#469 HuntingLife.com Brings The Outdoors To Your Desktop

February 23, 2018

WTR Desktop | The Best Of Outdoors

 

You can’t exactly hunt when you’re indoors and glued to your computer desktops, can you? HuntingLife.com found the way to bring the best of outdoors at your fingertips by putting it right on your desktop. They aim to spread the conservation of the hunting industry by keeping you up to date on news and the latest trends. In this episode, Kevin Paulson shares why the magazine in print industry is dying and talks about the challenges and success of building an internet business. His aim is for HuntingLife.com to become the largest online hunting magazine.

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LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:

HuntingLife.com Brings The Outdoors To Your Desktop

We’re heading out to Nebraska to a good friend, Kevin Paulson. Kevin is the CEO of HuntingLife.com. Kevin, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Bruce. I appreciate the opportunity.

You came back from ATA. Did you go out to SHOT Show or The Sheep Show?

I came back from ATA and spent a week at home. I headed out to Las Vegas for the SHOT Show. I was there for an entire week and came home for two days. I turned around and went right back to Vegas for the SCI Show, Safari Club International Hunters Convention. It was a busy time for me.

What does HuntingLife.com do for the hunter?

HuntingLife.com is a national news site focused on hunting and conservation all across North America and the world. We try to work with the entire industry to help spread the message of new products and new gear that are coming out. We also share the trends that are going on in the industry, what is going on in the conservation world. What’s going on in the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, The National Turkey Federation or Ducks Unlimited. We pay attention to the political climate of what’s going on in Congress and in our states. We try to report up all of those things so that people have a resource that they can go to and learn what’s going on in the hunting industry and in the hunting world.

How is that different than reading a magazine like Hunters News, Outdoornews or any of these magazines or newspapers that come out, aggregate information and stories, and share them with their readership?

What’s different is that HuntingLife.com produces on average fifteen articles every single day. Those go onto our website live every single day. We’re providing the newest and up-to-date resources that we can possibly provide on a daily basis. We do that year-round and we’ve been around for several years. What’s different from that versus a magazine that’s out there is a lot of magazines in this world are dying. We get 80% of our reading, information and sources right here from our cell phone. Hunting Life produces all of its content where you can get all of your videos, news and everything right here in your cell phone, tablet or on your computer at home. We learned that Field & Stream is dropping the number of issues that they have. Outdoor Life is doing the same thing. The magazine and the print industry is dying. People are expecting all of their news and information to be electronic. In Hunting Life, our goal is to be the largest hunting website anybody goes to on a yearly basis.

How do you produce fifteen articles a day?

We aggregate some content from some of our partners across the entire industry. We were at ATA and we were talking to companies and partners all the way through the entire industry. They help us produce some content. We’re working with Pro Staff with many different hunting companies throughout the United States. We’re working on empowering those Pro Staff to create content for us. We have a stable of our own writers. We have tremendous writers on staff. We have at least two national writers that everybody who follows this blog will know exactly who they are. We’re continuing to acquire new writers throughout.

We’re making a tremendous investment in our website. We’re doing everything we can for our community from a technological perspective and from an information-gathering perspective. I’m looking for more writers every single day. For individuals who are looking to broaden their horizons and step into the hunting world, they can always send me an email at [email protected]. I ask every single person who comes to me to do the same thing. I ask them to write me a product review of a piece of gear that they love. I ask them to write me a story about what inspires them in the hunting world.

Those two articles are basically your ticket. If I like what I read and you can write, then I invite people to come on board and become a writer for HuntingLife.com. Every single person has to write twelve articles in their first year. If they write those twelve articles, I edit them with my team. We produce feedback to them. At the end of those twelve articles, I will sponsor them to become a member of a writing organization that’s closest to that. Whether that’s POMA, AGLOW, SEOPA or the Outdoor Writers Association. We’ll pay for that. We want to develop new writers because that’s important.

I submit everything and you go, “This stuff is off the charts.” Do I get paid?

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You can get paid after the first year. I do not pay for the first twelve articles for new writers but I do pay for the sponsorship into a writing organization. It’s like a trial period.

If you don’t know POMA, Professional Outdoor Media Association, I belong to that. I have done some writing in the past. There are good organizations out there. If you’re going to be serious about being a writer or contributor, bringing content to some media, you need to belong to one of those organizations.

