Kip Adams: I would encourage all deer hunters out there to go and download our whitetail report.

002 Brenda Valentine, "First Lady of Hunting" ™ - Brenda is a National Spokesperson for the National Wild Turkey Federation and an award winning TV host and outdoor writer. She is a lifelong hunter, avid conservationist and gun rights advocate. She has hunted over 30 states and six countries including eight African safaris. Brenda was chosen to represent the hunting industry in the 2012 Outdoor Legends Tour to thank service members in Afghanistan, Germany and Southeast Asia. She is a veteran member of Bass Pro Shops National RedHead Pro-Hunting team and co-host of the King of Bucks program on the Outdoor Channel. She serves as an honorary NWTF Foundation board member and is a member of the advisory board of the Tennessee Wildlife Federation. Brenda was the first female inducted into the Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame, is a member of the Tennessee Turkey Hunters Hall of Fame and the Henry County (TN) Sports Hall of Fame. She is an elite pro staff member for Mossy Oak and Hunters Safety Systems.

RAKS Big Game Supplements Rock Falls Outdoors Nebraska Sportsmen’s Foundation

Welcome to another episode of White-Tail Rendezvous. This is your host, Bruce Hutcheon, and we're headed to Nebraska and we're going to talk with Jeremy Shaaf. And Jeremy's quite a guy out there in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. Jeremy, welcome to the show. RAKS Big Game Supplements Rock Falls Outdoors Nebraska Sportsmen’s

Jeremy: Hi there, Bruce. How's it going?

Bruce: Well, it's going real good and I see now you reside in the Southeast corner of the state. Where the heck are you living now?

Jeremy: I'm down here in Lincoln down in the Southeast corner.

Bruce: Oh, the Big Red? Are you at the home of the Big Red?

Jeremy: That's right. Husker Power.

Bruce: Yes it is. That's quite a place on game day, I can tell you that. I was fortunate to attend a couple of games there and wow. Yeah, that was fun.

Jeremy: Yes.

Bruce: Well, we're not here to talk about the Nebraska Corn Huskers, we're here to talk about white-tails and we're here to talk about you being the owner of Rocks Falls Outdoors. Let's just start right off there and tell our listeners something about what that's all about.

Jeremy Rocks Falls Outdoors, I wanted to get more involved in the hunting industry

Jeremy: Sure. Rocks Falls Outdoors, I wanted to get more involved in the hunting industry and I've had my own remodeling business for a lot of years. So just looking for different avenues and I had worked on the side for another rep group so I kind of just, on a whim just went out on my own and started reping for a couple small companies just on the side. And then it wasn't going too bad but I actually got the opportunity to go work for ScentMaster, the previous owner at that time full-time for him for a while. So my rep group kind of got put on the back burner a little bit and when I fulfilled my time with ScentMaster there I just slowly migrated Rocks Falls Outdoors to more of an outdoor brand, I guess you'd call it. We do a lot of filming on our own and then recently we got partnered up with the Nebraska Sportsmen's Foundation and we're in the process of starting a documentary with them on all the public land locations here in Nebraska.

Bruce: That's kind of interesting though. If I heard you correctly you said you're doing a documentary for the Nebraska Sportsmen's Foundation. Who runs that? Is it a government agency or a 501c3? Tell us about that.

Jeremy: Yeah. It's a c3 like you said. Sorry, I got tongue-tied there. And Scott Smathers runs it and then there's a board and they do a lot of things as far as they do a lot of work with water rights, a lot of conservation work, and a lot of the legal stuff. They're the ones that's in front of the government for us, our voice as outdoorsmen and getting things passed or fighting things that are not necessarily in our favor, too.

Bruce: Now, you mentioned or you've been kicking around and making Rocks Falls Outdoors...You're not kicking around, you're making it work. If one of our listeners or a couple of our listeners were interested in understanding how you did that what would you tell them in three or five things? What would you tell them?

