Order of Man - Creating a Generational Business ｜ ADAM WEATHERBY

00:00:00.000 Many of us as men have ambitions to leave a legacy, but what that looks like varies from

00:00:05.340 man to man. Ultimately though, we all, I think, have a desire to leave this world better than

00:00:11.080 what we got here. And legacy is something that my guest, his father, and his father's father

00:00:16.180 know how to create. Today, I'm joined by the president and CEO of Weatherby, an American

00:00:21.420 firearms manufacturer, if you don't know. His name is Adam Weatherby, and he is the grandson

00:00:25.980 of the founder, Roy Weatherby. And he recently took up the mantle as head of this 70 year

00:00:31.100 old third generation business. Today, we talk about what it took to create that business,

00:00:37.040 how things evolve over generations, the power of storytelling, and how to create a generational

00:00:42.840 business and legacy. You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears,

00:00:48.900 and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every

00:00:54.340 time. You are not easily deterred, defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life.

00:01:01.260 This is who you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said

00:01:06.580 and done, you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name

00:01:11.220 is Ryan Mickler, and I am the host and the founder of this podcast and a movement that has become

00:01:16.260 Order of Man. I say become because when I started this, oh, in March of 2015, I had no idea

00:01:22.180 of what it would grow into, that it would span hundreds and hundreds of countries, that we'd

00:01:26.640 be reaching millions and millions of men around those countries. It's been an absolutely incredible,

00:01:32.680 incredible, and somewhat surprising journey. And I say surprising because I really didn't expect

00:01:38.560 this to happen. I started Order of Man as a hobby, and like I said, what it has grown into

00:01:44.060 is absolutely amazing. And it's a testament to the fact that I think there's a lot of men out

00:01:47.820 there, you and me included, who want this message. We feel like the world needs the message

00:01:54.060 of reclaiming and restoring masculinity, and of course, what it means to be a man, that

00:01:58.740 of a protector, a provider, and a presider. So if you're new, what I'm doing here, guys,

00:02:03.620 is sharing conversations with some of the most successful men on the planet. Today's guest

00:02:07.880 is no different. He's the CEO, like I mentioned earlier, of Weatherby Firearms. We're going to

00:02:13.080 talk with him here in just a minute. But we've had also guys like Jocko Willink, David Goggins,

00:02:18.620 Grant Cardone, Andy Frisilla, Tim Kennedy, Dakota Meyer. Gosh, the list is absolutely

00:02:24.280 incredible. And we get to learn from these guys, which is a very, very powerful experience

00:02:28.780 for me. And ultimately, I hope it's powerful for you as well. So with that said, I'm going

00:02:34.140 to share with you one quick announcement, speaking of powerful men, and then we'll get right into

00:02:37.720 the conversation. The announcement I wanted to share with you today is something that I've

00:02:41.160 shared over the past couple of weeks. And that is that we've got an event coming up August

00:02:46.400 10th and 11th, 2019. So about a month, yes, about a month now away. And it's going to be

00:02:54.200 held here on our property in Maine. And I want to have you there. I'm going to tell you more

00:02:58.880 about it during a break, but make sure you get registered very, very quickly because we

00:03:03.420 are running out of spots, which is a good problem to have, but I want to make sure you're

00:03:07.080 there. So if you have any desire to be there, head over to order a man.com slash main event,

00:03:12.640 main event as in the state main, so order a man.com slash main event, get registered quickly.

00:03:17.700 So you don't lose your spot there. All right, guys, I want to get right into this one. I've

00:03:22.240 been looking forward to this conversation for, well, years now. But over the past several months,

00:03:28.500 we've been talking about making this happen and where he's settled in and I've settled in

00:03:32.160 a little bit. We finally made it happen. I told you I'm joined by my friend and the

00:03:36.100 president of Weatherby. His name is Adam Weatherby. We met a couple of years ago. Yeah. A couple of

00:03:41.660 years ago through some mutual friends over at Mountain Ops and in getting to know him and

00:03:46.820 hearing more about the history of Weatherby and what his vision is for the company. I knew that we

00:03:52.600 needed to sit down and have this conversation because this is something I know that is on a lot

00:03:57.560 of your minds as well. He started working at Weatherby more than 20 years ago. He was doing tech

00:04:02.320 support, warranty service, I believe, sales and marketing, probably a little bit of everything

00:04:07.200 as his father was running the organization. I'm sure he was sweeping and cleaning toilets

00:04:10.760 at some point as well. But he left actually for a little while to pursue his ambitions to become

00:04:18.180 a pastor, which he did. And he traveled all over the world and he taught ministry and he was very

