Show Notes
This week on the #syndicast I am speaking with shooter, industry influencer and content creator Sean Burrows… better known as SeanGoBoom
I suspect we are going to cover a lot of ground in this episode and it may seem a little overwhelming. If you are a shooter with less than 1000 followers on your primary platform pop over to http://hawkeyesyndicate.com/first1000/ and get a copy of how to get your first 1000 followers. For those of you that are already there and wondering what’s next go to http://hawkeyesyndicate.com/influencer/ and schedule a 1 hour call with me to do some brainstorming. Most conversations make their way on to the podcast where you and your sponsors will get some new exposure. Finally, if you are a business and would like an assessment go to http://hawkeyesyndicate.com/jointhesyndicate/. I will look at your business from the outside, provide you with what’s so and actionable steps you can take to take it to the next level.
Finally, you can find all of our recommendations for business development books and content creation tech at our Amazon Store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/hawkeyeordnance3gun
Without further ado welcome Sean Burrows
Introductions and Bona Fides
Tell us a little about how you got into the shooting sports and the world of content and influence.
Sponsors: Heckler and Koch, Breda, Safariland, Vortex Optics, Emerson Knives, Dakota Tactical, ShootSteel.com, HK Parts, Gargoyles, 5.11 Tactical, Briley 3 Gun, ELF, Dueck Defense and Rhino Metals
Sponsor changes…
Heckler and Koch gave you a built in crossover audience from the tactical world
One of the things you are known for in the industry is your influence and you are really respected for your opinions on the game of influence and marketing.
What are you seeing happening to influencers in our industry?
I would like to go through each platform and get your take on them.
Influence
@seangoboom on
Facebook (740 followers) primarily shares from IG
Twitter (1016 followers) fairly political
Sean Borrows on Youtube (5800 subs) 136k Vid, several 10k plus vids
@sean.go.boom (interesting that Sean Burrows didn’t return IG page in search
Instagram (32.5k followers)
Website: http://www.seangoboom.com/
Blog and VLOG under Sean Burrows Competitive Shooter
Transcriptions
Speaker 1: [inaudible].
Speaker 2: Hey everybody and welcome back to the sinter cast a cool episode this week. I’m speaking with shooter industry influencer and content creators, Sean Burrows, most of you probably know him as Sean go boom. And we’re going to get into all things about influence and marketing in our industry, so stay tuned
Speaker 1: [inaudible]
Speaker 3: but before we do that, we got to pay the bills. So, um, I suspect in this episode we’re going to cover a lot of ground. Um, and it might seem a little overwhelming, you know, take what you can from this. But if you’re a shooter with less than a thousand followers, as always, we invite you to go over to HUC I syndicate.com forward slash first 1000 and get a copy of that document we put out about a year ago, which we’ll be updating this winter, but really just some tried and true techniques to get that first 1000 followers. You’ve got some influence for those of you who already sorta in that game and you listen to this and you’re like, man, I really just want to update what I’m doing. Schedule a call with me. You can do that over at um, Huq I, syndicate.com forward slash influencer. And then, uh, we’re in the business of marketing.
Speaker 3: So for those of you who have a company that would like an assessment, if you pop over to Hawkeye syndicate.com forward slash join the syndicate, we’ll take a look at your business from the outside, whether you work with us or not, you will get some actionable items you can actually deploy in your business to move the needle. And then lastly, if we’re going to mention books and all kinds of stuff in this and most of our podcasts and all that stuff can always be found on our Amazon page, amazon.com forward slash shop forward slash Haka Ordinance three gun. All right, so without further ado, welcome. Well, you know, Michelle, go boom, probably. But Sean Burrows, how are you doing Sean? Very good. Thanks for having me on mark comment. It’s awesome. We haven’t, uh, it’s been like, I think over a year since we’ve had a solid conversation. Even on the phone. Yeah, yeah. About a year, right? Oh, what you been up to? What’s going on? I’m just
Speaker 4: hashtag living my best life. Oh God. I like, okay. I’m so glad that’s finally become a mainstream thing to make fun of. Oh my God. That’s really great. Yeah. I, well, let’s get into hashtags and all that shortly here. Maybe in context,
Speaker 3: but, um, you have been busy. [inaudible]
Speaker 4: um, it’s probably been the busiest. Uh, I mean if I look at it on a rolling 12, just the last 12 months of I’ve been busier in this, um, shooting hobby of that, that I’ve somehow found myself in and shooting hobby that takes up your whole life and all your money. You mean now? Yeah, we can, it’s still a hobby. Right, right. It’s not an addiction then.
Speaker 3: Well, for, for people. The, exactly. That’s good. Um, so for people who, you know, just know you from Instagram, you know, you’re getting a, uh, a section of your life, what do you do when you’re not, like, what’s your, what is your actual job? What do you do for a living? And, uh, you know,
Speaker 4: outside of the, the shooting industry, I’m a businessman. I, uh, my core competencies are, are in marketing, um, specifically, uh, digital marketing. Um, uh, about two years ago, I, I shut down a full service ad agency. I ran with a couple of really awesome business partners. We just, it’s good money, but it’s hard work for that good money. If you’ve ever, if you’ve ever seen mad men, just the, the ups and the downs of clients schmoozing, I would just didn’t like it. Um, just like mad men only moving at a thousand times that speed you can’t down, um, a couple glasses of whiskey and take a nap on the couch all afternoon. Like don draper. Nope. Cause if you do, there’ll be like a one article on drudge and your whole world will change. Correct. So I, I mean, and so in the name of, of happiness, you know, we, we went our separate ways.
Speaker 4: Um, cool. It’s the only a business I’ve had a partner or partners in that has been shut down, that we’re all still friends. Um, it was, uh, how about we just be friends and, you know, and we all, we all just wanted to work on different projects. So marketing’s my still my core competency. It’s something I just like doing. I love the art of human persuasion in general and all almost more than the compensation that comes from it. Right? Like there’s, there’s some certain rush to, um, influencing hearts and minds for sure, whether it’s for commission or, uh, just the thrill of doing so. And, you know, I, I, I continue to do that, but I, I just work with clients that I want to work with. So it’s, it’s a smaller consulting boutique, I guess Kinda thing. Um, a lot of digital ad management working specifically in industries and niches that are not necessarily friendly to big ad platform terms of service.
Speaker 4: Um, nothing, um, sketchy, you know, totally. We only say what we do best is working in a headwind over here that’s very similar. I mean, in the street. I mean, I’m not doing like online casinos and no pushing pills and stuff, but, um, you know, it’s, I like the challenge. Um, and you know, we, I’ve got clients in, in very mainstream industries too that, uh, just don’t know how to get traction. And, and Facebook and Google are the most amazing advertising human persuasion platforms the planet has ever seen and it’s only getting better. And, um, I enjoy it and I like, I like gaming it with industries like, I mean, it is possible to run Facebook ads, um, in the, the gun industry. Yes. All that it is, it just needs to be more creative. But the funny thing is, is those fundamental things are a
Speaker 4: good marketing practices anyway. Yup. You know, running ads to drive eyes and attention to really good, informative and valuable content, not just, hey, you want to buy my thing? Yeah. And um, you know, it, it’s, it’s just, uh, well, what’s that? Is it Peloton Cycle? You know, the, the, the bike there, that stationary bike hooked up to the Internet and doing spin classes. Yeah. When I first started running ads, it was literally like, Hey, you want to buy a $2,000 bike? They didn’t have any content around it. I remember seeing those ads going up and it w it was amazing to me, you know, um, and so anyway, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve focused more on, um, using my skills to build up my own, um, ecommerce businesses well outside of the world issue. Yeah. Um, and, and, um, I’m working with a handful of, uh, clients I enjoy working with. Typical, you know, took a cut and paid to uh, maybe be a little bit more happy and you know, it two years later, um, the pays better.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, no, I got it. Look, I don’t to run around and shoot three guns. Two years ago I had 17 clients. Uh, we’re a small shop and, and they were, you know, and it was very varied in what everybody was paying and you know, cause that’s just, we said yes to everything. The first several years of business and [inaudible] and I took a look around and I’m like, man, I just, I’m not doing a good job for them. I’m not doing a good job for myself. And so we scaled the whole thing down to a smaller group. Actually. Now it’s more profitable than it’s ever been. But it’s been like way more fun, like a lot more fun. Cause we can actually get under the hood of what we’re doing and, and um, cause what we’ve spent a lot of time in the last year doing is like actually training the people that are in the businesses how to do this so that, you know, cause there’s, we can create awesome content and put things out, but there’s nothing that, um, but what I don’t think any marketing agency can do as well as the person on site can do is like if they’re good at it and they’re there while it’s happening in real time, there’s just certain like level of, uh, like, um, excitement and energy around that.
