Chatting w/ Ike Eastman

Hey everyone, welcome to episode 179 of the Antler Up Podcast!

On this week's episode I was joined by the one and only Ike Eastman.  The President of Eastmans’ Publishing, host of Beyond the Grid and Eastmans Journal Podcast.  What a fun conversation I had with Ike and a chance for not only myself but all of you listening to hear a quick family history of how Eastmans Hunting Journal started out and a ton more!!

Kicking this episode off, Ike introduces himself and gives a quick family back story from when his grandfather began the business and how it has grown into what it is today. From beginning with creating films shown in school theaters to magazines to what we are consuming today!  Ike shares how adapting over time has also helped him adapt in certain situations when it comes to preparing for a hunt or during a hunt.  Ike shares his daily inspiration and other personal improving stories.  From here we get into what Eastmans has in store.  They just released TagHub 2.0 that is partnered with Spartan Forge!  This tool has all new updated features and Ike shares how this tool can help hunters be more efficient and understand the process of coming out west to be better hunters.  There are also videos, blogs, and courses that are available on the new version.  We get into some new hunts that we will get a chance to watch here soon on his show Beyond the Grid and discuss his goals with his podcast moving forward!  It was truly an honor to have Ike on the show and I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did!  Check it out and let us know what you think!  Enjoy this fun episode and see you next week! 

Thanks again for all the support and best of luck out there and Antler Up!

Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant outdoor content!

Jeremy Dinsmore: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Antler Podcast, brought to you by tethered the world's best saddle honey equipment, and we have a fun show for you all today. What's up everybody? On this week's episode, I was joined by the one and only Ike Eastman, the president of Eastman's Publishing hosts of Beyond the Grid and Eastman's Hunting Journal podcast.

What a fun conversation I had with Ike and a chance for not only myself, but all of you listening to really hear a quick family history of how Eastman's Hunting Journal started out and a whole lot more. Kicking this episode off. Ike introduces himself and gives a quick family backstory from [00:01:00] when his grandfather began the business and how it has grown into what it is today.

From beginning with creating films shown in school theaters to magazines to what we are consuming today, Ike shares how adapting over time has helped him adapt in certain situations when it comes to preparing for a hunt or during a hunt, and also his business. Ike shares his daily inspiration and other personal improving stories that I think we all could learn from.

From here, we get into what Eastman's has in store this upcoming year and beyond. They just released Tag Hub 2.0. This is also partnered with Spartan Forge. This tool has all new updated features and iShares how this tool can help hunters be more efficient and really understand the process of coming out west to be better hunters.

There are also videos, blogs, and courses that are available on this new version. We get into some new hunts that we will get a chance to watch here soon on His Beyond the Grid Show and discuss his goals with this podcast moving forward. It was truly an honor to have icon and I [00:02:00] thoroughly enjoyed this conversation.

I hope you do as much as I did. Check it out and let me know what you think. Enjoy this fun episode everybody. Aunt Laura up

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What's going on, everybody? We're live. And on today's show I'm joined by president of Eastman's Publishing. Overseas Eastman hunting tv, as well as the host of the Eastman's Journal podcast. Ike Eastman. Ike, pleasure having you on today. How are you doing? Good.

Ike Eastman: Very good, Jeremy. Thanks for having me on.

It's finally spring here in Wyoming. It's a beautiful day, so I'm in a good mood today. It's fun. It's a good time when your grass is starting to get green and we had a beautiful thunderstorm last night and so yeah. Good stuff. Thanks for

Jeremy Dinsmore: having me. Oh, man. It's a great pleasure having you on and a thunderstorm here in Pennsylvania right now We are.

It's June 7th. So by the time this airs, I'm not sure. Hopefully by then we will have seen rain, because [00:04:00] it seems like it's been non-existent for the last three, four weeks. It's crazy.

Ike Eastman: If it's if the weather's, if our patterns are the same, which usually they're close you'll get one in about two weeks from here.

There's, we've been getting thunderstorms every night and, getting probably, we probably have had an inch of rain in the last two weeks, which is a lot for us, considering our whole brain content, moisture content for a whole year. Seven inches. Wow. Where I live, so we live in a high desert.

Yeah,

Jeremy Dinsmore: That is not a very lot. What's going on, man? What's new with you? You got a lot going on with Eastman's tag Hub two 2.0, which we'll get into. But I guess before we dive right into things, obviously me being in Pennsylvania on the East coast, I got a lot of listeners that do come out west, but.

Yep. Maybe some other listeners that don't, I guess give a, that elevator speech of who you are and where you're coming from, man. Yeah.

Ike Eastman: I'll start with the family. I'm third generation in the outdoor industry. My grandfather, Gordon Eastman started filming in Alaska [00:05:00] in 1957.

And he was filming wildlife without audio. It was just video and, or it was film back then, and they, he'd bring it down to lower 48 and he would live, narrate it like the high school auditorium and stuff to hundreds of people. In fact, I still get guys, 70 year old guys that walk up to me and say, man, I watched your grandfather when I was a kid.

I watched some of that stuff and he's really the one that inspired me to start hunting and start, enjoying the outer doors like I do now. I've passed that on to my kids and my grandkids. It's really fun. But he started doing that in 1957. He started and then he was making theatricals in the sixties and seventies.

Did some filming. He did a lot of wildlife filming for Walt Disney. And then in the eighties the video store started spraying up for those that don't know blockbuster, that stuff. There was a video store in every little town and you would walk in on a Friday night and you'd rent, you'd rent lethal weapon or you would rent Eastman's and take it home and watch it.

And they were selling [00:06:00] these theatricals, I think there was 13 of them to all these video stores. And my dad was helping my grandfather do that. My dad, to start him off was, he grew up, we, he grew up in Wyoming here and loved the outer doors, loved taking photos, loved hunting.

And he became a specialist in mule deer hunting, actually. He just absolutely loved that. During high school and then got outta high school, had not a lot of direction. He guided for one of the old time outfitters for one year. And then basically got told, listen, you're gonna do something kid. The military might be for you.

