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Mike Check, Mike Check.
What's up everybody?
Welcome back to another episode of the Nine Finger Chronicles Podcast.
Usually content like this,
we're going to be talking about gear specifically,
mobile hunting gear, 3D printing.
Usually that type of content I save for the Hunting Gear Podcast,
but there is some good crossover in this episode
where we talk a little bit about mobile hunting as a strategy.
It's just a really fun, last-minute episode.
I had two guys bail on me today.
I do what I always do, and I reach out to social media
and I say, hey, who wants to be on the podcast?
And the first guy that got ahold of me today was Austin Cantola of Michigan.
He lives in that Grand Haven,
Mesquite, Grand Haven area.
And he hopped on, and we just started to bullshit, man.
And so it's a really awesome story.
The dude is a gear nut.
I call him a gear nerd in this episode.
He owns a 3D printing company that makes hunting gear
or hunting accessories for the DIY guys,
for the guys who want to tinker with their equipment.
And so it's a fun episode where, I don't know,
it's gear related and it's strategy related,
so it's a fun one.
All right, so I'm trying to think of some crazy things to tell you,
but honestly, man, other than just sickness through my house lately,
there's not been a lot going on.
I did the other day, and I like when this happens.
Have you ever gotten lost in your digital mapping,
like whether you use Huntstand or whether you use OnX or something like that?
So I sat down on my couch last night.
I turned on one of my shows.
I pulled up my phone to check an email.
And instead of checking my email, I got onto Huntstand
and I just did the deep dive satellite imagery, topographic,
looking at new pieces of property, looking at access,
looking at landlocked pieces of property in, yes,
and Iowa, we do have landlocked public to where, you know,
you might need a boat to get to it.
And so it's just, I just got lost in it.
And it was fun, man.
It was better than, you know, the average getting lost in social media.
I was actually benefiting myself by doing that.
And so I really just want to suggest to people that if you have any spare time
to waste, basically, don't waste it on stuff that's not going to benefit you.
Waste it on stuff like getting onto your digital maps
and just letting, like, pretend there's no boundaries
and just looking for places to potentially hunt,
especially if you are a public land hunter and, you know,
you hunt, let's say, 30 minutes from your house.
Well, why don't you go check out some public land that's an hour from your house?
Or maybe even more where you might be able to do a quick day trip up there,
you know, like an overnight hunt, sleep in the back of your truck or something like that.
It's fun, man.
And you get to, you learn a little bit about it and you prepare yourself
and you take what you've learned and you apply it to the properties that you already hunt
and then you just kind of say, hey, is this access route good?
Is this tree stand location good for this wind?
You know, what are the deer going to be doing this time of year?
Is that conducive to the strategy that I have?
And it basically just keeps your mind open to strategy all year round,
where a lot of people, and I fell victim to this myself,
where as soon as the season is over, you just forget about everything.
I'm guilty of putting my bow down once the season's over
and then not picking it up until like April or something like that.
So I don't know.
It's just something to think about, something that keeps your mind sharp
from a strategy standpoint and I do a lot of that.
So hopefully you guys find some time next time you're taking a dump to pull up your digital maps
and take a deep dive into scouting, e-scouting.
Alright, before we get into today's episode though, which is a fun one,
you guys are going to enjoy it. It's a little bit of a curveball, but we've got to do some commercials here.
If you're looking for a saddle and we talk a little bit about saddle hunting today for sure,
go check out Tether. Tether has an awesome lineup of climbing sticks,
saddle, saddles, saddle hunting platforms, and then all the accessories that you need
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On top of that, they have the platform that they have also allows for you to watch videos,
read stories and blog entries about how to become a better saddle hunter.
So go check out Tether. Then we have Hunt Stand. Like I just mentioned, I already told you what I do
and when I get on that, if you're interested in checking out Hunt Stand, go to HuntStand.com
and read up on all the functionality that this hunting app has to offer.
It's the most popular for a reason. And on top of that, they have the Pro White Tail platform
that's a bit of an add-on, but the functionality is there as well. So go check it out.
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rifle scope, spotting scope, rangefinder, binoculars, red dots, you name it, they have it.
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On top of that, they have a VIP warranty and they have some new products that have come out
that are really sweet. So go check that out fortexoptics.com.
And then last, but not least, the death metal or the, I don't know if it's death metal.
Yeah, maybe it's death metal. The death metal, the heavy metal of the broad-head world,
the wasp archery. And man, just love those heads, love the design, love the material that they use.
Majority of their heads are made in the United States and they absolutely crush whatever they hit.
They do a lot of damage. They let a lot of blood go. And even on marginal shots, they do a lot of damage.
So with that said, go check out waspartury.com. And I do have a discount code NFC20. Get your broad heads now
and buy a lot of them. So I don't know, buy as many as you need, but NFC20% off losspartury.com.
