Latest / Ducks Unlimited Podcast / RELOADED EP708: Willie Robertson at DUX 2025: Faith, Family, and Ducks

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RELOADED EP708: Willie Robertson at DUX 2025: Faith, Family, and Ducks · Ducks Unlimited Podcast

• 0:03
  VO: Welcome to the Ducks Unlimited Podcast RELOADED, where we bring you the best of our past episodes. Whether you're a seasoned waterfowler or curious about conservation, this series is for you. Over the years, we've had incredible guests and discussions about everything from wetland conservation to the latest waterfowl research and hunting strategies. In RELOADED, we're revisiting those conversations to keep the passion alive and the mission strong. So sit back, relax, and enjoy this reload.
• 0:35
  Jimbo Robinson: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We are back at DUX in the Duck Den, and we made the big announcement yesterday. Martin made it while he was sitting in this seat right here. The surprise that came to us yesterday afternoon, and we are excited to have Willie here with us, and thanks for coming.
• 0:55
  Willie Robinson: What's up, guys? How are doing? Y'all threw me right in the fire. I just got here.
• 0:58
  Jimbo Robinson: Well, that's why we gave you a comfy chair.
• 1:00
  Willie Robinson: Woke up, traveled all night, and now here we are talking. It's good to be here.
• 1:06
  Adam Putnam: We can't thank you enough for making time for us. You know, this is this is just a full circle moment for us at Ducks Unlimited to have you here and to showcase, you know, the the number of families, the number of kids, the number of strollers, the number of puppies that are in this expo hall. It just really reinforces the heritage, the lifestyle, the tradition, and the family values associated with the outdoors.
• 1:29
  Willie Robinson: Well, the one of the big reasons that I'm here is my daughter is running this booth for duck commander. So we are in third generation, and you know how daughters are. So and and she didn't even ask me, but I happened to be in I was fairly close. I was in Fayetteville, Arkansas yesterday, and and I called my wife. I said, I'm gonna change the plans.
• 1:51
  I'm fixing to run to run to Memphis and hang out. This brings back so many memories because we were running this booth with my father and mother. In fact, we were in Memphis
• 2:05
  Matt Harrison: Wow.
• 2:05
  Willie Robinson: Outside. So I thought this was outside. I thought like, I was thinking twenty years ago, and I thought we were gonna be in a parking lot baking, and this is certainly a lot better situation. But it does bring back the memories of we used to come and set up our tables and sell our duck calls and VHS tapes, and we did it as a family as our family business. So, yeah, a lot has happened.
• 2:26
  We just lost Phil, And so, yeah, he would be proud knowing that we're still we're still out doing what what he started, you know, fifty years ago with Duck Commander and the brand now, and so much obviously has happened. But it's fun seeing that passed down to another generation, like you said, in the outdoors, but also for us, the outdoors in an outdoor business as well.
• 2:48
  Adam Putnam: Well, and we have those same type of stories are here this year. You know, there's somebody with a dream and a garage and an idea, and they're making it happen. You know, this is their opportunity to make their pitch and and introduce themselves to a to a new customer base, and and for some of them, it's gonna be a life changing business experience, and and it is a family it's a family connection, and it's really special to see that, and that's what that's what powers Ducks Unlimited. You know, our volunteers, our multi generational family volunteers that host those events in Monroe or Mulberry, Florida or wherever to ultimately protect the habitat that's gonna put ducks in front of the blind across North America.
• 3:29
  Willie Robinson: Yeah. That's what it's about. And, yeah, my father had such a passion for ducks and, just was just ate up with it. And, and then I was fortunate to be able to come in and, take over the business, when I was about 30, and, of course, I branched into Bucks as well. I had other ideas too to make it.
• 3:49
  I told Phil, I said, just you keep doing that, and, you know, obviously, we love Ducks, but we're gonna you know, we kinda caught a vision of of what could happen. And unfortunately with the you know, when Duck Dynasty happened, we made everybody think about ducks. Everybody sat around the living room and talked about ducks and so we were proud of that. I was really proud of it for Phil and what the legacy he started that everybody got to see that, you know, and kind of see all the heavy lifting he had done, the passion he had towards that. And so but like I said, we would show up to events like this.
