Ginger Beards UNLEASHED!

In this episode of the Nine Finger Chronicles, host Dan Johnson talks with Nate Rozeveld, the host of the Michigan Wild Podcast. They discuss various hunting experiences, particularly focusing on rabbit hunting with beagles, the importance of having a purpose-driven dog, and the commitment required for training working dogs. The conversation also touches on the camaraderie found in outdoor activities and the challenges of trapping. In this conversation, Dan Johnson and Nate Rozeveld explore the value of trades, the importance of personal fulfillment in career choices, and the debate surrounding the necessity of college education. They discuss the balance between work and passion, the significance of experience and work ethic, and the mindset required for self-employment. The conversation also touches on the realities of seasonal work, finding contentment in medium success, and the connection between hunting and personal growth. Ultimately, they emphasize the importance of understanding one's motivations and aspirations in both work and life.

Takeaways:

• Nate is excited about the extended hunting season in Michigan.
• Rabbit hunting with beagles is a fun, low-pressure activity.
• Having a purpose-driven dog enhances the hunting experience.
• Training dogs requires significant time and commitment.
• Camaraderie in outdoor activities is essential for enjoyment.
• Nate enjoys sharing hunting experiences with friends and family.
• Choosing the right breed of dog is crucial for hunting success.
• Trapping requires a serious time commitment and planning.
• The joy of hunting often comes from the experience, not just the kill.
• Nate emphasizes the importance of community in hunting activities. Working hard in trades can lead to financial success.
• Entrepreneurship allows for personal freedom and fulfillment.
• College isn't necessary for everyone to succeed.
• Experience and work ethic are crucial in any career.
• Self-employment requires a unique mindset and acceptance of risk.
• Finding balance between work and personal passions is essential.
• Medium success can provide a comfortable lifestyle.
• Hunting can be a metaphor for personal growth and perseverance.
• Understanding your 'why' can drive motivation and passion.
• Encouragement and support from family can shape career paths.

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Dan Johnson (00:01.382)
And we're back. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the Nine Finger Chronicles. I'm your host, Dan Johnson. And today we are going to be talking with another contributor to the Sportsman's Empire, the host of the Michigan Wild Podcast, Nate Rosenveld. Velder, Vald or Velde? Velde. know, know, 10 years of doing this and I'm getting pretty damn good.

Nate Rozeveld (00:20.406)
You're velled, you got it.

Nate Rozeveld (00:28.6)
Yeah?

Dan Johnson (00:29.09)
at last names. However, I did run into this guy from Wisconsin. And I think Wisconsin has a lot of Czech, Czech Republic type background, all the way from the Eastern European side of things. And some of their last names have 14 consonants in it, and maybe one vowel and a couple Ys. And I just go, and today I'm here with John. Just guessing.

Nate Rozeveld (00:44.684)
Hmm.

Nate Rozeveld (00:56.622)
Use your diaphragm, get it out.

Dan Johnson (00:58.833)
Exactly. What's good, dude?

Nate Rozeveld (01:02.496)
Hey, it's the new year. I still got some season left, which I'm pretty pumped about that Michigan, know, typically we're done January 1st. So where I live in the state, got till the 31st of January to shoot a deer. And then I think the whole state goes to the 12th, January 12th this year. So I'm just patiently waiting on the right cold front and hopefully a shooter buck shows up to go capitalize. I'm waiting on some historical data before I go like push in anywhere, just from

previous years of a certain buck doing a certain thing on a food source. I have a buck doing what I want to do, except he's a half rack and all broke up. He was a target earlier this year and he's no longer a target because he's all broke up. I'm just hoping he moves off and another one takes his place. We'll see. Otherwise, enjoying the new year. Rabbit hunting kicks off for me here in January, so I got my beagles. Just got back from a South Dakota trip with a family. We went hunting some pheasants. It's been a crazy...

Crazy last couple weeks, that's for sure.

Dan Johnson (02:02.441)
Yeah, you said something there I wanna talk about. Dogs, running dogs, beagles, things like that. The opening part of your podcast is some beagles going crazy, right? Some dogs going crazy. All right. I'm gonna make a post after this podcast of a dog that I have. And all this son of a bitch does is run away and sit on a couch. That's all he does. He's finally, knock on wood, stopped shitting in my oldest son's room.

Nate Rozeveld (02:13.39)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (02:31.355)
We've shut the door and he doesn't shit in the house anymore. But what I'm getting at is, how long have you been running dogs? Do you do coon hunting with them? Like, what's it like? Do you have to train them yourselves? How does that work?

Nate Rozeveld (02:46.958)
Yeah, so essentially you have a dog that you can a field goal with. That's about the only good thing you can do with those type of dogs. I'm assuming it's probably little. But no, I've always had the mindset of having like a working dog. So I grew up when I was probably like 12, 13 years old, my uncle had beagles. So I did a lot of that with him. And then in my adult life, as I grew up, we always had like either Australian Shepherd or something that I could do a lot of things with as a kid. Like the dog would follow us to the lake.

Dan Johnson (02:53.47)
Yep. Yep.

Nate Rozeveld (03:16.846)
It would fetch, it would retrieve, you could throw a frisbee, toss a dummy out on the lake. So I always have had a dog that had a purpose. And Australian Shepherds are not necessarily hunting dogs, but it still a really good family dog that you could kick a ball around with and it would retrieve and do all that. So I've always had a dog that could do that. And then as I got older, having a Lab or a GSP, German Shorthaired Pointer, when I first got married,

Took him out West and you know did the pheasants and that kind of upland stuff. He also you know goose and duck on it Well, I'm not like I guess we'll preface this I'm not a huge waterfowl guy or a you know, huge upland guy like I've only been out West three times But I always do try to go a couple times a year be that layout blinds to try to shoot some geese or a pond to shoot some ducks So that kind of was I always had the passion for it. Just didn't really have the time frame for it Well, then when my son

turned about four, I kind of re-ignited the fire of chasing rabbits with beagles because my buddies kept doing it. And then he got a little older and I was like, I think he's old enough that I could like take him. So I took him a couple of times, you know, he was little. So if there was deep snow, he rolled around on my shoulders and, you know, shot some rabbits. So that's when I was like, I'm getting my own, my own dog, my own beagles. So I got, I got a beagle, I got a female that year. I want to it was like 2019 probably.

And she was started already. So she was like a year and a half old, met a guy, a younger guy that was like big into raising beagles and he had a whole bunch of them. And he was just kind of going, like a lot of those really intense beagle guys or houndsmen, they kind of try to build their pack, right? So sometimes they got to, they have a lot of dogs where they maybe want to have like a little faster pack or a little better cold nose, whatever they do. And fortunately for me, this dog was small and was a little bit.

