Show Notes
On this episode of The Nomadic Outdoorsman Dan talks with fellow BowFest vendors and whitetail fanatics Tom LaLond and Nick Queen about the balancing act of hunting and keeping your loved ones happy.
Nick and Tom are both part of the XOP team. Tom is from the great state of Wisconsin while Nick is from Dan’s bordering state of Illinois. Tom and Nick are great friends and they connected for the first time with Dan and Sam and Bowfest 2023. Dan, Sam, Tom and Nick share all of their tips and tricks for making the family happy leading up to hunting season.
Connect with Dan Mathews and The Nomadic Outdoorsman
On GoWild, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook
Shop Dan's Podcast Gear and Hunting Gear
Connect with Nick Queen
Show Transcript
[00:00:00] Alright guys, welcome back to the show. And today we are continuing our Bo Fest series. I'm telling you, Bo Fest was a ton of fun. I've never gone and set up my own booth somewhere, had people join me in there and recorded podcasts and I had so many amazing conversations. Met a ton of great people and I've got some friends now that I feel like are gonna be lifelong friends and hunting buddies.
And on the show today are two of them. I've got Tom Leland and Nick Queen. We kicked it off after just meeting over by their booth, and then we did a rock wall race, which I totally smoked. Everybody that they presented me with. And then we just hung out. We shot the courses, we hung out, went to the concerts at night.
People watched together. That was a ton of fun. And so we ended up doing a couple different podcasts together. So I hope you guys are gonna enjoy these. We've actually planned a few hunts now now that Beau Fest is over. So hopefully we can get on some deer together or [00:01:00] go and chase after something together.
But these guys are awesome. I'm excited for this one. Let's jump in.
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 to the show. I'm excited about this. I like when we have a full table. Of people. 'cause then it's like just hanging out, chatting. Good conversation. Good conversation. So hanging out is Tom Leland, I got that right? Yep, you did. I, you said it and then as soon as I had to start to say it back I was like, shoot, I hope I got this right.
Nick Queen and then my wife. Samantha, so we're here at Bo Fest, just hanging out and yeah, I'm pretty pumped. You guys are at the X O P booth? Yep. Yep. Why don't you tell people a little bit about [00:02:00] X O P and maybe a background about yourselves. Sweet. Yeah. So x O P tree stands we specialize in mobile.
Tree stand hunting, saddle hunting and accessories. Nice. I've been with X O P for a few years now. I started my, I got my, got connected with them when they came out with the Renegade saddle and I really wanted to get into saddle hunting, but didn't want to drop. The, that big chunk of change to do it, to try it to see if I like it.
So they dropped that saddle, I don't know, I think it was a Monday or Wednesday or whatever, midweek. And I saw it, bought it, and then reached out to 'em on the marketing side and got connected. And then we've been doing some awesome stuff. Mostly shows here recently. Yeah. But now it's Technically now what we're getting into is industry partner and hunt developers is basically what I do Nice for the team, and then Cool.
In addition to sales and stuff like that. Yeah. I always tell [00:03:00] everybody our hunt organizer. Yeah. Yep. That's a, yeah. If you wanna break it down, really I'm still in shock that's what I get to do. Yeah. It's a side gig that I've got and I just, I'm super humbled that. I get to do that.
It's literally been a dream. Yeah. Believe me. I'm shocked You got it too. Yeah. I love what I found I love doing is creating a platform for people to come together. Yep. Whether it's we just did a basketball camp at my kids' school. Awesome. And it's like, Everybody wants to do it, but just didn't get the ball rolling.
And we just, I just, we got it and then had other coaches coach it and I gotta just be there and help fill the gaps where needed. And it was so the same kind of thing with the hunts, let's get all these creatives together. And just see what happens and you're, let's get all the logistics together.
You're so good at connecting people. It's like you can make a friend and then you make a friend with him. Yeah. And now me and him are friends because of you. Yeah. Like that. And you're amazing at it. I feel like that's a really [00:04:00] good skill to have too, because if you like make a friend and then you're like, ah, this isn't really working out, you just connect other people and back out.
It's like doing a conference call and muting yourself. Yeah. Yeah, I can feel it out and be like, Hey. Yeah. You guys would hit it off. Yeah. But I'm like back into the shadows and you're, but I'm not interested. I'm not the third wheel in this relationship. Okay. I like that. I've never thought about it when I've gotten a lot of connections.
So I do media content creator, if you will. Yeah. Or whatnot. I've been with X O P since 2019. I got brought on as like a field staff and then just. I developed a friendship with the guys and have grown since then, and now I'm here doing content for them and helping them, with the products and testing stuff and yeah, whatnot.
And over the last year, me and him have connected and I've made so many connections in outdoor industry because of Tom. Yeah, he's been a. A great help, not just for the company, but just as a friend, so I can Is that how you guys met? Yeah. Through o p. Awesome. We connected on Instagram, [00:05:00] but before, 'cause I was seeing what he was putting out.
I liked it. And we got talking just about what you guys do and hunting and if you guys needed it. Anything and then just, And then X O P happened, and yeah. And it kept going and we gotta do some shows together, and it's been a blast. So yeah. That's why I say we banter like little brothers and we do, we definitely we definitely not even fight.
Like it's not fighting. It's like an old married couple. I get it. It's like legit, like you never know when a wrestling match might, I feel like it's like you never know if like a wrestling match is fixing to break out. Yeah. Or like just die laughing. You know what I mean? Because it's like, When somebody from the outside probably thinks we hate each other sometimes. Oh, a hundred percent. If we're not nice about, I'm like, dude, shut up, or I'm gonna punch you. We've got two more tries that I'm gonna eat. That's awesome. It's, yeah, and it's, yeah, we're both intense and passionate.
