September 24, 2024 • 24 mins
Welcome to HeadHuntersNW Podcast! I'm Shaylene Keiner, an executive recruiter with a passion for the global defense, small arms and shooting sectors. Join me as I sit down with top executives and industry leaders to dive deep into the world of global manufacturing, service companies, non-profits and more. Together, we explore the latest trends, innovations, and the inspiring stories behind the people who drive this dynamic industry forward. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just curious about what makes this world tick, you're in for engaging conversations that go beyond the surface. Let's uncover the fascinating stories and insights that shape the global defense, small arms and shooting sectors. Subscribe now and become a part of our community!
In this episode, Shaylene welcomes Joel Hodgdon, Director of Marketing for RCBS, a part of his family company, Hodgdon Powder. Joel shares insights about his career, the history of RCBS and Hodgdon, and his personal involvement in hunting and shooting. He touches on the collaborative nature of the industry, the importance of quality and innovation in their products, and his family's business philosophy. They discuss the reloading hobby, the company's work culture, hiring practices, and RCBS's commitment to American manufacturing and community support. Joel emphasizes the blend of tradition and innovation that drives their products and relationships in the industry.
Learn more: https://www.rcbs.com/
FIND US:
On the web: https://www.headhuntersnw.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeadHuntersNW/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/headhuntersnw
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:17 Joel's Background and Family Business
03:03 RCBS and Hodgdon Powder History
04:15 RCBS Location and Community
06:43 Hiring and Company Culture at RCBS
08:35 American Manufacturing and Product Quality
12:09 Getting Started with Reloading
16:44 Future Plans and Social Media Presence
20:41 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the podcast from Headhuntersnorthwest.
(00:04):
Headhunters northwest
specializedrecruiting specialized approach
where we take you behind the scenesinto our customers businesses.
For over 20 years, HeadhuntersNorthwest has served the global defense,
small arms and shooting sectors worldwide.
Listen in as we discuss the inner workingsof our USA and international customers.
Headhunters northwestfinding you the best hands for business.
(00:31):
Welcome
to another episode of Head HuntersNorthwest podcast.
Welcome, Joel.
We have Joel Hodgdon,who is the director of marketing
or head of marketing for Rcb's.
Is that right?
You got it. Thanks, Jaylene.
Happy to be here.
And yeah, I'm
director of marketing and I leadthe marketing and product teams for our,
(00:53):
which is these days part of my familycompany at Hodgdon Powder.
Wow. You got.
You have seena lot of change in your short young life.
I mean, but look at all the changesat Hodgdon Powder, and then you've
worked at a lot of other places,so did your family say,
once you're out of that little infantbasket, you're out on your own,
and you have to see if the industryeat you.
(01:14):
Alive before.
Coming back to work for the family.
You know, I'm lucky that I had a chanceto kind of grow up in a fun
industry, right?And be part of a family business.
And, you know, you just soak up some stuffat the dinner table, right?
Like we all do with our parents,whether they're teachers or
plumbers or,you know, running a business or whatever.
So that's kind of how I got my startand certainly how I got excited
(01:36):
about hunting and shooting and reloadingand all the rest.
But because you're a user of the products,I mean, you're out there
using the products.
This isn't just a job for you.
You're out therehunting and doing all kinds of things.
Yes, ma'am.
And I like to joke that I'm really gladmy great grandfather was into this stuff
and not,
you know, plumbing fixtures,because then I'd have to fight
(01:58):
about toilets every day or whatever,right?
So. Right.
Right, exactly.
It's all we sell. Fun, right?
I think, as I've heard, one of mycompetitors put it and he's not wrong, but
but know that that's part of it.
And and yeah, you know, my,my family was very gracious.
And over the years, you know, familieskind of swept the floors
and ran the company
and but, you know, we haven't had a familyCEO at Hodgdon in decades and decades.
(02:21):
And the family's always said, hey,we want the best and brightest
on our management team to go off andrun the business for us, right, as owners.
And and so part of that was the family
not requiring but encouraging meand every other family member to,
you know, hey, if you want to workin the business, awesome.
But you're not getting the job becauseyou got the right last name, right?
Need to go out and experienceand learn a little bit.
(02:43):
And for what it's worth,I'm I'm really glad I did so
I had a great chance to work at phenomenalbrands
and companies like Remington Ammunition,Federal Ammunition,
the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation,and you know, I I'd encourage anybody,
you know, family businessor not going out or spread your wings
and learning a lot from otherfolks is what I do it well.
(03:03):
And I think, you know,a lot of people think a lot of you
and you're humbleand you're very approachable.
And, you know,I think that's something that you find in
most people in our industry.
And I don't see a lot of great big headsgoing through the door.
There are some certainly some greatbig heads, but your family's
been very humble and very approachableand very kind and very involved
(03:27):
and committed to the industry.
This isn't just a business for them.
This is an industry for them.
That's right. Yeah.
And and you know,we've been around the block, Shute Hodgdon
since 1947 and Rcb's since 1943.
And, you know, it's it's a lot of fun.
Just a quick rcb's story, I guess,to kind of illustrate that tenure.
(03:48):
You know, when wewhen we bought the business, when Hodgson
bought Rcb's about four months agoand we dug up an old poster,
and the poster was from the founder, Rcb'sFred Huntington,
and he was part of what they callthe Reloading Roadshow.
So Fred got together with some otherbig industry names, and everyone's
going to recognize, you know, your,your nozzles and your quantities.
(04:09):
And my great grandfather, Bruce Hodgdonand Vernon Spear, right
from spear bullets.
And these folks put on clinicsaround the country showing people
how to reload and use their products.
And, you know, the founder of our CVSand my great grandfather
had a relationship, right?And they were all, wow.
I know that. It's really cool.
And I think it shows how collaborativeour industry is, because we all have way
(04:31):
more in common with each other than we dosometimes with the rest of the world.
Right.
And so, yeah, you know, the family,our family support the Second Amendment
conservation,just hunting and shooting in general.
We we do it because wewe love it. Honestly.
Yeah. Yeah.
