Ep. 84 w/ Archery Country's Tyler Vanderkolk - on Crafting Community and Confidence in the Archery World - Son of a Blitch

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hello everybody, welcome back to the Son of a
Blitch podcast.
I'm your host, george Blitch,and I just wrapped up a
wonderful conversation withTyler Vander Kolk, who is the
owner of Archery Country, whichis located in Austin, texas.
If you're in the outdoorcommunity, you've probably heard
about Archery Country before.
There are a lot of people whohighly suggest going and
checking it out.
They've had some amazing eventsthat they have with some people

(00:37):
that work in the outdoorindustry wild game chefs like
Jesse Griffiths, cameron Haynes,tim Kennedy.
Obviously you, if you watch theor listen to the Joe Rogan
podcast, you've heard him uhtalk about archery country too
at length.
Uh, there's a reason, guys.
The community that Tyler hasbuilt is second to none.
It is amazing.
They have all sorts ofwonderful people that work there

(00:59):
Uh, and they're going to meetyou where you're at.
If you're a very much like abeginner, uh, like I've shot
some bows and arrows with myfriends and you know some that
when I was a kid, but I kind ofwalked in there very green and
they kind of took me through thesteps, went back, figured out
what was a good fit for me,figured out my draw length, what
I could pull back, poundagewise, and then they set me up to

(01:21):
try out some different bowsthere to see what I had a good
feel with.
We kind of ran out of timebecause, like I said, I was
coming back from vacation andtrying to get the family back
home, so I ended up hitting thepause button that day, but I
also really got a good feel forwhat it was that I was going to
go forward with.
And then you know, of course,as I talked about in some other
podcasts too, starting thatarchery journey and doing a

(01:42):
series of podcasts this is thefirst one, because this is where
it started at all, and I wantedto shine some light on archery
country and all the wonderfulthings they got going on, and
especially Tyler.
He's a really a communitymindset guy.
He's done all sorts ofdifferent things, whether it's,
you know, running his own ACfilter company, whether it's

(02:02):
selling goats online, being ataxidermist, eventually, uh,
being the man who's runningarchery country.
He's done it all, and one ofthe things that he does
throughout this is he caresabout bringing together
like-minded uh community uhpeople for something larger than
himself.
He's a really, really great guyand I think you guys are going

(02:22):
to love hearing about hisjourney and you know what it his
journey and what it is hisethos and his beliefs about
archery country and making surethat he's meeting you wherever
you are.
You are coming in as a beginner.
You're coming in as an expert.
You need help.
They've got someone who's goingto be there and going to be the
right fit for you to getwhatever it is you want out of
that experience.
He does a lot of work withinthe community and in and around

(02:44):
Austin with the youth andgetting them involved.
He's just wrapped up afundraiser where now they have
enough funds to start up in twomore elementaries or junior
highs and high schools programsto get kids involved with
archery.
So it's not like they'renecessarily trying to, you know,
turn everyone into a hunter,but just the process of
mindfulness going out there onthe range and shooting and the

(03:05):
mechanics that are involved, man, it's very therapeutic and so
you know, maybe that mightinspire people to get into the
hunting world or whatever, andyou know there's the equipment
for that.
Whatever it is you are lookingto get out of the experience,
archery Country is going to helpyou get there and they have a
great staff along the way.
I can tell you that Great,great people.
Tyler is just a wonderful,wonderful man.

(03:27):
I'm so glad I got to chat withhim today and learn more about
him and Archery Country, and Ithink you guys are really going
to enjoy this podcast.
It's fun, it's entertaining,it's educational.
It's all the things I hope tohave that I can provide to you
guys in a podcast and, yeah, soyou guys are going to enjoy this
one with Tyler Vander Kolk fromarchery country.
Make sure you guys go check outthe show notes, check out the

(03:48):
links and go see him in person.
Please, please, please.
You will be so glad you did anduh, sign up on his website or
notifications when some of theseevents are going through, next
time that Jesse Griffiths doessome uh stuff there with him, or
whoever it may be.
Tim Kennedy, ken Haynes Uh,some stuff there with him, or
whoever it may be Tim Kennedy,ken Haynes there's so many
different people Tyler Jonesfrom the Element, from Meat

(04:09):
Eater there's so many people whoput on some great stuff there
and you will be very, very gladyou did so again without further
ado.
Here is the podcast with TylerVan Der Kolk you guys enjoy.
Please share this with a friendand if you haven't already
liked and subscribed andfollowed this podcast, please do
.
I got some more great guestscoming up that I think that you
will enjoy.
So you guys have a wonderfulday and thanks for tuning in.

(04:30):
Cheers.
Hey, tyler, how you doing today, man?

Speaker 2 (04:33):
How's it going, george?
How are you man?

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Fantastic man, I am so excited to chat with you.
Talk about archery country, allthe wonderful things you got
going on.
But you know, as you may know,with a lot of my guests I like
to kind of start at the verybeginning and give listeners a
little bit idea of who you are,where you come from.
So maybe you can just kind oftalk about where you born and
raised and how you got involvedin the outdoor lifestyle and
we'll thread that through toarchery country and all the

(04:56):
great things you got kickingright now.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
All the stuff, yeah, man.
So it's pretty, uh, it's apretty wild one.
So I think you've probablyheard this on another podcast,
but I'm going to tell you fifth,because I don't want to lie to
you, I could be asixth-generation Austinite, but

(05:19):
there's some turmoil in thefamily here on whether who was
really here back in the day.
But anyway, long story short,I'm a fifth, sixth-generation
Austinite.
I was born and raised here,went to high school here.
That's as far as I went foreducation.
I kind of did that.
For me it was one of thosedeals where I was trying to
carve it out right out of highschool.

(05:39):
I was like I'm going to go forgusto, right out of high school,
I don't need to go to college,I'm going to go open my own
business and I'm going to be abillionaire by the time I'm 40
years old and that did not workout.
But it was a good collegeeffort there.
Man, the reality is like I said, born and raised in Austin,
grew up here.
I graduated from high school.

(06:02):
I worked for a year for my dad'scompany and this all plays into
the thing here but I worked fora year for my dad.
My dad worked for an airconditioning company and I
worked for them for a year.
Um, that was 1997.
I started working for him,hated working for my dad because
he expected the world of me sothey'd make make me do all the

(06:23):
really, really bad stuff in theearly, early, early and late,
late, all that trying to installsome work ethic here.
Anyway, I did that for a year.
Well, one thing I noticed at theAC company was they would get
tons of phone calls for peoplewanting filter service so they
would sell a maintenancecontract.
And that maintenance contractsorry about that, I need to turn

(06:46):
that off my maintenancecontract would in essence be a.
It would be one of those dealswhere I would.
They would sell a maintenancecontract, they would do all this
kind of stuff and then theywould not do the filter part of
it because they were like dude,we don't have time.
We have a legit, legit job onthe South side of town that is

(07:09):
going to need big money and bigstuff going on and we don't have
time for it.
There's no, no time to gochange filters.
So my little wheels got to spinit and I was like man, I'll
start a filter company.
So in the abridged version is in1998, october of 1998, I
started a business called AustinFilter Service Company.

(07:30):
I was just changing AC filtersin commercial places and I would
literally just tell people, man, I'm just going to come in, I'm
going to change out your ACfilters and then I'm going to
leave, and that was all I did.
I wasn't trying to sell them aplan, I wasn't trying to talk
them into doing work on theirunits.
I wasn't doing any of thatstuff.
And so, fast forward that wholetime from my senior year until

(07:56):
that started, I was just gettinginto hunting.
I wasn't.
I didn't come from a huntingbackground.
My dad was a Vietnam guy thatreally had no flair for killing
stuff and going and doing that.
So I got into it with somebuddies of mine doing the rifle
thing and all that.
Anyway, I had that filtercompany and what I learned was

(08:19):
it would be super busy in thesummer months and in the winter
months months it would dump off.
So I started guiding down insouth Texas with a buddy of mine
which, hindsight, I had nobusiness guiding because I had
been hunting like three yearsand I was like I don't know what
the heck I'm doing.
Man, I'm walking around outhere for patalinas and
whitetails, like I know whatthey're gonna do where they're

(08:41):
at.
I'm just like no, we'll comeacross one here at some point.
Um, so, anyway, I did that.
Uh, I picked up.
So the guy that I did that withwas a taxidermist and so from
the year 2000 until about 2005,.
I was doing taxidermy on theside with him, just doing little

(09:12):
fun stuff and whatever.
So, uh, did that.
Um, in 2005, the steiner family, which is a rodeo family out of
austin, here they boughtarchery country.
Well, when they bought it, um,I knew sid through some other
stuff and sid was like, hey waslike you ought to put a
taxidermy shop in.
We already have hunters come inthere.
It's a good, there's a, there'sa, there's a, there's a,
there's a crossover there, let'stry and do it.
So I did it.

(09:33):
So, once again, I had nobusiness being a taxidermist,
because the Steiners weretelling, good, dude, this is bad
.
The Steiners were telling theirfriends like, hey, this is the
only guy to do your taxidermy.
You got to use Tyler, he's thebest, he's the guy that does our
taxidermy.
They ran in a circle of peoplethat I had.
No, but I was two years out oflike doing it on my own and like

(09:58):
the one of my first customerswas Rick Perry, the governor of
the state of Texas.
One of the next ones after thatwas like Nolan Ryan and I'm like
I'm taking it on, like I'mready for the world.
Like looking back on it now I'mlike I had no bit.
I should have gotten like areal taxidermist to do their
stuff and get like good work tothem.
But anyway, everybody did it.

(10:18):
It was cool, um, but that's myconnection to the archery shop
here.
So in 2005 or 2006, somewherein there I put a taxidermist in
with Sid here at Archery Country.
Sid had just bought ArcheryCountry and I ran that until
2016.
I ran both of those businesses,so I ran the filter company and

(10:40):
that In the middle of that wasall kinds of other really stupid
adventures.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
I sold goats online.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Dude, I sold goats online.
I had goatdealercom with abuddy of mine.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
Dude, brutal man.
How did that happen?
What was that, I gotta ask man.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
How did you get into?

Speaker 1 (10:58):
selling goats.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Oh man.
So there's a crazy story behindthis and there are.
This could be a movie at somepoint, but my buddy a buddy of
mine was one of those movers andshakers.
There's a guy named JamesStinson at Austin area.
He's one of my best friends,has been forever.
So there was a guy that wasthere.
So I don't know if you rememberback in the day, do you

(11:20):
remember the green sheet Like itwas a?
It was a in Austin it the day?
Do you remember the green sheetLike it was a, it was a in
Austin.
It was called the green sheetand it was just a classified ads
newspaper.
They had them all over town,get them anywhere, whatever.
So we saw an ad in the greensheet for a guy's wanting to buy
goats, paying up to like $75 apiece.
And there was another guy thatwas trying to sell goats and he

(11:41):
was wanting like 50 bucks apiece for him.
So me and Stinson, being thegreat entrepreneurial minds that
we are, we're like dude, here'sour chance.
So we end up buying these goatsfor like I don't remember what
it was 50 bucks and selling themto this guy for 75 bucks.
So we sold 50 goats and made 25bucks a goat, whatever.