• 4:23
  It was so fun because you'd be out with people and hear the stories. And I remember yeah. I remember I came out with a fancy duck call. Said, dad, we need we need these guys like these expensive duck calls. Phil's like, I don't know about all that.
• 4:38
  I said, well, think, you know, people like that. You know, they like, you know, a little bit fancier. So I had these duck calls, I was so proud, and we we sat them out on the table, and it was a $100. And so a guy comes up, and he's he picks one up. I'm like, oh, I got you know, I'm gonna sell this guy a $100 duck call.
• 4:55
  Phil comes up, picks, reaches in the bend of the $15 duck calls, and starts blowing it. And the guy's like, woah, man. That's so impressive. And Phil looked at me said, well, I guess if you got a $100 you wanna waste, you can buy that one. If it were me, I said, dad, you gotta quit saying that.
• 5:16
  He goes, I just told him what I would do, and the guy bought
• 5:19
  Jimbo Robinson: the $15 duck. That's great. Oh. That's incredible. I think you you mentioned duck dynasty, but what was so cool was to see past the duck commander that that guy that sat in the blind and to see his values, and Martin hit on that yesterday with us in here that just those those family values that that are being shared so much around here, like Adam alluded to earlier, and that that's what hit home to so many people.
• 5:45
  Adam Putnam: That's right. Your family sacrificed so much privacy for the calling of being an example for family and for and for nature as a as a as a healing power, and and of course, a higher calling and and and an example of your faith, and and Phil lived that. And so many of us respected it and are grateful for all your family did to to be the salt and light.
• 6:10
  Willie Robinson: Right. Well, that you know, there's a there's a story that I think it was 1980. So Phil had so 1980, he would have just had you know, he's probably a new Christian four or five years at this point in his life, and and he he's we're in New Orleans. I think we're at the Superdome. Phil is blowing his duck calls, doing his demonstration, and he said everybody was about half drunk, you know, one of these shows.
• 6:38
  It was sponsored by Budweiser, and Phil blew his duck calls, and he said, alright. I guess I'm gonna give you a little sermon here. And so he goes and starts this preaching thing, and the one of his buddies said, Phil, don't you can't mix that together. You know? You really you can't mix your business with your faith.
• 7:00
  You're gonna have to keep that separate, not everyone wants to do that. Phil said, well, as bad as I was, I feel like I've got a lot of making up to do for all the the wild living I was doing. And so he never separated that. He always kept that and pretty much everywhere he went, he was always preaching everywhere he went. And so it turned out that the guy was wrong that you, you know, when your faith is that important.
• 7:26
  And so you gotta think about like this, like and we put a movie out last year called The Blind, and I don't know if you've seen that, but it's No. It's their story of faith. And you don't realize really making the movie, I realized how close we were to the whole family just being never happening. I mean, never getting off the ground. Phil had kicked us out and it they looked like there was no hope.
• 7:48
  And were it not for dad's sister who begged this preacher to go up in that bar he was at and preach to him, and this guy did it. He got in his car and he drove to, you know, from West Monroe, Louisiana to Junction City, Arkansas, went into this bar, and, and it was confrontational. Phil wasn't he he didn't wanna hear this. He didn't wanna talk to this guy, and he and he told him a story about hope and, change and, you know, that he could be redeemed, and nothing happened and Phil went on to doing even crazier stuff and ended up running from the police and his life was such a mess. The family was over and and I think mom thought it was totally over.
• 8:29
  She had already taken us to to Louisiana and was like, it's over. And she was hopeful hopefully, he wouldn't, you know, get killed or whatever in this in this crazy stuff he was doing. He comes back, gives his life to God at 28 years old.
• 8:43
  Matt Harrison: Okay.
• 8:43
  Willie Robinson: And if like, were it not for the faith, that our family would not have been together. So none of this would have had there would have been no duck commander. Obviously, duck dynasty, none of this stuff. I mean, my whole life would look completely different. So that's how important the faith is.
• 8:58
  Yeah. Like so we always felt like without the faith, we wouldn't had we wouldn't had a family. Now if it would have only helped our family, it would have been completely worth it. It wasn't like there was some expectation that we'll maybe we'll do these big things, but just to keep that family together drastically changed our life, changed our dad. We saw this completely different person now.