And so he went into Vietnam and spent two tours there. Did some crazy stuff. Was a door gunner and special ops. He actually got kicked out of, he had a top secret clearance cuz he got kicked out of nuclear demolition school. Wow. Because he asked the question of wait a minute. You taught us how to set the bomb.

You've taught us how to, where to put it, all this stuff, but you never taught us how to get out of there. [00:07:00] And the guy goes, you're asking too many questions. Basically, meaning there is no exit plan for you. Yeah. Back. Enjoy the show. So they dumped him into just regular infantry and he became a door gunner and a bunch of other stuff, but got out of Vietnam.

And he started outfitting in Jackson. And him and his brother owned two camps and they took tons and clients on mule Deer was a specialty, but they'd hunt deer and elk and all this stuff. Fast forward to the eighties the outfitting business changed. Jackson Hole became, it used to be a sleepy little town that, was literally one of the cheapest counties.

Most he always says this, it was one of the most Poorest counties in Wyoming and one of the poorest counties out west, cuz there was nothing to do in the winter. There was no way to make a living there. And so they built ski hills. In the eighties it took off, that's when Harrison Ford moved there and all these actors and stuff.

And he was building houses and went broke during the housing bubble at [00:08:00] 87. And so he started helping my grandfather sell these films all over the west. In fact, he's probably been to the town that you live in. He's, there is not a little town, especially in Pennsylvania that he has not been in. And so he was sitting at the Harrisburg show, actually, he was pedalling these videos and he kept getting guys coming up to him, asking him, to find out he was from out west.

And they'd ask him how, how do I wanna hunt elk or I wanna hunt deer, I wanna go out west. I just literally want to do this. And so he just put together a free frequently asked question sheet so that he could hand this to these guys. And then they'd get out of his booth. He could sell more videos.

The sheet turned into a two-page sheet, which turned into what is what was known as Mike Eastman's outdoorsman. It was a newsletter, yeah. That then turned into Eastman's Hunting Journal. So in 1987, The outdoorsman was started and then he, moved us into the, I guess the flagship, which is Eastman's Hunting Journal, which still today does the same thing.

It just helps guys learn how to [00:09:00] hunt out west to become better hunters who have a whole section in the back of it, which we call the M R s, which is members research section, which we'll discuss that cuz that's really what started Tag Hub. But then in 1999 he started the Bow hunting Journal.

So Eastman's Bow Hunting Journal. And then in 2000 he started the TV show on the outdoor channel. And it's went forward. Then in two, in 2003 my parents don't have high school edu. They just have high school education. In fact, if you ask my dad, he'd say, I don't even have a high school education.

I was a half a credit short and they didn't want me anymore. So they kicked me out, gave me diplomas. Go to the military kid. Yep. The business was starting to grow to a size that they needed some help, some professional help. And I was at the time, I graduated in 2001 from the university here in Wyoming.

And I was a banker, I was actually a credit analyst. Okay. And so all of the loans, if you go into the bank and do a loan, there's actually some guy in a cubicle somewhere that's tearing apart all your [00:10:00] financials and everything and analyzing them and then giving it to loan officers and saying, yeah, I think we can do this.

Anyway, that was me. And so I did that for a number of years for one of the big banks out here. And so I had a lot of financial knowledge and a lot of I also worked on the marketing team for that just cuz my mind works that way. And so he called me and said, Is there any way you could come back and help us go to the next step, take this to the next level, and how do you say no to your parents, number one.

Number two, it's a family business. That's like my little brother. Yeah, sure, I guess I'll, take this hiatus and do this. And so in 2003 I came back and started running the company for him. And my brother was already here and he was running all the creative stuff. He's really creative and a hell of a hunter himself.

And so then, In 2008, my parents they got to certain age, they're like we need to do something with this and we're either gonna sell it to you guys or we're gonna sell it to someone else. And so my brother and I put a plan together to buy it from him. And then in [00:11:00] 2000 16 I bought it, but bought my brother's shares out as he's still with us and still consults, but he doesn't do the day-to-day stuff.

He, people don't realize how old he is. He's significantly older than I am I won't tell the number cause he would die. Cause he does, he looks about a third that age. But so I bought it in 2016 and I'm running it. So in 2010 after we purchased it, I was seeing, we had went through a market bubble pop and people were going, oh, print's dead.

And, the traditional media's dead. And so I started transitioning. It came to the conclusion that. The information that we have is still solid information. It's just how we deliver it needs to change because people are consuming it different ways. They're consuming it via emails, they're consuming versus blogs.

YouTube was a, a brand new thing. Yeah. People were consuming the same things, just different ways through different medias. And so I transitioned the company into this more of a digital [00:12:00] world and started our YouTube channel as 250,000 subscribers. And I think it's, 170 million views or some crazy thing.

And we started the online email presence in a digital version of our magazine. We still do the printed version. Guys love that. When they get it in the mail, it's, something concrete, something they can touch, feel, turn their phone off, ignore the kids and read full article. So we still do all the traditional stuff, but we also have the digital.

And then in 2017 or 18, I I, Scott Riekers, who you know, works with me and he came to me and said, Hey one of our staff writers, Brian Barney, who's a hell of a hunter, started a podcast. I go, what is a podcast? I don't, a podcast. And he explains that. I go, oh, so it's like radio? He goes, no, it's a podcast.

I'm like, But it's just like radio. But you're delivering it different way. He goes okay. Yeah, you're right. It's just a talk show. You're right. It's just a talk show. Yeah. I said let's try this. And Brian came down and we worked struck a deal and. [00:13:00] Started the podcast now we have six of 'em.

We have Eastman Elevated, which is the flagship. His we have a Predator Pros. Eastman's Predator Pros is all predator hunting. We have Western Huntsman, which Jim does a really good job in tackling issues like the big hoer crossing type issues. Yeah. He's, he really is trying to get somebody from the wolf activist group to get on his podcast and argue about wolves.

That's what, something that he was trying to do. And then of course, my podcast, which is Eastman's podcast edition, and that's where I interview guys like you and just find out where you came from and what makes you tick and. Try and get some knowledge out of you that my audience or an audience would be interested in and learn something.