Jeremy: As far as when I was reping?

Bruce: No. As far as how you get that started.

I think success comes out of your passion and I think probably the most success you're going to get

Jeremy: Honestly, there are a ton of people out there doing this now. I think success comes out of your passion and I think probably the most success you're going to get is by doing something not for the money but because you love it. So if you have a strong passion and you just start out whether you know anything or nothing at all, nothing at all, everything, whatever, just go do it. And your passion nine times out of 10 will carry you because that'll stir that hunger to go seek more information and go attach yourself to others that have been doing it longer and learn from them.

John O’Brion, What it takes to build a healthy deer herd

Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. This is your host Bruce Hutcheon. We're heading to Wisconsin today and we're going to meet with John O'Brion, owner of Grandpa Ray Outdoors and he's got a lot of exciting things happening, and the biggest thing, I think he really knows about nutrition for whitetails. John, welcome to the show.

John: Much appreciated, and thanks for having me here today.

what it takes to build healthy deer

Bruce: Well, it's a pleasure to have somebody that really knows what it takes to build healthy deer. So we're just going to jump right into that, and tell us about the genesis of Grandpa Ray Outdoors, and then we'll just go and talk about, all the things that you're presently doing in the business.

John: Yeah, Grandpa Ray Outdoors was started officially a couple of years ago as a means of raising money for youth hunting and education of disabled youth, hunts. But the roots of it actually started 1991, which is when I began my nutrition consulting career and so a lot of the things that I have worked on, and different products that I've formulated, and invented over the years are basically the basis of the program that we've got before us right now. And so I've been involved with ruminant nutrition and whitetail nutrition for a long, long time, and it's my passion, and now it's basically becoming a full-time job and career and also a way to give back. And I'm doing it in memory and honor of my grandpa, who basically influenced my career and the path I've taken right now.

Bruce: Let's talk about youth and disabled youth. Whered that passion come from?

John: Yeah, growing up I grew up on the family farm in south central Wisconsin, and my grandpa who is named Ray where I got the name of the business Grandpa Ray Outdoors, he worked as a dairy crop and beef farmer. But yet when he wasn't farming, he enjoyed hunting, whether it be deer, ducks, pheasants, trapping, and so that's where I got a little bit of my influence early on, seeing him doing a lot of these things.

And as a result when I was, for sure involved, I was able to hunt and even though the first few years were pretty lean and I wasn't very successful, even back then I did enjoy being out in nature and the peace and quiet. So yeah, he really influenced that passion and even the last couple of years, a few really interesting have happened, and basically like I said, I started it in his memory and I really appreciate everything he did, and that's where we're at today.

Bruce: Great and we're going to talk about some upcoming announcements at the end of the show. But let's jump right into nutrition, and why that is so important for our deer herds.

John: Yeah, as I mentioned, I grew up on a dairy farm and I was the guy that I loved feeding animals, but yet I wasn't the person that enjoyed milking cows, and even when the feed salesman would stop around back then, I just wasn't that big a fan of it. So when I went to college, I actually was more fascinated, and into helping people, and doing the nutrition end of it on the feeding end. And so when I started my career out of college as a ruminant nutrition consultant, I found myself with some really interesting herds.

Early on as I mentioned, I actually was involved with some nutrition with one of the first deer farms in Wisconsin that had some really unique deer. Then just forwarding ahead a little bit over the years I actually did take a job as a formulator and nutritionist for the distributor. And so I was involved with doing a lot of product development, involved with a lot of nutrition work, whether it be for deer farms or even products for the wild deer herds out there.

