Episode # 332 Aimee Burnett-Hartwig knows Bowtech

September 5, 2016

WR 332 | Bowtech Experience

As social media coordinator at Bowtech, Inc., Aimee Burnett-Hartwig knows Bowtech inside and out and leverages social media for Bowtech, driving traffic outwards to friends and followers to enhance their Bowtech experience. Bowtech is one of the leading archery manufacturers in the country whose mission is to provide the most advanced archery products and customer service, developed on customer-driven innovation. It is the parent company of industry leading brands including Diamond Archery, Stryker Crossbows, as well as Excalibur crossbows, based out of Kitchener, ON, Canada. Aimee shares the importance of communicating, building relationships, and knowing your gear because the better you know your gear, the more successful you’re going to be in the field.

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We have Aimee Burnett-Hartwig, who is the media coordinator at Bowtech. What’s a media coordinator? Aimee’s going to tell you all about how she leverages social media for Bowtech. Bowtech is one of the leading archery manufacturers in the country. They picked up and bought Excalibur Crossbow out of Canada. Aimee takes her time and shares with us the importance of communicating, building relationships and knowing your gear. The better you know your gear, the more successful you’re going to be in the field.

Listen to the podcast here:

Aimee Burnett-Hartwig Knows Bowtech

We’re going to connect with Aimee Burnett-Hartwig, who is the media coordinator at Bowtech. Aimee, welcome to the show.

Thanks a lot. I’m excited to be here.

It’s great to have an alumni guest. You’ve had a lot of changes: new house, new job. You love hunting more now than you did the last time we talked. What’s going on?

Last time we talked, I was still working in television news in Idaho. Since then, I have taken a position as the media coordinator at Bowtech in Eugene. It was a dream job for me because it was such an easy transition from the news industry into the outdoor industry. It’s something that I’ve wanted for some time and I worked hard to make sure that I have the skills that I needed to get there. Thankfully, it worked out for me.

What do you do? What’s your job?

Mostly I run our social media. Bowtech, Inc. is a family of brands. We have Diamond, Excalibur, Stryker and then Bowtech. Also with Bowtech is our Bowtech Women so I’m running about fifteen different social media pages every day. On top of that we have YouTube channels and we’re gearing up and working on great set of how-to videos for the Diamond line. We’re going to be instrumental in helping people who are getting started to learn how to adjust their bow on their own and learn more about overall shooting tips and tricks. There’s not a lot of information out there for you when you’re first getting started. We’re hoping to be a place for people to find good information.

How does that work? I get the social media part. Audience, if you want to get into hunting industry, the easiest pathway that I know of right now is become a social media guru. Aimee, would you agree with that?

The hunting industry is a decade behind it seems like in terms of technology, especially online. If you have the ability and the understanding of how social media works and how dynamic it can be as a marketing tool, which I think a lot of the outdoor industry is now starting to see that this is an enormous tool. We’ve got to capitalize on this. This is where people are consuming every day. This is where they’re going for their news. A lot of them aren’t turning on the evening news anymore. They’re getting on Facebook and they’re going to their favorite news pages and they’re watching videos right from their phone. This is where people are living off basically 24 hours a day. If you can capitalize on that as a business or an industry, you’ve got a direct link right to your consumers.

Whitetail Rendezvous is living proof how digital immigrant, I’m not even an immigrant, I’m a digital alien, 70 years old with no background in podcasting can have 50,000 downloads in iTunes, which is a modest amount in the eight months and over 30,000 connections on social media, and I don’t know what I’m doing. I truly don’t, Aimee. I’ve got a lot of smart people help me. They’re 22 years old. My grandkids are ten, thirteen and fifteen. They said, “Gramps, it’s easy.” “Abby, set up my Instagram account.” He said, “It’s simple.”

Bowtech is working on some stuff right now that is going to take us to the next level. We’re going to be doing things here that you’re not going to see from any other company within the industry. We’re excited about that. We hired a great digital strategist and we’re looking forward to what our roadmap looks like because basically it’s going to give us the ability to do things for consumers that we haven’t been able to do before. That’s our goal at this point.

WR 332 | Bowtech Experience
Bowtech Experience: The hunting industry is a decade behind it seems in terms of technology, especially online.