He didn't really know because she was so young. He's like, I got to, you know, kind of invest some effort into a different kind of line of dogs. So that's what they do. They kind of like rotate through the raised dogs and sell them, use that money to maybe either buy a different dog so they can, you know, breed all that stuff. Well, I'm not that crazy to do it. I just want a dog that listens and that can chase and circle a rabbit. Like that's kind of how me and my buddies have always been. So I got her started. And then like a year later or two years later, I got.

Nate Rozeveld (05:40.396)
like another dog from him that was also like a year old. So these dogs, which is really nice for Beagles because he already, you know, had them like learning how to do certain things and recall it was more of a, I just had to hunt them kind of a thing. And which was really good for me at the time. Cause I've been, I'd never had raised a Beagle. Like I had raised upland birds or retrievers and stuff like that. So that was really nice. But then I also have a German or not German. He's a wired hair pointing graphon.

And like I've had him as a puppy and I trained him. so all that this, yeah, they're kind of, he's got like a beard and he's got like, you know, his whole coat. So I've done a little bit of everything like in that regard, but primarily my dogs are either like retrievers or like ducks, geese, pheasants, or they circle rabbits. I don't have any coon dogs. I don't have any coyote dogs. I don't have any bear dogs. I kind of just have the two little beagles. And then the, then I have the family.

Dan Johnson (06:13.919)
Is that a long hair dog? Yeah, okay. Yep.

Nate Rozeveld (06:37.87)
retriever type dog. So that's kind of, but it's been a, it's been a big thing in my life for, you know, last five years. We go pretty much every weekend starting January 1st with like a group of buddies. Like there's a community where from six to seven of us to two or three of us, we have like a Snapchat group all about it. We bring new hunters in that way. Like that's, that's a big part of my, my winner is, you know, chasing rabbits with the Beagles.

Dan Johnson (07:02.517)
Yeah, man, that seems like fun. I mean, it seems like not only fun, but like a no pressure type deal. It's like you're almost there to run the dogs. If a rabbit pops out, great. You know, like, I don't know, it seems really fun.

Nate Rozeveld (07:09.398)
Yes.

Nate Rozeveld (07:17.876)
It is like the, passion for, I guess, like if I compare, you know, hunting with dogs versus like white tail hunting, cause those are like the two things I kind of do. it's, there's an immense amount of like detail and pressure to execute, right? Like, my gosh, I had to be on my A game if I want to get a chance. And then when you do have the opportunity, you got to like do all these things with your bow or pull back, you know, the whole, the whole thing.

When you're out chasing rabbits, it's literally you're talking with your buddies. You're spread out. You could be right next to each other if you want. There is no pressure. It's okay if the rabbit wins. It's kind of fun that the rabbit wins. Your buddies start shooting and they all miss. You are just razzin' them the whole time, just giving the berries. You can challenge yourself. A lot of times I'll use a smaller shotgun, like a 410, single shot maybe, or I use my .22 pistol, or I have a single shot 410 pistol.

Dan Johnson (08:01.812)
Hahaha.

Nate Rozeveld (08:14.402)
Like just to kind of make it hard, you know, hard. Cause the shooting is the fun part, right? Like don't get me wrong with the rabbits can get, they taste well, you can eat them, you know, they're relatively easy to clean and all that stuff. But for me, it's all about hearing the dogs go crazy, seeing them work real hard, going with your buddies. Like I rabbit hunt by myself, but like out of 10 times of rabbit hunting, I might only go once by myself. It's usually a buddy thing or a group of guys.

It's fun when you have like five or six guys that all got like, my thing is always like, I'll take you, you know, for a little bit, see if you like it. But if you want to be like in the group, you got to find some spots to rabble hunt. So we have a lot of spots. It's a lot of fun to, are we going this week? Where are we doing? You know, et cetera, et cetera. And then our dogs all hunt really well together. So I have like my two, my buddy's got one, other buddies got access to a couple other dogs. So like the, the, the Beagle community, if you get a group of friends, like

you kind of like share your dogs. Like my dogs don't just hunt for me, they hunt for the whole group. So if you get some buddies, like, hey, yeah, run my dogs, please. So a lot of times we'll take some other dogs with us and kind of introduce them into our core group of three dogs and watching like five or six dogs get just absolutely tore up and excited. Chasing a rabbit is like, it makes me smile and it's lot of fun. And it's easy to take a kid to do. Like having my son go with me, he loves it. Now there's times where he didn't love it.

Dan Johnson (09:20.959)
Mm-hmm.

Nate Rozeveld (09:42.338)
Every time but now if I don't take him he's kind of like pissed at me like come on dad. I want to go you know

Dan Johnson (09:46.408)
Yeah. Yep. Yep. I got to I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately, and that is the whole.

How do I put this like camaraderie side of things for the outdoors? And I don't, other than going fishing with my son, and I did go on a hunt with a guy in South Dakota this year, and it was just me and him, but I don't have a group of guys around where I live that I go and do outdoor things with. I pretty much, if I'm gonna go fishing, I take my son. Turkey hunting, I take my daughter now.

you know, for youth season, I don't even know. I can't even remember. I don't even think I went out this year for myself. I just go do that. my comradery is usually just with my kids, but I don't have a group of guys where they're like, all right, let's go on the lake and go fishing or let's go push some pheasants or, like my uncle back in the day, he had a group of guys that go drive roads out in the country and try to kick up some pheasants or they would, you know, they get together and do some turkey hunting or some.

deer drives or shit like that. I don't have that. And it's not like I'm sitting here looking for a buddy. Like a wanted ad in a newspaper where it's like looking for single male or like that. But yeah, exactly, Looking for married or single male who has access to a couple thousand acres to do outdoor stuff on.

Nate Rozeveld (11:01.876)
Hahaha

Yup.

Nate Rozeveld (11:09.998)
With access to a couple hundred acres of land, you know.

Nate Rozeveld (11:23.394)
Southeast Iowa.

Dan Johnson (11:24.587)
Exactly, exactly. So I don't have that, I have been interested. Before I go to this next point, I do want to say I will have much more involvement in what dog gets picked next time for our family, because I'll tell you right now, I'm not spending the amount of money that basically this dog that I have is, we spent

like two grand on it, right? Two grand. And just to feed it and let it out of the house. The kids don't really play with it. My wife takes it on some walks, you know, but nobody really does anything with it. Anytime there's a knock at the door, goes bananas. And then my wife gets pissed at it. So it's basically like, hey, why don't you give us $2,000 and we're going to make your life more expensive and more complicated.