We're very passionate. Passionate and when want things to be at a high level. And so when you get two people like that, I think it's, and his, like our ideas might get us to the [00:06:00] same point, but his might be a little bit different than mine. And so in my head I'm like mine's already. I like, I've already accomplished it.
That's my, and it's like I've already got this plan and this old boy's coming in here, so it's steal it. Yeah. So it's been, it's always fun doing stuff together. That's why Dan asked me to come with him on this, adventure. It's, to have that Partner, wingman, co-host, whatever.
It's just fun. Like you have somebody to bounce ideas back and forth off. The competition is always fun, right? Yeah. My idea is better. Yeah, it could be the same idea. You just present it different ways and you just swear that Exactly. Me. Yeah. This is totally better. But I like what you said about how it just doesn't feel real that's your job.
Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like I run into that a lot with people in the outdoor industry, unless they've been doing it 20, 30 years. Yeah. It's just I still don't feel like this is real life. Yeah. Yep. And that's the most common question I feel like I get, dude, how do you get into the outdoor industry? A lot of work.
I'm like, dude, there's a million different jobs. What are you good at? What are you passionate about? Figure that out. What do you want to do? And then grind. Yeah. [00:07:00] And Don's stop. You can't slow down. So I'll, I feel like I have a. A fun story too, just that I'm proud of. So I found out exactly like I'm a writer.
I'm good at writing. And so I stayed involved just with different companies and different people through that and would, and did that for quite a few years. Just really small level, yeah, small level stuff and kept, it kept me always connected. And I feel like when, so when the door opened, when God opened the door, it was just like, it was an easy transition in and just, I just keep again, just so amazed.
Yeah. I'm just like, God, I can't believe this is real. Yeah. Like you, you did, you put this together and things just keep rolling. I'm, I've even tried to step out of it because I was worried that it was putting. Hunting above. Yeah. Other priorities. Yeah. And I don't, I never want to do that. And so I was like, Hey, God, like if this, if you don't want me to be in any of this please take it away.
Yeah. And then it literally just kept, opening and more responsibility from [00:08:00] X O P and all this stuff, and all of a sudden it's here. And it's I think the grind is what's. What's Forg not forgotten about, but you really do have to outlast. Yeah. You just have to keep doing it and, but do it in a way that fits within your schedule so you're not getting burnt.
Yeah. I would write, it would only be like an article a month. Yeah. You know what I mean? For some company from worked with minus 33 folks over there hunt worth some just some really cool different brands that just kept connections and things kept growing and then, and so I think it's anything you can do.
Yeah. That, that kind of comes naturally, if it's media, if it's creative on that side. Even if you don't feel like I've had lots of conversations. Chris Ham at h a is an awesome mentor of mine and just a guy I bounce a lot of ideas off of from life to business and stuff and I'd ask him like, Hey, is there value in writing?
Yeah. Anymore, like, where do you think he's obviously video and photo is huge. And so yeah, if you can get into that, but if all your if the time you have is for writing, then do what you have time for too. [00:09:00] So it's, I think keeping it within the bubble yeah.
That you have in terms of availability Yeah. Is super important. Yeah. I like what you said about outlasting my I guess what tip or whatever, and you're probably the same way, is I look at it as, especially with like medias and stuff like that, it's very saturated. There's a lot of people that want to get into it and whatever, and.
I don't remember where I heard this or seen this, but a guy said, when you first start doing something media wise or whatever, you probably start with ano A million people started the same way you did? Same time. Yeah. Yeah. A year from now, half them people have quit 'cause it got too hard. Yeah. Now you're only in five.
I say not even a year maybe. Yeah. But as the years go on, the less people have stopped. For sure. So you've now put yourself in the position four years ahead of the people who are starting today. Yeah. Because you started four years and didn't stop. Yeah. Exactly. And like I always had that in my head.
I gotta keep, and when it was, this was not gonna happen. I'm broke. What am I doing? You know what I mean? Yeah. And like he said, it was, I had that conversation with myself, like when I had my daughter, I was like, this is super important to [00:10:00] me. Yeah. But I got a daughter to support. I can't just, willy-nilly hunt and do what I want.
Yeah. And it was in that moment of, do I quit, God, what am I supposed to do here? Yeah. And I like everything with X O P, just my responsibilities, if you will, with them and the opportunities from Tom and. X O P just R all of a sudden just started opening doors for me. Yeah. I was like, okay. You know what I mean?
Yeah. Not that I've made it, but I get it. Yeah. Like this is those five years of honing my skills and making the mistakes when it didn't matter. You know what I mean? Like I've messed up so much. Yeah. And I look back now and I'm like, thank God I, that wasn't for a bigger company. I did for, it was just me.
Who cares? So that's how you learn though. There's exactly, and there's a huge difference between the grind and the hustle. And forcing something. Yep. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Like when you're forcing something, it's bound to fail. Like you can't just push and you get blinded by the idea of I can't fail.
I can't fail. Guess what? Sometimes failure is how you move forward the best. Yeah, absolutely. If you can learn, if you have the ability to learn from [00:11:00] your mistakes, that can. Excel you faster than a lot of different types of success camp. Yeah. And but also the hustle. You could hustle and work for years, and if you don't have that favor and doors don't open, you're stuck.
Yeah. And that's, not where you're supposed to be. Or maybe the timing's off or, like just because you work hard at it, it may not be the right thing. Yeah. Just like in hunting, if I went out. Opening morning and I tagged out, what did I learn that season? Yeah. Not very much like I was successful, yeah. There's lessons to be learned from being successful, don't get me wrong. For sure. But when you grind your ass off all season and it doesn't come together, I can go back and count. That was a mistake. I won't do that again. Yep. I'm never playing that win again. It doesn't work in that place, or I can't hunt this or this way, doesn't work for me.