• 9:19
  And then once he got going, he went as as wild as he was, then he just went 100% for faith, and and the outdoors was just such a part of his life, and it was the the way we grew up was the same way as, you know, it was about half survival. I mean, we we ate and lived off the land. We didn't have any money. We were really poor. Phil was a fisherman mostly.
• 9:42
  We that's how we made money. And he always had this dream of this duck call like, boys, one of these days, we're gonna sell he'd say he'd say, we're gonna sell a million dollars worth of these duck calls. And I gotta be honest, we were like, how is that gonna happen? I I didn't really understand. I didn't understand the business plan he had at the time, but and then as it worked out and what God put before us, he had so much more through through them, through what Phil did, then through our generation, and then to the next generation thinking about just my kids in particular, where they took off to the stuff Sadie does all over the world and preaching and, you know, it's just amazing.
• 10:18
  And you can trace all that back to this one guy driving up to a bar, talking to Phil, one couple, no money, destroyed marriage, just a long trail of hopelessness, and who would have thought that all that was gonna come out there? And that's the power of what faith can do and what God can do with people, and so, you know, it's turning that dead stuff into life and darkness into light, and and Phil lived that out. I was able to see that and and it was it was the real deal. I mean, wasn't he was not different on Saturday than he was on Sunday on Tuesday. Was always the same and and so this business was just part of really getting our faith out there.
• 10:58
  Matt Harrison: And then
• 10:58
  Willie Robinson: the way God worked it out was we were able to do that through a TV show, through simple things like, you know, prayer at the end of a show, which was unheard of. You know, we really didn't see that on television. And I don't know that Phil ever understood Duck Dynasty. He he said, well, there needs to be way more preaching on this show. I said, dad, there's another Robertson family that does that.
• 11:18
  It's the seven hundred Club. This is not this is not that. I said, this is a fun show. And he goes, well, you know, if they let me go, I I said, if we're just gonna give them a little bit. If they wanna come back and read a book or listen to a podcast, we'll do that.
• 11:33
  And and it was yeah. And it didn't the way it turned out was amazing.
• 11:37
  Jimbo Robinson: I tell you what,
• 11:38
  Matt Harrison: talking about how the Lord works and stuff, I know you probably won't remember this at all, but I know for a fact I would not be sitting in this position I am right now with Ducks Unlimited if it wasn't for you and your family. Me and my brother did not grow up in a waterfowl hunting family whatsoever
• 11:52
  Willie Robinson: Mhmm.
• 11:52
  Matt Harrison: But we loved baseball. And in Pearl, Mississippi, the Mississippi Braves had a baseball game. We grew up going to those games. Yeah. And y'all had a boot there one night, and we met some of y'all, and y'all signed a poster.
• 12:04
  We were not waterfowl hunters, but we were like, this is so cool. We wanna get into it, and that is what's
• 12:10
  Willie Robinson: And that was before the honestly.
• 12:11
  Matt Harrison: It was. It was.
• 12:12
  Willie Robinson: And y'all threw the first pitch. You did. Yeah. You did. And Phil did too.
• 12:15
  Phil hit the third, and I was so happy. But
• 12:20
  Matt Harrison: but y'all signed us a poster. My family was not in the waterfowl industry whatsoever, and it sparked our interest, fell in love with it, fell in love with waterfowl hunting, grew up in a Christian home, and what y'all's values were Uh-huh. Resonated with us, which ultimately led to where I am now with Ducks Unlimited, and I say that with chills. Wow. That truly is so unbelievable to see how the Lord works, and I know for him if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be in
• 12:44
  Willie Robinson: this position right You should give me 10% of all the money you ever make for the rest of your life just for
• 12:49
  Matt Harrison: the Okay.
• 12:50
  Willie Robinson: Just for what I've done
• 12:50
  Jimbo Robinson: for you.
• 12:51
  Willie Robinson: The Willie Tide. The Willie So so Philip Wellman was the manager, I believe. Was. Philip yeah. So that and that's how we got there because I was friends with him through Adam LaRoche Yes.
• 13:03
  Through my bug commander stuff because Yes. They were friends, and Philip we deer hunted together. And then he was down there, and he said, hey. Y'all should come over and throw the first pitch and do the wow.