(12:04):
To us it was awesome.
We sold goats, we made moneydoing it and with the money we
made we ended up buying anotherset of goats.
So if you want to hear one ofthe most clustered you know what
stories of all time, our firstload of goats, we borrowed a
trailer from a guy and we drovedown to I don't remember where
it was it was somewhere like SanAntonio or something like that.

(12:25):
We buy a hundred goats, thosehundred goats.
We put them in the trailer andthey were just all in the
trailer.
We were going to haul them backto Austin.
We had them sold for more moneyand we were like, dude, we're
going to be rich, we're eatingsteak tonight.
This is life is good, or goat?
Yeah, exactly yeah, we'reeating steak tonight.
This is life is good, or goat?
Yeah, exactly yeah.
So we were like, hey, this isgoing to be legit, we're going

(12:52):
to make some money here.
This will be awesome.
Fast forward.
We forgot to shut a trap dooron the front of the trailer.
So we pull out on the highwayand Stinson's like oh my God,
look at that and do?
There are goats, just one byone, piling out this side door,
all on a highway.
I mean, we shut down a highwayin a town for probably two hours
with 50 goats before we couldget out there and shut the door

(13:13):
and they're just walking throughfences.
The sheriff's posse is outthere trying to load them up.
Dude, it was the biggestcluster of all time.
It was so bad.
And that was you, would think,being an intelligent person,
you'd be like, yeah, maybe thisgoat stuff isn't for us.
But we doubled down on it.
We were like, no, we just had alittle hiccup, a little bump in
the road.
We're gonna make some realmoney doing this.

(13:35):
So, uh, we started, uh,goatdealercom.
I say we stinson was really theone that started it.
I kind of was along for the ride.
We sold thousands of goatsevery year and we never actually
owned a goat.
The deal was we had ranchersthat would put together piles of
goats.
We would take pictures of them,put them online, sell them for

(13:59):
$25 more a goat or whatever.
And that was our shtick.
It was our way to make someextra spending money, because
filters weren't paying all thebills, taxidermy wasn't paying
all the bills, it was just acluster, but anyway, I, I did
that and it's.
It's cool because it's part ofthe story of like an
entrepreneur.
Like in my mind.

(14:20):
It was part of the story ofbeing an entrepreneur because I
never thought about maybe Ishould stop being an idiot and
bouncing on friends' couches andeating ramen noodles and stuff.
Maybe I should just go tocollege and get a real job and
go work at a bank and have asolid income and whatever.
It never crossed my mind.
Dumb as a box of rocks, I wasjust like no, we're going to
make it big one day.

(14:40):
I'm going to sell enough goatsto have a mansion in South
Austin or whatever it was.
It was just I never.
I could never wrap my headaround like a nine to five or
doing something like that.
I just was like man.
I got to make moves, we got toget to bigger and better things.
So anyway, all that being said,uh started the filter company.

(15:03):
I had the filter companyrolling.
It was going through this wholething.
We were selling sheep and goats, I was doing the taxidermy and
I was just working around theclock doing all this stuff.
So, that all changed in 2016,when the Steiners kind of came
to me and were like hey, we'reready to sell it.
You're the one we're going tokind of approach first on this,

(15:23):
you're the one we're going tokind of approach first on this.
To which I was like man, thissounds awesome.
I, you know it was what Iwanted to do.
So make a long story short.
I didn't have the money to puttogether to do it.
I called a couple of buddies ofmine that were movers and
shakers in the Austin area hereand I was like hey, you know, I
want to make some bad decisionstogether running an archery shop

(15:45):
.
I was like I don't know how todo it, but we're smart guys, we
can figure this out.
So at the time, I had sold myfilter company to my brother and
just basically had taken thatmoney and put that in my bank
account.
I still had the taxidermybusiness.
I still have the taxidermybusiness.
I still have the taxidermybusiness to this day.

(16:06):
It's still functioning nextdoor right now.
And then Archery Country.
When we bought it, I was theidiot Once again.
The entrepreneur that neverquit was like I'm going to blow
this thing up.
I'm going to make it anationwide name brand that
people know about, people wantto go to make it a destination.
Like I'm gonna do all thisstuff.

(16:26):
And it's funny because Iremember at the time the manager
of the store was kind of likeyeah, I've heard this before,
like whatever.
And I remember thinking likeman, that sucks, because I was
hoping he would buy in and likewant to help me try and grow
this thing and build somethingtangible and something that
people would want to do.
And I could tell he wasn't that.

(16:48):
So we ended up keeping him fora year and then he kind of
bogeyed and, um, anyway, here weare now, eight years later,
we're, we're talked about by JoeRogan and all the players have
been here and we're kind of it.
And this is the first year I'mnot taking in a bunch of extra
taxidermy because I'm like wecan't, I can't manage it, it's

(17:08):
too much.
The archery shop is this wholesolar system that just feeds
itself and we're, you know it's.
It requires more of me, whichmeans less of me next door at
the taxidermy shop, sosomething's got to give.
Less of me next door at thetaxidermy shop, so something's
got to give.
And I like I was telling you, Igot a wife and two kids.
I got an eight year old and a10 year old that I still like to

(17:29):
go watch them play soccer andfootball and try and be a dad
and stuff like that.
So it's one of those side deals, man.
I uh try to do the work balance.
You know, work life balancething I'm pretty bad at it, but
you know it's a.
It's a, it's a concerted effortwe try and do.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Well it's, it's a lot man, and I mean you've always
been kind of a juggler, of those, like you said, kind of that
entrepreneurial mindset.
You know, I kind of want to,you know, definitely want to
dive into more of what'shappening these days, but I
think we need to also step.
Know you, I know you said youkind of you got started later on
in life as far as hunting, youknow, 17, 18, going with some

(18:08):
buddies and things there too.
Um, and you know you, you verykind of quickly moved into
saying, man, the rifle thingjust wasn't all that for me and
it wasn't as exciting, it seemedkind of like an easy.
You know.
Okay, I think you were watchinglike a ut game or something.
I totally was.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
I remember the day it changed for me and it was the
UT.
It was that story which was,basically, I really wanted to
watch this UT football game andI had one of those old school
little black and white TVs and Ibrought it up to a stand with
me.
It had a little power packthing to it and literally I had
a heater going.
I had the game going.
I had a little power pack thingto it and literally I had a

(18:45):
heater going.
I had the game going.
I had a thermos full of stuff,a deer stepped out and I was
like, ah, that's pretty good,I'm going to take that.
And so I'm like, you know, holdon a minute and open the window
, boom, shoot it, watch it fall.
And I'm like, oh, it's downright there, nothing's going to

(19:07):
happen.
Third quarter is almost over.
I got to do that.
And at some point you get towhere you're like it's just the
challenge is gone.
And the next step after thatfor me was going to like
Ironside.
So I'm like a 30, 30.
I went to a store here in Austin, bought a Marlin 30, 30.
And you know, I I hunted deerthat way for a while, but you're
still good to 100 yards, likeanything else.
So you know you're 100 yardsfrom a deer, 80 yards from a

(19:30):
deer, it has no idea.
You're there and you're likewell, here we go, let's take
that one.
I don't know, I wanted more.
I was hoping for more.
I wanted more adrenaline rushout of it and stuff.
And the only upside to it atthe time it it was a, it was a
desire to hunt, but at the timeit was also I was broke, like we

(19:50):
had no money, so me and mybuddies would kill a deer.
And it was like christmas day,man, if you came home and you
were like, dude, I busted one.
Today, man, we're, we're eatingbackstraps tonight.
We'd go fire up our littleweber in the garage and like eat
it over charcoal and it mightas well have been a filet mignon
from perry's man to us I meanit was this is it, man, but it

(20:13):
was, it was.
It was it wasn't a necessity forfood because we had a little
money we could go to hb orsomething like that, but at the
end of the day it was kind ofwhat we wanted to do.
We were wanting it and I wasstarting to develop a love of
hunting that I really wanted topursue and be better at, and
archery seemed like the nextstep into it.
And um, the story there, thebeginning of archery for me, was

(20:36):
as weird as it sounds.
There was a uh, this is reallyweird, but there was a car auto
inspection place here in Austincalled Allen's Inspections.
Allen had a wall of death andAllen gave zero you-know-whats.
If you didn't like hunting oryou didn't want to see dead deer
or any of that stuff.

(20:57):
He had a wall of them in hisshop, just him with deer.
And he was a trad bell hunter.
So he killed everything withwith not everything, but killed
a lot of it with trad gear.
Well, I'm getting my carinspected there one day, my
truck, and um, I was like man,this archery stuff looks legit.
I was like I want to get intoit.
You know, eventually I'm goingto get into this and whatever.

(21:18):
And he goes man, go get a bowand I'll teach you.
And I was like, yeah, cool man,whatever I, you know, I blew it
off like just a guy talking.
Uh, fast forward about a month.
I'm in a town called Burnett,which is just North of Austin,
here, probably an hour Northwest.
Um, I'm fishing out therebecause there's Lake Buchanan

(21:40):
out there.
So I'm fishing for striper, buthe had a little crappy boat.
We had no business being onthat lake, but we out doing it.
And I run into alan at the hebin burnett.
We were there buying groceriesfor our little camp out thing
and all that.
Uh, and he's like, hey, offerstill stands, man, get you a
boat, dude, I'll teach you howto do it.
And, um, I don't know how orwhy, but I went to a pawn shop

(22:05):
and I bought a bear, black bear,bow, and I was like I'm gonna
hold this guy to the fire man.
So I went back to Allen'sinspections like the following
week and I was like hey, youtold me if I got a bow you'd,
you'd help with this or whatever.
And he's like right on, dude,he was like I told you I
wouldn't.
He's like, yeah, let's go toarchery country.
So we actually came here toarchery country in Austin and it

(22:27):
was funny because back then hewas like we're only going to
deal with a guy named Matt.
Everybody else is douchebagsthere.
He's like don't talk to him.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
He's like we're going to go in.
He's like if Matt's okay, Idon't know what I'm doing.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
So, anyway, that was the plan we did that.
It was cool because he took medown this rabbit hole of showing
me what everything was and whatits purpose was, which is kind
of something that we do now whenwe sell a bow to someone, we
don't just say, you're going towant this rest, you're going to

(23:02):
want this sight, you're going todo this.
We're like, well, this is thedifference.
This is the difference in astationary rest, a whisker
biscuit.
This is the difference in adropaway.
This is what you can.
You know, here's pros and cons,here's what you you know some
people like some people, hate.
Here's whatever it is.
I remember walking away thinkingI was much more knowledgeable,

(23:31):
like I had learned five yearsworth of stuff and I had taken
five years worth of learning outof my process because I had
this like really really goodteacher, but also a really
really good guy that wouldexplain, kind of what I was
doing, and at the time I didn'tknow I would.
I would put that into businesspractice at a later point.
I didn't have any idea I wasgoing to own an archery shop,
the archery shop that I would do, but at the time I remember

(23:54):
thinking, man, I'd be reallycool if every business kind of
functioned like that, where youwalked away and you were like,
wow, I made a good investment,number one, and and also I feel
knowledgeable of what I have.
It wasn't like, you know.
I remember walking out of thegun store buying a marlin 30 30
and being like man, I hope I canfigure out where to put a

(24:16):
bullet in this freaking thing.
This is not like my shotgun andI've never owned another gun,
so I don't know what you know.
I didn't grow up doing it.
So I was like I don't know whatto do and I remember thinking
that, like I, you don't know.
If you don't know, you don'tknow.
So I I remember subconsciouslyI guess, if anything else, just
in my mind thinking I knew a lotmore than everybody else around

(24:37):
me because I was like man, I, I, I picked up this weapon and I
feel super confident with it andI and I also feel like I know
how it functions, I know how itworks, I know what I'm capable
of at distances and stuff likethat, and I just it.
It started it for me.
So alan had a deer lease outand burn it he would take me out
to and dude every 30 pound andunder pig was dude.