I got some more people who are going to be joining here in May, some new partners in May.
And I believe on July 1st. So in July, we have a new company coming up.
So I'm excited to share the story with you about those companies as well.
And on top of that, man, do me a big favor. And I never say this in the intro.
I always wait until the show's over to say it. But I need a big favor.
I need you guys to go to iTunes or wherever you download your podcast.
And please give me a five-star review. That lets everybody know that I'm still relevant.
Let everybody know that, hey, I'm still here. I'm still putting out great content.
And I would just really appreciate it. And then go, if you're not already following me on Instagram,
do me a big favor and go to Instagram. See if you can find my page first and foremost.
And then give me a follow. And I do a lot of cool content on there as well.
So the review, follow me, blah, blah, blah. Let's get the party started with Austin,
cantola of Michigan fun podcast.
Three, two, one. All right. On the phone with me, Mr. Austin, cantola. Austin, what's up, man?
Nothing much. Just a typical, what is it, Tuesday? I can't remember what day it'll be.
Typical Tuesday where all of a sudden you're on Instagram. You say, hey, this nut job wants a guest for his podcast.
I think I'll raise my hand and see if I get picked. And here we are.
Here we are. It's almost like you were told that the young kid don't talk to strangers or take candy from strangers.
I'm not going to get it. So we'll see how this one goes. Well, I tell you, I'm not going to drug you.
If that's what we're, you know, we may talk about the outdoors and hunting and fishing and stuff like that,
but I'm not going to put any foreign substances in your body.
I was worried about that. Good deal. All right. So, man, I know, I know absolutely nothing about you at all.
But what I know is that your profile picture says something about 3D printing.
And so why don't you talk to us a little bit about where you're from and what do you do for a living?
So, yeah, it's good that you don't know anything about me because then that makes it a good podcast.
There you go. So my name's Austin Cantola. I was, I live in West Michigan area like Grand Rapids,
a skiing area in a small little farm town called Ravenna. And so really big in the outdoors because we're surrounded by it over here in West Michigan.
What I do for a living, I do two things. I work for a company called Gen Tech Corporation.
I'm a customer quality engineer. Used to be a process engineer. So I support the different customers that we have for the products that we have.
Pretty large corporation. I think we have just over 5,000 people.
So in the automotive industry, so we're pretty busy.
And then my other side. So the 3D printing side of things is I back in 2020 when COVID hit stuck at home, getting bored and to cheap the buy anything.
I started designing and 3D printing different products to help me in my mobile hunting setup.
So a lot of the stuff that I do through that business, which my wife actually does while I'm at work.
So she runs the whole thing. She's a heaven son, but that's basically my little hobby that's turned into a hobby anymore.
Oh, that's awesome, man. So.
Man, a lot of Western Michigan is gorgeous. Okay, I will say this man. I've been to Grand Haven several times for the Coast Guard Festival up there.
I'm sure if you live anywhere close to that, you've probably been there a couple times.
Yeah, 25 minutes away. Yeah, okay. Dude, that lighthouse pier and that whole coast is just, I don't know, man.
It's, you know, the water's clear. It's beautiful up there, man.
It is. And the cool thing is just like, it's just one of the few great lakes that we have and they're all beautiful and they all are unique in their own way.
But West Michigan is, it's awesome because like what I was saying, like where I'm from, like, Ravenna, it's like right between Grand Rapids and Muskegon and you get the best of both worlds while also kind of having that country aspect of it.
But Grand Haven is, I'm surprised you went during Coast Guard Festival. That's busy, man.
Oh, it was. It was busy, but I was, I was unmarried at the time.
And so that's how long it's been since, so it's been probably 12 or, oh man, it's probably been longer than that, probably closer to 15 years since I've been there, but I went multiple times.
That's where an old friend of mine, Todd Pregnantz used to live in Grand Haven. And so we would go back, he moved to Iowa and then we would go back and stay at his parents' place.
And then we would go do all the Coast Guard activities throughout the day, which basically just meant drinking. So.
Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. No, no. Yeah, did he take it? Did he take you out fishing or anything on the green lakes?
No, we didn't do any fishing. We did sit at a bar called the tip a few, I believe it's called.
Yep. And so one of our other buddies actually used to manage that bar. And so we would go there and we would get Jack and Cokes when, I don't know, this has nothing to do with deer hunting, but it was like, his Jack and Cokes that he gave us were like, Jack and then Coke.
That's dangerous. Yeah, dangerous. And so it was a fun time up there, man. Gorgeous. I'm thinking about taking my kids up all the way north to those sand dunes at some point.
And from my understanding, there's a whole bunch of wineries. My wife likes wineries and things like that. So there's a whole bunch of wineries up there that you can take advantage of too. So I don't know, Western Michigan.
Yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah, you're probably going to be up in Traverse City area, which don't go during cherry festival unless you like busy crowds. Okay, pretty busy up there.