I can’t remember the name but this live webinar, the lady did. She’s from Silicon Valley. I used to hear when I was out in Silicon Valley eons ago, but she was still there and she gives a trend report. It’s exactly what we’re talking about now. I was part of the dotcom boom and unfortunately I was part of the dotcom bust. It was a very exciting time because it energizes you and you’re going into areas that you never where. I was in Southern California and we went from literally bricks and mortar buildings to bricks and clicks. Everybody’s going to say, “What’s the big deal about that?” You had to get money from people that had no idea what we’re going to do, but they know they had to get on the other side of digital. You had to get into the digital world, eCommerce world. We’re right at the same place now because social media is at its smallest ever going to be. It’s not going to look the same way tomorrow as it does today. Get used to that because change could happen overnight. If you’re a part of that and learn the skill sets you need, you can have a place in the outdoor industry if you pay that price.

If you are a hunter or a fisherman or whatever, just an overall outdoors man and you are using social media and you have a following, you are valuable. The industry is starting to see that and go, “Maybe this person doesn’t have the experience but they have a huge following. If we could help them grow and teach them that experience, we can capitalize on that huge following.”

With Bowtech, you say it’s a family of products though everybody knows about Bowtech bows and most people are finding out that they did buy Excalibur Crossbows out of Canada. Let’s talk about how you see the industry for traditional bows, compound bows and then the rise of the use of crossbows. How does that all work and how are you promoting that?

For a long time, there’s definitely been a following for the vertical bows, especially the compound bows. I’m seeing a resurgence of people who are loving those traditional form of bows, the Field & Stream. It might be the Katniss Everdeen effect with traditional bows. As far as the crossbows go, that’s been the most interesting one because crossbows author an avenue of hunting for people that were bow hunting that would not be able to, whether it be their age or physical disabilities. There’s a growing number of people that are using crossbows simply because of the changing times. People are living longer and now we’ve got our military veterans who are coming back from overseas and a lot of them are coming back with some pretty serious injuries and crossbows allow them to do things that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.

What I’m seeing is the data. If you read, Michigan probably has the best data out there. There are some people say, “They’re hunting with a crossbow, so they’re going to kill more deer during archery season.” Do your research on that. You might be surprised. There might be some areas in your state or a state that harvest rates have gone up, but the thing and talking to a lot of different people, you still have to hunt the deer. A crossbow, even though it can shoot 80 yards and so can compounds, so can Bowtech compounds very effectively, there’s not that much delta there.

The other thing is in the hands of somebody, they can use it, that’s the operative word. They could be a youth, they could be a woman who’s pulling back a 50-pound bow holding it when a bull elk’s in front of them or they’re waiting for that whitetail to clear behind the tree, it’s not ten seconds. Sometimes it can be a minute or more. That gets hard. Our veterans, they might not have an arm or leg. Their back muscles might be jacked up from being in service but they can go out, take a crossbow and hunt during archery season.

At the end of the day, they don’t give out any more tags, especially in the harvest. They’re not going to give out a thousand tags banking on the fact that maybe only 500 people will shoot one. That’s not how it works. That’s not part of the conservation plan.

It doesn’t matter how good your bow shoots. Guess who has to pull the release, let go, if you’re shooting fingers under traditional, let go or pull a trigger as it is in a compound? You still have to make that decision for an ethical shot and tape the shot. It’s going to harvest that deer or bear or that elk.

For non-hunters, there’s very much misconception that hunting is easy. For those of us that go out and do it every year, it is not easy. We are not stronger than those animals. Our senses are not better than those animals. We can’t outrun those animals. You have to get within range and that’s hard enough with a rifle. You cut that down to 80 yards or less. For me, it’s much less. I don’t shoot 80 yards an animal. I don’t feel comfortable. I shoot 60 or less, preferably 50 or less. To get within 50 yards of an animal, especially one like an elk or a whitetail that are so sensitive to any outside stimuli, it’s a challenge. Then you’ve got to get within range and get a shooting lane. Hunting is not easy. There’s no guarantee. I don’t care how good of a pre-season scouting or anything else that you do, there’s absolutely no guarantee that you’re going to harvest an animal.