(25:02):
It was bad times for those guys, man, because I was, I couldn't
.
I'd shot a couple of the bigones and never retrieved them,
cause I just didn't make badshots, but I didn't know how to
blood trail.
I didn't know how to do any ofthis stuff.
So I just look around and belike I don't know where it went.
Uh, the little ones died easy.
So I was like there'smicrowavable ones, these little
30 and 40 pounders are catchingit.
Man, and I was just out thereplugging away at these guys.

(25:24):
So, anyway, all that to say, Icut my teeth on pigs in the hill
country.
I shot probably 50 of thembefore I was even to a point
where I was like man, I'm readyto take on a deer or something
like that.
So it was cool, man.
It was one of those deals whereI don't know what my archery

(25:45):
journey would have been, but Ido know that that particular
that was a, that was a.
There was a definite point intime when I was like man.
What a really cool thing.
And I really feel like I knowit and I really it's really cool
that I've decided to pick thisup.
Like I, like there was a firein me that was, like I want to

(26:06):
do more of that, whatever thatwas more of that.
Like I don't, I have no desireto have this for 30, 30.
I need to go sell this, buy anew bow and all that stuff, and
anyway, that's how it kind ofhappened for me.
Man, I was just of the opinionthat I was like man, I I just
need, uh, you know, to get myact together on this and figure
it out.
Man, this is where I want to be, what I want to do, so that's

(26:29):
awesome man, you still have thatfirst animal right.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Didn't you make like a little uh kind of your own
little trophy in the shrine thatyou still have?

Speaker 2 (26:37):
I love that story still in my backyard man, it's a
javelina skull on a texas flagthat I spray painted and it is
terrible.
It is.
I don't even want to say I didit, because I know people are
going to be like aren't you a?

Speaker 1 (26:52):
taxidermist.
But anyway, yeah, this is adraft one right, yeah, I do
remember doing it.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
I do remember boiling the head in my driveway and
being like man I bit off waymore than I could chew for this.
I had every neighborhood catfor seven miles just munching
down on heavy cheeks in thedriveway and I'm like, oh man,
it's one way to clean it.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, there's one way .
I mean I got it done, butultimately it was.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
There's probably better ways, but anyway it was
fun.
Man and I in I'm not gonna saythat was my start to taxidermy
the taxidermy stuff was wildbecause it was it kind of fed
the same machine in that I wasgoing out and hunting and I was
like Alan was a big proponent.
The guy that originally taughtme was a big proponent of like

(27:34):
use the animal.
He's like if you're going tokill it, if you're going to take
its life, he's like don't,don't drag it off and feed the
coyotes or don't don't just takethe hams or the, just the
backstraps and then chunk it.
He was like man, use the animal.
Dude, which is cool.
See, you have Jesse's booksback there and all that stuff.
That's a big thing.
He preaches and stuff.

(27:54):
As a new hunter I didn't know.
I didn't know what that stuffwas good for.
At the time I remember keepingfront shoulders and being like
what am I going to do with thiscrap?
You can't throw it on a grilland I'm not going to gonna do it
.
You know, one day later, when Igot the little hand grinder at
the house and made breakfastsausage and I was like, oh man,
this is legit.
Yeah, yeah, you don't know ifyou don't know.
So, um, there was a lot oflearning curve as far as when

(28:21):
they would take me into thewoods, they realized pretty
quick, man, I was just killingthese animals and I wasn't
really blood trailing.
They were like, well, bloodtrail, go look for blood.
I'm like I don't even know whatyou're talking about, dude.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
I was like when.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
I shoot them with a rifle, they fall right there.
And you know, it's not that Iwas that dumb to think that they
just fall right there with anarrow, but in my mind there
would be a ton of blood leadingup to a dead animal right there.
I there, I didn't realize.
Sometimes they lay up and theyfill the, they plug the hole

(28:51):
with dirt and then they keeprunning and stuff like that.
There's just so much to learn.
And that was where there waslike a second teaching lessons
there, because then Al and themwere like cool, well, this kid
really does have the fire, solet's really teach him this
stuff.
So those guys would go do it.
And those guys were the oldschool, they'd have thunderhead
broadheads and stuff like that,and they would take the one that
they were going to hunt with.

(29:13):
They would shoot that into atarget, make sure it was flying
right, and then they'd be likeall right, cool, well, that's
the one I'm going to hunt with,so now pull it out of the target
.
And they were like, well, wemight have doled it up, shooting
it into that foam and we owe itto this animal for the quickest
death we can get.
So they go hone it on a thing.
It's been an hour out there atthe campfire just sharpening an
edge and they just like poke iton their arm to make sure if it

(29:35):
shaved hair.
That was good, they put it backin their quiver, but anyway it
was that kind of stuff.
I learned all that stuff byproxy.
I did, I was.
I didn't come from thatbackground, so you just kind of
jump in the game and do it and Idon't know.
It ended up being really cool.
Man, I ended up taking a lot oflessons away from that stuff,
of which I still put to practice.
I still do some of that stuff.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
So well, that's amazing.
You know that mentorship is soimportant too.
There's so many things like youjust talked about, even like
just game trail, right, we?
We just this last weekend we'rehunting and my buddy shot a
beautiful melanistic doe out onthe ranch and there was four of
us that were out there helpinghim looking around and one of
the guys was like I'd startedlooking for game trail cameras

(30:18):
Cause you guys talked about likethat patch released resistance
and like, and he went and foundit because he followed this
trail Right, and I was like, ohman, that's cool, we talked to
you about that and that's cool,we talked to you about that, and
that's something that years ago.
But it stays with you.
And not that we're some grandmentors here, but the idea of
like, when someone takes thetime and teaches you and the
things that you can learn, whatyou can then put in your own

(30:38):
proverbial quiver, if you will,those are the things that, too,
like we pass on.
This is generational, right.
You can be able to pass on toyour kids, our friends, our
nephews and nieces and, whateverit may be, our daughters.
You know like we're teachingthem and passing on what we've
learned, and you know that thatkind of want to tie that back
into you talked about likehaving you know that one guy

(30:59):
that they say, hey, you knowwe're going to go see Matt there
and you know if he's not therewe're bouncing, because that was
the guy that people trusted it.
And now I've been to your storewhenever I decided I wanted to
get into archery.
There was only one place I wasgoing to go to make start that
journey and that was there toarchery country.
I've had so many people tell mewonderful things, friends of
mine who work in the industry,who are like, listen, go check
that out and go talk to you andwent in there and the this staff

(31:22):
was something that I understandas you talk about it now, what
it was.
It was important to you andbeing able to have guides along
the way and having people.
And I think that I want totouch on this idea too of how
intimidating it can be forsomeone when they're moving into
, going into a rifle uh, youknow store or archery and you

(31:45):
don't know right, you don't knowwhat you don't know and then
it's an intimidating thing toask these questions that may be
dumb questions to you, but it'slike those people that you
might've heard, those peoplethat are behind the counter
might've heard that a thousandtimes, but they need to treat it
like it's the first time andwalk you through each step and
meet people where they are.
And I think I'd love to hearyou talk about that idea of how

(32:08):
you want to create anenvironment and an atmosphere
that is very welcoming to peopleof all different levels, and
why that's important to you.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
So what I'll say is, when we took this thing on, I
wanted to approach it from thestandpoint of everybody's a
beginner.
Unless they tell you otherwise,they're in there just trying
their best with what they have,and so I was like the first
thing we will never do is makefun of people's equipment.
I was like because I rememberwalking in with an old bow.

(32:37):
I remember I bought a bow uh,this is bad, bad on me, but I
bought at the time.
There was a.
There was a pse nova, which wasa super popular bow back in the
day, and I bought a pse novaand it was a team fitzgerald
thing and it was literally, Iwant to say it was like 199 or
299 and it was a package.

(32:59):
It had everything on it and Ibought it at um like a bass pro.
You bought it out of thecatalog, it shipped to your,
your house.
So I was proud of that bow.
I really was.
I came to Archery Country.
I'm like, dude, this is legit.
I got a new bow.
I'm not shooting this old pawnshop piece of junk.
Whatever, I got the bow and Iremember walking in and not the

(33:25):
main tech there at ArcheryCountry country, but one of the
guys that worked there,crotchety old guy, I remember
him just kind of looking at itand being like, oh well, they
must be having a sale at basspro or something like that.
It was the first time Iremember being like that sucks
man, like I freaking just spent,like to me, the three hundred
dollars or the two or whateverit was money it might as well
have been five thousand dollars.

(33:47):
I didn't have it.
I was scraped to put ittogether.
I was banking on selling thisother boat at the pawn shop to
put the rest of the moneytogether so I wasn't overdrawn
and could eat that way.
It was one of those deals and Iremember being not disheartened
by it, but I remember beinglike what a douche man.
Like that's a crappy move.
Fast forward to when I own it.
I was like we a crappy move.

(34:09):
Fast forward to when I own it.
I was like we're going to treateverybody like they're new
until they say they're not.
And to me I kind of equate itto like you watch your language
until you find what companyyou're in.
If you're in a bunch of dudesdropping F-bombs and stuff,
you're like all right, well, youknow whatever, but you know if
you're with the pastor of thechurch, you might be like, well,
I'm going to calm down on theF-bombs this afternoon until

(34:29):
whatever.
To me it's the same deal, untila guy comes in and has his bow
and is like, hey, this is myfourth bow.
I killed this giant mule deerin Colorado last year.
Check this out, I want to getthis one set up.
I'm like cool, we don't need togo through the basics here, but

(34:50):
it's a place to start.
So to me the biggest thing wasthe intimidation factor and it
was funny because I had thisconversation.
I went to a TAC event last year,the Total Archery Challenge
thing, and I had dinner withthat Donnie Vincent guy and I
was a fly on the wall for thislunch thing.
We were just all kind ofhanging out eating food and all
that and donnie vincent superfamous uh you know movie guy

(35:13):
does a bunch of stuff reallygood hunter, all that stuff.
Uh, he was telling a storyabout the first time he bought a
bow.
He spent three hours in theparking lot just trying to get
his nuts up to walk inside andtalk to them.
He was like I just knew theywere gonna be like dude, you
can't even draw 50 pounds, dude.
My freaking wife draws 50pounds.
Get out of here, dude, orwhatever.