Then we have a Wingman podcast, which is all wing shooting, upland game waterfowl, that stuff. Todd does a really good job with that and the online series video series. And he's done some really cool things. He got a puppy here a couple years ago, and so he documented training the dog.

Yeah. To where the dog is amazing now. We actually drove down to [00:14:00] Mississippi and picked the dog up and did a road trip. It was cool. So yeah, that's, that was not the elevator speech unless we were No, that's perfect. Entire state building. Dude, I'll tell you

Jeremy Dinsmore: What the one word as you're saying all this, that I'm thinking about and then I think really molds the individual that you are, the pr, the type of business that you run.

And I would go out on a limb and say, the type of hunter you are, you're able to adapt. Because it started, like you said, with your grandfather in the fifties, in the sixties, and the, and it kept building, you had to adapt to the times of what's happening. Yes. And it's not a easy thing to do, especially.

Like you're doing for the banking, is this person, am I giving him a loan or is she alone that's gonna change your life for the positive? Or is it gonna really hinder them the way they live? So that probably, that word of being able to adapt is something that you're pretty, pretty good at.

Ike Eastman: I dunno if we're pretty good at it, but[00:15:00] it, it comes from the survivalist, right? Yeah. If you're just trying to survive, you have to adapt and overcome whatever situation you're in. And you have to be able to surround yourself with people that will do that with you. Cuz a lot of people resist change.

And I'm here to tell you we change this organization constantly. We were, we had a conversation about an hour ago. This whole AI thing scares me as a mid forties. This whole thing scares me. I. But I sat back last night as I was watching the thunderstorm and I said, what would my 25 year old version of me do?

And I would embrace it because it is, there is positives to it. There is some opportunities inside that technology that we can take advantage of as humans. Hopefully it never goes to the point where, Terminator, right? The movie Terminator does. But there is some opportunities and if you don't adapt and utilize them, someone else is gonna do it.

And when they do, That just puts you further and further behind on, on the the food line. And so [00:16:00] we're gonna do some stuff with ai, which will be fun. Small at first, cuz the other thing about adapting is you don't do big things quick. You do small things slowly and they turn out to be big things.

I didn't do all the podcasts at once. We started with one to make sure that people still listen to the radio just got delivered to their phones.

Jeremy Dinsmore: Oh yeah. Yep. It's crazy to see how podcasts develop because even as a podcaster myself, I go through phases where I'll drive the work and even to this day, there's only a few that I still listen to as far as hunting goes.

And it's on, it's not because I don't like them, it's because. I also don't want to put something in my brain where I regurgitate something. Yes. I want to try to keep it as original as possible. So that's my thought process. I'll listen to more of like self-improvement or a Rogan podcast here and there, depending on the guest and just just random stuff or honestly I'll drive over to Mountain cause I have to drive about a half hour to [00:17:00] work, not now in the summer, daily.

Sometimes I drove in silence, that's where I'm thinking, I'm brainstorming, doing things of okay, this is what I need to get done today. Here's my mental checklist and whatever else. Yep. That's that's the way I process things with

Ike Eastman: that. I drive a we of course, living on West, you drive a lot, right?

We live. A hundred miles from the nearest big department store of any size. So we drive a lot out here and my wife laughs. She goes, do you wanna listen to the radio? I was like, oh, I'm sorry. All the voices in my head were talking. I could, I don't know if I could fit the radio in there. That's

Jeremy Dinsmore: so

Ike Eastman: funny.

That is good.

Jeremy Dinsmore: Ike, let me ask you this question before we dive into some more specific things about what you have going on. What's your daily inspiration?

Ike Eastman: Honestly, my daily inspiration I'm a God-fearing and I am a big Christian. And so my daily inspiration is the world around me, honestly.

And cuz I believe that there's nothing new under the sun, but what you can do is look at the world around you and [00:18:00] find peace and joy in the things that are around you. If it's my kids playing in the yard with their four h animals, or if it's, horses feeding across the my pasture or if it's a thunderstorm last night or whatever, and just ins understanding number one, that you're little that this isn't about me, this is about everything, right?

And understanding that there's beauty in everything and joy in everything, and that there is opportunity constantly around you. No matter what you do or who you're with, you can learn somebody something from everyone, and you can learn something from everything. If you're just watching. Last night before the thunderstorm, I was watching this Cottontail Rabbit and.

I think she has little ones now because the way she was feeding and she was taking stuff back in, into the bar, the barberry bushes and I feel like that rabbit has littles in there. Yep. Just watching how she was, working her little tail off for that. Literally [00:19:00] take the

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It was fun.

Ike Eastman: Yeah, just get

Jeremy Dinsmore: inspired around. Yeah, I like that. And so to build upon that, We're just saying, I driving to work and you have run your business, we have these routines. And I feel like for me, I have my in school routine, I have my summer routine where I try to accomplish things throughout the day.

What does that routine possibly look like for you? And where does that then translate into [00:20:00] developing to be ready for hunting season, if that makes sense. Yeah.

Ike Eastman: So my routine's pretty unique in the sense of the people that are surround me. But I work out three times a week and so I get up at four in the morning and I go work out.

Because in the summers especially. But I don't change that in the winter. But in the summers we live in a beautiful place. Lots of recreating opportunities. So between Memorial Day and Labor Day, we change our work schedule. We work four tens, four 10 hour days, so that we have three day weekends so that you can actually go camping and spend three nights instead of two nights.

And, you get to spend three full days up there if you want to. And so I wake up four and I work out. And then which usually is a strength training. I don't do a ton of cardio cause I'm getting to the age that my joints don't do that real well. I've had back surgery and I've had major knee surgery and it just, this western lifestyle is not fitting for joints.

I'm [00:21:00] telling you. Yeah. The doctor told me when he did my knee, he goes, yep, you'll, I'll be seeing you in 10 years. I was like, what? He goes, you're near a new knee. I was like, oh my gosh. He goes, you've, you have 25% of your knee left. You have a 60 year old's knee. Yeah. Wow, that's fun cuz the other one hurts worse than this one.