00:04:22.720 successful at it. But he returned to Weatherby not too long ago. And in 2017 was named president

00:04:29.020 and CEO. We talked a lot about that transition and what it felt like and how he's going to change

00:04:34.520 things up and how he's going to leave things the same and that whole conundrum. But I'm inspired by

00:04:40.600 his vision and direction and leadership, his ability to communicate and cast his vision with the

00:04:45.880 organization. And I think that you guys are going to get a glimpse into what it takes to not only lead

00:04:52.540 a generational business, but the legacy that his grandfather and his father and ultimately that he will

00:04:58.240 also create. Adam, what's up, man? Thanks for joining me on the show. I know we've been talking

00:05:03.240 about this for a long time. Yeah, Ryan. Thanks for having me, man. It's an honor to be on there.

00:05:08.040 Yeah, I'm excited about it because your story is pretty fascinating. You grew up in this family

00:05:14.220 who's created somewhat of a legacy, especially in your world and in your arena. And then it sounds like

00:05:20.100 you left for a little while and then came back as maybe the prodigal son a little bit in a way.

00:05:26.320 And I'm looking forward to the conversation, man. Yeah, it's going to be fun.

00:05:32.220 So tell me a little bit about what it was like growing up, because if I understand correctly,

00:05:36.180 your grandfather created Weatherby. Is that correct?

00:05:41.120 Correct. 1945. Yeah, he was the youngest. He had seven older sisters, was a farm boy in Kansas and

00:05:48.440 moved out to Southern California in the early 40s and was just a ballistic nut and hand-loading in his

00:05:56.020 garage and doing all those things. And long story short there in 1945, officially started

00:06:01.860 Weatherby in California. What was the, if you know, I'm sure you know somewhat of history,

00:06:06.580 but what was the catalyst for starting the company in the first place?

00:06:11.400 It was actually, he was a hunter and a shooter and he had a philosophy about getting bullets moving

00:06:17.600 faster and knew that velocity would equal more energy, right? So it'd equal more killing power,

00:06:23.020 less injured animals, you know, more kind of terminal performance. And so his whole thing was

00:06:29.040 at the time, a lot of the theories and philosophies was just get a big heavy bullet

00:06:33.400 moving. And his was the velocity craze, right? Let's get things going faster. It really was

00:06:38.380 part of the development of the Magnum as we know it today was kind of his pioneering.

00:06:43.420 He went on a hunt and injured an animal. And that's kind of what, what really was the driving

00:06:48.760 force actually behind it. That's interesting. Cause I, I know, I know a lot of people from

00:06:53.360 the outside looking in and I'm, I'm relatively new to the hunting world. I know you've probably

00:06:57.240 been immersed for your entire life. I've only really been immersed in it for, oh gosh, the past

00:07:03.140 couple of years now. And I think there's a lot of people from the outside looking in who think that

00:07:09.580 hunters are these cold blooded killers. And all I want to go is, is do, is go out and slaughter 0.99

00:07:15.420 animals. And they aren't thinking about this, but it sounds like he was very aware of the harm that 0.96

00:07:22.040 comes from wounding animals as opposed to ethically killing animals for, for, for their meat, essentially.

00:07:28.360 Sure. I mean, throughout history, obviously mankind's been, uh, been out there. We've been

00:07:32.860 hunters and gatherers as we talk about a man's role. I mean, historically, um, that's been a role

00:07:38.300 of a man is to be a hunter and a gatherer, but yet at the same time, when you are taking a life,

00:07:43.840 uh, then, uh, yeah, last thing you want to do is injure an animal and, you know, have to track it

00:07:48.860 down. Sometimes eventually not find it. It might die later. It might not die, you know? Um, so yeah,

00:07:54.220 the idea of being able to take down an animal quickly and humanely is something that appeals to

00:07:58.880 a lot of hunters. Yeah. Yeah. I know the first, um, well, the first hunt that I went on the first day

00:08:05.320 I was out, I shot an animal, a deer, a white tail deer in Texas with my friend, friend, Colin Cottrell

00:08:11.060 with a rifle died, maybe 30, 40 yards from where I shot him. The third day we were out there, I

00:08:19.120 shot a deer with my bow and it wasn't a great shot. Gut shot at him, but we spent three,

00:08:24.160 three and a half hours trying to track this animal down. And I was so impressed with Clay Herzog,

00:08:29.160 who we were out hunting with that he wasn't willing to give up on looking for this animal because he

00:08:35.880 didn't want that animal out there suffering and, and being wounded. Like we wanted to recover the

00:08:41.080 animal, not just for the meat itself, but for, for that animal itself. Right. Exactly. And I think

00:08:47.840 that's a lot of, that's something that a lot of people who aren't familiar with hunting overlook or

00:08:52.560 don't really realize that that actually goes into the hunt itself. Right. No, I agree.

