how you’re blind set up, you’ve got multiple hunters and you got these barrels waving
00:42:43:00 – 00:42:53:18
Unknown
around, safeties being kicked off. That’s a no no. I try to keep them strategically on different levels out in front of me. If I’m hunting with one, I might, you know, change the level a couple times during the hunt.
00:42:53:18 – 00:43:04:13
Unknown
It might be on a taller pool, it might be lower, it might be pushed all the way in. If the ground soft, you know, you got to take into account frozen ground and have the ability to drive a stake into the ground to get your mojo pull in there.
00:43:04:13 – 00:43:20:13
Unknown
But if we’re hunt with multiple Mojo’s, we might have one out 30 yards. We might have one closer in it, like ten yards from the blind, 130 yards from the blind. And then we’ll spread them out within the decoy spread to create that motion and that that, that get that curiosity flowing.
00:43:20:13 – 00:43:32:08
Unknown
Because Mojo’s originally were introduced to the market to get Bird’s attention from far away and bring them in tighter and to let the rest of your decoy in your apparatus, in your arsenal, you know, take it, take it.
00:43:32:16 – 00:43:48:20
Unknown
Put into play your calling, your motion, your ripples on the water, or if it’s dry land, the realism of your decoy spread and obviously your hide. So once you get them in to where they’re here in the calling or see in the jerk string and the decoys move in, you want to make sure that that you’re real
00:43:48:20 – 00:44:03:20
Unknown
as is possible. So those modules don’t have to be all the time. Right in the dead center of the kill hole is my point, guys. You can move them to the edges of it. You can move one, you know, 20, 30 yards before the decoy spread even starts, because a lot of time those birds are going to
00:44:03:20 – 00:44:17:16
Unknown
hop in front of that bird because they want to get to that food source where the conglomerate of your decoys is. If if you got three or four dozen decoys out in front of your blind with a bunch of feeder heads down, you know, emulating that feeding going on, those birds from the air know that they might
00:44:17:16 – 00:44:27:06
Unknown
hop over that first decoy, though, that first mojo spinning wing to get to the ones right in the heart of the kill hole. So you just got to play with it. You can’t be afraid to get up and adjust that during the hunt.
00:44:27:06 – 00:44:37:20
Unknown
The wind might switch on you. If it’s a cloudy day, the mojo might not be as effective as a sunny day. A lot of people think this is a ducky day, man. We’re going to smoke them. It’s low ceiling, it’s overcast, it’s spitting snow or hail.
00:44:38:17 – 00:44:57:07
Unknown
Some places that might work down Louisiana, sometimes in the in the Delta or the the Bude sink of California. But I want bluebird skies. I want 15 to 80 mile an hour wind out of the north northeast. I want the sun at my back and I ducks just act like ducks on a sunny day you can hide
00:44:57:07 – 00:45:10:13
Unknown
better create shadows you can. It’s amazing to see what they do when it clouds up and that sun gets covered up by a cloud they can see they just don’t act right. So there’s a lot of things like you might go out and say, Man, this is a ducky day and then not kill them and then you
00:45:10:13 – 00:45:27:19
Unknown
lose your confidence. You just got to keep going. You got to keep trying different things. Listening to podcast instructional DVDs or online on YouTube or our show or different shows, and just start becoming that melting pot and bringing all these theories in to create your own and then going out and applying it and just having that blank
00:45:27:19 – 00:45:41:07
Unknown
canvas and start throwing all those paints at it until you create a masterpiece. And you look at your buddies and go, Man, can you believe that? I can’t wait to come back tomorrow. And so again, it’s one of those things too, where modules can help you, but you have to be strategic with them.
00:45:42:16 – 00:45:53:16
Unknown
Chad I feel like I get the fires lit now. I want to go duck home, but I feel like I could talk to you about this all day. But look, I know you’re busy guy, and we try to keep these things at about 45 minutes or so and we’re hitting that mark.
00:45:53:16 – 00:46:10:02
Unknown
So I just want to say, you know, for what we’re trying to do here, and I feel like the level we’re at with our podcast, the fact that you said yes to this because obviously you have a lot going on, I’m just extremely thankful and appreciative that you would take time out of your day to to give
00:46:10:02 – 00:46:27:10
Unknown
us some knowledge and just just talk to us, man. I mean, it means a lot of really special stuff, man. We appreciate it. Any time, guys, just to keep me posted on the success of it. Good luck to y’all and hopefully people will catch on to I know you guys kick butt in the leasing service, but hopefully
00:46:27:10 – 00:46:39:23
Unknown
now you get some waterfowl hunters asking you guys where they can go to. Oh, yes, we got we got two more. But yeah, listen, we’ll let your brother listen. You have friends in Indiana now, so if you need anything up here, please.