I've always had a passion with taking the natural approach, and so a lot of the products I've invented over the years are sound nutrition-wise,

I've always had a passion with taking the natural approach,

National Pro Staff Director and currently oversee a staff of 15 members across the country

Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. This is your host Bruce Hutcheon and were heading to Missouri today. We're going to talk to Mike McIntyre. Now Mike is the CS Outdoors National Pro Staff. That’s a mouthful, Mike. Kind of tell us just a little, and then we’ll talk about it. National Pro Staff Director and currently oversee a staff of 15 members across the country

Mike: Bruce, thank you very much for having me on. It's definitely my pleasure to be here. I'm really looking forward to talking to you today and talking some whitetails with you. [Inaudible 00:00:27]

Bruce: Let’s do it. Sorry about that. I just talked over you. I'm excited on having you on the show. What is CS Outdoors, and then tell us about your position as National Pro Staff Director?

Mike: Absolutely, Bruce. CS Outdoors basically is a land and habitat management company who started here locally. We’re just outside of St. Louis, Missouri. It's actually started by a gentleman by the name of Cory Smith. Cory and I went to high school together and got to talking whitetails after high school. [Inaudible 00:01:04], we just jumped in and started this company, putting a grand up, and basically, it's a land and habitat management company where we basically will go into a landowner's property and kind of help them out basically to achieve their goals.

We really put the landowner's needs first. We focus on the landowner. If they're looking to maximize income on the property, we have some different ways that they can do that, whether it be through timber stand improvement with a logging operation or even going through and doing a lease on their property, if they're not into hunting themselves and they're looking to make some income off of leasing, we can do that for them as well. So really, it's focused on the landowner first and trying to maximize what they really want to get out of their property first and foremost. That's kind of what CS Outdoors is in a nutshell. We can definitely go into it more later.

my role there as the National Pro Staff Director is it's kind of the evolved over the years

Basically, my role there as the National Pro Staff Director is it's kind of the evolved over the years, basically, whenever I started doing it. We wanted to get some select individuals to pretty much just help promote the company. Everybody knows "Pro Staff" does not mean Professional, it means Promotional. So we basically handle it, the company is in its infancy, we wanted to get some guys on board with us that could really help us promote the company through various outlets like social media or word-of-mouth [inaudible 00:02:31]. That's really kind of what I do is I started bringing some people on board that I thought could really help benefit the company and [inaudible 00:02:40]. Right now we have a staff of 15 individuals across the country in various states that are all on our staff to help us get where we want to be and promote the company as best as possible.

Bruce: Presently, you've got about 15 staff members, just let's take 90 seconds, how does somebody become a Promotional Staffer or Pro Staffer for CS Outdoors?

Mike: Absolutely. At the start of the every year, I open up an application process. I post on our social media channels, be it Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Basically, we just look for anything outdoor resume. If people are already involved in the hunting industry, what they've been doing, and if not, someone where they think that they can fit to be able to help us out to promote the company. Maybe they’re an outfitter or something like that, that can get word-of-mouth out to help us out. Really, the sky's the limit. We open the application process up and just go through that. Gosh, I think last year there was 50 or 60 different applicants that put in, and we ended up bringing on 8 or 9 people last year.

Hunting and fishing is my absolute passion

Welcome to another episode of White-Tail Rendezvous. This is your host, Bruce Hutcheon, and I'm really excited. We're heading down to Florida and they're kind of ducking or dodging a hurricane right now so I'm going to invite Meghan Bieberle Hunting and fishing is my absolute passion on the show today.

Meghan: Yes, sir.

Bruce: And Meghan's got a great story. She's worked at Bass Pro, she's involved with Just For Does, Spent Rounds, LTD Outdoors, and she was even a past elk guide in my state, my home state of Colorado. Meghan, welcome to the show.

Meghan: Thank you for having me on, I really appreciate it.

Bruce: Me, too. I'm excited to get into it and share some of your incredible stories. As a young woman you've done a lot already so I can't wait to share it with our listeners. So, without further adieu, let's start right off with talking about LTD Outdoors and what does that stand for and what do you do there?