00:08:58.640 So, so he built the business in what, 1945 you said? Correct. So why, I'm always curious, like

00:09:07.720 why, I mean, I know why I would, but why be the solution to the problem as opposed to just trying

00:09:14.860 to find something else that maybe is already out there or somebody else already doing something at

00:09:19.060 that time? Sure. Drive and passion. I mean, he was driven from, from that moment. When, when you think

00:09:26.080 you come up with something that is new or innovative, has a chance to really make it to

00:09:32.480 help the industry or in this case to help hunters or shooters, and you believe in it so much, it'll

00:09:40.200 drive you to, in his case, an obsession to really see this carry forward. And he was, he was two things.

00:09:46.660 And part of the reason he was successful, and I think a lot of those post-World War II entrepreneurs

00:09:50.660 that were, is he had both the innovative side and he had, so, you know, from an operational or even

00:09:59.520 just that mindset of a builder, but he also was a genius marketer. And so he actually, being in

00:10:05.860 Southern California, there's photos of my grandpa with John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gary Cooper, all those

00:10:13.540 people, uh, different than the, maybe the Hollywood's a lot of them celebrities today. And so he leveraged

00:10:20.200 both in lived and breathed that business. He, like I said, he was a sharecropper from Kansas. Didn't

00:10:26.040 literally own the shirt on his back. Didn't own a thing, moved out with my grandma. When he started

00:10:31.100 the company actually ended up selling my grandma's Kansas family farm to, to, to, to get this thing

00:10:38.240 going. So he leveraged everything he had because he believed in this. That's crazy. So it wasn't even

00:10:44.640 his farm. It was his wife's family's farm. It sounds like. It wasn't her name was Camilla. So my

00:10:50.840 grandfather passed away in 1988. My grandmother was, uh, Oh, two, Oh three, right around in there is

00:10:57.180 when she passed away and her name was Camilla. And we came out with a women's line of rifles specifically

00:11:02.600 designed kind of by women built by whether be, we say, and kind of shaped differently, you know,

00:11:07.400 for a woman, the stock shape and all those things. And, and that the name of that whole

00:11:11.180 rifle line, which has been wildly successful for us is called the Camilla, the Camilla line

00:11:15.780 of whether be rifle. So we named it after my grandma. She didn't get much credit back in the

00:11:20.040 day, but, um, she was largely responsible for a lot of the success my grandpa had.

00:11:24.880 That's amazing. I think that's actually pretty true for most men, right? I know I would attest to

00:11:30.300 that as far as having my wife in my corner and backing me up and supporting me and pushing me at

00:11:35.180 times where I need to. It's funny. I tell the guys a lot, like if they only knew how many decisions,

00:11:41.420 order of man decisions went through a woman, I'm not sure that they would, uh, they would, 1.00

00:11:46.340 they would entirely tune in the way they have. Right. But it's true.

00:11:51.400 It is true, man. I think there's, there's value to having, you know, we talk about our better half

00:11:56.620 when we say it tongue in cheek, but, uh, I think there's value in having a differing perspective

00:12:01.620 from a woman that we just, as men can't bring to the table ourselves.

00:12:05.840 Absolutely. I agree.

00:12:07.280 Yeah. So he started the business. I I'm just curious, like what, what does that actually

00:12:13.200 look like? You know, you have this, this farmer who, who has a passion and has a vision and has

00:12:20.420 an idea, but then he's got to source materials and he's got to build molds. And I don't know all

00:12:26.120 the details of course that go into it, but how does one even begin to get into this manufacturing

00:12:32.400 of firearms? Absolutely. I mean, you gotta be a people person. And he was, so a lot of it's not,

00:12:37.540 it's my dad always taught me growing up. It's not just what, you know, it's who, you know,

00:12:40.760 and that's a big part of it. So he started to just meet a lot of the right people. And a lot of it was

00:12:45.980 who's going to be providing him with, you know, who he's going to source stuff through. And it was just,

00:12:50.880 I mean, you talk about being scrappy. I mean, he knew how to do a little bit of everything and,

00:12:57.340 you know, just kind of grew it and meet the right people and get into it. I know if you're like,

00:13:01.400 Hey, I'm going to start a firearms and ammunition company. I mean, where do you begin? But I don't

00:13:06.000 know if he necessarily started out knowing that that was, you know, obviously that we'd be here

00:13:11.720 today, 74 years later doing this. But again, it was just as driving his passion kind of one step at

00:13:16.420 the time. Cause initially we're today, we're known as a firearms company. It was initially

00:13:21.040 the ammunition that got us going. Oh, well, it's the fuel, but we got to put that fuel in a vehicle.