It's very busy. Gotcha. All right. All right. So, you know, COVID makes you, I'm interested, you know, I want to get into the hunting and fishing and things like, or the outdoors aspect here in a second, but I'm also really intrigued because I myself before.
And, you know, I was laid off in the cubicle world. I was also a process engineer. And so the all day long, all I did was look at the processes that we use to create our digital, you know, offerings like build websites and create Facebook feed.
So I was just like instruction mode all day long, like step one, do this step to do this. And then, and then those little flow charts where it's, that's all I did was build flow charts. Okay, so, okay, here's a little box that box goes to this.
And then that box goes to this and had to come up with all that stuff too. And it was boring. I'll just say it was boring.
And so 3D printing though, man, that intrigues me because there's people doing some crazy things with 3D printers. Why did you, did you already have a 3D printer and say, Hey, I want to just tinker with with the hunting aspect of it.
Yeah, I mean, like, so my background is I graduate with a mechanical engineering degree. And so when I started my job here, I was, I mean, I was doing some engineering related design stuff here.
But then I moved into a new role where I was kind of a lead. And I had a few people that worked with me and under me. And I started missing that design part of my role wasn't doing anymore.
When I was in college, I actually owned a 3D printer and I used it for various things. And then I sold it, got married, did the Danver Amsey thing paid out to all of our debt.
And that's actually how we did it through our business, the 3D printing stuff, but bought another printer in the fall of, or no spring of 2019. And then I just, I was so cheap, I couldn't, I couldn't afford because we're doing the day of Ramsey stuff to buy like a saddle or mechanical center, all those different gadgets and
a couple pieces of equipment that just costs money. So I just started, I just started printing stuff and making stuff for my own. And then I started sharing it on social media with people.
And it just kind of blew up and people, not only was it just me interested in it, it was more than just me. And so then that kind of spurred on the, let's start, let's start something with us. And it's been, it's been a wild ride, man.
Right. So what are you 3D printing? What are you tinkering with? What products or categories?
So like, my focus is mostly on like mobile hunting. So when I say that, it's like different pieces of equipment to help like make it more efficient when you go on the woods, like different hangers for hanging your sticks as you climb a platform hanger to hang your saddle platform as you climb.
Public land legal bow hangers. A lot of people are like one sticking these days. So making products that make one sticking a little bit more easy.
And the other side of it is I'm able, because it's 3D printing, you're not tied to a mold, like injection molding.
I'm able to make like custom design products for specific like different company sticks or platforms. So like, for example, the tethered one sticks, I make a clip that replaces the pins for that.
So you don't have to deal with that and stuff like that. So it's kind of a niche market, but my, it's always interesting when people ask me like, what products do you have?
And it's like, I think we have over 30 different products now. And so it's kind of hard, it's a hard one to answer to be honest.
Yeah. So this was just because like, did you have a need? Because usually what happens in, we talk about this on the hunting gear podcast all the time is usually there is some kind of need for a product for it to get started.
Or it's just getting created to fill a category for a company or a skew for a company that they are, another company has, but they don't have.
And so when you started tinkering with all of this stuff, like, how did you know, hey, here's what I want to do first.
Yeah. So the first thing, like, very first product I made, I made for myself was a tender that goes on like your rope instead of having to push your crew sick hitch up the rope and get bound up.
It's just a 3D printed part that goes on your carabiner, then a tag end your rope and when you pull the tag and it pushes your hitch up the rope.
And the need was I was too cheap to buy a mechanical device to make it easier. So that was, and so that's been like the start of it is like, we see a need as a gap and not so much of like a skew that needs to be filled because another company is doing it.
It's more of like, okay, we see this problem or I see this problem and it's in my current setup or I see it with other people's, what kind of solution could I come up with.
Right. So that's, that's probably the best way to explain that's, I mean, that's kind of how we've always done it. Like, we're not, we're not in it just to make the same thing over and over. Why, why choose 3D printing when you can design anything you want, rather than copy and somebody else's.
Right. Okay. Just out of curiosity, what type of material does a 3D printer print?
So, the 2 materials I use and I'm playing with a 3rd one right now, actually 4 of them. So, ABS is one of the materials I use. That's what like most cars are made out of a form of ABS. That's aluminum.
No, ABS is like a plastic plastic. Okay. Okay. Yep. Yep. So ABS is commonly found like vehicles and Legos are made out of ABS.
So it's a pretty robust material, very resistant to temperature, doesn't warp very much. This is super ductile. It doesn't really, doesn't really snap or break an impact.
The other one I use is called Pet G. It's another plastic. The best way to explain this one is it's found in like, now gene bottles are made out of Pet G. Okay.
Very UV resistant, high impact strength, all that stuff. And then there's a few other ones like carbon fiber is another one that I've been playing around with. You need a little bit different setup for that than what I have, which is crazy, but it just adds some challenges to it.
