Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #101: 2% for Conservation with Jeff Sposito

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Wired To Hunt Podcast #101: 2% for Conservation with Jeff Sposito · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast. I'm
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyon, and this episode number one one
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  Speaker 1: tennis show, we're joined by Jeff Sposito to discuss the
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: newly launched and very exciting new organization to Percent for Conservation.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: All right, So before we kick off the show, I
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: do need to ask you a favor. Please bear with
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: us for the first ten minutes of this episode, as
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: we had some serious technical difficulties trying to record our
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: intra segment and literally red ord at three or four
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: times over the past two days. In every single time
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  Speaker 1: we had these issues with sound quality. We're still trying
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  Speaker 1: to figure out what's going on, but for this week,
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  Speaker 1: I had to decide either to scrap this whole intrasegment
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  Speaker 1: or leave it in with some poor audio sections scattered throughout.
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  Speaker 1: So I decided to do that as I thought you'd
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  Speaker 1: probably still enjoy getting to hear these stories despite the
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: few glitches. So thanks for your understanding, and now to
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  Speaker 1: the show. All right. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast,
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  Speaker 1: brought to you by Sick gear, and today we've got
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  Speaker 1: a great show for you as we're joined by Jeff Sposito,
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  Speaker 1: the founder of the brand new and very exciting two
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  Speaker 1: Percent for Conservation, a conservation organization that I think has
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  Speaker 1: the potential to make a very big difference in the
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  Speaker 1: hunting and fishing world. And I'm stoked that Jeff's going
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  Speaker 1: to be joining us today to talk about this new organization,
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  Speaker 1: What inspired him to dive into this project, what all
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: goes into starting a conservation organization, and how all of
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  Speaker 1: us hunters can get more involved in taking up this
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  Speaker 1: type of cause in our own lives. But before we
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  Speaker 1: get to all of that, Dan and I do have
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: some exciting updates from the field to share. We have
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: been doing a little turkey hunting right then. That's a
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  Speaker 1: fat jack, and we've actually done a half decent job
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  Speaker 1: of it. Hey, I can't complain, I uh, you killed what?
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  Speaker 1: Did you get? One? Or two? I got one? You
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  Speaker 1: can only kill one here in Michigan. But I can
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  Speaker 1: very I can very briefly quickly give you my overview.
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  Speaker 1: I had five really tough days of hunting in Michigan
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  Speaker 1: where the birds weren't talking or I was really bad
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  Speaker 1: at calling or something went wrong in the first five
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: days and just couldn't quite make it happen. I was
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: out there with a bow trying, you know, like we
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: talked about a couple of weeks ago. I thought I'd
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: tried to up the challenge factor. So I took my
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  Speaker 1: bow out and was waiting for a big, mature bird,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: and things just didn't quite go all the way to once.
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  Speaker 1: So then Saturday came around, and I was getting a
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  Speaker 1: little nervous because my Dad's coming in a couple of
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: days to hunt, and I was only gonna have a
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: few more days to hunt after that. So I figured
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  Speaker 1: if I don't get something a freezer now, I might
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  Speaker 1: not get a bird at all. So I took the
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  Speaker 1: gun out Saturday morning, I changed up my strategy, went
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  Speaker 1: to a different spot on the farm, and UM, long
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  Speaker 1: story short, I end up killing a really nice gobbler
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  Speaker 1: a couple hours after daylight. So it was one of
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  Speaker 1: those hunts where it was one of those days really
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  Speaker 1: where the everything was going right. The two days before,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the birds were silent, nothing was going but this day
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  Speaker 1: everything was talking, they were responding to the calls, and
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  Speaker 1: UH put one on the ground. So that was my
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  Speaker 1: that was my turkey hunt. I got a Michigan bird.
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  Speaker 1: Now in a week week and a half, them going
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  Speaker 1: to Ohio. But you, my friend, you laid or we're
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  Speaker 1: part of land too. Two down right right right, let's see.
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  Speaker 1: So typically what happens is, I've been hunting with my
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  Speaker 1: wife for five years. Uh we did. We did this thing.
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  Speaker 1: We call it turkey camp. And it's where me and
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: my wife and my stepdad go hunting. And my mom
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  Speaker 1: kind of gets through all the end of the deal.
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  Speaker 1: She gets watched the kids so um, which she loves.
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  Speaker 1: She does her grandma thing, but she watched the kids
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  Speaker 1: while Sarah and I went hunting. And and my stepdad
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  Speaker 1: might okay, tell my stepdad hunts. He goes into the
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  Speaker 1: blind before light and he sits in the blind all
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  Speaker 1: day long. That's that's how I can't do that. There
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: would be impossible. There would have to be like a
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  Speaker 1: flat screen TV in there for me to do that.
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  Speaker 1: But me and my wife do a little bit more
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  Speaker 1: running gun and although luckily this year we really didn't
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  Speaker 1: have to. Um. So Thursday, I head out of work
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  Speaker 1: and I leave early, set up a blind in a pasture,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: starts raining. I drive around the section, I see like
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  Speaker 1: twenty five to thirty birds. Um, I just tall about
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  Speaker 1: seven to ten shutting tom's and the rest were hens.
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  Speaker 1: So I knew that there were turkeys in the area,
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  Speaker 1: and that made me really excited. Um. Fast forward to
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  Speaker 1: Friday morning. We get into the standards a little bit early,
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  Speaker 1: so we had to fight some cattle getting in, and
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  Speaker 1: we thought the cattle had left, and they were responding
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  Speaker 1: like every time I touched my call, they were gobbling,
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  Speaker 1: and even when I there was a period of time
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  Speaker 1: where I was just not even calling and they were
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  Speaker 1: going bananas in the timber. So my blind was set
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  Speaker 1: up in the middle of a cattle pasture under a
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  Speaker 1: big old oak tree, and the birds were in the
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  Speaker 1: timber line about fifty yards away. They started gobblin. I
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  Speaker 1: was calling. They came in, they saw my decoys. This
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  Speaker 1: is the abbreviated version, and uh they they held up. Well.
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  Speaker 1: I looked behind me, and the cattle had to work
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  Speaker 1: their way back into the area, and they were pretty
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  Speaker 1: spooked or pretty hesitant of coming closer to the decoys,
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  Speaker 1: and they headed down this valley and up the other
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  Speaker 1: side and went into a different part of the pasture. Well,
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  Speaker 1: they were gobbling the whole time, so I knew where
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  Speaker 1: they're at. My wife and me made a stock on him.
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  Speaker 1: I got busted by a hen. They flew away. Fast forward.
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  Speaker 1: Then instead of going of going back out, I don't
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  Speaker 1: know this year, I was just kind of it up
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  Speaker 1: to do for my life. I was ready to do new.
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  Speaker 1: We were going to have great weather the entire morning
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  Speaker 1: would mean or the entire weekend, which means there they
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  Speaker 1: were responding, and they were going to respond. So I
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  Speaker 1: didn't go back out. Uh. We we went and tried
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  Speaker 1: another little piece of property back at the house eleven
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  Speaker 1: and then we did what my wife wanted to do,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: which was Govid winery, and I tasted some local wines
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: which were delicious. And uh, fast forward to Saturday morning,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm not joking that this is exactly how it went.
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  Speaker 1: Walk the blind wait twenty minutes, heard the first gobbles
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  Speaker 1: at about quarter to six. Birds flew down at about
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  Speaker 1: six and between six and so five, my wife shot
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  Speaker 1: the turkey. So it was the Tom, three Jake's and
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  Speaker 1: a hen all flew out of the tree within twenty yards. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: the Jake's and the Tom started strutting towards the decoys.
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  Speaker 1: They stepped out behind this little thorn bush and my
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  Speaker 1: wife just dropped it right in your tracks. Boom. It
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  Speaker 1: barely even flopped. So uh, that was a pretty fast hunt.
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  Speaker 1: And the rest of the day. UM, I could have
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  Speaker 1: probably went out and tried to uh get another bird,
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  Speaker 1: but I was happy for her. I knew that I
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: had to clean it and you know, package it and
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: get it in the freezer. So I took care of
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: that kind of business and uh and you know what,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: did some mushroom hunting, went on a four wheeler ride
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  Speaker 1: with the kids, spent a lot of time with family.
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  Speaker 1: That day. My stepdad comes back and he was struggling
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  Speaker 1: with the farm that he was on with uh, with
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  Speaker 1: a guy riding a dirt bike up and down the
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  Speaker 1: road and on the farm and there's other hunter who
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  Speaker 1: was He said it was calling for one hour straight.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, so not a lot of activity on on
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  Speaker 1: the farm. My stepdad was hunting. So I was like, hey, man,
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  Speaker 1: I gotta I got a spot if you want to
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  Speaker 1: come with me. I don't have a blind, I don't
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  Speaker 1: have anything. You're gonna have to sit underneath a tree
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  Speaker 1: and uh, I'll back up behind you and uh call,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's how I that's how I cut
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  Speaker 1: my teeth on turkey hunting. And he's like, yeah, okay,
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  Speaker 1: let's do it. So we park our truck, sons starting
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  Speaker 1: to come up, and we walked to the field the
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  Speaker 1: where the CRP met the timber and started doing a
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  Speaker 1: little calling. HERD heard some distant gobbles. So we walked
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  Speaker 1: down this cut two track and uh I set him
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  Speaker 1: underneath of a tree that my wife killed a turkey
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  Speaker 1: out of what would have been two years ago, and
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  Speaker 1: I put decoys out in front of him, probably twenty yards.