00:13:27.440 And so then for the first several years, he started chambering his rifles in other people's

00:13:33.140 actions and then said, Hey, I want a superior action, hired an engineer. And in 1958, we came out

00:13:39.660 with the Weatherby Mark five, which is still our flagship kind of world famous known as the world's

00:13:44.600 strongest action today that he said, I want something strong enough and better than all the

00:13:49.240 other actions out there to help house our kind of superior velocity cartridges. And so it just manned

00:13:55.020 one thing. And then he said, you know what, and life's too short to hunt with an ugly gun. So we're

00:13:58.960 going to make this thing beautiful. And so he sourced the best walnut you could hire these craftsmen

00:14:04.020 that I mean, literally like stock shaping it by hand, the craftsmen that you can't find those kind of

00:14:08.720 guys anymore. Really, they're very rare that could do the type of craftsmanship in some of these

00:14:13.640 earlier guns. And so just one thing, and it just kept snowballing and snowballing. And really in

00:14:19.540 the first 15 years, the majority of the business had really been set. I mean, you look back at kind

00:14:25.560 of the early sixties and some of our old catalogs, and I'm just amazed in such a short period of time,

00:14:30.100 what he was able to develop. Yeah, no, it's, it's pretty incredible. And I don't want to,

00:14:34.520 I don't want to undermine what you as a family have created, but even more as technology grows and

00:14:39.480 advancement grows, we have access to the same technology and information. The world is becoming

00:14:44.160 much, much smaller. And, and a lot of these firearm manufacturers have access to the same

00:14:50.340 information. But one of the things that you really hit on that I think is valuable is,

00:14:54.360 is the craftsmanship, the beauty, the quality outside of the mechanical functions of the firearm

00:15:01.120 itself. Like that's one thing I really appreciate because everything is so commoditized. It's like,

00:15:07.160 what can I get that will produce maximum result with minimum investment. And yet I think from the

00:15:15.260 outside looking in, I think the perspective you've taken is how can we, how can we tap into that

00:15:20.420 craftsmanship that your grandfather created and obviously placed value in over just spitting out

00:15:27.340 and, and, and, and making the cheapest thing in the market. Right. Right. Right. And we've always

00:15:32.960 been known as that always been known to that middle to upper tier. Um, you know, we have affordable

00:15:38.720 stuff, but not as affordable as some other people. And part of that is there's compromises we feel we

00:15:44.220 have to make in order to get it to that level. And so it's, there's a reputation that my grandpa set

00:15:49.420 up that my dad then carried on that I have to keep that, you know, the, the guys that we hear all the

00:15:54.320 time, I've always wanted to own a weather bee or man, my dad had a collection of weather bees,

00:15:58.900 or I inherited one from my grandfather. It's the type where you pull it out around a campfire and

00:16:04.160 you talk about your weather bee, it's that prestigious brand. And, uh, if I inherited

00:16:08.560 anything else, it was the brand it's that, that is the first and foremost, we have that. And so,

00:16:14.660 but a brand, even a legacy brand like ours can be brought down and be destroyed, whether that be

00:16:21.100 through poor leadership decisions or it be poor quality of a product or whatever, you can only make so

00:16:27.340 many mistakes before there's a lot of brands we could probably think of throughout the world

00:16:30.940 that helped itself, but maybe had a regime or a leadership or whatever that made poor decisions

00:16:36.320 that brought that down. So we have to do our best to keep it at that level. If that makes sense. I

00:16:41.400 mean, cause we, I mean, that's part of my job is to make sure that that prestigious brand stays where

00:16:45.820 it's at. Yeah. I think it's a competitive advantage. I mean, I I'm sure, and maybe you can allude to

00:16:50.720 this a little bit more is, is there any time throughout the what 74 year history where,

00:16:56.500 whether it's through your grandfather or your father, or even yourself, where you felt like,

00:17:01.380 you know, we're really on the rocks here. Like this, this business could collapse and, and,

00:17:05.560 and we could not potentially recover from this as well. Absolutely. And, you know, there's a

00:17:10.740 biography written on my grandpa in 1989 called weather be the man, the gun, the legend. And you read

00:17:16.920 through that book. And I think there's more failures than successes by far in that book.

00:17:20.960 And sometimes, you know, last time I read through it, I'm like, man, it's amazing. I'm here today

00:17:25.460 running this company, like through the ups and downs that had happened over the years.

