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An award winning photographer and accomplished writer
Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. This is your host, Bruce Hutcheon, and we’re heading to Wisconsin and I think we’re going to have a marvelous show with Carrie Z, or Carrie Zylka. She has Hunt Fish Travel podcast, but ladies and gentlemen, she was the original lady/female/girl hunting podcast out on the Web. So let’s give it up for Carrie Z and welcome her to our show. An award winning photographer and accomplished writer Carrie now hosts two podcasts (HuntFishTravel and the Metal Chick Podcast)
CarrieZ: Hey, Bruce. Thanks for having me on.
Bruce: You’re welcome. And let’s just jump right into Hunt Fish Travel podcasts and what got you started in podcasting about hunting.
CarrieZ: Sure. Well, I’ve always been into hunting. My dad was a big whitetail deer hunter here in Wisconsin and I decided several years ago that I wanted to get into bow hunting. I was having a hard time finding really good informational resources at the time. I was listening to podcasts already. The host of [inaudible 00:01:09] recommended a site called “Bowcast.”
I went on that site and found a ton of really great information. I started conversing with the owner of the site. He asked me if I wanted to blog for them. I was like, “I don’t even know what a blog is, but I’ll give it a shot.” It kind of transitioned into they had podcasts. They had archery. At the time it was the premiere archery podcast. It was a Western hunting podcast but it was really big into archery tips. That progressed into working on some of the behind-the-scenes stuff for the podcast.
Eventually they went through a structural change and we just kind of parted ways. Like I said, they are more of Western hunting than more Midwest hunting anyway, so it was just a natural progression. So when I left I was like, “Hmm. What should I do? I think I’ll start my own podcast!” So I did! And it has been a fun ride.
Bruce: Was the original podcast that you had Hunt Fish Travel?
CarrieZ: No. Originally it was called the “Wild World of CarrieZ,” because it was just for fun. It was actually a gal at work. After I told her a story about my shenanigans out hunting, she would be like, “You have this crazy, wild world.” She she actually kind of came up with the name for the podcast. Fast forward a couple of years to February of this year and I decided, “Well I have a really good following, but it’s not like people sit down and they go to Google.com and search for Wild World of CarrieZ.” They do search for terms like “hunting, fishing, and traveling,” so I rebranded April 1st to Hunt Fish Travel. And my downloads have about tripled and people are finding me a lot more easier.
Bruce: Great. And what kind of listeners do you have? I didn’t hear a number that you said.
CarrieZ: Well it varies. It really varies. In the summertime it’s pretty low, probably maybe 8000 to 10,000 downloads a month. Come September and October, that number will double and then over the winter it will kind of go up and down. It just depends. It depends on what the season is. I have a lot of whitetail and turkey hunting listeners, so October, November, April, and May are my big months.
Bruce: Hey, we’re going to step away from hunting. What’s this? “The Metal Chick” podcast? Explain that to us! In a short brief, let’s keep it on hunting, but I’ve got to ask you that question.
CarrieZ: Yeah. I genuinely love podcasting. I love it, love it, love it! I love doing it. And while I love hunting, I am also a huge music fan and I’m a heavy metal fan. So I also started the Metal Chick podcast and I just kind of talk about new releases, what my thoughts are on some new release albums and some events that I attend. Sometimes it’s really just kind of rambling but it’s fun and it keeps me engaged in the podcasting world in general.
Bruce: Well I think the word is “eclectic,” that would fit perfectly with you. I’m just excited to be here and let’s give a shout out to you and Jay Scott. You recently started the Outdoor Podcast Channel. Is that correct?
recently started the Outdoor Podcast Channel
CarrieZ: Yeah! Actually a couple of us sat down at HEA. Actually Mike Adams, Jay Scott, and I cofounded, so we’ve put in all the work to cofound the Outdoor Podcast Channel. I mean, there’s other people involved in it as well, but yeah, it’s been crazy. Several different shows are all on this just one single RSS feed, for anybody who listens to podcasts… Like I listen to a ton of different shows and it’s just kind of nice having one single RSS feed where every single day a brand new episode from a different show is right there to listen to!