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  Speaker 1: I backed up behind him about twenty heard a call
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  Speaker 1: in and I pulled in a tom from a long
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  Speaker 1: wase away. He was gobbling every time every time I,
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  Speaker 1: uh I called, And then I started hearing the you know,
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  Speaker 1: the um the noise that they make when they strut.
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  Speaker 1: And two more tims come on a show I couldn't see.
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  Speaker 1: According to my close a whole bunch bushes to kinda,
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  Speaker 1: so I had a little bit of movement. The one
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  Speaker 1: time came into our right and he busted my stepdad
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  Speaker 1: turning his head to look. Because he shut up. He
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  Speaker 1: stopped gobbling when he located our position, and then he
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  Speaker 1: came in. My stepdad turned his head ever so slightly
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  Speaker 1: that Tom took off running, and the Tom's that were
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  Speaker 1: strutting to the left of us. I called one end
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  Speaker 1: because it was and I broke. I broke the one
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  Speaker 1: time off and uh my stepdad shot him or six
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  Speaker 1: thirty the morning. So that was a long story for
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  Speaker 1: a very period of time. You've you've perfected that to
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: two short hunts too long stories, Dan, That's pretty good,
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  Speaker 1: I know. I but it was fun. I mean, although
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  Speaker 1: I didn't I didn't get a bird or chance at
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: a bird. I was just happy that the people. I
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  Speaker 1: mean I I the thing I like about turkey hunting,
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  Speaker 1: and I think we talked about this in uh at
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  Speaker 1: the one of the last episodes was it's just it's
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  Speaker 1: less pressure, it's more about fun and enjoying nature. And
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  Speaker 1: for me it's a it's about spending time with the family.
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  Speaker 1: And I got to do all those things. And even
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: though I didn't get a bird, I got an archery tag,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: so I would hunt until May four or four, I think,
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  Speaker 1: so I have plenty of time left to try to
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  Speaker 1: get one with a bow. Other than that, my season's
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  Speaker 1: a success. Based off of what's already happened. Yeah, I'd
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  Speaker 1: say so that's pretty that's pretty cool to be to
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: do that with a couple of family members and have
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: a good, a good fun weekend like that. That's sounds
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: like you get a good couple days. My friend, when
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: are you heading to Ohio? Uh, well, my dad is
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: coming down to turkey hunt with me this coming weekend
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: in Michigan. Song guide him for a couple of days,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: and then the following weekend I'm going to Ohio. So
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: I'll be the guide this weekend than hunting just about
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: a week and a half from now. So hopefully it'll
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: be some more good turkey hunting stories to come from
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: me here soon. But uh, it's I think I think
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  Speaker 1: it'll be pretty good from what I was we had. Um.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: I talked with a legendary turkey hunter, Ray I. He
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: was on our Wild podcast today and he's been staying
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: across the country. It's been a lot different than most
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: years because of this later spring. In a lot of places,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of the toms are hend up already. UM
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: and so he he said that you know, the later
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: you get into the season, the better it's going to
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: the better it's going to be. Supposedly, he knows a
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  Speaker 1: lot more than I do, so I couldn't tell you why, um,
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  Speaker 1: but he seemed to think that the best is yet
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: to come. So I'm hoping that will be the case
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: here and that uh, you know, my rough first five
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  Speaker 1: days will be gone and things will continue to be
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: like they were on SATA. Well, good luck, Mark Kenyon,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: thank you Dan Johnson. And with that we are we
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: are needing now to get our guests on the line.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: We've got to give Jeff a colls. So let's take
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: a quick break for words from our partners at SICCA,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: and then we'll talk to Jeff about two percent for conservation.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: So last week we began our new segment with Sick
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: of Gear, in which we're sharing incredible sick stories, and
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: today we've got just such a story, in fact, a
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: turkey story from Jason Mears. We're going to kick this
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  Speaker 1: one off at a point in Jason's hunt where he
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: was about to call it quits and head back to
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: work as it seemed like the birds he was hunting
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: were hand up and heading away. But just when he
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: thought the hunt was over, he spotted the birds much
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: closer than he thought, and set up in a less
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: than ideal situation. I'm in the middle of the field.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I haven't nothing to hide behind other than delay in
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: this three foot tall high grass. So basically I laid
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  Speaker 1: there on my back with my gun barrel between my knee.
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  Speaker 1: He's hoping that as these birds worked around the side
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: of the hill that they would be, you know, twenty
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: thirty yards out in front of me, and I would
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  Speaker 1: basically pop up like I was in a goose blind
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  Speaker 1: and shoot one of them. So Jason waited there, laying
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: in the grass for fifteen minutes until finally a redhead
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  Speaker 1: popped up heading his way. As they came down, they
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: actually came up within six feet of the end of
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: my gun burrow, and basically, I either knew that I
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: was either gonna miss this turkey because the pattern was
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: so tight, or I was gonna drop him right where
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: he was. And as he stepped in front of my barrel,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: I squeezed the trigger and Donny went. The other one
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: flew off. And it's extremely exciting hunt because I mean,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: I've never had the opportunity to actually shoot a turkey
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: at that range. Six ft is just ridiculous. In my opinion. So, um,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: you talk about the heart ready to bust out of
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: your chest because either at one option and you can
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: get the turkey, or you're gonna you're gonna make him
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: a heck of a lot smarter for the subceson. Luckily
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: for Jason, this bird would not have a chance to
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: get any smarter. What a hunt. And on this hunt,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Jason was wearing sick because early season white tail pants
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: and core lightweight top. If you'd like to learn more
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: about SIKA, you can visit sick gear dot com. And
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: now back to the show. All right, Well, due to
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: unforeseen circumstances and technical difficulties, we have lost Dan Johnson,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: but we have added Jeff to the line. So welcome
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: to the show. Jeff, thank you, Mark. Glad to be here. Yeah,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: we apologize for the lengthy technical issues we've had today
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: trying to make this happen, but I'm glad at least
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: you and me are finally here chatting. Um. I briefly
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: introduced to you at the beginning in two percent for conservation,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: but really high level. I'd love to kick things off
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: just hearing a little bit more about who you are.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: For those that aren't familiar you know, what are you
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: doing today? What's your background? A little bit? Sure? Yeah,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: so I I currently work for for Sick of Gear
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: out of Bosi in Montana. I've been with SKA for
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: going on seven years now. I started back in two
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: thousand and nine. With them, I do sales and marketing.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: They're um focused on on our guiding outfitter paro deal
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: programs and our e commerce and online sales. Uh and
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: and then yeah, my nights and weekends and and kind
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: of a pet project side job have have started two
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: percent for conservation. Um. So it's been it's been a
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: fun process. Yeah, I bet, And that's going to be
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: our main The main gist of our conversation is gonna
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: be all about that process. But I also create me
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: if I'm wrong. But I think you are a hunter too, right, Yeah? Heck, yeah,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: I am. No, you know, hunter, hunter and fishermen, more
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: so a hunter than a fisherman. But but I enjoy
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: all things outdoors. But but I am truly a passionate
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: bow hunter more than anything. You know. I've been hunting
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: my whole life and kind of progressed through hunting cycle
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: and yeah, I loved bow hunt. Now Bohunt anything from
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: you know, elk, deer bears, anything really And word on
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: the street is that you're going to Alaska, soume? Is
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: that true? I do? I leave in uh in less
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: than forty eight hours for Alaska for for a brown
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: bear hunt. That uh, that's actually a really cool story.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: I won the brown bear hunt last fall in a
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: raffle um, so totally not only once in a lifetime
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: bucket list hunt, but but one of those situations where
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: where it was a complete surprise on how it came
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: to happen. So yeah, I'm pretty pumped. Man. I got
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: a lot of packing you have to do still, but
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: but we'll get bet. So what so are you going
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: with a with a firearm or both? First off, my question,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: I am I am bringing I'm doing the classic bring
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: both weapons. Yep, I'm gonna give it good. Yeah, I'm
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: gonna give it the good college. Try to kill one
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: with the bow. I really, I really would like to
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: uh to get an opportunity to shoot one of the
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: bow and give it my damnedest. But you never know
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: how that goes, and I don't want to pass up
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: the opportunity. So if if we just can't get the
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: right situation. I'm not opposed to to lay in some
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: lead to and this is a coastal brown bear, right
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: it is? Yeah, it's it's brown bear out of It's
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: a boat hunt out of sick Alaska, and we'll be
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: hunting primary of the ABC Island. So it's a part
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: of the country I've never been. Um, so there's a
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: whole there's a many layers of excitement there for me
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: to see a new part of the country and obviously
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: hunt an animal that that is uh, that is you know,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: truly once in a lifetime type type hunt. Plus the
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: potential of being twenty yards away from a eight hundred
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: or thousand pounds brown bear, that sounds like an experience too.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: There's that too. Yeah, I'd be lying to you if
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: if I didn't tell you that. I just got a
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: little bit nervous just thinking about it. So I'm sure
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: I'll be shaking a little bit when when that scenario
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: presents itself. But that's all the fun, right. What's the
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: wife think about this or your family? Um, that's a
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: good question. She is My wife is very supportive of
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: everything I do. She is, uh, she doesn't quite understand
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: bear hunting with a bow in general. Nonetheless a brown bear.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: She's she thinks that you should h not you should
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: run away from bear. She she has this picture in
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: her mind that I'm gonna shoot the bear with a
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: bow and it's gonna stand up and look at me
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: and pull the arrow out and get revenge. I've tried
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: to reassure that that's not exactly how it happens. I'll
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: tell you what, though, I gotta give you credit. That
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: takes a certain amount of intestinal fortitude to even go
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: on a trip like that. It is it's a dream
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: of mine too. Um but wow to Actually, well, I
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: haven't done it yet, so we should. We should talk
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: again in ten days and and see how it went.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm pretty pumping on the last. Now, have
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: you done other Alaskan hunts before I have? I was
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: fortunate enough to go um two years ago to Kodiak
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: mountain goat hunting UM, and that was that was my
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: first hunting trip to Alaska. And that was with a
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: good friend of mine who is who is a sick
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: of athlete, Col Kramer and Uh and we did a
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: mountain go hunt together and it was a blast, man.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: It was It was all uh that I expected it
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: to be in more it was. It was awesome and
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: that was Kodiak. So you've had at least a little
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: experience with really big bears. I guess probably right. Yeah, Yeah,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: that's that's where the big bears. That's the world of
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: the big bears. We on our mountain got hunt. We
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: didn't have any encounters with bears. We saw a few,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: but but yeah, I've I've been I guess you could