That's very interesting. It would be sweet to just have a 3D printer in your garage. And you know, like for me, you'd go, there's always, you know, in a given season, let's just say I throw my, you know, I throw my saddle on, on, you know, I got my platform in my sticks and I'm walking to the tree and I start to set up and you have these.
Wouldn't it be nice if I had this moment? And then like for you, you can literally go back to your house afterwards and hit the computer or pull up cat or whatever it is that you pull up and design something that you could potentially have for your next time.
Absolutely. Man, I've done it multiple times. Yeah. Yeah. And so what's that's gotta be, that's gotta be fun.
Absolutely. It makes it, it adds an element to the, the hunting aspect of it because like, not only am I hunting after an animal, I'm also trying to, I'm tinkering my wife actually calls me Tinkerbell, because I'm always constantly tinkering with something.
I'm messing with something. She'll be like, Hey, Tinkerbell, what are you doing over there? And whatnot. But it's, it's satisfying, man. It's super satisfying to have this idea. And then in three hours, it's, it's real. It's right there.
Yeah. So what's crazy is now, so you started tinkering with things and that's kind of what, what got the ball rolling on this. Did you ever say to yourself, Oh man, like now I have enough, you know, like now I can make this product and sell it.
Or did you actually have people reach out to you and are like, Hey dude, make this for me, make this for me, make this for me, which drove you to start the business. Or did you build the business in hopes of selling the product?
I built the business and hope of selling a product. I still get like from time to time guys reaching out to me and asking me to make stuff. Yeah. It doesn't happen super often, but it does happen.
And that's where it's fun when you get to do that stuff, but it, it was basically, I started with that. I call it a figureator. It's a tender. And I'd made a public land bow hanger and then it just slowly like social media is beautiful man from a marketing standpoint.
You can put something out there and just see what people do, like how they respond to it. And then you start getting like that snowball effect or just get more and more people.
So it's, yeah, that's probably the best way to explain how we've kind of grown and where we're at. I mean, like, I looked at it the other day, like last year during the season, I think it was July or something. So it wasn't during the season.
We hit our 10,000th order. And so we did a giveaway for it. Oh, nice.
And so it's fun to see it grow. It's chaotic in the fall, but it's still fun.
And we were on the phone when, before we started recording and you were like, I was trying to, because I didn't know anything about you, I was trying to ask you a couple questions to where I would get an idea.
And I was like, how serious of a bow hunter are you, or a deer hunter are you, and you're like, I lean more towards the weekend warrior side of the things because I do have this business on top of my full time job that I'm trying to run.
And it gets busy in the fall. And so, like, do you ever regret putting all your eggs into this basket when all you, because for me, I'm lucky.
I can plan ahead. I can record 10 podcasts in October that could get me through November. And I'm pretty much good to go.
Like, I'll come home. I'll do some work, but I plan. I can plan ahead. Like, you can't plan. You really can't plan orders ahead. I mean, you could, well, based off of, you know, historic forecasting, but like, talk to us a little bit about how maybe
how do I put this, like, working in the hunting industry isn't as cool as it sounds. Yeah, it, so it has this pluses and minuses. I think like anything.
I definitely didn't think it was going to be as crazy as it was. And I was talking to the uncle Lou from Stealth Outdoors a little bit about it. And he was telling me like, August is busy, September is really busy in October feels like hell.
And I was like, oh, man, that's good to know. And then he, I mean, he was spot on. So it's busy, but I don't regret it, to be honest to you. It's fun to connect with people. I'm learning so much like chatting with you. I've chatted with like the tethered guys. Andy May has been, he's a Michigan do too. So we've connected a little bit.
It's that's where like the networking community community. That's where it's cool. Yeah, absolutely.
What I've found for making the best of like the fall is planning my my trips doing trips that are like, I'm going here and I'm I'm there.
Yeah. Well, like doing a Colorado hunt in September was a week long trip where I'm there. I'm not back home. I set my wife up for success. She drained the business. She did everything.
It was hectic for her, but she did it. She's a selfless person. And then I did a river, a weekend hunt with like, it was like four days with my father in law, my brother in law, where we floated down to a teepee spot. We set up a camp there for a few days.
And then we'll go out. So it's I think this planning trips, like you're playing ahead. I'm kind of playing in the head and knowing like, this is when I'm going to do these things. So let's get ready for those.
Yeah. And it helps to have another person helping me out. You know, I got I got another guy helping me out on the network who I pay and and my wife doesn't do anything. I mean, she she's not she's not interested in hunting whatsoever.
So she doesn't do any of this stuff. But I do have a guy who helps out. And it sounds like that for both of us that gives us some breathing room to where we can go out and do some of these hunts.
Absolutely. Yeah. You need it. Yeah. Yeah. So Western Michigan.