So that's cool. Yeah. But so we'll do that and then come. Usually I. I depending on if it's winter or summer, if my kids are in school, I love to take my kids to school. One of my favorite things of every day is if I'm home, I get, 20 minutes in the truck with my two daughters and we have some of the best conversations in that 20 minutes.

I wouldn't give that up for the world. So I take them to school, drop 'em off, and then I come to work and usually between their school and our office, I usually call somebody. I have a string of people that we talk early in the morning and so I, my, my team teases me cuz they'll see me sitting in the parking lot in my truck for an hour just sitting there idling talking to whomever it is.

Yeah. [00:22:00] And and some of my guys would be like, oh, how was, how was Michael today? Or how was Amigo Fred? Or, all that stuff. So then after that, usually we'll have, meetings. I'm in a lot of meetings throughout the day, just. Collaborating and a, we have a ton of brainstorming sessions that are usually impromptu.

And so I have a really good team that's around me, that is way smarter than I am, way more camp capable than I am, and they do really good work, and it's fun to just be in, in those meetings and watch them do what they do really good. So yeah. So then after work, I, there's a couple things that I do that are fun.

Once a week, if I'm home and I'm able, we go over to my brother and I go over to my dad's house. Nice. And I'll bring a 12 pack of beer and we'll sit there for a couple hours. And he loves to, because he was in the industry for so long, he just lo he doesn't wanna work in it, but he loves the buzz of it, what's going on in the industry, what's, who's this and what's that?

What's the, what's, whatever happened to this story or that person or whatever is [00:23:00] going on in the industry, the big Cabela's cell or. Mergers, acquisitions, all that stuff. Yeah. He loves, just loves the buzz. And so I go over and get him caught up to speed and we get to spend time because I, one thing I've learned is watching my grandfather is those days are, they're numbered.

And being able to spend the time and not only just have the relationship but gain knowledge from him and gain his understanding or his perspective on stuff is huge. And it's very important to surround yourself with smart people. But don't forget the people that were that, that you are on their shoulders, that you will, that built this industry.

Those guys have a ton of in information that. The 25 year old me wouldn't listen to, but the 45 year old me goes, that's probably pretty wise. Yeah. So then we, so that's, that's I do that once a week if I'm home. I spend a lot of time outside. We, my wife and I own a a nice place.

Lots of acreage and we have lots of animals and we're always killing weeds or whatever it is. And so I spend a lot of [00:24:00] time, working outside because that gives me peace. And if you're office dweller, one of the things that I struggle with so if you're an office dweller, I apologize, but one of the things I struggle with is, we're an outdoor company, but we are in an office a lot.

Yeah. So get out outside and do something. We do fun things with our team. We'll take 'em like a couple of years ago, I bring up field Craft. So they, what they do, Mike Glover and his team put on classes and so I bring them up and they did, we did a whole day with my entire team and we did a pistol class.

So everybody, yeah, everybody got to shoot a pistol. There's people that had never shot a pistol to guys that do it every day, that. Just love that. And it was really fun to watch. I. A team not only just, hang out and be together, but learn something. And it was fun to watch some of these people that had never, there's some gals in our office that had never ever shot a pistol, completely freaked out, scared about the whole situation, willing to do it, but scared about it.

And they [00:25:00] were comfortable enough. And the team, glover's team put 'em through the paces and by the end of the day, they were, shooting targets and moving and gunning and diving and the whole competition. And one of the gals actually won it who had never shot a gun before.

That's amazing.

Jeremy Dinsmore: It was fun. She couldn't develop any

Ike Eastman: bad habits. No, she had no bad habits. Exactly. Was, had a ton of them. Yeah. So that's right. That's absolutely right. So there's stuff like that we do on a daily basis. And of course there's always there's always time for my kids and my wife, we, and enjoy dinner together.

One of the things that we try and do at least three or four times a week is sit down and eat and have a meal and talk about days and find out that my oldest is in seventh grade, so there is a pile of drama. She's a girl. So there's a pile of drama that surrounds her and I get to find out all the gossip, who's doing what and shouldn't be.

Jeremy Dinsmore: Exactly. So you've been able, you've been around some amazing people, let alone just in, in your family. So yeah you have that opportunity. You have the opportunity of [00:26:00] meeting other people within the industry and outside of the industry when it comes to business stuff. You know what?

Like when you think of the successful people, whether at one point they were extremely successful and something maybe happened or continuously run a successful business or whatever, adventure. What are some of these common characteristics that these individuals have?

Ike Eastman: Yeah. So have you ever heard of Dave Ramsey?

Yep. Okay. So I'm a huge Dave Ramsey fan. I've I've done his personal plans since oh five. I run my business the way he runs his business. I've been to his conferences. I was two, one of his first master classes ever. Okay. Met him three or four times. He always says this, that if the key to success, and I added to this, but he, the key to success is making more good decisions than bad decisions.

And I added not only is it good decisions and bad decisions, but learning from the bad decisions and not repeating [00:27:00] them. Successful people do that because you're gonna fail. That happens every day. You're gonna struggle, you're gonna fail. But learning from that failure and not repeating it is huge in success.

Also when you're making decisions, when you're trying to make tho those good decisions get very wise counsel people that. That have been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt. I don't take diet advice from fat people. I'm sorry. Yep. That doesn't work. So get good wise counsel so that you can make those good decisions.

The other thing that you know, really successful people do is they understand their strengths and their weaknesses, and they find people that fill those weaknesses and they build people around them that fill those weaknesses and that sharpen those strengths. Does that make sense? 100%.

Jeremy Dinsmore: I like that.

We'll transition in into what Eastman what you have going on with tag [00:28:00] 2.0 and everything like that. Before we do that, though, you've been around some great hunters. You went on some awesome hunts with individuals. Who build like the ultimate Hunter, like whole characteristics. Who's the your best glassing individual?

Who's your best long range shot? Who's your best archer? Who's your Be best tracker? What are some of those characteristics that you could think of building that ultimate hunter? Yep.

Ike Eastman: You can't, there's no way to cheat experience, correct? Yep. Correct. Typically that Ultimate Hunter is in his fifties and you go fifties, but why wouldn't they be in their sixties or seventies?

