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Rise: The Turkey Hunt That Changed Everything (Ep 816)

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Sometimes the things that feel like setbacks turn out to be the moments that change your life.

Host Wade Shoemaker sits down with Eric Seymour, founder of Rise, for an honest conversation about faith, family, turkey hunting, cancer, and the unexpected journey that led to one of the fastest-growing faith-based brands in the outdoor space.

Eric shares the story behind his cancer diagnosis, a Bible reading that shifted his perspective, and a failed turkey hunt that ultimately became the catalyst for launching Rise. What began as a handful of hats and shirts designed to share a personal story has evolved into a movement centered around faith, hunting, family, and authenticity.

The discussion explores the challenges of starting a business with no apparel experience, the importance of trusting the process, and how unexpected opportunities like NWTF and DUX helped accelerate the growth of the brand. Along the way, Eric reflects on parenting, purpose, entrepreneurship, and why keeping the main thing the main thing continues to guide every decision.

Topics Covered

  • The story behind the Rise brand
  • A cancer diagnosis and its impact on perspective
  • Faith, purpose, and personal growth
  • The turkey hunt that inspired a movement
  • Building a company from the ground up
  • Family, parenting, and raising kids with strong values
  • NWTF, DUX, and the growth of Rise
  • Entrepreneurship and trusting the process
  • Supporting others through storytelling


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Rise: The Turkey Hunt That Changed Everything (Ep 816)

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Ducks Unlimited Podcast — Rise: The Turkey Hunt That Changed Everything (Ep 816). Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

The DU podcast is proudly sponsored by Weatherby. When every shot counts, trust the Shotguns built to perform. Whether these soarks and element shotguns are endurance tested and field proven, delivering the reliability hunters demand from opening day to the final flight. Whether you're chasing ducks, geese, or upland birds, Weatherby has a shotgun ready for the hunt, visit Weatherby.com to learn more. Looking to build a garage, vehicle storage, workshop, or any metal building before next spring, order now with Morton Buildings and get site prep savings by October 31st. Get ahead of winter weather and save big during Morton Buildings Winter Build sales event. With offers this great, why wait? Visit MortonBuildings.com and click Get Started Today. Certain restrictions apply, savings offer on new building purchases by October 31st, 2026 Building Delivery, required by April 30th, 2027, contact your local Morton Office for more details. Looking for the workhorse of your gun safe? Meet the Savage Renegade, a piece of gear that feels just as much at home in a duck blind

as it does on the clay range. If you're looking to grab a new go-to all-purpose 12-gauge shotgun, reach for a renegade. Built with reliability and versatility in mind, it's the perfect pick for any shotgun pursuit. From opening day to range day, the renegade is ready when you are. Yours from Savage. Duck Club Bourbon. The official bourbon of ducks unlimited. Our new wetlands limited edition, small batch bourbon benefits ducks unlimited. Made for early mornings and cold water. Find a bottle at duckclub Bourbon.com. Please drink responsibly. For her doing really, it was a combination of all that. I was like, all right. My wife gets mad at me because when I say that, this one kind of became real. She said, well, it was real before that. And I say, yeah, yeah. I say, you're right, but the one about 10 people knew about it. You brought us all the way to Nashville and you say, it's just now real? That's right. Yeah, so that was just such a cool day. You're tuned into the Duck's Unlimited podcast.

Conserving wetlands, restoring habitat, and working to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow, and forever. From field-tested hunting insights to the biggest conservation winds across North America, this is your front row seat to wetlands conservation in action. The DU podcast is proudly sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey in Cocktails. Whether you're wrapping up a hunt with your best friend or kicking back with your crew, Bird Dog brings awardward in flavor to every moment. Enjoy responsibly. Hey folks, welcome back. I'm your host, Wade Shoemaker. And today I've got a pretty special guest. This is a fella who started something I'd say almost back. He's an accident. You'll correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's turned into something that's gained popularity, like crazy. I've gotten Mr. Eric Seymour here. He's the owner and founder of RISE. Eric, I'm stoked to have him the podcast, dude. I'm stoked to let everyone hear your story because there is one.

There's a strong one here. And please, like, do before I get too excited here, because I want to go ahead and kind of give the beginning of how this started. But before I get too excited and do that and spill the beans, like, I won't shoot you to go ahead and kind of introduce yourself if you don't mind. Yeah, man. Just Eric Seymour was RISE from easily South Carolina. Group up and easily lived a bunch of different places. I've heard about a 20-year stretch, ended up back here, back home, and just excited to be with you today, man. We got a chance to meet. It's probably a month ago. And something like that. And they had a chat and been trying to put this together. So just glad to be here, man. Yeah, did you said you were from easily and been around a bunch? I mean, where's the in-between being? So I went to Clemson for school, which isn't too terribly far away. But then between military experience, this is surveying work stuff, just kind of moved around some South Carolina, some other places. Yeah. I was kind of one of those guys growing up. I was like, man, I don't know if I'm ever going to go back home, you know, once I leave. And it seems like every year I was going, it was more important to get back. And especially now, you have a wife and two young kids and just being back around home is fantastic with the people and the memories.

And just everything to do right here is fantastic. So yeah, dude, it was coming home kind of like probably a little bit apprehensive to go home to begin with. And you got there and you're like, yeah, there's no place I'd rather be. Yeah, man, that's great. You know, we were just blessed. I'm in the Upstate of South Carolina, kind of between Clemson and Greenville. And it's just a great place to be and raise a family. And we got a great community here. And what we're going to talk about today with RISE, especially, you know, we've got people that are just all in and behind and trying to help everything we're doing here. So it's huge to have that support. Yeah, yeah, yeah, very cool, man. Not that anybody would ever know, but you're kind of down for the count right now, huh? You've got to sit steel just so you don't mess anything else up. Yeah, man. So in a very strategic maneuver, I had a knee surgery schedule the couple of weeks ago so that if everything lines up right, I shouldn't miss any hunt at all. And yeah, it will definitely be fully rehabbed by turkey season. So that's good. Yeah, that's a miles right there. Yeah, cool, man. Like I hate you sitting down. I mean, I hate you got to sit down. I know you were worried about that yesterday. We were talking about it. But I think we'll be fine. I told you that I had a painting.