(35:34):
He was like I just knew it andhe was like it wasn't that way.
But he was like in my mind Ihad built up the scenario to
where it was bad.
And that's the one thing we kindof did when we started this
over here was I was like wecannot have those scenarios play
out.
We can't.
I was like it's something towhere somebody's bringing in

(35:55):
their hard-earned money.
This is extracurricular, thisisn't something of necessity in
life.
And then, to take it a stepfurther, it's a niche of
extracurricular, because the gunindustry is 80 times larger
than this industry.
So it's a niche of a niche, um.
And then, on top of that,you're spending good money and

(36:15):
you're coming in intimidated,like you, you don't know what
you can draw.
I don't know what I can drawlike there I remember the first
time rogan had a 90 pound bow.
I'm like I can draw a pound bowI don't know what this thing
freaking draws like and whateverI can draw it back.
Luckily it wasn't too bad.
Sorry, man, it wasn't too bad.
But I remember thinking like,dude, I don't know how, you know

(36:38):
, I don't know if I can do it,man, and I'm going to be right
here in front of Joe Rogan.
He's like, yeah, go shoot mybow, shoot it through paper,
let's see if it's tuned.
And I'm like, oh, dude, here wego.
Dude, it's going to be real bad.
So anyway, all that to say, um,the the main thing we did when
we started it was basically weall sat down and we were like,

(36:59):
look, we were all here at onepoint.
At some point we all walkedinto a shop, green.
We didn't know what we weredoing and how do you want to be
treated?
So put that into practice everyday.
Take people where they're atand make make the best of what
you have, the situation, causeyou're going to deal with guys
that we.
I mean we set those up for somepeople that are better shots

(37:19):
than us.
I was working on a guy's bowthe other day and he's a shop
shooter for us and I'm like Idon't have any business working
on this guy's bow.
This guy shoots 10 times betterthan I'll ever shoot.
He can walk out back right nowand put one in a tack at 80
yards.
I'd be lucky to get a pie plateout there.
So the reality is you kind oftake people where they're at.

(37:43):
But as far as back to ourbusiness, I set out to have
younger guys that weren't thecrotchety old guys and I didn't
want them too young to whereyou're dealing with a 15 year
old and you're like dude, thiskid doesn't even know, you know,
have any life experience, sohow's he going to help me on my
mule deer hunt in Alberta that Ipaid $20,000 for, or vice versa
.
You have the guy that comes inand whatever.

(38:03):
I mean there's so many scenariosthat play out every day over
here but at the end of the day,taking people where they're at
and really trying to just givethem as much knowledge as you
possibly can so they feelinformed, and then when they
walk out they're like what acool bunch of dudes.
I mean they can talk, whatever.

(38:26):
It is Like I got guys.
I have.
The one thing cool about thisshop is I have somebody for
everybody.
If you're a vegan, hardcorePETA person, well, I got a guy
for that.
If you're a you know, a collegepreppy kid, I got a guy for
that.
If you're a super redneck andyou're whatever, I got a guy for
that.

(38:49):
Like, we all have our strengthsand weaknesses and we know it.
So we play on those strengthsand weaknesses and it's it's
benefited us now, because whenpeople come in, they don't come
in and think, man, theintimidation factors there.
They come in, there's coolmusic playing and then they walk
up and my guys are like, what'sup, man, what can we help you
with?
And it usually automaticallyputs them at ease.

(39:10):
And if they have kids, we'relike, hey, man, here's a quarter
, go get some Skittles and hangout for a second.
Like it's just, there's a wholelot of stuff that we do to just
make put you at ease.
Because the reality is it is,it's it's an intense situation
and everybody's personality isdifferent.
So some people super stress outon it, like Donnie Vincent
waiting three hours in a parkinglot before he gets the gall up

(39:33):
to go in.
Or you have guys that just walkin like they know everything
and you're like this guy doesn'tknow anything but whatever, I'm
going to still help him likethat.
So the reality is I don't knowwhat's right or wrong.
I do know customer service willget you far and that's the one
thing we kind of leaned on herewas, at the end of the day, 99%

(39:53):
of what I have on the wall shortof a PSE or a Matthews or a
Bowtech or Hoyt or whatever youcan go.
You can go buy it online, youcan go to Amazon, you can go to
Lancaster.
You can get all that stuffdelivered right to your house
and you're better for it.
You can put it on yourself,watch a couple of Dudley videos
and you're in business.
You can start shooting a bow.
So the reality is we got togive them a reason to come here,

(40:16):
which we lean on customerservice and being cool and all
that kind of stuff.
So I know when you came in youdealt with.
Was it Tommy?
Yep, was he?

Speaker 1 (40:24):
the one.
Yeah, tommy was great, and youknow I I brought in quite the
crew.
We had just come from kalahari,so we're up there around rock
right so we're all stilldripping wet from the water park
, right, and, yeah, my wife, meg, uh, my youngest, ellie, and
then, um, I had mybrother-in-law there, his two
sons, my mother-in-law, so webrought like the whole family

(40:45):
caravan and you guys treatedeveryone so well.
My daughter was like I want togo ahead and organize these
arrows over here, cause there'slike some colors, and the other
guys are like, okay, you can'tdo that, but like it was just
fun and they just had a greattime.
And you know, and of course, Iwent back there and you know I
had a little hiccup in the sensethat, well, you know, I wanted
to walk this through too.
So, as far as, like you know,whenever I went there, what we

(41:07):
did is figured out my drawlength and we're looking at
different types of bows and he,you know, he's bringing a couple
back for me to try out, um, andthen we're just shooting at
paper what, maybe about fiveyards or so, maybe you know, and
just as far as seeing and kindof getting a feel for that, so
there's like a side room whereyou kind of go and kind of get a
sense of things, making sure,hey, you're not going to get any
arm slaps, um, and differentthings, like here's the kind of

(41:28):
a technique, how you're going tohold it, and just kind of
getting a little bit comfortable, not getting too much into
super crazy technique yet, butjust getting a feel for it.
And you know, feeling which onefeels better.
And it's got to start somewhereand that was a great thing.
And then all of a sudden,tommy's like hey are.
So are you right?
I dominant and my left eye hasalways been my strong eye, but I

(41:55):
didn't really fully.
You know, I shot with my righteye.
Uh, you know my whole life, um,which is kind of crazy.
I was born left-handed and then, like two years old, I dipped
my hand in my dad's coffee andhe's holding it.
Never went with my left hand,ever again.
So you know I'm having tounleash layers of you know,
repressed memories here, butwhen he did that he's like, okay

(42:16):
, well, let's go ahead and getyou a left-handed bow and see if
you can even do it Like rightnow, you know, figure out, you
know.
So we tuned down the poundage soI could do that.
And then he was like youactually don't look.
He didn't say you lookcomfortable, but he's like you
don't look too awkward.
But then the more I wasshooting there, he's like okay,
you know, here's something youneed to think about and that was
about eye dominance.

(42:36):
And you know, before we kind ofgo further into talking about
that, I'd love for you toaddress that idea, because eye
dominance in shooting a rifle isdifferent than eye dominance in
a bow and I feel like, forpeople who may be coming into it
and you know the idea that theywant to get into archery, can
you talk about the importance ofhow sometimes it may be?

(42:59):
What the difference is is ifyou go with your non-dominant
and dominant eye and maybe howthat trajectory of how it can
plateau or can keep going,depending on what you do and why
.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
So you can learn any way to shoot.
You can teach yourself, you cando anything.
What I always tell people themain, the main thing for me is
take everything else out of theequation.
Take shooting on the range,take all that stuff out of the
equation.
The reality is when you're in ahunt situation and there's a
deer there or there's an elk andyour heart's going 80 miles an

(43:33):
hour and you're looking at thisanimal and you're like, can I
move now?
Can I not move now?
Can I do what?
What's my next move?
Am I good?
And there's my sight adjustedto this yardage.
Like there's so many thingsgoing through your head.
You're always going to go backto the automatics and eye
dominance falls into that.
So if you draw back and you'releft eye dominant but you're

(43:55):
making it with a right-handedbow, well, you're not thinking
of your step process.
Like you are out on my shootingrange where you're like all
right, let's get my feet withthe parts, let's come back to
draw.
Let's put our nose on thestring, let's make sure we're
all lined up.
All with the parts, let's comeback to draw.
Let's put our nose on thestring, let's make sure we're
all lined up.
All that's thrown out the door.
You're trying to breathe.
You're trying to just focus onbreathing, but not too loud to
where you shake.
Yeah, so you'll go back to badhabits, and that's the way I

(44:18):
look at it.
Go to what your body is tellingyou, first thing to do.
So if, if you do it and it'sreally awkward, and then you do
it with your left hand andyou're like, oh wow, this feels,
you know, I feel like I aimbetter, I feel like this is it.
Well, then teach yourself to doit that way, because the
reality is in the heat of themoment, the situation.
You know you're going to fallapart.

(44:40):
We all do.
I'm by no means saying you ormaking fun of anybody, because
I'm just as guilty of it.
I draw back and there's timeswhen I draw back and I have to
close my eyes and be like allright, breathe, let's get the
heart rate down here, becauseyou're having a minor heart
attack here, and then you settlein and you go through your
steps and all that stuff.
But the reality is you want tohave something that's set up,

(45:03):
that is the most routine for youand what you do.
So if I dominance is that thing, you don't want to come back to
full draw on a right-hand bowand then all of a sudden you're
looking over your string tryingto get your other eye in there
because you've forgotten all ofyour steps.
You're just heated a moment.
You're like I got to shoot thisbullies right, he's at 40 yards
, right there.
We got to make this happen now.
So that's why I say thedominant stuff really matters

(45:26):
and that's why Tommy took thetime to do that.
That's why you do that, becausea lot of people don't know, or
they do know, but they're like Idon't even know if I can do it
and we're like cool, well,there's one way to find that out
.
Let's go set up the bow, yourdraw link, let's go do it.
It's at five yards.
We're not trying to make sureyou can get form, you can look

(45:50):
through it.
Everything lines up and itlooks good, because if it's way
too long, if it's back here, uphere or whatever, we can adjust
for that and we can get it towhere we're.
You're more comfortable withthe way it kind of plays out.
So, anyway, that's why I wouldsay it does everything's thrown
out the door in the heat of themoment.
Man in my playbook for all theseyears and I still get that
fired up.
I went on a mule deer hunt lastyear.
Same deal, dude, I am usuallycalm, cool, composed.

(46:14):
A deer steps in.
I'm like, all right, I'm gonnatake that.
When I draw back man, this deerwas walking through this maze
field and I was literally.
I was like I'm gonna shoot him,but I have that one window, so
I yank this sucker back, I'mtrying to aim.
I'm like, is he, where's he?
I'm trying to look for him andI have that one window, so I
yanked this sucker back, I'mtrying to aim.
I'm like, is he, where's he?
I'm trying to look for him andthen I'm like, oh, he's there
and whatever.
And I'm just, everything wentout the window, like I, I

(46:35):
luckily I'd done it sorepetitively that it was second
nature to get my nose on thestring and pull the trigger and
go from there.
I don't remember like lookingthrough my peep and being like,
oh, that's the spot I want tohit.
I remember being back, beingthere and being like, oh, he's
there, that's it.
Boom, send it and that's it.
And I think that's a big partof it.