Speaker 3: That’s really hard to create from an agency.
Speaker 4: Oh, absolutely. I mean, especially with the demands of content creation on social media, it doesn’t matter what you’re selling, what you’re doing, how you’re influencing. Yup. Infotainment has to be genuine. You know, there are arguments out there that, you know, brand is dead and to a degree, uh, it’s, it’s definitely the
Speaker 3: different than it fabric has been in history. And that’s something I, I definitely want to get into in this conversation. But, uh, let me just, I’m gonna that thought a little bit until we get into like the actual, cause no, it’s really good, but I, um, this is like, you and I both kind of understand these concepts from a little different level than a lot of the people that are listening to this. Right. You know, the, the Avatar for this particular conversation is a lot of guys just in the dirt that shoot, right? And, and, and they’re trying to garner a certain amount of influence and all that kind of stuff. And understanding how brand works today is really good. But I think for them it might help to be in the context of like, you know, actually on Instagram and actually on Facebook and on Twitter and youtube and all the other awesome options out there. So. Cool. Alright. Well, how did you get into, um,
Speaker 5: okay,
Speaker 3: well first of all, I guess, how’d you get into shooting? I mean, what has that been a life long thing for you? I’m always curious to find out how people got into it.
Speaker 4: Yes and no. I mean, the shooting that I do now know is that has not been a lifelong thing. Yeah. I didn’t have the, um, blessed life of being able to be a homeschooled junior shooter that gets to wake up in quad load for homework every morning. [inaudible] go start winning matches. Right. Like I wish, yeah. That’s a thing, isn’t it? I didn’t really ever consider that, but that is really wishing I was homeschooled. I’m just saying. Yeah. You know, like I, I when I was in high school, the, the, the, the Clinton assault weapons ban was in full swing, so it was 10 rounds in a mag. Yup. Alright. Um, I’m from Fairbanks, Alaska. Okay. I grew up around guns my whole life. You know, I, I think I knew how to say, uh, guns don’t kill people. People kill people. Before I knew my own name, my dad worked for the US Geological Survey, water resources division.
Speaker 4: So he’s constantly hopping on, um, Bush planes and flying out in the middle of nowhere and measuring streams and checking gauges and, and those sorts of things. And, you know, there’s a real risk of wildlife. So he always had his colt python or his, uh, model 19 on his side and, and, and was, uh, you know, I was just around gun then, so I mean, he’s, he’s originally from Chicago area and, uh, at a certain point, I think during high school he moved up to Alaska and a whole family. And, um, um, he was always into outdoors and archery and hunting and those sorts of things. And so, you know, those are the types of guns I grew up around. Um, and, and so, um, how did I get into shooting? I mean, it was really as simple as, um, you know, a certain point after his married and, uh, it was, it kind of settled and, and working on, you know, the family, uh, we started, man, we should probably have a concealed carry. Um,
Speaker 5: yeah.
Speaker 4: Permit. So my wife and I went out and got it concealed carry permits. We just never done it, you know, guns. And, um, I was just bored to death. I’m like, okay, now I’ve got a, uh, a and a holster. I’m crammed down my pants, nobody knows about it. And I got this card that says I’m able to, I’m, I’m free to exercise my right to keep them bear and arm, um, in secret. And uh, now what? Yeah. So I go to the range, you know, spend 20 bucks on a box, a 100 rounds or whatever it was and shoot and like, well there’s holes in the paper, I guess. All that’s cool. And then I stick it back in the bag and, and get in my car and then re conceal and you know, once a month was, is a generous thing. Yeah. It was just so boring and that I just had in the back of my mind that there just had to be something more.
Speaker 4: And then at a certain point, I don’t know what it was. Um, I, oh, it was right after the sandy hook shooting and everyone was scared that Obama was going to take away all the guns and all that. Um, that I am literally a week before that, my wife had given me, actually this, this pistol right here in h k p 34 birthday. Um, and, uh, years previous we’d run into hard times and I literally sold every gun I had. Um, just to make ends meet. Guns are fantastic savings account. They hold value really well headed you, unless he cerakote them Tiffany blue, then you’re stuck with them. But you know, I, um, the, the one gun I wanted to have back was, was that a p 30, because it just fit my hand and, um, I was able to shoot it really well and I regretted that one the most.
Speaker 4: You know, all the other guns we would install everything, family heirloom type stuff, totally held onto, but you know, everything else. Um, the day to day hardware had to go live the life of an entrepreneur, right? Sometimes things go wrong. And I was young and, uh, made a lot of money and lost a lot of money. Yup. The story another time. But, uh, you know, she got this format, so it was what, December of 2012 is that when sandy hook and, um, I, I’ve carried it ever since, but uh, you know, um, it got me thinking I need to find something that’s, that’s gonna help me build my skill set. Like I’m not just going to walk around with a gun. I’m, I used to be a professional musician. I’m very well aware that you can’t go to guitar center, come home with a stratocaster and call yourself a musician, kind of put in the work.
Speaker 4: Right. And I also know what it means to play drums in front of 10,000 people and, uh, be able to keep your cool and not screw up, not get excited and speed up and, and keep the band going. And so, you know, I, I guess, I guess what really, um, was driving me was like, I knew that under pressure there’s a probability that I didn’t have the muscle memory, the, the neural pathways built to run that thing. And so I was, I wasn’t uncomfortable carrying, but I was uncomfortable with my ability to do a damn thing with it. Should bid the occasion arise and 2005 February. Yeah, Valentine’s Day 2005 I was actually mugged in downtown Salt Lake. Um, an attempted mugging. I, um, smashed the guy’s face in and knocked him out cold, um, and ran away so he didn’t get anything. Um, but I took martial arts my whole, my whole life and that stuff.
Speaker 4: I got my black belt and stops training when I was 16, so like, uh, I didn’t know what was in here, but under pressure, um, clocked the bastard, um, and ran away. It was so ungraceful I was going out for the evening and wearing a suit. Leather soled shoes. It’s raining. Uh, I just pulled 40 bucks out of an ATM and I’m running away and slipping everywhere, scare the shit out of me. Um, I didn’t have a gun. Yeah. You know, and, and would it have been a better scenario if I’d shot him? Of course not. No. Um, and, and so I’ve just had it the back of my mind like, alright, I’m walking around with lethal force and I do not have the training necessary. That is a very real fact, right? Like people talk about carrying a gun and feeling safe. Like, cool.
Speaker 4: You feel safe. You’re not. Yeah, you have the skills. And, and so I just started looking, I started looking on youtube and stuff and all these tactical classes. I thought it was bad then it’s worse now. Like so many trainers, like, yeah, I talked to my veteran friends and you know, like, yeah, firearms, trainers, you talked to any of them and they were all special operators. No one that was in the army was ever a medic or a cook. Everyone was an operator. Right. Like, um, and I thought though, I thought that was a, a pretty funny way to look at it like Yo was in the army with, did you ever shoot a gun? Geez. Okay. Yeah. If they get like 98 rounds a year to qualify for most inventory, no, that’s about all they ever shot unless they were deployed. Right. And not only that, but you know, you’re looking at um, 800 to $1,500 for a two or three day course and most out of a thousand rounds.