I invest back in those people and I’m investing in coaching and time out of my schedule. I want young new writers to come on board. The more, the better because it’s a win for me and I know that it’s a win for the people that work with me. I’ve had several writers who are now members of other organizations. They got their start with me. Those young men who were college students when they started with me now work for other organizations in the hunting industry. I’m proud of what they’ve accomplished. The work with me helped them get to that place and I’m excited by that. I believe that I created value for those individuals and writers. I believe that those individuals create value for me in writing great content.

How are you guys different than Wide Open Spaces?

What is different from Wide Open Spaces and Hunting Life is that we focus on different things. They focus on writing a different content than we do. We’re much more focused on the conservation angle and being more of a new source. I expect that as time goes on things will change a little bit. There are lots of differences all the way across the board. They’re a great resource as well.

If you haven’t been into the outdoor business and you feel you can write, you’ve got to have the right mentors and tutors. Everybody has ideas and their own voice. Get hold of [email protected] and say, “Here’s something I did. What do you think?” Go from there, don’t sit and say, “I would like to.” Go ahead and do it. That’s the best advice I can give. Any advice for people that want to but they don’t have the guts?

You’ve got to start somewhere. I built this entire business from nothing and I didn’t know what I was doing. When I built Hunting Life, I had the field of dreams mentality. I tell everybody, “If you build it, they will come.” I’ve learned that running an internet business is a lot more complicated than that pie-in-the-sky vision of, “I’m going to go out and build great content and people are going to come to my website.” It doesn’t quite work that way. You’ve got to build great content, but you’ve also got to promote that content all day long in every facet you possibly can.

My advice to anybody is you’ve got to start somewhere. You’ve got to take one step and then another step. You’ve got to keep going down that process, making decisions as quickly as you possibly can on any given day. Go forth and do it. I wake up every morning and I’ve got a hundred things to do. When I start doing one and I do that one well, then I do the next one and I keep going. Some days I get fifteen items on my to-do list done, some days I get two. You’ve got to keep moving forward every single day.

Let’s talk about your hunting tradition. I know you love the hunt. Where did the desire to hunt come from?

My desire to hunt came from my father. When I was five years old, I was in this little town called Irvine in California. It’s on the eastern side of California in the Sierras, a gateway to Yosemite. I went on a duck hunt with my dad near this little lake called Mono Lake. I went out on a mule deer hunt with him. I got to walk in his footprints. At five years old, my goal was to step in his footprints every time he stepped forward. We saw antelope and we saw mule deer. I was obsessed. I’ve been obsessed ever since. That’s a part of my hunting tradition. Three of my five kids have got to experience hunting and they’ve each taken a deer. One of my daughters has taken a turkey and I’ve got two more kids to slowly introduce to hunting.

Did your wife hunt previous to getting married or is this something new?

Marjorie got introduced to hunting through me, but Marjorie and I have a strong drive for high-quality food. When Marjorie and I started dating, we have this passion for cooking and culinary arts. We have a passion for great ingredients to put on our plate and to cook. She came to hunting with the realization that in order to put ducks, geese, pheasant and venison on her plate, she had to go out and learn how to hunt. That’s how she got involved in it. She’s always been involved in the outdoors. She loves to run when we first met. She loved to backpack and be in the outdoors, camping and all of those things. Hunting was a natural progression for her. She loves it.

WTR Desktop | The Best Of OutdoorsHow is it for a husband and wife to go hunting? I’ve heard horror stories because guys love to be in charge. We get stupid, at least I have in the past when I tried to take my wife out hunting. How has that worked so well for you?

I’ve taken a lot of hunters out hunting. I started mentoring in my early twenties. I’ve been mentoring and guiding people most of my life. I understand that when I’m guiding somebody, I’ve got to slow myself down and go at the pace of the individual who I’m guiding. This is true for taking any wife or any kid out hunting. You have to make it enjoyable for them. You have to understand what it is that they’re looking for in an experience. For Marjorie, it’s getting out into a place that’s a beautiful country and getting to watch the sun come up and getting to experience that. Getting to pay attention to everything, from the squirrel climbing up on the tree to the birds flying overhead. The gobble of a turkey off in the distance. Those are all things that we pay attention to and are attuned to, and I focus on that when I’m with her. That makes it much more enjoyable for her, I’m pointing these things out.