Because of the life cycle of a hunter, by the time they get in their mid fifties or mid sixties to early seventies, they've they've lost their, they've lost their edge, if you will. They don't have the killer instinct like they did. They can't see, like they used to. They can't hear like they used to.

They can't move like they used to. So I'd say that 50 to [00:29:00] 55 is the pinnacle. Because they have a ton of data points they've hunted for a number of years, they have a ton of data points, which gives you instinct. All instinct is thousands and thousands of experiences that your mind can sort out and put in a situation and make a decision based on those experiences.

So he knows how to glass. He knows that this time of day, at this weather, at this altitude, he has all these data points cuz he's been there, done that, bought the t-shirt and he can, he, so he knows where to glass, he knows how to glass. He knows if it's pointless. If they need to move, if he need to wait.

How, how many sits do you wait before you leave? He can judge. If he sees something, he can judge. That was, that I just got a glimpse of it. But that's a one 50 buck versus a 180 buck. All those things he can do really fast. He's a competent shot.

He's very understanding his gear because he's been through generations of [00:30:00] gear to find the right stuff that works for him. And it may not be the stuff that works for me, but it works for him. His body type, his size, whatever. I tell a funny story. There's a guy in our office named Todd. He's our wingman guy.

And I will be freezing my tail off in a tent, in a sleeping bag with all my puffy layers on top of me, or I'm wearing them and he's laying there on top of his sleeping bag with nothing on, but a smile. And I go, I, how do you do that? He goes I don't know. It's just the Norwegian in me, weirdo.

But, so each person is slightly different. So you have to understand that. So this guy is competent with his gear. He understands his weapon and how far he's competent with that and killzone and power, he's not gonna take the 130 yard shot with his bow cuz he is not confident that's, he's not comfortable with that shot.

He's he's the type of guy that has spent the time and the outer doors. And so he can tell you we have this joke in our family. One of the things that we did on traveling is my dad would constantly ask us [00:31:00] things like, Hey, when do porcup, Hey there's a porcupine. When do they rut? And so we would have to figure out, and it would take us hours to figure out picking his brain.

Yeah. Without him telling us the answer when they run. Or certain things like, Hey, what river is this? Oh, this is just shown. Okay. What ocean? Tell me how it gets from here to what ocean. And we'd have to go through, it goes from here to the Yellowstone, to the Yellowstone, Mississippi or Missouri and Missouri, Mississippi, all in Gulf, Mexico, all that stuff on every, and I'm not talking rivers.

They'd do it with creeks. Yeah. Which was fun. Cause we grew up in a place where we were on the continental divide, there's literally a place called Two Oceans Pass, where this creek. Splits. You get to this point where the creek splits in half. One is called Atlantic Creek, one's called Pacific Creek, and they both go, one goes to the Atlantic and one goes to the Pacific.

And so we lived in a really weird place. You had to know. Yeah. It wasn't always the same ocean. Yeah. But so he understands wildlife, he understands, his prey and he knows what they're doing at that time of year. He understands, [00:32:00] deer do this now, or they, the elk will be doing this, or it's late season and we haven't had the snow.

So I need to, adjust how I'm hunting, where I'm hunting and just being an outdoorsman, being able to survive out there if things go sideways and they often do. Being able to build a fire in a rainstorm, being able to, find shelter and if you lose your shelter or whatever, being able to survive a couple nights out there without anything.

Yeah, that I'm sure I could go on and on. This would be a two hour podcast with a perfect hunter, and he looked just he just looked like Hunter Dan from Walmart.

Jeremy Dinsmore: I like it. No, that's awesome. Ike. So that's a perfect transition, man. To what what could get really into the nitty gritty of things.

Tag Hub 2.0 just launched some really cool new updated features from the original one. So I guess we could start that off with what is it for listeners of, depending on what it is, because man, I'm telling you there's a lot of unknown for especially us individuals coming from a major whitetail eastern side of [00:33:00] things when they, we want to come out west.

I know, like I said a couple years ago when I did, I engulfed everything just because I wanted to be prepared, like you said. And and even though you think you are, you're not right. Especially that first trip. That's why I'm eager to get it back out there. Talk to us, let us know what Tag two point Tag Hub 2.0 is, and really where you would like to see it go and all the features that, that it's packed with.

Yeah.

Ike Eastman: So I'm gonna give you a little history lesson and then we'll talk about what 2.0 means. So back in the early two thousands or late nineties, actually, one of the questions that would my dad would constantly get from subscribers or hunters is, I'm trying, I'd like to come out west, but I don't understand the tag process.

Our tag process out west is unique in the sense of the way our game is managed. It's still the North American model, but the way that they manage hunting and who gets to hunt and [00:34:00] where and when is all broke into areas or units and they, you can apply for these units and you get, so only so many people get tagged.

So that's how they manage, the loss or the the death portion of this conservation. And, there's over counter options. There's places that are harder to draw and easier to draw all these things. And there's, I think there's a hundred and 130, I think I know there's 160 antelope units in Wyoming alone.

Wow. And then and they do the same thing with each species. And every state does it slightly unique. And so there, it's very confusing. There is a ton of information, but it's not readily available because the states don't make it readily available for whatever reason, if it's on purpose or not. I don't know.

That's never been determined. But all this information is out there, but it's hard to get ahold of and it's hard to disseminate the distill down to where to get the information that, that you need because your [00:35:00] interest, your wants, needs and interest are unique to you. Are you wanting an elk hunt?

And what does that mean? Do you wanna just shoot a cow? Do you wanna shoot just a bull? Do you wanna shoot a branch outta the bull? Do you wanna shoot a six point bull? Do you wanna shoot a 400 class bull? Those are all different unique people. And so my dad started this thing called the m mrs, which is the members research section.

My wife for the first three years of us married, she thought it was the MRS section. It's not for the ladies. It could be for the ladies, but it's not specifically for ladies. So the Mrs it took each state and we broke down and tried to distill that information so that you could consume it and come to a logical I guess idea of what is gonna work for you and how to work.

And as you transition from Abeginner Hunter to a seasoned hunter those things change constantly. And as you build points. And then they developed this thing called the point system. So if you don't draw this year, you get two points next year. And each [00:36:00] state does that differently, right?