And that's how the next year you correct those mistakes and you're inching closer to. The goal or whatever, when you would've never fixed those mistakes. And then, next season comes around, a giant walks under you and there's your mistake that you could have had last year. Yeah. Deal.
Yeah. And what you said too about starting at the same time and [00:12:00] after a year this many people drop off. I saw, I don't know if it was a meme, a stat, a video. I saw something when I first started podcasting. Oh yeah. That 95% of podcasts don't make it to episode 100. Yeah, I could see that and I immediately, in my mind, instead of thinking like I've got a 19 outta 20% or 19 outta 20 chance of failure, the negative to not make it, I said, all I have to do is get to a hundred episodes and I'm automatically top 5% all time of podcasts.
That's it. Just stick it out. Yep. And I was like, that's what I'm gonna do. Yeah. That's like the a hundred day rule. I think it is. Where if you do something for a hundred days Oh yeah. Build a habit. You're, yeah, you're 90, you're more proficient than 95% of the dang of the population or whatever add it.
Yeah. So it's and it, and I. I don't know for sure, but I think it was even broke down to do something for an hour a day or some time amount. Like small. Yeah. I think I know what you're talking about. I've heard that. Yeah. If you spend 15 minutes a day [00:13:00] for a year, a full year, you're 95% more for the average person that does it once a week.
I think that's, Because then, that kind of gives you, okay, I only have to do this for 15 minutes, whatever it is. Yeah. And that's attainable. One can do that a hundred percent. And that's life. Yeah, anything finances, you want to talk, like we were talking about balance and hunting, which I don't have like you try trying to, but working on that and taking steps towards it, it's, you get proficient over anything, going to the gym, whatever.
Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. And I feel like you have to build those habits around everything. Not only what you love, but the things that allow you to do what you love. Yep. Like the supporting things. We were talking earlier, About like just marriage content 'cause that's what Sam and I do a lot on the nomadic outdoorsman platforms is relatable marriage content.
Oh, it's coming up to season. My wife's getting really clingy, or she planned something. And so it's I wonder what really, what people really think about me. It's, yeah, it's, I don't know if I wanna know. It's probably not [00:14:00] positive. Those girls definitely relate to you 100%. Yeah. I get that so much where people show up and, or like we get on a call and they're like, dude, my wife.
Sent me your video. Oh, you want it in there? And then I realized you had a podcast. But like we relate, she sits and watches your videos every single night. And I'm like that's good because honestly, a lot of it comes from, some of it comes from experience, some of it comes from hearing from other people, but there's every guy relates to it, whether they're into video games, going golfing, playing poker, doing fantasy football, hunting, fishing, you name it, like we all have.
Certain struggles, and it's a balance to prioritize the things that are actually a priority, right? Yeah. Hunting is fun. It's one of my biggest passions in life. If I had to choose between my marriage and hunting, it's not a contest, right? I'm choosing my marriage. If I had to choose between my kids in hunting.
It's not a contest, but. If I put all my focus in the fall into hunting and fishing, [00:15:00] my family doesn't see that. Yeah. Yeah. That they're more important to me. Yep. And so trying to figure that out and balance it, we just figured, hey, this is a good way to make some relatable, comedic content. Yeah. I love the comedy side too.
I think that's huge. I think if you can have humor in it and show one, don't take yourself too seriously. Yeah. Yep. You know what I mean? Like when you, when if you get too serious then it's. I think that's where burnout comes from. You know what I mean? Yeah. And that's where like closed-mindedness and tunnel vision kind of comes from.
Yeah. And it's hard to pivot when you're running a business if you have tunnel vision. So I think if you can keep it. Light, but authentic and honest. I think that's huge.
All right, guys. Here is a hot tip for last minute scouting before the season starts, and that is to break out your optics and get boots on the ground on your hunting property. Find a spot where you're not gonna be noticed, where you're not gonna disrupt their patterns, but that you can observe them.
Transitioning from feeding to bedding and hopefully put [00:16:00] you in a spot to have a close encounter during season. For that, I break out my entire arsenal of Vortex products. I've got my Fury, 5,000 range finding binoculars, my razor HD spotting scope, several different tripods as well as my window mount for while I'm driving because if I see a deer out in the field and want to get a better look, I can hook my binos right to that or my spot, or right to that, and who knows, maybe it's a property that I look into getting permission on.
So if you want to check out these products, you can also save money when you head to euro optic.com. That is EU R o p t i c.com. And enter code nomadic 10 at checkout. Your guys' content definitely shows like it's normal. Yeah. Like the pains of hunting a deer hunter who's passionate about it.
Yeah. And that's very relatable on everybody. Does that, like you said, through football. There's only so many kill shots you can have, or the biggest [00:17:00] buck you've harvested. But with hunting humor, it's like that's ongoing forever. We can always do relatable stuff, but there's only so much of one type of kill you can share.
Yep. Yeah, I think making the content just to let everybody understand you're not alone in this. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, as a guy, there is that terror like, When my kids are like, dad, why do you always leave? Why do you have to go hunting again? Or If. If she's wait, there's another season, not season.
Just did that was the biggest thing for me. He's alright, I'm gonna go. I'm like, wait, you just finished? What are you going to do? I'm like, oh, now it's squirrel. Now it's frog. Now it's Cayo. There's another season. Summer we're scouting. Yeah. Summer scouting. Food plots tri. I've lost a lot of girlfriends in the summer.
'cause they're like, it's not even close to due season. What are you doing? I'm like and, but that's a good point. Like managing expectations. And going into it, understanding she got, when we got married, she understood I'm a hunter when I married her. I knew she liked hip hop dance, right?
Yeah. Did I think that was weird? Absolutely. Yeah. Like [00:18:00] she's over there trying to break dance in Springfield, Missouri with a bunch of people, and I'm like, what are you doing? She's hot, she's got a sweatpant leg rolled up, she's got high top Nikes on, and I'm like, I don't know who this girl is. She's hot.