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: say I have been in brown bear country before. Well,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: I I'm excited to talk to you when you get
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: back to hear how this adventure went. I uh, man,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: that that puts us white tail hunters to shame. I'll
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: tell you what. From the from the work required and
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: the uh the adrenaline and the nerves you've got to
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: spend there. Well maybe on that, but I want to
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: go that far. I love white tail hunting too, and
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: it's one of those things. We're growing up in the
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Western United States haven't had a ton of opportunity white tails,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: and and every time I do, I love it. Man.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Something there's something about white tail hunting that that obviously
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: you you know more than I do. But it's awesome. Yeah,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: it is a lot of fun. And I'm actually going
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: to be combining my love for white tails and my
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: love for your state of Montana this coming fall. I'm
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: actually gonna I'm doing white tail hunting and outside of
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Boseeman this year. All right on, man, Yeah, Montana's kind
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: of a sleeper white tails state. Uh, we we got
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: you know, We're so fortunate that so many animals to hunt,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: and elk are obviously the the prized possession, that white
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: tails kind of go under the radar, and we actually
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: have some really, really awesome white tail hunting out here,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: so that'll be sweet. Yeah, that's what I keep hearing.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: And I love that part of the country so much,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: and I was like, you know what I keep hearing.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: You know, there's some white tails out there, why not
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: why not give it a try? So I'm gonna go
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: out there. I'm actually living out there for a month
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: this summer with my wife so and doing a little
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: scouting out there and then um hopefully find some public
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: land or get permission on something, and give it a
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: shot in September with a bow. So that's my game.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Are you are you gonna hunt elk too? I hope
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: I am gonna hunt elk? Well, I think I'm gonna
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: be hunting elk Um. It's a little bit up in
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: the air, but if I do, it may not be
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: in Montana, it might be an Idaho, got it um,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: So those plans are still up in the air. But
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: but it looks like I'm gonna have a long chunk
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: of time away from home out in the mountains one
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: way or the other. So I'm looking forward to that. Yeah,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: I've been hunting out the past few years in Idaho
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: and and have definitely gotten that in my blood. So
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: I imagine if I grew up out there, I would
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: be a complete elk nut, no doubt about it. Yeah. Well,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: I hope the white tail hunt goes good out here.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: We'll have to connect definitely out here for sure, because uh,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: because that'll be that'll be awesome. Yeah, Yeah, I'm stoked.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm already I've got serious. Well, like I mentioned,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: we're going out there for the summer, so I already
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: have summer ritis in about a month, we're moving out west,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: so I'm just like itching to get out there and
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: start hiking and fishing and scouting for the hunts. And oh,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be good. But I guess kind of related
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: to that, Jeff, It's kind of funny. Um. One of
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: the reasons why I've got such summer rights and why
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about going out west so much is because
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: I've been doing a bunch of reading about kind of
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: conservation history and about you know, the wildlife and what
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: it used to be like in different parts of the
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: country back you know, hundred fifty two hundred years ago.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: I read a really really great book called I think
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: it's called The American Serengetti. Oh. Man, I just listened
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: to uh podcast with Stephen Ronnella in the net year
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: and he had what's the author's name of that I'm
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: spacing it now, Yes, Dan Flores. Yeah, that podcast was amazing, man,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: And uh, it was so interesting to me. Yes exactly.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: I heard that podcast and I was fascinated, and I
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: immediately went on Amazon bought his book and I read
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: it in the last like two or three days, and
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: it was terrific. I mean, one of my favorite books
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: I've read, like both from it just purely interesting and
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: fascinating thing just to hear about the wildlife, but also
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: from like as a hunter understanding what was here, you know,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: before we arrived and then kind of what some of
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: our our ancestors actions led to um too, And then
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: I guess also then what some of our ancestors did
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: after that too to return us to a time of
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: relatively plenty when it comes to wildlife and wild places.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: So it's really interesting, fascinating book. Highly recommend anyone read it.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: But the point of me bringing it up is that
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: it has just got me re jazzed and re pumped
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: up and excited about trying to make a difference from
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: a conservation standpoint moving forward. I think we talked once,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: I don't know when this was Jeff Um, but just
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: talked about kind of like I think both of ours
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: our journeys as a hunter. Right, You become a hunter,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: and you go through this journey as a hunter. But
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: then I think at some point a lot of us
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: end up realizing how much this means to us, how
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: much wildlife, wild places, the opportunity to hunt, how much
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: that means to us, And eventually it leads us to
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: want to give back in some way. And so I'm
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: definitely at that place us in my life where I'm
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: trying to find ways to do that. And you know,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: from the previous conversations we've had. It sounds like you
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: have recently been in a place like that too, which
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: has led to this organization two percent for conservations. So
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: I guess, I guess I'm curious, Jeff, before we actually
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: go into what this organization is and what you actually did,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: I kind of want to hear about your journey that
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: I kind of highly glossed over my case. But what
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: how did you end up being inspired to try to
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: do more or to do something like this? Yeah, you know,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: it's a great question, and I as as all your
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: life experiences kind of create who you are, I haven't
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: spent a whole lot of time thinking about it, so
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: it's it's really an interesting exercise to do. But but
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I grew up um. I grew up in northern California
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: and my in a in a family that was sustained
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: from commercial cattle ranching, um which it gave us the
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: benefit of having access to hunt on private land, and
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: and everybody in my family it was just kind of
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: a tradition, right. My grandfather loved to hunt and he's
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: a hunter, and all my uncles and cousins, so so
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: it was just kind of what we did. So from
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: a young age, I was I had opportunities to hunt. Um.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Where we were in northern California, we have blacktailed deer
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: uh and a lot of wild pigs, So I really
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: grew up deer hunting. But but really pig hunting became
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: such an awesome opportunity. That's what kind of got me
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: into bow hunting, because it's a year round season and
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: uh and and there's just tons of them and and
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: through that then, uh, you know from circumstances that that
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: we're just nothing other than lucky. I ended up getting
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: a job out of college working at Sitka when it
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: was still a very small company, uh and just getting
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: off the ground. And through through my role at SITA,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: I really got connections and started to learn more about
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: conservation organizations. And I'd always I'd always known of you know,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: the of RMYF and generally through my family and experiences hunting,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: I knew what conservation organizations did, but but didn't have
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: a deep understanding of the impact they had. And and
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: through my work at STICK, I really started to learn
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: more about what that was and how important they were,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: uh and the challenges that that they had from a
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: fundraising standpoint, and and really how much work it went
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: in and the passion and the time that that the
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: organization has depended on to be successful. And and I
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: think through that journey, that's that's kind of you know,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: high level, real quick story really where my mind has
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: has evolved into thinking about what we can do more
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: as an industry, as individuals, as businesses too to support
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: these conservation groups. Yeah, and so so you got to
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: a place where you maybe you knew you want to
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: do something more. I think, if if I remember correctly,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: there was a specific event or time that actually then
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: sparked an idea for a specific type of organization. Is
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: that right? Yeah, Yeah, totally there was. So I think
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: it was too that I could get this wrong, but
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: I think it was two thousand and thirteen. Uh q
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: d m A, the Quality Deer Management Association, which which
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you're familiar with, had had what they called,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: I think they called it at the time, the White
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Tailed Deer Summit, or maybe it was just the Deer Summit,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: but it was in uh it was in Missouri. And
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: what they did with the summit it was really cool.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: They brought in a whole bunch of different key stakeholders
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: from the hunting industry, They had a big conference generally
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: about the state of the hunting industry, the state of conservation,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: and then obviously focused a bit on whitetail deer and
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: the challenges we have UH and and current events and issues.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: And then they broke what was cool, they broke all
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: these different stakeholders out the groups with objectives and we
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: had these I think it was two days worth of
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: meetings in these stakeholder groups which were made up of
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: you know, one stakeholder group was biologists. They had one
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: that is like media. They had one which was a
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: group I sat in that was industry and I was
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: the representing sick at the time. So it was a
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: bunch of manufacturers and brands and retailers UH. And then
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: they had a breakout group of hunters that they invited.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: So the theme was that what they wanted to do
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: was have these different stakeholder groups brainstorm together and prioritize UH.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: They're they're you know, top concerns or priorities that need
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: to be addressed as an industry as a whole, and
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: with a big learning What kind of came out of
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: our group as as the industry group was was there
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: were a couple of things, But one of the top
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: ones that stuck with me was what can we do
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: as as an industry, as profitable businesses relying on hunting
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: and fishing as a consumer base, what can we do
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: more to support conservation groups and UH? And through that
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: we brainstorm some ideas and kicked it around, but that
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: really stuck with me, and so much of that on
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: my flight home and I travel home, I really couldn't
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: stop thinking about it. We're just hit home that the
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: shoot man has got to be there's gotta be away,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: or there's gotta be a mechanism or something that we
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: could do collectively as a huge industry. I mean you
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: look at all the businesses and hunting and fishing across
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: I mean it's it's it's a huge industry, tons of jobs,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: tons of revenue. What can we do underneath one umbrella
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: as an industry to do more to support conservation Because
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: the reality is if hunting and fishing were to disappear,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: all of our businesses UH wouldn't exist, and we wouldn't
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: have customers. If we're selling a hunting and fishing product,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: we wouldn't have customers. If hunting and fishing that exists anymore,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: so so that was kind of that one event where
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: that started that was really kind of the birth of
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: two percent for conservation. I went down this journey from
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: then on of of trying to figure out what the
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: heck we could do? Is there something we could do?