If you take your wife or your kids out, part of your goal is to make sure that they’re comfortable. I made sure that Marjorie had the best year. I have her outfitted in Prois, a women’s line of clothing. She has a set of Prois pants and she has a full layering system on. She has a Prois jacket and she’s warm and comfortable. That makes her experience in the outdoors much more enjoyable for her. A lot of the hunting that Marjorie and I are doing, the area that we’re hunting, we’re not just sitting in up a blind. We’re up, moving and doing a lot of spot and stalk. That works for us because she loves to backpack and hike. We spend a lot of time on foot hiking in and around canyons and it’s a tremendous amount of fun.

When you’re out chasing mule deer, what kind of glass do you use?

I use a wide variety of glass because I’m constantly testing new optics on any given hunt. Guys ask me, “What’s your favorite pair of binoculars?” The answer changes in any given month. I’m using Steiner and the reason I’m using these is that this is what I have been testing the last month. This is the Steiner HX 10×56 binoculars. They have the eyecups on them. They’re a heavy set of glass. This is not probably what I would necessarily recommend for quick and dirty spot and stalk archery hunts. If you’re sitting on the edge of a canyon wall and you’re glassing long distances for extended periods of time, this glass is absolutely fantastic. They’re at a price point of around $1,000. It’s not necessarily the most expensive on the market but not the cheapest.

I like binoculars from the Vanguard line. The Vortex line is excellent in the lower range of binoculars. Mid-range binoculars, the Steiner and the Burris binoculars are fantastic. All the way up to the Leica, Zeiss and the Swarovski. I will say that the binoculars are much of personal preference. You need to look at a lot of different binoculars. I have stood with three different people and grabs the most expensive pair of binoculars up off of the counter. All three of us, as individuals saw something different through those binoculars. Some binoculars work for some people and some binoculars do not work for some people. Your buddies might all be saying, “You should buy Vortex.” If they don’t fit your eyes, if you don’t feel great with that pair of binoculars in your hands and your eyes aren’t picking out shapes with crystal clarity, don’t buy them. Go try a different pair. Some people need different things for different packages.

You’re out in Western Nebraska and you have your favorite glass. How do you use them for hunting?

When I pull into the ranch, I have three basic high spots on the ranch that I pull up into. I walk up on these high spots and I pick apart an entire area. My goal with a set of optics and spotting scope is to grid search where the deer are. If it’s first thing in the morning, I’m watching the deer walk off the top of the plateaus and they’re dropping into canyons. I know generally where their bedding areas are and so I’m watching to figure out which bedding area they’re going to go to. I’m watching which way the wind is blowing so that I can figure out how to come back and come in over the top basically. If I pull in to the area midafternoon and I don’t know that area, I don’t know what’s on the side of that mountain, I’m grid searching that entire area. I’m going to search up in the highest section. I’m going to move down a little bit. I’m going to grid-search with the binoculars. I’m going to come down a little bit further. I’m going to grid search then I continue to move my way across the mountain. I do it in a fast way and then I go back. Any section that I feel has real potential, I’ll go back and break that down even further.

When mule deer in CRP or whitetails for that matter, sometimes the only thing you see is a flick of an ear or the horns glint off to the sun because they’re rested. They’re not doing anything. Every once in a while, one may get up. For the most part, you’re looking for pieces. How do you find them?

I’m looking for shapes or movement as much as humanly possible. I’m looking for certain things that are out of the ordinary. Over time, you tend to know where you think an animal may or may not be. For me, it’s a little bit of intuition. I’m always looking for that little ear flick because sometimes we’ll see that more often than not. It’s one of the reasons why I love hunting mule deer.

Are you hunting for meat or bone?

I have both at all times. The ranch that I hunt is in an area that is available for me to purchase mule deer doe tags or whitetail doe tags. I purchase doe tags because the rancher can only afford to feed so many deer on a given year. He has an overpopulation of does on his property. I can only fit so many in my freezer. I fill my freezer with doe meat. I focus on big deer for the rest of the year. I passed up this year. I did not shoot a buck. I shot mule deer does and I shot a whitetail doe. I did not shoot a buck this year at all and I’m okay with that. I passed up 150 bucks, whether they were whitetail or mule deer bucks. I had both a mule deer buck tag and whitetail buck tag in Nebraska, and I did not shoot either. I did not shoot a buck at all.

Were they too small?

Yeah, I did not see one that was representative of what I wanted to shoot and I did miss one. I missed a good deer in rifle season for a mule deer.