But also, this is weird. I'm wearing camo. She's wearing high tops. How's this gonna work? 10 years later. But it's to have that, have those conversations and understand, but then also, quality time when you're around. Yeah. Like we have, we're fortunate enough with what we do to spend a lot of our day together.
Yeah. Like in and outta season, which probably helps. On your case when you go on these hunts, because I'm like, I get to spend so much time with him that I'm like, go hunting. Go out and do it. Get away from me. Yeah. Honestly, I'm like, can I have my free time out? You have to play it one of two ways.
All right? You have to be really loving right before a hunt or really annoying right before a hunt. And either way they're gonna be more happy with you leaving, kick you out for a little bit. Can't your game, you can't be in the middle 'cause they're gonna be wanting you to be more loving or yeah. I think that's been the biggest [00:19:00] Thing that I've been thankful to learn this last like year and a half, whatever it is understanding, understanding the value and balance of, of life, but also like hunting, because then it becomes a benefit to the family. I think I told you guys, my wife Kayla the other day we, she's we're out of venison and we had to cook with ground beef.
Yeah. And she's I realize I don't like ground beef anymore. So it's so it's okay now because she values that I'm, it's part of the lifestyle. Through through, and through. I'm a meat hunter. Yeah. Like she knows it. I'm going out and I'm, I'll stack those all day. Feed the family. Yeah.
Love getting big bucks. Absolutely love the strategy. Breaking it down. But if I know, okay, I've got a week to hunt the whole season for whatever reason. I'm gonna try and stack those no matter the time of year. Yeah. And I'm gonna, and if I get a nice buck, like I'm not gonna shoot a year. Yeah. I'm not gonna, I'll say that.
Yeah. I'm not gonna, I'm gonna try and not shoot a yearly, [00:20:00] spike, but, I'll hold out on the buck side. Yeah. But, and so it's seeing that value of okay, she sees it, we see it for our family, the health health benefits of it and everything too. So I think. That's been so cool to spend some time to really sit down.
And a lot of it has come from as hard as it is for me because I didn't learn a ton about great communication growing up. And my parents, we joke about it now. And so they had their way. Yeah. And it worked for them and I had to learn my way and part of that just started with asking her questions.
Yeah. Hey, what are your priorities? What do you see as quality to yeah, what fills up your cup when I'm here, like you guys said what makes you feel full When I'm here in the quality time thing, and a lot of it was like, When you're with us, when you're here with the kids present, get down and play with them and be fully mentally present.
Don't be looking at [00:21:00] OnX. Yeah. Texting buddies and stuff like that. Put the phone down, put the phone away. And when you have that time just, and it's helped, then it's helped me because I've. Cherish those moments so much more. Yeah. And really connected with my kids. And then my kids are they, build that relationship where they'll come to you with anything.
Yeah. You know what I mean? Because they know dad's not gonna just freak out. And the communications improve because I've learned how to communicate with Kayla. Yeah. Yeah. And get expectations to where they need to be and prioritize that. And that's changed our lives, but also, Our hunting too.
Yeah. And so it's okay, yeah, we're planning, we got a a team x o P hunt coming up in October. Yeah. And it's gonna be, oh, 10 days or whatever it's gonna be. Yeah. Seven days and We're ready for it. We've got it on calendar. That's the other thing I did is I put on the calendar like my whole fall basically.
Yeah. Yeah. Hey we got opening weekend at the cabin. Yeah. We're gonna be doing that. And then we've got then we'll be going to the October hunt okay. You got, these [00:22:00] couple weekends in between Yeah. Let's do some family stuff. Family stuff, yeah. Yeah. And then, October hunt and then the rutt hunt that we got coming up, the X O P rutt hunt.
And then a river float hunt that nice is gonna be absolutely sick and floating. Super hit a river float hunt. Yeah, so in Wisconsin, not for deer rabbit hole. Okay, quick. In Wisconsin. There's, you can, and I don't want to give away too much, but you can hunt on no, you can stay on. Hey, I'll get coordinates off air.
Yeah. We'll connect off air. Yeah. But no, it'd be sweet to have you so you can float down these rivers and camp on islands if they're the right type of public land. Yeah. And you can stay there, up to three nights on each island. And so yous throw a canoe together.
And then I'm like, so that's, a segue, another rabbit hole. That's the other thing. I love adventure. Yeah. And hey, same. That's Dan's. Yeah. And so that's middle name, that's what our Heart, wild At Heart, incredible book. And it talks about that, like men are, we need adventure.
That's what we're not out there [00:23:00] slaying dragons, fighting, recreation, fighting our, and Okay, so now how do we channel that? Hunting, okay how can I do it with a family on a budget? If this year it's not in the cards to go out west I would almost guarantee that every one of these beautiful 50 states has some kind of adventure that you can find, whether it's the mountains of Tennessee or public land.
Public land in general. You can kick your butt and you can find these little pockets to be like, wow, that would, what do you mean a river hunt in Wisconsin? That's crazy. And so finding that kind of stuff and doing a budget minding, 'cause I'm a Wisconsin resident, so then my tag is whatever, 30 bucks or whatever it is.
And I can go and on this adventure for, five days and I don't have to worry about travel times and, short under a couple hours. Yeah. And it's man, heck yeah. Sign me up. So I think finding, seeking that kind of stuff, i, we talked about keeping it within your bubble, if you will.
Use that term like, okay, how can I, rather than, how can I fit my family into my bubble of Yeah. Passions, like, how can I fit my passion into [00:24:00] my bubble of available time? Yeah. Yeah. I feel like it's so relatable to just work though, for people who don't have, everyone who listens to the show is outdoorsy or something, but how it's not like with working social media, our work goes with us everywhere.
