Dangerous offer

Addicting

Addicting

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From the email that went out:

Don't forget, Fresh Tracks+ subscribers have the exclusive opportunity to win an hour with me to help plan your next hunt, chat application strategies from pronghorn to elk, to anything else you want to cover.

The devil in me has all kinds of mischievous questions that could make this a very interesting hour.

If you had a hour with Randy to cover any topic what would it be?

Will Matthew ever get married, what is the cash offer up to now?

What is the strangest thing you saw a client try to write off on their taxes?

Which mud is worse, MT breaks or WY red clay?

Which employee is the first to get fired for making you a pukie sandwich?
 
Who do you despise in your industry?
What's the long term plan for the Randy-less Fresh Tracks?
Why stay with Fresh Tracks and not go back to OYOA (which feels like it fits the mission better)?
Would you ever sell FT, under what conditions and to whom?
How much money do your sponsors have to spend on advertising?
 
Addicting said:
From the email that went out:

Don't forget, Fresh Tracks+ subscribers have the exclusive opportunity to win an hour with me to help plan your next hunt, chat application strategies from pronghorn to elk, to anything else you want to cover.

The devil in me has all kinds of mischievous questions that could make this a very interesting hour.

If you had a hour with Randy to cover any topic what would it be?

Will Matthew ever get married, what is the cash offer up to now?

What is the strangest thing you saw a client try to write off on their taxes?

Which mud is worse, MT breaks or WY red clay?

Which employee is the first to get fired for making you a pukie sandwich?
Click to expand...

Oh, hunting is the LAST thing we'd talk about :ROFLMAO:
 
Some of ya'll need to watch the "ask Randy" youtube series. Some questions mentioned above were probably already answered.
 
neffa3 said:
Who do you despise in your industry?
What's the long term plan for the Randy-less Fresh Tracks?
Why stay with Fresh Tracks and not go back to OYOA (which feels like it fits the mission better)?
Would you ever sell FT, under what conditions and to whom?
How much money do your sponsors have to spend on advertising?
Click to expand...
Those would all be good questions, but probably best to talk about in content that is distributed publicly, rather than a 1:1 discussion. We are going to expand the Ask Me Anything (AMA) videos this year. In past years we've done them related to specific topics, but I think it would be good to do them without constraint to a specific topic.

Q: Who do you despise in your industry?

A: This could be an entire thread and many series of videos. I think it should also come with the corollary - What do I like about the industry, under the assumption you're talking about the hunting "industry" and not the CPA and commercial rental property industries where I actually make my livelihood.

I think the Matt Rinella thread touches on many of the things I dislike. I'm not a big fan that distribution models either require we step in line with the network model and the perverted message that comes from following that path, or that for our audiences to view content on digital platforms the viewers are required to be subjected to the algorithms that build personal profiles and they become the currency.

I like the immediate feedback we can get on digital platforms. I like the audience engagement we can get on those digital platforms, even if some commenters hammer us for what they think we are doing wrong in their eyes.

I don't like how content gets funded, but that has been the case since Forest and Stream, 100+ years ago, decided to shift from heavy reliance on subscriber revenues to a greater reliance on advertiser revenues. Just how it has evolved.

I despise the tribalism that our society, and thus hunting audiences, exemplify when trying to rationalize their positions, biases, and preferences. Again, we are a cross section of our society, so as society trends quickly toward that direction, hunting audiences will demonstrate the same. We have extremely complicated issues facing us. It is folly to think we will solve them with easy answers and by hanging labels on anyone with a different view to the same issue. The hunting industry is terrible at this. There is hyper-sensitivity to anything that doesn't follow the herd-mentality that stifles the ability to have strong discussion that result in better answers.

I could go on and on about things that I dislike, some things that annoy me, things that I absolutely despise, and also things I find beneficial and exciting.


Q: What's the long term plan for the Randy-less Fresh Tracks?

A: Good question. Something we have been plotting for the last few years. When I have a liver flare up and go underground for a week or two, it causes staff to see the importance of this possibility. I could be gone tomorrow. We do have a contingency plan albeit not one we hope needs implemented.