Speaker 4: And yeah, I just wasn’t at that point willing to fork out that not knowing the quality training I was going to get. Um, and, and I, I looked at everything like, um, and guys that I thought were legit wound up not being years later cause this came out about him or that or you know, or maybe it’s just um, people trashing each other on social media like they so often do. So you, I still don’t, I s someone asked me what’s a good ar 15 tactical class to go take in the Salt Lake area? Yeah. I have no idea. Yeah. Let me tell you what I did. I, uh, discover this, this thing called, um, practical or the action shooting sports practical shooting. And, um, I showed up with, I called the number on the, the ghetto made in 1995 website that the local club had and asked questions.
Speaker 4: And I said, what do I show up with? Kind of Ammo, how much, OK. Um, I can pay 25 bucks, spend a Saturday morning learning how dreadfully bad I am under the pressure of a clock and a whole bunch of strangers watching me who are inevitably more experienced than I and um, see what comes out of it. So my first match, uh, for example, I, I was wracking the gun every time I’d reload. So when you reload, you’re not necessarily out of Ammo, you’re just topping off, right? Going into your next shooting position or whatever. But the only time I’d ever loaded a semiautomatic pistol was when I’m at the range. I loaded the MAG, put it in a rack, the side number, the shoot, right? So that’s the Muslim Emory I had. So, you know, my, um, assigned, um, new shooter buddy or whatever it was, was PSA match, um, would say, all right now reload, you know, they’re coaching me and, and so I’d grab another Mag, I’d put, oh.
Speaker 4: And my Max were backwards too. I tried the best I could, looking at what I could online. Yeah. There was a lot of information. Yeah. The, um, the under belt, the velcro under belt. Yeah. With the outer belt over my leather belt on my jeans. Perfect. I didn’t was to take them apart or anything. I just, I velcro, whatever, like I didn’t know, you know, one. So, um, and, and every time I reload, I’d rack the slide around and go flying out and then they’re yelling at me, don’t rack it. You’re wasting ammo. I’m just like, yeah. Right. And so that’s how it went. And you know, I did pretty well for a new shooter. I scored decently, lots of A’s, a few Charlies, um, no mikes and a couple of these. Right. But I mean, it was my first match. I wasn’t trying to win.
Speaker 4: I was trying to figure out, yeah. But I was addicted. It was a rush. The slope, I was moving. It was a rush. That’s the thing is regardless of how you do, it’s like you’ve been at a local range in doors and it’s like someone gave you a sports car and all you could do is drive around the block and then, and then they’re like, oh, hey, here’s the track. Wait, what? It’s a, it’s a whole different style. Yeah. So how did I get into it that that was Kinda my first taste? Uh, I mean, uh, I’ve done a couple of other things. Mark Shurtleff, the a attorney general, the of Utah at the time, I think it was 2006, had a, uh, a shooting competition out out of the Browning rants where the briny museum is here in Utah. And uh, it was really cool.
Speaker 4: It was technically my first three gun matched because it involved pistol rifle and shotgun. There were just different stations, like a sporting clay station and a bullseye pistol station anyway. Sure. So I shot my first three gun match in oh six. Yeah. Right. Not really, but my first match with three guns and then, you know, if you won, you won a browning shotgun and I want a shotgun and a I and then I forgot to go pick it up. So yeah, I was an idiot. Well now you’re sending people to the table to, you know, pick for you. Right. I didn’t know then. I know then. That’s great. So I mean, how did I get into it? That was the beginning, right? And then I tried IDPA and then I discovered this three gun thing. Oh Gee, okay, I’m going to have to buy some more guns.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Pull my leg. Right. And, um, but all the while, you know, from the time I got my, I had a permit in the past, but I had to renew it because I’d let the other one expire from 2012 on. I kinda started, I started documenting what I was doing on Instagram. Yup. And I liked what I liked. I had my opinions about what I liked, but you know, other people do too. And that social media goes like, no, you should get an a instead of a B. Those are way better cause bs have this. But A’s have that, you know, and I’ve never, I’m a gear guy in that who doesn’t like having new gear, but I’m not going to sit in coral. I mean, I taught a private lesson to one of my marketing clients two weeks ago. I posted a still on Instagram.
Speaker 4: Um, you’re shooting a Glock 19. Um, this guy’s worth, uh, he’s a billionaire. He’s worth a lot of money shooting Glock 19 and somebody comments on the post and says, uh, Sean, uh, I can’t believe you’re affiliating with one of the pores. You need to, as in poor people. Whoever’s, uh, it’s a thing on Instagram right now, I guess the pores. Um, and uh, you need to, you need to tell them they need spine h k instead of one of those trashy glocks. I’m just thinking, I responded respectfully and, and said, uh, um, you, you and I both know very well that it’s, uh, about training more than it is the tools. You didn’t reply. I think, you know, he’s just making a joke now. He knows an h k guy was and uh, um, and that guy shooting a glock. And so like if I, anyway, it was just funny, the guy had no idea that that dude’s worth way more than I ever plan on being wanted to take a lesson. Yeah. That’s it with a fine firearm frankly. You know, I mean, it’s
Speaker 3: a, it is a reason why the g 19 is the most carried firearm. Yeah. I, well, I mean, and we’re going to get into this further, but that there’s, if there’s anything that drives me crazy is when I go, you know, you’re on whatever three gun forum on Facebook or you know, a community group or whatever and some new guy comes on and he’s like, Hey, I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m new to this. I’m trying to figure it out. I’ve only got a little bit of money. I’m looking at you, the jam pro or the stoker and the hog pile of assholery that comes down in that poor guy. Um, it’s like really like you actually need to spend $3,000 on a this or that. Yeah. I once buy once cry once. It’s like, yeah well this guy is like just trying to get into the game and he might, you know, I mean literally like a $500 shotgun for him might be like the decision between like a car payment, you know, or, or, or like you know, or whatever.
Speaker 3: You know, we’re only going to half a vacation this year so I can get it into three gun darling and, and it’s a bunch of influencers. Brand ambassadors have like, yeah, Lucas oil. Wait, what are we talking about? Oh shotguns, never mind. It’s a, I could tell you right now they’re not there. None of their, none of anyone I’m influenced or involved with anymore. We just, we see that shit. You get like you get one like I know you had a bad day but I we’re not really interested in having people around to do that. You know? And that’s why I really like it. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. And it’s just like, cause here’s the thing is you’re actually killing the overall pie in the process. Not only are you killing the, you know, and now you’re just, you know, you’re an asshole and you’re associated with one of the companies I’m involved with.
Speaker 3: But you’re actually deleteriously affecting the pie. Cause that poor guy, like, I mean, I’ve seen people say, well Jesus, this is what three gun is. I don’t want any piece of it. Right. There’s one less guy in the game, you know, which in, in our game. Yeah, it’s a, it’s a fatality. It, it’s a fatality. It really is. I mean, you know, anyway, we can get into that as we go here. But let’s, so at what point do you think, I mean, we’ll look Europe, I mean, so I’ve got a fair amount of influencers in my world and the firearms industry. I mean, you’re probably one of the most effective ones out there. Um, and mostly through the vehicle of Instagram for you. But like what, at what point did you realize, well, this is really like a thing and I could actually do something with this?
Speaker 3: Um, I don’t think it was a certain point. It’s been a progression process. Yeah. And I, as far as I can see, there’s no destinations. Right. It’s kind of, it’s a nice pretty trail. Yeah, I got it. Okay, good. Um, but you know, I, I s like I said, I started documenting what I was doing and in 2012 I was posting a lot of guns stuff and, and then I just started getting a ton of heat oh ton. Um, and I didn’t want to have anything to do with it as far as like anti second amendment, um, trolling.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess. Huh. So I deleted everything real. It’s John Boom brand then became me just documenting my drumming. Cause I, at the time I was, I was way, way into drumming. I’d been a professional drummer earlier in life and I was Kinda just, uh, um, getting back into it as a hobby. And, uh, I, I did that for a few years and I decided, you know what, I’m going to use my, with Shawn go boom Instagram account that I just deleted all this stuff off of it, which is unfortunate. I wish I hadn’t, you know, his content I can’t like bring back, but you can’t backdate a post. No. But you know, um, I, I started getting, you know, I was, I was, I was learning the language of Instagram cause it was, it was pretty hip and new at the time. Very and, and w you know, pre Zuck buy out and um, I, I learned how to, I learned how to gram, uh, doing the drumming thing, but it was so damn boring.
