Show Notes
On this episode of The Nomadic Outdoorsman Dan talks with Scott Bakken from Dialed Archery about his journey into the outdoor industry.
Dialed Archery all started with a pipe dream to create a brand people could get behind, and a company that brought innovative products to a space that was in dire need of it. Once those dreams were realized, the team assembled, and dove in head first. Dan and Scott work through the history of Dialed as a company and the process in which became the die-hard hunter that he is today.
Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant, outdoor content!
Connect with Dan Mathews and The Nomadic Outdoorsman
Show Transcript
[00:00:00] All right guys. Welcome to today's show. Now we are continuing with the Bo Fest series of shows, and I've absolutely loved this. I hope you guys are enjoying this because every time I listen to these episodes, it brings me back to that booth at Bo Fest, chatting with other outdoors men and women vendors, hunters, attendees, you name it.
And. I don't know. There's something just way different about doing these interviews in person. So on the show with me today, I've got Scott Bachan from Dialed Archery. Now the site's caught my eye at his booth. If you haven't seen a dialed archery site yet, you need to go check one out. They're like the Tesla sites.
And that's what initially drew me over there. And my wife, being my like, Business manager, the person who keeps me in line, she's always like, why don't you talk to him about being on the show? Don't just go over there and be like, oh, cool site. And I'm like I yeah, [00:01:00] I need to do that.
But I've always had a hard time approaching vendors and just being forward like that. Hey, I have a podcast. You should come jump on the show. I like to do that, build a relationship with them, talk to them a little bit, hang out, admire the product, and then be like, Hey, you should always come chill at the booth.
My wife just wanted to take a much more direct approach to it. But anyways, it all turned out great because I got Scott to come join me at the booth and hop on a podcast, and this one is amazing. Not to mention I went back and I got one of those dialed archery sites. It is now on my bow, fully dialed in.
And in perfect timing, I've got 10 days from the time that I am recording this intro to the time I will be sitting in the stand archery hunting whitetail deer here in Missouri. And great news is there's been a but bunch of bucks showing up. Bad news, that eight pointer totally disappeared. The big one, the one we call Mr.
Clean, poof, [00:02:00] just vanished like 12 days ago. We'll see if he comes back. Enough of me rambling. There's gonna be plenty more Whitetail, Missouri talk in the future. Let's jump into this episode with Scott,
like he was doing things that were just badass. That was one of the coolest moments of my life. I was really scared, but knowing that Dane had the gun, I did have the rifle, like we would be okay.
All right guys, welcome back to the show. So in the booth with me, you're a neighbor, you're like just a down the street. We're in the same neighborhood, same home association. Yeah. Scott Balkins hanging out with me from Dialed Archery. Why don't you share with the listeners a little bit about yourself first, what you do, what you like to hunt maybe, or do in the outdoor world?
Yeah. Yeah, so I'm Scott with Dialed really, so I've spent my I would say most of my adult life, but even my [00:03:00] childhood, was built around the archery industry, so I didn't come from a hunting family. Okay. So my dad wasn't a hunter, my mom. But both my grandpas like small game hunted.
But as far as big game hunting, that wasn't like in my family. But I got into archery when I was very young. I think I was like five and I watched one of the first like old school Robinhood movies. Yeah. And it was a Disney film. And I remember just watching this dude just like slaying people with a bow arrow and I'm just like, man, that's badass.
And so I wanted to learn how to shoot a bow and my uncle on, so it's my dad's sister's husband. He was a bow hunter. That young, I don't really know who this guy is, but I remember watching him shooting his bow. Yeah. And I just it literally just drew me in. Like I was like, I wanna do that.
And when you're a little kid and everybody's oh, what do you wanna do when you grow up? And it's oh, I wanna be a fireman. I wanna do this. I wanted to be a bow hunter. That I thought that's cool. Was like a job. So throughout my youth, like that [00:04:00] was my whole life was consumed by hunting.
And it's funny your parents keep all like your school projects and all that stuff. And so my, a couple years ago my mom brought out a box of when you're learning how to write in school and you have to write like these storylines. Yep. And all the mine were about killing animals, gutting 'em stuff now that, like if your teachers read this shit.