And I'm so guilty of this, of putting work sometimes above my family because I can continue to grow that and chasing new opportunities. And like you were saying, instead of checking onyx when you're downplaying with your kids, it's like I'm checking emails. And To pause that, to see the priority in front of us with our family at the time, that it doesn't necessarily have to be your passion in hunting, but it can be work.
Putting that priority over your family, over your husband, and I noticed that with me. It's I am just, it's on my mind constantly and so I have to set my hours, even though I'm not an eight to five o'clock in clock out. I have to like, okay, when it's this time, like this is when we're working. Yes. Even though we're homeworking, I gotta, get stuff done.
But afterward it's family time. Let's hang out, let's have that date night. Have that family night and not let work overpower it. And the same thing for hunting. It's if you can [00:25:00] do it together and you can weave it in and you wanna go shed hunting as a family, great. If that's something you desire, but you have to like budget your time, like you do your finances.
A hundred percent. Where it's just okay, you're not gonna go out and buy a new bow when you haven't already paid rent, right? Yeah. Some of us, like some people, but yeah, some people are. Yes. Living a full life of adventure now. Yes. But yeah, you like and that's where I go.
Okay. Priorities, like family, like your spouse and your kids. Yep. And then your passions can come after that. And it's if you've budgeted your time accordingly, then it works with your available time. You've so poured into your family. You've got so much time to do it. So much. And there's a lot of people who are like how much time is that?
How much time? You'll know Yes. You really need do. Yeah. For me, My kids, they, there's no limit to how much time they wanna spend with me. And I have to understand that like they're, no matter how much time it is, they still want more. They're gonna want more. At this stage in life, my son and I[00:26:00] he loves Lego Ninjago, right?
So he gets Lego Ninjago sets. And then they all end up in one giant bucket. That was my mistake. I thousands, that was my bad. Thousands and thousands. There was a giant transforming robot that he really wanted to rebuild. I said where is it? It's it's all in here. We spent basically all of last week, Separating every Lego he has by color.
Not just color, but shade. Yeah. And then we went through and built every single Lego Ninjago set that he had. It was one night for real, we were sitting on their floor while they were in bed, they share room. And it was like 10 at night. And Dan and I are like, okay, I need a four by four size with a little hook on it, four with two hooks on it.
I can't find it. It should be your work. I'm like, Hey, we need to go to bed. We can't do that. So we forced ourselves to go to bed, but I spent. I bet you last week I spent 25 hours sorting and building all Legos with my kid. Awesome. He would've done it for 80 hours. Immediately after he's okay, let's build another one down this way.
He's [00:27:00] I gotta go get some work. So it's but at the end of the day I can go, okay, look, I did spend quality time. Like we absolutely loved it. Do I still, in a sense, feel bad? 'cause he wants more? Can't Absolutely. I can't. I can't give him more right now. Yes, but I know that I've done my part as a dad, and we got to spend that quality time.
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Download the app today and use nomadic 15. For 15% off your [00:28:00] membership? I think two things that like stood out to me that you guys are saying now. Like I'm not married, I do have a kid. Yeah. And obviously my hunting's changed because of that and really opened my eyes. But one thing that, like I grew up and it was when I like went around, my dad, he's the one that got me into hunting and all that.
I remember as a kid, like we did nothing that I wanted to do and it was always like, and I didn't hunt as a teenager because it, 'cause that's all my dad wanted. It's all he cared about. Yeah. It was never about, going to the outdoors. It was, I'm gonna go chop wood for my dad and that kind of stuff.
Yeah. And that's what developed, like I was saying, I don't have any balance. It's because whenever I got that age, That's all I knew. So I just bl put blinders on. Girlfriend's family. Yeah. Like it's hunting. And I miss my best friend's wedding and I'm, his mom still hates me. She's not, doesn't actually hate me, but she gives me grief every time.
But it was October and I'm like, what do you got married in October, dude. What are you thinking? You know what I mean? Gets married, right? Like the world revolved around me. And statistically, you're gonna get married again, so maybe That's so bad. That's so bad. [00:29:00] Jake, if you're listening, we're just kidding.
We're just, this numbers came here, guys. We hope you're, yeah, but what you guys are talking about and like I've tried implementing that more. I'm not the greatest at it, but. What that teaches your kids. Yeah, because I wasn't taught that and that's why I put blinders on. And now that I have my kid, they see it.
They do. And now then they're gonna take that on whether it's positive, because that's what they know. Dad hunts, we didn't have time to play Legos 'cause he was hunting. Yeah. Yeah. And that's how he'll treat his kids. You know what I mean? Yeah. And that's a really cool, like motivating that, you're teaching your kids a better and more balanced way to do it.
You know what I mean? I think it's even the lesson of, Hey, we have this much time, son, I give you 25 hours. You know what I mean? Yeah. Not being this hard with it, but, or blunt, but just like we had our Time's up, dude. Hit your limit for the weeks, not like that, but a less a conversation in it.
Yeah. A teaching lesson. Kids. Yes. Kids are, that's a, like I always say Man, back in the day, kids were [00:30:00] running farms at, eight to 12 years old. Oh yeah. Really? Yeah. And we don't think they can, go to the bathroom on their own without washing their hands. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah.
Maybe they don't usually, but but they're capable of a lot. They're sponges and understanding they're capable of so much. They get it. And I think if I think more and more, and I've seen it in my son, he's so intellectual and it's awesome. How old is he? He's eight.
Okay. It's Yeah. And so if I just sit down and have a conversation with them that's done so much for our relationship. Yeah. Because, and I'll and I'll be just like, Hey, I'm sorry I screwed up. Yeah. Or, and just being totally transparent. As, or as much as you can, like why, and that's been huge too. Just as he'll respect that later in time. Yeah. 'cause he'll be like, Hey, dad talked to me about this. It was a hard conversation. He talked to me about girls even just from the start. Yeah. And he didn't freak out or blow up or make fun of me. It was just, just a conversation like, oh, what do you think her, and it was never like a big reaction.