I thought it was plants, but it was actually a vase with plants up here. I told you kids to bottom of it. So I mean, like, hey, it don't matter. We're here having the conversation. But let's get into it, man. I want to talk about rise. And I know this is, you know, these podcasts can be about anything. And we'll get into the hunting stuff later. You know, if we get to it, but I want to get some info on rise. And not the story of how kind of you started it because we're going to get there in a little bit. And I don't really want the elevator pitch either. I don't want the short like with this, this, and this, you know, like the three points. But I want to hear your heart behind it. I want to hear the why behind it. What's the mission of rise? Yeah, rise really started to tell a story. And specifically to tell my story about running from God and cancer and a Bible challenge and grace and turkeys. And this whole thing started just as a way from me to share this story with others and made a dozen hats to do it. The cool thing now, you know, we started rise to tell this story. And now we're just hearing stories from everybody else as we tell ours.

And we're having people pouring to us with amazing stories and testimonies and support. And so it's really cool, man. I think what started something very small has turned in very quickly with the last six, seven months into something that I think is pretty electric. And people seem to be pretty fired up about. I mean, you hear a couple different pieces there. So I mean, own that. It feels like there's a lot of pieces of this story, right? Like a lot of little bitty things that didn't make sense. And we discussed it and I'd say really hardly any of them probably made any sense to you at all other than frustrations in one way shape or form. But at some point it did make sense in hindsight, kick, den. You're like, oh, but man, like what events you mentioned, you know, you touched on it just then, you know, you dimension like run from God. You mentioned the cancer. You mentioned several things. But like what kind of unpack those for us? Like, man, what what events led up to when you finally was like, okay, God, like I guess I guess we're going to do this. This fast spring, February 26th at the National Institute of my Turkey Federation was really the culmination of four years of a lot of questions. Yeah. Four years of why do I get cancer?

Why didn't it kill me? What am I supposed to do with, you know, how am I supposed to use this time of and give them back? And so really, you know, what we got to the opportunity to go to NWTF this spring, I was like, all right, this is real. Like we're doing this. And I know we can, we'll get into them more detail later with that. That was really for me. It just hit me and it was probably the first day. I didn't really attend it in the BTF, right? And so I get there. It was crazy this year. It was, man. And, you know, just to see the response of everybody there, attendees, vendors, industry people, just everybody, excitement and support for what we're doing. And really it was the culmination of all that. I was like, all right. My wife gets mad at me because when I say that, it's when it kind of became real. She's like, well, it was real before that. And I say, yeah, yeah. I say, you're right, but only about 10 people knew about it. You brought us all the way to Nashville and you say, and it's just now real? That's right. Yeah. Now that was just such a cool thing. Because I mean, you look at four years over a lifetime. It's really not that long. The four years is, it's a pretty significant chunk of time. Yeah, no, it is, dude. You're right. I don't know. Was there ever any, like, endless, let's talk about Nashville

is it when you saw the people, but like, just back up to where, like, when you created the first dozen hats, when you sort of print in the first shirts, what made you say, okay, I got to make these hats and I got to make these shirts. What switch flipped, man? Or what was the switch that flipped? I think for me, man, I was so reluctant to tell my story. And to really tell others about, you know, my wall with God and some things I felt like he was doing in my life because I didn't feel like I was worthy to tell it. And honestly, the hats were an easy out for me. Even when I got the hats made, I would only tell the story if somebody asked me what my hat meant while we were a turkey hunt. And so if they didn't ask, I wouldn't tell. But if I told them, I would give them a hat. And then, you know, as I started telling the story, I just kind of kept snowballing out, man, you gotta keep telling that. You gotta keep telling that. Yeah. So four or two long or in out of hats, I was like, well, maybe some other people might want to hear the story in hats. And so I started a little website. I think before NWTF this year, we might have sold her to your 40 shirts. And it was all the people that we knew. And we lost some money. But, you know, again, for me, it really wasn't about

making money. And it still isn't. I mean, it's just about telling the story because I'll be honest with you, man. And this whole journey, I have received so much more than I feel like I've given. And it's just so cool to have, just to see and hear all the neat things that people are doing out there and how supportive they are. And so it's been awesome, man. I mean, it's just been such a blessing. I love that, dude. So this started out sort of as the turkey thing, right? Like a turkey-themed brand, I would say. He loves Jesus Hunt turkeys. But it's not exactly that now. You know, I think it's more, maybe like most things at its core, it's always going to be kind of the reason. You know, always will be a turkey focus on that. Obviously, there's more to it, like the actual message. But it was built around Love Jesus Hunt turkeys. But it seems to be turning into something a little bit bigger, something more, maybe, you know, branching out your shirt, your shirt is Love Jesus Hunt ducks. Do you feel that that's the case? Like it's gonna scale into like everything, you know? Like, Love Jesus catch fish or whatever, you know? Like, or am I just, am I over here like with some wishful thinking? And just knowing what it would it could turn into?

And you're just like, no, man, this is kind of where we want to keep it. Welcome to the old timer minute, sponsored by Old Timer Nives. The part of Duxing Island for to the most is probably opening day. I don't know if it's always been like that for me, but now that we've gotten older, it's very much based around family, because we open and Mississippi the day after Thanksgiving on Black Friday. So my whole family, Nises, nephews, brothers, sisters, and laws, everybody comes down to our hunting camp on Thursday night, and we all wake up and go hunting together the next day. And it doesn't matter if it's gonna be a good day or not. It's still one of the best days of the year, because it's the one day that I know I get to hunt with everybody that I love and all my favorite people. So yeah, the opening day of Duxing is in this bike park that I look forward to the most. Visit the old timer.com. Yeah, you know, I mean, this whole thing started because I got diagnosed with cancer in 2022. I was six months into a Bible challenge two weeks behind where I should have been when I figured

out I had cancer. I got out the next morning to read. And my reading for that day was John 11. And I got to John 11 for it said, this sickness will not end in death. It'll be used for God's glory. And so I've been running from God for a long time. The night before I was finally like, Uncle, you got me. You win. I give up. I was like, you're gonna kill me. Kill me. You can't leave me here. I said, just look after my family. The next morning I get up and I read that. And I said, okay, well, you got my attention. And so, you know, really over the next six months, I went through surgery, cancer went into remission fast forward to the turkey season of 2023. And I had a chance to back into the single season grand slam by accident, basically. So I end up after a long season of running around just tremendous opportunities with others and all my own. I end up in Kansas with a kid I've known about 12 hours. We shared some hunting ground together in South Carolina. I then on a text thread with him, talked to him on the phone one time. We'd never met until we got on a plane to go to Kansas. I sat in the same spot for six hours to get my Rio to finish my slam.