Unless you’ve been out there and hunted five miles, ten miles a day chasing an elk, you have realized how hard it is. The thrill of hearing that bull elk and watching the mist coming out of his nose when he’s bugling, I can go right now to some places I’ve been in parks and watching this bull screaming his head off. There’s another bull down the valley or down the meadow and he scream back and you go, “I’m here.” You’re living it, forget the video, that’s live.

When you hear that first bugle on the season, it’s almost like you just freeze. It’s so surreal because you’ve gone a year without hearing anything other than the birds chirping. Then all of a sudden you hit that rut and those bulls are screaming. Your heart starts racing and it’s an excitement. I don’t think there’s any greater sound in the world than the sound of an elk bugle.

Hunting whitetails as much as I do, the snort wheeze and they rattle them in and I think of all the hours and the days and the months I’ve hunted elk as well as whitetail. Whitetail hunters make good elk hunters because they hunt 40 acres for whitetail and they know that whitetail in their woods intimately. That’s exactly what you have to do for an elk. You have to find where they are in that 10% of their total terrain. Their total terrain may be five, ten miles, maybe 20 miles.

Nothing is more devastating than getting a bad shot on an animal. Share on X

It depends on the region you’re at. Over on the coast, they don’t travel all that much if they don’t have to with such amount weather over here. You can get quite on migration range as you had farther east over in Idaho and Colorado. They move around a lot more.

The funny thing about elk, you see them on mountainside and you watch somebody bust a herd and they don’t stop until you can’t see them. From top of mount, I can see ten miles easy and it’s amazing to ground those critters cover. You think about that and you say, “I’m hunting those things?” That’s how good a hunter you have to be to get up close and personal. I’m talking 50 yards or less. When I was shooting a compound, I didn’t shoot past 50 yards. One, because I’m older, we didn’t have the technology but even with the compound, I shot fingers and they said, “You’ve got to release. You can shoot farther.” I go, “No. That’s the way I hunted by choice.” Aimee, tell me about Bowtech Women Ambassadors. What’s that all about?

Part of Bowtech, we’ve also created the Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages for Bowtech Women Ambassadors. We met two prominent women ambassadors, Rihana Cary, who’s part of our Pro-Staff and Krissy Knox is also part of our Pro-Staff. What we do is aim to create content that are women specific. Ten years ago when I first started getting into hunting and getting involved, I noticed that all was available was shrink it and pink it. For me, when I first started hunting there was no female clothes. I was wearing men’s clothes and we were shooting men’s rifle and men’s bows. Everything was for a man and then it went to shrink it and pink it. I took that man equipment shortened it down and threw a bunch of pink on it and gave it to women.

What we’ve found as companies in the outdoor industry, first not every lady likes pink but secondly, women were shaped differently. You can’t just shrink something and expect it to fit up. Bowtech has designed a lot of pink products that are designed specifically for women. For instance, our Eva Shockey Signature Series bow, designed by Eva Shockey for women. It’s not just because I work for Bowtech because I do love the Bowtech product but that Eva Shockey Signature Series bow is hands down the best bow I have ever shot in my entire life. Not only is the draw cycle smooth, I was able to increase my poundage between five and eight pounds from the get-go. It has a smooth draw cycle, it has a firm back wall. I’ve never shot a bow that is that accurate.

Bowtech Women Ambassador is working to create content for women via our social media outlets, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We’re also listening to women to hear what they want, what they need or what they’re looking for. We want to be a resource for them. If you’re a woman and you want to be in the outdoor industry, whether you come from a hunting family or not, we want to be someplace where you can find information and a network of support.

You mentioned a bunch of different things. One, you started talking technical about a bow. The one thing I would say to our audience, get to know what your weapon of choice can do for you. Get to know what it does. Aimee mentioned in the warm up doing some videos and how-tos. In the end, the better you can fine tune your stuff, the better you can take care of your gear in the field, the better hunter you going to be and the more competence you have. Aimee, your thoughts on that?

The last time we talked, you had asked me a question about my arrows and I said, “I don’t know. I just go down to the Pro shop and the guy gives me the arrow. I shoot whatever he tells me to shoot.” Now that I’ve started working here, it’s opened my eyes to how important it is to not only understand your bow but all the rest of your equipment, your breath, your sight, your release, your arrows, why your broadheads fly the way they do. I went in and I wanted to start using those lighted nock because we got cleared here in Oregon to use lighted nock. I popped one onto my arrow and I’m shooting and I’m simply feeling weird about it.

