Show Notes
Since the first of the year Heath has been able to do a little traveling. Along the way he has been blessed meeting great people. Heath met fellow podcaster Pete Rogers in Las Vegas at the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) SHOT Show. Pete is a Minister, writer, podcast host of the Christian Outdoor Podcast, and photographer. Pete has published over 1,000 articles and 4,000 photographs in his career. He is also the author of 6 books, including his most recent work; Do You Enjoy God? 12 Steps to Enjoying God Every Day. Pete is a Keynote speaker for colleges and universities, corporate events, conferences, and civic groups.
Heath and Pete talk about the commonalities in the hunting world. No matter what species you pursue, we are in it together. They share some experiences and stories. You might be surprised about the other things Heath spends time outdoors doing. They touch on how to deal with conflict with others while afield. Pete explains how the outdoors and enjoying God everyday is how he lives. This is a great conversation about everything outdoors. Come and join us on our Journey.
http://www.christianoutdoors.org
http://www.christianoutdoors.org/episode-166-february-6-2023-the-houdsmanxp-with-heath-hyatt
Show Transcript
[00:00:00] The Houseman XP podcast Network is taking you on the journey. Your host, master trainer, Heath Hyatt, will combine his decades of experience as a homan and as a professional trainer that will light the path forward and make our PACS lighter on this lifelong journey to become better hunters and hounds men.
There are no shortcuts. So lace up those boots and grab a dog leash. The journey begins now.
Hey guys, the journey on Hounds XP is teamed up with Gow Wild. Gow Wild is a social media platform that was made for Hunters by Hunter. . If you guys and gals have listened to any of the other podcasts that I've been on, you know what a huge outdoor enthusiast I am. [00:01:00] I love being in the woods, my hands.
There's nothing more exciting than hearing the thunder of a spring gobbler. I love fishing for trout and the brooks and the streams, and I love being on the river chasing that ever elusive fish of a thousand cast. The Musky Go Wild is the place that I can post my trophies, hunts, and memories without being censored.
But Go wild is so much more than that. It's a place to share your stories, sharpen your skills, hone your tactics, get gear reviews, and shop for anything outdoors when you make a purchase from the Go Wild Store. Everything is free shipping, anything that you purchase anywhere in the country, no matter how big free shipping.
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We are going to do a little bit of crossing over. While we was at the SHOT show, I was very fortunate to meet a fine feller. We sit and talked for a long time and come to find out we have a lot of commonalities that we have in common together. He runs a podcast, I run a, we run a podcast, and we got to talking and, it's unique that like we have all these things in common and we're just using a different same platform, but different outlet to reach people, to talk to people, to learn [00:03:00] from people.
So while we were at the Shot show, I was at the Bager, C v a Booth, was talking to them and was introduced to Pete Rogers and got to talking to Pete's from South Carolina. And God's talking about hunting cuz that's what drives us all, whatever form or fashion it may be. And come to find out, Pete had a podcast, which is called The Christian Outdoors.
And we got to talking and we decided that we were gonna support each other, which we would do anyway. And so Pete had me on his podcast and I wanted him on our podcast for several reasons. And we'll talk to the, talk about those throughout the next hour. But Pete, hows everything in South Carolina this morning?
And it's going very well, buddy. It really is. Heath though. Can't complain at all. And if I did, nobody would listen. So just enjoy every day as best I can. That sounds like my life. I could complain and nobody catches on. And we did. Nobody cares. . That's right. And we [00:04:00] did get together at the Great American Outdoor.
That's right. You were up working with cva and I had to talk myself out. I wanted to buy so much stuff while I was up there and I'm like, dude, you're broke. Like you're broke. Just don't do it. . And when you work the booth, as you probably know, you don't have a chance to walk the aisles.
No. But when I was walking in every day, I would, cause we had to be there like an hour early to get I would do a little quick in our area and dad gum. I still didn't end up spending about $250 just on those little on those little trips just around my immediate area. Yeah. So I'm going on a rant before we get started.
Okay. So of course I've been traveling quite a bit since the first of the year driving a whole lot. So I drove up to Pennsylvania. I was in Richmond this week. What in the world is wrong with people driving in the left lane 10 miles under the posted speed limit? Like they don't have a care in the world.
I'm like, I got nothing on that ma'am. [00:05:00] Dude, , you have got to get over the left lane is a passing lane only. It's not to joy ride on Sunday while you're looking at the scenery and when you're on the inter Huh. Your phone while you're driving down the road too. Most of 'em are 10 and two. They got those hands locked in.
They are focused forward and they are just putting along and I got places to be, things to, to do people to talk to. Like I can't be hindered , if that's the word. Yeah. By taking another hour and a half to get to my final destination. I'm like, Viper six is in your airspace. We need to move
Move it, move over. We gotta go. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, coming back from Pennsylvania going up wasn't bad. I left really early. The traffic was light to medium. It got a little heavy once I, started getting into Harrisburg, but it wasn't bad. But, coming home from Richmond another night at 10 o'clock at night and there, there was a, there was these two [00:06:00] tractor trailers racing up a hill at 40 miles an hour.
And there was a line of tra I think I counted 21 cars behind the left lane. And guys, mad respect for you guys hauling stuff all over the country. But I just don't get it. I just don't get it. You can't pass that truck. Or if you're a car, you know that you're not doing the speed limit or under the speed limit.
Just get over. It's, it, just get over. You're not in a hurry, obviously. So why would you need to pass somebody ? Yeah. Yeah. All right. That's my rant for the day. Like I was fit to be tied. I have. But you got their, but you got home safe. I did, yeah. Very slowly I got home. very safe and slowly, somebody's gotta be the caboose man.
Somebody has to be the caboose man. Oh man. Yeah. They I just don't get it. I don't know the thought process and I probably get wound up too tight sometimes. Probably a little. I did hear Heath, I did hear one guy say who was the left lane [00:07:00] driver, and I tend to be a left lane driver, but I don't drive below the speed limit.
And I'm not for any police officers out there. I don't want them to take it. I'm a speed demon. But he said he drives the left lane because the right lane's more bumpy than the left lane. Left lane's smoother. In some cases people riding and a lot of cases. I thought that's, that makes sense, the right lane is, cause that's where most people are supposed to drive. It is a little bit more worn out, left lane's smoother. So he rides in the left lane. Yeah. I. It does make sense. And in some circumstances, I know that's probably a fact because the right lane does get traveled more. But come on, people coming up behind you, move over.
Yeah. That's it. That's what the rear view mirrors are for. Let them by and then if you want to cruise in left lane laws, nobody's behind you. Just cruise over there. That's right. All right. Enough on my rant for this morning. I just had to let that out. I could feel the frustrating frus. I was getting frustrated.
I needed to let that out. So I'm good now. I understand. We're good. All good, Pete. Tell the listeners like I said, you and I have talked several times and been around each other a little bit now. T [00:08:00] tell us about you, tell us about your writing, your podcast what you do. Then we'll get into the hunting.
Okay. All right. First of all, he thank you for having me on the show. I'm really honored to be a guest on your show. And I hope your ratings don't tank after this . But man, a lot of people I'm paying them to download now. What do you say, ? I . That's funny. And a lot of people when I go speak at events and stuff, he's, one of the main questions I get is, how'd you get into outdoor writing?
How did you get into it? Because it's a lot of people are fascinated by writing for hunting and fishing magazines and as you said, I've been doing that since 19 98, 99, somewhere there. I sold my first story and I was in my forties when I did that or late thirties rather. I was in my late thirties.