00:17:30.020 What is your, uh, what do you feel like, and I want to go through the history, but what do you feel

00:17:34.340 like is your responsibility? If you feel like you have one to what he created over 70 years ago?

00:17:42.300 Hmm. Yeah, no, that's a good question. I think what I see as, like I said, is I have this prestigious

00:17:50.360 brand. I believe we've never fully grown into that brand as a business, uh, from the full extent of

00:17:57.000 our product line to our revenue or profitability or the amount of people we employ, whatever it is

00:18:02.980 that weather be is, is known as many of the other American gun builders on the rack. I think we have

00:18:08.040 something that is unique. If you look at most of the other American gun companies, they've been sold

00:18:13.060 or they've gone public or they're run by other large firms as part of a conglomerate or different

00:18:18.340 things like that. And so we're unique in that we're a multi-generational family owned U.S. business

00:18:23.340 in this industry. And there's very, very, very few left. And so I think that is something that stands

00:18:29.300 out as being unique and something that I know that people look to us as. And, um, and so there's a

00:18:36.640 level of responsibility. I think that I take that my dad used to always say is when we ship a gun out

00:18:42.920 the door, every one of them's got my name on it, my family name, like my dad raised me to respect our

00:18:48.660 family name, to know that when it says weather be on it, um, people have a certain expectation.

00:18:54.280 And so there's, and whether that be in safety or whether it be in quality, whether it be in our

00:18:59.260 customer service, sure. Do we let people down at times? Absolutely. We're not perfect. We're not.

00:19:04.140 And, uh, but at the same time to know that like people have looked to our family name

00:19:09.080 for, I mean, you know, I always say we made things where people put 65,000 PSI,

00:19:15.840 like four inches from their eyeball in the chamber and pull the trigger. And we have hundreds of

00:19:21.320 thousands of those out there. Like we don't take that lightly. We make stuff, uh, that's made to take

00:19:26.760 a life. Like we don't take that lightly, you know, um, we don't take the quality of it. So I think

00:19:31.820 it's upholding that brand equity, if you would, that I think my grandfather and then my, and then

00:19:37.400 my father did that. I feel the responsibility, uh, you know, to carry on, but then also to grow

00:19:43.740 the, to, to grow the brand. And so our recent move out here to Wyoming from California, really

00:19:49.720 hiring a lot of new team members, investing in some new equipment is about, Hey, I think the

00:19:54.620 foundation's been set in those first couple of generations. And now I'm like, Hey, over the next

00:19:58.640 couple of decades, what I want to do with my team is let's fully leverage this brand and be all that

00:20:03.120 we can be. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure your grandfather would appreciate that. And potentially even your

00:20:07.580 father, you know, he, he, he came from this. It sounds like really understood the value of

00:20:12.140 marketing, John Wayne and some of these other individuals. I mean, how does he, how did he forge

00:20:16.880 those type of connections? Cause I agree. It's not what, you know, you've got to know, right?

00:20:23.140 That's a given, but it's who, you know, I agree with that. And I think that's part of the reason

00:20:28.200 we've had so much success here with order of man and, and you too, with, with your business as well.

00:20:34.280 How did he create some of those connections? Do you know much about the history there?

00:20:39.600 You know, it's funny. He would meet somebody and he was so driven by the business. He would,

00:20:45.260 you know, some of us are more sly about our networking nowadays, right? But man, he was just,

00:20:50.000 he'd meet somebody and he'd just meet somebody else. Like, so he had Gary Cooper walked into his

00:20:55.520 store in Southern California. And then it was from that where he got to meet some of those,

00:21:00.640 you know, different people. And as you look back over the history, I mean, um, you'll, you can

00:21:05.300 Google, you can find Ronald Reagan holding a Weatherby Mark five on air force one, shouldering

00:21:10.260 it with his finger on the trigger. It's not very politically correct. Uh, and probably not very safe

00:21:14.920 either, but you know, we'll, we'll, we'll address that later. Oval office and, and presented again

00:21:19.980 to George H W Bush in the Oval office ladies. I think it was, um, uh, he went to the Crawford

00:21:27.080 ranch in Texas, presented a gun to George W Bush. So you go back through the years and he did that.