I grabbed a regular arrow with a regular nock on and I grabbed my lighted nock and I took it in there and I had to weigh it. There was a sixteen-grain difference between the ones with lighted nocks and the one with regular nock. I have decided in for a regular nock with a 362-grain arrow, my 378-grain lighted nock arrows are not going to fly the same. I’m either going to have to just use regular nocks or just use lighted nocks because that sixteen-grand at twenty yards, it’s minimal. When you’re shooting animals like an elk out at 60 yards, you could be dropping six inches or more. For me, with my bows maxed out at 51 plus, I’m shooting about 245-feet per second. My arrow is going to go off a lot faster than my husband because who’s got a 29-inch draw length and pull 66 pounds.

Throw in wind, weather conditions and then throw in slope, up or down. You’ve got an interesting equation that you have to solve pretty quickly.

I’m a big advocate as you practice the way you hunt. I know that when I pick up my equipment that when I fire off an arrow that when it leaves my bow, it is leaving my bow with all the best technology behind it. If I don’t understand how it works, I shouldn’t release that arrow because we have a choice as hunters. You thought to make an ethical shot. Nothing is more devastating than getting a bad shot on an animal. I want to make sure that when I fire off an arrow, I know that my equipment has been tested and it is with the best intentions. I don’t ever want to just go out there willy-nilly and start pointing arrows.

Do you think Steve Curry takes a second or longer to think about a shot?

It’s all muscle memory.

The way you practice is the way you’re going to hunt. If you just say, “Season’s coming up in 30 days. I’m about to shoot some arrows.” You go into the backyard, you get your target, shoot some arrows, “I’m good.” Don’t do that people. We all know people who, “I’ve been shooting all my life and I shot indoors and then I had twenty yards in my backyard in the house that I lived and I would take a break. I take three arrows and then I’d shoot them.” The best part, I used to line up my sights and then I used to shut my eyes. At twenty yards you can do that. You shut your eyes and it’s all muscle memory. You keep everything the same and you breathe in, shut your eyes, breathe out and open my fingers. I could do that all day long. It’s not that hard; 30 yards and 40 yards, yeah but at 20 yards, you can do that and it’s all muscle memory. Thanks for that, Aimee, because that’s what it is. Steve Curry doesn’t think about that shot. He goes on, hits a spot, elevates, shoots, goes in, doesn’t go in fine, but it’s the same shot time after time after time. You owe it to the critters to be that good.

WR 332 | Bowtech Experience
Bowtech Experience: If you’ve got marketing skills whether it be social media or just general marketing skills, you are a valuable commodity in this industry.

We all love animals. That’s why we do what we do. It’s all part of a much larger plan to conserve those animals and ensure that we have them for generations to come. There’s nothing more disappointing that when you’re out hunting and you see a big elk walking across the mountain and you look up there and there’s someone dangling on the backside. I don’t see it very often with elks but I have seen some things with the antelope. It happens. At some point, you get a bad shot and it’s devastating. The more you can get out there and shoot, for me, I make sure I shoot twenty arrows a day. I have five arrows. I shoot at least four times and I say, “No matter what kind of day I have, I’m going to shot twenty arrows a day.” Just doing that for five days a week, twenty arrows a day, my accuracy has gone up exponentially. I know my bow better than I’ve known any bow in my entire life. I’ve had it for far less time. When that elk’s screaming in your face, you draw back and you let go an arrow, by the time it’s so brief, “Did I shoot? Was that me? What just happened?” I just blacked out for a minute.

That’s so funny because I can get right there and I’ve had some close encounters; the elk walked away unscathed.

It’s definitely not easy to be a hunter or can hunt especially with a bow. I always feel very fortunate that it’s a part of my life because I probably wouldn’t imagine my life without it at this point. It’s definitely an adventure.

Sharing with especially women, young ladies or ladies who’d say, “How did Aimee go from TV work?” What you did before to get into Bowtech and what did your career path look like?