Now let's talk a little bit about thisnew role that you have.
And you guys,that particular business, that
(04:53):
particular businesses outin Northern California, really
not that far from Sacramento,in between Redding and Sacramento.
Right? Yes, ma'am.
So this is called Oroville, California,and they've been there
since Fred Huntingtonstarted the business, right in the 40s.
It grew out of the back of I think it wasFred's dad's laundry business.
(05:14):
Right.
And kind of scaled up from there.
And so Oroville is.
Yeah.
It's about an hour north of Sacramento,you know, kind of rural town,
about 20,000 folks, you know, just a coolplace to manufacture and do business.
And, you know,I've I've made the California jokes.
I've heard the California jokes, you know,that that state has a lot to work on.
(05:34):
But the folks in Oroville
are just amazing peoplewith an amazing factory and brand.
And, you know, we're we're very happythat we're able to do business there.
And, you know.
Northern California is special.
It's really beautiful, for one thing.
And it has a lot of independentconservative people in it.
And it's people,you know, they think of California,
(05:55):
you think of Southern California,and the people who might not be for
our industryas a whole or Second Amendment.
And yet, Northern California,you know, I'm sure you're finding this
there's a lot of people are huntersand fishers and great outdoors people.
And, you know, it'sa very beautiful part of our country.
I think you're, you know,what a great place to buy a business.
(06:17):
Don't totally agree.
Yeah, we were lucky that we were ableto make it happen
and kind of come alongside the folksin Oroville and partner with them
and get I'm making a lot of productand working on new products.
And and that innovation angle is something
that I'm personally kind of excited about.
Oh yeah. Gosh.
And you know a lotabout what you're doing.
This is right up your alley.
Now, what about future hiring?
(06:38):
I'm sure that you guys look for peopleto work for your company.
So talk to us about a little bitabout that and what they could expect.
And you know what's coming.
I'd love to be able
to point people in the right directionand we'll we'll put the link in.
If you're listening to this podcast,we'll put the link in the comments
(06:59):
for the careers page for Rcb's,because we want to support them,
you guys and all your hiring,and make sure people know
what a great opportunity this is, or whata great place to join a great crew
and say, hey, welcome and let's go for it.
Yeah. That's right.
I mean, we'rewe're hiring all the time, right?
And that's everything from,you know, an entry level hourly
(07:19):
job on the production lineall the way up through,
you know, right now, in fact,I think we're hiring for a controller.
Right.
So more seniorkind of financial accounting role.
Right. That sits in the plant.
And, you know helps lead the team there.
So it's across the board.
And you know we're we're very proudof the way we treat our folks
at Hodgson Rcb's.
And so you know, as a companyand profit share.
(07:42):
Right.
And so you just during the game dayone as an employee
and a couple times a year,if we're profitable enough times are good.
You know, we we give that back to youas an employee from there.
You know, we we treat peoplehow we would want to be treated.
And Hodgdon has kind of a missionbehind that.
And I'd encourage folksto check out our website.
Hodgson.com and read that full mission.
(08:02):
But you know we say that peopleare more important than dollars, right.
And so that's backed upwith our commitment to, you know,
health care benefits, PTO.
I mentioned the profit sharing.
And so we think it's a great place to workand a great company to work for.
Beyond that, as a company, I'm reallyproud of the fact that we tithe, right?
So we give 10% of our of our profits back
(08:25):
to God, back to the nonprofit communityand back to the communities.
That.
Which is a, you know, a great impact thatI think we're able to have on the world.
And, yeah, you know,
we know that we're not making moneyand running a business in a vacuum, right?
So we want to honor,you know, the communities that we operate
in and in the world and,and kind of give some of that back.
So we're lucky to do that.But yeah, we're hiring all the time.
(08:46):
And I will definitely put a linkin the description.
And that's the right folksto reach out to you or me or anybody and.
Can't figure out who to talk to.
Give me a call,
put you in touch with Joel, or askJoel who we should put you in touch with
because we want to supportthese great manufacturing companies.
Go American Manufacturing, USA.
That's exciting. It really is.
(09:08):
And you know, the factthat we're rolling in just raw bar stock
and big, big pieces of aluminum and,you know, cast iron and steel
and machining it all down to, you know,I think in my opinion industry leading,
you know,reloading presses and powder dispensers,
you know, even making other accessoriesand whatever else, you know, that that's
(09:28):
something special and not somethingyou see in the world a whole lot anymore.
Right?
I think our industry is luckybecause we still have a lot of that.
Yeah, right.
And American manufacturing,but that's not everywhere.
And so we're we're very proudto make an American product 100%.
That's right.
That is a big deal.And it's really important.
So how how do people purchasethese products
(09:48):
or are they only sold through dealers
or are they can they purchase them onlineor are you direct to consumer.
All of the above. Right.
So you know, we don't competewith our dealers at our CBS or at Hodgdon,
you know, so we while we do sell directto consumer off of our brand websites,
you know, we we keep those offersto consumers where they need to be.
They kind of honorall of our other distribution.
(10:10):
So whether you're, you know, retaildistribution, wholesale, you know, dealer
or whatever that looks like, you know,we've got sales programs for you.
And and that's one thing I'd say now too,is in the past, you know, over the last
call it six months to a year,I know some product has been hard to buy
and hard to find, and for lots of reasons,you know, that inventory
(10:30):
wasn't always there
to support our partners at our retailor at wholesale or distribution.
And the first thing we said they wantis, hey, we're investing in inventory
and we're going to
get the folks in the factory working hard,and we're going to go make it.
So I'd say, you know, get an order inand we want to help you out as a customer.
Well, that's good to knowbecause I was already thinking
about a Christmas list for my husband.
(10:53):
There you go.
Yeah.
And don'teverybody come out for me at once.
We will do an industry discountat some point.
Oh, no, I I'm not worried about.
I want to support my industry.I'm not worried about that.
I just didn't, you know,I had the same thing happen.
I went to go buy a special flashlightfrom, Sure.
Fire and of course, I'm not like you guys.
I don't know,all these flashlights ins and outs.