So I didn't come outta school with a desire to be an outdoor writer. What the way it came about was I was I've always written, and the reason I've written is because. I'm gonna back up a little bit. I'll jump around a little bit and then come to it. But real briefly is growing up I had a severe speech [00:09:00] impediment, like severe.
I could not speak out loud at all, and some people call it a stutter or a stammer, but it was very debilitating and a lot of bullying, a lot of picking and teasing on, because here's Pete who can't, who can't speak. And it was, when I tell that to people, they're like what do you mean?
I know people that stutter? I say, yeah, I do too. But I haven't found anyone who stuttered as badly as I did. Cause I literally could barely speak. I could not read out loud. I could read, but I couldn't read out loud at all. And I went to a lot of speech therapists. It was so bad, Heath, when I played football.
Then in high school I was quarter. But I couldn't call the plays in the huddle because I couldn't speak. And if you played football in high school or anybody who's listening, did you realize that on the field, the game is a lot faster than it looks like in the stands, right? The clocks ticking.
You just got finished with the play, you run back to the huddle, you gotta call the next play and then go. But I couldn't call the play. So the coach would send in a player every down and [00:10:00] he would call the play in the huddle for me so that we didn't get to lay a game. Cause Pete's trying to get out 42 dive on left and it takes a minute and a half to get that to happen.
Okay, . So because of that, I expressed myself by writing from as long as I can remember. I've even found old books that I, or notebooks that I've written in stuff when I was trying to express myself. Cause I couldn't speak. Went through a lot of therapists obviously, cuz here I am now. But and one identified what my main problems were.
And I won't bore the listeners with that, but we was in some techniques that she taught me, enabled me to be able to handle it so that most people won't even notice it unless I pointed out. And it's it's just some tricks and tactics and techniques. If anybody is out there, struggles with it, then I'll be glad to talk with 'em about it and tell you what I do to see if it works for you.
One thing I have learned though, is what works for me may not work for you if you have a speech issue as well. But anyway, so I've always written, so I had [00:11:00] just gotten back from a moose hunting trip in Alaska and I'd wrote a story about the trip and I sent it to the buddies that I went with Keith.
And they were, very complimentary and very nice, but one of them who's one, one of my dearest friends ever had in my whole life, he's passed away now. His name's Walter. He was 25 years, my senior, and he's Pete, this is really good. You really ought to consider. getting this stuff published.
Send me some more of your stuff. So I sent him some more of my stories and he was, again, he's just a, he's just a, an old welder from Portland, Oregon. And so it's not like he was an editor or in the writing business, but he was just very supportive. And I was like I always had approached Heath that if you get a yes and figure out the rest, right?
If somebody else can do it, I might can too. So why not? Why not try? There's a few things. I wouldn't do that with, like flying an airplane right now, or just cause a can doesn't mean I wanna try. , right? Yeah. But so anyway, so I started sending in stories. This is way back in the dark ages when we actually had this [00:12:00] envelope for the generation whatever letter we're on now.
And don't know what envelopes are, but we'd write the story, fold it, put it envelope, put a stamp on it, mail it, wait six weeks for a no. Do that over and over again. I don't know whether I'm bullheaded or persistent, but. , I finally got a yes and sold my first story to the Rough Gruse Society of All People.
It was a story on hunting Woodcock and the Wood, the Rough Gruse Society bought it, it was called Hooked by Happenstance. I'll never forget the title of it, and worked really well. And they actually paid me $400. And I was like, oh my gosh, that's so cool. I got paid for that. That was just awesome.
And it was a year and a half where I sold another one, but I was starting to learn how the process works. And so as time has gone on, now here it is, 24 years later, I've been fortunate enough to be published with some of the biggest magazines in the country, the NRA publications [00:13:00] Northwestern American Rifle, American Hunter in those Bow Hunting world.
A lot of the regional magazines, the Sportsman's magazines, Carolina Sportsman in South Carolina, game and Fish. Back when Game and Fish was in the States. I did multiple states of gaming, fish publications. Fur fishing game is one of my favorites cuz I'm a trapper by trade and so I get to write trapping stories for them.
But I do, at my peak I was doing about 140 stories a year. Nice. I've backed off of that because of the podcast that we'll get to in a little bit. I've also been able to publish six books, five on the Outdoors and one Christian book that we'll get to later. And two of them have one outdoor book of the year.
My first one called Times Spent, which is being redone now and hopes to come out later this year. In 2012, it was Outdoor book of the year. And in 2019, the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association named my Turkey hunting book called, so You Wanna Hunt Turkeys as the 2019 Outdoor Book of the Year.
So that was a big [00:14:00] honor. . I'm a member of many different writing organizations have won over 60 something awards in writing and photography and, very humbled by that, that your peers recognize you and say, Hey, this guy can conform words in a way, but I got great editors, dude, that's really what it's about.
I got great editors that make me look good. And I'm I'm very thankful for them and I make sure that they know that. Lisa Greenway, a girl from my Sunday school class, I say girl, she's a lady from my Sunday school class has been editing my stuff for years. I get it. I get at Lisa a five before I send it in to the magazine editors.
So that is grammatically perfect and she's done all my books for me. And but yeah, that's how I got in the outdoor writing world. And it's funny though, when you become an outdoor writer, like for me, I love to fish. I love to hunt, I love to trap, but editors put you in a cubby. and say, all right, Pete's the archery guy, or Pete's the handgun hunting guy, or Pete's the Turkey guy.
And I [00:15:00] think I really I really enjoy saltwater fishing and striper fishing, probably more than any of that. But I don't get any stories on those. Cause they have me plugged as the, as the guy who writes about the hunting. But I love hunting. I've been fortunate to hunt in 17 different states.
I always go unguided on public land, do it a DIY kind of thing, Heath do it myself, figure out what I haven't chased yet, and I want to go figure out how to chase it. And that, and so that's what I do. So that's a real brief. I actually, it probably wasn't very brief at all. It was about eight or nine minutes.
Speaking of which, I am so disappointed that I'm not at the National Turkey, wild Turkey Federation this weekend in Nashville. Like I'm watching it being posted all over the place and I'm like, yeah. I just don't have time. I couldn't get to, I could not get out there to this one. And that's something I wanted to go to.
The Turkey show's one of the best shows in the country. It is, but it always falls on my wife's birthday weekend. My wife's birthday was yesterday and I was like, honey, do you wanna go to [00:16:00] Nashville for your birthday? She's no, I don't care. Anything at all about turkeys. She's a great woman. She doesn't care of anything at all about the outdoors.
Nothing. Yeah, not at all. So we're polar opposite in that regard. And I even booked a hotel room and said, we can go have, just a weekend together and just, I need to go to the show for a few hours every day. No, I do that. So here I am. Yeah. And another thing that's so funny that and you talk about your love for striper fishing and what was the other saltwater fishing saltwater like, dogs are my.
and , that's what consumes a lot of my time. But I love to fish too. I love to Musky fish and everybody knows that. And I'm not good at it. Trust me, man. I catch if I catch six or eight in a year, man. I'm on I'm on the cloud nine. Yeah. Yeah. But I bass fish and I love to trout fish.
I love to fish. I've never caught a, I've never caught a musky. I've been to Canada a few times, fishing for Northern Pike and Wall. I love that experience. Uhhuh, , I mean that, they fly you in and drop you off on this remote lake and you got the [00:17:00] whole lake to yourself. . That is a phenomenal experience for you.