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How about your wife? She hunts for food and she’ll shoot does also?

As of this point, she has only purchased doe permits. She’s a teacher and during the rifle season, it’s hard for her to get off. We hunt together during the Christmas break, that’s the antlerless season. She has not had the opportunity to go to shoot a bucket but she’s perfectly happy to shoot the mule deer doe or whitetail doe.

How did you teach her how to shoot with either a bow or a rifle?

I didn’t. I put her with another shooting camp and I let somebody else teach her that. She’s pretty natural as a shot. She did start shooting with me, but her initial interaction with the shooting was with a different instructor.

Would you recommend that to other husbands or boyfriends to let somebody else get their partner schooled up if you will?

In certain cases, yes. If you have somebody local who is an expert or is a great instructor, sometimes it is a smart path to allow somebody else to do that teaching. I find that women listen incredibly well. As a guy, I always liked guiding women much more than I like to guiding men specifically because they listen and they want to be successful. Marjorie wants to be successful and she wants to make a shot that is an ethical clean shot as quickly as possible. If I say, “We’re going to come around this corner, I’m going to put you on the sticks. Immediately pull up and put the crosshair on the shoulder and pull the trigger.” She listens to that. When we come around the corner, she’s prepared.

With my friends, when we go hunting and I say, “Here’s what I want you to do.” They don’t always listen. Their mindset is, “I’m going to do what I want to do.” It’s a lot different than my relationship with my wife or for that matter any other woman I’ve ever guided. I have several friends that I’ve hunted with over the years and it’s noticeable to me. When I go out with my guy friends and since we go hunting and I say, “I want you to my hip pocket, I need you to follow me.” All of a sudden they’re twenty yards to my right. I’m like, “What are you doing? Get behind me and let’s go together over this hillside.” Variably throughout the day, they’re constantly trying to go on their own path. It’s something I noticed as a guy for years and years. Women do a much better job of listening.

I would support that back in the day when I was doing some fly fishing and guiding. I’d love to take women out. Get them on the stream because they knew nothing about fly fishing. They wanted to do it, it looked fun and I do say, “Try this. It’s simple stuff and nothing difficult at all.” They do it and they don’t fish them in.

Women are dramatically better shooters than men all the way across the board. I’ve rarely had a situation where a woman couldn’t outshoot a man in about every situation I’ve ever been in. Sometimes with a shotgun, you’ll see a guy who’s got a lot of experience and he’ll outshoot a woman right there. With a little bit of instruction, there’s almost no question that women are tremendously better shooters all the way across the board.

We’re going to segue into the hunting industry. You’re going to SHOT Show and you’ve been to ATA. You’ve been in the business for many years now.

It’s been many years when I bought my outfitting business and I owned HuntingLife.com for several years.

Let’s talk about the changes and challenges ahead for the hunting and outdoor industry.

WTR Desktop | The Best Of OutdoorsThe industry is changing dramatically and so is the world. We see the growth of Amazon.com and the online world. Guys can purchase anything they want online. That’s dramatically going to change and affect the outdoor industry. The local mom-and-pop sporting goods store that used to be at every little town is no longer there and that’s sad to me. I grew up in a little town that had 600, 700 people in it. Bell’s Sporting Goods in Lee Vining and that store is no longer there. It’s a dramatically different world. I walked out of ATA and manufacturers there are like, “Traffic is down this year.” As an industry, traffic is going to be down every year. There’s going to be less and less sporting goods stores that are going to be out there. The industry has to learn how to adapt to that. They’re going to have to pay attention to it.

You mentioned something about Ozonics changing up. That’s noteworthy as a major leader in ozone scent control if you want to call it that. That’s a good name for it because it eliminates a scent. What’s that announcement again?

Ozonics is going to a direct to consumer model. There are several companies within the industry that have a direct to consumer model. That means that if you want to buy their product, you have to go directly to their company. Kuiu, is an example where you can buy that Kuiu clothing directly from Kuiu.com. With Ozonics, you’re going to have to go to the Ozonics website in order to buy Ozonics. Where you used to build a purchase at a Cabela’s and Bass Pro and every mom-and-pop sporting good store in America. The problem with that is there is a markup to taking a manufactured product and putting it into a distributor. The distributor putting it into retail stores across North America and the consumer has to pay for that. The direct to consumer model can bring about a lower-priced product for the consumer and a higher profit margin for the manufacturer. You’re seeing a lot of companies that are going to consider that process. You only go to ATA to be able to advertise and put your product into an archery store. Because it’s not a consumer show, Ozonics weren’t at ATA. I know that Kuiu does not show up at SHOT Show or they don’t show up at ATA. They’re at the consumer shows because they’re going direct to consumer. Prois is a women’s clothing line. They’re another company that does direct to consumer and they do a good job of it.