That's a that's a pretty populated part of the state. I know coming north of Grand Rapids and in that Muskegon area.
That's where I would say I know the most people from there to the Grand Haven to Muskegon, even a little bit further north in that that's where I know the most people.
And that's where all the stories come from where, you know, people are like, dude, four, you know, four guys in the same woodlot, you know, every every day of hunting high pressure, you know, Michigan, gun season, shooting dinks, you know, and things like that.
Is that is that the case from from your point of view?
Yeah. I mean, it just depends on like that area. Yeah. Muskegon and just north of it. It's it's pretty tough to hunt. Like from from a man, deer management standpoint, shooting a nice buck.
This is there's just so many hunters than that small. There's not a ton of public land. They're there. There's monsters out there.
I mean, I have cameras on public land and I see them and I've I've driven by places that you can kind of drive and just see from the road. Right. So there's good box, but there's the amount of good deer there are. There's just that many more people.
Yeah.
And so for me, my my in-laws live, you know, where Cadillac is in Michigan, just off of Traverse City. Okay. Yep. Yep. I know where Traverse City is.
Yeah. So they have tons of state land up there. So when I go up there to visit on the weekends, I always bring my stuff and I go out hunting up there because I can walk and I won't see anybody up there during archery season.
Yeah. Now, gun season, that's a different story. But I'm not in the woods and public land on gun season. I'm too scared.
I don't blame you, man. There's a lot of people out there. And that's you. That's why I stopped gun hunting is because I almost got shot one year during a deer drive. And I really never went back after that.
I'm sure I'll go gun hunting again as I get older or as my kids, you know, start to get older. But yeah. So Western Michigan, Northern Michigan, you know,
from from the from the business standpoint, it just tells me that you're a mobile hunter, right? Yeah.
So talk to me a little bit about how the connection then between the mobile hunting and the business side of things and kind of fill in the blanks that were, you know, that we haven't talked about about, you know, like,
because a lot of a lot of time inspiration comes from doing something that you love and then turning that into a job, like just kind of like what I did.
Go into more detail about that. Yeah, I would say. I love I love hunting. And I mean, I think that if anybody listens to your podcast, they probably have fallen under that same category.
And like I said, I was I was pretty cheap for back in the day. And I kind of was forced in the mobile hunting. We, as a family would go to Missouri every year to hunt on this guy's farm that we just made a relationship with and just through knocking on doors and hard work and stuff like that,
getting a lot of nose and one yes kind of thing. We are hunting it multiple years and then he said he was going to sell it and he put it up for sale and it didn't sell for like three years and it finally sold.
And so that next fall we plan on going down there, but we didn't have any land. And so that's when I got introduced to mobile hunting and that was like 2018, I think.
So that was my first time ever hunting public land and it was out of state. And I remember I had like DIY everything. And I, it was a saddle set up.
I bought a mantis, even when they were like six months lead time. But it was like I tried to bring a tree stand in the woods. I think it was like a muddy something that weighed like 14 pounds.
And I practice in the yard and I'm like, who in the world is doing this? Like, there's got to be a better way. And so I started researching.
I literally typed in like lightest tree stand made or something like that. And a saddle came up and I was like, when the world is this thing. And then it was just like the rabbit hole just started.
And like for my role, like I'm a process, I was a process engineer. And I'm always looking for problems that we have in our manufacturing. And so like I was always on like my, I'm wired to find problems to create solutions for those problems.
And so when I found the saddle hunting, there wasn't really that many people out there making saddles. And it was all DIY stuff. Pretty much back in 2018 when I started looking at it.
I think it was 2018. I can't remember now for sure. But either way, I started, I just started looking at it and being like, man, there's this problem that I'm finding. I'm going to make something work for me.
And that's kind of where it's just been flourishing and whatnot. And the cool thing is too, like the community is so strong. Like when I first started, I remember I was asking guys for products. Like, I didn't have the money to buy like climbing sticks from different companies.
And so I was asking like people on Facebook, I just posted in groups and be like, Hey, can anybody ship me these? And I would have so many people reach out to me. Like, yeah, here's, here's a loan with customer, your compacts or whatever, or whatever.
And that's, that's been the beauty of all this is just the people that have been supportive on that and just wanting to help.
Now, I can't talk about the community of the other brands, but tethered. Man, those guys have really created something special in the mobile hunting or the saddle hunting community. Right?
I just every time I go to a trade show and I'm talking to people in the booth, there's, you know, people are sharing ideas. They're, you know, like, she's Garrett Prawl from the DIY sportsman.
That dude is a nut about gear too. And he's coming up with a whole bunch of crazy ideas on, you know, and he's just like you. Right? I mean, he is like an engineer at heart, you know, designer, tinker and things like that.
And, and all these guys talking about something so positive, man, that's just this awesome community. On top of that, there's a lot of guys out there in that community who are just like giant slayers, man.