00:21:33.420 He created, one of the things is he would, um, he really created this, uh, I don't know, this,

00:21:40.200 this following amongst a lot of quote elite people from back in the day. And one of the

00:21:45.040 things he did is he created an award. It's called the, um, the Weatherby award or the

00:21:49.100 Weatherby big game trophy award or whatever. And, and back then again, before things were

00:21:52.880 maybe like they are today, uh, today there's a group called Weatherby foundation international

00:21:57.280 that runs it and conservation and ethics and education of future hunters are all tied into

00:22:02.980 it. Originally it was more just kind of the Heisman trophy for hunters, if you would. And so early

00:22:08.840 on he would have, he would create these big things. I remember as a kid going to the Beverly Hills,

00:22:13.740 Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, and they'd have the Weatherby award when I was a kid wearing

00:22:17.820 a tuxedo, meeting all sorts of celebrities and politicians and all those kinds of things over

00:22:23.180 the years. And they would present these awards. And so, uh, presidents have been there, you name it,

00:22:28.120 they've all kind of been to this. Uh, Donald Trump jr. Just presented the Weatherby award in January

00:22:32.860 to Jim Shockey. So it's still this thing. He created that in the fifties, but he had these ideas

00:22:37.880 and whether he funded this award, but it was really a word was a marketing thing. Right. And

00:22:42.720 so he just was genius as a marketer in his time to create these different things that helped give

00:22:48.900 him a lot of that momentum. Yeah. I love it. Cause I, I feel like myself and it even sounds like you is,

00:22:55.460 is like, I'm a marketer, you know, and, and I don't take any problem with that at all. I know

00:23:00.460 that's maybe a swear word. A lot of people look down on that, right. But marketing, whether it's

00:23:06.040 marketing yourself to a potential wife or marketing yourself to kids to, to get them to do their chores

00:23:12.060 or marketing a multi-generational multi-million dollar company like you are, I mean, that's what

00:23:19.480 makes the world turn. And I think if more men looked at themselves as marketers and not equating

00:23:25.320 marketing with sleazeball, then I think we'd have a lot more success in our lives.

00:23:30.600 I do. And I think when I hear marketer, what I consider myself a lot is, is a storyteller.

00:23:37.820 And, and I think whether that be in my business or my family or whatever, right? So let's say I used

00:23:43.460 to, I was in youth ministry for a long time and took kids on missions trips. So let's say I'm in

00:23:49.640 Baja, California and Mexico, and it's time to build an orphanage. I can line up dozens of teenagers and

00:23:54.940 say, Hey, we're going to build the foundation today, but golly, we're going to build it with

00:23:59.020 shovels. And so here's a bunch of shovels and start digging and not, not tell them a story.

00:24:03.000 And I walk away and about a half hour to an hour later, 90% of them are going to be leaning on

00:24:07.140 their shovel, sitting down and telling stories and not working. If I spent 10 minutes at the

00:24:11.020 beginning of the day and sat them down, brought up a kid who lives in that orphanage who, why they'd

00:24:16.800 been orphaned in the hope that may be brought through that orphanage. And I tell that story,

00:24:21.180 I'm going to get 10 times the work out of those teenagers that day. And I think with me,

00:24:25.640 with my business, it's the same sort of thing, or it's the same sort of thing as we raise our kids

00:24:29.740 for them to get the big picture. I think there's a lot of people out there that don't get the big

00:24:34.060 picture. They don't buy into it. And sure it's marketing, but if it's for a great purpose,

00:24:39.160 let's get people on board to build that orphanage or let's get my employees on board to build these

00:24:44.020 products. And what we call inspire the dreams of hunters and shooters, if they can get that big

00:24:47.760 picture, rather than I'm just operating this one machine or doing this one thing. If we can do that,

00:24:53.340 if I can get my kids to understand that, that the choices that I want for them to make now that I

00:24:58.700 want my son to make now is not because I just want you to make a good choice now. So you can please

00:25:03.200 dad, but you can get the big picture of how this is going to help you become the man that you need

00:25:06.920 to become. That storytelling is so important. I think there's a lot of dads or employers or whatever

00:25:12.400 that just kind of boss people around and tell people what to do. And if you don't get that story

00:25:15.580 for me, if I don't get the story, you're not going to get much out of me.

00:25:18.280 Right. Yeah. I think it comes down to, and you alluded to this is what's the motive,

00:25:23.300 you know, are you staring, are you, are you marketing quote unquote marketing to get something

00:25:28.320 out of an individual to extort or to extract money only, or is this a voluntary exchange? Will this

00:25:36.260 uplift their lives? As you know, as, as I've got into hunting and shooting and archery,

00:25:41.200 I've been able to bring specifically my two oldest boys along the journey and the stories that I hear

00:25:48.780 from yourself and other hunters and organizations and brands that I work with that uplifts me, man,

00:25:54.720 that up, that edifies me. And that helps me raise my, my children the way that I want to raise them.