And I missed the same turkey three times at 30 yards, which is highly improbable. Right. Yeah. Yeah. But yes, that's an red dye and everything else. And end up chasing this turkey on foot as far as I can run without giving out it. I measured it later. It was about a half mile dead sprint trying to catch him. He wanted to live worse than I wanted to catch him. But you know, through that whole series, right, God had taken for me fitness, which is an idol and turkey hunting, which had been an idol somewhat. Because really after my cancer, I was like, man, getting this grand slam is going to be my way to fix everything. It's going to make it right. I'm going to get back on top. I'm going to give another check in the block because I'm very much type A, very driven, very task oriented and I was like, hey, this is just another win. You know, when that got taken away, that was really the catalyst for the whole rise story. Because a few months later, you know, woke up February 1, 2024, drew the rise logo. I told my wife, I said, hey, I think I know what I'm supposed to do with this. I said, I think I'm just supposed to tell people about cancer, Bible challenge and trying to fill the void with everything but God. Nothing's going to do it. And I said, you know, because I am so imperfect and I struggle in

so many areas. I was like, I think I'm the one, I think that's why God wants me to tell it. Because none of us are perfect, right? And so, um, yeah. So to your back, a long answer to your question was, no, I like turkeys. Turkeys are what draws rise, you know, but as an avid outdoorsman, we love to hunt everything. I mean, I was talking to a buddy of mine today. We're prepping for a dove hunt. Labor Day weekend up here with much families and barbecue and shooting doves and love the turkey hunt, obviously, love the duck hunt, love the upland hunt. I got an awesome dog in English cock, a real upland hunt, a bunch at deer hunts. So you name it, yes, the rise has started, you know, branching out into everything because what rises really all about is it's, it's faith forward a peril and telling people, hey, like, I love the outdoors and I love Jesus. And, and to your question is, you know, what we talk about all the time is if this top line right here, if you got that figured out, it doesn't really matter what's below it, right? Yeah, I like it. Yeah. And so it's neat, man, it's a lot of fun. And yeah, it's just there's so many opportunities and everything to talk when you're wearing the shirt because my buddies and I talk about it, like, it's the conversation starter

because somebody either wants to know where you got it or what in the world it means. Like, that says you're easy to question. Like, what's one of your shirt means? Yeah, no, that's cool, man. It's pretty like you said, it's faith forward. I think it makes the statement and a lot of people that want to know what it means. It's not they don't understand what you're trying to tell them. It's like, you know, like, is there more to this? You know, like what's the deep remaining of that? And it's like, there's not one, man. This is exactly like it's not complicated. That's, that's cool. I love it. Man, I'm excited to hear that from you because that, that lets me know that like, we're going to have all kind of other stuff, you know, like all other, like, whatever you're doing, you can have a love Jesus shirt for it. So like, I'm stoked about that, dude. I'm, and I know you are too, but like, just know that that makes other people excited. Whether you care, you know, I know you care. I don't know, man. It's cool, man. I think that's the best part is that, you know, I was even reluctant to make love Jesus on Turkey's t-shirts and you call my buddies. I said, hey, I got this idea. Oh, that's awesome. I was like, no, I know by all by it. I was like, I'm not going to do it. And they're like, I got this idea, but like, they're all out of the police. No, like, you need to do it. I was like, no, nobody's going to buy that. I was like, it's two in your face. Nobody's going to like it.

They're like, dude, just do it. And I'm like, all right. No, that's funny. That was, yes. Are you the guy that calls, are you the guy that calls him? I said, hey, I got an idea, but like, please talk me out of it. Like, is that what you do? Or you say, I'm like, hey, I think it's when I say it out loud. It's awesome in here. I say that loud. I'm like, yeah, I didn't sound that good when it came out. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, I don't need to see that. With them, they're like, yeah, you're like, no, sorry, bad idea. Thanks for picking up. Yeah, thanks for making me hate that. I said this out loud. That's funny, dude. I like all that you mentioned, you know, you're in Nashville back in February. And that's kind of where you not the, uh, oh, whatever. But you knew like, this is where I'm, this is what I need to do this. We went in the hole, but like, we went in the hole because we didn't bring enough stuff for the most part, probably really what it boils down to. So I think I saw it. And maybe that's maybe I only saw it in the first time, because that's when it was actually the first public appearance of it. Is that right? Did I remember that right? Yeah, like I said, before that, we had probably sold about 30 or 50 or some, some insignificant number of shirts, you know,

or that I had been calling in WTF for about a year trying to get a spot. And then December of 25, they basically said, hey, like, quick calling. We appreciate your enthusiasm, but you are not going to get a spot this year. Yeah, we don't know who you are. Yeah, that's right. You know, it, uh, three weeks before end of the TF, we got an email. There was a spot. So we had 48 hours. And uh, I'll tell everybody I took about 48 seconds. I was like, yep, yeah. And I'll come on. We need the email three weeks before middle of January. You're like, third week of January. Yeah. And so just to frame this in perspective, like I didn't have any inventory, I had no show experience, I have no apparel industry experience. I'm literally just ordering hats like all our cart and shirts, all our car making them one at a time. Yeah. And so in three weeks, you were, you were pressing these like, you were making a lot of work. I wasn't even doing it. I had somebody help in me, right? Okay. That's what I'm saying, but like, yeah, like going through a, just like a manufacturer that you just, oh, wow. Yeah. And so in three weeks, we put together a booth, all the inventory,

um, I had a good friend of mine took time off work, his wife took time off work. They pulled their son out of school to come up and help. I had another really close friend of mine who was attending in the TF who went from an attendee with his wife having a good time to help her full teachers and the booth. And so all these people and all these things just came together, right? And I don't mirror if I told you the story about the trailer when we were, um, him and Memphis, but these are some of the green lights that, you know, talking about Hanseye coming back in. Um, we were out west with the military, right? Right before that. Move back to South Carolina, January of this year. We bought an enclosed trailer to move home with and we had no need for an enclosed trailer. We didn't have money to the side for a closed trailer, but it was a better deal than rent. You all said I'll buy this trailer, sell it when we get home, not an ideal. So I'll buy an enclosed trailer. We don't need, I can't sell it. I call the five or six guys that I know about trailer or anything for a deal every time. Yeah. None of them want it, right? And so I'm sitting there

thinking like, man, I got stuck with this trailer that we don't have a use for and then all of a sudden guess what I need to go to Nashville to haul the booth and all of our gear, right? Uh-huh. 16 foot enclosed trailer. And so it's just, it's just all these things that look like either bad or I didn't understand all lined up. And, you know, now that trailer's sitting in our driveway with the rouse logo on the side and it's been pulled, you know, halfway across the country a few times. And so it's just that all came together in the matter of three weeks. And then we were headed to Nashville and, and, um, and ever since then it's just been, we've been running. So it's been really good. And how long did you buy that trailer when you're removing the cross country? I'd had that trailer like three weeks before I got to call that interview TF. Maybe if you don't like to do it. Yeah. I mean, so it was fresh pieces. Crazy else stuff just falls into place when, and you're mad about it, you know, you're like, oh, I was high. I was high. I was like, man, we, I was like, I was waisted. I was money on this trailer. I should have rented a UL, you know, and all this for this thing. No. Because, but 16 foot trailers aren't cheap. Not good ones, you know? No, not at all. But, you know, what that, what that experience has done for me too is recently,