Get to that. I got addicted to Northern Pike. Oh yeah. So aggressive. Yep. And so they're not difficult to catch. And I like stupid fish and stupid turkeys. I'll tell everybody in the world I love killing stupid turkeys. Cause it's hard to kill a, a. It's even hard to kill a stupid one. Yeah.
But it's really hard to kill the grown one. Yeah. Yeah. I'm I enjoy everything. Yeah. I really do. Yeah. And I, I that kind of yeah. I don't know if a lot of people know that, but like I, I spend a lot of time on the water in it or on it. I'm, I in the off season, if I can get a couple hours, sometimes I spend days, but you gotta, come on. Come on up and let's go. Musky fishing. I didn't know there were Musky in Virginia. New River is like one of the like it's a world-class fishery for Musky. It's a date. All right, we'll do that this summer. It's summertime. Is that what? Yeah, so we, I don't like to fish form after the water temperature gets above 78 and it puts too much stress on 'em.
So [00:18:00] most of your diehard musky fishers will not go targeted them after that water temperature, but yeah. May, may and June. is good. They'll come out of the spawn 1st of May. Then we don't target 'em during the spawn either. So we'll bass fish then, but yeah, that's still Turkey season, so That's right.
As soon as Turkey season's over, man, I'm back at it. Yeah. So Turkey season Dom, I'm so addict and people ask me all the time, what's your favorite thing hunting before they finish their question? I'm screaming turkeys. I'm gobbling at 'em. That's what it is. It's all about the turkeys for me. I love chasing turkeys.
Yeah, I do. I'm with you. That's probably, that was probably one of my earliest passions. I, now I bow hunted. I was an avid bow hunter. And then when I got my dogs and started hunting, I could not balance hunting at night cuz I was competition coon hunting and running the Purina circuit at that time.
I could not. I couldn't hunt all night and get up and bow hunt. So I'm a morning hunter. [00:19:00] I like to hunt in the morning better. I will hunt evenings, but don't get me wrong, but Me too. Me too. I'm a morning person, man. I like to see the sun come up, the world come alive. That's just the best part of the day for me, and I like that.
So it clashed and I went away from the bow hunting. But I always Turkey hunted. I've loved. , since I was a young, I can't tell you what age, but, and I probably went 5, 6, 7 years before I ever killed one of 'em. Stinking thing. Like in spring now fall, they're tough.
Yeah. Yeah. Fall was different. But yeah. Spring, we don't have fall season anymore here in Southline. I killed my first Turkey in 78. 1978. You weren't even born yet, I'm sure. Yes, I was. Oh, come on now. Yeah, come on now. I'm a 70, 73 model, man. . I'm old. Alright. Alright. I'm 10 years older than you then. We're good.
I'm a 63, but I killed my first one in 1978 in Edgefield, South Carolina. Public land, and Lynches, world champion, double-sided box call. Got it. Still have it got paid. 1495. Yep. Paid 1495 for, I still have it. Still use it. People ask me all the [00:20:00] time, why are you using that classic call? I say, because it still kills turkeys.
Yep. As long as it'll keep fooling them. I'm going to carry it. Now if the day ever comes that it breaks, I'm literally going to weak. Yeah. I'm going to tears will I, cuz it has killed. , I don't even know how many turkeys Yeah. Have been lured in by my lynches world champion double-sided box call.
Yeah. I'm a friction call guy because of my speech impediment. Heath, my mouth is shaped in such a way that I can't hardly blow a diaphragm at all. Interesting. I'll do some throat, some natural voice stuff when they're close. Just a, a clock per, or a pur real quick.
, when you're already on the gun and you can't, but podcast calls and box calls is my go-to. Yeah. Yeah. All right, so let's flip over. What got your, what got you started in your podcast and you went from your writing. Yeah. And then what brought you into the podcast world? Okay.
And I don't even remember what year it was, but I went to a Houma conference, professional Outdoor Media Association conference in Shreveport, Louisiana, where I was I was receiving an award. So I went there and they had a seminar on [00:21:00] podcast and I was like I got killed some time.
Let me step in you. I had no idea what they were. . All right. No, no clue. And they were doing a seminar on it and I thought, wow, that sounds really intriguing where you can just talk about whatever you want to talk about. So for people who don't know, a podcast is, the way I describe a heath is talk radio over the internet.
Yeah. And bec and because of that, you don't have these FCC rules that you have to abide by and you don't have time slots. I've hosted outdoor radio programs and been a guest on many of them and so forth. And for anybody in radio, you got like a 12 minute window, then a commercial, and you got an eight minute window, then a commercial, and then another eight minute window, and it's over.
For a 30 minute show. . But the podcast, as you can talk about any subject for as long as you want to, or for as brief as you want to. Yep. And being an ordained minister, I was like, man, I would love to talk about the things I'm most passionate about. I'm passionate about hunting and fishing the outdoors, and I'm passionate about my relationship with Christ.
Can I combine those into one show? Being a little [00:22:00] bit type A personality, I researched this for over a year and a half, and I listened to, I'm gonna say hundreds and hundreds of podcasts on how to do a podcast. I researched equipment, I researched the right microphones. This is my third set of microphones, by the way.
Uhhuh . I researched sound equipment. This is my third set of sound equipment, . And I researched content and how to do it and how to get gased, and I just had all this stuff down and I said , one of the things that I read was, if you're going to commit to it, the main thing that your customers or listeners want is consistency.
Good content on a regular basis. And as some con some podcasts are once a month, some are three times a month, some are four times a month. Some guys do it twice a week. They obviously don't have other jobs. . And there's a few guys who do daily shows. Now they're short, they're 15 minutes. But still, as the prep time that goes into a show, a one hour recording for Pete is about four [00:23:00] hours of prep.
And another two hours of editing later. Yep. So is, that's six, that's seven hours per week. I have to, it was in the beginning it was more cuz you get faster as you go. But I committed to, in 2019, October 1st, 2019, I launched a Christian Outdoors podcast. We own Christian outdoors.org. and most any other combination of that available.info, whatever it's called, everything but com, somebody owns that and they haven't, and they haven't operated it in 15 years.
And they don't wanna sell it. We're christian outdoors.org and our tagline is we talk about everything outdoors and how to enjoy God every day. And that last part is something I really wanna talk about whenever we have a chance. Yep. But so I do weekly shows. Every Monday a new episode comes out.
I do 50 a year, allow myself a couple of breaks. , I just recorded yesterday, episode 169. And we are found on every podcast platform out [00:24:00] there that you can think of from apple Podcast, of course, and Google Play, iHeartRadio, Spotify, and now we're on Carbon TV as well on their podcast platform.
, it looks like Heath. If God continues to do what he is doing, and once all the numbers come in, sometime in March we're gonna hit a million subscribers. Nice. Yeah. Very nice. And you know what, that's one thing I've said on our podcast a couple times. I'm a learner, like I wanna learn. I, I think knowledge is power.
, and I, sometimes I can't get enough. Like I, I wanna know, and especially if it's something I'm interested in or passionate about I'm like you, I will sit down and listen to 50 podcasts about it to learn. And I've always said that a podcast is free learning. Free.
Free. Said. Said. You go on there, you can pick out what you like, the stuff that you want to know about. And I don't have to read, and I do read, I'm an avid reader, but I can, in my [00:25:00] car at work, like when people walk up to my car, if I'm sitting in a parking lot or something, my guys that I work with are like, earliest no podcast.