Speaker 4: Like, all right, this is my drum set in my house again. Hey, I’m practicing, um, videos. We’re only 15 seconds. So it was way less of a commitment, creativity, conundrum. Uh, I like it is now. And so you weren’t getting your whole YYZ practice in there. Where are you? I’m not a rush. I know, just play. I was a professional drummer and my early life as well. And so I’m just, just making a bad joke. No one’s gonna get that. [inaudible] I did, you know, being a working drummer you want is you want just what you need to bring to a gig cause you got all that stuff in and out, you know. And, um, since I’m not a professional, I, I bought, I bought a big double bass kit with a rack and symbols. Everything I kind of always wanted, but you know, new, I’d never have unless I was on some major label tour unless someone else, we’ll set that up for you.
Speaker 4: Right. And so I mean, African Mbinga shells, golden lace, smoky chrome hardware, it sounded amazing. And everyone in my music room in my house knew it. But, you know, at a certain point, you know, and I was working on stuff I was working on. I, I was probably, I was way better than I was working drum. Right. It got really technical and then I’d come downstairs and, um, my wife would say, hey, how’s your practice? Cause it was something I’d do for like 45 minutes after work to kind of just decompress and sure. We’ve, the day behind me and I’m like, good. I, I did, uh, you know, fill in the blank, technical whatever I was working on at the time and uh, poly rhythm Ostinato that I’ve been trying to kneel for a year, finally. Got It. You know, and then it got really lonely.
Speaker 4: Honestly, I want to be in a band. Yeah. You know, I joke with my friends here in Utah that it would, it would be way less dramatic to be in a polygamous marriage situation than it would be in a band. Yes. Yeah. I would rather, you know, figure out how to work around five wives then, um, uh, an emotional bass player. Yeah. Some of them, some of my old band mates are still talking and som Hodges from the 90s. I know. Same thing. That’s great. We’ll have to, we’ll have to swap some war stories about that as employee. Oh my God, that’s great. I mean, I kind of ran into a creative dead end. I wasn’t willing to go out and do stuff. I wasn’t. Oh. And, and you know, people, we think people in the gun world on social media are mean. You post something like, Hey, I’m working on this on youtube or Instagram, other drummers will eat you alive.
Speaker 4: It is, the shooting world was not bad at all. Yeah. Oh man, I can’t, I realize like I like playing drums but I don’t like musicians. I don’t like the mentality. I don’t like the titled I’m a businessman, you know? Anyway, so, um, I was getting bored and like, and then, and then that’s, that’s about when I shot my first match, you know, this is going into 14 or so, 2014 and I’m like, I’m going to start documenting this again. So I took pictures of guns. My follower account had gone up to like 1500 followers or so, the drumming post one gun, 1200 the next day Twitter live. I’m like, that’s really interesting. But the gun people that started following me liked all my drumming stuff. Like if you scroll all the way to the bottom of my Instagram, you’ll see drum set. I’ll have to make a point to do that later if I didn’t get that far in my, my, my prep.
Speaker 4: But I, I’m just saying like, I’m like, okay, people that like to shoot come from all walks of life and they’re not going to judge you for playing, judging me for playing drums. People that, you know, musicians buying larger Socialists, Democrats, um, that want to destroy freedom and America and they do so through their art to influence hearts and minds. That might be a little bit of a overreaching stereotype. But, you know, as far as my experience with the people that had decided to start following me, it’s exactly what was going on. But all stereotypes are overreaching at the individual level. Right. But yeah, it’s not inaccurate to say that as a whole. My individual experience with that community that I’d kind of clicked. So I wound up, um, moving things over to [inaudible] shooting again. And um, and then I discovered, uh, the shooting sports and I was really enjoying it.
Speaker 4: I was training and follow her accountant way high, really fast. Um, and, uh, I was shooting a lot of pistol matches, um, mostly production division with my p 30. And then, uh, I decided at three gun was the direction I wanted to go and I was, I, I’m too ADHD, um, to, to want to put in the, the nuanced work, uh, for USPSA for progress. And, and I, I was itching to do more. Um, and, and so, uh, I actually tracked down a nd Peterson F with a black ring ordinance. Sure. Okay. He was a three gun nation. Yep. 13 club series champion. Yeah. So he was an active, um, competitor and three gun nation pro series at the time. Um, you know, this, this is about 15, 16. And I started training three gun with him. I didn’t have a shotgun. I, I had, uh, a rifle.
Speaker 4: Um, you know, he, he taught me how to quad load on his, his Benelli and, um, um, soon I got one and then, um, I was off I, but somewhere in there while I’m making this transition [inaudible] my Instagram is blowing up and, uh, Ace k reached out to me that, hey, we’d like you to apply for the team. I’m like, apply. Okay. Um, and, and so, uh, they sent me a hidden link. You know, it wasn’t something you could find on Google, but we, we have an open position and we’d really like you to consider this if, and it was just basic name, address, phone number, email. Um, why do you think you’d be a good influencer? And if you could send us a video sample of your shooting. Cause I put, I put together just some mish-mash, um, thing, uh, you know, of me shooting the, the few pieces of match footage I had and some practice sessions that looked cool and, uh, sent it over and then I didn’t hear anything.
Speaker 4: I’m like, Oh, oh, it’s an honor just to be nominated. Right. And I’m prepared for the next one, October of 16. Uh, they, they, uh, called and awesome, or no, no, I got an email, but I was checking my spam email for something that I thought I’d, the client told me they’d sent that. Uh, I didn’t see it. So I was, I was looking for something and I saw this email from some at heckler and Koch email address. And so I, uh, I opened it and it said, please respond to this, um, within 48 hours, basically saying, congratulations, um, we would like you to, we’d like to officially extend an invitation for you to actually be on the team. We got your application, whatever. And I was just like, oh, Geez. Yeah. And I responded because it was like the seventh hour. And so that email had been sitting for two days and I’m like, yes, I’m really excited.
Speaker 4: I’m honored. And I was just rambling, um, caffeinated a knee jerk kind of response. And then about five minutes later it hit me. Holy Shit. What did I just commute? What did I just, uh, commit to? Yes. What? Whoa, Whoa, whoa. The HQ, because you know, that’s a big deal. Yeah. Yeah. And I’m like, I’m trying to get into three gun. I’m doing a lot of three guns shooting, but I just been doing pistol matches to kind of, you know, work on footwork and stage planning skills, getting used to the pressure of being on the clock and I wasn’t anything special to this day. I maintain a, you classification in USPSA? Yes, my favorite classification. I’m very proud of that. Yeah. I’m very proud of it. Um, every year I tell myself, oh, maybe I’ll finally get classified, but I’m still paying 45 bucks though. So they gave me, um, they sent me a swag box and the other thing was like, okay, I’m on the team, but I was shooting NHK rifle, I had a couple of HK pistols.
Speaker 4: Like I essentially had what I needed to shoot three gun. Like I paid full consumer price for them. Um, which is not a small price. And they’re, and they’re like, yeah, we kinda went back and forth, came up with an arrangement. Um, it was, it was a good introductory sponsorship and uh, I would say that’s a pretty good for sponsorship. It is. The name is right. Yeah. The, the actual amount of, I guess, support. Yeah. Well I don’t want to just very entry level, I’m not going to say, I don’t want to say this, like to diminish anything you’ve done. Cause you’re obviously very creative and very talented with the way you’ve dealt with your Instagram account. But one thing I’ve always found, and I would, I think, you know, I’d love to get your take on this, is that your relationship with h k deepen the pool of people who you could communicate with absolutely.