Nate Rozeveld (12:03.704)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (12:24.147)
So the next dog I get, I wanna get a lab, not for any type of pheasants or waterfowl, but like shed hunting. I wanna try to teach it, like teach a dog to find sheds.

Nate Rozeveld (12:36.992)
It's, it's a whole different dynamic when you go from like a working dog or a dog with a purpose to just like a, an ornament, right? Like my dad always jokes around that horses are like yard ornaments for people because he grew up a dairy farmer, you know, so he's cows and he's like, I don't get why you just have that horse that just sits out in your yard, you know, all the time. Well, granted there are people who do use their horses and do all that, but dogs have kind of become, you know, really similar to that. Like there's a lot of breeds that are just literally to

I don't know, maybe they're just there to make you feel better because you have a dog. I've never really been in that head space where it's like, yeah, I really want this dog. It's so pretty. Oh, it sits on my lap. No, I want a dog with a purpose. And don't get me wrong, I do have indoor, outdoor dogs. One dog right now, stays, if we're home, he's inside. And then I have dogs that are in a kennel. So I've kind of bounced back and forth between them.

Dan Johnson (13:10.154)
I don't know.

Nate Rozeveld (13:32.27)
Gosh, it infuriates me. My mom's got this little toy Australian Shepherd, so things like tiny, right? They're supposed to be 30, 40 pound dogs that can chase cattle, and they're awesome. They can launch in the air and catch a frisbee. No, she's got this little itty bitty thing, and every time they're out of town, it's gotta come over to our house. And it barks at me in my own house, it pees every time I look at it funny. It's just, it's worthless, right? It's just this thing that it winds, and it's like, how does something so little make so much noise?

Dan Johnson (13:37.194)
You

Nate Rozeveld (14:00.64)
And yeah, so I feel your pain, I feel your misery, I think I'm sure a lot of guys are in the same boat as us right now, but just, do want to preface that I'm not the greatest dog trainer by any means. I feel like I get better with every dog I do get, but there is something to say about finding the right kind of like breed, mentality, what you kind of want, but then you also have to be like extremely consistent. you almost.

Dan Johnson (14:04.746)
You

Dan Johnson (14:13.002)
yeah.

Nate Rozeveld (14:28.462)
It's easier to raise a dog than a kid obviously, but that first little bit of time when you have a dog, there's so many things you have to do right off the bat to kind of shape this dog or mold this dog to an extent. And I had the dog that I took out at Pheasant Hunting this year, he's got a different personality, right? I joke around that he's gay. That's just my thing. It's like this dog is the most timid. He's just flamboyant. He's got the pretty hair and look at him funny and he cowers.

but he listens really well. So I'm like, I got a gay dog. This is terrible. And, well, you know, we're hunters. We got it. You know, nothing wrong. Hey, if that's your flavor, that's your flavor. But for me to want to have a hunting dog doesn't really work. But I didn't really raise him the best way I probably could have, because I was like, what do I do with this? I don't know what to do. So my buddy, who I went to South Dakota with, he's

Dan Johnson (14:59.179)
Well, we just got canceled, so there's that.

Dan Johnson (15:07.306)
you

Dan Johnson (15:14.25)
You

Nate Rozeveld (15:24.812)
huge into dog training and just spending a couple days with him and him seeing the dog, he gave me so many pointers. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna start implementing those. There's still hope, hopefully, but he's never gonna be that, he's not gonna be that Dan Johnson middle linebacker, know, I'm gonna go beat some ass. This dog is just gonna be like, run around and I might freak out if you shoot a gun, I might go get the bird for you, but I'm just gonna have a good time. That's what I have currently with him.

Dan Johnson (15:40.778)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (15:45.138)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (15:50.635)
yeah. No, I'm not a middle linebacker. I just have a couple bad knees, dude. So I guess, yeah, so I skipped the whole athlete part. And I'm just the end result of what an athlete would have went through if he did play a of sports. there's that.

Nate Rozeveld (15:54.926)
So you look like it.

Nate Rozeveld (16:10.67)
Yeah. Oh, that's great. So, but dogs can cause a lot of stress in the family. Like that's another thing I get. A lot of people don't, don't understand. Like you got to like timing. Like I talked to a lot of guys that, know, I have some buddies that are like really invested in the hound game. And it's just, if you want to deer track and like the other thing I was thinking about, like if you want a dog that want to shed hunt, you could probably train, you could probably have a dog that could shed hunt for you and also deer track for you. Like that's a really cool tool to have in a really, you can have a family dog.

that can go shed hunt with you in the spring and then go on tracks with you in the fall. And then like in the off season, let's say summertime or whatever you're not hunting, you can still do those activities really easily. Like go for walks or hang out with the family, retrieve in the yard. There's all those things you can kind of sprout the year to give the dog a purpose to continue to keep them sharp. And I think that's the time commitment that a lot of guys don't realize. Like every day go down to my dogs who are outside.

Like when I feed them, I have like a little ritual I do with them. You know, I'm constantly doing things with them so they have like recall. We go for walks, like I'm working on recall, working on loading them up into a box. Like there's all these things you gotta do to have a dog and it's a huge commitment to have a working dog, but it's totally worth it, even if you might have a little bit of you know, special, a special one you gotta deal with, but it's a lot of fun.

Dan Johnson (17:27.657)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. So I used to hunt by a farm, on a farm that the guy had hounds, right? He had, man, think at peak, the peak, he probably had 20. And so all day long, these dogs would bark and they'd, And so, so just imagine, I can't imagine listening to that.

I can't imagine the wife wanting to just stay married to this guy because anytime a car drove by, and just all day, it was hard for me. The only way that I stayed hunting on this property is because there was big deer on it. But if there was no big deer, there's no way I could hunt it because of the constant just noise that these dogs put out. so anyway.

Nate Rozeveld (18:19.15)
Mm-hmm

Nate Rozeveld (18:26.71)
You could train them not to do that. I have hounds that bark on beagles and they very rarely bark in the backyard, but it takes effort. And I only have two opposed to 20. So that guy probably was like, you know what, I'm cutting my losses here. Like I'm just going to deal with it. So, but yeah, it's, I hate, so I love my dogs barking when there's a rabbit, but if there's nothing, gosh, it's just like, shut up. Like I don't want to listen to this, but.

Dan Johnson (18:28.703)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (18:39.624)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (18:49.492)
Yep. Yep.