There's states like Nevada that you just, you know, you square your points and then there's states like Idaho, where the over the counter, you have to be present to buy it or online at the right time to do it. And then there's states like New Mexico, they're just completely random draw that's, we don't care.

You, it doesn't matter what you did last year you're interested in a random pool this year. So then he built this in the back of the magazine. It was a supplement that only went to the subscribers, the members, the stuff on the newsstand didn't get, they didn't get the Mrs. And It's went through a couple changes and when my brother came on board in 2000, he changed it again and it got, he's he's an engineer by trade and so he got very analytical with it and made it, tables and charts and color codes and, blue chips and yellow chips and all this stuff.

And then during this digital transition that we had in 2010, 2012, I said, we gotta change this. This information has gotta be online. And so we've tried a couple versions of that. We worked with a couple [00:37:00] competitors mapping companies, not competitors of ours, but different mapping companies to, to get those as overlays and layers.

And it never really worked because the information, when you hand that information, those code or those charts and stuff to a coder, to somebody that runs databases, their mind gets blown. Cuz every state's different. You can't build one database, one. Scenario for all the data because the data is slightly tweaked to slightly different for every state.

So we did it on our own with a company that could build the maps for us and color code. And then they built, it was called tag Hub and it was online and it was pretty good for the day, which is scary cause it was only like four years, five years ago. But technology changes so fast, right?

Yeah. So we started working with mapping companies and trying to get it as a layer. We found Spartan Forge, which I'm sure you're familiar with those guys. Yes. Those guys are data [00:38:00] geeks. My gosh, the stuff that they use, what they do with whitetail is insane. Yes. How they're predicting movements and all that.

All that stuff. And it came, they came from the military. Those guys were doing this with terrorists for decades. Yep. Terrorists not much different than a whitetail and or mule deer or elk or whatever. And so we got together with them and we were able to use their skills and they're able to use our data and we came and it's been a year in the making, almost the exact day.

In fact, those guys are coming out here next week to sit down with us and talk about what the next step is. Wonderful. But it's taken almost a year to build this, but it is layers and they're map mapping software. You can upgrade your subscription. To an Eastman's tag hub elite membership. And so if you wanna hunt out west, you can sort the data and you can put layers on it and it color codes, certain areas.

And in each one of the states it's unbelievable. It is very intuitive [00:39:00] and the ability to save your searches. So you go, okay, I disseminated all this information down. I save it and call it, Ikes Wyoming elk strategies. And then I do it again two years, two years goes down the road and I finally draw it.

I can go back to that search and see, okay, what was I thinking back there? I did all that information. It's not gone. They, so they have that, they also have a ton of really neat stuff that's coming down the pipe. I'm sure you're aware of it, but neat stuff. And so I. We were able to work with them.

It's just launching now. We soft launched it with our elite members to find some of the bugs, cuz you'll always find bugs in it. And it will be, full on by the middle of July. It's gonna be full on mobile ready. You'll be able to clip down the highway, click on your Eastman tag hub layer and see what area you're driving by for antelope.

And if you have enough points to draw it, that's wonderful. So yeah, it's just helping hunters become better hunters and giving them the information they need to, for them to [00:40:00] take that trophy of a lifetime. Having an unbelievable experience. Spartan

Jeremy Dinsmore: Forge stands at the nexus of machine learning and whitetail deer hunting to deliver truly intuitive and science space products that saves the hundred time spent scouting, planning, and executing their hunts.

You have deer prediction, journaling, and the best maps on any hunting app platform there is. Use code antler up to save 20% off your Smart and Forge membership at Spartan Forge. Dot ai. Yeah. It makes things a lot more efficient. Yes. And that like for someone like myself or anybody that is debating on, like I said, I have friends that.

Are diehards, they usually go out every year or they rack up a lot of points for every year to, to go for that, special mem hunt that they want to do in the next couple years. They have spreadsheets. Ike, they got it all. Yeah. Yeah. Like they, they have that process and this kind of will help simplify things and keep things in that location.

But like you said, like I was messing around with it earlier of just the area that I've, [00:41:00] I went to just seeing how Yeah. What it looks like and it's some really cool things and I just like though that it's like a one-stop shop for, being able to learn, listen, watch, and then apply things on that physical map.

So it's like a nice central hub to grow as a hunter and learn. Yeah. Even if, next year or this year is not the year you plan on going, but even two years from now, you could be a student of the game to, be prepared for your

Ike Eastman: trip. And it also has things in there.

If you're an elite member of Tag Hub it has things in there so that it say two years down the road you draw that deer tag that you, that mule deer tag you've been waiting for? We have an online mule deer course, so it's A to z how to hunt mule deer. And we talked to, guy and Dan and Brian do an amazing job.

I'm even in there. I'm I don't know what, I don't have a lot of information in there, but they talk a ton of stuff on like wear to glass, the gear that you should use. The strategy on stocking and rack bracketing. So you, when you get there, when you get that tag that you've [00:42:00] been waiting for, you have all the tools necessary.

Yeah. To actually make that a successful hunt. We do, as a elite member, you get a ton of blog content that we're putting, producing every week on stuff that only they get. We're doing, all of our video content, they get a month early so they can watch, the, beyond the grids that most, that aren't gonna come out on YouTube until July, August.

They've been, they can watch 'em now. So they, they get, the behind the scenes v i p pass, if you will to all the stuff that we're doing and all the information that we're doing we're, it's not just Deere, it's not just antelope or elk. It's everything out west. And so it just gives you the shortcut so you can, I always, you can flatten that learning curve, if you will.

Jeremy Dinsmore: Absolutely. And I'm looking even like this, I'm, what's funny is I'm looking at the projected application deadlines and everything along those lines that you have on there. So for someone like me that is, Again, my, my, I mentioned Tom. Tom will send me a [00:43:00] text message, Hey, if you want to get that point, get it in now because you have until next blank.

You have until next Thursday to get that in, dude. So you have that also on, on there. Yes. So it's just, I don't know. Like I said, it's like a one-stop shop. It's a, a hub like tag hub just makes su super, makes super sense because that's what's, that's what it

Ike Eastman: is. Yeah. And it, you set your up, shut up, you set up your account and which is really easy.