Speaker 4: 100. You know what I mean? And so like, you know, like if you’re shooting, even like JP rifles, it’s just a really great rifle. It’s a, you know, everybody in the shooting sports knows it, but it isn’t hugely known outside of that, right? It isn’t like a glock or an HK or something like that. And so there’s some like really cool lifts you got from that and probably had a lot of influence on bringing new shooters from what was a primarily a tactical world, you know, it’s like, oh, let’s come over and check out the race track. You know? That’s exactly why it was valuable. And that’s what I was gonna say is leveraging the, um, food that hits people. When I say I’m Shawn from the HK shooting team, that means something to them because they know those are really expensive, really nice guns.
Speaker 4: Yeah. That I, I want to be able to afford, but are we going to whatever or you’re like, yeah, I have nine of those. I love them. Right. Yeah. And like even even at, you know, last year, uh, Alicia, my wife was invited. They didn’t call me, they just called her. She had been Scott show. They knew her, she knew them. And um, she marinated on it. She did the opposite of me. She sat on it for like two weeks before she accepted. Um, cause she shooting three gun with me now and we’ve been, that’s one of the reasons why the last year and a half especially been kind of crazy. It’s like, Oh okay two people are going into a major match and we’ve got four kids. Got It. I need a nanny sponsor yesterday. And he thought there right, right. Mom and nanny, you know, at shot show hanging out with guys at after hours parties that are in the soft community for example.
Speaker 4: No kidding. You shoot for h k. Yeah. Cause cause they, they’d been running for sixteens and MP sevens and whatever else. Right. Like they know they’ve been in the sandbox, running those things and are aware of the caliber of gun, um, as far as quality goes, not yeah, caliber, uh, that they are. And, um, it took me a long time to figure out the difference between a good combat gun and a good competition gun. That’s just something you have to learn from experience. But, um, the, the leverage that came from that is really what kind of just pulled me into the whole influencer slash brand ambassador thing. You know, as, as I was getting into it, you know, my first three gun match, I was wearing a pink h k shirt because October was breast cancer awareness month in 2016 and they sent me a swag box, but it was a pink h k shirt and some stickers and hats, I don’t even remember.
Speaker 4: And so they’re like, we’d really like, you know, to have some, some footage, um, to, to help this initiative. So my first three gun match I was literally wearing. That’s awesome. That’s so great. And the first stage, and I, I’ll, I’ll always regret not getting that on video. Um, Andy, uh, the first stage, it started with shotgun. I remember that. And, uh, essentially the first one of the first targets was a spinner. And, um, I prayed, he said, preload your shotgun just eight rounds and I’ll give you a ninth one. It’s really special. I said, okay. Um, and he handed me a prairie storm and uh, he said just one shot or square into the middle, um, of the, the bottom plate, it’ll spin and then you can do the rest. I’m like, okay. Well I was so panicked that I, I was a little off center in the entire spinner collapsed, which is a 62nd penalty under three gun nation rules bodies.
Speaker 4: Hell yeah. That was my first stage of my first match. A strong finish. But, um, first three gun match. Um, you know that I wish I had it now, right. Like I’m going, it wasn’t on video at the time. Uh, I learned about prairie storm early on. Yeah. Now it doesn’t really matter, like good that most matches have eliminated shotgun spinners, but um, with, with the, uh, at least out west. Yeah, no, we’re still loving them up here in Minnesota cause we don’t have any long range rifle. So it’s like, let one other trick can we throw into the shotgun world to make that mind? Yes. I love it. I, yeah, I wish we’ll add it, but yeah. Um, anyway, the, I guess shortly after that came, you know, other companies calling in and if, what was funny was, you know, [inaudible] it was a long time before I talked to a company about a possible sponsorship, um, that didn’t involve a product I was already using.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Right. So everything that happened early on was very natural. [inaudible] you know, it was, they, they called me, which was kind of cool, um, with, but I, I didn’t wear a Jersey for the first year and a half because I, I didn’t feel comfortable, you know, the guys that were jerseys were the guys on the three gun nation pro series. And I think that had a lot to do with the fact that there are several people that were on the three go nation to pro series here in Utah and I didn’t feel worthy or whatever. Um, and there was a lot of shit talk on social media about like, yeah, anybody, the social media account can wear a Jersey and I’m just wearing a tee shirt. Yup. Yup. And, and, and so,
Speaker 4: I mean, but those people, and I think this, this is a good segue point. Uh, you know, they were part of that three and nation pro series degeneration where stuff was on TV. They got sponsorships for a very different reason than uh, the landscape of things now and now that’s dead. Right? Totally. And so a lot of those shooters, you know, some are half, we’re still shooting. A lot of them disappeared. Totally. And, and so now it’s, I, I like to compare it to the difference between the, the way the music industry was all the way up through the end of the 20th century and then the whole Napster, iTunes, Spotify, Pandora progression happened where you don’t hear about platinum selling artists anymore because there aren’t, that means you sold a million albums. Yeah. Million. Yes. Because people don’t buy albums. People buy songs, people don’t buy songs anymore.
Speaker 4: Now people just pay for Spotify. And the artist gets a few cents every time that they picked that stream. Yup. Yup. And, and so I, I mean the, the landscape’s changed to the point that, um, the only way a band can be valuable as is, is akin to any band trying to make it in the early days of rock and roll without a major label contract. It’s gonna just put that song radio and say, general public, this is now what’s cool. This is now what’s popular. You must listen to it. And like it, which, I mean, that’s what MTV was like. Oh, I guess, okay. Nirvana Stone Temple pilots. Cool. Yup. I’m doing all right. On one level it’s like the, the, you know, on one level the gatekeeper’s gone. So now anybody can get a, you know, a reasonable following, have some impact on the world, get their stuff out, their music, guns, whatever it is.
Speaker 4: Right. And because the gatekeeper’s gone, there’s no one sort of protecting the top end of that where the like legitimate aggregate of money are made. Right. And, and, but in the shooting sports, I think it’s, Eh, in a way it kind of keeps the sport pure, right? Um, if you finish it a major match and walk the prize table, get your little trophy on a Sunday, or you get DQ, the Saturday of that match, Monday mornings still gonna be the same crap. You gotta get up and drag your under caffeinated ass to work because there are no bleachers. Nope. There’s no glass ceiling. Like I know guys that literally work to blue collar jobs and are blessed to have sponsorships and they’re going and crushing it. Yes. But unlike rocky Balboa who broke through that glass ceiling and now just those championships, right, right. Got to break through the glass ceiling again and it keeps it pure.
Speaker 4: It keeps it, you know, people play the game for the sake of the game. And I like that aspect. Um, but in order to gain sponsorship support, unless, unless you’re just winning everything, which has its own unique intrinsic value depending on how creative sponsoring companies are in leveraging that. Um, unless that’s the case, you know, you gotta be like the band that brings, uh, your own following. You know, when I was working musician and I played with several bands, there were bands that had followings and, and so they could basically call up any club and put together a little club tours and regional and state, um, circuits. And they knew that they’d be able to get a gig set up because they already had a following. They were known there’s going to be 500 people there on a Saturday night for sure. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And so, which means, you know, they’re going to sell more drinks. Yup. More, more covered charges. Right. And whereas, and so that, that’s kind of kind of where the, everything’s gone with, uh, since we don’t have our own, you alright. ESI, Alma city USPSA our own ESPN, uh, channel. Um, you know, I, I am the sports cast, you know, I show what I’m doing. And so I tried to give an experience as much as possible to people that look yet maybe they’re interested in the sport. They don’t care if I win or not.
Speaker 3: Nope. Um, and, but, you know, I’m talking about what I’m doing. I, I always try to shout out, you know, my friends that have done well too. Like go follow those guys. You think what I’m posting is cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me introduce you to Scott Green. Yeah. Right? Yes, exactly. No, Scott’s Scott’s a really good buddy of mine and yeah. Um, I, I don’t know what neurons are wired differently, but, um, dude’s insanely good. Yep. And, um, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s amazing to watch him shoot crush life itself and then just be the nicest, coolest, Chilis humblest guy on the planet. You know, the second after he’s done. It’s really amazing. If you look back at the three gun nation days and we all have some really, I mean, I’ve got some really good friends that were on those tours and if you look at their ability level versus what we’re seeing now with like, you know, Scott Mackley a grand is Josh fray. Like, I mean, you go through the list, right? There’s a whole, there’s a handful of these guys. I don’t know that the old three gun nation guys could compete.