you know, when some bad things have happened, like we got stuck in high, well, I try to go, all right, what's there? Maybe there's some purpose behind this, right? Yeah, yeah. And, uh, yeah, there he is. And there is, right? There he is. There he is. We'll get to that. I know that story. So I've got my notes and I got a place for it. I'm not going to let you tell that right here at the beginning of it. So anyway, I want to get to that. But I did see a lot of her hats and stuff, you know, and you know, and you have to be TF and I saw it on the Instagram. That's where I saw I saw it at the show and I saw it show up on Instagram. And then like, it was just for me, like never hearing about it before and then just seeing it all over my, like the stories, right? Like, I don't know, I can't say there were a thousand people should put in stories, but I did see it probably. I did probably see a rise at a thousand times, you know, people were pumped about it, dude. So, so like, transparently, this was a brand that I kind of like, I do this just because I'm weird like that. But I lock in on some things that I think are like, this is cool. And, and this is probably going to do something cool, right? So I just pay attention to them because I like to, I like to keep my finger on the pole so everything and, you know, and, and no one kind of without knowing who you were, where you're from, like, or what the whole idea was behind it. I knew that I loved it. And what I

saw and that the trajectory of it was still yet to be determined. But I knew that whatever that trajectory, you know, however long it took, it was up either way. Like it's going up with the success of rise as it is now. And I think I know the answer to this question, but I've got to ask, do you or have you recognized, you know, how freaking cool, like the vehicle is that you're in, you know, when rises the vehicle, right? Like as you're using it to go places to take, to take you places, even, um, have you realized how cool that is? You know, sometimes I think I get lost in the minutiae, right? Where I'm worried about, hey, do we have enough wood screws to put this panel up and wear these shirt sizes and these things where I'm running around taking stuff to a screen printer. But, you know, I think where it kind of hits for me is through this whole journey over the last year or so. I've got to meet people in the industry that I've only seen on TV. And, you know, I mean, I'm in my mid 40s, right? I'm not like a young kid, but I'll still kind of, you fangirl a little bit. Starstruck. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A fanboy there. Starstruck. Starstruck. And I'm like, oh, man, that's so insane. And so it, yeah,

it's been super cool. And really, you know, and we'll get into this too. I know with my kids, that's been the coolest part for me because we made a decision with NWTF and then immediately following me. Okay, we're going to do this as a family. We're going to do this together. We want good batter and different. We want to do it as a team. And so that has been just the coolest thing to be able to go places and meet people and see things and do it as a family where we can have conversations with our kids. Like, hey, remember that instead of me telling them, oh, y'all should have been there. You missed this or you missed that. Yeah. So that's been really cool. Yeah. That's probably the best part for me. Yeah. And they're digging it. And I've got, I've got something about, I got something in my notes about them later that like, yeah, we'll get to it, dude. I love your kids, man. They're great. But you do realize it. I mean, it is a, it's not, you know, it's not necessarily a means to do things you've never done. But it is, it is something that's taken you places you probably never thought you'd be. And man, I mean, the people like you mentioned, the people you've met along the way, man, I just, it's such a cool thing. How things like that bring us together and how the people we meet along the way, especially the ones that like you never thought you would, you get to meet them and they're like, oh, wait,

like, I love what you're doing. You know, like, you're, you're excited to meet them. But they may know who you are. And they're like, oh, no, wait, I love your stuff. I got you. I know that's happened to you. I don't need a hand. I know that's happened. Brooks Tensley with yeah, Brooks break, right? So I know Brooks out where we're working at Memphis. And I'm like up there at the register and it's just me and my wife and our kids, right? And then we had two young couple boyfriend and girlfriend that had reached out to us back in the spring. And they ended up being there, Fisher Nolan. He works for Carter's big arms. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was there when he come by. I was talking to him. Yeah, his girlfriend Emma, right? And so they kind of helped us set the show some, but it's just really us, right? And Memphis was, I mean, I think we saw the numbers the other day. It's a 30,000. There's, there had to be twice that there. I mean, easy. If you want and they come through twice, you know, but I look up and and Brooks Tensley's there, right? And I don't know. Yes. But I was like, Hey, he's like, I like to buy a shirt. And I was like, this is going to sound really weird. But I was like, you have spent a lot of Sunday mornings with us. And he's like, what are you talking about? I was like, man, I said just before church on Sundays, I was like, we'll

cook breakfast and watch laws break while we get ready for church. I was like, so like, that's our thing on Sundays. Like I cook bacon and eggs and pancakes from my daughter and we watch a loss break. And then we go church. So like, I'm having this conversation with a guy that I've only seen on TV before. And yeah, now we're texting and talking and and he's got a, an awesome story. And he's helped me meet some people and that that's the cool stuff. But yeah, I mean, I'm still, I still get a, I still get a little star struck even now now. That's good, though, man. I think stay that way. You know, don't don't let that ever go away. Cause I just, I think that's a cool thing. In Brooks, like you said, I'm glad you mentioned him. He's one of the, he's one of the real ones is I call some of the folks that we have around us. And I'm a fan of that fella, you know, even even his light boot brand. He's got pushing out. Like that's a cool thing too. I just, I love to see people like that win and dude, it's a cool, it's a very, very cool thing. I don't know if I asked this question. You know, like, have you ever, have you ever kind of step back and figured out like, you know, this is cool. I still don't know what I'm doing, but I'm just going to keep doing. Are you there? Like I don't know what's, you know, you started out, never done show, never done merch, whatever. Now you've done those things. And you've had,

you've went through three of the largest shows in the country when it comes to water, fire, turkey, whatever. So like, even though you've done them, you still, you got a lot to grasp. Like do you ever like, I still don't know what I'm doing, but we're just going to keep going. Oh, every day. I don't know that I would have been prepared to handle this in my 20s, as well as I am now, right? No, absolutely not. You know, cause I have been, you know, I look back, you know, I think at the time I'll tell you, I did all these things and now looking back, I'm like, well, everything that I did either came from God or the resources others gave me or help others gave me or Grace others gave me, right? And so, or, or a trader that you had to buy, but couldn't go to, you know, and, you know, I try to work hard and do the right thing. I screw up a lot, but, you know, looking back over all these years of challenges I've had and figuring out how to do it. I mean, this is, is the same way, but I mean, I've never had any intent to start an apparel business, right? So I didn't say I'm a business plan or I didn't pitch a bank or private equity for capital. We're building the plane while we fly it. Yeah. So what I'm having to do

