Ode To The Small Business Owner-

You wake up early,
to open your store.
You run your own business,
but do so much more.

You shovel the sidewalk,
and lay down some salt.
Or pay someone else to do it.
That's what commerce is about.

You buy Girl Scout Cookies,
raffle tickets and ads.
You coach little league & hockey.
Or help pay for the pads.

You don't do it for fortune.
You don't do it for fame.
You're just doing your job.
And hope we do the same.

Thank you small business owner,
for keeping Main Street alive.
We wish you the best.
And may your business thrive.

It Ain't All Duckies and Bunnies

So you say you want to start your own business? You've heard people talk about how great it is, how liberating it can be, how you really start to live the life you always wanted. Having taken the leap of faith myself, I can assure you that all those things are true. However, as with all decisions, there are tradeoffs. I point this out not to discourage or to whine, but rather... to prepare.

In his book The War Of Art, Steven Pressfield quotes 5th century mercenary Telamon of Arcadia to preface his chapter on TURNING PRO... "It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior's life." To put in another way, knowing the path & walking the path are two different things. Pressfield goes on to say; "The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not. He will be dining for the duration on a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt and humiliation."

Yup... two months into my TURNING PRO & I can attest to all of the above. In addition, when I had a day job, my company (Whiskey Creek Media, LLC) could just save & save & save. That's one of the ways I got to where I am. Save, save, save... But now, without a paycheck coming in from the insurance gig, I find myself having to spend & spend & spend. Kinda scary. Here's the thing though, here's what makes all the despair worth it, I no longer spend energy worrying about what I should do. Now I just focus on DOING IT.

So if you suit up to fight the good fight & chase your dream, don't forget to pack a lunch, cuz it's gonna be a long haul. But it's gonna be worth it!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

In his book THE WAR OF ART, Steven Pressfield writes; "Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us." The Outdoor Report is my way of making sure when my time is up, I don't look back and wonder what could have been. This venture is my way of living my unlived life.

"One night I was layin' down,
I heard Papa talkin' to Mama.
I heard Papa say, to let that boy boogie-woogie.
'Cause it's in him and it's got to come out."
- John Lee Hooker, "Boogie Chillen

I grew up on a small lake near Upsala, MN. My dad and I would fish for largemouth bass by casting live frogs on a #5 gold hook & split shot along the drop off. Dad said I had to count to 10 before setting the hook after a bite. Not being very patient, I would rattle the numbers off as fast as I could; "onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineten!" That is where my love affair with fishing began. Sitting in the bow of a 14 foot aluminum boat with bench seats. Bill Dance & Roland Martin were my heroes. When ever I caught a big one, I would steal Roland's signature line; "OH SON"! It was there that I began to dream about hosting a fishing show. I always thought of that as the DREAM JOB.

I've been close a couple times. I graduated from college in 1999, and after a year of "volunteering" in the FOX9 sports department, I got my first job as a TV sports anchor. My BIT was the outdoors. I started an outdoor segment at NewsCenter1 in Rapid City, SD called "KNBN Outdoors", did the same at WCMN in St. Could, and continued a long running series (Up North) at WDIO in Duluth. I had found my element. Working until 2 or 3:00 am the night before the segment aired to get it as close to perfect as I could. But it never really felt like work, & that is what I had heard we were supposed to be looking for in a career. There was a small problem though, MONEY. Being a weekend TV sports anchor doesn't pay very well. At my first gig in Rapid City, I was making $16,000 a year. Barely enough to pay the rent. At WCMN it was $18,000 per year. When I was negotiating with WDIO in Duluth, they were offering $19,000 for year one & $21,000 for year two. I asked to go $20,000 & $20,000 just so I could get out of the teens.

Then, one day after my 10:00pm sportscast, my wife Jena met me at the door, crying... she was pregnant. I hadn't been to a Christmas celebration in 4 years, I had missed all the Thanksgivings as well. Sports happened at night, on weekends and on holidays. That was fine when it was just the two of us, but having a kid changed all that. I decided it was time to GROW UP & get a real job. An acquaintance of mine suggested I check in with Edward Jones Investments. I had a couple connections there & they were always looking for people in Duluth. I had reached a fork in the road, and as Yogi Berra said; "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." So it can to be, that in the SUMMER OF 2004, I left THE DREAM to make some money. Not many people questioned my decision, in fact, many applauded it. There was one person who asked me why I was doing this, my uncle Geoff. "You can't do it just for the money" he said, that always stuck with me.

The adventure had just begun. Stay tuned....

Quit Your Day Job?

That is what it boiled down to. Do I take the leap of faith? Go all in? Put all my eggs in one basket? Burn the ships?

I struggled with this for nearly a decade. I've

dabbled, moonlighted, worked two jobs, & 

rationalized my way to exhaustion. I read books, (The War of Art, Think and Grow Rich, Life is Tremendous, Strengths Finder 2.0 etc) I tossed, I turned, I flipped, I flopped & finally, at the age of 40, with 3 kids, a wife a mortgage & a big ole pile of college debt, I defied conventional wisdom & decided the answer was... YES! I decided to follow my dream full time.

Over the coming months, I will chronicle my journey in this BLOG. Consider this my public diary or ramblings of a man going through a mid-life crisis. Perhaps it will be cathartic for me, or perhaps someone else will find it useful or entertaining. Or maybe, just maybe, it will have no impact on anyone at all. But the end result is not what's important here, what is important is THE JOURNEY.

My dream has always been to make a living doing what I love. I had heard about people who loved their jobs, I even knew some of them. What I couldn't figure out was did they just have a better attitude towards their work? Or were they truly doing what they loved? After all, work is work, right? I mean can anyone REALLY love their JOB? One month into my journey & I have already decided it is true. You can love what you do, and do what you love. And that my friends, can make all the difference in the world.

What I love to do is to tell stories, and what I really love to do is tell stories about the great outdoors. I don't know if anyone has ever been able to put into words the profound effect the natural world around us can have on us, but I sure like to try. My drug of choice is fishing. It is almost my form of religion. Maybe it is religion & I just don't realize it. But when I am on a lake, drive by a lake, see a picture of a lake or am in a lake, my soul feels at peace. When I am on a boat with a rod in my hand... line on my finger... I am in heaven. And at the moment I feel that "tick" or "thump" on the other end... THAT my friends, is my NIRVANA. Hence, The Outdoor Report, a media company dedicated to bringing people stories from the outdoors that inspire, inform, entertain & engage.

As it stands today, we are a growing company that has been lucky to have some success along the way. There is much work to be done, but it is work we enjoy & what can be more noble than that? We have many challenges ahead & we are embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. Stay tuned.....