They'd be like, this kid needs help. But that was my life. And so I always knew that I wanted to be in the archery industry. And as I got older, that passion just grew and grew and grew well. Then my uncle who got me into archery, he actually started a small archery company, which now it's a big company.
Yeah. And that's how I got my start in the industry. Okay. So I was like eight years old, going to trade shows with them, and I was this little kid walking up and down the aisles, handing out flyers, trying to get people into the booth. And so that's literally how I got started. And then it just snowballed from there.
And so literally the only thing I've ever done in my life is worked in the archery [00:05:00] industry. Dude, that's amazing. Yeah. There's not a lot of people who can say that, first of all, like from the get go, that's what you've been doing. Everybody asks, how do you get in? How do you get in? Yeah. And I'm like, there's no one way to do it.
No. There's a million different avenues. We've got people here that work for big corporate companies that do their own thing, that grew up in it, that make outdoor. Not really hunting products, but like they're using antlers to make mugs. Yeah. And it's like you can go any way about it, but, the fact that you knew from the very beginning, I feel like that's always been a dream, but to actually.
Be actively pursuing that from the get go is pretty unique. Yeah. And it, it's weird 'cause now, I'm almost 40 and I look back and it's man, all I've literally done with my life is archery. Yeah. I've never had a job that wasn't archery related. And you're right. That is a question I get a lot is people like, how do I get into the industry?
And back then, The only way really in was to go work for a shop. Yep. And then get [00:06:00] your foot in the door, meet reps, meet manufacturers, and then go work for them. But now, there are so many different avenues, whether it's a podcast or whether it's, like you said, some sort of outdoor company.
But that's the cool thing about archery is that it's gotten to where like archery is more than just like archery, right? Yeah. And that's what's cool about Bo Fest or any of the other archery shoots, is you get people from all over the place, like all walks of life, like rich, poor experience, inexperience, but it's all built around like the archery community.
Yeah. So it's really cool. Like for me again, like growing up in it and seeing that growth and just how things have become. And it's good to see because as hunters and I've been very vocal about this, but as hunters, it's us versus them meaning hunters versus non-hunters. And it doesn't matter if you're a bow hunter, gun hunter, cross bow hunter, it doesn't matter.
We're all hunters. Yep. And whether you wanna believe it or not, like we are losing the fight, oh yeah. And so the more people we can get involved, and it doesn't matter if, again, it doesn't have to be archery [00:07:00] specific, but the more people we get involved, the greater the force that we're building.
So that's where like throughout my career, just building it and I've literally have like hit every like level of, from working in a shop, working to a bigger shop. Working for Shields, becoming a rep, working for an Archer distributor, working for an Archer manufacturer, and then eventually starting an archery company.
It's like now, like I feel like I'm at a place where it's like my responsibility to be vocal about that. Yeah. And try to get people to join the fight because again, like we're not winning, but. We're like maintaining right now. Yeah. But it's just it's just cool to see, like I said, like this weekend everybody come out and it's just.
It doesn't matter where you're from or how experienced you are, we're all just having fun. Yep. It's just a good time. And again, you can see that community, coming together and that's ultimately, that's what we need. So yeah, I was, shoot, I was shooting at the flat range the other day, just like throwing some [00:08:00] arrows out there.
And there was a guy shooting next to me and he is Hey man, can you by chance see where that hit? He's do you have Binos on you? I was like, no, but I've got, my. My range finder, and it's got some magnification, so I just started like calling out his shots for him. And it's dude, you don't find that in a lot of places.
No. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like even playing sports, like shooting a basketball at the local gym or whatever. You might make a connection there, but it's like you're not gonna go up to somebody, be like, Hey dude, could you rebound for me for a little while? Yeah. Yeah. And the comradery within the archery community, is pretty incredible and I feel like we've got an opportunity to almost pitch it as bettering yourself.