Kirstie Pike, CEO of Prois, here’s a shout-out for you. She changed her marketing plan a few years back. I don’t know exactly when she changed it. She saw this trend coming and that’s a beautiful American story. She’s a lady entrepreneur that grew from nothing like you, Kevin. She started with an idea and has built one of the foremost women apparel company in the outdoors in the country.

She has a tremendous success story. I’ve never met a woman who wears her clothing line that isn’t unhappy with the quality and the cut and the feel and the warmth of the gear that they get from that company. She has a tremendous following of people. It’s a great family and I am happy to see her having success with her line. I’m happy to introduce women to her clothing line because I know that those women are comfortable and they’re warm. They have enough gear with them to where they can last the entire day hunting with me. It’s a win all the way across the board. It’s a great line. The direct consumer model keeps the prices down for those women to purchase that gear. If Kirstie had to put her product into Cabela’s or SCHEELS or Bass Pro, some of those clothing items would cost twice as much and that’s not effective.

Shout-out for Prois Hunting Apparel, Kirstie Pike. Reach out to her on any social media and try it out, ladies, because you will not be disappointed. What else is happening in the hunting industry?

We’ve got a downturn in the shooting world because we’ve seen that there’s no fear in the industry. The overall sales were down in 2017 from archery to hunting to the gun world. Sales were down all across the entire industry. That being said, there are tremendous amounts of innovation. We’ve seen some great new products coming into the market. Garmin had a brand new rangefinder that was set up where once you zeroed it in it had a red dot sight for a bow. No matter what you were aimed at, it would adjust your sight for you. It has a laser rangefinder built into it. I don’t know how many states will legalize that but it’s an innovative product.

We saw some great new arrows and nocks and things like that at ATA. There were several new bows from the new Bowtech Realm to the Mathews Triax and the G5 bow. Hoyt has a new bow. Everybody has a new bow and there’s some great technology out there. Ravin is continuing to be the biggest success story in the entire archery industry with their crossbows. They launched three new models including a full-scale what they call a sniper package that was absolutely fantastic with a higher-level scope and impressive setup.

Probably the product of the show that everybody was talking about at ATA was the new Prois blind. You could see through it. If you go to the Facebook.com/HuntingLife, there is a video of me sitting in the see-through blind from Prois. It’s their new double bull see-through blind and you could see through the walls. It was like looking right through a window.

We took the camera and I shoved it through the window. I have my partner film back into the blind and you could not see me in there. I’m excited to get that off for testing because I want to see how that works at sunset and sunrise. When you’ve got that orange sun right there, does it change how you can see out that window? That product is incredibly innovative. I like the idea of it because sitting in a blind, you’re always sitting there going, “What can I not see?” With this blind, I was blown away and I think everybody was. That netting or whatever it is that they’re creating, you’ll see that technology in several new blinds.

People have the guns that they need, they’re not in fear of that. We’ve got some changes from the retail model to the direct model. People like Realtree, LaCrosse, SITKA or some of the giants in our industry sell through retailers. What are they going to do?

They’re going to continue to have success. I don’t think people are walking away from retailers per se at this point. My personal opinion is, I think that Amazon is going to continue on a roadway. They’re going to continue to take business away from the outdoor industry as a whole. The mom-and-pop sporting good dealers, Cabela’s and Bass Pro are going to continue to grow. Marcus Lemonis bought Gander Mountain and now it’s going to be called Gander Outdoors and they’re going to relaunch here. I’m interested to see what their format is going to bring.

I think that SCHEELS is doing an absolutely amazing job in its stores and creating a real retail buying experience. I’m continually impressed by the level of customer service that they can provide. Academy Sports is great. DICK’S is doing great. They have more stores than any other retailer in North America. Walmart is continuing to sell outdoor gear and doing quite well with that. I do see a world where it’s ripe for some big online players to come into the market and be successful. I don’t think anybody at this current point is dominating the market from a retail perspective. In that world, as a consultant to a manufacturer, I would tell every single one of them, “You need to be at all places that you possibly can.” If you want to be in the retail market, you’re going to go out there and play that game. You’ve got to learn how to promote yourself to become brand-worthy.