(11:15):
So I did have to make a special phonecall.
And Jeremy was good enoughto help me out with that and get me one.
I didn't know they'd be so hard to find,you know?
Yeah, I had no idea.
So. Yeah, it's it's amazing.
You know, people talk about our industry,but I'll tell you what,
more times than not,we have more buyers than we can
(11:36):
make product for,you know, and it's it's amazing.
Over the last few years, you know,the it's been talked about a lot.
Right.
But we all know the amount of new
gun owners that have come into the market,since Covid and after that,
and we all know plenty of folks like usthat probably put another,
you know, 10,000 or 50,000 rounds of ammointo the basement, right?
(11:57):
Or a pounds of powder, hopefully,or CVS rock or presses or whatever.
So sometimes, you know, we're our ownbest customers as an industry, but.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, I'd say it's fun seeing,you know, more new users
getting into thingslike hunting and shooting.
And I encourage everybody to,you know, take somebody out
and take them hunting or shooting with youand show them the ropes.
(12:17):
And, you know, I think feelingmaybe you're the same way I think you are.
But, you know, we
we both have somebody in our livesthat taught us to hunt and to shoot,
you know, that's your dad or your auntor your grandpa or whatever,
taking you out and showing you the ropes,a coworker, a buddy.
We got to be that person for other folks,right? Yeah.
Because otherwise it'sjust hard to pick up some of the stuff.
And that's kind of myself. Box.
(12:38):
No, I think you're right.
And I actually you kind of led me rightto where I was going to ask you about
because I don't I don't know this answer.
And we didn't talk about this off offrecording.
But reloading to meis like super intimidating
because I just look at thatand go, oh, I'm so scared.
But I know it's very popularand I am learning
that it is also a super popular hobby.
(13:02):
So it's not just about, you know,reloading, it's about the whole process.
It's a real hobby.
Nine year, and you're producingsomething really valuable.
So how would someone and I certainly hopeI'm not setting you up for failure here.
No, no, no.But how does someone get started
if they don't knowanything about reloading?
Because that's what Rcb's does, isyou make reloading equipment, right?
(13:25):
Exactly. Right. Yeah we do.
We make all the tooling
that you might need to reloadand remanufacture your own ammo.
Right. On the metallic side. Right.
We don'twe don't have a shot shell loading
press anymore,but we sell all the accessories
that you would need to takeyour spent brass from the range and,
you know, clean it up and resize it,put a new primer in it, charge
(13:45):
you back up with powderand see a new bullet
and gofire it out of out of your firearm. Right.
So it is definitely, a hobbythat requires some education to get into.
I think I'd kind of liken it to maybe notquite as esoteric, but, you know, tying
your own flies if you're a fly fishermanor working on your own car.
Right.
If you're into, vintage cars, it's,
you know, you're you're doing itsometimes to save money.
(14:08):
You're doing it sometimes to get betterperformance out of your gear.
Right?
Because you're able to really customizeand fine tune your ammunition.
But yeah, a lot of folksjust like to do it to, you know,
the old joke is you're getting awayfrom your wife for a couple hours,
and your kid's here in thebasement, right? And you're.
That's exactly what I was thinking.
Yeah.
I'm looking I'm looking aroundat these old guys, you know, kids
(14:30):
that are getting older,and he's older than me.
And we're looking around at peoplewe meet.
And there's these old guys with thisreloading equipment, and I'm like, well,
I'm getting old because I think of.
But it's really cool.
But then I ask and I'ma lot of the people, a ton of the people
that are candidatesor that I meet or hiring managers
(14:50):
in our industry, they're all reloadingand then all their friends are reloading.
So this is way a big popularity thing, far
more than I would ever have guessed priorto getting into the industry.
Oh, that's good to know.
And I thinkwe've seen that grow over the years.
And it used to be you got into handloading and reloading because,
you know, the ammunition manufacturersdidn't, you know, frankly,
(15:13):
they didn't have, a quality productup to where you as a consumer wanted it.
Well, now that ammunition qualityhas come so far, that your box of loaded
ammo you're buying off the shelf today isis a long, long ways ahead and better of
maybe the ammo that you could have boughtoff the shelf, say in the 50 6070s.
You have less options back then, right?
If you wanted to.
(15:35):
I you know,I mentioned the nozzles, right?
If you wanted to shoot a nozzleor partition.
Very popular big game bullet.
You know, you had to gobuy the board and hand load it.
You can buy it off the shelf in a box,a federal premium or what have you.
Right like you can today.
And so that's part of it,I think over time we've seen that shift
and the reloading space where
now you know, your your hand loadersfreeloaders, they're a little less casual.
(15:59):
Hey, I'm going to load up20 rounds for hunting season
or I'm going to load up 20 roundsto playing at the range.
Now most folks in the handloading and reloading,
you know,you're really on the cutting edge
and seeking the highest level precisionyou can get, right?
You're a competitor
and you want that extremely tighttolerance ammo bill to your rifle,
to your specs so that you can, you know,have that difference making round
(16:23):
during your your press matchor what have you.
And then the other side of that
is if you're a competitorand you're into a really high volume,
high round count sport,you know, trap shooting,
even some three gunor some handguns or sidecar,
you know, if you're shooting through ammoor a pallet of ammo a week, right?
Yeah. You're either going to pay into buy ammo.
(16:45):
So you you.
Right. Yeah.
And that's a big part of whowe help service.
And so lots of good reasons to do it.
You know, I find it funand there's something really satisfying.
I'm a kind of a hunter first.
And, you know, when I get a chance at thatbig trophy mule deer or whitetail
or whatever, and I, you know, shoot himwith a round that I put together
(17:05):
and did the research on and,and kind of made myself.
It's just a sense of accomplishment that.
Yeah, something special.
Yeah. It is something special.
Now, what do you think that you're goingto be focusing on at Rcb's?
Do you guys haveare there some big changes and
and maybe more activitycoming with your social media?
(17:26):
What channels can people follow you on?
Because I, I know youand this is going to be
there's some stuffyou already have cooking.