Because Archery's unique in that like it's physical. It's mental. You can see if you're having a bad day, oh yeah. You can act like physically see it affect your shot. Yep. In one way or another. And you hear more and more. Bigger name, people start talking about that and like really honing in your shot and [00:09:00] like walking through the steps and making sure your anchor point, it's just very it's a humbling sport. It's a sport that like you can really see growth in quickly. And that the whole community's behind you. Yeah. And I'm not saying the online community because. Online, everything's out. I haven't heard anybody arguing Hoyt over Matthews. No, I haven't heard anybody arguing Fix blade over expandables or like you just don't hear that when you're in person, you go online, forget it.
And that's, I will say so we were just talking about, that sense of community and stuff and it's man, if everybody just got out from behind the keyboard and did these in-person events, yeah. You'd see Like you sitting there being a keyboard, worder, you're just an asshole.
Yeah. Like for sure. And like none of us tolerate that shit. No. So it's get the hell out. Like these people are who matters. Yep. And that's from like dial's perspective, like Yeah, like we always say like we're open to criticism and feedback and stuff, but if you're just gonna be in an online like.
Don't be a troll. Yeah. If you're gonna be a douche bag man we're not gonna listen. So [00:10:00] you're just, you're literally just wasting your time. Yeah. Take it somewhere else. It's yeah. The old saying, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. I feel like there's some random online saying that's if you don't agree, even in the slightest, be the biggest tool about it ever.
Yeah. And let everybody know. And I'm like, nobody really caress. We're all on the same team. We're all going the same direction. And most these people like they'll never come to my booth and tell me that to their face. Never. Because they're probably gonna get punched in the throat, but It's, yeah, so that is the one thing more of now is because of technology and social media and stuff.
You get a lot more of that. But I also think, that has prevented like, 'cause going through Covid, I. Archery saw this huge increase in participation. For sure. Yeah. We've never seen numbers like that before. Now it's settling back down. We're still above where we were.
Yeah. But we're lower than what it was during that timeframe, but, and I think a lot of people get intimidated because they're afraid of getting critiqued or whatever, and it's like, again, just like that's not who we are as like hunters. Yeah. You know what I [00:11:00] mean? Oh, for sure. And yeah, it's just really interesting.
But again, to see how the industry has changed and grown. I. It's really interesting and there are some days where I'm like, man, like iron industry's so effed, yeah. But then there's other days this weekend where I'm like, we're all right.
This is it. This is a good group of people, like we all show up during the day we work, and at night, we're all hanging out, like whether we're competitors or not, yeah. We're all just hanging out, having fun, having beers like. That's like the hunting community.
Yeah. You know what I mean? And I wish we could get that across to anybody who's thinking about getting into it and is intimidated. And, they're afraid of opposition. I have seen, even in the past couple weeks, I, we went to the bow shop with my wife the other day and had her shooting and these old timers were in there just sitting.
Yeah. You could tell they just go in there every day, like that time, that day, every single week. Yeah. And we went in there and they're like, Hey, we don't want to step on anybody's toes, but we just saw this. Maybe try that. And it was like the most unintrusive, unoffensive Hey, [00:12:00] we really don't if you want us to shut up, just tell us that.
Yeah. Yeah. And they're like, but this is something we saw. Yeah. And I'm like, dude, for real. Thank you. Yeah. Like I'm not an archery coach. Yeah. I've never been coached. Like I grew up hunting, I've probably been shooting bows for 20 years now. I would guess. And I'm like, but I don't know how to teach someone else.
And the fact that you're helping her, When I don't know how to, obviously you saw it multiple times, her shooting and you saw a form issue and you helped correct it. Correct. I'm like, that's amazing. Even shooting this morning, hanging out with Tom and Nick. And shooting with them a little bit yesterday.
He was like, Hey, one thing I noticed, expand your chest a little bit. Yeah. One thing that helped me is just push your elbow back a little bit farther. That's like literally like the best thing about archery is that Yeah. Doing it for 20 plus years You never stop learning.
Exactly. You know what I mean? Yeah. And there's, because archery is, it's a discipline, right? And it's all about technique and form and all that stuff. You get complacent. You get sloppy at times. So then [00:13:00] sometimes you just need that buddy check and be like, yo, hey, I noticed like your nose isn't touching the string.