SITKA is a company that’s doing everything the right way. They’re donating money to the conservation programs across North America. They’re supporting every conservation organization out there. They’ve helped start the 2% for the conservation program. They force their own staff members to volunteer for conservation organizations and they donate 1% of their total revenue or profit. They’re donating a tremendous amount more than that. They’ve got the SITKA film program which is fantastic. It’s innovating and pushing outdoor artists to produce some amazing films and some amazing content out there.

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They have a diverse photo program which is probably one of the best photo contests in the outdoor industry. They’re doing a tremendous job of promoting themselves on social media. That’s what companies are going to need to do to be successful. It is more complicated now than it was before Facebook and social media was a big thing. The opportunities for companies to do it well are tremendous. Companies need to pay attention to what’s going on. They need to hire the right consultants and the right team members to guide them through the process and make sure that they make the right decisions as they go forward. We’re also going to see a lot of companies go under. We’re going to see a lot of companies get bought up by bigger companies. Overall, the industry is changing. I never say that it’s a bad thing though it’s changed. That’s the reality of the world we live in. They’re not the same as they were when I was ten years old. They’re not going to be the same when I’m 60. You’ve got to be aware of that and go with the flow.

Readers, Kevin gave you a bunch of reasons if you want to get in this industry where you should think about and he told you about SITKA Gear, a perfect example of that, so study them. Not that everybody should apply for a job at SITKA Gear. Everybody is going to need similar talents that did not exist five to ten years ago. What does that mean to you? If you’re an outdoor person and want to hang with outdoor people and be in that industry, then figure out your niche. Go apply yourself and find the need for that with X, Y, Z company and then go to work.

I see a tremendous number of people my age and above who are constantly bashing the Millennials on a daily basis. It’s the kids and the youth of today that are bashing them. Millennials have technology at their fingertips. These kids are taking a cell phone and are running entire businesses all the way through. It’s tremendous what some of these kids are able to do. If I was a college student today, I’d want to be taking journalism, business and analytics courses. If you’ve got a degree in business management, knowledge of journalism, social media and a real understanding of analytics and statistics, you can be tremendously successful in this world. I talked to some companies and I asked them about what their social media number and statistics were. They had no idea and I was like, “How could you not know that? That’s where all your customers are.” Those are companies that may not last. The companies that do understand it, they’re going to continue to dominate. I don’t think anybody’s dominating right now especially from the retail side.

I’ve got a lot of gear and I haven’t bought any of them in a store for years. That was before I had my podcast. I use eBay quite a bit and I used my connections with Vortex or Excalibur. Over the years I’ve collected a lot of stuff. My wife says, “You don’t have room in your closet.”

I’m in a unique situation. I don’t buy a lot of gear but my role is to test gear on a daily basis. Gear is arriving here all the time. There are boxes laying over here that are not even opened yet. I have an Otto Wilde Grill that hasn’t even been installed yet. We’ve got brand new pairs of boots from Lowa and Crispi to test. I’ll probably rotate back and forth between the two to test them against each other. I walk fourteen miles a day, each day at the SHOT Show. I know from experience that I’m going to burn up my feet and that’s a great place to test boots. I still do buy some gear from my local retailers. I have Cabela’s, the Bass Pro, SCHEELS and DICK’S all within 55 miles in the house. The Bass Pro being the furthest, Cabela’s is about 45 miles in La Vista, which is Omaha. I have the SCHEELS right here in Lincoln. We’ve got a brand-new DICK’S. I still buy things at SCHEELS. I buy all my own ammo from local stores by all means. I do FFL transfers to the local gun dealer. I’m in and out of outdoor stores on a pretty regular basis.

The important thing for stores to focus on is making sure that the staff that they put in their stores are highly educated and they make it an enjoyable experience. I was in an outdoor retailer outside of Indianapolis when we were there for ATA. I got there a day earlier and we went into a bunch of retailers. I was looking for a specific pair of shoes to wear for ATA. I forgot to bring a pair of boots with me and I need a replacement pair of shoes. We went to Duluth Trading Company and that’s where I ended up buying the pair of shoes that I wanted. They were great and their customer service was over the top. It was the best experience in a retail store I’ve had in years. They had a lot of staff around the place. I think there were five or six people on the floor that can help me. It’s not a tremendously large store, but it’s well-laid out. In each section, they had individuals that can help you. I was able to ask each person questions. I talked to five different staff members while I was there in the store. Every one of them was polite and enjoyable to be around. The store was clean. It was a great experience.