00:25:59.740 It's more than just a transaction. It's, it's, it's an experience, something that,

00:26:05.280 that uplifts me and the people I care about. And that that's valuable to me,

00:26:09.900 even though I might be paying you for a firearm, there's so much more behind it than that.

00:26:15.760 I agree. I agree.

00:26:17.980 So one of the things that you said that was interesting to me, and you said this about,

00:26:21.700 gosh, it must've been six months or so ago at SHOT Show, which is where we connected.

00:26:26.240 You said that your, your grandfather was very oriented on the business, not so much family

00:26:33.340 oriented. And I look at Weatherby as a family brand, a family organization. Is that something

00:26:42.560 that, that he instilled? Is that something that your father initially brought on when he got involved

00:26:47.820 with the organization? What did that look like?

00:26:50.020 Sure. No, it's not that my grandpa wasn't a family man. He put his heart and soul behind the

00:26:53.860 Weatherby business. Um, you know, that's for sure. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs, uh,

00:26:59.760 especially back then, you know, really did that. So he was definitely driven towards it. And so he

00:27:04.500 brought his kids into the business and, you know, I often say my dad growing up, his family vacation

00:27:09.580 was kids hop in the station wagon and drive to Cal from California to the East coast and back and

00:27:14.760 visit every gun dealer along the way, because it was, you know, so he would really blend both. Um,

00:27:20.500 and so then I think my, my dad though, um, uh, is, was, is much different than my grandfather. Um,

00:27:29.160 and so my dad really instilled that heavy, I think he really took building upon the product that my

00:27:35.420 grandpa offered in the experience my grandpa offered. I think my dad really built that,

00:27:39.500 that family aspect, um, into it a lot. There's four of us kids, um, you know, and so at, as a whole,

00:27:46.080 I think the Weatherby family part of it, because initially it wasn't the Weatherby family. It was

00:27:50.340 Roy Weatherby. It was my grandpa. But as a generational business begins to go, more family

00:27:55.960 members get involved. I mean, the family tree begins to grow a little bit. Right. And so I think

00:27:59.480 my dad, uh, did that. And so I have, you know, recollections of hunting in the field with my dad as

00:28:04.460 a, as a kid and doing those sorts of things, which my dad did with my grandpa. My dad graduated high

00:28:09.260 school. He actually went to Africa that summer for a hunt, you know, with my grandpa, which not every

00:28:14.540 high school boy gets to do. Yeah, definitely. I went to a football game. Right. Exactly. I probably

00:28:21.560 hung out with my friends. I don't know. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's, uh, that's, that's

00:28:27.860 interesting. Um, and it's hard, you know, it's hard as a man to strike the balance between growing a

00:28:34.180 business and, and spending time with the family and being the type of father that I think most men have

00:28:40.860 aspirations, aspirations to, uh, to, to be like, and to uphold and to, to step into. So it's really

00:28:47.940 interesting to hear, you know, we don't always get it perfect, right? We, we, we've got to, we've

00:28:53.120 got to strike that balance. And sometimes we step over one line or over another and constantly trying

00:28:58.420 to figure out where the right perspective is when it comes to running a business, but also running a

00:29:03.560 family and leading that family effectively as well. Do you think your, uh, do you think your

00:29:07.920 grandfather had, when he started the business had aspirational goals for this to be a generational

00:29:13.060 legacy type business, or was it something that he had no idea what it would potentially grow into?

00:29:21.320 It's a good question. You know, I was 12 when my, when he passed away. And so I don't know,

00:29:26.040 my dad would probably have a better answer for that. Um, obviously in those early days I wasn't around,

00:29:32.100 but, but, um, so I'm not sure. I think he, he just tried to do his best every day and grow it.

00:29:39.680 And, and, and I don't know. Um, I, I don't, I don't know if he would have thought that 74 years

00:29:45.980 later would be sitting here having this conversation about him. I don't think anybody would create a

00:29:50.060 business going, man, you know, three quarters of a century later, this thing's gonna be bigger

00:29:55.000 than it was back then. I, man, I just, I couldn't imagine. I mean, I'm a big dreamer, but that's huge.