Yep. That's why you're dropping shots or whatever. You're like, oh shit. Thanks man. Yeah. But it's. It is a, it's a very cool group of people and there's always good and there's bad, but I literally like, like I said, that, getting older, looking back my life and stuff, it's there's nothing else.
There's nothing else I could do. Yeah. This is what I wanted to do and like I'm just, I'm grateful that it's gotten me to this point and who knows, where things are gonna go, it's a great community. Alright? If you're not using tact cams, reveal cell cameras on your hunting property for scouting or monitoring the wildlife, you are seriously missing out.
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All right, I get asked all the time, so here it is. This is a list of my go-to optics for the fall. First and foremost, I've got my fury, 5,000 range finding binoculars from Vortex. These things go with me everywhere from hiking and floating trips to fishing trips, and obviously on every one of my hunts. I love these because I can, I.
Basically replace two with one. I don't have to carry binos and a range finder when I've got it all built in to [00:15:00] one awesome piece that fits right in my Bino pack. Next step is my razor HD spotting scope. Now this goes with me on all my western hunts and I keep it in the truck all fall if I want a glass of field or do some scouting on a current property that I have.
You can't go wrong with any of the spotting scopes from Vortex. But the Razor HD is by far my favorite, and I'm excited to check out the new mini Razor hd. So if you wanna see a list of the amazing optics that Vortex has, head over to euro optic.com. That's E U R O P T I C. Dot com and enter code nomadic tenant checkout to save 10% off your vortex order.
Now let's get back to the show presented by Vortex.
Yeah, I, so I've got a question about that. Starting at eight years old, diving into this thing and just being in it your whole life, [00:16:00] I'm guessing it was like you would expect. My life down the road being in the industry is gonna be 10 out of 10. How close has it come to your expectations as a kid?
I would say I've accomplished what I wanted to accomplish as far as like where I am today with nice owning my own business, like doing my own thing. Like I always knew, watching my uncle go through starting his own business and how he grew that. And the team he built around him.
And I always knew that was my end goal. Yeah. And as I went through like the paces and like the steps of building my career, like I had a lot of like really good jobs. Like a lot of jobs that people would be like, oh, like I would love to be doing that. But it was just, I always knew there was a bigger like plan.
Yeah. And it just took, it took a long time to figure out, okay, this is what I want to do and to take that risk and dive into it. It was one of the scariest things I've ever done in my life. And it still is. Yeah. Like dial's still a new company. Like we're still, going through [00:17:00] the startup phase, but I feel like this is what like my whole life has led up to.
Yeah. So I do feel as that little kid. This is I've hid it, right? Yep. But that doesn't mean like I'm never, I've never been the type of person, like, where I don't settle. I don't like meteor bureaucracy. I don't like complacency. Yep. So it's now I've hit this, monumental benchmark, but now what's next?
And not that Dialed. Like I said, we're still in the startup phase, but we're growing really freaking fast. Faster than I ever would've expected. Yeah. Like our team is amazing. My two business partners, Taylor and Jordan are amazing. They're literally like brothers to me.
And that's, I didn't expect that out of it. That was a, like an unexpected like surprise. Yeah. But now we call it like the dialed team. They literally are like family to me. Yeah. And that's like our employees, like our suppliers, our vendors, that was all. I didn't count on that happening, so that was weird.
'cause I, I don't really get attached to things or to people. Yep. But now to have [00:18:00] this family it's literally like whatever happens with the business, like whether it blows up, it dies, it doesn't matter. Having that like family, attached to it has been worth like every penny spent.
That's cool. And like I said, that wasn't something I didn't even think about that. 'cause everybody goes into the business for themselves 'cause they want to do better for themselves. They want to be in control of their own destiny, hopefully make some money doing it.
But having now these people that literally are like family to me that's it's a real thing, and then even like being here and like meeting people that are using our products and stuff like there's no like it's literally like a shock to the system. Yeah. It's holy shit.
This is real. Like we're actually doing this. So it's very cool. But yet, like I said, it's still very fucking scary. Yeah. 'cause now we have employees that work for us. Now I'm responsible for all these other people. So it's every decision I make affects others. Yeah. And again, I. I didn't.