(46:56):
That's why you practice andthat's why you make sure you
have your equipment right, whichplays into what you were saying
, that you know you got to makesure it's all right now.
That's why we, like tommy andthem, do that kind of stuff.
And it plays into another thingthat we do here at the shop,
which is like, if you come inand you're like, hey, I don't
know which bow is best or worstor what, I you know, I don't

(47:18):
have a reference I you know, pse, matthews, hoits are all.
Are they all the same?
Are they different?
What's the difference?
What?
How do you know?
Well, everybody's different, Iyou know.
In my opinion, sometimes amatthews is more smooth,
sometimes a hoyt's more smooth.
I've had guys sit there with abow that I thought drew
absolutely terrible, terrible,like I was like dude, I would

(47:39):
never shoot that bow.
And this guy's, like man, thisthing's way smoother than all
those other ones.
And I'm like man.
I have no idea what that guysees, but it's just a difference
in the way people function.
You know, people draw a bow orpeople, whatever it is.
So it's just one of those deals, like I said, there's no right
or wrong man.
You take people where they'reat and you make it work for the

(48:00):
best you can with what you got.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
So what I loved about being there in that is it.
You know, like Tommy took thetime and you know, we, we kind
of we we hit a point that daytoo where you guys were having
ladies night.
So like wednesday nights youhave ladies nights, there's
someone cooking out there.
They were all kind of coming inand he's like look man, we could
say, hey, this blitz kid needslike one lane over here and and

(48:24):
I was like, look, I don't, II've got my whole family with me
and we had already spent, youknow, some significant amount of
time because I was asking lotsof questions and he was very,
very patient with me, you know,and he, when he was going and
tuning up the left hand bow tokind of get to my draw length,
the poundage wise, everythingI'm talking to the guys and just
you know chatting about kind ofsome of the stuff I do and
everything and, um, you know,asking questions about bows and

(48:46):
like, and everyone is just sohelpful.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
I got it right there, like the crew I've put together
here taking me and jason jordan.
There, it's a good man.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
They're good dudes, though, and you see people
coming in like, so you know allthe ladies are coming in and
stuff, and so I knew we stillhad to make our drive all the
way back home and so I was like,look, he's like, look, we can
go ahead and do this.
Or you can go, and you know,and go back to to to Houston and
, you know, find a place that'slocal to you, go to a shop and
just kind of get a feel for whatfeels right, Shoot some

(49:17):
different ones and and rightleft, see which one you want to
go with, and then come back hereand you know, then we'll kind
of get into your training andstuff too.
And I ended up feeling reallycomfortable with the PSE bow
that I had put in my hand, andso I was like, you know, I ended
up reaching out to them andkind of worked out to where they
sent me one, so super stokedthat love it.
And that's something that I'vegone and done, some practicing,

(49:38):
you know, I got set up in mybackyard, got a set up at the
ranch, and so I'm getting there.
But I'm kind of wanting to justgo through the motions and then
come back into you guys and takethat next level of training,
because there's certain thingsthat I know that I'm going to
need help with and making surethat I'm not developing too many
bad habits, Cause I'm sure I'll.
You know, there'll be thingswhere I'm like okay, getting the
rest of the exact same spot,you know getting.

(49:59):
You know the drawback hittingyour nose, all the different
things that you know I wouldn'tknow what to do.
And just to be able to haveconsistency right and have that
same kind of anchor point.
There's so many things that youI think it's it's one of those
sports where, uh, you know, you,if you don't have, if you
develop bad habits, that's goingto take longer to erase those.

(50:20):
And having someone there fromthe very beginning be like, okay
, georgia, do this, do that armhere.
And I was like, okay, to whereI got comfortable, that was
really, really helpful.
And he was like, hey, we can,we can stay here until you want,
and or you can go ahead and,and you know, get comfortable
with what you want.
And I was like, all right,let's, let's take this move, I'm
going to go ahead.
And, you know, step off and and, uh, you know, kind of started

(50:44):
getting a little bit fatiguedwith my left hand?

Speaker 2 (50:46):
I'm not sure.
Yeah, no, it's a different setof muscles, man, it's,
everything's different and I'vetried.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
I mean, I went out to the ranch.
We had a day it was like it was100 and something degrees out.
We're like spreading seeds outand I kind of doing all this
work, and then I was like I'mgonna try it afterwards.
I was like never when I'm superfatigued I was like, oh, this
will be smart for me yeah forsure.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
No, yeah, no, it's arrows in the woods you know,
yeah, that's brutal and they'renot cheap either.
That's the one thing I alwayslaugh about people who go to
tack.
They're like I'm gonna buy twodozen extra arrows and you're
like four hundred dollars tojust go shoot them into wood
trunks and break them off.
You're like man dang expensivehobby.
Here it is.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
It is yeah, but it's cool.
There's nothing like it, man,there really is nothing like it.
You know I haven't gone intothe live animal that I'm hoping
in December when I get out toSouth Texas there's a few setups
there and I hope to have thatkind of confidence because I'm
not going to step up until Iknow I'm confident and I have a
certain you know, you know shotthat I'm having an inconsistency
, but I'm getting thereno-transcript and I think that

(52:15):
you've set up something amazingwith your staff there and I just
want to want to applaud that.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
That's been the goal.
I really appreciate that andthat has been like hearing that
as the the ultimate, you knowcompliment, because, like I said
, we strive for that and it'sfrustrating when you get the
stuff that you know, you hear it.
You see a Yelp review and someguys like, yeah, they're for 10
minutes and they didn't help me,and I'm like, well, that was on
a day when there was, we werehammered and I guess we thought

(52:41):
we had talked to everybody.
It wasn't on purpose, it wasn'tthat we were ignoring you or
anything like that.
I'm like, come back, try itagain.
Man, that's not us, that's notwho we are and all that.
But at the end of the day, ifyou don't have that, like I said
, you have options.
You can go buy everything yougot on your bow from a Amazon or

(53:01):
a Lancaster or whatever.
So the reality is it works bothways For us.
It's just as important to bethat for other people, because
that's what is paying our billsand putting food on our table is
us being able to have theknowledge of the site and stuff
like that.
You can order a Spotahog, butthen you got to put it together,
figure out how to site it inand then figure out how to build

(53:23):
a tape for it and all thatstuff.
And we got that down to a 30minute fine art where you walk
in.
There's no guessing.
We're not like, well, let me goread the instructions.
We're like, no, come on, man,we're going to do this, We'll.
We'll be done in 20 minutes.

Speaker 1 (53:36):
Here, man, let's get this sucker rolling so you talk
about that too, like there are alot of people that that's
something that is always goingto be needed, because you even
talk about some of thesecelebrity folks who are very
well off, very great hunters.
But the nuanced, technical partof being able to put together
that, tune up a site to acertain way or tune up the bow

(53:58):
to a certain way, figure out howto go ahead and adjust the draw
weight that is so manydifferent nuances in that
archery world and each piece ofequipment you need to know how
they move and how it'sinterplayed.
And that's something that, evenif someone can shoot really
well and they have thatdiscipline, they might not know
that background to it.

(54:18):
And that's where you're stillgoing to always have business,
where people are coming throughdoing that.
I mean the cams of the world,the Joe Rogans of the world.
It's like they're still comingto you for a reason, because
that's what you have theexpertise in and you have that
expertise in customer care,which is kind of, you know,
bringing those together in thatway.
Yep, nope.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
That's like I said, that's exactly what we have been
striving for since day one.
That's what we're trying to do.
But yeah, you're exactly rightthat when you get into it,
there's so many moving parts ona bow at any given time that you
can see how it can go south.
I mean, there's people that dryfire bows and the limbs are
busted and the cams bent and thestrings up in the tree and

(54:59):
you're like what in the worldjust happened?
So when it goes bad, it goesbad like it's not a, it's it's
expensive, it's not a, it'sexpensive, it's not a good thing
.
And we see it daily in here anda lot of it is just not
knowledge, like they don't know,like they didn't know you can't
draw your bow back.
So we, like I said this goesback to the first stuff when you

(55:20):
come in, we had an influencergirl in there this morning and
here this morning that we weretalking to her and we were like,
hey, so here's the deal, don'tlet your friends play with your
bow, because they're going towant to draw it back.
And if they draw it back andthey don't know how to let it
down and they accidentally letit down, well it's going to dry
fire.
And now you have a bow in amillion pieces and she's like

(55:40):
noted, I'll tell my friendsdon't touch my junk or whatever.
And we're like, yeah, that's101.
Like you wouldn't know that.
If you don't know it, I meanshe was looking at it trying to
draw about.
Even if you don't know, youdon't know.
So the reality is you.
You, like I said, it goes backto what I said before, you take
them where they're at, um, which, like I said, chase tank, tommy

(56:01):
jordan, all of my guys arereally, really good at that.
That's the one thing we've allbeen good at is kind of taking
people where they're at andbeing like cool man, this guy
already knows not to do that,but he might not know man on
that Garmin side, it's going tosuck the battery drive you let
it.
So do this or whatever.
There's so many moving parts tothis stuff and luckily it's one

(56:21):
.
It's a benefit of our shop andI think it's why we're a better
shop than a lot of other shops.
Not that we're better, but it'swhy I think we're more apt to
work on anything is because wehave so many people that come
through daily that we're tuning10 bows a day.

(56:41):
So we're going back and we'retaking an old bear, and then
we're going with a brand newHoyt, and then we're going to a
three-year-old Matthews, andthen we're going to a
four-year-old PSC, and thenwe're going whatever.
The list goes on and we'retuning those posts, we're
messing with each one.
And then a guy comes in andsays, hey, I just got the brand

(57:02):
new spot hog, I want to set itup.
And we're like cool, yeah,we've set out back, we've done
tons of these.
Dude, that's easy.
We got to run through this andall.
That Guy wants a new Excel orwhatever it is.
We've messed with all of it.
And it's a benefit of oursbecause we're in a bigger town
and we're a bigger shop that hasa reputation.
I don't expect a little tinyshop in Kentucky to have the

(57:25):
knowledge we have, because theydon't.
You know, they might deal withfour customers a day and one of
them's just trying to get somearrows and cause.
This kid ruined them playingswords in the fray yard or
something.
I mean that's the way ithappens, like they don't see
that much stuff.
So we have the benefit of beingin a big town where there's
lots of moving parts and allthat kind of stuff.
So we're tuning and we'reworking on those all day, every

(57:47):
day.
So my guys have a great, hugeknowledge bank of stuff that
we've worked on and we've doneso.
When you come in, I'm not sayingyou can stump us, you can't
stump us, but there's a 99%chance that one of these guys is

(58:08):
going to be like no, no, I setthem up.
Or hey, last time I was doingthose old PSEs, dude, they like
to lean all the way in on thetop, whatever it is.
You can say, hey, this is theway it plays out, like you just
have to, you have to, you got todo this.
This is where you start.
And then once that happens,literally it takes out all the
learning curve where you're backthere for an hour trying to
figure out why this thing istearing through paper and

(58:30):
shooting funky and you can'tfigure it out.
My guys figure it out in twoshots and they're like no, we
got to do this.
Tommy said the best.
I mean, that's what I miss, wasit?
So I think that's one of thethings that sets us apart from
other shops is we're so big,we're dealing with so much stuff
all the time, um, and they'reall smart guys, they're all guys
that get it.
They they're, you know,mechanically inclined.