Meghan: All right. LTD Outdoors, it stands for "Living The Dream Outdoors" and their main mission is to get people involved, youth, or any beginners who have never been involved in the outdoors and get them involved in the outdoors and teach them all about it. There's so many people, especially I feel like in today's society that have never had the opportunity to experience anything outdoors whether it be fishing or hunting or anything. And it's so much fun and just a great time and so many people never get that opportunity. So their main mission is all about getting people involved in the outdoors which I think is the best thing.

Bruce: Tell me about this guy, Josh, there's a young man named Josh. He seems to be a pretty special young guy.

young man named Josh. He seems to be a pretty special young guy

Meghan: Yes, sir. So I met his dad, actually, earlier on this year and he was telling me about his son, Josh, who has osteosarcoma which is a cancer. And when he was younger he was having trouble with his leg, he kept complaining about his leg hurting and all the doctors kept telling him that it was growing pains. And long story short they got a fourth opinion and now he had a huge tumor and they had to amputate his whole leg. So he has a bionic leg and he's been battling cancer now for a couple years and he'll go through chemo and he'll be cancer-free and then it comes back. And he told his dad this year, "One thing that I want to do is turkey hunt. I've never turkey hunted. I want to go turkey hunting." And so, of course, I was like, "Oh, we've got to get him out there." So we took him and I brought my 20-gauge shotgun, Remington 1100 which is the first shotgun my dad bought me when I was 10 years old, and let him use that and it was just an incredible experience.

We called in four long beards gobbling their butts off. And I told him to line it up on one and he lined it up and he shot and two long beards dropped. So he got two in one shot and that was just...That was the most incredible experience. I also got it all on film and his dad was there with us. It was just unbelievable. That, to me, is what it's all about. Getting people involved in the outdoors and being able to experience something like that. Not just for myself but for him and his dad. That's something that will never be forgotten.

Bruce: That's a priceless memory and I'd love to see the video if that's available, that's for sure. And, listeners, take the time, look around where you live, what you're doing, and there's always somebody that can use the experience of the out of doors. And, Meghan, thank you so much for just reaching out and saying, "Hey, let's get her done," and you sure as heck did. So, I salute you on behalf of the White-Tail Rendezvous nation, thanks for doing that because you did give Josh a priceless memory and that's just awesome.

Meghan: Oh, that's what it's all about. You know?

Bruce: So, I also see in your bio here American Disability Adventures.

Joe Allen Founder of Hunt Company

: Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. This is your host, Bruce Hutcheon, and we're going to head on down to Branson, Missouri and we're going to connect with Joe Allen. And Joe is the founder of The Hunt Company, and it's a TV show. Joe welcome to the show. Joe Allen Founder of Hunt Company

Joe Allen: Thank you Bruce. I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me on.

Bruce: Well it's our pleasure, and I just want to start off. And let's tell the listeners about Hunt Co. TV.

Joe: Well that kind of depends on how far you want me to go back. Right now, currently, we are airing on two different local stations in Missouri - one out of Springfield, Missouri, one out of Farmington, Missouri. We're airing out of a local station in Florida and we should be live on, or semi-live on CarbonTV.com beginning sometime in September. I know they're building their page right now. And then beginning in January, we will be back on the Pursuit Channel for the first two quarters of 2016.

Bruce: Excellent. Now, let's give the folks some idea about the Genesis, your beginning. Can you take us there?