is work hard and figure things out and really find great people that I trust to help me out of on the way. And this was so cool. I mean, from, you know, the folks up in our t-shirts to stickers and hats and patches and signage, just all these things that I have no experience with. You've got always great people helping out and so I'm learning as we go. Yeah. Yeah. We're just figuring it out, right? But, you know, we're kind of burning the boats, man. We're there. We're only to burning the boats. We're not looking back. When you say that, like, building the plane, why it's going down, you know, I don't know if that's that's the phrase, but like, you've ever seen the movie, this is going to be funny. You've ever seen the movie Legos. I have, but it's having a thought once. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I've got, I've got a couple boys, you know, ones nine, it'll be 10 this week and another one seven. And which, by the way, love their shirts. Sounds like they love it, dude. Like my nine-year-old will you be 10 this week? He will wear his. And then I'll see it on him again, like, right at no internet, man, washed it. But hey, dude, did you put them dirty clothes for Mama? He's like, nope. It's just so fair. It's so fair. It's just rolling. I love it. Yeah, dude. They're

pumped, man. Thank you for that. They love it. Yeah. Absolutely. Anyway, Legos, I forgot my fault, but Legos, like, I washed it with them one time and they had a thing on their call like master builder, you know, and it's like master builders can build this and they literally are building a plane like with floating Legos as they're falling off a building or something like that. So anytime I hear that reminds me of like master builder and the cool thing is for me to hear that is just like, you know, the way it's the way it's talking to message it's sending in the forward-facing piece of it, it's like, I don't know if this even sounds right. It sounds right in my head, but I'm going to say it. It's like, you're running in your building, but like, you're you're building with a master builder. So like, it's gonna happen. So we don't have to call this Legos, but it's got a lot of similarities to it. I know for me sometimes I can get, you know, because I have business experience, I have operations experience, I have different experiences in my background, and sometimes I've just got to let that go and be like, all right, like, we're just going to try to do this faithfully. We're going to make sure we keep the main thing the main thing. Yeah, we got to make sure that we understand why

this whole thing started and why it exists is to tell a story. And from what I've seen, it's been some scary days in there, you know, as far as cash flow and some other things would not understanding requirements. But at the end of the day too, we talk about it and I'm like, we're going to try hard and we're going to be diligent and we're going to be faithful. And if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. But as long as it does, we're going to keep telling the story. And every time I get a doubt or I get worried, it has nothing to work out, I'm like, man, I don't know if this is the right thing. There's always a knowledge from somebody. It's either a customer sends an email back or there's a message on Instagram or I run into somebody, they're like, hey man, I like to shirt, keep doing that. And so that's really for us what keeps it going. And into your point, man, seeing the kids, I mean, my son and daughter have a great group of friends here and that will be a church or something or out in town. And I'll see kids wearing a ride shirt. I'm like, that's pretty cool. You know, like, just see kids wearing it and being able to talk about Jesus and hunting or fishing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's cool. And the other side is just having a

local group, like a local pile of people that are supporting it too. That's, I don't think a lot of you understand that's that's a really hard thing to do. You know, like to have your real close, not your close friends, they'll do that, but like the local group, like if you can win them over, you've done something, dude. You know, you can't be a profit in your hometown and that goes, that goes for a lot of things. But look, I've got to stop here for a second before I get to the next part. This piece that I'm about to tell you is sort of where I ended up realizing this brand was more than just kind of like a clever phrase that's piggybacking off of Jesus. Stay tuned to the Duck Sun Limited Podcast, sponsor by Bird Dog Whiskey after these messages. I realized at some point that this brand was more than a clever phrase that's piggybacking off of, you know, Jesus. A lot of people do that, man. Like they, they want to throw that in there because they know it's going to sell in the South and the Bible belt. You know, they do. And I think for me, when I see things for the first time, it's like, here we go again, you know, like even, I just

like, man, I just, I just feel like it's exploiting sometimes, you know, and I don't, I don't like that. Maybe that's taking the wrong way. I just don't like it when people do it with all to your motive, right? But so I ended up working the show at an expo about a month ago, a little over a month ago, now, but I got absolutely flamed by this kid in Cornhole. Like, I mean, it was you I'm talking about, and it was still pretty early in the morning. I don't know if it was Saturday or Sunday. I can't remember, but, but it was early in the morning. So this, this whooping I took, it stuck with me the whole day, right? Like it's not something that it just happened. It was like, oh, it's cleaned up and leave it. This, this dude woke me in and I just had to think about it. Like, you know, what's going on? And he walked up on the play cornhole and I was like, yeah, sure, kid. Like, let's, let's do this, you know, and I like he is like, so he was good, you know, but I swear that as soon as he stepped, I remember, if you're looking at the booth, I was in, there's a, I was on the right. He was on the left. And I remember looking and this dude took his step and he put his arm back and I knew I was like, this kid ain't from here and he's about to walk my tail because he was just too confident. And I knew I was like, this form is Southern. Like, there's no doubt this is a Southern dude. And I,

it wasn't long after that. I had my suspicions confirmed. He woke me on the boards and there was no, it was undisputed. Like, there was no like, this is close or I let him, I was easy on him. No, woke me. And then this super confident, like, young lady walks up and asks if she can play. And I relieved because I know like all these people been seeing me get walked by a kid and now I can let her get what new people see it. So don't look as bad. I'm quick getting embarrassed. But like the joke was kind of all me because I didn't know at the time that that was his sister and she was as good as he was. So still had no idea they were your kids. This whole thing going on. I'm just not getting walked by these kids wearing rye stuff, which is not not uncommon, you know, that happens. Whatever. But man, I guess like I was just kind of distraught and I was just like trying to put the two and two together of like how with both of these kids good. And anyway, they they will meet whatever the reason was I can't remember. But soon after I like got into the games with them, you walked by pretty quickly. And I saw you were wearing something rise. And I don't know what you said to him or whatever, you know, you were in a hurry to get some rails. He's like, Hey, what's up? Y'all have fun. But that's when I put it together. I was like, okay, this dad has raised these kids to be this way.