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: And where we've landed today is is with with this
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: organization to conservation. Yeah, it's interesting. Also coming out of
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: that dear summit you mentioned, the National Deer Alliance was started,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: and I actually work with the National Deer Line, so
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: both of us had something that came out of that summit.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: Interestingly enough, it turns out that was a profitable event
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: that he didn't make put in successful. Yeah, that that
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: you're exactly right. They spawned from that. I think was
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: shortly after that event that that they were going to
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: form the NDA and this was going to be be
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: kind of the organization for all that represent all deer species. Yeah,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: and I can tell you from a behind the scenes standpoint,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: it has been a a long and interesting road of
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: trying to get that organization up off the ground. And
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: there's I only work kind of in an ancillary type
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: of way. I kind of consult and help with some
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: digital things. But it's been interesting to see all that
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: goes into building the foundation of a group like that
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: that's working with so many different stakeholders and trying to
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: do some really big, exciting things. But I think we're
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: now at a point that some really good exciting stuff
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: is coming. So I'm excited that it will be some
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: things happening here in the coming weeks and months. Just
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: for those of you who have heard me talk about
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: the NBA before, keep your eyes out. There's gonna be
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: some stuff coming that I think will be really positive
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: for all deer and all deer hunters. So that said,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: I digress. Jeff, you mentioned coming out of that event,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: this that kind of helped catalyze this idea. Tell me
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: about the idea. Tell me about where it went from that.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: You're on the airplane, you're inspired, you have this idea.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: What happens next when you're trying to start an organization
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, Well, at that point I didn't really
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: even know what the idea was. I kind of knew
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: conceptually what what the objective would be and what the
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: problem that that I thought there was an opportunity to
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: address was. Um, but I kind of really just started,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: you know, doing a lot of a lot of Google
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: research right of where there were parallels and other industries
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: of of certain concepts or certain ideas that that that
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: have tried to address and approach the similar problems. Uh.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: And I you know research some of the ones that
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: stand up that I remember looking at were were some
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: check off programs so that our culture and just right
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: coming from my background in and cattle ranching, the beef
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: checkoff program was was one that that I was like, oh,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: that's an interesting concept where where industry businesses have come
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: together and funded and pulled together money to launch a
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: marketing campaign per se. Right. And that's where if you're
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: not from the beef checkof program, but that's kind of
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: that's what created the beef It's What's for dinner campaign? Right,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: And there's they're similar ones with with milk, the got
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Milk commercials that were so popular for a while, with
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: you know, with the milk mustaches and all this on
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: all the different celebrities or public figures. That was a
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: check off program from the dairy industry. So I did
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: a little bit of research on those and and there
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: were some parallels there. I also looked at, you know,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: kind of the recycling campaign which has become such a
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: standard now and people are so used to seeing the
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: recycling symbol on products. Um. There's another organization called the
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Rainforest Alliance that that I learned about, and they their
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: focus was was around I'm probably gonna screw this up,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: but a lot of where you see their campaigns around
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: coffee and coffee producers and making sure that the manufacturers
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: and producers to coffee are not destroying rainforests. Um. But
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: then the one the one organization that came across that
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: then ended up being kind of our our driver and
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: relearned a lot from was one Percent for the Planet
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: and one Percent for the Planet is is an organization
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: that still exists today and it is very successful and
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: was started by Van Nard, who's the founder of Patagonia,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: along with a guy named Craig Matthews who owns a
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: fly shop here in Montana and West Yellowstone. And the
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: concept of their organization was was that businesses would would
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: essentially do a self imposed tax where they would give
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: back one percent of sales to UH two environmental causes
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: back to the planet, right, which is where the naming
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: came from. And UH and I and when I first
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: came across one percent to planet and started learning more
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: about it. The more and more I asked questions and
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: read and researched, it made a lot of sense for
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: the hunting and fishing community, and it was kind of
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: that light bulb moment of of holy crap, this this
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: is this is good. This makes a lot of sense,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: and I think this could have a huge impact on
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: hunting and fishing. Um. So that that that's really when
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: I got kind of got a kick start and some motivation.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: I'm going down a specific path rather than just kind
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: of you know, having a big idea cloud. Yeah. That
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: that's that's the big leap to when you go from
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: the idea cloud to actually the real thing and now
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: you can take action. Yeah exactly, So did you? I
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: don't know. It just seems like such a crazy idea
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: to think of an idea like this and then actually
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: be able to put an action and do it. Was
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: that like, did you really think you could do it?
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: Or was it kind of this crazy idea and you
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: thought maybe I'll tell somebod about this and they could
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: do it. Or did you just know from the get
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: go yeah I can do this. Uh No, I didn't.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that And I don't think I ever
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: had a not like I speak of I've ever had
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: I like yep, this is we're gonna you know, this
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: is it, I'm gonna do it tighten moment. What I
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: guess what really happened was I started uh, asking questions
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: right with with people that knew more than I did,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: people that had more knowledge of the industry than I did.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: And and one of the guys that that's helped me
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: a ton down the road that one of the first
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: people I went to was was Randy Newburgh Um. For
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: a couple of reasons, I've known Randy Um. He lives
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: here in Bozeman, We've developed a relationship over the years,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: and he's, uh, he's involved and knowledgeable in the world
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: of conservation in a way that that I am not.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: So that's he was one of the first people I
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: just was like, Hey, Mandy, I got a crazy idea.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: I want to run this off you. What do you
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: think you know? And and that and uh and I
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: did that with a handful of people, and generally the
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: response from everybody was super positive and yeah, this is
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: this makes a lot of sense. Let's this this needs
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: to happen, right And I think after collectively hearing hearing
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: that enthusiasm, uh, you know, from from people who I
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: respective and I thought had had a good perspective on
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: on the industry and the need that was kind of
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: what what kept my motivation going of Okay, so now
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: what's what's the next step? Look like? What do we
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: have to do to to move this down the path?
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: If if generally I feel confident that that people smart
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: people are are on board and see an opportunity for this,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: then how do we keep it going? Yea, So how
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: do you keep it going? What happened next? I'm loving
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: I'm loving this like it's like a nonprofit entrepreneurs journey.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by it right Yeah, which, which I'll aggress
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: for a minute. Which is interesting because I've always I've
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: always had a desire to own my own business or
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: start my own business, and you know, I've always assumed
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: it would be something that would be profitable. So to
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: have put so much time and passion into something that
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: will make me no money has been interesting mental conflict
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: in itself. But I know there's a better cause there.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: It'll it'll it'll pay dividends in the future in different ways.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: It'll come back to. But but yeah, so next, I mean,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: what was cool was one of the questions I had,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: or what Randy came back for was, was was, well,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Craig Matthews, this guy that started one percent for the
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: Planet with the Vachnard, lives in West Yellowstone, which is
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: only a hour and a half drive from Bozeman. And
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: I was like, does anybody I know know him? And
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Randy was like, I know some people that know him,
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: and and we, uh, it was kind of cool. We
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: we kind of we pretty much cold called him and said, hey, hey, Craig,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: you don't know us, but what you people want to
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: have lunch with us? And we picked brain and run
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: something by you and uh, and we did just that.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: So Randy and I drove down and and met Craig
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: and Nis Montana, which is about halfway between and and
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: at that point we didn't even really have a really
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: formalized concept yet. It then then this is what we
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: think we could do. Um. And we sat down and
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: had lunch with Craig and he was super nice, helpful dude.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Um typical Montana. Loved to fish. You owned sup fly shops,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: so obviously love to fish, appreciate, respects, hunting and hunters,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: and he was and he was more than willing to
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: share information with us, a very philanthropic guy, UM that
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: that generally is passionate, wants to make the world a
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: better place, wants to help wildlife and uh. And that
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: was really refreshing. And that opened Randy and eyes eyes
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: to a lot of things about one percent for the
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Planet and the organization that we didn't we didn't realize
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: that we didn't know UM. And it turns out in
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: hindsight looking back, that that was a very helpful conversation
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: and that got us down down a path where where
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: we truly started working our organization and framing it around
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: the same kind of template and business model at one
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: percent for the Planet has and we actually started with
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: the working name of the organization as one percent for Conservation,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: which which we can get into two because as you
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: noticed now our name is different twice as good, twice
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: as good, right, and that and that and that became
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: that came out of a lot of feedback that we had,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: so we we've really started building the organization one percent
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: for Conservation. You know, worked with a good buddy of mine, Brent,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: who is on on the board. UM he's a c
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: p A here in town. I you know, I started
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: doing my normal Google research. I feel like I'm a
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: Google expert. Right, you can learn a lot from Google,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: but I don't know if it's always the best resource.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: But but we needed to get five one C three
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: status from my RS to start a nonprofit. Right that
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: that's kind of like, you know, if you're doing a
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: profitable business, you have to incorporate it. You're starting nonprofit,
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: you gotta do. You have to get a termination from
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: IRS that you're a legitimate five one C three and
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: and uh and I was like, I could do this,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: you know, it's probably just a form that you had
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: to fill out. Well, it turns out it's a lot
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: more work than that. Uh So I recruited my buddy Brent,
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: who who I met from sitting on the local board
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: of a Mule Deer Foundation chapter here in Bozeman. He's
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: the treasurer for that. And I said, hey, man, any
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: chance you want to help me figure out how to
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: do this? And there's my idea. And and I looked
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: at the five O one C three form and it's
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: it's giant, and it's daunting, and I have no clue
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: or to start and uh, and he said yeah, and
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: he essentially did the you know, help volunteers time to
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: go through the process and do that. And so that
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: was a big step. And then after then, after that,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: it's an eight hundred dollar fee to file that. I
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: was kind of committed and they'll do it right, And
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: so I took, you know, eight hundred dollars out of
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: my savings, which which my wife wasn't super stoked on,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: but she had faith in me. And then you know,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: from then on I had skin in the game at
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: least to keep it going. Yeah. Bet, so maybe we
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: should we should. I've been kind of building the suspense here.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: We haven't really said too much in detail about what
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: two percent for Conservation is is exactly doing You've we've
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: kind of alluded to a little bit talking about one
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: percent for the planet. But but now you've got this
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: new name two percent for Conservation, which if you want
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: to elaborate again, why you change the name, you can,
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: But I also would be curious just to start hearing
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: a little bit more. Okay, so what what did you
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: end up finally finally settling on as to what this
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: group is going to do? Yeah? So, um so, to twofold, right,
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: So the problems and the issues that came out of
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: that white tail someone at qt m A were we're
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: kind of twofold. In my mind it was it was one,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: how do we help fund in geos? NGOs is an
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: acronym for non governmental organizations, which which are all your
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: kind of five one C three C four conservation groups. So, um,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: they're not your state. So there's there's kind of two
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: different avenues and wildlife conservation. Right. There's your state and
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: federal agencies, right, the department official game for each state,
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: and then there's the Elk Foundations of the world and
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: the New Oldier Foundations and q d A s and
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: the world who are who are non governmental organizations? Right?