Nate Rozeveld (18:51.214)
So, but yeah, what you need, you, I kind of feeling on this, this whole thing that we kind of started off this podcast, you are looking for a friend who, you know, has opportunities to do things with you. Like I have dogs, we can go rabbit hunting together. We can do all these things. Maybe I can like, you know, bunk up in your, in your like your shop there or your little podcast studio. I can live there for like six months out of the year, get my Iowa resident tag, and then I could hunt Iowa and Michigan and we can go rabbit hunting and stuff anytime you want.

Dan Johnson (19:14.794)
Okay, there you go.

Nate Rozeveld (19:20.684)
I think we're onto something here.

Dan Johnson (19:20.809)
Yeah. Okay. Let me ask. Let me ask my wife if I can have a dude move into my office. It's like some random dude or you're not random, but like some dude move into my office and he's going to live here for six months and then he's going to go back to Michigan. Six months. Yep. Yep. So yeah, we'll see what like, what are you married? Okay.

Nate Rozeveld (19:37.73)
Six months, know, quotation. Yep.

Nate Rozeveld (19:44.91)
Yes, oh yeah, I would die if I did that.

Dan Johnson (19:48.05)
So not only would you have to move here, but like your entire family. we would have, do you think you could move your family into like a hundred square foot office?

Nate Rozeveld (19:57.794)
Well, I do construction, so I could just put a lift kit on that, you know, just kind of make that a whole suite up there. So not only would you get a friend, you could also get some equity into your house, because I would do little renovation for you. Yep. This could work. This could work.

Dan Johnson (20:01.526)
yep.

in the house.

Perfect. Well, let me run that by her. Let me run that by her and we'll see what she says about that. Are you stupid? No, no way you're going to do that. Yeah, well, especially you would have to come downstairs into the house. So you have to go through the garage, come downstairs, and then use our bathrooms. And so like, my God.

Nate Rozeveld (20:18.026)
Yeah. You think that's funny? Yeah. Yeah. My wife would be like, absolutely not. Like, no way.

Nate Rozeveld (20:36.302)
So it's not like a hard transition. I can't just be like, you know, that's them over there. This is us over here. And be like, hey, we're completely intermixed with your family.

Dan Johnson (20:43.113)
Yeah, exactly. You guys would cook in our kitchens and stuff like, God, true friendship. Yeah. I don't even think my wife, if my brother started going through hard times, I don't even think my wife would want my brother and his family in the house. That'd be weird. Anyway.

Nate Rozeveld (20:48.406)
It would have to be a true friendship, Dan. Like we really would have to like each other for this to work.

Nate Rozeveld (21:04.96)
All right, I'll accept defeat.

Dan Johnson (21:06.844)
Okay, well, didn't I haven't said no yet. I haven't said no yet. Let me think about it. How about I just say let me think about it. Okay. The other thing I've been thinking about lately, and I know we haven't we haven't talked shit about deer yet, but trapping. Have you ever done trapping? Do you trap at all? Yeah.

Nate Rozeveld (21:11.342)
man. Okay. Okay.

Nate Rozeveld (21:26.19)
I do not, but I want to. And it's, to me, the reason why I don't is a time thing. Like that's the one thing that's kept me from pulling the trigger on it. It's like, okay, because I was kind of doing some research. was like, does a trail camera count as your 24 hour check? Like if I just set a cell camera right on a trap, will that count? I, it seems like it's a gray area. So I'm just like, ah, I'm not going to risk it. Cause like to be like, if I want to trap, like I'm going to trap.

Dan Johnson (21:46.354)
yeah.

Nate Rozeveld (21:55.714)
Like I don't want to just be like, I have one one out. It's like, no, I have all this space. Like I am going to just like litter my properties with snares and footholds and all this stuff. I'm going to be like, I'm going to trap. So I kind of go hard in the paint when I do something. it's like, so that's, that's the number one reason is do I have a lifestyle where I can, you know, add that, you know, loop into my day. And right now I just, I just don't.

Dan Johnson (22:04.842)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (22:21.163)
because it's not just a one day thing, right? If you're gonna put traps out, you gotta put traps out for like a week, right? And you gotta check them every day. So I definitely can't do that, but I want, I don't know. I wanna go up in my, here in my backyard's a big field and there's a fence line that's pretty, you know, overgrown fence line with some trees and grass and stuff in it. So I wouldn't be opposed to

Nate Rozeveld (22:27.886)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (22:51.295)
maybe asking the farmer if I can run a trap line down that fence line or something like that. But the other thing is, okay, I've trapped the raccoon or the possum or whatever gets in it, skunk, right? Right, that's my luck. Hey, I got three skunks today and they're still alive in the trap. Yeah. And so that's the thing. Like I envision me liking it, but then once I do it,

Nate Rozeveld (22:56.867)
Mm-hmm.

Nate Rozeveld (23:05.006)
Skunk.

Dan Johnson (23:20.297)
I'm just like, okay, now I have to clean, try to get the fur off all these things. And when I did it with my uncle, we were gone all day long. dude, he had hundreds of traps out. And we would leave in the morning and we would go get all these, you know, check these traps, these muskrats, in the ditch for coons, even some beaver traps and things like that.

Nate Rozeveld (23:22.99)
Mm.

Nate Rozeveld (23:30.626)
Mm-hmm.

Nate Rozeveld (23:46.271)
Yep.

Dan Johnson (23:48.651)
Most of the time we were catching these coons and muskrats. And then he would start the skinning process on them. And that would take another additional day. And so he liked doing all that, but he didn't have his kids in the activities that I have mine in. Obviously that was years and that was like shit 30 years ago when I was doing that with him. And so I...

Nate Rozeveld (24:05.23)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (24:15.389)
I envision the fun, but then the logistics kicks in and it keeps me away from it because of the commitment, the time commitment that is involved with it. So I don't know. Yeah.

Nate Rozeveld (24:28.406)
100%. Like that's the, that's the hardest thing for me to, well, I guess, you know, I'm married, have a kid. He's, I only have one kid. He's, he's going to be nine here pretty quick. So it's like how I've structured my like day job and like my, my career path essentially to allow me to have certain flexibilities. Right? Like if like my wife's got a job, she works full time, which is awesome. I kind of feel like you almost have to do that, you know, these, this day and time. Um, so then it's, you know,

her job she has to be at. So I've had to have my life in a way where Henry's sick or I gotta do something, I'm the guy that's gotta be able to drop everything and do that, which was okay with me, because it's like, that also allows me the flexibility if a cold front hits, I can be in a tree in the fall. So it was kinda funny, you talked about your son wanting to be a plumber, invest time, or I think it was plumber, maybe HVAC, I can't remember what trade he was talking about plumbing.

Dan Johnson (25:13.546)
Yep.