Yeah. I'm 12 hours in my car and Yeah. Yeah. It's nothing for me to listen to. Three or four, maybe five in a day. Yeah. In between calls or I'll be sitting and I'll be approving reports or whatever, and I'm listening like , I'm taking that stuff in. And it's just a free, it's a free platform to get any knowledge, information that you want or need on any.
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Yes, it really is. Yep. And like you, I do a lot of traveling in my truck and I used to, and I still do from time to time, listen to they used to be books on tape, but now they're digital, right? , I can't think of what you call audio books. Yeah. Thank you. And I have 'em, I couldn't even think of what it's called.
So I, and I will, if I'm doing a, a 30 hour drive and I'm getting tired of podcasts, I'll throw in an audio book and listen to it, but they for me listening to podcasts makes the miles just fly by. It does. You're, and you realize, golly, I've been listening to three, three podcasts and I'm five hours down the road here and Yep.
And it didn't feel like it cuz you're so engaged into what you're listening to.[00:27:00] And I find that to be very beneficial and advantageous. I do. And I'm like you, I work for the U SDAs, my is my real job, I'm a trapper here in, in Greenville, South Carolina for the U S D A, my truck.
By myself all the time. So there's a podcast playing almost constantly. Yep. On not just mine. I do listen to mine to see if I missed something in my editing, but I'm listening to critique it. I'm not listening for the knowledge or the entertaining. I'm like, God, I should have cut that out. Ooh. I should, yeah. I missed that. I should have asked this. And I'm I missed it. Yeah. I'm with you. Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. But I listened to a lot of other guys as well. But, and I listen to Christian podcasts and outdoor podcasts. That's pretty much the ones that that I do, that I listen to. Yeah. I, it's a great platform and has enabled me to meet some wonderful people like yourself.
And it's enabled me to get to talk to people that I've known but never had a chance to talk to. , and I'm not gonna name drop here. If you go look at all my episodes, you'll see some of the biggest names in the industry that I've been able to [00:28:00] interview, who I've known for years through.
Being an outdoor writer, you just get exposed to it. Know you get to go to shot show, you get to go to the ata, you get, and you're meeting all these people. And I've been doing it for 24 years now, so I know all the big names that you see on television. I've had relationships with, but I never had a chance to just sit down and pick their brains about specific subjects.
And that's one of the things I love the most about being the host of the podcast, is picking the brains of my guests and saying, how would you do this? What do you think about that? Why know those type questions? So yeah, like when I had you on the show, I said, I don't know a whole lot about dog hunting.
Why don't you educate me and teach me about it? How do you train, how do you select your breeds? All those things to me are intriguing. . Yeah. And we're gonna, hopefully we'll get you up and get you underneath one of. No, I'd like to do that criers. I do, I wanna do that. I just can't, I can't believe that you can teach standard poodles to run bears, though.
That's just amazing. Hey, I'm working on a chihuahua right now. . You really? Yeah. It's gonna be like not fast enough though. It's gonna be like a [00:29:00] Mad Hornet running around that bear . You was talking about I, Steve Harvey has a quote and Steve Harvey says that networking will get you places that a degree never will.
Absolutely. And I'm like you just this year since January the people that I've met some race relationships that, that I have been introduced to and started to form is humbling. Yeah. For me it is. You, like you said, you hear about these people, you read about 'em, you've read their stuff, you've watched them, and then all of a sudden you're standing there actually talking to 'em, and then you walk by 'em at another show or something and they know your name.
Yeah. And it's holy cow. And you're a little starstruck at first. Yeah. You are. At least I was. Yeah. In the beginning I just said oh my gosh, there's Ralph and Vicky Cillo. . They're my favorite people. . And I met and I said, now, and I'm just, I just sitting there staring, just wide-eyed, staring at, oh my gosh, he's right there in front of you.
Yeah. And I. Can I tell this story real quick? [00:30:00] Absolutely. Real quick. This is about you. Yeah. Cuz they're some of my favorite people. We've built a good relationship. The first time I met Ralph and Vicky at the ATA show, I'm literally standing there at the Hoyt booth and I just, and my eyes are just big as saucers and I'm just staring there and I didn't even realize how long I'd been there.
And finally Ralph turns and says, can I help you? I was like oh, he's talking to me, . And I did the very corny hi Ralph, I'm Pete. I'm, big fan, blah, blah, blah. He's thank you. And and he, I could see he was saying, quit staring at me, . He didn't say that, but go.
I could feel Go away, . Yeah, go away. You freak. But but we hit it off right off the bat and I've been able, been very blessed to hunt with them and to be on their television show and to build a good relationship. They're some of my favorite people in the whole world. And I'm gonna tell toot their horn real quick.
They are exactly in person as they look like on tv. , they are, there's nothing pretentious. They're as real as, as real Islam. And I will always be their number one fan. They're just great people. But as you said, the first time you meet these people, you're [00:31:00] just, I was starstruck. And then you realize they're just regular folks.
For the most part. Yep. For the most part. And there's always a few out there that you're not sure about. But and I think being authentic, I think the authentic people that are real, there's no fake, no put on. Those are the one that people seem to draw to more. Because you can't be too.
That's right. You can't be too, so yeah. Now I'm with you. There. Be yourself and be yourself all the time. That's right. What is what you get. And it's not much, but here it is. . Yeah, exactly. I'm sure I'm going to I don't think they've said it to my face, but when people finally come up and meet you, and
It's I'm thinking, I hope I did. I hope I didn't disappoint him. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm thinking. When people, I had a guy up in Harrisburg, it really caught me off guard. Heh, this doesn't happen a whole lot to me. Cause I'm a podcaster, so my face isn't out there a whole lot. My voice is, but my face isn't.
And this gentleman walks up and says, are you Pete, the guy that hosts Christian Outdoors [00:32:00] Podcast? I'm like, yeah, . I am. And anyway, and he started talking. It caught me so off guard, you know that again, my face isn't really out there. . It's my voice that's out there. And that's one of the few times that's happened.
And I, and when he left, I thought to myself, I hope I didn't disappoint him and left. And he left hoping his day was better or making his date better. I really want my listeners to, to benefit from everything that we're doing. That's why I do it, is to try to impact people in a positive way.
Yeah. . And on those lines, I feel like he probably was just as happy for you, acknowledging him, talking to him and giving him a couple minutes of your time. Yeah, and I think that's something that you and I both have in common is each listener's important to us, absolutely. Like the three that I have, I'm paying them and anybody else that wants to jump on board, I'm not gonna be on the payroll in the future.
I need, I'll send you an invoice. You working for pennies? Working for pennies, . But yeah, I [00:33:00] they're important and, I don't think nothing about giving them my time, that's the only thing I can give them is my time, not Yeah, absolutely. And it's something that I wish I could remember who told me this years ago, but it was an elder gentleman, offering advice and he said wherever you are, be there fully.
Yep. And I thought when, if somebody comes up to me and wants to talk to me, I'm I'll need to give them my 100% undivided attention. Yep. I'm not gonna be looking, I'm not gonna be one of those who looks somewhere else and talks to you or on my phone while you're talking to me. If you want to talk to Pete, I'm gonna give you my undivided attention for as long as you wanna stand there and talk.
Cause I learned this in ministry and I've learned it in my outdoor career as well, is that a lot of times when people approach you and start a conversation, that's not what they want to talk about. , they're just breaking the ice and getting comfortable. And if you can make them comfortable, then they can share what they really want to talk about.