00:46:40:03 – 00:46:54:04
Unknown
You remember? Yeah. You give us a shout, we can make it happen. Hi, guys. I appreciate. Good luck to you all. Have a great hunting season this coming fall. Thank you. Bye. It would be so nice. Yeah. Undoubtedly knows his stuff.
00:46:54:04 – 00:47:12:22
Unknown
I mean, you could just. The passion just comes through, man. Yeah, and that’s exactly. I don’t know. I hope that’s how we sound sometimes. That would be my goal. It would be to get to that level. So. Well, I just I’m thinking about him telling a story and, you know, myself included at times, I have big ideas
00:47:12:22 – 00:47:25:22
Unknown
a lot, you know, and all they are are ideas. There’s no action put behind him all the time. He was literally pumping toilets and doing the best that he could do and making moves while he had an opportunity in front of him.
00:47:25:22 – 00:47:34:15
Unknown
And then one thing led to another, led to another, led to another. He was already that guy. He was already the same guy pumping toilets that he is now. He just applied it to something he had a passion for.
00:47:34:15 – 00:47:50:06
Unknown
Yeah. You know, and then and you know, congrats to that. He brought up a couple of things that I hit on and that is, I think a day, you know, in a duck blind or a morning in a duck blind with three or four buddies where you don’t kill them is probably fastly becoming to me better than
00:47:50:06 – 00:48:05:12
Unknown
sitting in a deer stand alone. We were alone all day. We’ve talked about getting kids or new hunters into this. Sure. And one of your points was it’s hard to take a kid and make him sit in the stand for silent for 4 hours.
00:48:05:12 – 00:48:15:02
Unknown
And it’s just not fun to everybody all the time. But the way he paints a picture of what it’s like in a duck blind, you know, cooking eggs and shooting coffee, never cooked breakfast and you know what I mean?
00:48:15:02 – 00:48:24:17
Unknown
I’ll try that. And that is just naturally going to be more fun to someone who’s never had any experience. They’re going to want to do that again. And your point is, you know, what’s the goal of a first date?
00:48:24:17 – 00:48:35:14
Unknown
You want to you want to try to score a second date. And, you know, I just I feel like duck hunting is can give a lot of people an opportunity to to maybe find a passion they didn’t know they had.
00:48:35:18 – 00:48:46:10
Unknown
And I get it. There’s a lot that goes into it. There’s a lot of technical know how. There’s a lot of money that goes into it. But you can start somewhere. I feel like you and I have duck on and we didn’t know what the hell we were doing.
00:48:46:20 – 00:49:01:04
Unknown
I knew we had camel. We had laid on blinds, we had some shotguns and some decoys, and we went out and tried to birds and yeah, we did. We did. So we tried different tactics. We didn’t know if they were going to work or not, but but it was fun and it was different than anything we’ve ever
00:49:01:04 – 00:49:11:17
Unknown
done. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. One word take away from the entire podcast. You know what it might be? No kill hole. Kill hole. Holy cow. Yeah, I like your kill hole. Yeah. I can’t wait to create a kill hole.
00:49:11:21 – 00:49:25:08
Unknown
Create a kill hole? Yeah. So, yeah, too good. All right, man, we are. I think that’s it for us. We appreciate her by. Listen, if you would like to please subscribe to YouTube to your or to the podcast on YouTube like us on Facebook.
00:49:25:16 – 00:49:40:18
Unknown
What else do I always say? Podcast on Instagram? Tweet us on whatever. Well, I don’t know. You know what you’re doing better than I do find us because we’re coming. It’s all right. Thanks. Take care. The American Hunting Podcast is brought to you by the American Hunting Lease Association.
00:49:40:18 – 00:50:00:09
Unknown
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00:50:00:09 – 00:50:19:06
Unknown
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00:50:34:10 – 00:51:02:00
Unknown
Do incom start mapping now? Hey, man, the fact that you’re still watching, it really inspires us, and we appreciate it. If you liked what you saw, if you liked the American Honey Podcast, please subscribe below. Like our channel.
00:51:02:03 – 00:51:14:15
Unknown
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