Dan Johnson (25:22.421)
Plumbing, yeah, was like, yeah, one day he was just like, how much money does a plumber make? And I'm like, well, that's a good question. Let's look it up. So we looked it up and it's like guys in the trades, like at his age, nobody wants to work hard anymore. So I told him, I'm like, hey dude, if you work hard, you could make some good money. You might even be able to start your own business and make some really, really good money being a plumber. And then he was like, okay.

Nate Rozeveld (25:38.691)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (25:51.55)
So he's like, will I be able to fish? I'm like, if you own your own business, dude, you can do, you can fish as much as you want. And so he's got this idea in his head now where he's like, I can start my own business. I can be a plumber and then I can go fishing as much as I want. And I said, yes, that's true. But do you also know that plumbing means you might be up to your elbows or knees in shit and some days.

Nate Rozeveld (25:51.746)
Mm-hmm.

Nate Rozeveld (26:18.584)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (26:20.262)
and you'll have to deal with that. He's like, hmm, I guess I can deal with that if I get to go fishing as much as I want. So.

Nate Rozeveld (26:24.33)
Yep, he's a construction worker. Boom, he's there, he's got it. Yep, he's in the trades. So I want to pivot on that a little, or kind of bounce off that, because when I heard you talk about that, I was like, okay, that's kind of like, I get it, because that's kind of what I've done, except I went to college. as soon as I got out of high school, I've never been an employee. I've always worked as a self-employed subcontractor, mostly through my dad and other guys, because my dad owns a construction company.

Dan Johnson (26:27.945)
Yeah, exactly. He's in the trades. He's in the trades. Yep.

Dan Johnson (26:39.082)
Exactly.

Nate Rozeveld (26:54.274)
and then I had to like supplement that with some of my own work, side jobs, et cetera, you know? and, but I wanted to be a nurse. Like I was going to either be a registered, I was getting my four year degree as a nurse. And then I wanted to get like my, be a nurse in ethicists. Like that was kind of like my, my, my trajectory. Like that was what I was doing in high school. And I was like, I'm going to work with my dad as much as I can. I'm going to go to college. I'm going to pay for like, I had this kind of mindset. Like I'm, I'm not afraid of hard work. Like then once I got in the other side.

I was like, sweet, I can work in a hospital, only gotta work three days a week, 12 hour shifts, big deal, I got four days to do whatever I want. So when I started getting into that, like at the time college was a lot different than it is now, it took me like five years to get in the program. So for five years I worked really hard, learned the craft of being a carpenter, running jobs for my dad, et cetera, and then got into school.

And at the time I was still doing like night classes, like do my credits are here and there as I was waiting to get the program. Got in the program when I was like in my early twenties, like 24 maybe 23. And oh gosh, I hated it. Like I absolutely hated being like stuck in a hospital setting with the type of, you know, dynamic work environment. And it was like, need a bail. Like this is not me. I don't want to do this. I want to, you know, take that, business approach.

And it was a big deal. when I, I was married at the time, uh, we had a kid on the way, kind of a thing. And, uh, I was like, you know, I just to be happy, I need to go hard in the paint, you know, in this, you know, construction side. So I bailed on school. have like one, I think I have like a year and a half and I'd have my bachelor's, but I was like, yeah, piss on it. So, uh, I went hard in this other, I like continued to like, you know, hone my craft and to what I do today. So like about that 10, you know, it was like 10 to 15 years of me just.

grind and learn and work in crazy amount of hours to pay for things and buy a house, just good hard work ethic. But that allowed me to understand where I need to be. And that came into allowing me to be where I am now, flexibility to do the things I really enjoy. But to bring this back around to trapping, I can only push that envelope so far. There's limitations. Yes, you're a business owner, you're self-employed, you can do what you want. You can go hunting and fishing, whatever you want.

Nate Rozeveld (29:15.064)
But guess what, if you go too far that way, you ain't gonna have any work the next week. And you're not gonna have, you know, there's bills, so there is a really fine line. So I think a lot of times people, like, I've always tried to be the guy that appreciates the success, because some of the clients and homeowners I work for are really well off. And I always talk to them and try to learn as much as I can. Like, how did you get here? And there's some people that just kinda grow up in a family with money, the typical family like that. But there's a lot of people who...

had to do exactly what I'm doing right now. And it's just in different forms, right? Like they had to find something they're passionate about and then they made some really good investments maybe, or they built a business and sold it, whatever that may be. And I always was inspired by that, because I was like, okay, I'm seeing face value that this is awesome. Like, my gosh, I can't believe they're driving that in to build the house this big. And they're maybe my age or whatever, but it's like, you know what? They had to work really hard to get to where they wanted. And I'm like, I'm doing the same thing, but I wanna go kill white tails.

You know, do those things. So trapping is just that thing that's like, gotta just like, as of now, it's like, yeah, I'm not ready for that, you know, but I would love to, dude, you know how much fun that would be to like set up the trap, get it in the right spot. Like I think coyotes, you know, you see the tracks, you see whatever. I got to get a coyote in this wide open landscape, right? Hundreds of acres, wide open field maybe. He's got a step foot on this little.

Dan Johnson (30:12.948)
Yeah.

Nate Rozeveld (30:39.276)
you know, half dollar thing or whatever it may be and I gotta catch them like that. I can see why guys love it. And maybe if they're like hundred bucks a coyote, maybe I would do it. But as of now, that's not the case.

Dan Johnson (30:39.53)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (30:50.29)
Right, right. I'll tell you this, man, kind of going back to that college thing, dude, I was not built for college, man. I went four and a half years. It took me four and a half years to graduate. And other than liver damage, didn't, I didn't, I really didn't take anything away from college, man. It was, it was worthless. And so this is where me and my wife,

have a huge disagreement. She's like, go to college, you you gotta go to college. And I'm like, actually, no, you don't. Right? Cause I went to four and a half years of college in my head. I was like, well, by the time I'm 30, I got to make this much money and I got to be doing this and I'm going to be the VP of this. And then I'm on my way to president or whatever the shit is. And then really what it, all it did was set me up. It's a long way of setting me up to realize I was not built.

Nate Rozeveld (31:24.812)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (31:47.764)
for that type of shit. Like I was not made to sit in a cubicle in front of a computer. But what I've done now is I've replaced that for what I'm doing now, sitting in front of a computer. At least I get to do what I love. Like I'm in front of a computer eight hours a day now. But outside of that, I get to talk about what I love. whenever there's a kid that's sick, I'm the guy who changes his schedule.

Nate Rozeveld (31:47.927)
Mm-hmm.