(58:52):
They know what they're doingwhen they grab a bow.
They're not wondering, they'renot looking at instagram or
youtube or whatever.
That was a funny one.
We had, uh, saturday we had aguy come in and uh, he goes hey,
man, he goes, can y'all, cany'all tie a d-loop on a bow?
And we were like, yeah, we tiedprobably 30 a day.

(59:14):
Man, we're like we can do it inour sleep.
Almost.
We're like what you got.
He's like I just need a d-loop.
And so we're like, well, yeah,give me the bow.
You got an arrow, let's, let'sdo it right now.
So he's like, oh, I don't haveto drop it off.
And we're like, no.
And so my guy grabs it, goesback it was jordan he puts it on
a stand, puts the air on it,levels it, make sure it looks

(59:34):
good ties to, ties d low inthree minutes.
And, uh, so the guy goes andthat's it, it's perfect.
And he was like, yeah, go shootit, it's perfect, but great,
it'll work for you.
And the guy was like so you notthrow anyone under the table.
But he was like I was at a bigbox store.
Uh, an hour ago, and he goes.

(59:55):
I told them I wanted a D loopon this bow and uh, he goes.
The tech took it, went in theback room and was gone for like
30 minutes.
And uh, he was like, so Iwalked back in the room after 30
minutes Cause he was like I waslike I don't know if I'm
supposed to leave this overnight, or like well, he's like I
don't know what the deal is.
And he goes.
So I go in there and the techhas the bow on the thing, it has

(01:00:18):
the top part of a D loop tiedon the string and is watching a
knock-on video on the computerscreen, like trying to learn how
to tie a D-loop off of aknock-on video.
And he goes.
I just told him hey, man, don'tworry about it, it's cool.
Do I owe you anything for whatyou've done?
I'll just figure something elseout.
So he comes into our storewondering if A we can even do it

(01:00:39):
and how long it takes and allthat, and I'm like, do these?
I was like I would venture tosay that Jordan could tie a
D-loop in a minute in his sleepand have it look perfect on a
stream.
I might not be in the right spot, because you've got to measure
that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
Yeah, you've got to open your eyes for those.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
I could blindfold and be like yeah, here's your
D-loop, there you go, You'reready to rock man, what do you
got?
What else?
But people don't know.
So if you don't know, you don'tknow, You're coming in blindly,
hoping that you're going to aplace that knows what they're
doing.
It's no different than beinglike my brakes are squeaking.
Is it the rotors or are thebrakes shot?
Or is it totally fine?
They got a little piece ofgravel in there.

(01:01:17):
I don't know.
That's why I'm at your shopasking you it's the same deal.
We're trying to provide aservice and do it as honestly
and best as we can and do allthat stuff.
And that's ultimately what setsus apart from other shops is
we're we're, we're trying to bebetter and all that kind of
stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
So you go to these big box stores and I mean I've
seen it time and time again theperson that's behind the counter
isn't necessarily the personthat knows everything about what
they have.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
I mean from the shoe department a hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
a hundred percent, well, I mean, you know there's a
big sports and outdoor storehere in Texas and they have a
lot of different things you canbuy and there's a whole
different, you know, likeenvironment where you can go in
there and you can see everything.
You can kind of pick out whatyou want.
But when you go for theexpertise behind the counter,
there's like times where peopleoh, you can only hunt deer with

(01:02:10):
a 30-06 here and I'm like whatthe hell are you talking about?
yeah, I find myself it's hard togo in those because I might be
going to get ammo or somethinglike small or whatever it may be
, just like you know, and then Ikind of want to be like hey,
you can do that with any ofthose rifles up here you know,
and just so it.
It bums me out when I see thosekinds of things.
I see people being steered inthe wrong direction.

(01:02:31):
I'm like not my place to stepin here, but you might want to
go to a specialty shop and thatway you can get that type of
hands-on experience, people whohave that true knowledge base
they can pass on.
And that was again that wasapparent when I came through to
to your store there, and that'sawesome.
You know what I've, what I've.
Also, a thing that I reallyliked that I've seen a lot here
in the last few months, you know, and as I kind of learn more

(01:02:54):
about you and we kind of chatsome mutual friends and things
too is all the events that youhave too that I think bring
people to the door to kind of bea part of these different
events you got going on and I'dlove to kind of chat a little
bit about those.
You know you had Jesse Griffiths, mutual friend, there who's
coming and doing wild hogcooking.
You got Tyler Jones from theelement as part of the meat
eater and that already is goingto bring people to the door and

(01:03:16):
I think those who are maybe werea little, maybe uncomfortable,
they're inquisitive, they'rewalking through your door and
then they're, like they might be, you know, leaving as, like you
know, bow hunters by the end ofthe day or or just someone who
loves the practice of shootingand the discipline of learning a
sport, cause not everyone whowalks through are you trying to

(01:03:36):
get up in the stand and and getblood on their arrow right, like
there's a lot of people andeven children and different
youth group things are going on.
So you have so many things goingon, I definitely.
I just want to want to, youknow, take some time to kind of
piece apart, like what are someof these events you've got going
on?
Uh, you know the bat cityarchery, I think is what it's
called yeah, we just did thatone, which that's?

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
that's a huge one, man, so it's a really cool thing
.
The super short version isthere's a guy named jim deline
here in austin.
Uh, jim had a daughter in anelementary school right here in
these neighborhoods, rightwithin five miles of us here.
His daughter wanted to doarchery so he started an archery
team at her elementary school.
She goes into middle school,did the same thing, she goes

(01:04:18):
into high school, did the samething.
So he started three programs,kind of like following his
daughter and all that stuff.
Um, it blossomed into this year.
He has 15 elementary, middleand high schools with 500 kids
doing it.
And he's got a waiting list ofother schools that want to do it
, that are waiting on either afunding or be you know a

(01:04:42):
facility or it's some capacity.
They want to do it.
So I had lunch with Jim and Iwas like so what do you actually
need?
And he's like he's like you getdown to brass tacks I.
He was like it takes a couplethousand bucks to start a
program.
He's like you gotta have, yougotta have Genesis bows, cause
they do the NAS.
They follow the NAS program,which is the national archery in

(01:05:04):
the Schools program, you've gotto have the Genesis Arrows.
They try and make it a levelplaying field, so it's all the
same bows, all the same arrows.
They can't have sights, it'sall instinct Stuff like that.
So, long story short, I waslike, well, I can't, so I can't
donate.
Like my kids school.
They're trying to onboard aprogram right now.

(01:05:25):
My kid would be a stud.
My older boy would be anabsolute killer in this thing.
My younger boy might, I don'tknow, he might grab a sword and
like an arrow, like a sword, andjust start beating his friends,
but my older boy's stud.
Anyway, they're trying to builda program.
Well, it costs a couplethousand bucks.
So the reality is he's like man, I could really use you as a

(01:05:48):
coach because I have seen youhelp kids and stuff like that.
And I'm like dude, the plate isfull over here.
I was like between two kids, awife, two businesses, a
taxidermist, a hammer, thisarchery shop is busy.
I was like I don't have, it'snot possible, it's not an option
.
But I was like I can cook abunch of food on a saturday and
we can sell plates for 10 bucksa pop and whatever.

(01:06:10):
He told me that they on thissaturday.
This last saturday, um, Ididn't stay up overnight because
I had a trigger, luckily, and abuddy of mine had a trigger too
, so we cheated on that part.
But we made pulled pork andsausage and hot dogs, sold
plates.
I bought it all.
I didn't ask for anything backfrom it.
We donated all the money theymade a little over $4,000.

(01:06:32):
So now they can onboard twoschools that weren't going to be
able to do it because theyneeded to buy the 10 bows and
the 10 sets of arrows and thetargets and the backdrop and all
this stuff.
So the reality is my point tothat whole story is there's
probably 15 programs like thataround that I'm not aware of,

(01:06:54):
but if I can bring awareness toit and all that stuff.
So what I did?
I basically I went back to thecustomer service aspect, which
is relying on community to buildit and grow and do all that
stuff.
So I called on my archerycommunity and I'm like, look, I
know a hunter might not careabout a fifth grader over here
at Highland Park ElementarySchool, but it's the future of

(01:07:16):
our sport.
It's a really cool thing.
It's getting kids off of iPadsand doing stuff.
It's a cool thing, man, whywouldn't we want to give back to
that?
Why wouldn't we want to fosterthat and try and grow that Um,
which, you know we raised $4,500, which is legit.
Um, the community thing is hugefor us here at archery country,

(01:07:38):
for me at least, personally,because I've relied on that to
build, to build this orbit thatwe're in right now.
So, jesse's we you know we havea mutual friend in jesse well, a
bunch of people were like man,I'd love to see him butcher one,
you know start to finish like I, not just look at his book,
because you can learn a lotthrough that.
But it'd be cool to see thedude do that.

(01:07:59):
And I was like, why don't wecook?
And you cook some stuff.
He made like wild boar, chorizotostadas and rice and beans and
then we showed everybody.
We got 100 people show up andthey got a book.
They got a hog book or a turkeybook and he did the whole deal.
Um, when we do that stuff,people are just like dude, this

(01:08:19):
is so legit.
They were like I've neverthought I would be able to be
around jesse or eat his stuff orsee what he does or see if he's
really as legit as everybodysays he is or whatever.
It's that way, with all of it.
We have John Dudley come throughhere.
We've had, we've had Cam Haynescome to events.
We've had all kinds of peoplewe had last year.
One of our really awesome oneswas there was a.

(01:08:41):
Have you ever heard of barklow?
John barklow with sitka?
Um, so barklow and aaronschneider came here and did a
backcountry 101.
Here's what you look for in apack, here's what you would want
to do in this and all that.
Well, people eat that stuff up.
It makes us look like studs.
Because they come here and I'mlike all I did was give them a

(01:09:02):
venue.
We put a bunch of chairs andtables in the range and they do
the hard work and we're likeyeah, I had Josh Smith from MKC
come in and do knife sharpeningdemonstrations in here last year
.
I mean, it just moves mountainsbecause people are like man, how
do you get these people?
I don't know how I get them,but I do know this.
I do know that the communitydraws together.

(01:09:24):
Everybody tells me the samething After we do one of those
events they're like man, what acool deal.
They're like we should do moreof this stuff, and it's one
thing that I don't see a bunchof other shops doing.
I don't.
You know, there's some reallybig shops West Houston and
Houston that is a giantpowerhouse of a shop but I don't

(01:09:45):
really see them doing likeevents, like we do, and stuff
like that.
And I'm not saying we're better, I'm saying it's how I did.
My business model for this is Iwas like I want to build on the
community because eventually youconnect with these people and
they're like well, tyler's myguy, I don't really go anywhere
else because that's my guy.
Or you have like what'shappening right now?

(01:10:05):
People are like well, I know Ican buy Q80 broadheads and have
them delivered to my front door,but that doesn't help.
You help, jim the line, build akid's school program.
So I'm going to come spend mymoney with you.
It's the same cost both ways.
It's just now I got to spendthe trip over here to come gap

(01:10:29):
it up with Tommy and Jason orwhatever.
You know, it's that kind ofstuff.
So the reality is, when youbuild that community, it just it
.
It it's kindling on a fire, itfeeds itself and eventually it's
just.
There's this ethos of peoplewanting to come and wanting to
be a part of it.
And then they're like what'syour next deal, what's the next
cool thing that you're doing?
And I'm like I don't know, I'mtrying to work on it and then
all of a sudden it happens.