I didn't realize that. So it's it's just a whole [00:19:00] different level, yeah. But it's very cool. And meeting new people, you, you and I have never met before. Yeah. But here we are bullshit. And that's, that's what this is all about, yeah. And when we started dialed, literally we said yes, we want to make like innovative, badass products. But we want to build this community and like now all these people that we're getting introduced to and stuff. It's literally, like I said it was an unexpected surprise, but it's literally the coolest fucking thing ever.
I honestly feel like community in a business, especially in a community base environment like this, like archery. Or hunting or fishing or whatever. Community will take you farther than branding, marketing, a hundred percent. Anything like if you can actually build a group of people, whether it's in-house with the employees, with the partners, or with followers and users and customers, like community will take you so much farther.
And I will say your product's amazing because I was talking to somebody earlier. And I was like, dude, I gotta go over there and get one. I just [00:20:00] do, like I was shooting great today with my sight. I don't like my adjustments on it. I don't like it in any lowlight situation, even just like how much I have to move my bow in order to read what my adjustment is.
It sucks. Yeah. And then shooting at the range, I can't go, not that I shoot animals at a hundred yards, but it's just fun. It's fun, like a dude. I have to adjust it all the way down to the hundred mark. And then I also have to aim higher. Because otherwise my fletching won't clear my housing.
And so I was talking, I was like, I'm gonna go get one. And they're like, dude, they are just so sick. And I'm like, it looks like the Tesla of sites. It really does. I am not a Tesla like person. Yeah. And every time I see one I just freaking shake my head. But like we have heard that so many freaking times, like that exact comment and that's literally what we tried to build was just something new, something innovative.
Yeah. But I obviously I'm biased 'cause it's our product, but. I can't think, I can maybe think of a handful of [00:21:00] products where I can literally give it to you and be like, this will benefit you. Yeah. Like you are gonna be a better shooter because of this product. So to hear that, that's.
That's what we set out to do. That is the whole reason we like started dialed Yeah. Was to shake things up, do things different, but ultimately make people better, but also bring some excitement into what was a pretty stale category for sure. So that's awesome. I mean that literally I mean I'm, I don't get speechless too many times, but and I'm not good at accepting compliments.
Yeah, but like hearing that. It's damn shit. That's cool. It's, it just is there's certain things that like stand out and I, I get what you mean about Tesla. Like I'm not the world's biggest Tesla fan. Honestly. I don't think they look great, but they're just so ahead of their time.
Yeah. There's nothing else like it. They're sexy. They're clean and sim and like Apple did the same thing. Yeah. Like with their branding, with their marketing. Everything is just clean and uniform. Yeah. And when you look at that, there's nothing else out there. Yeah. Even close.
Like you're not. Nobody's looking at your [00:22:00] sites and mistaking them for anything else. You know what I mean? Exactly. And so when you see it, it's just dude, I feel like they're. A decade ahead of everybody else on this. Yeah. Yep. And so one, I wanna see it on my boat. I want to see how it looks on my boat.
Yeah. But it's to find products like that one, in a sense, market themselves when people see it, but then also actually work actually benefit. And then to hear like the heart behind the company and the culture that you guys are building, the community that you have. Yeah it's an easy one to.
Support. Yeah. No, and that, that means, more than you will ever know. That means so much to us and every single person that has bought a product from us, like so customer service is like our number one priority. Yeah. Because we're consumers ourselves, right? Like we've bought stuff in the past, we've had shitty experiences, but like nobody will truly understand like how much we appreciate like people supporting us.
Yeah. Because we are the underdogs, but, Like we don't, and we never will forget that like anybody that buys a product from us, you're not just a customer like you are part of our team. [00:23:00] And that means we'll do everything and anything we can to like, even That's cool. Even if it's not like archery related, like you need something.
We'll do whatever we can to help you. You know what I mean? Yeah. So it's very cool to see people like get behind that concept and be open to like new 'cause, that was the big thing, like when we launched, like we all thought we had something badass, right? But there are so many new concepts, it's like, How is this gonna be perceived?
Yeah. From, the consumer side of things. Sure. And I'll never forget, like November 15th when we hit the on switch and we're like, all right let's see what happens. And I was, 'cause so the start dialed, like we're just like three average dudes, like just blue collar guys came from the Midwest.