I went into another large retailer. We’re going to two other large retailers there. One of them was average. I walked in and it was fine. The staff was there if I had a question. It wasn’t overly great but it wasn’t overly bad. When we walked into another retailer and their customer service was miserable. You could tell like, I walked up to a wall of hunting packs and it was jumbled, disorganized and horrible. You could see I was agonizing overlooking at these different packs. I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Three different sales associates walked right by me and never found a single one and asked me if I was interested in getting any help.

I walked over to the shoe department and as I’m going to the shoe department, I had to go find a sales associate to help. The response that I got was, “That shoes on the floor.” It wasn’t, “Let me take you to that location and help you.” When you have a bad buying experience like that, it makes it hard to go back into that same store. Retail stores better learn quickly that customer service means everything in this world. People may or may not buy a product in the store but your reputation is made when the customer is inside your store. I’m not holding this particular retail store hostage. I’m not even going to mention them because it wouldn’t necessarily be fair. It’s been a bad day at that particular store, but I do know that I did not have a great experience. Too many times of me not having a great experience in a given store, I won’t go back. That’s true to most consumers.

There’s no question. I don’t care if you’re buying a car, having a hamburger down the street or going to a bank. It doesn’t matter. It’s customer service that we expect these days because we’re paying a lot of money for what we’re spending. Make it a positive experience, that’s the word I like to use when I’m talking to my grandson. He’s working in a restaurant for his first job. I said, “Make it a good experience for whoever you come in contact with because everybody has a bad day.” Either staff or client, smile at them and say, “How can I help you?” It goes such a long way. Kevin, this has been interesting. We’ve been around the block. We’ve hunted some mule deer. We’ve talked about ATA and about HuntingLife.com. One more time, tell people how they can find you on the web.

You can find us on HuntingLife.com and HuntingInsider.com. Those are both of our websites. We have a live show that goes live once a week at Gravy.Live/Show/HuntingLife. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Google+. We have a fan page that’s got about 265,000 people. We encourage every single person to go to our Facebook fan page and submit your picture to us. We’ll share it up to the entire world with your hunting trophy photo. I don’t care whether it’s a big deer, a forked horn or a doe. We’ll share it because we care about all hunters. If you shoot a squirrel and you’ve got a great picture of it, send it to us. We want to know. Twitter is our newsfeed. We focus on promoting the stories that are on our website. We share as many news articles as we possibly can that I feel that hunters are going to want to pay attention to. Instagram is something we’re new to. We’re trying to share those stories. We’re slowly learning about Instagram and what’s the best way to reach hunters with that platform.

On behalf of thousands of readers across North America, Kevin Paulson of HuntingLife.com. It’s been a pleasure. I can’t wait until we connect again and I can buy you a beer.

Hopefully, we get a chance to hunt together.

I look forward to that. Kevin, thank you again.

WTR Desktop | The Best Of Outdoors

 

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In the next episode, we’re heading down south. We’re going to connect with Wes of Portland Outdoors. Who’s Portland Outdoors? It was a group of three guys that decided they love the outdoors so much they wanted to get into the business and they did it big time. They’ve got a product called Top Secret Deer Scents. It’s unique because it’s oxygen-free from collection to the bottle. Scent Defense, use this every time you go out. We’re talking about it on the show about putting on your boots and some interesting thoughts there. They have a natural bug repellent and they have Fog Zero. Anytime you go from different temperatures, things change your shooting glasses and binoculars are all going to be fog-free. Even more than that, Wes is one heck of a fun guy. He loves hunting. He loves taking his kids out hunting.

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About Kevin Paulson

WTR Desktop | The Best Of OutdoorsKevin Paulson is the Founder and CEO of HuntingLife.com. His passion for Hunting began at the age of 5 hunting alongside of his father.

Kevin has followed his dreams through outfitting, conservation work, videography and hunting trips around the world.

HuntingLife.com is a national news source for hunting and conservation news, product reviews and our Pro Staff blog.