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: And so what we came out of that was, Okay,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: how do we help get more money to those organizations? Um?
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: And then in my mind secondary it was, and this
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: kind of comes from my experience at SICCA and also
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: my affinity as a consumer for certain hunting brands, is
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: how do we provide recognition for businesses who are committed
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: to giving back to conservation? Right? Um? Because I truly
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: believe there's value there, there's value for brand to market
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: that and there's there's consumers who do appreciate that like
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: I would. I would totally rather buy products from companies
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: who are philosophically aligned with with my beliefs and supporting
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: conservation than ones who are. UM. So that was kind
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: of the big takeaways of what we're gonna do. And
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: and you know, one percent for the planet. Their model
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: did that very well. Um. And when I started talking
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: about how this would fit into the hunting and fishing world, um,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: it made a lot of sense. And that a business
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: would be certified by our organization two percent of a
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: conservation that they do meet certain criteria. Uh. And with
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: with that certification, then they could use the logo the
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: two percent of the conservational logo on their products to
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: promote their commitment to conservation to two consumers. So at
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: the highest level, that's kind of what we do as
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: an organization is certify that businesses do meet criteria that
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: we define of giving back to conservation. Okay, and so
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: taking a step back your your template, your inspiration for
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: this was one percent for the planet, and you might
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: have mentioned this If I missed, I apologize, but just
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: to clarify what they do the way that they qualify
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: the brands that are part of one percent for the planet,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: is that that company is to donate. Increpit my if
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: I'm wrong, but it's one percent of revenue or rump
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: center that it's one percent of sales or gross revenue,
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: however you want to define it. But it's your top
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: line revenue, you know, so as your as your businesses
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: tax or turn you gotta report revenue income. It's one
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: percent of that. So it's gross gross sales. Okay. So
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: a company donates one percent of gross sales to certified
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: NGOs that support the environment of the planet or whatever,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: and then they can get stamped with a one percent
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: for the Planet kind of brand and and they qualify
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: and hey, these you know that organization is qualified as yes,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: they really are doing positive things for for the Earth,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: et cetera. So then exactly, so then you guys, you
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: took this idea and so that makes less sense. But
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: you know, how can we make it better? How can
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: we apply it to the hunting and fishing world? So
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: how did you do that? Jeff? Yeah, So so that's right.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: So one of the through my conversations and learnings with
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: with a bunch of different people organizations. The thing that
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: came up beyond money, right, so you're one person of
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: sales is essentially money that's going to go help fund
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: these these conservation groups. UM. I heard feedback that arguably
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: time was more valuable for conservation groups than money. Right Now,
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: some people might debate that, but the fact is time
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: and money are the two most important things that conservation
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: groups need to be successful in achieving their mission work. Right,
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: they need volunteers. Conservation isn't just a concept, right, Conservation
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: is is actually doing on the groundwork, be it with
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: wildlife and poor habitat or or both. Right. So, so yes,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: you need you need money to help fund that work,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: but you need volunteers to to actually do the work. Um.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: And that is where our second one percent comes from,
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: and kind of the slow aget that with branded our name,
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: our naming convention as as we mentioned, is two percent
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: for conservation, and that is defined by committing to give
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: back one percent of your time plus one percent of
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: your money. Is it equals two percent for conservation. So
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: that's that's kind of how we've evolved that model and
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: that foundation that one percent for the planet built, and
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: we believe that makes the model even more impactful and
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: stronger for fish and wildlife conservation groups. Yeah. Absolutely, And
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: I love the idea. When I first heard about this,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: I I like, I genuinely got like physically excited, Like
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: I was like, Yes, I was like, this is a
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: great idea. This makes all the sense in the world
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: because because there are you know, there are so many
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: hunters and anglers out there who care about this type
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: of thing. And I think that there are many companies
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: that care about this type of thing. But to your point,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure all those companies that are actually doing
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: good things are being recognized. And I'm not sure if
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: maybe there are some companies out there that aren't doing
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: things that need a little bit of additional incentive maybe
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: to push them in the right direction. This seems to
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: do both of those things, UM in a really positive way.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: So can you can we start diving into the details here?
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: Can you tell me for businesses? First off, how exactly
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: do they get involved and what does this mean for them? Yeah?
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: Of course, so so businesses, Uh, they have to meet
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: the minimum criteria, right, and that criteria is is defined
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: by UM. What I think we've done a pretty good
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: job of saying is one percent of your sales. So
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: if you give back one person of your sales to
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: conservation groups, that's one half of the criteria. Now there's
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: a lot of questions I've arisen from that, So what
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: do you What is defines giving back and what defines
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: conservation groups are the two the two most needed clarification points.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: So giving back is is we define it as if
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: your business is foregoing proceeds for that conservation group's mission work. Right,
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: and it is the easiest way to look at at
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: the highest level, so that could be product donations. Right.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: So a lot of these groups, their traditional funding mechanism
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: is is the banquets that we are all familiar with
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: of going to to the local or regional uh Mulear
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Foundation banquet and they have a bunch of products for sale. Well,
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: that product comes from somewhere, right, It comes from these
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: businesses that either donated or sell it at a lower
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: costs so the conservation group can resell it and raise funds.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: So those proceeds for gone from that for your business,
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: that that counts as a contribution and conservation those are
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: hugely important and critical to the fundraising of conservation groups. Um.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: Other things that count are are obviously direct donations. But
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: but things that are often overlooked or our sponsorships and
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: advertisements with conservation groups. So so how conservation groups have
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: evolved over the years to raise funds or to offer
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: corporate sponsorships. So so x business wants to work with
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: with this etain with q d M A. Well, q
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: d M A will say, hey, yeah, this is great you.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: We'll do a sponsorship package with you where we will
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: give you a print at in our magazine, We'll do
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: an email blast, We'll we'll try to help promote your
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: brand as much as we can. Well that that's a
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: contribution to conservation too. Even though it's a marketing investment
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: for your brand, that's important for conservation groups and necessary
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: funds for them to achieve their mission. Other things are
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: exhibiting at a at a conservation groups trade show. Right
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: trade shows are consumers shows for some conservation groups or
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: are some of the biggest fundraising events. Um. One that
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: comes to mind that that we have stick exhibit out
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: every year as the wild Sheet Foundation. They have a
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: show and reno every year and they have everything you know, businesses, brands, outfitters,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: but a bunch of vendors, but that is a huge
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: fundraising mechanism for them, so committing to go to that
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: show as a business to work with them as a
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: contribution to help them raise funds. So so collectively, when
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: you start to look at all the different things you
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: do as a business, it's it becomes, uh, it's an
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: interesting exercise and there's a lot of opportunity for you
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: to promote your brand through your contributions, which is a
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: huge advantage that that I think we as hunting and
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: fishing industry have over over you know, one percent for
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: the planet and they're try to get demographic. So so
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: that's one one. That's the first part of it. You
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: have to prove that your company gives back one percent
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: of sales. And then the second part of it is
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: one percent of time. And we based that off of uh,
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: you know, there's there's roughly two thousand and eighty work
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: hours in the year, so one percent of that is
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: it is approximately twenty one hours. And it's collectively as
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: a business, whether you have one employee or whether you
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: have a hundred employees, collectively does year does year business
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: give back twenty one hours of volunteer time? And why
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: this is so important outside of outside of the need
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: of of conservation group to have more volunteers and more
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: man hours, but it gets those businesses involved, right. So
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: I don't think it's appropriate to say it's easy to
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: write a check, but arguably any business can just write
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: a check, and that isn't as impactful as saying, hey,
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: not only do we write a check, but we're going
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: out and we're getting involved and we're doing a river
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: cleanup project, or we're you know, we're doing a finch
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: removal project, or we're doing whatever that is. We're doing
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: more than just writing a check, and we're showing our
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: commitment is deeper than that and we're passionate enough to
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: go out and get our hands dirty for for the
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: conservation cause as well. What I love about this is that, yeah,
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: let's say twenty one hours, that can make a big difference.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: But let's say you get someone out there maybe in
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: the past hasn't been willing to get their their hands
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: dirty or do something like that. I think just by
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: getting giving people a little incentive to get out and
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: do some of these things a little bit more, there
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: seems to be like an exponential factor of growth beyond them,
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: like a ripple effect where that person realized, hey, this
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: didn't make an impact, this is a great thing I
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: can get involved in, and that person influences their network,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: who influences their network. And I feel like, if you know,
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: more and more companies get involved in things like this,
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: the effect that can have is is pretty profound, I
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: feel like, and it's something that again, like you said,
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: money is of course important, but it takes boots on
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: the ground, it takes action, it takes time and energy,
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: and this is a pretty cool way of helping people
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: get that extra nudge that yes, this is a great
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: thing and it can it can benefit all of us
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: the wildlife habitat and then also your business in a
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: way too. Yeah, exactly, And I think I think you
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: can make a good point there. I hope that and
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: time will tell us as we get this organization going
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: and we learned. But I hope that twenty one hours,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: once businesses commit to that, I think, and I hope
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: what they'll find is they're good, They're actually volunteered much
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: more than that, um uh, not even just the ripple effect,
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: but but just beyond that, you know, yeah, I kind
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: of wish you could have a higher our count just
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: because twenty one hour seems so achievable, but at the
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: same time it's it makes a lot of sense. It
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: helps people, It feels achievable so that people want to
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: get involved. And I think once you get that foot
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: in the door, I think I'm guessing that you will
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: have a lot of organizations and people involved in those
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: organizations who get started and then who just want to
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: do more. So I think that'll be that'll be great.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: And I guess I want to I want to emphasize again,
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: in order for this, at least this is my assumption.