Nate Rozeveld (32:01.934)
Yes.

Nate Rozeveld (32:16.8)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (32:17.479)
around like, hey man, kid's sick today, Nate, I can't do this podcast, we're gonna have to reschedule it another day. And so I'm the guy who makes the that, those adjustments. But from like a going to college standpoint, man, I feel like, especially in this environment, if you wanna go be a doctor, if my daughter wants, cause my daughter's like, I wanna be a lawyer or a pilot. Those are two things she wants to be.

I'm like, okay, well, you gotta go to some form of school for that. But I was telling my wife and I was like, my youngest son, he's only seven, right? But he's like, I wanna be a firefighter. I'm like, cool, they got firefighter schools. It doesn't take you four years to go through it or a plumber. And I was like, you know what? I'll let you live in my house for four years after high school, almost like college. It's like college, right? Four years, then.

Nate Rozeveld (32:48.29)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (33:14.185)
or in that four year, you know what you can do in four years if you were building your own business, right? If my son wants to be a plumber, he can go to his trade school for like a year, let's just say, to be a plumber. Then he can start setting up his business, which I will help him with, for three years. And now he's got, he's 23 years old and he has some kind of trade degree.

Andy's got three years of experience. You know how far ahead he will be from his peers that are just getting out of college at that point? Like there's no debt. There's no financial debt. And the only thing you've done is just created equity in yourself. That way you can go to a company and say, listen, I know I'm only 23, but I have three years of experience in the trades. you know, like, I don't know. I just.

Nate Rozeveld (33:49.358)
Mm.

Nate Rozeveld (34:08.908)
Your ceiling is so high in construction, no matter what that may be. that's kind of a hard thing to explain to people. there's a saying, like there's always going be ditch diggers in the world, right? Like some people are just wired a certain way and they are really good at, you know, in their lane, right? And that might be their ceiling, right? Their ceiling might just be like, I'm going to be an employee for someone. I'm going to make this much money every year.

Dan Johnson (34:12.18)
Yep. Yep.

Dan Johnson (34:22.282)
Mm-hmm.

Nate Rozeveld (34:34.454)
And that's my life and I'm happy with that. I have no issues with those people. I need guys like that. Capitalism needs guys like that, right? If you're in a business, you need a hard worker, but then there's potential that your kid may have other aspirations, may have the desire to do other things. if you feel like, even if you're in these shoes, anyone who's listened to this might be like, man, I'm in my early 20s. I don't get to hunt as much as I want. I'm so limited because of work.

and I'm just not happy. Well, just look at yourself and think, okay, what can I do if maybe the career path you're in or the space you're in, is there anything you can do to like, you know, elevate your game into a point where you don't have to rely on that person to, you know, have income for your household or for yourself? But construction's great for that because if he wants to work his butt off for five years and he's willing to be able to live with you, a parent, whatever that may be,

he can really go hard in the paint. But there's freedom in that and you have to be able to handle that freedom. That's the factor there. And having a father figure like you who obviously has to handle freedom in a way you have is a really big thing. Because I learned my work ethic from grandparents or my dad. Seeing them have to, they had to work every day to make the farm, to make money on the farm.

No one was holding a gun to their head but themselves kind of a thing. So if you find yourself that you're like, Hey, I have, I'm very motivated or I have aspirations to, know, be a business owner or something like that. Any kind of like construction E thing. There's so many avenues. And like you said, a big thing is experience, right? Like don't just be like, Hey, I'm going to go restart my own plumbing company because I want to like, no, you need to like learn the ins and outs and grind through it. And I think that's why it's so rewarding because like I am where I am today because of 15 years of

Like I love working towards something. I love doing that and don't get me wrong You can get a degree like my wife. She's you know, she's got her masters So she's like the complete other aspect of this. She she went to schooling. She did awesome in school She always got really really good grades It was like her gift right and I think that's the thing like always like my son whatever his gift may be or what it becomes like I'm gonna encourage that but I do not want to be like how it felt for me you have to go to college like you're not gonna be successful unless you go to college and

Nate Rozeveld (36:58.286)
Let me tell you what, when I had to tell my, when I called my dad and said, hey, I'm not going, you I think it was like I was a week or two into a semester. I was like right in that window where you had to make up your mind or you're going to pay for the whole thing kind of a thing. And it had been eating at me for probably like two or three months. And I called him up and I said, hey, I'm going to, I come work for you full time? Like you got enough work, you know, like kind of just, you know, small talk. And he's like, yeah, like.

I wish you worked more than you do right now, of a thing. And I was like, I'm done with school, man. I just, don't have it. And he looked at me on the phone. He's like, hey, I understand. I'll support you, but don't do this for me. And I was like, no, sir. This is strictly on my shoulders. And then the phone call with my mom was a little different. She was like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. But in her defense, I'm the oldest, right? So they didn't really know the dynamic college and all that stuff.

And, uh, but you know, fast forward to now, she's like, I'm so proud that you, you know, took the path you decided to take. And I kind of paved the way for my, my, siblings, you know, lot of them, you know, dabbled college. They don't have necessarily the, you know, all of them have degrees. I'm oldest of six kids and, uh, guess what? They're all successful. Like they're all very successful and they, you don't need that, that, that, that stamp of, know, or that paper saying you have a degree. So I always encourage anyone, like anyone that comes to me and says, Hey, I'm thinking about being a business owner.

I'm thinking about going so employed or I wanna have like this thing, I'm like, dude, do it. Like you just gotta try, it's a lot of work. Prepare yourself that it's hard, but if you wanna do it and you can handle that freedom, jump in with both feet and hang on for the ride, baby. Like it's awesome.

Dan Johnson (38:39.518)
Yeah. that's the, this is where the self-employed game, you have to have a certain mentality to be able to accept fear. Like for me, I think about money all the time. Right? And so I look at my accounts, right? I have a big amount of money.

Nate Rozeveld (38:51.822)
Mmm.

Dan Johnson (39:05.983)
like at one time a year in my account. for the most part, I get paid in the summer months when all of these companies are starting to figure out, and I'm not saying all of them, that's not how all of them are, I have majority of my income comes in that June, July, August timeframe, right? Right before the hunting season, all these deals get made and then we implement the advertising campaign.

But with that said is you see this number go down and down and down and down. And then what you have is you like, my God, if I don't make the same amount of money that I did last year, things are gonna start getting tight, right? And then what's gonna happen. And so as a business owner or someone who's self-employed, you have to like,

Nate Rozeveld (39:53.282)
Hmm.