Speaker 3: Some of them show up once in awhile and they sure can’t. But that’s probably lack of reps and yeah. Well it is, but I mean, it’s also like, I mean the, the, the sport itself has evolved immensely since 2012 I mean like, uh, you know, the equipment now all works. Most of the time we’ve asked, we’ve got that it was not the case in 2012. Right? We’ve got, yeah, we’ve got junior camps and we, we, and we have families actually invested in their kids winning in this game. Um, John [inaudible]. Yeah. John White dial up here, uh, 16 years old now. The kid’s just a phenomenon and you watch these guys shoot. And I mean, it’s like, ah, he misses so fast. He could, when missing.
Speaker 6: Okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It’s unbelievable. Ryan Nelson style. Yeah, totally. Brian Nelson, another great, really, you know, really great shooter. Um, it’s just, it’s just the quality, you know? Um, I kind of think of myself these days as sort of like, my job is to organize the next round of stuff to do. Right. Not so much to like even, I mean I still love to compete. I still compete all the time but not, not even close at the level. I’m not even attempting to be at that level anymore. I’m having a lot more fun organizing the fun and games than I am or as much fun organizing the stuff as I am being involved in it. It’s just a fantastic time. That’s what’s cool about the sport though. Like you can show up and be a noob and no one’s gonna judge you. Cause everyone’s looking at their own toes worrying about their stage plan. You can, I mean for me, I’m, I’m not satisfied or content being mid pack. Um, I, I, I get excited when I achieve upper mid pack. Yes. You know, but I am
Speaker 4: acutely aware of when I go into a certain match, if I haven’t put in the time the last few months because of family and work stuff and all my seasons all split up. I’m not shooting, I’ll shoot two or three majors in a month and I won’t shoot a major for two or three months. Right. Sometimes it just depends. I’ve got, I’m a businessman, I’ve got four kids, like, and then with Alicia shooting with me now too, we’ve gotta be extra selected. My daughter is, uh, does, does national dance competitions. She’s 10 and she’s winning national competitions. Awesome. Um, but you know, sometimes like, Hey, I want to go shoot this match and I’m like, nope, daughter’s got national, whatever. Yeah. And so it’s, it’s, it’s an interesting balance. But what I’ve found was, uh, with, with the whole sponsorship thing is that I don’t, I consider myself more of a brand ambassador and an influencer in general than a truly sponsored shooter.
Speaker 4: Now that I know that’s funny cause there are sponsors that are covering match fees for me. [inaudible] and providing gear in exchange for the exposure they get through the platform and the audience I’ve curated. But, um, I, my, my scope is wider than that. I’m, I’m looking to bring more people into the game. Um, I, I’m trying to be an influencer to the sport in general. The action shooting sports. Uh, Geez, just firearms education, mass. Quite a, I mean I’ve looking at your list right now, the spot your current sponsors, heckler and Koch, we’ve talked about Breda, safari land vortex optics, Emerson knives. I’m not terribly familiar with Dakota tactical, but she’d steel.com they make high end MP five clones. Oh, cool. Alright. Early in a Semiauto MP five can’t be imported in the u s but parts kids can and then you have to facture and machine a few pieces to make it all come together.
Speaker 4: Yep. They literally are the finest, um, of the delayed roller lock coral. It’s like high end custom atlas infinity stuff. But for amplifies, she’d steel.com a great Minnesota company. H K parts gargoyles five 11 tactical Briley Three Gun Elf, Elf, however you want to say that. Duke defense. And then Rhino metals are those awesome safes. You’re always posting on your Instagram. Yeah, those are so cool. They’re a fun company. That’s a hell of a roster. By that I mean they’re really well done. Are some changes to it. Yeah. Yeah. Anything you can share with us that you’re changing. Um, uh, Alicia and I signed with federal promise. Congratulations. Um, and that was just, that was just a matter of, uh, um, happenstance too. Um, funding. Actually this, it’s an interesting story, you know, sponsorship and these relationships are very relationship oriented. The good ones anyway.
Speaker 4: And you know, Justin Johnson of course, he, he’s, he’s since moved on to another company, but the shot show this year, um, uh, who was it? Kate Ahrens and um, Crystal Dunn, Alicia, myself, Justin Johnson, few other people I can’t necessarily remember clearly, but we’re all at the derby enjoying each other’s company the night before shot show starts. So it’s Sunday night and, um, I’m, we’re all talking. I didn’t know everybody there. Um, I knew who Kate was, but you know, hadn’t met her personally. So I mean, it was a fun crowd. And, um, and uh, Justin just asked me, um, uh, do you guys have an ammo sponsor? I wasn’t even thinking, I didn’t know he was from federal. I was across the table from him while I was across the table from an Alicia, my wife, and he was right next to her, so they wound up talking more than than me, but I said, yeah, I’m working with this high end boutique pistol ammo sponsored.
Speaker 4: And I then I had a, uh, um, precision rifle ammo sponsor. So they were providing 77 grain two 23 he’s for me to shoot. Yeah. I mean, it, it’s nice, but yet I just don’t shoot nearly as much of that as I do that, you know, the hose and, um, Winchester wasn’t a sponsor, but even though I’d reached out to them, uh, for Shotgun Ammo, they were still, but they were providing like a wholesale discount kind of thing. So like Kinda, yeah. Hodgepodge. But I’ll tell ya, like, whenever pistol company doesn’t deliver, um, I’m just going to Walmart and picking up some federal, like I insisted they put federal primers in them, so I’m not risking any light strikes. Um, you know, on and on and on. And whenever I, um, teach students private lessons, I say, you know, just pick this up at Walmart, get the federal not, you know, whatever else. And he’s like, so you do, so you like working with these guys?
Speaker 4: That’s great. I was just oblivious. I was just, that’s really funny. That’s complaining like federal makes. I’m just talking about federal, I don’t know, federal at the time. And he was like, well, I worked for federal. I’m like, Oh cool, you guys make great stuff. And I just shook his hand. I’m literally not on the hunt. I’m not looking. Um, Alicia and Justin just kept talking and um, as we’re all, we’ve all decided that it was late enough and that we consumed enough, uh, that we’re going to go back to our hotels. Um, Justin came up to us and said, hey, I need you guys to come by the booth this week. Please find me. I go, okay, cool. And, um, Alicia hit me on the shoulder and just said,
Speaker 3: he’s with federal. Yes, I love their stuff. It’s great stuff. He wants to work with you and me. Yeah. And I’m like, you think so? Yeah. That’s how you have your daughter in dance and keep shooting. [inaudible] spend more on dance tuition than anything. I’ve been there. I know. That’s why I was making such bad joke about it. One little girl costs just as much as three little boys, right. Balance Sheet to prove it. So, so this is awesome and really congratulations. I mean, federal is just such a cool company and I mean, I, I’m, um, I, I pay for my own Ama. I get big discounts cause you know, well Kate Barnes in. Um, but, um, it’s um, you know, and that’s just what I’ve been putting in my guns. I mean, if you talk to atlas, he’ll tell you his guns out of the box are sprung for over the counter federal ammunition.