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: You tell me if I'm wrong, But in order for
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: this to work right, if if we say, if we
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: tell explain to a business, hey, if you do this
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: and this, you know we're going to help you better
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: demonstrate to your consumers into people out there that you
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: are giving back to conservation, that you do care about
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: these greater things. But the most important onus really is
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: on us as the consumers, because we need to prove.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: We need to prove this out right by saying we
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: the buyers of products, we do care if X company
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: is actually working to a larger positive, a larger good.
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: We do care if WHY company is given back their
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: time and money. And the way we do that is
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: by telling them but then also most importantly telling them
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: whether our wallets right, we actually need to use this
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: as a part of our consumer choice. Yeah, that that's
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: exactly right. That this model is completely reliant on us
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: as sportsmen and women demanding that that businesses are involved. Right.
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: And we do that by by getting active on social media,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: by talking about conservation, by showing our appreciation for it.
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: But but yes, by then purchasing products from companies who
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: do give back to conservation. And that's that's the that's
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: what makes the circle go go around. Um. And you
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: can feel good as a consumer by doing that because
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: you go out and buy a new bow next year.
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: If if you buy a boat from a company that's
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: a member of two percent for conservation, you know, you
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: know that that a portion of that sale of what
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: that check you're right into the boat shop is is
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: going back um to a conservation costs. Yeah. I almost
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: feel like, you know, once it's and I hope and
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: I feel confident that a will once it gains steam
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: and more and more companies you know, get involved, I
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: hope this becomes just a plan out pre wreck. Like
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: if you want to be involved in the outdoor hunting
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: and fishing industry, you just have to be part of
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: two percent for Conservation because hunters and anglers demand that
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: the companies that produce their gear also are doing larger
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: positive things to make sure that we can hunt and
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: fish and have wildlife and wild places in the future.
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: I think us as individuals we need to be doing
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: that too, and I think we should we should expect
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: the same thing from the companies that are that are
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: profiting from it too. And and and then by saying that,
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: I'm including myself in that too, Right, I run a
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: business in the hunting and fishing world. I too feel
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: like my business and myself should be held to those
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: kinds of standards. And I love the fact that two
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: percent for Conservation is a way to do that in
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: a positive way. Yeah, And I think, yeah, I totally agree,
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: and I think that's a great and I do want
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: to point out um to that point, and especially because
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: I used an archery company as an example, is is
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: we have a history of doing this as as sportsman right.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: The Pittman Robertson Act, which was voted in by Sportsman
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: and written up by Sportsman seven is is exactly that,
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: and on a much higher scale where I think now
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: it's eleven percent of guns, ammunition, archery and archery equipment
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: sales go back to funding state fish and wildlife agencies.
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: So so that model exists, that model is successful, and
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: it's already embraced by consumers, sportsman and by by businesses.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: So you know, to give archery companies credit even if
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: they're not members of two percent for Conservation, they are
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: already the ones responsible uh for for funding our state
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: and fish and wildlife agencies. Right, um, so so that's
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: really important. I think what's cool about the two percent
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: for Conservation model is is it takes that same him
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: uh standard and stay in philosophy and it helps us
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: raise money for the ngeos. So whereas the Pittman Robertson
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: Act is strictly focused on on state and federal wildlife management,
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: this is this is a way for businesses one to
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: to do a similar thing but help ngeos. And then
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: to the cool thing about this model is, as a business,
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: do you have the choice to invest and contribute your
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: money to whoever you want? Where the Pittman Robertson Act
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: goes into a fund that is then dispersed by the
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: government and you, as you know Matthew's archery when you
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: write that Pittman Robertson check, you don't necessarily have a
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: say and where it goes. Um, nor does it necessarily
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: help you build your brand through through two percent from conservation.
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: You can invest it in marketing opportunities with specifically conservation
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: groups that you are passionate about. So so there's some cool,
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: cool spinds on it from that spit standpoint. Yeah, definitely. Now,
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: if I own a business right now and I'm listening
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: to this, what do I do to get my business involved? So?
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: Uh So, our our website is Fish and Wildlife dot org.
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: So the easiest way to get in contact with us
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: is to go to our website. We have a lot
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: of information that that you know is specifically about the
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: things we've been discussing on this on this podcast. Um,
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: but you need to get a hold of us and
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: we uh, we need to go through the certification process.
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: And the certification process is so important to to our
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: model because uploads upholds the integrity of what we're doing. UM,
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: that we need to we need to have a serious
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: conversation and I'll look at who you've contributed to what
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: those contributions are, what they add up to to make
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: sure they truly are one percent of your sales. And
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: then and then look at your volunteer time and what
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: you're doing. Uh, and it makes sure that there's twenty
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: one hours there. And then I guess the caveat that
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: we obviously have mentioned we as an organization need funding
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: as well. That's how that's how it works and uh.
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: And so then there's a there's a membership fee, right,
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: so you get certified and then you pay an annual
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: membership feed. The membership fee is what we run the
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: overhead for a two per cent conservation and that that's
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: essentially your licensing fee to then be a certified member,
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: and then you're able to use the two percent of
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: conservation will ago to help promote your commitment back. Awesome.