I mean, you may say you've only been there
three weeks,but I'm sure you've already got ideas
going where you can helpreach your customers there.
There you go.
Well, hopefully, Shailene and I,I think, you know, so short answer is yes.
(17:47):
And I would say now our CBS is backlive on all the social media platforms.
You know, we've got some great contentplanned for things like YouTube
and our own website.
And to your point,
reloading can be intimidating,you know, and it can be hard to get into.
And so, you know, videoson how to make that easier
and explain our equipmentand give you tips and tricks.
(18:07):
I mean, of course we'll do all that.
But with my, my roleas kind of our product development guy,
you know, I'm getting with some engineersthat are way smarter than me, right?
And folks in our production teamthat are way smarter than me, and we're
going to figure out, hey, you know,how do we make our gear higher quality?
How do we come upwith an innovative new product?
What are we missing on our product lineso that we can go give our customers
(18:31):
and and reload at the end of the day,an option
they might want that we don't have.
And so we got a lot of big plans.
And I guess I'd just say give me morethan, three weeks.
It all figured out. But but now I want.
People can start.
They can start following along,you know, on social media
because that buildsit takes some time to build that.
That's right.
Yeah.
You know, we're we're of course it'swe're recording this year end of August.
(18:54):
You know we're kind of looking aheadtowards the fall sales cycle.
Right.
And some bigger opportunitiessuch as GW coming up here in October. Yep.
That's right.
Obviouslywe'll we'll see you and everybody else
and their mom and chat show. Right.
You know, get back in Vegasand see everybody again there.
And we should have some new productsrolling out then.
And then you know we'reour CBS is a family owned company now
(19:16):
and we're not in it to make a quarteror to make the next three months work.
We're going to make the next.
The long term.
Years, 30 years worth. Right?
So we're trying to be content. Yes.
And plan out those products.
And I'd say, hey, if you're a hand loaderand you like your green rock
check or press or your, match masterpowder dispenser or whatever, right.
(19:37):
And and let us know what you want to seeor issues you're having.
I mean, I want to hear from
you guys and make surethat we're giving you what you want.
And I know that you have a contact usbutton on your
the website, so that'd be a good placefor them to send that information.
It would.
And I gotta give our customer service teamsome some props and a shout out
real quick.
(19:57):
I mean, you know, our rcb'sknown for our American made gear, right?
Our American made tools, knownfor a long tenure in the industry
but known for our customer service. Right.
Our customer service team is lights out.
And there's some other great brandsout there that do that well as well.
But, you know,if you have a technical question,
if you have a product, hey,how do I use this question?
(20:18):
I mean, anything, right? Call in.
And our team in Oroville,
they know the product they use the productthey hunt, they shoot.
I mean, they can tell you, hey,
here's what you got to go door take a look at help you troubleshoot.
Right. And same on the powder side.
Our customer service teamat hydrogen powder
that services all of our powder brandsjust do a phenomenal job.
And you know if you just want to spitballon talk load development or
(20:41):
hey what what burn speed do I needfor this or what powder do I use for that?
Or I got this, if you know,what do I do with it?
I mean, they can help you with all that.
So you're not just going to buy this stuffand no one's there
to answer a question for youthat's really special.
Yeah. That's right.
And I think it it goes back towards theour love and our mutual passion.
Right.
And when you call up our office,I mean you're going to talk to,
(21:02):
you know, Jason or Curtis or Lukeor any of our other folks.
And they those guys have probably learnedmore about him.
Loading.Forgotten more about him loading. Right.
Than I've ever learned.I mean, they're just.
That's all they do.
You got it.
And they can help you get what you wantdone and have fun on your project to.
Well, I really, really appreciate youtaking the time to do this.
(21:23):
I know you're so busy, and to do thiswith only three weeks on the job,
you are very generous to spend this timewith me, and I hope that our listeners
will go to our cbs.comand take a look at the products.
Ask the dealers that you go into,visit the files and the other companies
that you go visit to carry these productsand buy these great American products.
(21:47):
And if you are in northern, Californiaor you want to move there.
There you go.
You should check out their jobsposting and keep an eye on this because
this is going to it's already good,but it's now going to become even great.
That's right.
Well thank you Shailene.And we're looking to grow right.
So I'm hoping that we'll have plenty ofoptions open for folks here in the future.
(22:10):
And you know, I'd say if you're listeningthis podcast, you probably already know
Shailene and her crew,hopefully a little bit.
But man, you guys are just the best towork with us and provide some great, great
recruiting experiences both on the,you know, the the employer
and and on the employee.
And right.
And and it's always funny
how many people I bump into the industryand and I say, oh, Shailene.
(22:31):
And they're like, wait,I know Shailene too.
Let me tell you,I know, I know Headhunters.
So it's it's a fun industrywhere we all have.
Have you in common? I guess I'd say.
I'm I'm honored and humbledand I appreciate it.
I it has been a pleasureover the last year to get to know you
and to see youreach this next pinnacle of your career.
And I will certainly be at GW,and I look forward
(22:53):
to seeing you and and look forwardto supporting you like this.
And any other way.
Because, American manufacturingis where it's at.
And good families like the Hodgins,whatever
we can do to support you, because that'swhat keeps our industry going.
Well, thanks, Jillian, I appreciate that.
And yeah, looking forward to any
right here in our backyard of Kansas City.
(23:14):
You don't even have to fly.I know it's easy Odst.
And you know, I say corporate office.
It's all about 20 people right?
But yeah, it's here in Kansas City.
And we're looking forwardto showing the industry around town
and eating some good barbecue.
And, you know, hopefully celebratinganother Chiefs win or a Royals postseason.
And so we'll we'll see. We'll see. Yousure that's. Right.
That's right I forget I'm talkingto the pro here I forget about that here.
(23:37):
I have to fly there and look at you.
Well and the
poor folks in Oroville, California,you know, and and 40 niners territory.
I had to show up
and give them a little bit of a Chiefs,you know, a rib every once in a while.
But besides that,I hope they like me. Well, we'll.
See, it'll be great.That's a great part of the country.