I have a commitment from Mrs. Fin that I can do this until I turn 65. That will be 2029. So if health allows, the Randy-less version, is at least that far away. Mrs. Fin and I have been plotting what we would want to do with our time without any obligations. I've yet to find something that gives me more satisfaction than doing this with my spare time. Right now, I could drift off into the sunset, fishing and living a comfortable life. But, I'd be bored as hell and soon divorced as I pouted around the house. The odds are that the Randy-less version is deferred past 2019 until such time as my health prohibits me from being a contributor.


Q: Why stay with Fresh Tracks and not go back to OYOA (which feels like it fits the mission better)?

A: Lots of reasons. OYOA was designed for self-guided hunting on accessible lands. Within a year it became obvious that public lands was what really hit the mark, more so than just "accessible lands" and that is where we headed. OYOA also was mostly a TV or video brand. And as I've admitted here in past threads, changing names was a decision where I relied on some "experts," which I later came to wonder if I should have stuck with my gut. Either way, we have a lot of plans for FT, which has become a better name for what we want to do with a lot of other distribution options.

I am glad to hear you think it fit the mission. That mission is a function of our WHY, which focuses on self-guided hunting, public lands, conservation, and advocacy. I would argue that with the FT name in place for the last eight years, we have more flexibility with FT than OYOA, though the change surely created a bit of disruption to our path.


Q: Would you ever sell FT, under what conditions and to whom?

A: Nope. I've been approached about just that. In 2017/18 we signed NDAs and spent six months investigating the idea. It just didn't make sense to either party. It was a helpful process, causing me to sort out why I do this. It would have been a good financial decision to "cash out," but going through that process forced me to ask, "Why would I cash out if I don't need the money and I've worked my entire life to get to a point where I get to spend my time doing something I am passionate about?" Mrs. Fin was a great sounding board for that, as was Matthew.

I will always have minority investors, as I have since we started. But, I will always hold the majority interest and I don't see me selling to anyone. Obviously, coming from the CPA world and helping a lot of clients with business succession plans, I, Mrs. Fin, and the minority investors all want a good succession plan. As of today, there is not enough love or money to get me to sell. I've worked my ass off in other endeavors to get to this point, so it just seems foolish to cash out just so I can stay home and drink coffee.


Q: How much money do your sponsors have to spend on advertising?

A: There are somethings that remain business confidential. For competitive reasons, for confidential reason, for smart business, that's not something I'm going to talk about publicly.

Some will think that is because I have something to hide. Nope.

I come from the CPA world, where I sold confidentiality and trust as much as I sold my time and professional advice. That sticks with me in this world and it is greatly appreciated by our partners. It is why most of them give me a lot of latitude to do what we want and how we want, knowing I've got a business maturity that comes with 35 years as a CPA and 30 years of being self-employed. This discretion and confidentiality is part of why many of them have us as not only content/distribution platforms for their companies and their messages, but also why I am also asked to be an adviser.

I suspect there are very few sponsorship contracts in the hunting space that have "business consultation" as part of the deliverables, as is part of our relationships. I suspect there are very few contracts where the deliverables include, "advocate for conservation, public access, and hunter issues" as some of ours have. Those are pretty "fuzzy" items to measure. We give them reports of what we are doing, where we are involved in such, and how we think their brands could benefit from being engaged in some of these issues. Most contracts will have measured deliverables of Neilson ratings, required views, required downloads, etc. Ours don't. If companies don't trust what we do and how we do it, they probably should be working with other content creators/distribution platforms.

Suffice to say, we are probably at the mid-point of pricing among the larger platforms, with some of the biggest platforms likely laughing at how small our contracts are in relation to theirs and also at how hard it is to measure the requested deliverables we put in contracts.
 
Last edited:
Big Fin said:
Damn, guess I should be put out to pasture now. Thanks for catching that. I better go edit that, for fear that "Sleepy Randy" slogans start appearing on Hunt Talk.
Click to expand...
Don't feel too bad Randy, the pande-manic has me pulling up calendars to clear the deja vu news cycle fog.
 
I would have to discuss the the virtues of taking a grouse you see, even if you may be within the close proximity of elk.
 
I'd ask what it would take to turn that hour into a whole weekend out on the boat....because an hour to talk western big game apps and trends is just a tease and the surface gets barely scratched!
 
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