And I and they didn't do anything out of the ordinary that other kids do. They were just good kids, carried themselves well, confident and polite. And I just for whatever reason, your two kids were such a joy. And this is just me being transparent with you. We're such a joy to be around and hang around. Mine is the cornhole like situation, you know, love them. But there's only one obvious reason they are the way they are. And that's because they're raised right. And I can put those two things to get those things together and say, Okay, it takes a certain kind of person to raise kids this way. And then, you know, I see them again in Memphis. They're the same way, you know, I'm not going to say it's a rare thing. It's just not common. Could those you and mom, you know, like from what you guys are doing and just keeping everything centered where it should be and just know that y'all are crushing it. And you you're leading and living by example and your your kids are like they are echoing. What everybody feels about you and your brand right now. Man, we're so blessed. You know, we fail miserably as parents every day. But two things, you know, two things I try to say I'm sorry as much as I can. And I'm just telling people all the time I'm so thankful that my kids are more gracious than I am because they give me all kinds of grace. I probably don't deserve. And

to your point, I was probably coming to look for them because we hadn't seen them in an hour and a half right. Especially with the William. I started taking him to breakfast with a group of old businessmen when he was probably three or four years old. Like he did well at preschool and digging in trouble. We got to go to breakfast on Fridays, right. And so we've always made it a point. We take our kids everywhere. Like my daughter goes to go hunting. She goes hunting. So almost go hunting. He goes hunting. You know, they want to go. We try to do things as a family as much as we can. And it's built a ton of independence and confidence in them on the backs of that. William, how old were you? 11 11 and nor grace just turned nine. But on the backs out of that, they will straight up disappear at a trade share for like an hour and a half. And you don't have any clue where they are. And go look the stranger. And I'm like, where are you been? They're like, oh, it's just playing cornhole with weight. I'm like, oh yeah. Like, well, we you're kind of worried. And we didn't know where you were. He's like, I'm good. He's like, look at you. Yeah, look at all the free hats I got. I can't get free. But yeah, it's so cool. I mean, there are ambassadors and our our PR team because, you know, with this being such a small company, Crystal and I, we never get out of the booth

and then all of a sudden, William's like, hey, you need to come meet Wade. I'm like, okay. Or he's like, hey, I'm that sound. So come over here. Hey, these guys want to talk to y'all. Tell them about rise and, you know, in Memphis, William decides to enter the world, cut down duck con championship. He did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's been blowing the duck call for like a week and a half. And he's like, hey, dad, I'm going to enter the calling contest. And I talked to Fisher. He says, okay, well, is he going to be okay? He's like, yeah, we fine. I didn't. I don't think I understand a, which contest it was in the magnitude of it. You know, and then yeah, next thing I know, he's locked in the room with 40 grown men who did this for a living for about five hours and goes out on stage, makes it to the second round. I mean, and just super proud of him because he ain't, I mean, he's scared anything. No. And nor grace has even less fear. I mean, she's, yes boy. She's awesome. So it's just cool, man, we are, we are so blessed. There's so much fun and a lot of times I can lose sight of it. You know, whenever homework's not done or the room's messy, but, you know, the here, when you hear other people say, hey, you got good kids, you know, it makes you feel like you're doing something right. And it does. And to your point with the cornhole and stuff, I mean,

we are, we're pretty adamant in our home about as little screens as possible. Like they don't have devices. We got TV, but we want to keep them outside sweaty and dirty and tired. And so, you know, throw going old bags or we just got a bug. He starts shooting the bell in the back yard. I mean, hey, baseball across gymnastics, cheerleading, whatever we try to just keep them busy. I'll say a quick funny story when we were out west, we were at like a cook out for work and there was some guys playing botchi in this yard. Oh, yeah, they mentioned botchi. Yeah, some of my kids were like, what is that? I was like, well, you basically try to put the big red ball near the little white ball. And they're like, can we play? And I was like, that's easy. I asked the guys was like, y'all care if they play? Yeah, sure, go ahead. I think they beat everybody for about two and a half hours straight, you know, to the point where people didn't want to play them anymore. And nor grace is just trash talking 30 year old men in the backyard. You know that we even nor grace were just like, man, that's easy. Why couldn't we play that with these guys? Yeah, there's like, I don't understand what the complexity is. You just out near the other thing. Yeah, dude, that's awesome. There's something just humble these dudes.

And then the next thing I know, like the Sunday of Memphis Williams on stage with Jim Ronquist and Seth Fields doing the live to you podcast we go. And so people are like, I just saw William on the TV. Yeah. What was happening here? Yeah. Yeah. William's on side quests. Dude, he's just living the best life. There's nobody that's a better ad to get for that brand than he. Like he's these up there on stage and you're over there in the booth just kind of selling stuff, you know. I dig it. Well, with all of that that we've went over to preface, like we've won over that. I want to preface. I used it to preface this. I'm super curious what the future is like for us. Like whether you know what you're doing or you don't right now, you're still figuring it out. We know that. We know it's some cool other. We'll call it adjacent phrases, you know, under love Jesus. It's just something different. Huntfish, whatever. But have you even had enough time to give a thought on scaling, you know, like making it big, not necessarily more phrases, but just or more messages, but just bigger. You know, like what's that look like? And if know though, like what's the next year look like for a mission and I'll call it a mission,

because that's what it is at this point, you know, like rise, you know, is it's just is it sustaining it and evolving into whatever it's called to be? Or is it just like really dialing in everything else that you've got going on? Yeah, I think it's too full, man. I think we have been extremely inefficient in a lot of things because again, we had three weeks notice to essentially put together an entire company setup with inventory and boost and all this stuff. And we did it very hastily. I think we did it well. But then looking back, you're like, okay, man, I got to figure out how to get this tighter and this is that, you know, this lead time is a lot different than I thought it was. And so trying to refine what we're doing at the same time, understanding, you know, there's different opportunities come up. I think we're going to dabble in some retail space and see how that works for us. You know, we're going to grow the lines with some different, different garments or maybe like, you know, different designs, you know, so really for us, it's how do we stay true to the core message of rise, which is, you know, love Jesus hunt, you know, love Jesus fish and just love Jesus basically. You can start with that, everything else to kind of

fill in. And so how do we stay true to that? How do we provide, you know, faith forward a pair of the people want to wear it? It's pretty cool. How do we keep it fresh? And then is there is there something else we can add, you know, maybe bring some value from a clothing line side of the house? So yeah, yeah, I mean, we're just we're trying to figure it out, like I said, um, and that's not easy. Like you said, they don't know, like just I don't want to stop your thought, but like growing and going, keeping, keeping the core the core is the goal and trying to grow it and evolve it as a business or a company. It's hard to do while keeping everything the mission at the center, right? Like it is because other things become your priority to like, like you said, tighten it up or get calc down or get distribution better or whatever. And it's hard to do that all at the same time. It is. I mean, and we talk about this all the time. I mean, especially with our kids and things, it's like, we want to live our life set apart. That has a very broad definition, right? Obviously, we want to be set apart with our beliefs. We want to be set apart with how we work, but our fitness, with the way we treat others, with the way we handle money, the way we approach tasks, you know,