People don't give Northern Californianear enough credit.
Matter of fact, a little shout out tomy own CPA, who happens to be in Redding.
(24:00):
Oh, there you go. You know,you just never know.
But some great people
live in Northern California,so I think this will be a great match.
Well, thank you, Bill, for very muchfor doing this podcast with me.
That'll be it for this.
This time for Head HuntersNorthwest podcast.
And we look forwardto our next opportunity to visit.
Thank you.
(24:26):
Thanks for listening to this
episode of the HeadhuntersNorthwest podcast.
Specialized recruiting.
Specialized approach.
You can reach out at Headhuntersnw.com
or call 605 600 1709.
Join us again next week as we look behindthe curtain into the global defense.
Small arms and shooting sectors.
(24:46):
Head Hunters Northwest finding youthe best heads for business.
Welcome to the podcast from Headhuntersnorthwest.
(00:04):
Headhunters northwest
specializedrecruiting specialized approach
where we take you behind the scenesinto our customers businesses.
For over 20 years, HeadhuntersNorthwest has served the global defense,
small arms and shooting sectors worldwide.
Listen in as we discuss the inner workingsof our USA and international customers.
Headhunters northwestfinding you the best hands for business.
(00:31):
Welcome
to another episode of Head HuntersNorthwest podcast.
Welcome, Joel.
We have Joel Hodgdon,who is the director of marketing
or head of marketing for Rcb's.
Is that right?
You got it. Thanks, Jaylene.
Happy to be here.
And yeah, I'm
director of marketing and I leadthe marketing and product teams for our,
(00:53):
which is these days part of my familycompany at Hodgdon Powder.
Wow. You got.
You have seena lot of change in your short young life.
I mean, but look at all the changesat Hodgdon Powder, and then you've
worked at a lot of other places,so did your family say,
once you're out of that little infantbasket, you're out on your own,
and you have to see if the industryeat you.
(01:14):
Alive before.
Coming back to work for the family.
You know, I'm lucky that I had a chanceto kind of grow up in a fun
industry, right?And be part of a family business.
And, you know, you just soak up some stuffat the dinner table, right?
Like we all do with our parents,whether they're teachers or
plumbers or,you know, running a business or whatever.
So that's kind of how I got my startand certainly how I got excited
(01:36):
about hunting and shooting and reloadingand all the rest.
But because you're a user of the products,I mean, you're out there
using the products.
This isn't just a job for you.
You're out therehunting and doing all kinds of things.
Yes, ma'am.
And I like to joke that I'm really gladmy great grandfather was into this stuff
and not,
you know, plumbing fixtures,because then I'd have to fight
(01:58):
about toilets every day or whatever,right?
So. Right.
Right, exactly.
It's all we sell. Fun, right?
I think, as I've heard, one of mycompetitors put it and he's not wrong, but
but know that that's part of it.
And and yeah, you know, my,my family was very gracious.
And over the years, you know, familieskind of swept the floors
and ran the company
and but, you know, we haven't had a familyCEO at Hodgdon in decades and decades.
(02:21):
And the family's always said, hey,we want the best and brightest
on our management team to go off andrun the business for us, right, as owners.
And and so part of that was the family
not requiring but encouraging meand every other family member to,
you know, hey, if you want to workin the business, awesome.
But you're not getting the job becauseyou got the right last name, right?
Need to go out and experienceand learn a little bit.
(02:43):
And for what it's worth,I'm I'm really glad I did so
I had a great chance to work at phenomenalbrands
and companies like Remington Ammunition,Federal Ammunition,
the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation,and you know, I I'd encourage anybody,
you know, family businessor not going out or spread your wings
and learning a lot from otherfolks is what I do it well.
(03:03):
And I think, you know,a lot of people think a lot of you
and you're humbleand you're very approachable.
And, you know,I think that's something that you find in
most people in our industry.
And I don't see a lot of great big headsgoing through the door.
There are some certainly some greatbig heads, but your family's
been very humble and very approachableand very kind and very involved
(03:27):
and committed to the industry.
This isn't just a business for them.
This is an industry for them.
That's right. Yeah.
And and you know,we've been around the block, Shute Hodgdon
since 1947 and Rcb's since 1943.
And, you know, it's it's a lot of fun.
Just a quick rcb's story, I guess,to kind of illustrate that tenure.
(03:48):
You know, when wewhen we bought the business, when Hodgson
bought Rcb's about four months agoand we dug up an old poster,
and the poster was from the founder, Rcb'sFred Huntington,
and he was part of what they callthe Reloading Roadshow.
So Fred got together with some otherbig industry names, and everyone's
going to recognize, you know, your,your nozzles and your quantities.
(04:09):
And my great grandfather, Bruce Hodgdonand Vernon Spear, right
from spear bullets.
And these folks put on clinicsaround the country showing people
how to reload and use their products.
And, you know, the founder of our CVSand my great grandfather
had a relationship, right?And they were all, wow.
I know that. It's really cool.
And I think it shows how collaborativeour industry is, because we all have way
(04:31):
more in common with each other than we dosometimes with the rest of the world.
Right.
And so, yeah, you know, the family,our family support the Second Amendment
conservation,just hunting and shooting in general.
We we do it because wewe love it. Honestly.
Yeah. Yeah.
Now let's talk a little bit about thisnew role that you have.
And you guys,that particular business, that
(04:53):
particular businesses outin Northern California, really
not that far from Sacramento,in between Redding and Sacramento.
Right? Yes, ma'am.
So this is called Oroville, California,and they've been there
since Fred Huntingtonstarted the business, right in the 40s.
It grew out of the back of I think it wasFred's dad's laundry business.
(05:14):
Right.
And kind of scaled up from there.
And so Oroville is.
Yeah.
It's about an hour north of Sacramento,you know, kind of rural town,
about 20,000 folks, you know, just a coolplace to manufacture and do business.
And, you know,I've I've made the California jokes.
I've heard the California jokes, you know,that that state has a lot to work on.
(05:34):
But the folks in Oroville
are just amazing peoplewith an amazing factory and brand.