And I want to be able to do that for as long as it takes. If they need to stand there and talk for 45 minutes, I'll [00:34:00] stand there and talk to 'em 45 minutes. They just wanna shave my hand and get a picture. We'll do that too. Yeah. You know what? Whatever it is that that individual wants, they got my undivided attention the whole time.
Yeah. And that's why when I go Heath, when I go speak at events, I do a lot of wild game banquets and sportsman's banquets and men's conferences and things like that. I make sure I'm there at least a couple hours early in case people wanna talk or, ask questions. And I stay as long afterwards until they lock the doors just in case people wanna talk about things and ask questions.
I, I think being available is important. Yes. So look, that segues into, the next thing I want to talk, like you and I I really wanted to bring you on for this, is you're, you pastor at different churches you travel, you speak at different groups. And you and I had touched base with this up in Pennsylvania about leadership and mentorship and growing as a person.
Within the hunting community. How we can work together. Cuz we're all, I see so many. . I see [00:35:00] stuff on social media and I just shake my head that, and I hate this, but some people are just so one track mind. , it takes all kinds to make the world go round.
And just because I'm not and I'm just gonna throw it a deer hunter. I do deer hunt. Yes. We deer hunt for food. That's it. I don't trophy hunt. If one walks out in front of me hallelujah. I'll take him. But we do it to fill the freezer. . But we have to be together. We're in this together, we're in the, and I wanna say the fight, but we are because a lot of our sports, especially in the hound community is on the verge or the brink, and it's not, like this second, but it's a dying sport.
Our youth. Which we are very passionate about taking hunting and getting outdoors and, I can go back to my childhood and say confidently that me being raised where I was at, there was [00:36:00] nothing to do. I was either in the woods or on the, I lived on a creek like I was, I could walk out off my property across the main road into the creek, like 150 yards from my front door.
And if it wasn't for that, I don't know where my life would be. Like, I don't know what trouble I would've, it kept me outta trouble is what I'm saying. Like I had the passion to be in the woods. That's where I wanted to be. That's where I wanted to spend my time. As I went through high school phase, everybody goes through stuff and that was my escape.
I didn't go out and party and drink and carry on. That just wasn't who I was. And it shaped me a lot for who I am now. . , and you and I had talked about that a little bit, and I just want, I just, I wanna talk about it. I wanna talk about your perspective and how we, as hunters of all species that we pursue can be more of a unity togetherness than bickering with each [00:37:00] other about X, Y, and Z. Well, that's a big topic. We could do the whole show on just that for Yes. And we could have a two or three hour episode. But it's something that, that I cared deeply about. And there's a lot of parallels there.
Excuse me, Heath, there's a lot of parallels to a lot of different areas, but as one person said one time, hunters are the most cannibalistic people out there. And what I mean by that, when I say it is, and we hear this a lot, is bow hunters don't like crossbow hunters. and rifle hunters don't like bow hunters and bow hunters don't like shotgun hunters and stand hunters don't like dog runners and deer hunters can't.
Stan coon hunters running at night on their property and there's this, all this infighting among themselves and it becomes an elitist thing. Excuse me. You hear a lot where there's a friend of mine, right? And he's a, I'm a bow hunter. I don't anybody can kill him with a rifle. I'm a only hunting with a bow.
I'm like good for you. Pete? I'm an equal opportunity killer . It's end season. [00:38:00] And then I'm gonna take it, I hunt with every legal weapon and one of my goals, I haven't done it yet and I keep saying I'm gonna do it every year, but I haven't, is I want to kill, here's Cline. I can kill four bucks and eight do in, in, in a year, right?
I wanna kill a deer in the same season with every legal weapon. That would be for up for us a across a vertical bow, cross bow, muzzle loader. Rifle, pistol, shotgun. Oh, wow. So I don't wanna do that in the same season. I've done it, but I haven't done it in the same season. And that's a goal.
No, bucker dough, I don't care which one just, but you gotta commit to one of them until you get that one off. The list. I've done three of the five and I've done four of the five before, or six. There's six now since I add a crossbo. But but I haven't done all of them in the same season, so I think I'm gonna make a commitment one year and just go and just first one comes out, boom, dead, go get another weapon that evening, change weapons or whatever you have to do.
But I'm all about that as Ralph taught me. If it's legal in your state, country, or province and you want to do it, go do it. I fully [00:39:00] support that. As we talked about when I was on when you were on my show. I don't, I've never had an opportunity to hound, hunt for bear, but it's legal. I would absolutely go do it if I had an opportunity because how can I condemn something I know nothing about.
. A guest on my show who's actually a baseball coach at University of South Carolina, said one time he said, we c we what's the word he used? We, it's not complain about, but we criticize things we don't understand. It's easy. And I thought, wow, what a great statement. We criticize things we don't understand, and I don't understand running deer with dogs.
I know I, I understand the process, but I don't understand the addiction. , but I'm not, I don't have, I don't have dog. I understand. It's all about the dogs. Not about the killing the deer. I understand that in the low country of South Carolina with the palmas or chest high, you're not gonna see deer if you try to stand hunt.
, you ha. So they have to push 'em out of those thick swamps in order to get 'em. It's the same limits apply. The same rules apply. [00:40:00] They're just using the dogs to push it by. I've tried that once. It was and it wasn't a great experience because. , I didn't see a whole lot. Uhhuh
But it just, I just sat there and heard dolls barking and slapping mosquitoes for hours. , but that doesn't mean that, that it was a, it's like I've been on bad dates too. Yeah. It doesn't mean I quit dating. So I'm not gonna condemn anybody who wants to hunt any species as long as it's legal in their state, country, or province.
There's a lot and I've said this before too, I don't understand single species hunters. I don't understand these guys who say I only hunt deer. I only hunt big deer in the Midwest. That's only man. What are you missing, man? You were missing so much. If you only hunt deer and youre condemning somebody who wants to chase turkeys, or you're condemning somebody who goes out west to hunt's mule deer, or I only hunt elk.
That's a short season and you're missing a whole lot of the year because there's so many other things. , I'm trying to think right now, I have not bear hunted. . Okay. And I haven't snow goose hunted or [00:41:00] there's a, there's several waterfowl species that I haven't hunted yet. And I'm going for antelope this fall.
Antelope mul deer this fall in Wyoming. If I draw my tag, fingers crossed, I got seven points. Wyoming, if you're listening, draw my number. Please draw my number please. But other than some of the some of the really outlandish species, most of the ones that are available to the average hunter I haven't gone after.
And I love every bit of, I love chasing grouse in Wisconsin and woodcock there and at home. I love Bob White quell hunting. I love hearing beagles chase rabbits. I really enjoy that. And I just wish hunters would support one another. Just because it may not be for you doesn't mean that it's wrong.
There's a saying, Heath that says, just because it's different doesn't mean it's wrong. right now. There are some things that are just wrong. . Okay. And we don't wanna open that can of worms, obviously in the hunting world, that would be Yeah. Poaching or baiting, illegal hunting at night.
, all these kind of things. But or shooting animals outta season or without tags [00:42:00] and all that kind of stuff, which we hear happens all the time. But you may not enjoy it, but that doesn't mean that it, that the guy who does, or gal that does enjoy it is doing something this wrong or unethical.
I'm 59 years old. I get cortisone shots in both shoulders twice a year. I still hunt with my bow and a long bow compound bow. I have a crossbow. I've never killed anything with it. But if it will get me out there, why do I care what you use if it will get you out there so you can enjoy nature and enjoy the lifestyle that we call hunting.