So we literally started everything with our own funds. Like I sold my house, cashed in all my 4 0 1 ks. Both my business partners sacrificed, and put in their own money. Dang. And it's like we got a lot riding on the line, and so I was homeless basically, and I was sitting in my parents' basement and I was on the phone with both my partners, Taylor and Jordan.
[00:24:00] I'm like, guys I'm scared. What if this doesn't work? And they're like, let's just see let's just see. And it was from when we hit go, it was just like, I literally, we thought somebody hacked our website and we were just like, holy shit. There's no way. Yeah. And so we called our IT guy and he's no, like these are real, like all these pre-orders coming in and we're just, but then that one it was like, okay, now like we're not playing anymore.
Yeah. Like now it's time to get to work and it, our first year, like we don't talk about it much 'cause we're still wearing some scars and bruises, but, that's just part of that startup process. But it was so tough. And, but at the same time I can look back now and it brought us all closer together.
And like I said, now we're like brothers and family, but it, shit got real. So now I understand, looking at these companies that I grew up like supporting and, 'cause that was like, that's like the cool thing about the Arches industry is it was literally built off of people like us, taking risks, starting companies out of their [00:25:00] garage.
And now I understand holy shit, like hats off to all those people. And like even some of our competitors that have been in the industry for like decades, I'm like, you guys, like you have our respect. Yeah. I hope one day we can get to that level. But yeah, just, like I said, it goes back to the customers are everything and every single person that buys a site from us.
You're not just a customer like you are literally like on our team. Yeah. And we'll, we will go to the, and we'll go to hell and back for you. Yeah. And I feel like though, like you talked about carrying scars and bruises, as a startup, I feel like that's what really forges the relationship that you have with the business partners, with the employees.
Like when you go through stuff together, That's when you grow, that's when your relationship forms, right? Sometimes you know, you have someone drop off or it severs a relationship. But I look at it as like when I go hunting, my fondest memories are the gist. Drag out hunts. Oh yeah. Where it's dude, that sucks so bad.
I never wanted, do you remember when we got dumped on and I thought I had hypothermia and [00:26:00] this and that, versus. We walked outside, shot our limit of ducks or shot a monster butt. You don't remember those ones? It's they say iron sharpens iron, right? Yeah, exactly. So it's like you're a hundred percent like I can think back to and that's the one thing too, like the arch industry has given me a life, right?
It's given me a living, but it's also taken me to a lot of different places. I've been very fortunate to hunt a lot of different things. And I can remember just about every single hunt, they get muddy and they get cloudy for sure. But the worst ones are the ones you never forget.
Never. And I can think of so many hunts where I get done and I'm like, I'm never freaking coming back here again. Yeah. But then five years later you're like, I wanna go back. So it is and it's just, it's part of that process. If it was easy, everybody would do it.
You know what I mean? And I forget what the statistic is, but it's 999 businesses. Or 999 out of a thousand businesses fail. So it's like the odds are against you. Yeah. And again, like we're not out of the woods. Like we are still like in the trenches. [00:27:00] And, but again, if it was easy, everybody would do it.
Yeah. But that's one thing, when we started dialed, we wanted to encourage like younger people, To take that risk. If you have an idea and you think you have something, fucking go for it, because that's what our industry needs. Like we need that new blood. Especially now, like going back again to like watching how things have changed, the industry, it's not the good old days anymore.
Now with the bigger corporations private equity it's getting tough, but we need that new blood. Yeah. And that's what's gonna keep growing the industry. So literally, like if we can do it, anybody can do it. Yeah. We're not we're smart guys, but we're not that freaking smart.
Yeah. We just, we know, I know the industry, my business partners, their marketing and social media, that's what they do. So you build that team. And this sounds like really cliche, and I hate this saying, but people always say everything happens for a reason. Yeah. Or like you meet people, like there's a reason you meet certain people and I've never.
Believe that more than now. There was a [00:28:00] reason that all of us met, for sure, however many years ago. And we didn't know why at the time, but when we started it was like, there was just so many like signs that like, this is what we need to do and you can't ignore that. And we tried we literally were like, nah, let's not do it.