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: Now as I understand it, there's actually a component to
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: this those relevant not just to businesses but also individuals,
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: which is a pretty unique thing. Can you can you
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: tell us more about that? Yeah, for sure, so that
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: there definitely is exactly correct and it's it was one
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: h This component of what we've built into organization came
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: from direct feedback from from Craig Matthews with one percent
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: for the plant. This is one of those little nuggets
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: and information that we got that was I was super
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: helpful and informative. And the question I asked him, one
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: of the questions I asked him was okay, this I mean,
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: you know, at the time, my mind was blowing. I
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: was like, this is amazing. But if you could have
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: done something different, what would it have been? And he
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: said that we would have built in our structured a
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: way for individuals to be involved. And what they had
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: learned UM from hearsay right, So obviously hearsay, But what
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: I understand they learned is that as they built this brand,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: consumers and individuals who weren't necessarily affiliated with with any
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: business were so passionate about what they were trying to
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: do as an organization about one percent of the planet
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: that they just wanted to be involved. They wanted to help,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: they wanted to know what they can do, and they
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: didn't really have a mechanism for him to do that. UM.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: So so I took that to heart and we brainstormed
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: a bunch of different ideas in ways that we felt
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: UM would be relevant to hunting and fishing conservation. What
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: we were trying to do and and what kept coming
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: up to the surface was well, there's a ton of
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: people out there that meet our criteria that that volunteer
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: time and contribute money to conservation causes, just the way
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: we are asking businesses to do. Uh. And then likewise,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: there are a ton of people who don't. So how
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: how can we one do the same thing, recognize the
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: people that do, and to encourage other people who aren't
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: necessarily involved, who are at that stage in a hunting
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: fishing career where they aren't where you and I are,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: like we discussed too ready to give back? How do
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: we encourage them and give them an opportunity to do so. So,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: so what we've done is kind of created this individual
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: certification process where if you are if you are an
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: individual who gives back one percent of your time saying
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: twenty one hours and one person your income whether you
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: make you know, twenty grand year or a hundred and
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: fifty grand year or whatever it is, if you're if
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: you meet those criteria, then in our mind, you are
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: a true conservationist and you deserve recognition for that, and
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: we want we want to help remote uh you for
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: what you've done and and help you know, leverage that
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: to get more people involved. So similar process than two
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: if you do those things that there's a way on
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: the website to start a certification process is yeah. So
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: so we're doing. The certification process for individuals is a
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: little a little different. It's not as as stricter as stringent.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: It's more on the honor system of of yes I
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: do do this, or or no I don't do this,
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: or yes I I want to and we'll commit to
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: doing this. Um and it's free. It's not a membership thing.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: It doesn't necessarily you're not You don't become a member
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: per se to presently conservation. But it's a way for you, uh,
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: to to certify that. Yeah. Yeah, I am. I do
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: give back. I am you know, certified conservationist. I'm doing
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: more than just buying my tags and licenses every year.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: I'm volunteering for the local chapter of d you and
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: I am renewing my memberships to all these different organizations
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: every year. And uh and I'm supporting conservation personally. Um so,
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: so there's no cost, it's free to get certified. We
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: send you a free sticker that that I hope is
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: something that people will be proud to put on their
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: their trucks and their coolers or whatever. Uh. And then
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: you know, as we evolve and get more business members, um,
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: I really hope and envision an opportunity to to do
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: you know, giveaways and promotions and discounts and incentives for
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: these people as as a thank you for for what
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: they've done and they're given back. So one of them
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: that I'm working with sick right now, is can we
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: give away a set of sick of year or two
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: all of our individually certified members, you know, as as
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: a hey, thank you for doing what you do. Here's
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: a cool there's a cool little promotion. So I think
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: we have a lot of opportunity and things we could
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: do with it as we evolve and grow and learn. Um.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: But but just since we turned the website on live
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: and we kind of launched less than a month ago, now,
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: I've been super excited with how many how many people
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: have come to our website and gotten certified as as
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: true conservations. That's awesome. Well, I would definitely encourage anyone
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: listening right now to go do that. If you if
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: you think you already do qualify, go ahead and make
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: sure submit and and do that. But if if you
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: don't quite qualify yet, here's your little nudge to to
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: make it happen. I personally need to do a little
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: better job on my time, So I'm going to make
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: sure I get that full twenty one hours. And I'm
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: excited to be certified from a two percent for conservation standpoint.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: And uh yeah, I think it's I think it's a
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: super cool idea to have this individual option, um, just
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: to get both businesses and individuals involved and thinking about
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: this kind of thing. It just has a lot of
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: a lot of positive ramifications. Now, this is something I
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: was thinking about as you mentioned, it's going back to
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: the business side. How you know what happens? Now? How
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: do you get businesses involved in this? I mean, is
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: it a point where you guys are reaching out and
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: trying to talk to a lot of companies saying, hey,
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: is something you should be involved in? Or is this
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: something that's kind of dependent on us as consumers going
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: out and talking to our company, to our favorite brands
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: and saying, hey, you gotta do this. You know, how
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: does this happen? Yeah? You know that's this is where
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: the rubber meets the road, right, all the work, all
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: the work is now we Um, we're doing a little
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: bit of all that so but but primarily yes, proactively
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: reaching out to two businesses and showing them and explaining
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: to them to what the model is and and our
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: strategy and our standpoint out of the gate is. Okay,
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: Let's let's look at all the companies who are who
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: we believe are already meeting this criteria. And there's a
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: lot of them, right, There are a lot of companies
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: who give back probably more than one percent of their
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: time and their money. Um. So let's let's approach those
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: companies first and have a conversation about Hey, man, I
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: think this will help you get get recognition for what
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: you're doing. And you you don't really have to change.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: You don't have to do anything different. You're not to
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: rage or realign your investment strategy and your marketing strategy.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: You're already meeting the criteria. This is just a multiplier
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: effect to help leverage that commitment more so, I'm hoping
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: we can knock down some dominoes quickly with that. But um,
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: and that's gonna be very valuable. But the real win then,
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: I think will come when companies who aren't necessarily meeting
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: the criteria, who aren't giving back. When now start to
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: see that value build with those brands, that's that's when
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: we will get you know, incremental dollars to conservation once
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: those companies start having those conversations internally of of hey,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: look at look at what you know, such and such
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: brand is done with becoming a member of two percent
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: for conservation. You know, we we really want to be involved.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: We want to be part of that. You know, we
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: need to step up and give more to conservation and
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: get more involved. That's what That's what excites me and
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: when our model will really be impacting conservation, because then
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: then you're getting increminal dollars in you know and growing
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: the pie um. So yeah, so that's kind of what
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: we're doing. We're reaching out the businesses. We've had some
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: awesome conversations already out of the gate um. Personally for
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: me because because I work at SIA and and because
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: SICK has been so helpful and getting this thing off
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: the ground, I really want to get a clothing company
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: on board right away because I want I want to
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: show the world that and I think it will make
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: a strong message to two hunters everywhere and two fishermen everywhere.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: That that, yeah, businesses compete in the marketplace for the
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: products they sell, but but there's certain issues like conservation
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: where we aren't competitors, where we're on the same team
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: and we work together on things. So so for me, um,
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: it's it's going to be really important. I think that
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: it will make a strong statement to the whole industry
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: that yes, you know, these two brands compete and healthily,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: and they should try to compete with selling the products
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: and market but hey, look we're on the same team
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: for this. We're both members of two percent for Conservation.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: We both believe in this cause and are given back. Yeah. Well,
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: I can think of some companies like that that I
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: sure would think would want to and I would hope
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: would want to be involved in something like this. In
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: addition to what's what sounds like some terrific support from SIKA,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: which I'm excited to hear about. Um, so, what what
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: can we do us listening right now? What can we
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: do to help move this cause forward? Well, um, it's
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: a great question. I have so many different ideas. That is,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to quickly prioritize you thinking in my mind
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: what would be most impactful. But you know, we're going
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: to leverage part of our campaign as supercent for Conservation.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: What what we use are the money that we get
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: for overhead for outside of administration stuff is is to
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: build value and to to get to reach customers consumers.
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: Um we as you used it, uh, to understand more
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: about our model what we're doing, because we need customers
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: to value value this and that in turn is what
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: it's going to build the value for business members. If no,
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: if no consumers recognize our logo, then it doesn't necessarily
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: do a business any good to put it on their
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: packaging and their hand tag. If if customers don't, you
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: don't understand the philosophy of what we're trying to achieve
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: and impact that that being a member of super Central
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: Conservation has, then then the value is not there for businesses.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: So so we need help. We're gonna leverage social media
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: a lot because of the low investments and we are
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: a pretty lean and frugal organization at this point, so
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: we could use some help, uh, you know, sharing our
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: mission on social media and getting the word out there.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: The more impressions, the more eyes we can get on
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: our mission and our logo that that's gonna be really
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: important in the next twelve months. Uh and then and
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: then we could use encouragement of the businesses that that
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: you support and appreciate that you think things should be members.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: We want you to to tell if your favorite gun
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: company is Kimber, or your favorite clothing company is First Light,
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: or your favorite bow companies Matthews, whatever it is, it
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: doesn't matter. If we want you to tell your your
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: brands how important conservation is to you as a customer
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: and that you value their commitment and you want them
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: to be involved. Yeah, I want to I want to
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: make a I want to make a request. I don't
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: ask a whole lot, but I'm gonna ask something of
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: everybody listening right now. And I say this, and I
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: don't take this lightly because I don't want to bother
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: people with requests like this too often, but because I
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: think this is so important, I want to ask every
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: single one of you. There's thousands and thousands and thousands
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: of you out there listening right now. I want each
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: of you please think of at least one of your
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: favorite companies. Just pick one to start. At least one
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: of your favorite companies and email them within the next
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: two days about two percent for conservation. And if every
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: one of the you know, fifteen thousand of US emails
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: one company today or tomorrow and says hey, I think
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: you should be involved to present for observation, that could
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: make a huge difference. Can you imagine if even just
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: a hundred companies out of that of the fifteen emails
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: or whatever, if just a hundred of those companies actually
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: decide to take action on this and give back one
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: percent of the revenue in time, what kind of difference
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: that can make for deer and elk and sheep and
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: ducks in wild places and public plans. I mean, that
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: can make a huge difference. So this is my my request,
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: my call to action. All of you you right now,
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: you're listening, make one email today or tomorrow. Please do that.
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: And I think you could make a big difference just
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: with a simple email. Jeff, don't you think that'd be
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: a pretty good thing for each one of these people
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: to do. I love it, man, I love it. I
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: think that. Uh, that's awesome. That's what That's what we need.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: We need. We need companies to start hearing from consumers
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: demanding that they get back and get involved. Yeah, well,
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: I can tell you. I'm going to email every one
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: of our Wired hunt partners tomorrow and give them a
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: little information about two percent and encourage them to get involved.