the people we surround ourselves with. And so we're trying to do all those things. And it's tough, man. I mean, you know, in the military, there's a different section for current ops and future ops for a reason, right? I mean, they split those out. And when you're trying to do both at the same time, they can get through challenges. But, you know, I'm thankful, especially my wife, I mean, you know, I spend a lot of time in the woods this spring, mostly because I love to taste turkeys, but also to help promote rise and do some things. And, you know, yeah, yeah, we took kids to school and packing orders and doing things like that. And, you know, so without her, none of this is possible. There have been some tough days. Sure. But, you know, it's all worth it. When, again, you just get a message from a random person that says, hey, we love this brand and we really appreciate you making these shirts and just keep doing what you're doing. I mean, and for us, I mean, that's that's the most important piece of it. Yeah. I dig that dude. You got any plans to let the two Cornhole sharks like design anything like maybe we get constant, constant feedback from our kids on things we should do. Some of it is awesome. Some of it is a little. I don't know that we can

that's really a market for that, but we'll take a look at it. Yeah. But no, yeah, it's it's great. I mean, you know, we have a shirt really that was made our Wingman series, which is on Proverbs 27 and 17 Iron Sharper and Iron. So it's really a big hey, you'll be a Wingman too. But if it also, you know, with kids being Wingman, you know, have a have a relationship and it may not even be a kid. He's maybe I didn't grow up. My dad didn't hunt. And so my best friend's father took me and you had it not been for that. I probably wouldn't have got the same opportunities in the outdoor, right? Yeah, no doubt. And so, yeah, we're coming up with some more some more kids stuff, you know, just continuing. We try to get buy-in from from the whole family on everything, right? We had to make the decision last minute. We got the opportunity to go to Memphis last minute. In order to do that, we had to reschedule my daughter's birthday party, right? But we sent out and I said, Hey, look, we don't have to move you birthday party. If you say no, we'll skip it. And she was like, Hey, she said, we can have my birthday anytime. Let's go to Memphis. And I was like, All right, let's we're in. Yeah, my girl, I like that. There's a good man. We and it really helps when, you know, if you got there buying and they're engaged

and then the late nice in early mornings aren't near as later early and they're in. So yeah, no, but they argue all the time about who's the co-founder of rise like getting a fight about it. I am. I know I am. And it's like, right. So I guess I need to go back and change your intro to like co-founder of the. Assisted. I'm just a sister to the co-founders. Yeah, I just work here. I love it. Cool. We'll do like and think about like her being good with pushing a birthday party back. You made a mention of just making sure you involve the kids and everything you do, especially with rise. Like if that's the case, then she loves it too. And you know, we'll love it too. Like they're in. And if it's like move my birthday party back, you know, like for a nine year old dude, like I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He has me at nine. No, man. We had my birthday party. That's cool. Yeah, that's awesome. Man, that's great. The great to see them to, it just makes me super proud to see them be selfless. Sometimes in a very selfish world. So. Oh, yeah. That's a fact, dude. Well, you mentioned last minute in Memphis. I know some of the story. You know, you went to the show where I mentioned it, hang out for a bit. And the plan was to leave the Expo in Iowa. And, and from there,

go back straight across the country to get home apparently to the birthday party. You know, I didn't know that was the thing. But the plan was to not take your time getting back. But that wasn't what happened. Like go through this. We got car troubles. You had to call an audible like let's let's go run me through that. Yes. I mean, we went to Iowa pulling into town. I get an engine light. I got a fairly new truck. And so it's still in her warranty and make a call back. Thankfully, I got a guy that works for an auto dealer here in the service. I call him, hey man, what's going on with this? These are the codes. And he said, oh, yeah, you're going to take that to somebody. Not really. He said, because it's probably, you know, he's probably something with the intake. If you're pulling a trailer a thousand miles, it may be a problem. So thankfully there in Iowa, find somebody to fix it. They said they'll have us ready on Saturday. Well, in the meantime, we weren't we were on the waiting list for Memphis because we had gotten in the game so late, you know, with really not being on the scene till five, six months ago. And talk with Logan. Great guys. Like, hey man, like probably not going to happen. Yeah, Logan Nevis. Probably not going to happen. And I said, well, if anything comes up, let me know. And he actually

text me the day we rode into Iowa and said, hey, I got a small booth available. And it wasn't the size we needed. We had the birthday party. I had another meeting on that Friday. I was like, man, we just can't make it work. Yeah. And then for the next couple of days, you know, we're there at the show. My truck's getting fixed. What's your real anxiety? Everybody I'm talking to you. You're like, hey, you going to Memphis? We're going to see you Memphis. I'm like, no, I was like, and so I'm just kicking myself like, hey, is this an open door that I didn't walk through? Am I being faithful? Am I worrying about things that don't really matter? No, it's your daughter's birthday party and a meeting that worked no matter. But right. Yeah. Is that her? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. That's right. And so sure enough, man, Saturday turns into Sunday. Sunday to Monday. Monday to Tuesday. Oh, everybody's going to this point. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody to help us pour a trailer up to load it. It's sitting there. We're stuck in Iowa. And it's about a hour and a half before we go pick up and truck to drive home. And I get a text from Logan that says, hey, the size you need and a spot you want is open. And spot you wanted. Yeah. I was like, are you kidding me? And he said, no. I said, and I said, give me three minutes.

