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Bruce: Welcome to another episode of “Whitetail Rendezvous.” This is your host, Bruce Hutcheon. Today, I’m very pleased to have an author, the host of “Spring Chronicles” on Sportsman Channel and the producer of “Mossberg’s Rugged American Hunter,” Jason Cruise. Jason, say “Hi” to our listeners.
Jason: Hello, Bruce. Great to be with you guys, today.
Bruce: Jason, let’s just jump right into the show. How did you get into the outdoor industry?
Jason: Yeah, I guess the short answer to that was I did get started as a writer. I was first published, actually, in high school. I’m 42 now. But I started writing way early and that just kind of grew and then when I got into college and graduate work, I skipped (?) writing and would write some articles usually that had somewhat of a faith-based element to it for regional magazines and that led to books and publishers and that led to other projects like the Sportsman’s Bible, I did that. But eventually if you’re in this industry long enough, you’ve got to do some level of video production.
So all of it is kind of built on itself. But ultimately, the entry was writing.
Bruce: Did you write short stories? Did you write how many articles? Were you a guest columnist?
Jason: The answer would be “Yes” to all of that. A lot of it was columns. A lot of it were strategies and how to’s and things of that genre. But more than anything, I would just write . . . I guess it started off writing more of an insights and sometimes stories. But eventually, it became more . . . no novels, never gone down that path. I don’t have that much drama in my head to do stuff like that, you know? I’m much more practical and so yeah. It was certainly a niche. All of my stuff is connected to a spiritual pursuit of what God has given us as a hunter and there’s a lot of guys out there that really appreciated that and so he just kind of built a tribe of his own, really.
Bruce: Let’s talk about the listeners that are sitting out there that really want to develop content for the outdoor industry. What three or four things–no more than five things–would you say that they should do?
Jason: I get that question a lot, actually. Probably the number one question I get on Twitter. I do a lot of social media work and a lot of people will reach out to me behind the scenes or e-mail me and ask the question “How do I get into the outdoor industry?” “How do I [inaudible 00:03:25]?”
The first thing I would say is you . . . and I really don’t want to sound condescending and I’m just speaking from the heart and practical. Most people have a very skewed perception of the outdoor industry. The way I describe the outdoor industry to most people is it is a very large industry, but it is made up of incredibly small businesses. So the reason I front that and kind of front-load the question with that is because so many guys get into this world thinking “Oh, I’m going to get sponsors.” “I’m going to have a big TV show . . .” and they are incredibly brokenhearted within a year or two.
So my first response would say “You need to be willing to work for free for a while.” Let me tell you, Bruce and being around, you’ve probably seen this, too. There just aren’t that many people that make a full-time living in the outdoor industry. Now, if they work for a company, they do; if they work for a Mossberg or if they’re a rep. That’s different, that’s a sales job, of course. But if you look at the guys in television, there’s just very few guys that can make enough money to be full-time. It’s very cutthroat.
So to build your content, you’ve got to be willing to work for free. Number two, I would say you need to develop your own following first, develop a tribe, a group that you understand. Within that, I would say you need to really focus on a niche.