Why do you care what somebody uses? Yeah. . And what I've heard from what you just said is I'm sitting here thinking like it's the love for the outdoors. It doesn't matter what you're doing. And I think about opportunities like where I'm at. I have a lot of different opportunities. I can deer hunt, I can bear hunt, I can, squirrel hunt, deer, Turkey, hunt, bobcat.
I, I can do a lot of different things if I choose to. , bear hunting [00:43:00] consumes a lot of my time cause of the dogs, the dog training. And, that's what people don't see is the amount of time that goes into the dogs itself. Not the hunting part, it's the upkeep, the maintenance, getting those dogs trained.
be able to attract trail tree, catch bay, those tho that game. . So my deer hunt is limiting. Like I said, I hunt for food. Now Turkey hunting's a little different. I spend a little more time with that because that's something that I'm passionate. I love it like . I love it. Which leads me to that next conversation we had and we didn't finish it because we wanted to save it for this is you had listened or seen a video or listened to somebody talk about how we when we have a conflict with another hunter , so for bear hunters, a lot of times when the muzzle loading season's in deer season's usually out the first two weeks of bear season of ta kill season of where you can harvest and then late muzzle loading season come in.
And I have been I have been [00:44:00] subject to several bear being killed in front of my dogs. with people that were not, with me, not hunting with me, had nothing to do with me or my hands. In fact, I'll tell a quick story and like I said, I'm not going to put names out there, but back when we had the old telemetry, not the GPS's, but the teleme Yep.
The beep beeps. Yep. Our dogs had crossed out of a section, crossed a, an old road, and went into a big section of timber forest. And it took us a while to find them. And we finally got up on this high point. We could hear the dog's tree, but it was a lot of little rolling ridges in there.
So it took us a while to get to 'em. And they were tr when we, every time we top up on a null, we could hear him. and then we go through the hollows and the valleys and pop back up. As we got closer, the tri was less and less. And now this is hours, this is not 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes. This was a couple of hours doing this, of finding them to start with, [00:45:00] locating them, actually pinpointing where they were at and then trying to get to them.
When we got in there, the dogs had shut up and we're like, what? What's going on here? So we were tracking and the dogs were up, going up a holler away from us. They're not barking. And we're like, what? What is going on here? As we, and there's snow on too. Okay. So when we got into the holler where they were at, we found the tree that they were treating, and at the bottom of the tree there's a big pool of blood, and then we see drag marks and we see the dog prints following the drag marks.
So we know what's happened. Somebody shot a bear and is dragging it out. And the three or four dogs that we had at that time were following it out. So we start hoofing it up behind those drag marks and up the holler over the next ridge into the next holler. We end up catching up with the individuals that, that done this.
And when we topped up, they were taking sticks and whipping our dogs away from the bear.[00:46:00] And I will tell you that was not a good encounter, . It was not. I definitely imagined it was not. Yeah. You gonna be, you don't whip my dogs number one. Yes. So that's something that most bear hunters, I, we didn't, we wouldn't have cared who killed it if they'd have just waited till we got there and let us tire dogs back, which didn't happen either.
And when you shoot a bear outta the tree, there's always that chance that bear will fall on the dogs if they're not outta the way. Yeah. And then you kill a $5,000 dog, like that's general replaceable. But anyway, you and I had talked about that a little bit. What are some experiences or some advice, or what are some things we can do that we don't have that interaction?
You're, I think if you hunt public ground, you're it's inevitable that you're going to have an interaction. It's, we all have stories who hunt public ground, and I hunt a lot of public ground. I also have private land that I hunt here at home, but when I travel, I hunt public land and, there's been many times [00:47:00] I'm working a Turkey and then y all of a sudden you hear somebody who's a really bad caller, get between you and the Turkey, and they start calling or they start, hooting at it or whatever, trying to get between you and the Turkey.
And there's, in my, and I am not, I want to preface this. I am not an expert on confrontation of other hunters, because here's a couple things that I've learned about that is, first of all they're armed. , that. . And if they're going to do that, if they're gonna cut you off or go kill your animal in front of you, then you already know that they're not very polite, courteous kind of person.
So do you want to, do you want a confrontation? Is it worth getting into a gunfight over a Turkey or a deer or a bear? That's the first thing you have to ask yourself. And only you can answer that question, right? . For me, the answer's always gonna be no. There's always another Turkey.
There's always another deer. There's always another bear. I'm not gonna get into a gunfight with some jerk who decided to cut me off and kill my animal or or do that. There's some basic etiquette that I was actually talking to my son about this [00:48:00] recently. There's some basic etiquette that I think needs to happen, and that is this.
If you are hunting public land and there's like a general parking area, and like me, I hunt a lot of forest land, right? You can't block the gate. , but you can park beside the gate, first. It's a first come first search. If I if I go to my number one spot and there's already a truck there, I'm gonna keep driving and go some, cause I don't know where he is sitting.
That's right. Especially in Turkey season because there's no orange. You're sitting on the ground and I don't want to get shot or shoot somebody accidentally. So I'm gonna go, that's why I have eight or 10 spots. That's why I scout a bunch of different locations. When I go to the next spot, if there's a truck there, I keep on going and I expect the same courtesy that if I get there first and my truck's there and I'll go ahead and head in early, I don't expect to ride a daylight.
And it happens every year, two or three times. Write up daylight. Here comes somebody hoofing it right past your setup. You've already heard him gobel on the limb, he's getting ready to fly down. You're just, and [00:49:00] here comes some jack leg with his light on beating it in there too late. I'm like, dude, what are you doing?
And. , I've confronted people like that. I've said hey, I just get up and walk to too. I'm already here. I got a Turkey, I'm working. Can you go somewhere else? And I do it in a very polite way. Oh, I didn't know where you were. And almost every time they've done that.
Here's a funny thing. On my private land, a few years ago I had my, at the time, 10 year old son with me. And we already, we'd already had our pop-up blind set up, but it was raining. So instead of walking to it, we were gonna drive about halfway driving on my land, okay? On my land. I want you to hear that it's not leased, it's on my land.
There's two, two hundreds walking up our road. This is right at daylight. And he walks up beside me and says, man, what the, using profanities, I'm not gonna do it. What the heck are you doing? I'm like, I think that question needs to go the other way. What are you doing? . [00:50:00] He said, I'm in here trying to hunt turkeys.
I'm trying to get one to Goway. Here you are. Driving through here. I said, do you have permission to be here? He said, yeah. I said who gave it to you? Cause and he just sat there. I said, cause this is my land and I didn't give you permission to be here. So we got two things can happen here. I can call the game warden and we can ruin both of our hunts today.
Or you can get in your truck that I've already passed up there. You can get in your truck and you can leave and never step back here again. I've already got your license tag off your truck and now I know what you look like. This was before camera phones. You just need to leave. And he flew off at me and he was trespassing on my property, opening a day of Turkey season.
. I do think that you should always take the high road and you should be polite and courteous. But I also found that sometimes people are lost. Sometimes they're confused. They really are. It does happen a lot. People, woodsmanship and orientation has been gone for a long time.
Heath, yes. So a lot of [00:51:00] times when you run into somebody, especially on up here in the mountains where I live in South Carolina, where we're all walking, either hiking trails or old logging roads to get to where you want to go. And when you're getting there in the dark, you meant to turn left and you end up passing that without seeing it and you're trying to find it and you gotta wait for it to get daylight.