• 13:13
  Matt Harrison: They remember the video of him and getting the rosinade
• 13:15
  Willie Robinson: and throwing it. Philip Welman? Doesn't know that video, the most epic meltdown ever of a manager crawling and doing the grenade and, yeah. Awesome. Anyway, but Wow.
• 13:27
  Matt Harrison: Truly thank you.
• 13:27
  Willie Robinson: I didn't realize that that was
• 13:28
  Jimbo Robinson: a small world. Such a good story.
• 13:37
  VO: Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited Podcast sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey after these messages.
• 13:51
  Jimbo Robinson: You You know, one of the things we asked Martin yesterday when he was sitting in this seat was about what how the world has changed, the waterfowling world has changed, and the influencers, and how that looks, and and I said, what what what would you tell the future? Like, what would you tell somebody, and talking about all the kids he was meeting? And he said, take the time to just spend with every single kid. And he said, you know, it's one the things I watched Phil do so many years before all of that was just spend time with kids and give them that little bit. And now sitting in your seat now watching your kids do it, watching Sadie think about how many people that's touched, man, you've done an amazing job as a father, but you're right.
• 14:30
  That faith drew that family together, and now they're spreading it in so many different worlds Right. In what they're all doing now. Man, you have to go to sleep at night knowing that that watching your kids do what they're doing now Yeah.
• 14:42
  Willie Robinson: It's exciting. I mean, main thing we wanted was that they understood the faith. Now whether or not they embraced or not was on them, but we're they understood that. So you're passing that down. It was so important to us.
• 14:56
  Again, go back just one generation that the whole thing was almost you know, they never would have happened were it not were faith not stepped in. And so and that's that that's that family motto. We have that faith, family, and and ducks, but it but it's in that order. And so what happens is for all of us in life, that'll start getting out of order. You know, we may think, oh, that's where we're at, but, you know, the faith will slide down.
• 15:23
  The job will come you know, you'll realize, man, I'm I'm giving most of my stuff to my job. And then and then once it gets out of order, you don't have the helpers, so the faith will help the family stay together. It should. The family will help the vocation stay together. Believe me, if there's trouble at home with one of your kids or with your spouse, will you be as good at work?
• 15:53
  Not a chance, you know? And I think we've all been there when we're at work and and, you know, trying to do something. You got trouble at home or you've got a kid that's, you know, wacky or you're you and your spouse are arguing or fighting or whatever. And so and so that's that's just that kind of that balance that we we try to put in. Now, when it comes to what they wanted to do, you know, I never pushed any of my kids to do any of this, whether or not they want to work in the business or not.
• 16:22
  Because you also don't know, you know, when I was 20, let me tell you the last place I wanted to work was Duck Command. Wow. Sure. I was so over it, like, I had been doing this job since I was, you know, seven years old. Because that's the deal with Phil.
• 16:42
  Like, Phil didn't really hire any employees. He was glad he had four boys, and we were the employees. So we did we did the work and never got paid really any money. Phil would give us speeches about electricity and food, gas, you know, and so he's like, everybody's gotta play their part. And he was always so terrible with numbers, and I think he did this on purpose.
• 17:04
  So he so we get home from school, and he'd say, hey. Go go dip him duck calls, about about 20 or 30 duck calls. It was about 80 or 90 duck calls. And we had this big, he had a plywood board with nails on it, and so we would dip the calls in the tongo and then we would have to hang them on the deal. Our fingers were always stained, and I was always embarrassed.
• 17:25
  I would I'd go to school and I wouldn't want people to see my stained fingers from the, and then we'd fold boxes, which that that wasn't as bad because we could watch Ducks of Hazard, so we'd watch TV. But if you're watching TV, you had to be folding boxes at all. So our living room was just always a pile of boxes that we were folding to put the duck calls in, then we would package them. We answered the phone. We were customer service, so we'd we'd it took me years before I could not answer a phone and say, duck commander.
• 17:55
  Yeah. I'd be like, duck commander, can I help you? And this was the this was the home phone. Yeah. And and this was all in a two bedroom house where it's the same house that was on Doug Ducks.
