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Mike Wilson Hunts West Virginia Mountains

Mike Wilson Hunts West Virginia Mountains. So let’s just jump into, excuse me, Mountaineer Outdoorsman and you mentioned there were some changes in the past year and so let’s talk about the changes and about whitetails and your staff and let’s just have at it.

Mike: All righty. Yeah, just like anything, anybody that runs a team or owns a team, you have changes and you learn as you go. We celebrated out third year anniversary on January and just between the last time we talked we’ve had some changes in staff and some people’s moved up and we’ve added staff, lost staff. But in particular, we actually have expanded outside of West Virginia. Mike Wilson Hunts West Virginia Mountains

I know we’re the Mountaineer Outdoorsman and our logo’s the state of West Virginia, but my main goal is just for everybody to share what they do. Share what they love to do in the outdoors whether it be hunting, fishing, riding four-wheeler s whatever, we’re not just strictly hunting. Mike Wilson Hunts West Virginia Mountains

Mountaineer Outdoorsman

But our biggest step was a gentleman named Chris Stivers, out of Illinois, he had started following me on Instagram, and following us on Facebook for quite awhile, and it’s one of them deals where you just click with somebody and even though it was over the internet, that somebody grew on me and was straightforward and honest and blunt and one day, I just said, “You know what? How would you like to be a part of the team?” And he joined on and this team has just flourished with him. He’s become my right-hand man. He’s over helping run the staff and stuff like that and he brings a trapping to the team and he’s a total leader, so we a lot of people seems to enjoy that part of the aspect that he brings to the team, catching big mud turtles that I probably wouldn’t poke with a broom.

Bruce: Okay, You gotta explain to me because I don’t know anything about mud turtles or anything. So what’s that all about?

Mike: He goes out and he was actually a chef and he has now turned part of his passion into taking wild game and making awesome meals out of them and he scavenges for wild asparagus, morel mushrooms, what some people call Molly moochers, but what he does is, one of his favorite things to eat is the mud turtles. And he goes out and he’s got a hole that finds and he finds some monsters. I don’t think I’ve ever seen mud turtles that big in my life. But he just recently done a video that I’m doing my first ever hand in editing a video of how you clean a mud turtle. And a lot of people doesn’t know and they’ll fix it wrong and not like it, and he talks a little bit on how to prepare it, and one of the main things that a lot of people don’t know is you gotta let a mud turtle sit. They’re like shrimp, you know how they got that vein in them they gotta clean out? Mud turtles are about the same way. And the best way to clean them out is to put them in a tank of clean water for about two weeks and they clean their self out. And then you process it and you fix it up.

Bruce: Wow, that’s interesting. Say we got a lot of listeners that say well I want to be on somebody’s pro staff or field staff or get involved. You hit on something I think that’s real important. And you said, “You just hit it off,” with Chris. What does that look like, or what does that feel like or can you explain it to the listeners who’ve said, “Gee, I’d like to get involved in something like that. How does that work?

this is the end of my third year, and I’m one of the founding members

Mike: Like I said, this is the end of my third year, and I’m one of the founding members, unfortunately, our other founder, he stepped away from the team for personal issues and stuff like that, no problems, but after three years, unfortunately, you grow a tough skin. The industry’s a tough industry. Everybody, well not everybody but so many people out there want their five seconds of fame and one of the first things that I looked for when I’m interested in somebody, or somebody shows interest in the team is are they worried about that five seconds of fame or are they more in line with how the teams goals are. Are they more interested in just sharing their aspects of the outdoors? Camping, fishing, riding, whatever, and sometimes we’ll approach them and then there’s been a couple of times we’ve just posted looking for staff.

And one of the things that I, and I actually took this from you, is using Skype. I use Skype to do a voice chat with individuals, me and Chris both, and we’ll just talk to them. Get a feel of them, stuff like that. And it’s become a great tool because it’s a lot different than sitting there sending out an email or a message on Facebook or whatever. You kind of get a feel of a person’s vibe just by talking to them personally.

And I also have been using it for staff meetings because we got staff in Arizona and like I said, Chris is in Illinois, and a lot of our staff in West Virginia are all over, so it’s hard for us to meet up once a month and set down and say, “Hey guys, what do we need to do, what are we going to do?” And so what I do is once a month we set a date and we send out a call a group call and all of us sit down and we discuss the team. We discuss our weaknesses, we discuss our strengths, and just how we’re going to keep the team moving forward so that we are working as a team because that ‘s the only way you’re going to do it.

What I’ve told them before, matter of fact, in our last meeting a team is kind of like a family

What I’ve told them before, matter of fact, in our last meeting a team is kind of like a family. You help each other out no matter what. A baseball team, if somebody gets down, you try to get morale up. I spend eight years in the military and if morale’s down, that could be somebody’s life. And thank God that’s nothing involved with the outdoor industry but if morale’s down that could be the life or death of the team. So we try to keep morale up and we everybody feels like they’re a part of the team allowing them to give input or giving ideas or something like that and that’s what helps makes things grow.

Bruce: That sounds really good and thanks for the shout out to me that Skype is a tool but the most important thing you said it’s just not a one way on a social media, you actually hear the person and can grasp what’s going on and I think that’s great.

Mike: Oh yeah, me and you, we chat back and forth on emails or we’ll talk on Facebook but just setting down and talking to you, a little chat, the pre-warmup for the show there, just catching up, hey, how ya doing, duh, duh, duh, and it brings back that old friendship you know what I mean? It’s like firing it back up.

Bruce: Yeah, and one thing listeners, Mike, like we said was on the show but he’s now on number 223. So 223 people have visited with you out there and that’s my goal. My goal is to simply invite people in, chit chat and see where the whole thing goes. So that’s one reason we’re doing it, like Mike said, we’re developing a friendship and I appreciate that Mike, quite a bit.

I appreciate you. You’ve been a huge help, like I said, just watching how you do things and you don’t just do the interview and take off, you stay in touch.

Mike: I appreciate you. You’ve been a huge help, like I said, just watching how you do things and you don’t just do the interview and take off, you stay in touch. And that’s rare in this industry and I commend you for that for sure because you try to keep a friendship. And that’s what this is about. We’re all in this industry together and we need to help each other instead of tearing each other down.

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