And they just, I'm sorry, I don't mean to mess you up. I'm trying to find this area. I said, oh, that's the back down over there. So be helpful and courteous. But that's that old Sam though, treat people like you want to be treated. Yeah. If you're there first, you don't wanna be interrupted. So if they're there first, don't interrupt them.
Yeah. And that was, that's a prime example last Turkey season. I, I'm more, I hate hunting National force more and more. Because of the accidents that happened. Like you said, you're on the ground, there's no orange. Some people are oblivious to whether it's a actual hen calling or a person.
But I went to three of my favorite spots and I had all three spots. One, the first spot I went [00:52:00] to there was five vehicles. Five. And I'm like, do they know where each other is at? So I went to another spot and there was ano, it was a vehicle. So I drove on, I went to the last spot. I didn't even, I didn't even hunt that day because yeah, every spot that I went was taken up.
But back to what the original, what we were talking about is, it's been showing a little bit of respect. It's being courteous and treating others like you want to be treated. We're, like I said, nobody owns public land. We all pay for it. Yeah. And . I don't own a leaf on none of those trees.
And I've got to, even though I may be aggravated or frustrated at times, I just got to go on and do something else. And there have been several times that I have passed up the spots that I normally hunt and went to a place that I never hunt and been very successful. Yeah. Yeah. It seems like it pays forward.
One thing that I've been running into more since Covid is hikers. , not other hunters but people who are case and point. Last year I went to one [00:53:00] of my favorite Turkey spots on public land here in the upstate of South Carolina and got there early cuz it's about a, an hour and a half walk to get to where I want to be.
Mostly uphill. You know how the mountains are and uphill both ways. Walking o , walking old logging roads. Yeah. And I finally get up there and I sit down. I always hear two or three turkeys in there. Just gotta figure out where to go. It's a big chunk of national forest land. and I didn't hear anything.
Sometimes turkeys just don't gobble. So I'm I worked a little bit when, probably till about 10 o'clock and I start going back down the mountain and I pass 11 women hiking. Oh yeah. Owned on the road, not on the trail, on the logging road. And I get down to my truck and there's six Subaru Outbacks where they all met.
Yeah, I know. I just thought it was funny. It was all the same car. That's, I just thought that was funny. Yeah. And I was actually thinking about it. Should I put a sign in my thing saying there's a hunter [00:54:00] here, so that they know there's somebody with a gun. Not that I'm just not gonna hurt them, but it may change the direction that they're going or their approach. Or maybe they were there to disturb Turkey hunters. I don't know. I just said, hello ladies, how are you? Cause they were single file Uhhuh , and they didn't, they just said Good morning and just kept on their little walk. And it was. I'm finding more that I'm running into people that are hiking or sightseeing.
As much as I'm walking into other hunters. Cuz in South Carolina, public land is public land. They can use it for anything. Same. Yeah. So I just think, it's just shared. You find a lot more accommodations when I hunt out West public land, Uhhuh, I was elk hunting in Colorado a few years ago and I went to this little spot.
There was a guy sitting there and I walked up. I said, Hey, how you doing? And we just introduced ourselves and he said, I've been seeing elk down here every morning, but I hadn't seen him today, but they've been here the last five mornings [00:55:00] and that's great. I hope you get 'em. He said I gotta go home tomorrow, so if you wanna, this is a good spot.
And I said, man, I don't want, or he had to go home in two days. He, I said why don't you come back here tomorrow? And he was like, no man, man, if you beat me here, it's public land. Go kill 'em. I said, I'm not gonna beat you here because you found the spot first and you've been here for five days.
I'm not gonna take your spot. I did go back after that and I didn't see any help. I did see some really nice mul deer, but it seems out there people are more used to it cuz there's bigger blocks you can you can get away. Pub the public land in the west can swallow up people pretty fast.
Yeah. You can really spread out here in the upstate of South Carolina it is, it's a bunch of little blocks, and so it's it can be a little crowded, but Yeah. I, I think when you encounter people is to try to take the high road, remember that they're armed, you dunno what kind of attitude they're in.
So be polite, be courteous and if. if in doubt back out would be my suggestion. Yeah. It's just not worth it, in my [00:56:00] opinion. It's not worth getting into a fight over a Turkey or a deer or whatever. , just there's go somewhere else, right? Yep. No, I'm, I, yeah, I, it seems like that the confrontations go in spurts, several years without 'em, and then you'll have a year where it's one or two and and we're talking about national force for us in Virginia public land, like what you're saying.
But yeah, just be courteous and try to, like I said, one of our podcast Calvin Redhouse was like, you may beat me here today, but tomorrow I'm gonna be in here earlier for us. Oh, there's, I can tell you opening day at my number one spot up here. I will probably be parked at three 30 in the morning.
Yeah. And I may take me a nap in my truck, but my truck's gonna be there first. Yeah. And I may even, I've done this a lot too, Heath, where I just go ahead and walk into my spot. Cause I, I like to use Turkey chairs. , I walk into my spot and I sit down and I just take a nap until the turkeys wake me up.
That's right. Perfect. I do. [00:57:00] Yeah, I do. But I'm gonna be there for, I probably, I will probably be parked at three 30 in the morning. Yeah. Pete, with the last five or 10 minutes, let's just talk about the Christian part of your podcast and Okay. Your faith and, I know we talked about mine last time.
Let's just, let's roll it over to yours this time. Absolutely. The c as I said earlier, when I did Christian Outdoors, the two things I'm most passionate about is the outdoors and my faith in Christ. And it's something that I just love to talk about and enjoy sharing. We could do this for hours as well, but When I started Christian Outdoors, it started with the enjoying God every day.
As you'll see, that under on my logo, under that it says Enjoying God every day. And that came from being a theologian somewhat. I like to read theology and I was reading the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which was written by the Presbyterian Church in 1620s. And it's a way to, to teach people about God, Christ, the church, everything else.
And question one [00:58:00] in that is what's the chief end of mankind? Which in today's language is what's the meaning of life? Why are we here? What's the purpose of humanity? And the answer is, the chief end of mankind is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And when I read that, Heath it dawned on me and to enjoy him forever.
And I thought, does that mean after we die and we get in heaven, then we can enjoy God? Or should we be enjoying God now? and I realized that I think it means we should start now enjoying God. And I said how? And so it started me on a journey of trying to enjoy God every single day. Like intentionally, not just acknowledging God, not just seeing his beautiful creation.
Not just enjoying the sunrise or the sunset or enjoying the beautiful flowers or, not what he does, but enjoying him in an intimate, personal way. And so I started on this process of beginning every day. This started in 2014, asked myself, Pete, how are you gonna enjoy God today? And granted, there's some days it's [00:59:00] harder cuz you, there's a lot going on.
Are you going to a funeral? Are you going, these things are happening. So how do we do that? And so that is one of the driving things behind my podcast is to encourage the listeners to, to build relationship with God and to intentionally try to enjoy him every day. And so out of this came my book called Do You Enjoy God?
12 steps to enjoying God every day. And it's a step-by-step process, not in order necessarily. Step, step one is the most important. You can't enjoy God without a relationship. You gotta have a relationship with them if you're going to enjoy 'em. It's just like your ch your children, your friends, your spouse, whatever.
You can't really enjoy them in their fullest unless you have a, an intimate relationship with them and understand who they are. So it starts with that. But it and we talk about a lot of different things in that book discovering your gifts, what did God bless me with and how can I use them?