And take, take the, the word giant loosely, but like a giant in Michigan. There's guys out there in that community that are slaying giants in Michigan.
They're slaying giants and, you know, Illinois or Iowa or Pennsylvania or New York or wherever, wherever that case may be. And it's cool to hear all those stories. So, yeah, what was that?
What was that, that first year? Like fully mobile, right? Because I can tell you right now when I, my first year being what I would consider more mobile was a nightmare.
Like I was getting busted all the time. I wasn't, you know, efficient with my gear. I didn't have a system really put together yet. And so I was learning all of that. What was your first year like?
It was a mess. And exactly what you said. But with that mess, I got lucky. Yeah.
And I know it was luck because I mean, I was in the right spot. I knew I was in a good spot, but the way it all worked out was like the, was it the second day I was in Missouri for that.
My first mobile hunting trip. I had a nice 10 point come out behind me and he had no clue. I was just sitting in a saddle. He walked right behind me and I was able to pivot and shoot him at 11 yards. But nobody sees the, the problems or the mess I had before that.
And all my stuffs DIY stuff and like the climbing sticks, I literally three printed the standoffs and steps and bought aluminum tubing and everything. And so like the whole tinkering and trying to figure out a setup that isn't a widely made product.
I mean, I'd machined my platform out of a U shape channel and then a bar stock of aluminum. And it was just, it was just wild. But yeah, I think the first year it was just more.
So you made your platform and you made your climbing sticks from scratch. From scratch. Nice. Yeah. And I mean, that's the engineer. I mean, like, I just want to create something and see if I can make something that's cheap and effective for me.
I would never sell. Like I even used like my custom platform and then I actually 3D printed steps for a ring of steps. And I use that more actually that year than I did this platform because it was just kind of heavy.
But yeah, it was a, it was just a mess the first year. And I think every time you start something new that first year is just a wild ride that you just got to hold on and hope that you stay on kind of thing.
And then that I remember literally after after that following year or that next year going into the offseason, I literally started making a journal of all the things that I found that I didn't like and wanted to improve upon with my setup and just mobile hunting in general.
Yeah. So you're not just a gear nut. You're a straight up nerd when it comes to when it comes to this kind of stuff, man, that's, that's awesome. That's kind of the way that I am not necessarily about my gear because I'm not a DIYer.
I don't do mods or anything like that. If I do a mod, I'm putting hockey tape around my my lone wolf sticks, right? Or I'm putting hockey tape on metal or something that that's it.
But what I what I am a nerd about is like the strategy side of things like wind direction that like you're looking for the things that are wrong with your equipment.
I'm looking for the things that are wrong in my setup or the access routes and I'm sure you're the same way because the way you think with your gears also like it's crazy.
But you know, tell me what you think about this idea. Some of the the best deer hunters I know who are the they're the people who take it the most serious.
Like let's just say for example Dan in fault. He's a machinist. Right. So he has to know all the details for his like it's very detailed oriented job.
You're an engineer. I'm an engineer. I was not technically an engineer. I mean, I was a process engineer, but you you design and you tinker.
And it's just like that type of person and that type of thought pattern seems to be the people who are the most successful in the deerwoods. I don't know what are your thoughts on that.
I would 100% agree. I'm not saying like I'm slain monsters every year, but I think there's like you're just methodic. There's this. There's a rhythm to what you do. And it you don't deviate from it.
I know that I'm going in the woods and I have a game plan in mind and I'm adjusting as I go in. And I'm evaluating. And sometimes the only thing that I've noticed about me currently that I'm working through is analysis by paralysis kind of thing.
And that's a big one. And I think that that's just something that people who are wired like an engineer or just they're very detailed oriented. They can get stuck in that. But I think the only way that I've found that I can get out of that is by just putting myself in situations more and more and more and building that like knowledge and confidence in what I'm deciding and what I'm choosing.
Give me an example of your personal paralysis by analysis. What's one thing that you've done in the past that's a perfect example.
So I think I'm looking at all the data that's coming into me, whether it's stroke, camera, sign, food, source, like time of the year, historic stuff that I've known.
And I'm just I'm having so much to evaluate in way on my my in my mind that I'm like okay.
I know there's a buck that beds typically in this area. Now, historically they've moved this way but now we've changed the food crops have changed a little bit.
We've we've thinned out our woods that are like I'm talking about our private land is probably the best way to walk through this rotation of crops like I was mentioning pressure from people that are just bought the property next to us.
And so like there's so much that goes in my head that I'm just like okay. I feel like I just need to take a deep breath and just be like okay.
What puts me in the best spot or best opportunity right now today. And I can't look at all the all the factors around.
I can only look at the very big and key ones that will give me that success. And I actually, I feel like I didn't have as much analysis from paralysis was when I went out West.