And then you start putting your points in there for whatever states and it the power behind it is it has their data is a able to disseminate. Okay, you have six elk points in Wyoming and you can literally radio button, click go. What areas, which hunting areas in Wyoming can I. Draw right now with my six points.

Yeah. Or what, how many points do I need to draw this area? And it just, it's one place. Plus then it'll send you push notifications, say, Hey, the Wyoming application deadline is in two weeks. Make sure you get your application. Then it does it again when it's one week out, and then it does it again on the day [00:44:00] so that you don't miss it.

Because most states will allow you to miss it once, but you miss it twice. Yeah. You lose all your points. And that could be 10 years, 20 years worth of point building that you lost

Jeremy Dinsmore: overnight. Yeah. I'm just like, I'm looking at it here right now. I'm messing around as we're talking. And, Utah I'll put in You could put in for your species, rocky mountain, elk any deer.

So I put in any deer right there. And then I could put the season of archery, muzzle, loader, any weapon, short range. And I put archery. You could put your trophy potential excellent, good, marginal, poor. And then you have your percentage of public land, three year success rate. Do your draw odds. And then, like you just said earlier so right now all those things that I punched in or where my setting bars are at, it has 19 hunt, 19 hunts, meet your requirements.

So I can go over and I could look at where those potential opportunities would be for me. And then it tells me how much public land X, Y, and Z. And then like you said, Ike, [00:45:00] that no save sessions yet because I obviously, I'm just starting to work on it right now. But you have all that stuff built in there, man, that's pretty sweet.

I like it. Yeah,

Ike Eastman: It's a leg up, that's for sure. Yeah, I

Jeremy Dinsmore: like it a lot. And then now you mentioned about, listeners being able to watch your beyond the grid. So that's gonna be, you said, coming out here soon in, in July. So some pretty cool hunts on that for this upcoming season.

Yeah,

Ike Eastman: so we did. So beyond the grid is our YouTube online series. We also have Eastman's Hunting tv, which is on the linear channel, the outdoor channel. And they're different hunts. Of course, the on the grid, we have some really cool elk hunts coming out. Dan my, one of my bow guys kills a giant bull here in Wyoming, d i y public land, like three 80 something, 3 85 I think.

And it's on horseback and it's just an epic adventure. Just an unbelievable adventure into grizzly infested. They had, they lose some of the meat to a bear and bear harasses 'em all night, and it's just crazy stuff. Yeah. I did an elk hunt that, that [00:46:00] was in Wyoming. If you draw a certain tag, most of the tag to this way, but you can hunt archery first in September and then come, if you don't get anything there, you can come back with a rifle.

And so I hunted, I don't know, three weeks. My elk tag, two of them were archery and. I had some unbelievable misses. I missed this bull, Jeremy at eight yards. Oof. Eight yards, because I thought he was 30 and I got all nervous and crazy and he, Dan called, did a beautiful job calling him in. He came in from I don't know, two miles away down this ridge.

And it was just unbelievable Hearting heart stopping. Yeah. Yeah. And then I missed him, which, Dan's oh, that happens. I was just sick. Absolutely sick. But there's that hunt. I ended up taking a really nice bull with my rifle. There's a couple antelope hunts. Brian Barney host the Eastman's elevated.

He does a cool hunt in Nevada where the, it's a mule deer high country mule deer hunt, where they, as he calls it, grind it out for 10 days and just, hard, hard [00:47:00] work, but it pays off. Yeah. So there's a ton of good hunts. We did a unique one where we partnered with wingman.

And Todd and Brandon went to Northern Alberta and they hunt, you hunt waterfowl in the morning, and then you hunt black bears in the evening spot and stock. These, arguably the largest black bears in North America are up there and they're just toads. Yeah. So those, those types of

Jeremy Dinsmore: adventures.

That's awesome. That's exciting. And you, obviously, you have your podcast, how's that been going? What are, that's another piece of the meat on your plate that you're, engulfing. So how's that been going for you with things you're enjoying? And like you said, I, for me, I love talking to people and I, it's funny because on one of the episodes that I'll have coming out soon, I, at the end of it, I was like, man I the guest thanked me for coming on and we were just he said he, he listened to the podcast, so it was really cool, like just to be a part of it.

And I was thanking and I said, I apologize for people that I know. Being an educator, I, [00:48:00] there's 10 different ways you could skin a cat, right? Yeah. There's 10, there's a million ways you could kill an elk, kill whitetail, all this other stuff. And there's just so many different ways. And I said, I just like hearing your way.

Like whoever is on the other side that I'm talking to, I said, so I apologize if you hear me talk about scrape hunting. I know there's a certain amount of ways and it's not regurgitated, but there's just so much. So I just love, enjoy talking with individuals about hunting, outdoors life, business, whatever.

So what, how are you enjoying your time being the host and going from there with it?

Ike Eastman: Yeah, so I was a little apprehensive to do it initially just because I'm like what could I talk about? And. So I, once again, I never started anything without doing a little research and talking to people.

And so I started talking to people that are in my circles that are really interesting. And it occurred to me that if I'm interested in their conversation and their story, if I'm interested in, what they are an expert at, if I'm interested in why [00:49:00] they hunt, other people would be too. So the Eastman's podcast edition, I talked to really neat people, everybody, everything from Congressman to Rich Froning, who was, who is the CrossFit guru to Glenn Eberly, who's, who is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting men in the world.

He was an Olympian. He was a u US Air Force pilot. He was a United Airlines pilot and he started a really badass back backpacking company. All of those things and. So I just sit down with him like Glenn, I sat down with him in his office and we talked for an hour and a half and I got to, hear stories.

I've known Glenn for 15 years and he told me probably five or six stories I'd never heard before. That's awesome. About how he flew in top gun to, he flew the a 10 and against top gun and how an epic failure that was. But just really neat stories. And then, I get to not only talk to 'em about their story, but you get to find out what I could learn from them.