When I started my journalism career, I had hunted before but I had not hunted much. It wasn’t until my husband bought me my first bow that I started to get into it. I did my first archery hunt in 2013 and I absolutely fell in I love with it. I realized that it quickly became a big part of my life. Then I started doing everything I could to pitch story ideas to our news director that would get me out and allow me to do some hunting. Thankfully in Idaho there’s a big outdoor community and so they appreciate those stories because otherwise, I had sat down in some other states that probably wouldn’t have been as fortunate to do those stories. I focused on getting better as an archer and learning everything I could about archery hunting and hunting in general.

I read a lot, I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts. If you want a job in the outdoor industry and you’re passionate about it, especially if you’re a lady, you are a valuable commodity because we are the fastest growing demographic in the industry. Outdoor companies need women. I went to Northwest Ladies Hunting Camp, big-name sponsors, Leupold, Weatherby, Cabela’s, Bowtech, Girls with Guns, National Wild Turkey Federation. What great about that camp is it’s all female instructors. There’s a huge group of age, whether it be a huge group of ladies from Leupold. Those jobs are there if you’re willing to put in a time. Especially from a marketing perspective, if you’ve got marketing skills whether it be social media or just general marketing skills, you are a valuable commodity in this industry.

Why did you choose to leave TV and go to work for Bowtech? Did they hunt you down?

Outdoors is my passion. My contract was up and I wanted to be closer to my family. On a whim one night, I went on between shows at the news station and I saw a job posting for the Bowtech marketing coordinator. I applied and when they saw that I had extensive background in media, they created the media coordinator for me. It encompasses all media, not just social media but for right now my job has primarily been social media because that’s the place where they’ve needed me the most. I did a lot in filming how-to videos for the Diamond line, which you can find at MyBow.DiamondArchery.com. It’s got ten to twelve videos that show you everything that you would need to know to get started with your bow.

Give shout-outs to whomever you want; some people that have helped you along your career.

I’m very grateful to be part of the Bowtech family. I’m very grateful that I met my husband, Ty Hartwig, several years ago because without him, I definitely wouldn’t have been here enjoying this wonderful career in the outdoor industry.

Aimee, it’s a joy to listen to you, listen to your passion not only about hunting but the new company that you’ve aligned yourself with. I wish you all the best and have fun elk hunting.

Thanks a lot. I’ll keep you posted.

I’d love to have you again on the show and talk about your elk hunt, successful hunts. It matters but it doesn’t matter because the hunt and the time you spend with your husband and other friends in the wilderness.

It’s going to be a unique one for me because it’s the first hunt I get to do with my brother who is deaf. I’m taking him, he’s never hunted out with a bow. We have been planning this trip for some time now and he is excited and I’m excited to be there with him.

If you ever want him to be on the show, if we could figure it out technologically-wise, I’d love to have him.

He can communicate. He has a hearing aid and everything. Sometimes language is broken and a little bit hard to understand but he might be excited to do it. I would love it if we could have him on the show, especially after the out season is over. One of the projects I’m working on is a webisode and we’re hoping to have that off the ground. If that does launch, I would love to come back and talk about it. I’m doing my first whitetail hunt this year.

Where are you going to do that?

West Virginia.

Who are you doing it with?

Some of our Pro-Staff here. One of the girls is a country music recording artist and her partner is a professional bass fisherman and they have a ranch out in West Virginia and it’s also where we’re doing this webisode creation with. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

The way you practice is the way you’re going to hunt. Share on X

If you have any of the ladies with that Bowtech Woman Ambassadors, all they have to do is just go to WhitetailRendezvous.com interview scheduler and pick a date and time. I’d love to have them on the show because if I can help you become successful what you’re trying to do, then that makes this old guy feel real good.

I have three ladies in mind so I will shoot off an email to them and let them know.

90% percent of the people on the show are like you and me. We work and we are passionate about hunting. This has been a blast. Please stay in touch and if I can help you any way at all possible, just get in touch with me.

Thanks a lot.

Make sure you listen to the next episode of Whitetail Rendezvous where you’re going to hear about stealth hunting and running and gunning from Cole Seitzinger from Southeast Pennsylvania. Cole Mountain 88 has quite a story you’re going to want to listen because he’s got some great lessons learned.

 

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