Joe: Yeah. In 2011 I got a message from a guy who was producing a local TV show and just...I didn't know the guy and he just said, "Hey, do you want to be a part of our TV show?" That meaning that he knew that I hunted very seriously. Of course I jumped on that opportunity and bought my first camera and knew nothing about what to buy or how to use it other than finding the power button. So, to make a long story short, that kind of progressed into me developing a group of guys of mine own. I didn't know what I was getting into, and eventually realized that I loved doing this. I loved going out into the woods and taking the camera with me and filming the experiences and the adventures. And so, I kind of wanted to do this with my own group of guys.

taking the camera with me and filming the experiences

I guess I'm just kind of naturally a leader. And so, I decided that I would just kind of do this myself, and over the last three years have developed a really good group of, I don't call them hunters, I call them producers - producers who happen to hunt as well. But, a group of guys who have a proven track record in the woods, are great woodsmen, great hunters, and who have also learned how to use cameras to film. We were a featured team on a couple of different shows on the Pursuit Channel, shows called The Hit Man and The Search. We also aired on North American Safari a little bit. I did some commercial work for a producer who's on the Pursuit Channel. That just kind of progressed into being self-taught, sharing my knowledge with others. And then, this past spring, early in 2015 we voted as a team in a business meeting to just go ahead and do our own television show this year, and produce it ourselves. And then that starts a whole other story - developing this show and raising the money that it really takes to do your own TV show.

Bruce: Well, thank you for that background. Let's stay on the subject of producing your show because we get a lot of listeners throughout North America who say, "How could I do that? I'm interested in doing that. What does it take?" So let's talk about "How do I get into the outdoor video or filming industry?"

Joe: Well, you know, the short answer and what some people may incorrectly think is that all you need is money to have a TV show. That's partially correct in that you'll see many TV shows pop up on some of the major outdoor networks, and they'll be there for one season and then you'll never see them again. So, a lot of people will say "Okay, I've got this money. I'll just go ahead and spend the money and do it", and then realize later on that it's very difficult to raise the money to do the show so you don't have to pay it out of your own pocket. Or, people will go out and get loans.

So the difference with us is that I decided back in 2012 when I ...

My goal for Our Time Outdoors, the family hunting blog,

Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. This is your host, Bruce Hutcheon and we're heading up to Minnesota kind of West of downtown Minneapolis out in a little community called Plymouth and we're gonna have a great chat this morning with a lady that just has so much passion for the outdoors, Jennifer Cone. Jennifer, welcome to the show. Our Time Outdoors, the family hunting blog

Jennifer: Hi, thanks for having me.

Bruce: Let's just start right off the bat with an explanation of "Our Time Outdoors: The Family Hunting Blog."

Jennifer: Yeah. I started, "Our Time Outdoors" last fall. I really started in because I wanted to write about my outdoor adventures and the outdoor adventures of our family and hopefully inspire others to make time for their passion; get out and go hunting or fishing or hiking and do those things that they love to do, because we all live crazy busy lives and my hope is to inspire other people that are like me that really love to do these things but they got pushed to the side.

You know what? I'm gonna write about it. I'm gonna share stories and hopefully it will resonate with people

So I thought, "You know what? I'm gonna write about it. I'm gonna share stories and hopefully it will resonate with people and they'll want to get outdoors and do those things as well." So that's really the mission of it, is to really inspire others, to get back to their passion. I share different things, I share hunting stories from the past, different things that I've had from hunting mistakes that I've made, my first deer hunt, when I got started, I share hunts that I had with my kids, I share about shed hunting. I also will provide recipes, so we like to eat a lot of different wild game in our house so I'll provide those as well and hopefully people will try those out. I also give little tips and tricks that I've learned along the way.

I am by no means an expert, I'm learning everyday just as everyone else is and I just like to provide what I learned and hopefully people can take and learn from that and provide that when they go out into the field. And I also do guest posting, too, so if anyone's ever interested in posting a story or providing something to the audience, I would love for people to reach out and provide some guest posts on the website.

Bruce, are you there?

Bruce: Yep, I'm here.

Jennifer: Oh, sorry.

Bruce: I have a bad habit, and that happens every show, because what I do is when you're talking I put the mic away so you can't...there's no way you can hear the breathing, so I just pop it up over my head. And so every single show someone says, "Bruce? Bruce?" Like I said, you can't make a mistake because I just cut that out. Away we go.