(01:10:49):
I get a call from somebody andthey're like, hey, let's do a
cool event over there.
And it just always happens.
And I've tried to do them nowto where, three or four times a
year, we're doing somethingthat's really, really cool, that
moves the needle, that's notjust a nobody like jesse's deal.
We're talking about doingsomething with jesse where we,

(01:11:09):
um, shoot a deer that morning.
But I do almost like a taxidermydemonstration, like the way, I
would want to cut it for ashoulder mount.
So we have this deer hanging upin our range that we shot this
morning.
So I'm like here's how I got it.
Uh, here's where I cut to makemy initial cuts for taxidermy.
You might not know this.
You might not know I need a lotof the brisket for a shoulder

(01:11:32):
mount.
A lot of people see a shouldermount on their wall and they're
like, oh well, this looks aboutright.
And then when they bring it tome, I'm like that doesn't work.
Man, I've don't, I don't haveenough brisket to cover all the
mannequin.
I don't have that.
People don't know it.
So I told Jesse I was like whywouldn't we do a cool thing
where it's a collaborativeeffort of a taxidermy slash meat

(01:11:53):
processing?
And he's like I love it, let'stry and figure something out
with that.
So now we're going to do athing where I come in we have a
whole deer.
I show people the way I got it,I show people the way I would
skin it for a shoulder mount andthen I say, cool, now we're
going to let Jesse show you themeat part of it, cause he's way
better at it than I can do it.
I totally know how to do it.
I'm not near as fast or asefficient with a knife as Jesse

(01:12:16):
is, but here's how you do it.
And then we can go a stepfurther.
Hey, y'all want to learn how tomake sausage or make tamales?
Here's how you do that.
Here's what the next steps arefor that and all that.
That stuff moves mountains, man.
People love that stuff andthey're looking for something to
plug into a community like thatof cool stuff.

(01:12:36):
And it's not out there for theoffering.
These little archery shopsdon't have a budget for it or
they can't and all that stuff.
And we're fortunate enough,we're okay on money.
So when stuff like this happens, I'm like, yeah, I can cook
$500 or $600 worth of pork buttsovernight and donate it to that
.
They made $4,500 towards theirkids program.
That's awesome, that's a $600write-off for us.

(01:12:57):
Didn't hurt us that much.
And, man, man, look at thecommunity impact.
I got 10 new parents that werelike we're gonna start coming
here.
I just thought it was forhunters.
They were like I didn't realizethis was like kids could come
here and all that.
They see my kids running aroundshooting bows and yapping with
my guys and having a good timeand they're like, gosh, I had
this place pinned, all wrong.
I thought it was only forhunters and stuff.

(01:13:19):
So, yeah, like I said, buildingon the building, on the
community, building on thecustomer service stuff, it moves
mountains, man.
That's.
It's how you do it.
In my opinion, it's how youmove the needle forward and I
know it works because I talkedto some of these bigger
distributors the Matthews andthe Hoyts and the QADs and the
Hamskys and all these guys andthey're all like man, when you

(01:13:41):
think of like shops making asplash, you guys in the bow rack
are the two that come up andthe bow rack has Cam Haynes
pumping a bunch of stuff throughit and we're doing our thing
and they're like, oh, the onlytwo, I see, they're the only two
that I like that are national,nationally, like making moves
and going towards somethingbetter.

Speaker 1 (01:14:00):
So it makes you feel good, you know you're doing
something kind of right Halfway,right man, you know it's it, I
know it's cliche, but if youbuild it it'll come right.
You bring this idea and theseethos together of community, of
respect, of teaching people,meeting them where they are and
helping them get to that nextlevel, whatever it is
incrementally, uh, sometimes itsleeps in bounds, sometimes it's

(01:14:21):
like a lesson to lesson thatthey get better.
But you're, you're y'all'spatients.
Uh, the camaraderie that you, Ifeel you have when you step
into your shop is, um, it's notlike anything I've seen before
and I've, I've listened, I'vegone to West Houston archery I
can see it across from my office, right here and they've,
they've had some great guys thathelped me out there too,
because I went there to kind ofmake sure I was putting the
equipment on, because I justhappened to live, you know, a

(01:14:44):
little bit further from Austin.
But you know, my first stop wasat yours for a reason, because
of all those things, because ofeveryone who I know and people
in the industry who have allsaid the same thing about your
shop, and that it's like thatexperience is second to none and
there's a reason that you guyshave, um, that kind of attention
and I love that you're.
You're about it the right way,man.

(01:15:06):
It's about that communityaspect and having these types of
things.
You're bringing in new peoplein such a great way and, like
you just talked about there too,that's amazing.
You're doing that with Jesseand the idea of like getting
ready for taxidermy.
You know my buddy and I likewe're just literally he was, he
got that melanistic dough andit's like he wanted to take the
whole cape and he's like huh,okay.
You know and you're on theYouTube right, and you know I

(01:15:27):
did it the first time.
I shot my melanistic buck andit was in 16.
And I'm like what the heck do Ido?

Speaker 2 (01:15:33):
He had no clue but, would I have any second.

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
Any one of us that that any of my friends at hunt
would have gone to that to seelike, okay, what does a
professional do?
And how they're breaking apartthis animal and how are they
making this cut to be able toget this piece of meat off?
Like there's things that Imight have known in my 30
something years of hunting andit just takes that seeing that
one thing oh, that's a betteridea, that's a better mousetrap
and just seeing how other peopledo it, it's just a cool okay.

Speaker 2 (01:15:57):
Well, you know maybe I'll take it, leave it.
Yeah, and I was going to saythat matters because if you ask
any of my guys, I've skinneddeer for them and they're like
dude, you are bar none thefastest skinner I've ever seen.
They were like you can skin adeer faster than anybody I've
ever seen and I, you know, it'sa point of pride for me.
I'm like yeah, I am Well, I'mdown at a ranch in South Texas a

(01:16:17):
year ago and they were like hey, get julio over here.
They were like that dude willwhack one out and julio comes
over and I'm like dude, I looklike a sloth, like a freaking
two-toed sloth with a knifecompared to that guy.
Like, so my point to that isthere's always somebody bigger
and better and all that stuff.
Yeah, at some point you justneed to know how to do it like

(01:16:39):
you.
Like, if you just saw, man, Iremember I was at that Jesse
Griffith thing in the archeryrange and Tyler just did a round
cut around it and then hestarted cutting this and then it
all kind of fell down.
That's all you need to see.
Like people, people don't, theydon't need the nuance, they're
not trying to become the fastestskinner or the best one in the
world.
They're just like where do youstart?

(01:16:59):
Like what do you?
What do you start?
The world?
They're just like where do youstart?
Like what do you?
What do you start?
Like, if I'm trying to gut thispig on the ground, where do I
start?
Do I start up at the sternumand go down?
Do I start with the butt and goup?
Like what, what's the move?
Like, how do you do it?
So, seeing it once or twicehelps, but my point to that is
is like it's good, it's buildingon the community aspect.
Again, it's getting peopletogether, all learning at the
same time and not trying to bebetter than anybody else, not

(01:17:22):
trying to be anything.
You're not.
You just come in and say, hey,man, there's 10 different ways
to skin this.
In fact, there's a dude thatworks on the Southern Ranch and
you know, pierce, all namedJulio.
That would smoke me at this,but here's the way I do it, and
it works, because now you have apiece of taxidermy that the
guy's not going to be like oh, Idon't have enough brisket, you
can't do a shoulder mount, orwe're going to have to find

(01:17:44):
another tape, or we're going tohave to cut the skull plate
again because this is all jackedup and you know we're going to
have to do some modificationshere or whatever.
You can get away with all that.
So the point is like thecommunity building and the team
and like having people that justkeep coming back to the well,
it means a lot to me because itmeans you're doing something

(01:18:05):
right and everybody is like man,what a cool deal They've like.
Some guys were like I've seenJesse, like there was two guys
at that event that had been toJesse's uh, like one-on-one
course, like the one where youpay and it's five guys watching
him break it down, and they werelike I just wanted to see if
this was much different.
They were like it wasn't andthis was way cheaper and this
was awesome.
I learned almost as much asdoing that.

(01:18:27):
But they were like man, it wassuch a cool event because it was
not just like you and Jesseright here and him being like
here's what I do next, pop, Ijust hit that and broke the
pelvis or whatever.
It was 75 people in a littlehuddle and he's like hey, all
y'all watch this Cause.

(01:18:47):
This is kind of cool and thiswill help you if you're out on
the, you know, on a Sendero, andyou're trying to do this in the
dark and this will make it waylighter or easier or whatever it
is.
It makes a huge difference, manand people love it when they're
all together eating good foodand all that.
It's pretty easy.
Like building community is oneof people have asked me like how

(01:19:08):
I do it, and I'm like it's theeasiest thing in the world.
It's literally putting food infront of people and drinks and
getting people in a big groupand being like, hey, this is
what we're doing tonight.
That's community.
There's.
No, you don't have to add orsubtract or take a bunch of
stuff to it.
You just have to be like, hey,man, we're all going to watch
Jesse cut up this pig and, bythe way, he's making wild boar

(01:19:29):
chorizo tostadas.
We're going to eat good andwe're going to learn and
everybody thinks they just hadan epic experience and I'm like
all we did was make tostadas andwatch him cut up a pig.

Speaker 1 (01:19:41):
It wasn't that big of a deal, but it is so it is when
you create that space for thatman and I mean there's other
ones coming up.
I mean, by the time this airs,you'll have just finished this
up, because we're recording thishere kind of mid october, but
you've got um tim kennedy.
Uh, tell me a little bit aboutthat, because I know that's kind
of the most recent one by thistime yeah, so so that's this
Friday.

Speaker 2 (01:20:01):
So what that one is is I've got.
So Tim Kennedy is doing what hecalls a bow provider course,
which Tim Kennedy, throughSheepdog Response, does these
courses, whether it be pistol orlong range shooting or
grappling Like.
He's got all kinds of stuff youcan do.
You know you can doiu-jitsu,you can do it all, sure?

(01:20:23):
Um, the bow provider course isthem teaching you what they do
when they bow hunt.
So you they're going to assumeyou know how to use a bow and
arrow.
You're going to go hunt.
You're going to go do all thisstuff and then fast forward.
You're going to come in andyou're going to say, cool, well,
now that we've done that,here's the next step.
We're going to come in andyou're going to say, cool, well,
now that we've done that,here's the next step.

(01:20:44):
We're going to go hunt.
So we're going to go put y'allout.
We're going to go hunt somestuff.
We're going to try and get apig or something, a deer or
something, and now we're goingto blood trail.
We're all going to blood trailthis together.
So if you hit it, good, there'sa bunch of blood.

(01:21:08):
You want to say there's like 30people 28, 30 people that are
coming, some of which havehunted before, some of which
have never shot a bow before.
They don't even know whatthey're doing.
We're going to take them allwhere we're at and do what we
normally do.
I've got my guys showing up.
We're going to set bows up,we're going to make sure they're
comfortable with them, we'regoing to make sure they know

(01:21:28):
what they're doing and all thatstuff, and then we're going to
go back on that range and fromfour to eight or nine that night
, us with Tim's instructors andTim, we're all just going to go
at it and see if we can makesure everybody there is pretty
confident with a bow, hit thebullseye at 20 yards before they
leave and then they'll go onsaturday to their other class.
But bow provider stuff is prettycool.