Yeah. Same thing, I think, yeah. Son, Hey we spent some time. I would love to keep doing that, but I've got these, I've got other things to get done too. A giant to make [00:31:00] sure that fuck to kill, to make sure our, you'll understand one day kid, I promise, make sure our family has food and money and whatever it is.
Yeah. I think that's also been huge is just having, truly bringing the family into the conversation and the planning of it all and be like, Hey, this is what I'm looking at in terms of, I got this show coming up and this show too. And they feel, how does that work? It outta that too, that, that is being honest with me about what's going on.
And he is, I can physically see the time he set aside. Yeah. You know what I mean? And they see the passion that we have for this. And so it. When dad spent 20, 40 hours that week with Legos, like eventually, like you, you build that time and they see that, and feel respected because yeah, that's gonna mean a ton to 'em, yeah. So I think and it's not even about the total amount of time, right? But like, when you're there, how the quality, how much are you available versus not? Because for me, I look at my relationship with my dad and I had an awesome relationship, but my dad drove truck over the road. [00:32:00] So he wasn't home that much, right?
Like he just really wasn't. There were times where he'd be gone, he'd come home for one night and then be gone by the time I woke up. Yep. But that night that he was home, we'd go out and we'd wrestle in the living room and I'd be his secret weapon. He'd launch me at my brother sideways, and then my brother got to be the secret weapon and we'd just be like, we just have time together.
And although looking at it, it was probably less time than most kids had with their dad. I remember while he was there, he was present. He was fully here. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so I'm like, that's where you can spend two hours with your kid. But if you're around them for eight hours and you're totally emotionally, mentally, physically unavailable to them that's gonna show a lot different than if you're only home for 20 minutes.
But that 20 minutes is dedicated to them. Yeah, absolutely. From the time you step in the door. It's crazy. Dad game time, whatever it is, look what I can do. Yeah. I think that's, I think as, that's huge as you get older. [00:33:00] Like you respect that outta your parents too, like him seeing you.
Yeah. Willing to put aside time for him will only make him when he gets older. Want to spend time doing what you're good at. Yeah. Which is killing bucks. You know what I mean? So we just talked to Cooper and he was talking about how he. His parents didn't grow up or like they don't hunt at all. Yeah. But he got into it.
Yep. And his dad went with him when he killed his first deer, and his dad then went out and bought a rifle. Yeah. Oh, that's, I'm learn. Dude, that's the type of stuff, like whether or not it's hunting, if it's a different passion that they have, like just find some way to connect. Yeah. Yeah. And then you're gonna find that common ground.
Like for me, I never thought I'd be into soccer. Just not a soccer player. Yeah. Nothing against it. But I was always like, Football and Frisbee and baseball and m A and all this stuff, and my kid just wanted to kick a ball as hard as he could. And so then it was like, I guess we're going outside and kicking this ball.
I'm gonna be a soccer coach. Yeah. All of a sudden, or like my [00:34:00] daughter I'm not a gymnast. Yeah. She loves gymnastics. Yeah, we bought the mat. I'm just, dude I bought the mat. I'm over there like, all right, back bend sis. Come on, pick your leg this tight. You need to do this. YouTube been how to do it, dude.
It's insane how quickly you can become a sports parent. Yeah. It sport you have no idea about. It's absolutely clueless, but, Yeah. That's awesome. Let's talk about hunting. Yes. Yeah, let's talk. Okay, so once you have all your priorities in there, then what? Which I'm still struggle with. Let's just be honest here.
Listen, I don't think it ever fully goes away. Yeah. It's something you have to work on all the time. Yeah. But like for you guys, yeah. Is white Tail the end all be all, is that Yeah. Arche, archery, rifle. Yeah. Yeah, archery. Archery. Okay. I don't gun hunt at all oh. So I grew up that way.
Shotgun hunting in. I have nothing against it. If you could kill it, legal, do it. Yeah. By all means. I want people to buy tags. That's conservation. That's put more public land, all that. Just wait until after. Archery season, right? Yeah. Yeah. Illinois just implemented their first rifle season this [00:35:00] coming year, so we'll see how that goes.
Wait, like you can actually shoot a rifle with the rifle. Yeah. I'm not sure the stipulations exactly on what kind, it's probably gonna be like straight wall or. I'm as, I'm assuming that they're just gonna have a, like a, I don't know if they're gonna, we have two shotgun seasons, technically three if you're late season and a muzzle loader.
But through those seasons you can buy a shotgun tag and then you can bow hunt. But I think. If I'm not mistaken, and I don't know this for sure, but I think they're taken away. You're not gonna be able to bow hunt during these gun seasons anymore, and they're gonna let you, but you can carry a rifle now instead of a shotgun.
You can pick. That's my mansplain of that. I think so. But I don't have anything against it. I just, I shot my first dough. At 10 yards and on the ground with a bow and geez, I was just like that. To be that close to an animal, you're about to take mind blowing to me. And there's so much that has to come together besides just raising and pulling a trigger.
Not saying that there isn't skill in that [00:36:00] 'cause there, right? But there's just something about a deer at 20 yards that doesn't know you're there. That it's just, I just fell in love. I was in the military and I was. Grew up hunting, but got away from it. 'cause of my relationship with my dad. Honestly, we moved away.
I didn't know what public land was and all my private land connection was with him. Yeah. And since we didn't have much of a relationship, I just didn't hunt as a teenager. Yeah. And after I, when I got outta the military is when I got back into it and it was the tactics of bow hunting that really just, I, the kill to me is fun and I get excited and obviously it all comes together, but when you grind too much straight and seeing nothing or chasing him or a couple different bucks and.