Okay, so I'm on your page and I like guest posting and I'm gonna incorporate it into my page that I just launched because I want to share information with people. Whitetail Rendezvous: Educate, collaborate, and communicate and that's one of the best ways, to have somebody once a month or whatever just come on and just throw their blog up, and it's just not a link it's the actual blog. I'd sure like to have you because women in the outdoors is important. Let's stay right there for a second. Let's talk about the role of the mom, you work out of your house, but yet you still have a passion for the outer doors, so let's camp around that and let's chat about that a little bit.

Jennifer: So I grew up in the outdoors. My dad...there's two boys and two girls in our family and he brought my brothers hunting but once my sister and I were of age to go out he said, "Yeah, you definitely can come out." And he wanted this and encouraged us to get out in the woods. He didn't care if we were a boy or a girl, it didn't matter, he wanted everyone to come up to Deer Camp and hang out with everyone. He knew how important it was in his life and he wanted to pass those traditions on to all of his ki...

Cody Jarrett is a pro staff on Whitetail Freaks

Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. This is your host Bruce Hutcheon. We're headed out to West Virginia, we're headed out to coal country today, and we're going to connect with Cody Jarrett. Cody Jarrett is a pro staff on Whitetail Freaks. Now Cody's one fortunate, young man because through hard work, dedication he's been able to connect up with Whitetail Freaks, Don and Kandi Kisky and he's on their pro staff and so Cody welcome to the show.

Cody: Hey thanks a lot Bruce, I appreciate you having me bud.

Bruce: Well let's just jump right into the show and I'm going to ask you this question because we have a lot of listeners across North America, that are really interested in finding out okay "How do you get on Whitetail Freaks?" Whitetail Freaks is syndicated, what channel is it on?

Cody: Whitetail Freaks is on the Outdoor Channel Monday nights at 7:30 eastern time.

Bruce: All right folks so Cody's going to spend the next few minutes just talking about his journey to Whitetail Freaks. Cody, take it away.

Cody: Thanks. Well, it started back when I was 12 years old probably 2000, 2001 I had missed a deer. In my head this deer was a giant, it was a big ten- pointer with brow tines [inaudible 0:01:24] and I went home, tail tucked between my legs, upset. I looked at my dad and I told my dad that I would never buy anything less than 100 acres.

At 12 years old I started saving for that 100 acres. I sold firewood, I cut grass, I pushed snow, anything I could do to save money. When I was 21 years old I bought 140 acres in Northern West Virginia.

Then through that me and my best friend filmed everything we did from building tree stands out of two by fours to planting food plots. We filmed as many hunts as we possibly could, then I had met Alex Gyllstrom from Scent Lok and Alex and I hit it off and we became really good friends and we're still best friends to this day.

Then a couple of years ago he introduced me to Don and Kandi Kisky and my film partner now Cody Butler from Nebraska, him and I, we've been filming for the last four years together so Alex introduced Cody and I to Don and Kandi, they kind of liked what we were doing and asked up to join their team.

It's been a heck of a road, a long road, a tough road, but it's been a blast and I wouldn't change anything for the world.

Bruce: You mentioned a bunch of things in there, so I'm just going to recap. So you saved enough money, you went to work, said "I'm going to buy some land." and then you and your partner started filming everything you did on that piece of property getting prepared for hunting, taking care of the land, building the tree stands and then actually filming the hunt. Is that basically how it went down?

Cody: Yes sir. We tried to document everything we did because everybody loves a good story, how and where you did it, how you did it, which route you took, so we try to document everything we do.

Bruce: What kind of cameras do you use?

Cody: Well last year we switched over and started filming solely with DSLRs and it's...you can get an awesome cinematic look out of them, but it's a little difficult, I mean it takes a lot of practice, so we switched back to a regular video camera, a Panasonic. We're going to film a majority of the hunting part of the stuff with the video camera and then all the B roll and the extra stuff like playing [inaudible 00:03:58] checking trail cameras, all the things like that, we are still going to film all that with DSLR's.