• 18:05
  The field never lays in the same place that he was, and we'd answer the phone. We'd take orders. We'd write them on the back of a paper plate and put them in a little stack, and then mom would ship them out the next day. And we'd miss every day of school. This was sanctioned from from dad.
• 18:21
  So we we used to get forty day you could miss forty days, and we would take all 40 of them. Every one of them, we'd miss every day.
• 18:30
  Adam Putnam: That's a lot
• 18:31
  Willie Robinson: of stuff to miss. Wow. And and a lot of those times, was working or hunting. It'd be like, hey. We're taking out, you know, and so the way we looked at school was just a little bit different.
• 18:40
  Now whether or not my kids so so growing up, they grew up obviously a lot different than than we grew up, and so, man, I cherish that. I cherish how we grew up. I cherish that we didn't have money. We didn't have I mean, TV. We had three channels.
• 18:54
  We had no, you know, obviously, no electronics. And we would just boom. We'd hit it out. We were outside, you know, just outside and fishing and hunting just I just love the way that is. And so whether or not our kids get that or not, that was when I was 20.
• 19:10
  Well, it wasn't till I was 30 that I started recognizing kinda what the business was and what dad had you know, it's funny. I was I was actually thinking about this morning. At some point, then you really start appreciating your father and your parents. You're like, you know, you're kinda like, oh, man. They don't know what they're doing.
• 19:27
  And then you're like, dad, they're actually pretty, you know, and so
• 19:30
  Adam Putnam: as dumb as I thought they were.
• 19:32
  Willie Robinson: So I came back to dad when I was about 30, and I said, hey. I think I can I think I can take this, you know, and and run this business? And Phil kinda thought it was over. He said, well, I think everybody's done bought a duck call is gonna buy one. So he was, like, literally thinking, I think this whole thing's over.
• 19:48
  I said, well, give me a run at it. Let me see. And then the first year, I just traveled with him to shows like this, and I would run the booth, and Phil would get up and do the speaking and preaching, and I just watched, I and I was like, man, he's so captivating. He's such a storyteller. I just watched the interaction he had with people.
• 20:06
  Was caring about people. He was showing people and teaching. Phil was a teacher at heart. He was he was an education guy. He was a school teacher.
• 20:13
  And so he loved teaching and and also, you know, I think we forget too when he was younger, was a great salesman. He was man, he could he could just sell stuff. I mean, we he would set up all these little he had a he had somebody in law enforcement and they did a voice analysis of his duck call and it was it was so he played it up next to a real mallard duck and it was like 95% the same. Wow. That will so and he would he would play that for a customer to be like, yeah, you know, and he would so he he had his little stick of what he where he wanted to sound just like a duck.
• 20:45
  So it wasn't about the kind of the pageantry of duck calling or competitions. He was always kind of the the opposite of that. He was more just like, it's that $15 duck. I was like, this sounds like a duck. This will get him closer to you in the woods.
• 21:00
  And that was it. You know? It wasn't the whole thing, and so Phil never got into that. So so I ended up coming in at 30, so and I think I think my oldest is just now 30. So you never know where that so you could you could have a change of heart and be like, you know what?
• 21:16
  You know? I mean, they're saying now your brains aren't developed, which, you know, I could definitely attest to this until you're like for a guy, it's like 25 years old. I mean, so you really don't know who you are and what you are and and all that. And but having them to be able to come in and my daughter's here, and so the the funny thing is they married that my little son in laws are are big hunters and outdoorsmen, and so I'm seeing that kind of that bright eyed passion, the same one that I had. You know, I was like, let's go.
• 21:43
  You know, let's get after this. The same thing that Phil had. And so we can mix that together with experience and maturity in a business and be grounded in your faith, and then you just never know what can happen. So it is fun watching that, watching them take that. And then what are the new ideas?
• 21:58
  Because obviously, we were talking about twenty years ago, was in Memphis doing this show. It was outside a parking lot. It was almost 100% cash. Like, we we just had like like a bag of cash. My mom was like a you know, like one of these armored truck drivers with that little cash.
• 22:16
  And so we'd we'd we'd go into we'd always eat some we'd always go eat steak and all that, and we're so excited about that. And and and then my daughter said she was just here trying to buy a coffee at some coffee shop. They don't take cash.