Dan Johnson (40:02.888)
You have to have foresight in that because before I went full time in this, so I got laid off and I was lucky to have had built that and then stepped into it. man, if all of a sudden there's some kind of recession and these advertising, these companies don't want to start spending money anymore or they say, you know what, the podcast game is played out. I don't want it. We don't want to do that.

Nate Rozeveld (40:24.43)
Mm.

Dan Johnson (40:31.039)
then I'm gonna have an shit moment and I got a bucket that I'm gonna be able to survive in for a while. But then I have to wait another year in order to like do something to create that. So then I have to find other supplemental income to make that happen. like, and that's not just me in the industry that I'm at, but that's like everybody, right? Like especially concrete guys, for example, like you don't pour concrete in the winter time.

Nate Rozeveld (40:41.884)
Mm-hmm.

Nate Rozeveld (40:54.977)
Yep.

Dan Johnson (41:01.012)
for the most part, right? So that's why they're working, like these road crews, they're working 80 hours a week sometimes. And so, I don't know. But I do know a guy who's on a road crew up in Wisconsin and that dude gets laid off. He's been doing the same job for 25, 30 years and he gets laid off every September 1st, or September, October 1st, he gets laid off.

Nate Rozeveld (41:09.346)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (41:30.536)
And then October, November, December, maybe even January. So he's laid off. And then he comes back to start equipment checks in February and March. And then like they get, he does all of his work. Like he gets, so what he does in eight months, I do in 12 months. And so, and then he goes on Elkhantz and he's not married.

Nate Rozeveld (41:42.082)
Yep.

Dan Johnson (41:59.472)
Like he has no kids, he's probably 45, 50 years old now. And that's what he has decided to do with his life. So it's all about sacrifice and balance. If you're gonna balance one way, you have to sacrifice a lot in the other times. If you wanna live that kind of lifestyle, but I'm here to tell you that for the people who feel like there's only one way to do it and that's to be as big as humanly possible,

Nate Rozeveld (42:15.107)
Mmm.

Dan Johnson (42:28.765)
You can make a good living being medium, right? Even small. It depends on how you want to live your life. Like for me, I'm OK with the sportsman's empire. It's not competing. I mean, it's in the same water as, let's say, somebody like MeatEater. But it's not the most popular network. The Nine Finger Chronicles isn't the most popular.

Nate Rozeveld (42:32.354)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Johnson (42:56.81)
hunting or outdoors podcast that there is, I'm medium. And medium gets me enough money to live my life and support my family. And I'm 100 % okay with

Nate Rozeveld (43:08.802)
Yeah, yes, sir. mean, that is I'm by no means my, you know, big either. Like I just I smile and I have a good time. I do have enough work and I try my best to grow every year, which I think everyone's kind of in that mindset. But just because it is a hunting podcast, like and I think it's important to kind of bring these things up like the same way I attack my day life, like my job, my like how I'm a dad, like you just are going like that balancing act back and forth.

That's kind of like the parallel to my hunting, my hunting journey also, right? I'm always trying to improve, what can I do better business-wise this year? This job, how can I handle this job better than I handled the last? What do I need to do? Do I need to add guys to the team? Do I need to slim back? Do I need to diversify in this way? And that parallel is hunting, think, really, really well. And that's kind how I look at it. Especially if you're trying to

have a different outcome year to year compared, like there's certain guys right there, they go to Old Faithful, they have their, maybe their food plot, or if they're in a bait state, they have their feeder that they sit, and they shoot deer every year, and they freaking love it. They're like, this is my release, this is what I love, I love going to the stand on the ridge, and my cup of, my thermos full of coffee, and I'll shoot a good buck here every year. I just got, this is my thing. Which, that's fine, that's not me. I don't get enjoyment.

Don't get around there's certain times you're like November 15th. I'm gonna be I'm gonna be a certain area You know every year because that's opening day gun but the most part like that's how I that's how I like try to attack my hobbies in the same way so Be that when I switch to mobile hunting more or knock on door permission or I'm going on a state like you can have all these things like I'm just constantly trying to you know develop or build this network of like opportunities and

hunt that way. Like I hunted this year, the way I hunted this year, completely different than the way I hunted last year. Going into 2025, know, the fall of this year, I have some plans to hunt different. that's what keeps me sane. So it keeps me mentally strong, which I think that trickles down to being a good business owner that way. And then I'm a good husband that way and I'm a good father because of that. So I think a lot of guys who maybe like I listen to podcasts because this is what I always think.

Nate Rozeveld (45:34.894)
Like now that I'm a host of a podcast, I'm always like, okay, what do guys want to hear? Like what, kind of a host do I want to be? And I kind of dictate that off of podcasts that I've listened to. Cause I was, I listened to a lot of podcasts before I became a host. Like I love listening to podcasts. So I'm always like trying to like, what, what, can I like offer guys or how I want to structure that. And I think a lot of guys flee or, you know, strive to be outdoorsman, be that ice fishing, whatever fishing, hunting, trapping, whatever it may be.

Because think at the end of the day, there's something in our DNA that were that way. Like we are that way and there's like a, it's mentally good for us, it's good for the soul like Fred Bear, you know, kind of always said. And I think that's true because I have interviewed guys who are like adult onset hunters, right? They're guys who did not grow up in a hunting family. They found hunting in their 20s, maybe their 30s.

and they just because of a buddy maybe or whatever that reason they just like took to it like a fish out of you know like just I'm going hard and I love this and it's like that thing that maybe helped them get through you know alcoholism or you know depression or you know a list of things that the world has to offer that you can go to a dark hole so that is what inspires me to keep going hard and keep doing these things because I feel like it's just gonna like when my time comes to be like it's time for me no longer be on this earth like I want to make sure that

I lived the life that I should have lived. I was created this way and this is in my DNA. I don't wanna suppress anything like that. So I'm always working towards that and I always love encouraging anyone who has never experienced this to experience that. And that kinda ties us into the beginning of this, me talking about a group of buddies that I have. These buddies I have are, a lot of them are from high school, we knew each other in high school, but we also weren't necessarily like,

great friends in high school, we hung out. Some of us were really good friends, but having that bonding with them and seeing these guys get serious into bow hunting, following this path, dude, it's fantastic. It's been really good and it helps to live pretty close to where I grew up, so I have that network of people still. But I think at the end of the whole thing, I just wanna make sure that.

Nate Rozeveld (47:56.362)
I encourage as many people to get out there and enjoy this space, but you have to find your reason. You have to find your why. Like why am I going to college? Like you're like, I'm going to college so I can abuse my liver. Like you know that, or whatever that may be. Or like my wife was like, I'm going to college because I want to help people one day. You know, she's in the medical field. So like those are all the things you got to find your why. Like why am I going to wake up at 5 a.m. and go sit in that tree for four hours when it's eight degrees outside? Well because my why is,

Dan Johnson (47:59.238)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (48:05.768)
Yeah.