And, you know, we're we're very happythat we're able to do business there.
And, you know.
Northern California is special.
It's really beautiful, for one thing.
And it has a lot of independentconservative people in it.
And it's people,you know, they think of California,
(05:55):
you think of Southern California,and the people who might not be for
our industryas a whole or Second Amendment.
And yet, Northern California,you know, I'm sure you're finding this
there's a lot of people are huntersand fishers and great outdoors people.
And, you know, it'sa very beautiful part of our country.
I think you're, you know,what a great place to buy a business.
(06:17):
Don't totally agree.
Yeah, we were lucky that we were ableto make it happen
and kind of come alongside the folksin Oroville and partner with them
and get I'm making a lot of productand working on new products.
And and that innovation angle is something
that I'm personally kind of excited about.
Oh yeah. Gosh.
And you know a lotabout what you're doing.
This is right up your alley.
Now, what about future hiring?
(06:38):
I'm sure that you guys look for peopleto work for your company.
So talk to us about a little bitabout that and what they could expect.
And you know what's coming.
I'd love to be able
to point people in the right directionand we'll we'll put the link in.
If you're listening to this podcast,we'll put the link in the comments
(06:59):
for the careers page for Rcb's,because we want to support them,
you guys and all your hiring,and make sure people know
what a great opportunity this is, or whata great place to join a great crew
and say, hey, welcome and let's go for it.
Yeah. That's right.
I mean, we'rewe're hiring all the time, right?
And that's everything from,you know, an entry level hourly
(07:19):
job on the production lineall the way up through,
you know, right now, in fact,I think we're hiring for a controller.
Right.
So more seniorkind of financial accounting role.
Right. That sits in the plant.
And, you know helps lead the team there.
So it's across the board.
And you know we're we're very proudof the way we treat our folks
at Hodgson Rcb's.
And so you know, as a companyand profit share.
(07:42):
Right.
And so you just during the game dayone as an employee
and a couple times a year,if we're profitable enough times are good.
You know, we we give that back to youas an employee from there.
You know, we we treat peoplehow we would want to be treated.
And Hodgdon has kind of a missionbehind that.
And I'd encourage folksto check out our website.
Hodgson.com and read that full mission.
(08:02):
But you know we say that peopleare more important than dollars, right.
And so that's backed upwith our commitment to, you know,
health care benefits, PTO.
I mentioned the profit sharing.
And so we think it's a great place to workand a great company to work for.
Beyond that, as a company, I'm reallyproud of the fact that we tithe, right?
So we give 10% of our of our profits back
(08:25):
to God, back to the nonprofit communityand back to the communities.
That.
Which is a, you know, a great impact thatI think we're able to have on the world.
And, yeah, you know,
we know that we're not making moneyand running a business in a vacuum, right?
So we want to honor,you know, the communities that we operate
in and in the world and,and kind of give some of that back.
So we're lucky to do that.But yeah, we're hiring all the time.
(08:46):
And I will definitely put a linkin the description.
And that's the right folksto reach out to you or me or anybody and.
Can't figure out who to talk to.
Give me a call,
put you in touch with Joel, or askJoel who we should put you in touch with
because we want to supportthese great manufacturing companies.
Go American Manufacturing, USA.
That's exciting. It really is.
(09:08):
And you know, the factthat we're rolling in just raw bar stock
and big, big pieces of aluminum and,you know, cast iron and steel
and machining it all down to, you know,I think in my opinion industry leading,
you know,reloading presses and powder dispensers,
you know, even making other accessoriesand whatever else, you know, that that's
(09:28):
something special and not somethingyou see in the world a whole lot anymore.
Right?
I think our industry is luckybecause we still have a lot of that.
Yeah, right.
And American manufacturing,but that's not everywhere.
And so we're we're very proudto make an American product 100%.
That's right.
That is a big deal.And it's really important.
So how how do people purchasethese products
(09:48):
or are they only sold through dealers
or are they can they purchase them onlineor are you direct to consumer.
All of the above. Right.
So you know, we don't competewith our dealers at our CBS or at Hodgdon,
you know, so we while we do sell directto consumer off of our brand websites,
you know, we we keep those offersto consumers where they need to be.
They kind of honorall of our other distribution.
(10:10):
So whether you're, you know, retaildistribution, wholesale, you know, dealer
or whatever that looks like, you know,we've got sales programs for you.
And and that's one thing I'd say now too,is in the past, you know, over the last
call it six months to a year,I know some product has been hard to buy
and hard to find, and for lots of reasons,you know, that inventory
(10:30):
wasn't always there
to support our partners at our retailor at wholesale or distribution.
And the first thing we said they wantis, hey, we're investing in inventory
and we're going to
get the folks in the factory working hard,and we're going to go make it.
So I'd say, you know, get an order inand we want to help you out as a customer.
Well, that's good to knowbecause I was already thinking
about a Christmas list for my husband.
(10:53):
There you go.
Yeah.
And don'teverybody come out for me at once.
We will do an industry discountat some point.
Oh, no, I I'm not worried about.
I want to support my industry.I'm not worried about that.
I just didn't, you know,I had the same thing happen.
I went to go buy a special flashlightfrom, Sure.
Fire and of course, I'm not like you guys.
I don't know,all these flashlights ins and outs.
(11:15):
So I did have to make a special phonecall.
And Jeremy was good enoughto help me out with that and get me one.
I didn't know they'd be so hard to find,you know?
Yeah, I had no idea.
So. Yeah, it's it's amazing.
You know, people talk about our industry,but I'll tell you what,
more times than not,we have more buyers than we can
(11:36):
make product for,you know, and it's it's amazing.
Over the last few years, you know,the it's been talked about a lot.
Right.
But we all know the amount of new
gun owners that have come into the market,since Covid and after that,
and we all know plenty of folks like usthat probably put another,
you know, 10,000 or 50,000 rounds of ammointo the basement, right?
(11:57):
Or a pounds of powder, hopefully,or CVS rock or presses or whatever.