• 22:29
  Adam Putnam: They don't take it.
• 22:29
  Willie Robinson: So there's no cash, you know, and so the way business has changed and we would sell VHS tapes
• 22:36
  Matt Harrison: Oh, I think so.
• 22:37
  Willie Robinson: Like crazy. When I switched to my big my big business move when I came in, I moved from VHS to DVDs, and Phil thought I'd lost my mind. Phil was like
• 22:46
  Jimbo Robinson: Now they don't even
• 22:47
  Willie Robinson: make DVDs. Phil was like, what is a DVD? I said, it's way better than a VHS tape. Like, you ain't even gotta rewind it. And he I think you're making a bad move there.
• 22:55
  Jimbo Robinson: Right.
• 22:55
  Willie Robinson: I said, Phil, you're the only guy with a VHS player, I think, in the state of Louisiana.
• 22:59
  Jimbo Robinson: It's kinda like CDs these days.
• 23:00
  Willie Robinson: And now, I mean, can't like, I love people still do buy DVDs, which is amazing. But now even like because we have a television show, and we have another television show, Duck Ducks Unlimited revival, and even cable now. Like, my wife said, Willie, you're the one of the last people I know who still has cable TV.
• 23:19
  Jimbo Robinson: And
• 23:21
  Willie Robinson: I remember we had three channels. I'd always heard about cable, and I'm like, what it it was like the first level of heaven. It's like, it's hundreds of channels.
• 23:29
  Jimbo Robinson: That's
• 23:29
  Willie Robinson: right. And in my lifetime, it's went from the best thing I've ever like, I thought this is it to where now it's a dinosaur and it's gone and everything's streamers.
• 23:37
  Adam Putnam: Cord cutters now.
• 23:39
  Willie Robinson: Podcast. Yeah. I'm I'm still hanging on to my
• 23:42
  Adam Putnam: radio's back. Right? We're podcasting. So
• 23:45
  Jimbo Robinson: Radio's back. Well, man, we can sit here and do this all day and sitting in in this room. This fire was kinda funny when we did it, but in this room, we may need to turn the heat on. That is kinda cool. But thank you so much Yeah.
• 23:57
  For being here with us, and and we wanna let there's probably a line a mile long back at your booth. We wanna give you time to go over there and shake hands, and Yeah. Just from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for coming
• 24:07
  Willie Robinson: Man, it is a blast. Thank you guys for what you do. Thank you for putting this on in DU, and just we've been partners for well, crap. I mean, ever since I was a kid, you know, that we've been together and on this mission of enjoying, you know, protecting, promoting, and then passing that down Absolutely. So that our kids can at least have the opportunity.
• 24:28
  And and duck hunting's unique and it's special, and there's a lot there's a lot to it. But, you know, and and it will. You know, unless we keep going, you know, you'll look up and it'll just be Gone. Gone. Just like these other things were done like
• 24:40
  Jimbo Robinson: Well, we're here for three years. We'd love to have you back next year. So same weekend, so we can get that in. Is
• 24:45
  Willie Robinson: it? Okay.
• 24:46
  Jimbo Robinson: Yeah. Same weekend. Alright. Well, we know that, you know, there are folks out there watching right now. This is live.
• 24:52
  He is here in Memphis. Coming steam at the duck commander and the buck commander. This is
• 24:56
  Willie Robinson: not AI.
• 24:57
  Jimbo Robinson: This is not AI. No. No. No. Real deal.
• 25:00
  That's you can't buy that on cable either. That's right. So come see us all today at d u x at the duck commander, Buck Commander booth. Come meet Willie, shake his hand, and get you a get you a $15 duck call. Yeah.
• 25:15
  Where are they today?
• 25:16
  Willie Robinson: I have no idea. Alright. See
• 25:20
  Jimbo Robinson: you all Ask Willie. See you.
• 25:25
  VO: Thank you for listening to the DU Podcast proudly sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey and Cocktails. Whether you're winding down with your best friend or celebrating with your favorite crew, Bird Dog brings award winning flavor to every moment. Enjoy responsibly. Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show and visit ducks.org/dupodcast. Opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect those of Ducks Unlimited.
• 25:49
  Until next time, stay tuned to the Ducks.