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Kaleb Schankie – owner of Bloodline TV

Bruce: Welcome to another episode of White-Tail Rendezvous. This is your host, Bruce Hutchin and we’re heading out to Kansas today and we’re going to talk to a young man that’s got a lot of stuff going. Kaleb Schankie – owner of Bloodline TV In the warm-up we were talking about he’s got 3,500 yearling cattle he’s running plus he’s got some oil wells plus he runs KNS Outfitters plus he’s got some skin in the game with Bloodline TV. So, Kaleb, and I’m going to say Schankie. Is that correct?

Kaleb: Yes. That is right.

Bruce: All right. Good guess. But hey, Kaleb, welcome to the show and it’s just an honor and a privilege to have a young man who’s [inaudible 00:00:41] making it happen out there on a lot of different levels. So, listeners, this kid’s got game. So if you’re thinking about business, if you’re thinking about moving ahead in life this guy might have some big-buck nuggets for you. So, Kaleb, let’s talk about…Let’s start right off and talk about your relationship with Bloodline TV.

Kaleb: Sure. Yeah. Actually, I met Alex Rutledge in a small convenience store. Actually our only convenience store here in Madison where live, real small town, about 800 people. And got to talking to him, got to know him, and invited him back out to hunt with me in our outfitting business and they added me to the team as a staff member and we did some filming and whatnot. Then, oh, this last December the previous owner, [inaudible 00:01:24] Smith gave me a call and told me that he was going to be selling Bloodline and I actually called a good friend of mine who’s one of our very first clients that I met in our outfitting business, Wade Neiland from Texas. And we decided to purchase Bloodline so the past eight, six month months we’ve been learning a lot of stuff about the outdoor industry and filming episodes and keeping that thing running.

Bruce: Yep. I’m here, sorry about that. Why did you buy Bloodline? As I was saying, you could have thrown a couple bucks together, got some HDTVs and started your own production company if you wanted to. So what was special about Bloodline?

It had a great host in Alex Rutledge and it was very attractive to us as far as a business aspect goes

Kaleb: Well, it’s extremely hard nowadays for a new TV show to build a relationship with partners and to get that sponsored money you need to survive and Bloodline already had a base. It had a great host in Alex Rutledge and it was very attractive to us as far as a business aspect goes. And there are a lot of pluses there that we really liked.

Bruce: Where do you think…Let’s stay on Bloodline TV. Where do you think the industry’s going with a proliferation of everybody getting an HD camera which is good quality stuff and making videos and putting it to production and then, I guess, selling it to them. How does all that work? Where’s the money in it and why are so many guys and gals involved in it?

Kaleb: Well, the hunting industry as everyone knows is exploding. As far as land and leases go everyone knows it’s turning into a money game. It used to be 20 years ago you could go knock on somebody’s door and hunt any piece of property you want nowadays. But with the TV shows and the outfitters moving in everybody’s wanting money for it and these shows are starting up and all the money’s in partners. Whether somebody’s got Matthews or a tree stand company, feed and mineral, trail cameras…I mean these guys are getting paid to use certain equipment, something they want to use, and it helps that retailer because it gives them plenty of advertising on national TV. And you’ve got all these awesome cameras now that produce really high-quality footage and they’re shooting big deer and using these peoples’ products and it’s just getting more and more popular.

People are seeing other people do it on TV and think it’s really easy and something they want to do and could make a lot of money at. But it takes a lot of work and that’s why I kind of go back to telling you why I thought Bloodline was so attractive as far as a business aspect goes, we already had the base. Like I said, Alex already had all his partners from when he was at Hunter Specialties when he started Bloodline five years ago and we had a nice foundation to continue to grow off of.

Bruce: So we’ve got listeners out there all ages, guys and gals and some of them really want to be into this industry. I’ve hunted all my life throughout North America and when I retired then I started to get into the industry by writing for GoHunt.com and continue to do that today as a contractor. But a lot of people say, “I want to get into that business.” So just give me three to five things that we can share with our listeners. If they’re serious about getting into the outdoor industry what should they do?

It’s getting so hard to just start something on your own. It’s all about who you know and the relationships you can build.

Kaleb: First off I think you obviously [inaudible 00:05:09] good camera equipment. You’ve got to learn the camera equipment and be a really good field producer. If you can film your hunts and get quality kills on camera that’s always a very good start. I know there’s different TV shows out there that take those videos and if you can get to be part of their team they’ll buy that footage from you and use it on the show. The other thing I would do is try to find some contacts. It’s always very good to know someone, especially in the outdoor industry. It’s getting so hard to just start something on your own. It’s all about who you know and the relationships you can build.