Speaker 3: That’s what they’re set up for. Federal ammunition gets me excited. Yeah, totally. So, um, good. So I, I guess, um, we’ve been talking for like an hour, which is awesome. Um, and I want to get into, um, I want to get into a little bit of like, just kind of the, you know, like what’s your sort of scene going on? Um, and you know, leave some people who are listening to this with some like I, you know, I don’t say tips and tricks so much as like some context for like some things they can be doing going forward. Cause I mean, look, I every year the landscape shifts a little bit and I would say, you know, what I’m seeing over here and you feel free to totally disagree with me on this is just the value of influence has changed. Um, I’m not seeing, you know, as much like tied to sales. I think things are getting spread out further across like a lot more platforms. There’s a whole lot of reasons for that. But I’d love to get your take on, on, um, on each of these platforms and kind of some things you see going on there and some value for people. Um, and that if it’s all right with you, the easiest way to go through this and also plug all your stuff is to kind of go through Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and just kinda just overview of that stuff.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So I wouldn’t say the value of influence has changed. I would say that the kind of content and the quality of content required in order to be influential. Yes. Drastically. Okay, good. So I like to use the example of a retargeting ads. So we’ve all been browsing Amazon, thinking about getting that one product, decided not to buy it, stick it in your cart instead of going, um, decide to look at a cat memes on Facebook and watch pointless youtube videos and that product follows you around. Sure. Right. Retargeting, digital marketing world retargeting can, can be the difference between a sale and no sale. And it’s a great way to kind of pick up a lot of the fall off from abandoned carts and those sorts of things, right? Yup. And even picking up leads for a higher in items that require like a sales call, like, so it was a lead generation.
Speaker 4: Um, for sales forces, um, retargeting is a powerful tool, but what people end up getting is as far as the audience goes, is a fatigue. So we’re, we call it audience fatigue. Yeah. Um, uh, specifically this type of fatigue is a creative fatigue. Meaning if they just see the same picture of the same product over and over again, hey, you want to buy this? Hey, you wanna buy this? Hey, you wanna buy this? Yeah, no. So an effective retargeting campaign would then be like, hey, here’s a casual placement of a product and an interesting piece of content, um, that you might be interested in watching. And any of those people that you retarget to watch a piece of content that say, watch a video halfway through within the last seven days, then you retarget them with like, Hey, you wanna buy this or we’re breaking it up into steps.
Speaker 4: Um, so in the context of the shooting world, uh, you know, how many, how many gun bunnies with appendix carry Glock nineteens can we see in one day? It turns out it’s a lot. How many and rifle ar fifteens are we going to see on a piece of Shag carpeting with bare feet as they take a picture of their gun on their apartment floor also a lot. Right. Um, how many people still want to see that? I do not know. And so we, we’ve, we’ve got, uh, a whole Mitch, the whole Instagram shooting world, um, that is, is going through creative fatigue. And so you got up the game. How do you up the game? Better pictures, you know, I, half the time I take pictures with my DSLR. Yeah. I also want to add really quickly just for everyone in the marketplace. The other thing that I’m fatigued by seeing is your stage videos explaining how you’re a hot pistol doing the, with this ammo and that thing. It really, you know, a crushing it on stage for at generation three gun. It’s natural videos match videos can be boring. Yeah. Yeah. It can be done really, really, really well, but that’s not what’s going on. I do my best when I post stages. I try not to post, you know, I, no one wants to see every stage that you did, even if I burned them all down. Correct. Um, and, and something really hit me when I, I had a few people, um, reach out to me and they said, um,
Speaker 1: okay,
Speaker 4: I’ve heard you mentioned this three gun thing and I don’t know what it is. Hmm. Like, how can you, like every, you can’t go more than five posts without seeing a match with what? Yeah. Right. And, and I realized, um, you know, the segment that I had attracted being with HK was a bunch of enthusiastic gun owners, not shooters. Yeah. I, I fancy myself more of a shooter than a gun owner or collector. I’m not interested in safe queens. Correct. Although I’ve amassed several, um, you know, it’s, it’s more about the application, the craft, the activity than anything else. Um, that nice drum set I told you about. I wasn’t lay anymore. I sold it. Oh, I got a video queued up here for the end.
Speaker 4: Um, so I just, you know, the, I guess what I’m saying is if you’re going to post a match footage, you got to put a lot of explaining into it. And I, I, I won’t say I’ve, I’ve mastered it and frankly, some sponsors just want to see it. Yep. Well, no, I’m not an Emerson knife all by itself. I will just get fewer likes. Yeah. An Emerson knife with an HK pistol. Yeah. Look, I’m, I’m not saying you shouldn’t put out match videos for your own personal brand and for proof of life and for like the whole having it all come together inside of like, you know, Shango booms brand. But what I’m pointing to is more as like in the direct world of influence. Like it just, it’s really all about you. It is. And, and I think you nailed it. This Shango boom thing is a brand.
Speaker 4: Correct. I have a personal brand and, and I’m partnering with other companies to bring stuff together. Yeah. That’s it. You create context and, um, give a unique view, since I’m company x cannot pay to directly advertise high, you want to buy my gun? Yep. Which isn’t the best thing to do anyway. We’ve discussed. Yep. Um, know, you know, if you want to see something, my most viewed video on my youtube channel is explaining what the H K l e m trigger is. Yeah. I actually, I’ve got that right here in front of me. I was, uh, like 134,000 views, something like that. It’s crazy. Look at all those comments. There are a couple of people that say, Oh, I hate that triggers and whatever. I prefer X. Thank you for making my stuff go further. I appreciate it. It is a small, small, small amount compared to the people. I, I’d never understood it.
Speaker 4: I, I never understood that because they’ve done a terrible job at, at explaining it because it wasn’t designed for the consumer market. It was designed for law enforcement. It’s the law enforcement modification. Correct. And, and, but if you look at it, I also plugged my, uh, my pistol gun Smith there and, and show the amazing action work that he did on it. You know that that plastic h k USP expert has, has a trigger that makes a lot of 19 and 2011 guys drool. And um, it’s a two pound trigger. It’s got a millimeter reset. It’s fantastic to shoot with and compete with. And since when I was with HK, um, which probably maybe I should probably clarify that, um, I’ve since moved on from H K we’ll get to that in a second. Um, you know, I was beholden to running their stuff and that was the best combinations.
Speaker 4: The longest barrel pistol I could get my hands on. Um, which is great for recoil management. And if I’m going to go up against guys that are all shooting steel frame 20 eleven’s, that’s the best I can do. And so it, it really has served me well for the last couple of years. Um, and my gun Smith now Rick home with Lazy Wolf Guns, you look at my top three, uh, videos. Two of them are about trigger jobs or pistol action work. And I plug Rick. Rick has literally had to close the book on all of his custom trigger work and he just, he’s developed a, uh, three, um, aftermarket triggers for the [inaudible], which is their HKS striker fire, uh, offering to the marketplace, uh, which are fantastic to two straight, um, triggered one curved different pole lengths for different types of hands and, um, he’s crushing it, but all he’s doing now is selling those and doing installs.
Speaker 4: He, he’s going to start doing actual work again, but he’s had to actually, um, move to a new facility to be able to hire people to scale that up. Um, I, I literally made him busier than he ever wanted to be. And um, yeah, those, those two videos are damn near 170 or 170, over 175,000 views just on those two videos alone. And that’s just in, uh, about 20 months. Um, and so, I mean, kind of crazy, but the people in there are also saying, oh, wow, now I want to get a USP expert. Uh, and you know, it’s that kind of content that a really explaining things and going deep into a subject and, and making it simple enough for a 10 year old to understand longer form content where I’ve had my most success. Whenever I do a short little product review, I’ll get 500 views, thousand views, maybe eventually over time, but it’s whenever I go deep.
Speaker 4: Um, so, uh, Alicia and I have both, um, signed with a company called Bruger and Thomas B. And. T. Okay. Um, they’re a Swiss, uh, manufacturer. They just got the armies contract for a sub gun. So are APC nine k, um, which is uh, essentially the, a replacement to the MP five. Got It. Okay. Um, burger and Tom, it make a lot of components. H K um, they, they’d been an OEM manufacturer for things like barrels and bolt carrier groups and other things. And so, um, this, the whole h k line of suppressors, which no one’s heard about because it was kind of a flop. There are all there, they’re white labeled, B and t products, B and. T. Fantastic. Cool. Fantastic stuff. Ah, Swiss German company. Yup. And, uh, they’ve kind of been exploding all over the u s uh, after that army contract, uh, law enforcement agencies are contacting them.