So sometimes, you know, we're our ownbest customers as an industry, but.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, I'd say it's fun seeing,you know, more new users
getting into thingslike hunting and shooting.
And I encourage everybody to,you know, take somebody out
and take them hunting or shooting with youand show them the ropes.
(12:17):
And, you know, I think feelingmaybe you're the same way I think you are.
But, you know, we
we both have somebody in our livesthat taught us to hunt and to shoot,
you know, that's your dad or your auntor your grandpa or whatever,
taking you out and showing you the ropes,a coworker, a buddy.
We got to be that person for other folks,right? Yeah.
Because otherwise it'sjust hard to pick up some of the stuff.
And that's kind of myself. Box.
(12:38):
No, I think you're right.
And I actually you kind of led me rightto where I was going to ask you about
because I don't I don't know this answer.
And we didn't talk about this off offrecording.
But reloading to meis like super intimidating
because I just look at thatand go, oh, I'm so scared.
But I know it's very popularand I am learning
that it is also a super popular hobby.
(13:02):
So it's not just about, you know,reloading, it's about the whole process.
It's a real hobby.
Nine year, and you're producingsomething really valuable.
So how would someone and I certainly hopeI'm not setting you up for failure here.
No, no, no.But how does someone get started
if they don't knowanything about reloading?
Because that's what Rcb's does, isyou make reloading equipment, right?
(13:25):
Exactly. Right. Yeah we do.
We make all the tooling
that you might need to reloadand remanufacture your own ammo.
Right. On the metallic side. Right.
We don'twe don't have a shot shell loading
press anymore,but we sell all the accessories
that you would need to takeyour spent brass from the range and,
you know, clean it up and resize it,put a new primer in it, charge
(13:45):
you back up with powderand see a new bullet
and gofire it out of out of your firearm. Right.
So it is definitely, a hobbythat requires some education to get into.
I think I'd kind of liken it to maybe notquite as esoteric, but, you know, tying
your own flies if you're a fly fishermanor working on your own car.
Right.
If you're into, vintage cars, it's,
you know, you're you're doing itsometimes to save money.
(14:08):
You're doing it sometimes to get betterperformance out of your gear.
Right?
Because you're able to really customizeand fine tune your ammunition.
But yeah, a lot of folksjust like to do it to, you know,
the old joke is you're getting awayfrom your wife for a couple hours,
and your kid's here in thebasement, right? And you're.
That's exactly what I was thinking.
Yeah.
I'm looking I'm looking aroundat these old guys, you know, kids
(14:30):
that are getting older,and he's older than me.
And we're looking around at peoplewe meet.
And there's these old guys with thisreloading equipment, and I'm like, well,
I'm getting old because I think of.
But it's really cool.
But then I ask and I'ma lot of the people, a ton of the people
that are candidatesor that I meet or hiring managers
(14:50):
in our industry, they're all reloadingand then all their friends are reloading.
So this is way a big popularity thing, far
more than I would ever have guessed priorto getting into the industry.
Oh, that's good to know.
And I thinkwe've seen that grow over the years.
And it used to be you got into handloading and reloading because,
you know, the ammunition manufacturersdidn't, you know, frankly,
(15:13):
they didn't have, a quality productup to where you as a consumer wanted it.
Well, now that ammunition qualityhas come so far, that your box of loaded
ammo you're buying off the shelf today isis a long, long ways ahead and better of
maybe the ammo that you could have boughtoff the shelf, say in the 50 6070s.
You have less options back then, right?
If you wanted to.
(15:35):
I you know,I mentioned the nozzles, right?
If you wanted to shoot a nozzleor partition.
Very popular big game bullet.
You know, you had to gobuy the board and hand load it.
You can buy it off the shelf in a box,a federal premium or what have you.
Right like you can today.
And so that's part of it,I think over time we've seen that shift
and the reloading space where
now you know, your your hand loadersfreeloaders, they're a little less casual.
(15:59):
Hey, I'm going to load up20 rounds for hunting season
or I'm going to load up 20 roundsto playing at the range.
Now most folks in the handloading and reloading,
you know,you're really on the cutting edge
and seeking the highest level precisionyou can get, right?
You're a competitor
and you want that extremely tighttolerance ammo bill to your rifle,
to your specs so that you can, you know,have that difference making round
(16:23):
during your your press matchor what have you.
And then the other side of that
is if you're a competitorand you're into a really high volume,
high round count sport,you know, trap shooting,
even some three gunor some handguns or sidecar,
you know, if you're shooting through ammoor a pallet of ammo a week, right?
Yeah. You're either going to pay into buy ammo.
(16:45):
So you you.
Right. Yeah.
And that's a big part of whowe help service.
And so lots of good reasons to do it.
You know, I find it funand there's something really satisfying.
I'm a kind of a hunter first.
And, you know, when I get a chance at thatbig trophy mule deer or whitetail
or whatever, and I, you know, shoot himwith a round that I put together
(17:05):
and did the research on and,and kind of made myself.
It's just a sense of accomplishment that.
Yeah, something special.
Yeah. It is something special.
Now, what do you think that you're goingto be focusing on at Rcb's?
Do you guys haveare there some big changes and
and maybe more activitycoming with your social media?
(17:26):
What channels can people follow you on?
Because I, I know youand this is going to be
there's some stuffyou already have cooking.
I mean, you may say you've only been there
three weeks,but I'm sure you've already got ideas
going where you can helpreach your customers there.
There you go.
Well, hopefully, Shailene and I,I think, you know, so short answer is yes.
(17:47):
And I would say now our CBS is backlive on all the social media platforms.
You know, we've got some great contentplanned for things like YouTube
and our own website.
And to your point,
reloading can be intimidating,you know, and it can be hard to get into.
And so, you know, videoson how to make that easier
and explain our equipmentand give you tips and tricks.
(18:07):
I mean, of course we'll do all that.
But with my, my roleas kind of our product development guy,
you know, I'm getting with some engineersthat are way smarter than me, right?
And folks in our production teamthat are way smarter than me, and we're
going to figure out, hey, you know,how do we make our gear higher quality?