Nate Rozeveld (48:24.29)
I freaking love it and he could walk by. Like that's the thing.

Dan Johnson (48:25.749)
Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. You boil it down and it's almost like, I really don't do it to put the deer on the wall or to fill the freezer. I'm doing it for something else. And that's such the definition for that than changes per individual. But I do have to ask you, though I'm looking at two deer behind you hanging on the wall right now. Are those Michigan bucks?

Nate Rozeveld (48:37.985)
Yep.

Nate Rozeveld (48:47.118)
Mm-hmm.

Nate Rozeveld (48:55.66)
Yep, yes they are.

Dan Johnson (48:56.786)
And those are obviously high fence, right?

Nate Rozeveld (48:59.278)
Yeah, you know, I gotta hook up over here in Michigan that you just have them in a little 10 by 10 area, feed them lots of protein, and they grow big. It's amazing what age can do to a deer.

Dan Johnson (49:01.993)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (49:08.798)
Yeah. Dude, those are like, it's crazy because, you know, like I've talked to a lot of people throughout the course of doing this podcast and Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, they get shit on quite a bit for not having big deer, right? But

or I shouldn't say, cause you always run into someone who shoots a big deer or somebody goes into a pocket that it's way pressured. It's maybe not the best environment, but somebody goes in and pulls out a big buck, a buck that slipped through the cracks for all those years. Someone found it and then they shoot it. And it's amazing to me to see there are groups of people

Nate Rozeveld (49:56.078)
Mm.

Dan Johnson (50:08.053)
who are able to pull big deer out of shit states or what others are deeming shitty states, like the ones that I've mentioned. And everybody's got a different, it could be private, could be food plots, could be habitat management and that kind of thing, but there are pockets of really good bucks in every state, I'm guessing. So, yeah.

Nate Rozeveld (50:31.736)
Yeah, I would agree with that. 100%. Like that's how I have killed the deer I've killed. I've been very fortunate to kill some sweet bucks in Michigan. But it's like, what's your path? I, like, and I don't, mean, here in Michigan, the same, the saying goes, if I don't shoot them, the neighbor will. Or, you know, we shoot a lot of deer gun season. We have a really long gun season. Our gun season starts in the rut. Like all these excuses, right? And I grew up in that. I grew up in a hunting family that we had lots of deer like.

Dan Johnson (50:51.871)
Mm-hmm.

Nate Rozeveld (51:01.676)
We shot multiple deer every year. if you didn't shoot a deer within two days of opening day gun season, like what is going on? Like there's a lot. But what you just said, I would, as I got older and hunted on a state and saw like how other people hunted and it's like, well, that guy shot that buck in Michigan. Like if he can do it, why can't I do it? That was what started that. And yeah, it took a while, but it's possible. It is possible.

Dan Johnson (51:26.91)
Yeah. Well, Nate, I'm to get you on again here probably next month, hopefully, and we could have another BS session like we did today. Really good conversation, think, today. We didn't talk a lot about deer hunting, but that's OK because for the most part, season's over, right? However, I will say this, one caveat is that down the road for me, there are the last two

Nate Rozeveld (51:39.725)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (51:53.354)
two or three times I've driven by this field, right about last light, there's about 50 does out in one of these fields. And so I don't know how they're coming into it, but I think I'm gonna knock on a door of one of the neighbors and I'm gonna try maybe Thursday night if I have the time, which I doubt I am, to get out there and try to maybe shoot one more doe and just put her in the grinder basically and put her in the freezer.

That's an option. Will it happen? 90 % no, but I'm daydreaming in my head that it's gonna happen.

Nate Rozeveld (52:26.862)
Sounds like me moving in with you. The odds are about the same. that's good stuff.

Dan Johnson (52:34.13)
Yeah, it sounds about the same. yeah, yeah. Well, my man, yeah, I appreciate you taking time out of your day. For all of you guys who are listening, Nate does one hell of a job over at the Michigan Wild Podcast. In my opinion, he's killing it. A great avenue for stories, relatable content, especially those guys in Michigan who are looking for additional content to consume. I am extremely biased in,

who I promote as far as all the guys on the network, but in all seriousness, I'd put the podcasts on the network up against any other podcast that's currently out there. So if you live in Michigan, you should definitely be listening to Nate over at the Michigan Wild Podcast. So there's a little promo for you.

Nate Rozeveld (53:22.702)
I appreciate it, Dan. I can kind of quick bounce a little something off that, like add to that. So like being a part of, you know, doing the podcast thing for like a year and a half, I've, you know, got to meet some of the guys that are on the network, you know, talk to some of these guys and kind of like see them face to face, you know, interact with them. And as a whole, like all the guys I've talked to, they're just like, like how I was like, I'm just a passionate guy that loves the outdoors and, you know, start up like just hopped in this podcast thing and.

Dan Johnson (53:24.948)
Yep, yep.

Yeah. Yeah.

Nate Rozeveld (53:52.206)
You can learn a lot from that. today, right? you know, here, I think it's important to talk about some of the things we talked about, because we're going to that, you know, time reflection and, oh, I'm going to work out all the time or whatever that may be for your New Year's journey. But, you know, hearing us talk about like where we're always at headspace wise. And that's, that's really important. That's why I enjoyed your podcast for so long is because you're just like a normal guy that has a family that, you know, is passionate and created his, you know, his lane.

Dan Johnson (53:54.482)
yeah.

Dan Johnson (54:01.49)
Yep.

Nate Rozeveld (54:19.47)
And it's inspiring and you learn a lot. So yeah, I would like to say that I appreciate the kind words. I think I have a lot to get better at, you know, podcasting, but also I really enjoy it and really love the relationships I've built, you know, on that. And yeah, can't wait for finishing out 2025 or finishing out 2024 was great. Looking forward to 2025 and it's going to be another good year over here at Michigan Wild.

Dan Johnson (54:45.834)
Absolutely. Well, I got to end this podcast because I have to go to an orthopedic doctor to get injection in my right knee right now. that's what I, yep, exactly. So I'm a broken individual who's trying to get greased up, right? Putting grease in the joint. exactly. Nate, my man, thank you very much. And we'll talk to you when we talk to you.

Nate Rozeveld (54:53.774)
good times.

Nate Rozeveld (55:04.782)
You just get an oil change. You just get an oil change.

Nate Rozeveld (55:11.64)
Thanks Dan.

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