Because it was all new. I didn't have any of that history there. Yeah. So, yeah. That's the same thing with me going into a new territory that I don't necessarily know a lot about is I will sit there.
And instead of you know there there has to be in my opinion when it comes to hunting strategy a perfect mix of.
I don't know how to say it other than fuck it. Let's go. Let's just go. And hey, let's plan this out because you can think about things all you want. But unless you have the you got to pull the trigger at some time.
You got some. And so that's where I think too much sometimes. Okay, if he's here then he's going to do this and the wind's doing this and then this and then there's this little devil on my shoulder going.
Tell you what, how about we run at him full bore with a loaded arrow and loaded bow and to start flinging arrows right like I feel like I need a little bit more of that guy mixed in my recipe than than that because I'll do the same thing.
But when it comes to white tail hunting for me, I feel like, and I don't know about you but I won't give a spot enough time to cycle through deer movement like two or three days or something like that I'll go in.
No deer move. Go in. So I'm almost to mobile if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah. What about you?
I've noticed in certain situations I'm too mobile, but man I get stuck sometimes if I know I've seen a good deer or have history with a good deer in an area like was it not last year but the year before I had a piece of public land up north.
And it was like three miles to get to or five miles up a river to get to from a boat.
And I had an encounter with a buck that was over 140 public land and I was like, man, I want to hunt this buck.
And instead of like being mobile and bouncing around and trying to figure out I got nervous and I was afraid that I'd bump them out or push them out and whatnot. So I kind of got, I kind of got like boxed into this mind that I need to be here because I've seen him here.
He has his sign I know that he was betting here. I'm going to set here. And I'm just going to shift a little bit there and on the wind and what and what's playing out there.
But I think I struggle with the opposite from time to time because I don't know. And I've seen it on that same piece of property further to the West like five miles to the West.
I had had an encounter with the two really nice bucks at this at literally the same set. And I was like, this is the spot. And I dig into it. I'm like, yeah, this is fine. But I don't, I don't spend the time to go about more than that during the season, which that's when I think I've learned that that you need to scout more during season than out of season.
Yeah, that's a fact. So, you know, you said in 2018 was really your move into the mobile game since then what have been some of your biggest, uh, huh moments or learning moments that have led you to becoming a better mobile hunter.
Um, for me, it's just simplifying stuff, making it repetitive and the same thing over and over and over. I have, I literally have almost every climbing stick and platform and everything on the market.
But I gravitate to the same thing every time when I grab stuff out of my garage to go out hunting. And it's just because I make and keep it simple, stupid kind of thing.
And just I grab my B sticks, I grab my predator platform, I grab my backpack to paint on if it's earlier season or late season I grab the same thing.
And I just, I hit the woods. And that's, that's what I found is just having a clean, efficient and repetitive setup makes it so I'm not worried about the gear that I'm taking in the woods or the gadgets.
And then it's funny because that's what I do I make stuff like that. But for me, I purposely use each piece of equipment for a specific reason I don't just throw it in there because it looks kind of cool or it's new or whatever.
Well, from a mobile hunting standpoint from equipment side of things. I think that's my biggest thing. But I think that translates to hunting because then I'm able to focus more on why I'm out in the woods.
And that's, so, to just find that mysterious block that I'm after. Yeah, that's what that's what I've tried to disconnect. Like gear is only important before and after the hunt.
When you're on the hunt, then you have to think about the hunt. And so I try to not think about my gear. If I'm, I look at it this way, if I'm thinking about my gear while I'm hunting, then something's not right.
If my boots, if I'm thinking about my boots, my feet are either cold or they hurt. Or, you know, if I'm cold, then something's wrong with my gear. Right. Or if I, I don't know, if my bows make an noise, well then that's something I needed to, you know, I should have shot before I came into the woods.
Or if I'm, you know, you know what I'm talking about there. So I try to disconnect. I try to disconnect all of that from the, you know, from the actual hunt.
Yeah, and that's, I mean, everybody should do that because it helps you focus more on why you're in the woods. Right. And, and the gear stuff's the off season stuff. I mean, that's to get you by to feel that itch that you have.
Once it comes season, man, it should be like, I have my set up. I'm going in the woods. I know I have the right boots that aren't going to give me sores on the feet.
I know I'm going to be warm with this coat and this jacket and this layering system. I know that I don't have to worry about that. And so I know, like, I'm focused more on like, how am I going to enter this piece of property?
How am I going to set up with this, this terrain and this wind and this other pressure that's here. And I think that's, it took me a while to learn that, but I think that's what I'm finding with my mobile setup is that.
Talk to me about, you know, when when it gets good, it sounds like you get busy. How do you balance your, your business, your job, your wife, and then also trying to get out into the woods as much as possible during the season.
Yeah, I think now that we have a few years under our belt, we kind of know what to expect. So we recruit help.