(01:21:49):
Tim's got the.
The sheepdog response thingjust in general is a really cool
thing.
It's it's all about being alittle more self-sufficient,
being, um, a little more likewary of your surroundings, a
little more about beingself-reliant, like you don't
need somebody else there.
If you're a woman, you don'thave to have your six foot five

(01:22:11):
husband looming over your backin a dark alley to handle it
yourself.
Whatever it's that kind ofstuff.
He's teaching you life lessonsand stuff and this is the one
we're doing with him.
So Tim's another influencerthat comes through the shop,
friend of mine, good buddy, cooldude does really cool stuff.
So this Friday should be areally cool deal.
We'll see what happens, but Ibet it's like the rest of them,

(01:22:31):
it'll be a fun deal.

Speaker 1 (01:22:33):
So I mean you just keep providing space for amazing
things to happen.
The community continues to grow.
You know, again, I just Irecommend for anybody who's
looking to get involved, andobviously here, we're here in
Texas and uh, but you got peoplethat come from other States to
come check this out.
I mean, if you, anytime youguys go through and you get a
chance to check out archerycountry, I highly highly

(01:22:53):
recommend you guys do it.
There's a reason why the buzzis a plenty all across the
nation, man, and there's, uh,you know it's great to be able
to go in there and say hi toTyler and go see the crew man.
It's a fun spot and grab a drinkand hang out Heck, yeah, heck,
yeah, man.
Well, uh, you know, before weleave, I had a couple other
questions that I kind of wantedto tackle and, um, you know, one
is about this idea of legacy.

(01:23:15):
Right, you have talked about alot today, the community
building, this group.
Um, you know the camaraderieand it's around, you know
archery, but I think it's evenmore than that too.
It's about mindfulness andabout this approach that you
have of you know, whether it'skids and everything, and
obviously that, uh, you know youhave a spot for this that
you've created.

(01:23:35):
Um, and you know, I wanted toask you, as far as like that
idea of like legacy, what it isthat you want to leave behind
and be remembered for, and, youknow, not just in in this
professional setting too, but ina personal one as well.
Is this something you kind ofthink about on on, maybe not
necessarily day to day, but isthis something that comes
through?
Is it, you know, what you wantto be able to kind of build and

(01:23:57):
make sure that you can pass onto others, and that kind of that
amplifies out.

Speaker 2 (01:24:11):
What is it that you kind of view as?
When someone talks about legacy, yeah, um, that's a good one.
I didn't think about that.
Um, what I would tell you forlegacy is leaving a positive
mark for the ones that you love.
So, like, my kids and wife arekind of my kind of everything
right now, um, I would love itif the legacy for me personally
would be what a cool dude hetried to, you know, help people

(01:24:34):
out.
He tried to take people wherethey were at and help them,
whether that be archery or, youknow, in life in general,
whatever it is, um, taking themand just being a good person.
And I'd love for my kids youknow, if I'm dead and gone, for
my kids to be like man.
My dad was a really cool guy.
He sold goats online and diddumb stuff, but man, at the end
of the day, he had really coollike, he believed in really cool

(01:24:58):
stuff and he he believed in itenough to keep pushing forward
for it.
And, at the end of the day, Iwould want to be remembered as
just someone who was, who triedto make everybody better and
tried to become friends witheverybody and all that.
The world's crazy to begin with.
You can get on the news rightnow and see how everything is

(01:25:20):
falling apart.
It's crazy and I know my kidsare gonna have a rough not a
rough go of it because theydon't have a rough go of it.
Our kids deal with differentcircumstances than we had.
I was talking about this theother day because, um, I was
thinking about how spoiled mykids are.
Uh, just in the sense that itwas, it was like a friday night

(01:25:43):
and my youngest I was like, well, if you could have anything for
supper tonight, what would youhave?
And he goes, oh, we should do aribeye with some new potatoes
and some of those string greenbeans.
And I was like, yeah, thatsounds good, we can do that.
So I'm an heb fast forward anhour later and I'm buying like
freaking prime ribeyes at themeat counter and I'm like if I

(01:26:04):
was a kid and I would have toldthat to my dad, he would have
been like, oh, yeah, you want to.
You want to eat that in yourLamborghini on your private
Island, like freaking high rightnow.
Like, what are you doing?
Talking about Eat your freakingspam macaroni and cheese.
Anyway, I was like I thinkabout it, but it's a different
set of circumstances that ourkids are going through, because
they have to watch the news ofpeople beheading other people

(01:26:27):
because of hate for something.
They don't even know what tohate them for.
They're just taught from anearly age those people are bad
and we're good.
It's a crazy world we're allliving in and taking that back
to legacy.
I would want my kids to be likeman.
He was just a good man.
He was a person that tried tohelp others and tried to build

(01:26:49):
community and tried to do coolthings.
I don't have any illusions oftrying to be something.
I'm not.
I don't think I'm ever going tobe a Joe Rogan and have a
massive following and have tonsof people, you know, looking to
my every word for what I shouldbuy or what I should do next.
But I can affect the ones thatI do touch in my smaller circles

(01:27:09):
and stuff like that, and that'swhat I like about.
Like my guys here at the shopuh, tank and Tommy, when kids
come in for the archery program.
I have kids at our elementaryschool that come up and they're
like hey is Mr Tank.
I'm like he's there every day,man, and they're like I'm gonna
go give him a high five.
When I get there and they'vemade it a point to where we

(01:27:30):
don't charge these kids to comepractice, so they all come in,
they high five my guys, they askhow their day was and then they
run back on the range and shoottheir bows and take off.
Um, that's a legacy, in myopinion.
It's a legacy, it's a cool,it's.
It's they're, they're garneringsomething and they're they're
remembered for something thatmaybe those kids might remember

(01:27:51):
that when they're kids I meanwhen they're an old man they
might be like yeah, I rememberwalking into the archery shop
and there was this giant guynamed Tank, but he'd high five
me every time he'd I'd walk in,or Tommy was riding his
skateboard and talking to meabout this or whatever.
That's legacy.
And going back to it, like Isaid, that's what I would want.
I would want to be known as thedude who tried to build

(01:28:12):
community, tried to do coolstuff and tried to have a cool
little ethos around him.
And I'm hoping one day that myboys do it like I do for my dad,
like what a cool man he gave.
You know, he tried his best andwhatever.
So that's the super longversion of uh, that's what I
want my legacy to be.

Speaker 1 (01:28:31):
Well-answered, tyler.
Well-answered, no, and you knowI can speak to that.
I already know that you'recreating this, you're continuing
to.
There's all these differentevents that you're putting
together, making the space forthat to happen, and it's a.
It's a beautiful thing Forthose who want to follow in the
journey, learn more aboutarchery country, and yourself
too.
Can you go ahead and give usthe socials website address of

(01:28:51):
of where they can find you inAustin and kind of go from there
?

Speaker 2 (01:28:53):
For sure.
So the website is Austinarchery countrycom.
If you go to that, there's alittle link on there that will
like run you to like justbasically sms and email blast on
what we're doing and events andstuff like that.
Um, our socials, the same.
I'm terrible at our socials.
I have a guy he used to be aguy with, like, uh, yeti and all

(01:29:17):
that.
There's a guy named sloan brownthat runs my stuff.
S's a stud.
He makes us look way coolerthan we actually are.
But and it's actually a lot offun to follow us on Instagram.
We do a lot of stupid videos,but anyway, it's all lowercase
archery country for ourInstagram handle.
Facebook's the same, thereality is, that's the best

(01:29:41):
places to follow us.
Um, facebook's the same.
Um, the reality is that's thebest places to follow us.
Um, other than that, you cancatch it kind of if you come
into the shop.
We're always putting posters upof the next big thing and stuff
like that.
So we'll we'll be doing morestuff.
But, yeah, austin archerycountrycom and, uh, lowercase
archery country all one word for, uh, instagram and Facebook.

(01:30:01):
So nice, nice.

Speaker 1 (01:30:02):
Nice, well, I'll have all the links and your physical
address down below and thenotes and descriptions there.
So, everyone, I highlyencourage you to check that out
Before we leave.
Is there anything that you wantto kind of you know, tell you
know folks who are maybebeginning to have that spark of
interest to get into archery?
What is it that you want tokind of impart to them?

(01:30:22):
And maybe you know kind of amessage and kind of welcoming
them in and you know, what is itthat you'd like to say?
Heck, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:30:28):
No, I for sure would.
It's just take the first step.
You got to walk in the frontdoor.
That's step number one.
You'll see, when you, when youtake the first step in, it's
always intimidating.
It's never going to get easier.
You're always going to be likecan I draw this much weight, can
I pull?
Whatever?
You'll have a million excuses.
Walk in the front door, you'llsee.

(01:30:49):
The guys are going to be superfriendly.
There's probably going to besome cool music playing in the
background and grab a Coke, ifyou want, and walk around for a
minute and check it all outbefore you go, approach a guy at
the counter or whatever.
They're going to come find you.
But man, the first step'salways the hardest one and going
back to like, like what I wassaying with, uh, donnie vincent,

(01:31:10):
like the first step's thehardest one.
He had to work it up for threehours to actually get in, to
walk in the front door and thenmake the first thing and it
ended up being a good experience.
You, you never know untilyou're there, but you got to
take the first step.
So I would implore people, giveus a try.
Don't think it's all superrednecks that are just wanting

(01:31:30):
to hunt and not wanting to talkto you and all that stuff.
That's the biggest thing that Ifight over here is I'm in
Austin it's a liberal strongholdand I'm in the belly of the
beast.
I'm I'm literally in the smackmiddle of it.
You can't get more central thanI am and I these people that
come in and don't know whatwe're about and who we are and

(01:31:51):
what we're doing and all thatstuff.
And here we are, like you comein and you make the first step
and then you're like man, what areally cool deal.
They always leave 99.9% of themleave thinking man, man, what a
cool bunch of guys.
I wish I'd have done thissooner.
I'd you know whatever.
So come see tank and tommy andchase jordan, me, nick andy, I

(01:32:13):
got a bunch of guys in here.
I'll put you at ease and havesome fun while we're doing it.
So yeah, man right on, man.

Speaker 1 (01:32:20):
Well, I encourage all you guys, take that step, man,
and go over there and check outarchery country in Austin Tyler.
Once again, man, I'm so glad weconnected.
Thank you so much for coming onthe podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:32:33):
We'll go do some hunting together.
I'll get you out to my placeand we'll go see what we can do.
Get you some blood on an arrow.

Speaker 1 (01:32:40):
I cannot wait.
I look forward to that man.
Well, listen, uh, until we meetagain in person and hang out.
Thank you again.
And uh, you know, appreciateall your staff there.
Please give them all a bighello and thank you.
And uh, yeah, man, we'll seeyou next time.

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Ep. 84 w/ Archery Country's Tyler Vanderkolk - on Crafting Community and Confidence in the Archery World

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 84 w/ Archery Country's Tyler Vanderkolk - on Crafting Community and Confidence in the Archery World