Speaker 4: Uh, anyway, um, we, we have, uh, we’re, we’re going to be running their APC nine, uh, PCC, um, and uh, their APC two 23 rifle, um, cool. Starting at Fort Benning. Uh, uh, so yeah, it, it’s, uh, it was, uh, it’s been an interesting move, but, um, just the amount of support and enthusiasm over that company. W it was really hard to pass up. It was months and months and months of conversations and backs back and forth, but things kind of came to a head and we both made the jump. And so they’re interested in sponsoring the shooting sports too. Yeah, they’re, they’re very enthusiastic about the idea. And, and I’ll tell ya, one of the things I found in the shooting sports is people only want to support the companies that support the sport, which means, um, only the companies that support the sport get business.
Speaker 4: And it becomes kind of incestuous. How do you let in, you know, we, you need to start working with the company that doesn’t support the sport and invite them. Right. Show them why, why you would want to use their product and that, that world get on this path. That’s a really good, um, that’s a, that could be a real serious Aha for somebody is to look like if there’s a company out there that’s creating something great that’s not currently involved in the sport is you have an app. It’s an opportunity is what it is. HK was one of the major sponsors of the Georgia state USPSA match last weekend. That’s amazing. They sponsored a stage at the, uh, 2018, um, safari land expedition and put a few [inaudible] on the prize table. Very clear. Slow to get there. But they’re getting late. And um, the idea of having a shooting team is just to have content for social media initially.
Speaker 4: Yep. They’ve got some fresh blood in there and Nathan Sheath who’s the director of um, business development over there and say business development sales. He a, he shoots three gun and he actually came and shot with Alicia and I at the, uh, shot show expedition match in Vegas right after shot show. So that was a lot of fun. So I mean, it’s cool to watch you itching each kid do that. Um, B and t was just the right move for us, but, but I, I ran into this, um, I guess wall where I w wall of uncertainty, um, where I wasn’t sure, like had I put too much stock in my personal brand being affiliated with HK and I had, I, uh, become typecast I guess. Yeah. Is it possible to, to just be me and, and maintain credibility? Sure. What’s interesting is, um, I, I started doing something and, um, you know, I’m not going to stop posting.
Speaker 4: H K won’t be five times a day, like it has been the last three years. But, um, you know, we’re, uh, I, I started doing some stuff for Stire as a brand ambassador, not competition related at all. I’ll just run into a bolt gun and having some fun with that and some lifestyle pieces with our scout rifle started experimenting before I made this commitment to B and t, um, on a competition level. And you know, people respond to it really well. Doing stuff with federal, like people don’t care about, you know, like what I use during competition. They want to care. They want to hear about what’s good to practice with, what’s, what’s good to use for self defense ammo. So it’s been fun to experiment with that with federal. Um, vortex has a lot of applications outside of three gun that, that I like touching and it was totally one to six.
Speaker 4: So I have just like every other three gunners, you can take all their three gun sales off the books and the accountants would be like, oh, that’s a blip. Maybe we should flag that and look at it next year, you know? Yeah. And so, you know, trying to be more valuable to the companies that I partner with is a big thing. And so I decided to finally put myself out there a little bit. You know, I’m, I’m not, I’m the fastest guy, the most accurate guy when it comes to shooting. You know, my goal is to be able to run guns. Like I can run my mouth. Um, got it. Right. But at this point, I think, um, I decided to finally put myself out there and I had just been getting so many questions from people for so long, like, how do you shoot so flat or using dumbed-down ammo and that USP cause wow, that three gun run looked really fast.
Speaker 4: Um, and I finally decided to just put it all out. I was tired of trying to type out answers to stuff like that. There’s some you gotta demonstrate you’ve got to put people’s hands on a gun and show them. And, and uh, so I re I re I went up to the range a couple of weeks ago and just recorded, uh, and demonstrated, uh, what I do to maintain, um, optimal recoil management with a pistol. And I put it up on Youtube. It is my newest video. It’s had 700 views in the last two and a half days. Yep. And I’ve got overwhelmingly supportive responses. Now, youtube comments by nature are, um, an asshole magnet, right? Like people are just so bad, so bad and it’s been nothing like, wow, I’ve never heard it explained that way. This is a great video, Sean. I don’t know. I don’t even know where I’m at with that, with comments on it right now.
Speaker 4: Um, at least a couple dozen though. Yeah. That’s so great. And um, I realized and I introduced myself as Sean from team federal cause I am, and I have an announcement. Yeah. And it’s a 15 minute video. It’s my longest video on my youtube channel. The second longest is the best performing though that a 10 minute deep dive into the lem trigger explanation. And I, and I’ve known this, but you know, as far as direction goes, what I’m doing now is I’m diversifying platforms. Yep. I even have drills up on my ever out of date and incomplete website. Shaun, go kaboom.com. Um, that, that people have thanked me for drills. You know, just I’ll go out, I’ll explain a drill, then I’ll do it and then I’ll take whatever good runs I have from that and stitch together a quick video and it doesn’t take long to explain to the camera what I’m doing and go ahead and try this.
Speaker 4: This is why I’m doing this drill. I haven’t got this coming up and I’ve been weak here. This is what I’m trying. And people really like it. I get good responses on longer format, Ige TV posts and Youtube is going to be a bigger investment moving forward. I’ve got now requests on like, well can you do this for shotgun? What about trigger? You talked a lot about trigger during the recoil management video but you didn’t demonstrate anything about trigger manipulation is very different than it recoiled management. Uh sure. We’ll, we’ll, we’ll go over the different types of stuff there and all of a sudden like I have no desire to be a traveling instructor. Right? Totally. I do teach private lessons. I’ll teach concealed carry classes locally. I’ve even done a few Skype lessons and yeah, I charge for my time because time is money. I don’t know if this is totally, I’m away from where I actually make a living and you do at least make up for that deficit at some level and people get value and they move on.
Speaker 4: Now I don’t have any really long time repeat students. I just help them get what they’re looking for and, and go forward. Some months only three grand in lessons, but I don’t want to do that for living Jesus. It’s too uncertain and frankly I like people, but I don’t like people that I got it. That’s great. I like, I need some alone time. Well, so we’ve been running for 90 minutes and I think both of us, I know I have something scheduled directly after this. Unfortunately. I have to kind of like wrap this particular episode up. But here’s what I like to do. So I think the diversification thing is a really good thing to explore, but I’d love to do like a part two to this. Are you done with that? Sure. Yeah. Really cool. So I’d love to talk about methods and yeah, let’s, let’s be a producer of content. Not a consumer. Don’t share. You run your
Speaker 3: day. Okay. Really good. We got to get into all that. So what I’d like to do is I found a video of, I believe you playing drums. It’s on a red pearl drum set. Does this sound familiar? You’re like the, I was actually a competition that was a, the local level of the um, Guitar Center drum off it. Really good. Okay. So we’re gonna, we’re gonna. Here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna rock this out. I’m going to put this episode out part one context and then part two, we’ll get into the weeds on all this stuff. Cause I think this is going to be remarkable for people. And also, I don’t know about you, but I really for, I mean what I am like, what I’m up to over here, the big picture is, is that the whole industry looks great, is fun to be engaged in, that people walk away from a news article about a thousand rounds of ammunition in someone’s trunk. Yeah. Maybe it’s still an arsenal, but it’s also for hours in the sun with your kids on the weekend with no cell phones. You know, it’s that like, that’s what I want people to be left with with, from the shooting industry. Right, right. And so I want to, I really do want to dig into this with you and have people walk away from these two episodes just like, oh cool. That’s what I could be doing. Right. So let’s play this instead of dive actionable. Totally.
Speaker 1: Okay,
Speaker 3: cool. Yeah. And uh, and so instead of our usual metal outro, let’s see if I can make this work. I bring you Shango boom, who you should check out on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and a youtube as Sean burrows and uh, and also the website, which is awesome. And check out his sponsors and we’ll go from there.
Speaker 5: [inaudible]
Speaker 3: uh, the old days of 15 second clips. All right. That was awesome, man. I gotta talk to you more about the drum and in the future too, cause that’s something physical for over five [inaudible] poly lost it. Yeah. That was really, really cool. As some killer double bass work there too as well. All right. Y’All have a great one. We’ll see you on the next one, so yeah.
Speaker 1: [inaudible].