So family members come and help assemble parts that we have like, we have a camera arm that we have that's we call the sub one because it's under a pound.
And it takes a lot of assembly so we recruit people to come over we pay them heavily with either food drinks, whatever cash, whatever works for them.
So like that's one way we do it. The other side of it is my wife and I are just very intentional about like how we plan out the week and we have rhythms and whatnot what are we doing what are we not doing.
So nine thirty hits we're in the living room we're not we don't bring any work in the living room we're just there together.
So we're just very intentional about like creating rhythms and what we're doing and then for like from a honey inside of things like I kind of mentioned like I plan trips out now like I know that I'm going to go do this.
That's my time to go do this and so my wife knows to expect that. And so she's not caught off guard of being like why are you leaving like I need you here kind of thing.
And so I think that's that's probably the best way that we found.
But I don't know we also like we've gotten so big that I actually have an uncle who 3D prints parts for me.
And it's a way for him because he's a teacher. So during the summer he typically would have to find a job during the summer.
And now he's not he doesn't have to right because he's able to just print parts for me clean them assemble them and give them to me and then I sell them.
So it's been pretty sweet that way.
That's awesome. That's awesome. So you're getting your you're getting help when you need the help.
Yeah, basically. Gotcha.
Yeah. Well awesome man. It sounds like you have a a full plate at the moment and you know it is is your product line.
I mean do you have an official product line is their names of it. I mean do you have a store front or people can go and buy these things.
Yeah, we have a website it's just genesis 3D printing dot com.
And so that's where guys can navigate to to see all the different stuff that we offer.
We have different social medias like Facebook and Instagram and then we also do tic toc but I'll be honest I struggle with the tic toc world.
I just deleted my tic toc. I had one. I went on it. I was like holy cow. This is stupid and then I left so.
Yeah. Yeah. No. I'm I'm rarely open unless I have to post something in there. So right.
Right. Well that's cool man. Hopefully. So so what's next right. So you know you can only.
I'm sure there are a million things that you could micro print or you know like micro adjust on a setup and build parts for.
But how do you expand a business then this this 3D printing business into other categories maybe fishing or turkey hunting or things like that to make your.
Because ultimately I don't know about you but I was doing everything that I could to get out of my cubicle job and into this full time.
Yeah. And so I'm assuming you kind of want to do the same thing.
Yeah. I mean I think that's the goal with anybody that's an entrepreneur to do what they love and that's what they do.
I do love my current day job so that's that makes it nice to be able to come into work and enjoy what I do but at the same time my passion is doing this stuff because I know it's.
It's adding more value to what I do in my day basis for my mental health what not right.
So I think for us the way we're looking at it we just need growth we need more people to hear about us the learn a little about us we're expanding outside of 3D printing.
We're doing some CNC projects aluminum we have a bowl holder that goes on tree stands that's 100% aluminum there's no plastic parts other than washers on it.
So I think that there's also that understanding like we're going to branch out a little bit and do a little bit more than 3D printing and just grow that way.
And I think talking with people like you and then other influencers I don't know if I want another word other than influencer.
That sounds too cheap.
It does and I'm not trying to like say their douche here but it just feels wrong. But like leaders like people we look up to like leaders in the industry that we seek information on.
It's just connecting with those types of people and making a relationship and whatnot so I'm starting to do that it's just hard because people are busy and I get it like you only can put so much eggs in one basket you got 24 hours in a day.
And you need to sleep for at least six of them.
Yeah, yeah.
That's where it's tricky so I think growth wise is just continue to innovate continue to make new products and release them and share them with the world.
And getting in those other categories is definitely something that we've thought about.
The hard part is man we are busy in the fall so this spring is kind of nice to have a I mean we're not dead but we're slow.
Which it's nice to catch up rough and prepare for what's to come right once we grow into a bigger company we have.
Say a few more employees working under us then we can start dabbing into other products and whatnot for different industries or different out worst stuff.
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
Well I tell you what Austin man it's been a pleasure chatting with you today.
We took this podcast in a little bit different of a direction than we normally do here.
I say that but then I also remember that I've had Tony Peterson on the podcast before and I talk about 1980s movies.
So this is kind of normal randomness is normal here on the podcast and I thank you for being a random guest today and good luck this season and good luck with your business.
Thanks man.
It was a pleasure to spontaneously jump on but it was it was good man.
It's good conversations.
You have it ladies and gentlemen another episode in the books huge shout out to Austin for doing this last minute huge shout out to all of you for taking time out of your day to download and listen to the nine finger Chronicles man.
I really appreciate it.
Tell everybody about it.
I feel like this is a good podcast man and I wish more people would listen to it.
So there's that there's that positive energy.
We got to talk about that.
We're going to have good vibes.
So good vibes in good vibes out where your safety harness and we will talk to you next time.
Bye.
Bye.