What they're an [00:50:00] expert at, which he is an expert at a big ton of stuff. And why he hunts and what he's the most interesting question I ask them not only is, okay, why do you hunt, but is what are you gonna be thinking about on your deathbed? Yeah. And it always draws people back that go. Yeah and then they'll go into some unbelievable deal.

I, I sat down with Adam Weatherby and we had a conversation about the history of Weatherby and then who Adam was and that question, I was blown away with his answer on that. Absolutely blown away. Yeah. So those are, those are the types of things that, that I get to do. Not only talk with really neat people and really interesting people, but share it with an audience that really appreciates, just a genuine conversation like you and I are having.

Yeah.

Jeremy Dinsmore: Excellent. A absolutely that, and I couldn't agree more. That is the one piece that I originally early on, and it still holds true. Like I said not, this is three and a half years been doing this now, and if I have an opportunity where I could [00:51:00] disconnect, and I know I'm connected to online and we're visually doing this right on the computer, but at the same time, it's this conversation that, I, it holds true that I love.

Just getting a chance to do this and learn and grow, whether it's as a hunter or as a husband or as a father and as a friend. Individual. I just love it. It's a great opportunity to just meet new people and I'm pumped cuz like you said, you have you name dropped some good ones.

You had Snyder on there, you had Glover on there. You have some really great guest. And, successful at what they're doing.

Ike Eastman: Yep. And you're right, this is an opportunity to talk to people that you and I probably would've never crossed paths ever and we would've never had a conversation like this on it intentionally.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's it's

Jeremy Dinsmore: unbelievable. It's fun. It's pretty awesome. To wrap things up with everything I, we just mentioned some three awesome things of what you got going on right now with everything. What are your goals for Eastman's when it comes to these next couple years?

What's next? Basically in, in better terms

Ike Eastman: it's gonna be more of the same. I won't, I, I always say the [00:52:00] growth in our company has to do with just making hunters better hunters. And so we're just gonna find out more, find more ways to do that. We have this Mule Deer course, which is new for us.

And there's probably gonna be an elk course. Pretty sure there's gonna be, of course, coming down the pipe. There's gonna be some more online. We have an idea for another online video series, and we're also partnering with some conservation organizations to get their message out and to help them do what they do better.

Elk Foundation is one of 'em. The Mule Deer Foundation's another one. We always do stuff with the Sheep Foundation. There's a, my grandfather was really into sheep and there's actually a Gordon Eastman Award there and in, so there's. Just more of the same. And it's gonna change and adjust and always love hearing success stories where guys are like, man, I used your tag Hub 2.0 and I drew that tag and I went there and look at the, look at the elk or look at the deer I was able to take and [00:53:00] bring home.

It's just unbelievable. Plus, if you're tagout member, you get put in for six hunts and you get to go hunting with us, which that's a bonus, right? Yeah. That's pretty

Jeremy Dinsmore: freaking sweet. No, man, that's awesome. What do you have, what do you personally are looking forward to for this upcoming fall for some hunts?

What are ones that maybe did you pull that coveted tag that you've been wanting?

Ike Eastman: So Wyoming, our draw for residents residents for all species or for elk, deer and antelope. Our draw results don't come out until around the 20th of June. Non-residents that it is just deer and antelope that come out that time for you guys.

But so we'll see. I got my name in hat for a really nice deer tag. I coveted deer tag and my name and a hat for an elk tag that is easier to draw. But and I've had it for a couple times. I've actually, the first elk tag I ever drew was in this area when I was 14. Back then you had to be 14 to hunt.

And so I'm really hopeful for that one. It's a lot of fun cuz you get to archery hunt and you get to rifle hunt and the season's really long. It's the whole month of September. Nice. And then there's [00:54:00] three weeks in October that I can hunt, which is really good for my schedule. Cause I, like I said, we give away those six hunts to elite members.

I get to go on those hunts, which is a lot of fun. But it's usually right during the peak time of when I should be in the field for myself. Yeah. But it's a casa but I'd rather do that. Last year we took a we took an Amish guy we drew out of the hat. We drew an Amish guy to go on a hunt in Colorado, which there's some challenges cuz he couldn't have his face on camera.

Yeah. But it was fun. It was a great opportunity for us to, to be able to, learn about the Amish community and that lifestyle and which is, was unbeknownst to me. Yeah. So it. I'll take the, I'll take those hunts over, me being in, in the field prime time for my elk. That's

Jeremy Dinsmore: awesome, Mike.

Where could people follow along with what you got going on this upcoming fall and obviously your podcasts will plug that, when did, when do episodes drop and all that good

Ike Eastman: stuff? Yep. So it's, my episodes drop every other week. I have one every other week for the whole year. I'm hoping to [00:55:00] get a couple extra bonus ones this year.

Ike Eastman, it's Ike Eastman at Facebook, Instagram also the, web, our main website, eastmans.com, you can find everything there. Beyond the grid. Our YouTube channels, Eastman's hunting journals our Facebook and Instagram on Eastman's is just Eastman's hunting journals.

It's Flagship magazine. It's gotta be the flagship of everything else. So that's, yep. Yeah, so that's where you can find us, check us out. It's we're doing a lot of cool things if you're into Western hunting at all. That's

Jeremy Dinsmore: awesome, Mike. It's been a great pleasure speaking with you, really.

Thank you, Jeremy. Yeah, thank you so much. Thanks again, everybody for tuning in. Go check out what Ike and his whole crew, his podcasts on, on his, basically, I'm gonna say a little mini network that you have going on. So go check them out, some really cool things and we'll see you next week, aunt Loup.

And that's a wrap for this week's episode of the Aunt Loup podcast. Thank you Ike again for coming on. So much greatly. Appreciate it. Everybody. Make sure you go check out that Tag Hub 2.0 also. If you like what you heard, go [00:56:00] leave that five star review on iTunes. Leave that written review on there as well.

It helps me out as well as on Spotify. Thanks again everybody for all the support. Next week we have a really fun conversation. We got Jake Vernon on the podcast, another PA guy, got his son into archery, and we just have a blast talk and some whitetail stuff. So be on the lookout for that one next week.

Thanks again everybody for tuning in. Have a great upcoming 4th of July antler up.

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