Let's just sideline this. But every day we would talk and be like, I think we should do this. Yeah. No. Like we don't have the money like. To own a business, you gotta be smart. Like you gotta know finances. Like I failed accounting three times and I'm our C F O I have no business doing our financials.
Yeah. But that's, as owners, you gotta get your hands dirty. But we just, we could not ignore, like the writing was on the wall. Yeah. We need to try this and what's the worst that happens? We fail, they go back to doing their thing. I'll go work at QuickTrip for 18 bucks an hour. I don't care.
Yeah. You know what I mean? Like I can rebuild. But so like I said, when we started, we wanted to be an example of if you think you have something, go for it, man. Yeah. Like life is short. And you only get one life, so why not take a risk? [00:29:00] And I remember when I called my parents and I'm like, Hey, I'm quitting my job.
I'm selling my house, and I'm gonna start an Archer company with these two guys. And I remember my mom, I my, I love my mom, but I didn't come from a very like, nurturing, family. Yeah. And I remember she's you're a fucking idiot. And I'm like, yeah, that doesn't sound very nurturing. I'm like, yeah, mom, I am, but you know what?
I feel like I need to do this. And they're like, all right. Let us know if you need anything. I'm like, cool. And yeah, here we are, two man, the cost of two and a half years later, the cost of hustling and like grinding and just chasing after your dreams. Even if it doesn't work out, will always be better than the regret of not knowing you'll regret it more.
Not doing it. Yeah. Than looking back and being like, Hey, at least I tried. I tried. Yeah. And that's where we all settled on, and Jordan Taylor, they're, I'm the old guy of the group and they're young, they have young families, like I don't have anybody depending on me.
They do. So I was like scared for them. Yeah. And. Yeah, but [00:30:00] it just goes it's literally like the best example of if you build the right team and you surround yourself with the right people, you can truly accomplish like amazing things. Yeah. And like I said dialog, we're growing really fast, we're not out of the weeds yet, but out am a hundred percent confident, like with our team and with the people that we have around us supporting us.
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Man, that's so cool. And the, it's funny as you, as we were talking about like the regret of not trying, so we're doing this butt contest, right? The three white tails that were up here, that's why they grabbed 'em and started scoring 'em. There's people trying to guess the combined. The combined score. There have been a couple people that have come up and they're like, I literally have no idea.
I don't even know ballpark. I don't under, I don't know what it should be. What it could be. And so my mom was running it and she's just throw out a guess. And the guy's I don't know, it's 650. And I'm like, that's very flattering. But he honestly had no idea. [00:33:00] Yeah. And then he goes no.
You know what? I take that back. Let's just say 1120. Because he honestly is completely clueless. But he tried, right? My wife and I were talking, I'm like, dude, we're gonna give him an OnX Elite membership. Yeah. He just, he tried, you got the highest score, man. Yep. That type of thing.
But it's dude, what's it gonna hurt? Yeah. You fail, like you don't get a free pair of binoculars. If he hadn't tried, if he hadn't stopped, if he just said, no, I don't even want to, but it's gonna get So how dangerous though, is that mindset? Yeah. Because it's not just in archery, but like I'm big into fitness, yep. But it's yeah. That first day in the gym, it's scary. You don't know what you're doing. Like you're surrounded by people that have been doing this for decades. Yeah. Yeah, you're probably gonna look stupid for, a little bit. Yeah. But if you just walk away. Then where does that leave you?
If you don't try and it, and even with hunting, like especially for us being like Midwest people, like I'll never forget my first western hunt. Like I didn't know what the fuck I was doing. I had no clue. It's so intimidating. Yeah, and like when you're around like western hunters and stuff, and western hunters can be intimidating 'cause they think they're so badass.
Yeah. 'cause they hunt out west and they are, I [00:34:00] mean they are like next level, but. Yeah. That's how you grow, right? Yep. Like you take the risk, you try it. What's the worst that happens? Yeah. You know what I mean? If you don't try, you're a hundred, you're gonna fail a hundred percent. So it's it's really interesting just how, like whether it's business or just day-to-day life, like I said, how dangerous that mindset is. Oh, that seems really hard. I'm not gonna try it. Yeah. But then the next day it's oh, that seems hard. I'm not gonna try it. And then that just keeps building and building and then you're just going backwards.