Yeah. That's when we had the talk about birthday parties and other stuff. I called him back. I said, man, we're in. That's so cool, dude. We loaded up and drove straight to Memphis. And, you know, got it was a little bit of a struggle because we packed the trailer as if we were going home, which wasn't in a very neat fashion. We got to Memphis. We got stuff everywhere. We don't know anything it is. We're trying to figure it out. Man, just from the moment we walked in the door, do you exit Memphis? Just people excited to see us. They're, oh, man, I didn't think you were coming. I was like, you never going to believe this story. And, uh, yeah. You know, so just people helping us get set up and do things. It's just so cool. And as far as me up, another awesome thing where we're trusting when the door gets open that we're supposed to walk through it. That's right. That's right. I mean, I've got here in the notes like what lesson learned or reiterated, but it sounds like it's just don't worry about the little things. It just goes through the door. That's right. That's cool, man. That is so cool. Dude, I've got a lot of things like that I think I'd like to talk to you about like another time too. You know, we're about at the end of this hour and we covered

everything we wanted to cover. I do think that there's more to this story as as as the days go. And I mean that because I think you're going to have some growth here that and honestly just a platform, you know, to use for the things you're trying to do. And I think it's going to be a cool thing. And I believe that I'm excited for that for you and for the family and and dude, I'm looking forward to the next time we do this and we've just got, you know, it's more that we're talking about. It's what's happened since the end of time. Many lives you've changed. How many, you know, that's been changed through just a conversation of what is that or what that means and just the things you've been putting the places you've been put in and the people you've been put in front of because of that turkey you missed, you know. Not even. That's I love I tell people all the time getting diagnosed with cancer is the best thing I ever happened to me and they're like, what? And then I go into a little bit of the story, but you know, I'm just thankful as imperfect as I am, you know, I'm able to do something bigger than me and help us something bigger than me. That is just a cool thing I think, because I think the message really behind our eyes is like, we're all perfectly imperfect.

Yeah. And that's how God wants us and without that, we don't. That's right. So it's cool just to meet meet other people that feel the same way I do. Like, hey, am I enough? I'm never going to measure up or this is happening, but you know, it doesn't, none of it really matters and we can lean on each other and I'll wear some love Jesus shirts and have a good time and hang out. And it's pretty awesome, man. I love it, dude. Well, you're doing it. I mean, you're doing it. Mrs. Seymour is doing it. Normal grace is doing it. Williams doing it. Like it's, it's happening, man. And I just hats off to you and them. I just, I love to see it. I really do. I do want to close us out here. I want, I have a thing I do at the end of everything. It's at the end of every podcast. And it's like, it's a simple question. I'm a big fan of everybody winning. I'm a big fan of seeing everybody succeed. I'm a big believer in the pies, big enough for everyone. And I stole this from one of my favorite podcast host. And I think it's a perfect way to end a podcast. But out of the brands and people, the people you've met, you know, the brands you've made, the things you see, even now is a business owner in this space. People move in the needle in this space that you love, you know, and you love what they're doing. Who are some people or brands that you want to give props

to? It can be in the hunting, not in the hunting. But who's a couple of people or brands you want to give props to? This, this is a tough question because there's so many to pick from. The team at Roland Thunder, the team at Makers, you know, it's great. Call people. I've got some really awesome guys in the turkey space. David Hopper with Lim Hopper calls, Ricky Pageant, Springer Lure. But you know, do companies for me really foul or high supply, which I don't know if you know, you know, Drew and I know Cam. I know Cam. Yeah. I mean, so the cool thing about them is I got connected with them as a consumer before NWTF even happened and Drew an hour on a phone call. And I just needed them to make some custom leather pieces for my family because we all wanted the same color gun. Yeah. So I was why I put our initials on it. And then next thing you know, I'm on the phone with them for an hour and a half. And we're talking about RISE and then they drew you. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. That's true. That's a good brother. Yeah. Cam's brother. Yeah. Yeah. You know, they're just, they've been such a big help and encouragement to us through all these shows and given, I call them, Hey, man. I was like, what do you do about this? Where's this go? How do you

make this? Like, do you have, send me a picture of your booth and they'll, yeah, they're, so I'm learning as much as I can from these guys and they're just fun to be around. And yeah, products that they make are just awesome, just heirloom quality products. They're making all by hand. It's just so cool. And then a guy here in South Carolina, Brandon Bond, his brand is Squatchy Game Calls, kind of like Satsquatch. Squatchy Game Calls. He's kind of a, I tell everybody, he's like a boutique turkey call guy. He does diaphragm and pot calls, but he's kind of been with us from the start. And just a great friend. He and I talked with the phone for probably two years before we ever met and had a chance to hunt together this past spring. He's just a neat guy, man. He, I'll call him up and be like, Hey, like, I need a diaphragm call. It does this, this, and this. And he's like, All right, I'll make, I'll make one a sentence to you and he says, he just doing this pretty cool stuff because he's, he's smaller and has some flexibility to do some custom work on calls. And it's really cool, man. You said it's, it's, it's Squatchy Game Calls, yeah. You see a Satsquatch guy. He just thought it'd be cool. You know, his slogan on his website is says believe in yourself. He would know one else will, right? And I'll say this. He does

this really cool thing every year. South Carolina is called the King of Spring and he gets a custom, okay. He gets a custom belt buckle, mate. And you enter, you enter this competition and you, you know, you can get one turkey a year. You enter it. There's a point system. And whoever wins, the tournament gets a belt buckle that says King of Spring. And that's the year. Yes, for the whole turkey season. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's cool. That's, I think I heard of that. And he's one of those guys like I said, anybody, you could call him up. Be like, Hey, man, here's what I need or here's the kind of calls I like and he'll, he'll put something together for you sent to you. So that's really, yeah. I dig that, man. I really do. I appreciate it. I love that piece of the podcast as much as any of it because it gives us a chance to like, I've never heard Squatchy calls, you know, and, and, and Cam is a good friend of mine. Like, I love hearing people, but I know we talked about, you know, in that regard. So this has been great. And I know there's a lot more to do and a lot more to be said. And I think we're going to have a whole lot more to cover next time. But Eric, thank you for, for your time and, and for your heart. And for what you got going on with rise. And I'm stoked to see this thing do more. And I know it will.

So is there anything you want to close us out with there? Anything you want to say while we're closed? It's one of, yeah, I really say thanks to, thanks to everybody. I mean, thanks to you. Thanks to the people that have taken time to speak to tell stories, to buy t-shirt, to buy shirt for somebody else. And really just support a small business who's telling a story like it means more to us than than you'll ever know. And just, you know, you're taking a chance on a, on a guy for a podcast. It hadn't been around very long. Just, you know, thanks for allowing us to tell the story. That's very cool, man. That's, that's, that's the perfect thing to end on. So I'm going to do it. Folks, thank you for joining us again on the Ducks Unlimited podcast. Eric, a pleasure. I'm your host Wade. I'll be back next time. See you later. That's a wrap for today's episode of the Ducks Unlimited podcast. Brought to you by Bird Dog Whiskey in Cocktails. From post hunt unwinds to celebrations back at camp, Bird Dog delivers a award-winning flavor to every moment and join responsibly. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe and check out ducks.org slash DUPodcast for more stories, science, and all things waterfowl. Guest opinions are their own and don't necessarily

reflect those of Ducks Unlimited. Until next time, stay fired up, stay focused, and stay tuned to the Ducks.

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