Am I sitting here? Is the wind, am I doing and learning all the different things that have to come together? That's what hooked me. Yeah. Not just a, I love archery, don't get me wrong, but that the tactics of getting 10 yards away from a buck that has no idea you're there and then messing it up.
Of course. Yeah. It's what you were saying earlier, the adventure, like the challenge and the adventure are really what bring value to things. [00:37:00] Like when it's easy and not saying that shooting a monster buck with any weapon is easy. Yep. Because it's just not. But when you can hone a craft and get.
Get it to a challenging point, but still a, an attainable Yep. Thing. That's when it becomes fun. Oh yeah. For me, if I walked outside out my back door, shot a buck opening morning, two minutes after shooting light every single year. We, yeah. Yeah. You're motivation to do kid. I would hang it all up. For the first couple years I'd be pumped. It'd be like I'm the world's greatest. Like one, you're gonna get worse at hunting, you're not gonna be learning anything. Yeah. Aside from like just walk outside and shoot something. Yeah. And so I feel as guys, we do need that adventure. We do need that challenge and we need to fail sometimes or just push ourselves past comfort.
I think being okay. This world we're in right now, especially in America, is all about seeking comfort. It's, you hear it on hundred AC commercials, [00:38:00] hVAC guys, and it's fine. Like that's, Great marketing, be Oh, how can you be hot for, yeah. It's not agree, so careful what you say.
Had a plane here in a little bit on the volume. You're advertising, you advertise ac I'm coming, I'm going stuff right now. But I think so I think we can and it's coming to the honeymoon, right? Like we're looking at like E-bikes are incredible. Absolutely love 'em. They're awesome, and that's a very useful tool.
Think they're awesome, but it leads that. Into that, a comfort side. So I think as long as we keep the perspective of Bebe, just all the noises at once, big old u I'm waiting for a train. Yeah. It is. Enjoying the suck. Yeah. Yep. Enjoying and it takes, you gotta tell yourself, Hey, I live for this.
Yeah. Because in the moment you're gonna be like, you're gonna forget everything preseason that you were getting excited about. Yeah. And watching YouTube's looking for and all that. Yeah. It's like you [00:39:00] got in the moment, you gotta be like, no, this is what I live for. I love to suck. I love the challenge.
Yeah. This is what I'm here for, to, to outsmart this deer. No matter how much suck you gotta go through time. No matter how much Yeah. Suck or time. Whatever you have, I got a funny story to that. Yeah. So when I said I had that smaller YouTube or whatever my buddy started it in high school, never did anything with it.
I got into filming. And he had lost his private ground and he was like, Hey man, like I don't know anything about public. I had shot a few public landmarks. He's will you take me out scouting and just kinda show me around. We went out and of course the first day we go scouting and then we did an observation sit and seen probably one of the biggest deer that I had chased ever a.
We he got shot, he was over 200 on public. He was huge. Holy cow. We called him Sasquatch. We figured him out. But he was so un killable. The guy on Pride Land are the one who ended up killing him. Yeah. But anyways so day one we see this deer out in the field and now he wants to hunt with me and I just gave him one of my spots and I'm like, crap.
So he is if you're gonna film, like why don't, why have a little thing, let's film him. To embrace the suck thing. I was in the military, so I live [00:40:00] and die by that. Because when you go overseas or you know in, in any kind of training or whatever, like when you're next to someone that is a crybaby about it, it makes everybody suck worse.
Yeah. So I was like, it was July. And I'm like, all right man. We'll see. And so the next day I took him, I packed all the camera gear on his back. He had 60 pounds of gear and I took him on a hellacious hike, like we probably hiked two, three miles. Through ditches and nasty stuff. I even tried taking the bag from him.
He wouldn't, lemme take the bag. He never complained. We went all the way out here, got set up, seen one dough, we got down and the walking path was like 20 yards behind us and we walked the walking path out and he was making, he was like, are you serious? I'm like, dude, I had to make sure it's hot, it's nasty.
Are you willing to do this or are you gonna cry in a plane when it's hard? And me and him have been, dude. Like glue ever since. And yeah. When it's time to hike two miles and we may or may not see this deer and he's willing to take that gamble and we're sucking together and laughing at each other as we do it.
Like it makes it, like you said, [00:41:00] just embracing that and yeah. So that's, I thought that was funny having the right guys around you Yeah. And gals or whatever the case is Yeah. That are there with you. All right. If you're not using tact cam's, reveal cell cameras on your hunting property for scouting or monitoring the wildlife, you are seriously missing out.
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I love that. That's awesome. Yeah. I think one thing I learned from this last hunting season that was pretty cool I. With the limited time I had I bow, I rifle hunted more than I bow hunted this last year. And that hasn't happened since I was 13 years old. And it was it was humbling, but it was cool because I took into rifle season.
I took the same bow, I'm gonna hunt like a bow hunter. Yeah. I set, we set up the stand early, but I said this is a spot I want to be at because. It's a total escape route. It from location-wise, of all the other permanent stands and everything that's been there for decades, it's, and nobody has hunted this [00:44:00] just for whatever reason and full escape route.
And it was, I think when you can take your tactics of bow hunting into any sort of other hunting, it's just it's brings it to a whole nother level. Yeah. And you can. Bring that suck of whatever it is. I think that's pretty special when you can do that kind of stuff. It just slows things down.
Yep. It really does. You have to be more aware. And that's why like you hear other podcasts they talk about like rifle hunters or kind like the general like entry, and then you drop into bow hunters and then it goes to recurve bow or trad bow, and then like you get into trappers. Yep. Now you're getting animals to step in a.