How do we come upwith an innovative new product?
What are we missing on our product lineso that we can go give our customers
(18:31):
and and reload at the end of the day,an option
they might want that we don't have.
And so we got a lot of big plans.
And I guess I'd just say give me morethan, three weeks.
It all figured out. But but now I want.
People can start.
They can start following along,you know, on social media
because that buildsit takes some time to build that.
That's right.
Yeah.
You know, we're we're of course it'swe're recording this year end of August.
(18:54):
You know we're kind of looking aheadtowards the fall sales cycle.
Right.
And some bigger opportunitiessuch as GW coming up here in October. Yep.
That's right.
Obviouslywe'll we'll see you and everybody else
and their mom and chat show. Right.
You know, get back in Vegasand see everybody again there.
And we should have some new productsrolling out then.
And then you know we'reour CBS is a family owned company now
(19:16):
and we're not in it to make a quarteror to make the next three months work.
We're going to make the next.
The long term.
Years, 30 years worth. Right?
So we're trying to be content. Yes.
And plan out those products.
And I'd say, hey, if you're a hand loaderand you like your green rock
check or press or your, match masterpowder dispenser or whatever, right.
(19:37):
And and let us know what you want to seeor issues you're having.
I mean, I want to hear from
you guys and make surethat we're giving you what you want.
And I know that you have a contact usbutton on your
the website, so that'd be a good placefor them to send that information.
It would.
And I gotta give our customer service teamsome some props and a shout out
real quick.
(19:57):
I mean, you know, our rcb'sknown for our American made gear, right?
Our American made tools, knownfor a long tenure in the industry
but known for our customer service. Right.
Our customer service team is lights out.
And there's some other great brandsout there that do that well as well.
But, you know,if you have a technical question,
if you have a product, hey,how do I use this question?
(20:18):
I mean, anything, right? Call in.
And our team in Oroville,
they know the product they use the productthey hunt, they shoot.
I mean, they can tell you, hey,
here's what you got to go door take a look at help you troubleshoot.
Right. And same on the powder side.
Our customer service teamat hydrogen powder
that services all of our powder brandsjust do a phenomenal job.
And you know if you just want to spitballon talk load development or
(20:41):
hey what what burn speed do I needfor this or what powder do I use for that?
Or I got this, if you know,what do I do with it?
I mean, they can help you with all that.
So you're not just going to buy this stuffand no one's there
to answer a question for youthat's really special.
Yeah. That's right.
And I think it it goes back towards theour love and our mutual passion.
Right.
And when you call up our office,I mean you're going to talk to,
(21:02):
you know, Jason or Curtis or Lukeor any of our other folks.
And they those guys have probably learnedmore about him.
Loading.Forgotten more about him loading. Right.
Than I've ever learned.I mean, they're just.
That's all they do.
You got it.
And they can help you get what you wantdone and have fun on your project to.
Well, I really, really appreciate youtaking the time to do this.
(21:23):
I know you're so busy, and to do thiswith only three weeks on the job,
you are very generous to spend this timewith me, and I hope that our listeners
will go to our cbs.comand take a look at the products.
Ask the dealers that you go into,visit the files and the other companies
that you go visit to carry these productsand buy these great American products.
(21:47):
And if you are in northern, Californiaor you want to move there.
There you go.
You should check out their jobsposting and keep an eye on this because
this is going to it's already good,but it's now going to become even great.
That's right.
Well thank you Shailene.And we're looking to grow right.
So I'm hoping that we'll have plenty ofoptions open for folks here in the future.
(22:10):
And you know, I'd say if you're listeningthis podcast, you probably already know
Shailene and her crew,hopefully a little bit.
But man, you guys are just the best towork with us and provide some great, great
recruiting experiences both on the,you know, the the employer
and and on the employee.
And right.
And and it's always funny
how many people I bump into the industryand and I say, oh, Shailene.
(22:31):
And they're like, wait,I know Shailene too.
Let me tell you,I know, I know Headhunters.
So it's it's a fun industrywhere we all have.
Have you in common? I guess I'd say.
I'm I'm honored and humbledand I appreciate it.
I it has been a pleasureover the last year to get to know you
and to see youreach this next pinnacle of your career.
And I will certainly be at GW,and I look forward
(22:53):
to seeing you and and look forwardto supporting you like this.
And any other way.
Because, American manufacturingis where it's at.
And good families like the Hodgins,whatever
we can do to support you, because that'swhat keeps our industry going.
Well, thanks, Jillian, I appreciate that.
And yeah, looking forward to any
right here in our backyard of Kansas City.
(23:14):
You don't even have to fly.I know it's easy Odst.
And you know, I say corporate office.
It's all about 20 people right?
But yeah, it's here in Kansas City.
And we're looking forwardto showing the industry around town
and eating some good barbecue.
And, you know, hopefully celebratinganother Chiefs win or a Royals postseason.
And so we'll we'll see. We'll see. Yousure that's. Right.
That's right I forget I'm talkingto the pro here I forget about that here.
(23:37):
I have to fly there and look at you.
Well and the
poor folks in Oroville, California,you know, and and 40 niners territory.
I had to show up
and give them a little bit of a Chiefs,you know, a rib every once in a while.
But besides that,I hope they like me. Well, we'll.
See, it'll be great.That's a great part of the country.
People don't give Northern Californianear enough credit.
Matter of fact, a little shout out tomy own CPA, who happens to be in Redding.
(24:00):
Oh, there you go. You know,you just never know.
But some great people
live in Northern California,so I think this will be a great match.
Well, thank you, Bill, for very muchfor doing this podcast with me.
That'll be it for this.
This time for Head HuntersNorthwest podcast.
And we look forwardto our next opportunity to visit.
Thank you.
(24:26):
Thanks for listening to this
episode of the HeadhuntersNorthwest podcast.
Specialized recruiting.
Specialized approach.
You can reach out at Headhuntersnw.com
or call 605 600 1709.
Join us again next week as we look behindthe curtain into the global defense.
Small arms and shooting sectors.
(24:46):
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Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.