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: And hopefully we can start there and keep on spreading
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: the good word because I think this is a very positive,
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: positive thing for for the future of hunting fishing, to
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: be honest. So I'm curious, Jeff, what's what's your vision
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: for this five years, ten years down the road from today.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: What's it look like? Oh? Man, Um, that's that's fun
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: for me to think about. And uh, you know, I
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: hope so for a benchmark, um, And don't quote me
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: on these numbers, but they're gonna be close. But one
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: percent for the planet as a benchmark has over two
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: thousand member businesses, and through those businesses and their ten
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: years or twelve years of existence, their claim is that
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: they've funneled over a hundred million dollars to environmental causes,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: which which think about that for a minute. That's that's awesome, staggering,
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: that's huge. Um, Now, what can we do? I think
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: I think and this may be it may sound a
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: little pompous of me, but I think as sportsmen and sportswomen.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: What I've learned working on the hunting industry for for
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: the last seven years is there there isn't very any
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: many more niche demo graphics that are more passionate than
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: than hunters and fishermen. Uh. And that makes me really
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: excited to think about because I feel like we we
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: can make we can achieve those similar metrics. Right. Um
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: I think there's there's a huge opportunity for for what
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: we can do in hunting and fishing. We have a
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: history hunter and fishermen have a history of of taking
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: things next level, owning them and really making a huge impact. Um. So,
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: So I think you know, when not too long ago,
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: maybe Sick said man, I'd be stoked to get out
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: of the first twelve months, uh, twenty member businesses in
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: the first year and uh and I think I said,
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty individual certifications or something and uh
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: and I think we've blow that out of water now,
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: just after having having launched for for three weeks now
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: in the response we've dot so I'd like to achieve
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: that first. If we can get twenty member businesses in
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: the first year, I'd be stoked. But but I'm I
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: think we could kill that and throw and blow that
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: out of water, and in five years, hopefully, five ten years,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: hopefully we're having conversations like like one percent of the
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: planets having now where where we've just had a major
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: impact on conservation. Yeah, that's that's awesome. How do you feel?
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: How does this make you feel? You had this idea,
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: you actually took action on it, and now you're sitting
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: here talking about this organization that's launched and that's actually
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: starting to do something that could be really huge and impactful.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: While what does it feel like to be saying these
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: words now that it's actually real. Well, I'm stoked for
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: the opportunity and to be in the place where we
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: can be talking about it because there's been there's been
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: two years of just behind the scenes work and so
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: the fun you know, this is the fun part to
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: me now to to actually get it out and get
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: the word out there and promote it. But be completely honest,
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: I don't have a lot of confidence yet, just because
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: that's my nature. I know we have a strong model,
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: I know there's everything, all the pieces that are there
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: to make it successful, but but there's a lot of
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: work to do. Man, we got we have a lot
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: of work to do to make it so we can
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: actually say this has been this has been successful. But
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: but I feel super excited and to be at this
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: point now, uh, talking to to you and getting the
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: word out to the world about what we're trying to do,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: because it's it's been a long road coming of of
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: just kind of behind the scenes stuff getting our ducks
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: in a row. Yeah, I cannot imagine all the work
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: that's taken to get to this point and and how
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: much more there is to go too. But it's, uh,
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: it's inspiring to me to hear someone like you um
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: to go out and do something like this. It's it's encouraging,
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: and it's it's great to know that there are people
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: out there who care as much as you do and
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: who are willing to invest with so much of their
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: time and energy into And I know there's a lot
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: of people other than you're doing doing similar things. And
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: I think the more we can grow that that family
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: people that care enough to give back, I think it's
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: just going to continue to be continue to be incredibly
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: important and fruitful. So for people out there that have
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: have wanted to get involved in one way, or another
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: with some kind of organization that want to get back
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: or want maybe they've had an idea for their own organization,
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: or they wanted to get involved with their whatever another
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: organization out there. Do you have any advice for people
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: out there that I feel like they have this calling
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: to give back because of how much hunting or fishing
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: is given to them. What what would you tell people
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: out there? Yeah? I mean, just do it, um, don't.
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: Don't be afraid to fail, don't be afraid to try things. Um. Uh.
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: You know, if if you truly specifically like this situation,
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: have an idea of an organization or a cause or
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: an event or anything that you think to make an impact,
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: you know, consult with with people you respect and that
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: are knowledgeable and and and try it make it happen. Um.
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: You know, don't don't, don't be afraid just to get
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: your toes in the water and dive in and do it. Um.
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: When it comes to specific volunteerism, you know, one thing
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: that has been a surprise to me over the last
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks of getting this thing off
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: the ground is how many people have emailed about our
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: individual certifications saying uh man I am a member of
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: all these different organizations super passionate conservation. But in my
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: particular area, I just don't necessarily I don't know of
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: any volunteer opportunities UM and a lot. And most of
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: these people have come from there there they live in
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: the Midwest or the East Coast. I think we're fortunate.
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: We take it for granted out west, where there's so
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: much public land and so much wildlife that that's just
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: more abundant to have volunteer opportunities. So I guess where
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: I'm going with that is is if you live in
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: one of those areas and you do know of volunteer opportunities, UM,
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: spread the word and get the word out there. Because
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: I don't have an answer to that. That's been one
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: of the surprises to me. The questions have come up.
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: People have emailed saying, how do you know what can
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: I do to get involved? And I'm like, shoot, man,
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: I I don't know if anything in Wisconsin any volunteer oportunities.
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: Let me, I mean ask my resources to try to
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: figure out or find out what I can do. But
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: but UM, but try to network with with people that
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: are like minded like you and and help help facilitate,
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: you know, getting people involved that are ready to do
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: it but don't know how awesome advice. And I think
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: you make a great point. There probably are a lot
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: of people out there who who want to do something
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: but don't necessarily know where the options are. So to
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: your point, you know, work with your network, ask around.
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: There probably are a lot more opportunities than we know about.
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: They're just not well marketed I suppose and put out there.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: So if you do know, yeah, that's that's a great point.
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: Great point. So, man, this is uh, this is exciting stuff, Jeff.
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: And as excited as I am, I know you are
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: probably equally excited and terrified for your coming trip to
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: Alaska chasing coastal brown bears, and I should let you
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: go and prepare for that. So so, Jeff, thank you
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: so much for for a you know, putting your time,
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: energy and money into into doing something like this, and
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: then secondly, thank you for taking the time to chat
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: with us about it and UH and spread the word. Yeah,
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: thank thank you very much for for the opportunity to
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: UH to get the word out there through your platforms. Man,
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. I appreciate your sport. I think. Uh,
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: I think your idea and and your call out to
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: get people to email the companies that that they care about.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: I think that's awesome. I hope, I hope all you
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: listening do do that. Yes, absolutely, again, every one of
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: you please email at least one company, just one with
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: a link to two percent for Conservation and tell them
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: that you think this is something they should get involved
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: in and why it matters to you. And Jeff, what's
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: that you are all again? Uh? It is Fish and
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: Wildlife dot org. Perfect and they can find you, I
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: imagine on Facebook as well. Up Facebook is uh yeah,
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: this two percent for conservation. Instagram is we don't have
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: a lot on there yet, but we're gonna get moving
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: on an Instagram strategy and that will be two percent
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: for conservation as well. But yeah, the website is the
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: best resource now and that's Fish and Wildlife dot org awesome.
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: We will have a link to that on weird hunt
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: as well. And Jeff, I guess until next time. We'll
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: check back in a few years and hopefully we'll have
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: some great success stories to tell us about the great
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: things that the organizations participating in two Percent for Conservation
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: have been able to do. And hopefully I'll have a
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: great bear hunting story to share too. Heck yeah, man,
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: I hope so. I appreciate Mark. Thank you very much.
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: All Right, you're welcome. Have a good one, Jeff, talk
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: to you later. So awesome stuff there, don't you think.
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: As you could probably tell, I'm very excited about two
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: percent and the impact I think it can have in
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: the future, and I hope you are too. That said,
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: a few things before we wrap things up. First off,
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: last week we announced a special giveaway in celebration of
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: our one hundred episode, and today, right now, we're going
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: to announce the winners. So our first prize coming from
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: sick Gear, who was giving away a full early season
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: system that includes an Equinox jack and pant, their core
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: lightweight longsleeve and bottom, and their hangar gloves and a
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: ball cap. I believe the winner of the sick of
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: Gear early season system is Brian Do Close. Brian Do Close,
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: you are the big winner. Congrats man. Next, we have
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: a prize package from Osonics, who's giving away one of
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: their new dry washbags and their kinetic backpack. Too awesome
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: accessors there for your ozonics machine. The winner of that
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: is Dan Spano, Dan Spano or Spano you are the
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: winner of the Ozonics prize package. Next, we've got a
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: fifty dollar gift card and T shirt from Huntera Maps.
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: The winner of that is West Cisco. West Cisco, You've
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: won the Hunter A gift card and T shirt. And finally,
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: Carbon Express is giving away a package of their Maxima
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: Red Arrows and the winner of that is Greg Chris
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: Chris Staffel, Greg Kristoffel, you are the winner of the
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: Carbon Express Maxima Red Arrows. I will reach out to
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: all of you guys via Facebook and connect with you
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: to make sure you can get those prizes right away.
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: Thanks for participating, and thank you to all of you
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: who went out there and commented and shared on our
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: one hundred episode on Facebook. I hope you enjoyed that
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: episode and we certainly appreciate you tuning in for it.
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: So without taking care of we do now also need
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: to thank our partners who helped make this podcast possible
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: so big thanks to sick A Gear, Trophy, Ridge Bear Archery,
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: Redneck Blinds On, Tara Maps, Osonics, Carbon Express, Maven Optics,
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: and the White Tail Institute of North America. And finally,
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: thank you all for joining US. I hope you were
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: inspired by today's conversation and don't forget to send that
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: email to your favorite company. About two percent for conservation,
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: and finally, until next time, stay wired to hunt m