What does it mean to be made in the image of God? And a lot of different topics, but it's important to me [01:00:00] that I try to convey in my podcast and in my speaking events that you are worthy of God's love. Let me rephrase that. None of us are worthy of everything he's done for us. , but in God's eyes, God sees you as, as worth something that he sent his son down.
So that to give you hope and to give you everlasting life, and by accepting relationship with Jesus Christ, then your life can be more valuable and more and more what's the word I'm looking for? It can just be more full. It can be more full. And it's like I've said many times, when we talk about this relationship with God, I think for most believers and even those that are on the fringe, they acknowledge God.
A lot of people may not have a relationship with Christ, but they acknowledge a higher being, right? . So they acknowledge God. They recognize what God's done. They see some of the good that God does in the world. They tolerate God from time to time. But do they enjoy him and do they enjoy him [01:01:00] in an intimate way?
And that's something that's important to me, that I encourage people to. To try to enjoy God and the blessings that he gives us, and to recognize all of them. Every day is a gift. Every single day that we wake up is a gift. And how can I use that to benefit those around me to make their day better, to make their life better?
Because I have seen this heath, when I focus more on enjoying God, my trouble seems small. When my, when I'm intentional about being a blessing to other people, then what I'm going through is irrelevant because my focus is not on me. It's on you. It's on them. It's on him. And when I can do that, then it makes my life so much better.
All of us can improve our relationship with Christ. There's a there. I fell short every day. Paul tells us in the book of Romans that I am the, as Paul says, I'm the worst sinner of all. I fall short all the time, [01:02:00] and I do, and I pray for God's forgiveness and for God's grace to, to cover that.
But the good thing is, the good news is that I don't care what you've done. It's not bad enough. I don't care where you are. There's always a way home that that everything that Christ has done, he's, he has done it for you. And that he wants you to have that relationship with him. He wants you to have the assurance that that you can spend eternity with him and that you can enjoy him now, even before then.
Yeah, I would say that most people probably don't, I'm not gonna say most cuz I don't think that's a fair analogy, but every day's a blessing. , I've got some close friends that have got cancer. That, scares us to death. Family member. [01:03:00] And, every day is a blessing and we should treat it that way.
. . Absolutely. And when I do this a lot of times, and then people will say things like, then why does this happen? Why do, why aren't children get sick? Why do people that we love have cancer and die? Why do the, why do only the good die young? And, I say to them first about that, the last part, why do only the good die young is that the bad people die young too.
We just don't care. , right? Yeah. The, it just feels like that only the good ones die young because we love them and care about them, but the people we don't care about, we don't care when they die. And that's a horrible thing to say, but I think I'm just being blunt and honest with it, right? But we live in a sinful world, right? We are bent to Sinny. There's that old hymn, Lord, forgive my bent to Sinn. We are inclined to, to do things wrong. John Calvin said, one of the greatest theologians of all time said, I sin because I enjoy it. And the more I enjoy it, the more I sin. And the more I sin, the more I enjoy it.
And that's why we have to resist the temptation. Paul tells us, don't let the [01:04:00] devil get a foothold in your life. That we have to fight against all that temptation to, to do exactly what God does not want for us. But if we can focus on him, then all those things they really do. And I'm not trying to, sell the lip here.
I'm being honest. I have lived her cause I've gone through some really dark times in my life. My wife and I lost a child when he was three months old. I've gone through some really dark times in my life and some very difficult times. But what I've seen is that when I focus on God, I know that he is there with me when I put my trust in him.
I see. that he is the reason that I am where I am. As one person said one day, he said, Pete, when you're going through it, it's hard to see where God is. . But it's easy to look back and see where God was. Yeah. And there's so much truth in that is that we overcome so much more than we think we can.
I've been homeless, I've been unemployed, I've had children die. I've had, parents die way too young. I've had a lot of crap happen to me, just like most [01:05:00] people out there. Just because I believe in Christ and put my full trust in him doesn't mean that I'm exempt from heartache.
Cuz the, that is far from true. . But what I am exempt from is having to deal with it alone. . What I am exempt from is the suffering and the intense pain. Knowing that there's someone there who is crying with me and loving me and helping me get through it, and assuring me that the better days are ahead and the blessings of God, just continue to I'm blown away every day, Heath, when I see more and more of what God is doing, as we said in the beginning, I started this podcast in 2019 with absolutely no clue.
I didn't know if I was gonna have one listener or 10, right? . And we muddled along and kept doing it and kept being faithful, and kept trusting and kept being faithful. And God started blessing it. He started blessing that, and we're gonna hit a million subscribers next month.
Think about. , that's overwhelming to pee, by the way. Yeah. That's very overwhelming to think that I have to make sure that [01:06:00] I'm accurate and precise and that I share the good news in a way that can invite people to relationship. But that doesn't mean that it's a million listeners every week.
But it means that at least a million people have heard what we are saying, and that there and that number, once it hits a certain level, you'll see this with yours once it just starts exploding in growth. Exploding this time last year we had 200,000. Nice. So we've added 800,867,000 people in a year.
That's phenomenal. And it's just, yeah. It is. It blows my mind, but it just shows the bigness of God. Yep. And how he is continuing to bless it. Yep. Yeah. Pete, one more thing. Yep. Before I go. Yep. March 4th and fifth, if you're gonna be at the Dixie Deer Classic. in Raleigh, North Carolina.
I'm speaking at Red Oak Baptist Church, which is right outside Raleigh, March 4th at their wild game banquet. And I'm also speaking Sunday morning at their church. So if you're in the area of Raleigh, North Carolina, [01:07:00] March 4th and fifth come out to Red Oak Baptist Church. I'd love to meet you, shake your hand and get a chance to talk with you.
And I'll be speaking there on Saturday night at their wild game banquet and Sunday morning. Yeah. Stop by and see Pete. Pete, like I said I appreciate you coming on and telling us a little bit about your journey. That's what our podcast is called, the Journey. And, this comes to full circle that, we're all in this together.
No matter what you do hunting wise, what game species you pursue, that we're all in it together. We all have a passion for what we do. And , I'll take that verse, do onto others as other you want others to do onto you and I have to do better at that myself.
That's something that I have to work on. But it I have, I'm blessed that you, we have crossed paths and, being able to talk and run into each other and I feel like that's gonna continue. Yeah. [01:08:00] Hope yeah, hope so. You gonna come up and bear hunt and now you gonna, you gotta remind me, man, cuz you know how this fall season and I'm in the road a lot.
If if I don't get drawn from antelope tag, I'll be in Wisconsin, chase grouse in October, and then I'll , in November. I'm usually either, either in Kentucky or here in Saline or Tennessee hunting and, but yeah. I think you said it's December. December, yep. Yep. December. And you can musky fish after Turkey season.
So we're, send me the dates of when your bear season is, and I'll go ahead and put it in my calendar so I don't cross it up. I'll do it. All right. But guys, if if you enjoy what you're listening to and you want to hear more of our podcast, do us a favor. Listen to it, send it to a friend, pass it on, and get them learning or listening to stuff that they're passionate about.
Like I said, especially us here at Hessman xp we want you to pay it forward or pass it forward, and I'm sure Pete feels the same way. Pete, absolutely with [01:09:00] every, the end of every podcast, we think it. Thank you for helping us teach, train, or learn. Thank you for l helping us learn about your journey and what you're passionate about.
, thanks for having me, ma'am. Absolutely.