Two inch by two inch spot. Yeah. Instead of just getting within 40 yards of them. And it's just cool to continue to make things harder on ourselves. Yeah. Yeah. And then the intimacy of it, like Yeah, that's what I was saying. Like that 10 yards and just that close. I mean you, when you can see an [00:45:00] animal blink.
Yep. And get your bow drawn. Yeah. And in my case, I sell film, so trying to get a camera, get all my cameras running yeah. Yeah. It's a lot. It's a good feeling when you have to focus on not breathing too loud. Yeah. Yeah. I got, I had that happen Turkey hunting this year. I had my back to this woodlock.
I thought for sure these turkeys were gonna come out and the beans in front of me, and I hate turkeys by the way. I just Turkey it drives me nuts. And I'm sitting there and I just hear this freaking thing, pterodactyl running or velociraptor running through the woods behind me, straight up to me.
And it's like as close as we're sitting across the table. That's how close it is behind me, and I can't move. And I've got my Turkey vest on, which doubles as my seat. Yep. And I'm breathing so heavily, I'm trying to calm it down. But I can't, and I think I got spooked because it could see my body breathing.
So excellent. But it was amazing. Yeah. I never even laid eyes on the bird. Yep. But I could just hear it and like [00:46:00] almost feel it that close behind me. And then when you get that with a 150 pound animal right from the ground, all my deer early on were killed from the ground. But that's a different experience lately.
I don't, lately I've been in a tree and so it's just way different, but. Archery from the ground, I feel is the ultimate. Oh yeah. If you can make that happen, and if you do especially start out that way for one, I think you'll be a better hunter. Yeah. And for two I think you'll be hooked immediately.
I got a buddy. You're saying like your thing. Last year mine was, I got a bunch of my friends into it for the first time and I got one of my, or two of my buddies killed their first deer ever. Another one shot one. And we never, he went on private that we didn't have access to and the guy wasn't gonna let us.
But. Sharing that experience with them. That was, that Drew a whole new passion for me was getting new guys into it and realizing, stepping back on, it's not all about just killing a giant and Yep. The, you hear the experiences from them, from their eyes. You're like, man, I remember when I [00:47:00] was, 12, 13, and that's how I thought.
And like the excitement of a six pointer walking in and seeing them, what do I do? What do I do? Yeah. And being able to walk them through that process was truly amazing. Yeah. I think that's the next step after like honing in your skills is getting other people into it. Yeah. And just watching them get pumped.
Yep. You were pretty excited after shooting yours, but Yeah, it hasn't been, I think the most recent one was like getting my son out there. Yeah. Yes. I got him out there last year and it's weird 'cause like in Missouri it's six, you can hunt at six years old. Sure. I grew up in Wisconsin. It was 12.
Now, apparently there's no age, like you can hunt whenever. But watching him and his passion, I was sitting in the blind and he goes, dad, I think I just heard a deer. And I'm thinking, okay, dude, you're not paying any attention at all. I'm the one watching. You're on the iPad trying to stay warm. Like you keep, it was freezing, just refill after refill of hot chocolate and opening little Debbie's and just hanging out with him.
But I'm [00:48:00] like, dude, you did not hear a deer. But it was like every 10 minutes. Yep. What's that? I just heard a deer. Did you see mine? I'm like, I'm looking at a wide open bead field, dude, you And, but I play into it. I want him to be excited. Yeah. I'm like, you did? Where is it? Let's see, let's take a peek out the back of the blind, oh my God. And we had so much fun. And there's just, there's something about getting someone else passionate. And seeing the genuine excitement on their face like that you have for something. And not, like we were talking about, like the killing being such a small part, like I think we just got a note.
Storm storms coming. Storms are coming. Yeah. It's called the podcast. Like I was saying, as a, and I, like I said, I didn't spend too much time gun hunting. When I did it was with my dad. And then by the time I got out of it and got back into archery, I think having that 40, 60, a hundred yard vision where like that's what you're honing into.
Yes, you can see further and you're paying attention to that obviously, but. [00:49:00] The things that you see bow hunting I think, and just being out there 'cause you're so observant of everything that's right around you. Yeah. Just nature and the weather changing and how fast it changing and how brutal it is out there.
But beautiful and yeah, forgiving but not, and yeah, it's, that has become just as much as a passion as anything. It's such a relief to get away. And I live in a small town, no hustle and bustle anyways, but getting away from, your phone and all that kind of stuff, it really. I don't know. It changes you, I think.
Yeah. Just being out there, yeah. There's something special. And man I really appreciate you guys hopping on. Yeah. I hate to cut this short, but people are frantically packed. They're pretty, very frantically moving around as if, I don't know what kind of storms coming in, but everyone's and I don't have enough service to even look, so I know Sam, I tried to load it.
There's vehicles driving around. People are booking it down off the mountain. They're unplugging TVs. This we could always do Part two. Yeah. If we want to get more into, can go up in the room tactics and stuff. Oh yeah, we could always do that. We'll, that'd be fun. We'll do another, we'll [00:50:00] do another chat before you get out.
It'd cool to talk about product. Absolutely. What we've talked about too. 100%. You know what I mean? Thank get Jake. 'cause he knows. Or Jack. Sorry Jack. Hey Jake. Get Jack and he knows a lot about the product, so yeah. We'll do a, we'll do a follow up. Maybe I'll just merge this all into one. Yeah, there you go.
But yeah, I appreciate you guys hopping on, where can people find you? Where can they follow along? Oh, don't worry about me. We're I'm on Instagram. It's Lethal Nick. And then lethal Prairie is the YouTube page as well, so Awesome. Sweet. Yep. X o p outdoors.com. Yep. Cool. Check out the stuff.
Yeah, I do a lot of the Instagram reels and toss for x O P two. Hey, Dan loves TikTok. TikTok. Sweet. Thanks guys. Yeah, thank you man. Thank you. We appreciate it. Thanks for having us.