Bruce: What's the brand, what's the model of the Panasonic HD that you're using and believe in?

Cody: I use a DSLR [inaudible 00:04:18] it's a Panasonic GH4, we use that for all the B roll, food plots just the cool stuff and for the actual hunt we are using, this camera just came out this year, it's a Panasonic HCX1000. We just got it a couple of weeks ago and so far so good. It's been an awesome camera.

An award winning photographer and accomplished writer

Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. This is your host, Bruce Hutcheon, and we're heading to Wisconsin and I think we're going to have a marvelous show with Carrie Z, or Carrie Zylka. She has Hunt Fish Travel podcast, but ladies and gentlemen, she was the original lady/female/girl hunting podcast out on the Web. So let's give it up for Carrie Z and welcome her to our show. An award winning photographer and accomplished writer Carrie now hosts two podcasts (HuntFishTravel and the Metal Chick Podcast)

 

CarrieZ: Hey, Bruce. Thanks for having me on.

 

Bruce: You're welcome. And let's just jump right into Hunt Fish Travel podcasts and what got you started in podcasting about hunting.

 

CarrieZ: Sure. Well, I've always been into hunting. My dad was a big whitetail deer hunter here in Wisconsin and I decided several years ago that I wanted to get into bow hunting. I was having a hard time finding really good informational resources at the time. I was listening to podcasts already. The host of [inaudible 00:01:09] recommended a site called "Bowcast."

 

I went on that site and found a ton of really great information. I started conversing with the owner of the site. He asked me if I wanted to blog for them. I was like, "I don't even know what a blog is, but I'll give it a shot." It kind of transitioned into they had podcasts. They had archery. At the time it was the premiere archery podcast. It was a Western hunting podcast but it was really big into archery tips. That progressed into working on some of the behind-the-scenes stuff for the podcast.

 

Eventually they went through a structural change and we just kind of parted ways. Like I said, they are more of Western hunting than more Midwest hunting anyway, so it was just a natural progression. So when I left I was like, "Hmm. What should I do? I think I'll start my own podcast!" So I did! And it has been a fun ride.

 

Bruce: Was the original podcast that you had Hunt Fish Travel?

 

CarrieZ: No. Originally it was called the "Wild World of CarrieZ," because it was just for fun. It was actually a gal at work. After I told her a story about my shenanigans out hunting, she would be like, "You have this crazy, wild world." She she actually kind of came up with the name for the podcast.  Fast forward a couple of years to February of this year and I decided, "Well I have a really good following, but it's not like people sit down and they go to Google.com and search for Wild World of CarrieZ." They do search for terms like "hunting, fishing, and traveling," so I rebranded April 1st to Hunt Fish Travel. And my downloads have about tripled and people are finding me a lot more easier.

 

Bruce: Great. And what kind of listeners do you have? I didn't hear a number that you said.

 

CarrieZ: Well it varies. It really varies. In the summertime it's pretty low, probably maybe 8000 to 10,000 downloads a month. Come September and October, that number will double and then over the winter it will kind of go up and down. It just depends. It depends on what the season is. I have a lot of whitetail and turkey hunting listeners, so October, November, April, and May are my big months.

 

Bruce: Hey, we're going to step away from hunting. What's this? "The Metal Chick" podcast? Explain that to us! In a short brief, let's keep it on hunting, but I've got to ask you that question.

 

CarrieZ: Yeah. I genuinely love podcasting. I love it, love it, love it! I love doing it. And while I love hunting, I am also a huge music fan and I'm a heavy metal fan. So I also started the Metal Chick podcast and I just kind of talk about new releases, what my thoughts are on some new release albums and some events that I attend. Sometimes it's really just kind of rambling but it's fun and it keeps me engaged in the podcasting world in general.

 

Bruce: Well I think the word is "eclectic,