If you're not progressing, you're dying. Yeah. And that just goes back to if you if you meet, if you know me, if Taylor and Jordan, if you know anybody on our team, it just goes back to like complacency and me bureaucracy or has no place in our lives. Yep. And. I can truly say, starting a business has completely changed my life.
My life is way more stressful, way more difficult than it's ever been. But yet every day you're challenged and with every challenge you're growing. [00:35:00] So like there, I read in a book, it's if you grow 1% every day, how much have you grown at the end of the year? Yeah. And that's all it is.
Like you give 1% more each day. Yep. And that's been the huge. I would say like beneficial outcome from for sure starting a business is, every day I'm challenged, but every day, like when I go to bed, I'm like, I feel like I, I'm a better person waking up the next day. Yep. The feeling after you do anything difficult.
Yeah. The feeling after you challeng, if it's a new hunt, let's say. Oh yeah. If you know you try something different, you just become that much more knowledgeable. Yep. And then if you can help somebody new. And help them. Maybe the learning curve won't be as harsh 'cause you've already been through it.
That's a win. The pride. The pride and the sense of accomplishment that comes from just pushing yourself. In any aspect. It doesn't even matter what it's like. Say you hate mowing your lawn and you have the decision. I can, I would, I can wait till tomorrow or I can just get up and do it today.
Yeah. And then you go out and you mow your lawn and it's man, that kind of sucked. But [00:36:00] you feel accomplished afterwards, right? Yeah. Like you walk away with a sense of pride versus I'm going to watch TV and eat potato chips all day today. Yeah. There's just something built in us where it's like we have to complete tasks, right?
Or we have to push ourselves. Being comfortable is being comfortable, but I feel like comfort comes with regret, right? All the time. There are very few times where I take the easy route. And I'm like, that was a great idea. My wife and I, one of our mottos is always Choose adventure. Period.
We could stick with what we know. Yep. Or we could go the scary, adventurous route that we have no idea where it's gonna lead. Exactly. Let's do that one. Yep. At the end of the day, it's gonna be way more fun, way more accomplishment. And I mean we're, this, you could go down this rabbit hole like forever, but it's amazing.
There is such a difference between people that have that mindset and the people that don't. Yeah. But like how many people don't. Yeah. And it's, I truly feel and this is me, anybody that knows me, like I'm antisocial media. Like I, I personally don't have social media. I haven't since I [00:37:00] was in college.
It's a necessity for business. Yep. But I feel like that has destroyed so many people because they see everybody online and they see everybody on Instagram and shit doing all this stuff. Yeah. And they think it's just easy. Yeah. But so I feel like that group is growing at a more rapid rate than people like us.
Yeah. Where we choose to take the difficult route because we're gonna get more out of it. And that's where, again, like when we started dialed, if we can try to flip that script and be like, dude, yeah. It's hard, but it's literally like the most rewarding thing you can do. Yeah. And not even You see it, you know anybody that buys like our site and I see them like, shoot.
And then they come back and I've never shot this good like mission accomplished. Yep. Yeah, we made a couple bucks, but that's like the whole reason. Yeah. We started dialed. Yeah. They, now they feel a sense of accomplishment and they're gonna stick with it. And what does that look like long term?
For the hunting community, for conservation for. For archery as a sport for all of that stuff. It's all money going [00:38:00] back into the sport. Yep. Yep. That's awesome, man. I appreciate you hanging out. I don't want to keep you too long from your booth, but we've been planning this for what, two and a half days now and Yeah, no, this has been awesome.
I'm glad that we finally got to sit down and like I said, I'm gonna be coming over there. I think I've got one more interview here and then. I'm coming over and getting a new site. Yeah. We're here all day. It's time and then I gotta go sight it in tonight. Shoot. Tomorrow morning I'm pumped. 20 minutes you'll be dialed.
Sweet. Yep. Sounds good, man. I appreciate it. Awesome. Thank you.