00:30:00.400 Yeah. It's hard to fathom that. I mean, ultimately I think as, as a father, and I know you have kids

00:30:05.600 as well as, you know, we want to leave a legacy, right? We, we want to make sure our kids are,

00:30:10.400 are, are growing and expanding and that we've given some sort of leverage for them to be able to do

00:30:15.740 that. But it is difficult to think two, three, four, five generations down the road and think about

00:30:23.480 what our little insignificant life could potentially create for, for our great, great grandchildren or

00:30:29.500 something like that. Absolutely. When did your, when did your, uh, when did your father end up

00:30:36.060 taking over the business? The early eighties. Okay. And how old was he at the time? Um,

00:30:42.920 early thirties. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty early actually. My grandpa didn't have great health

00:30:49.820 and he, my dad was the youngest. He had two older sisters. So my, my dad took over, I want to say

00:30:56.680 probably 83 ish. My grandpa passed away 88, um, in, in open heart surgery. And so, and he was only

00:31:03.680 77. Um, he's born in 1910. So, you know, uh, my dad was involved really his whole life. Um, you know,

00:31:11.900 kind of grew up in it. Um, like I said, you know, from a real early age. Um, and then my dad, yeah.

00:31:17.980 I started running in the early eighties. Do you see, or, or no, I mean, you would have been

00:31:23.060 fairly young. What, what 12 or so you said, do you feel like there was any sort of, of pivot in

00:31:30.120 the business? I don't know if you were that cognizant at 12 years old to be aware of that

00:31:34.220 stuff, but did you see anything change in your father or the business once he began to lead the

00:31:40.520 organization? Certainly in the business, I think, you know, my dad is a very different person than

00:31:45.360 my grandfather and, um, my dad just has a different leadership style. So certainly that culture began

00:31:51.140 to change. What's interesting is my grandpa then passed away in 88. Um, and then not, not too long

00:31:57.980 after that, my dad actually moved the business from Southern California up to the central coast of

00:32:02.480 California. Cause LA was getting to be crazy. Yeah. Kind of moved it out of there. And it was really

00:32:06.840 kind of a cultural reset for my dad, you know, he inherited a lot of my grandpa's people and

00:32:11.140 practices and cultural habits. And it's kind of time to start, you know, doing that. And in the same

00:32:16.100 way, he then has an understanding for me as I'm now leading the business to know that, that we're

00:32:21.860 different people as well. And, and that, um, you know, kind of when you hand it off, it's, it's hard.

00:32:27.440 I think my grandpa being that generational one and that entrepreneur and that driver was really hard

00:32:32.760 for him, really hard for him to hand things off. I mean, he created it from the ground up. Now I

00:32:40.100 think when your second generation is a little easier because my dad didn't start as a poor

00:32:43.920 farm boy in Kansas. Right. And so I think it's easier to go, Hey, look, just as this was handed

00:32:48.080 to me, I'm, I'm going to now hand it off to my son. And so I think it's different from two to three

00:32:53.680 and probably three to four, uh, Lord willing, if we get there, then it was from one to two,

00:32:57.580 if that makes sense. Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure, I'm sure he

00:33:03.320 had, he had thoughts about what his dad wanted to create. And I, you know, I imagine too, it was

00:33:09.560 hard for him to wrestle with new initiatives and directions that he wanted to take the organization,

00:33:14.120 knowing that maybe there was some conflicting thoughts or ideas. Uh, you know, I am, I don't

00:33:19.120 know, I'm just kind of projecting here, but I imagine there was probably conversations about the

00:33:24.320 direction of the company and there was probably some agreements and probably some disagreements

00:33:28.640 and that would have been a challenging thing. I think about that even with, with my kids,

00:33:32.980 you know, I've got, my oldest is 11 years old and my son has expressed interest in being able to do

00:33:38.760 something similar to what I'm doing here. And, and I know that there's going to be a lot of things

00:33:42.340 that are in agreement and a lot of things where he thinks, you know, I'd like to do this instead.

00:33:46.980 It would be hard for me as the person who founded this organization to say, all right, here you go.

00:33:52.800 Do whatever the hell you want to do with it. It would be a real challenge for me.

00:33:57.460 Right. No, it, it definitely is. But at the same time, I think what my dad's done with me

00:34:02.080 is really instilled in me trust to go out of my, I trust you as a leader. I trust you as a man. I

00:34:07.680 trust you as somebody like I'm entrusting you with this. And so if I'm entrusting you with this,

00:34:11.720 then, then, uh, I'm going to allow you to, to lead. And so, uh, my dad's done an excellent job

00:34:18.600 at that. And we have a really good relationship.

00:34:20.760 Yeah. What did you see happening in, in the organization that you felt like maybe even

00:34:26.600 reflecting on it now that you're at the stage you're at where you're leading the organization

00:34:30.420 where you thought, you know, that was a good decision that my father had made. And that

00:34:35.680 really laid more of the foundation, the framework for what we've been able to create moving forward.

00:34:39.800 Sure. Sure. I think just adapting with times and changing, I think why a lot of businesses don't

00:34:46.460 move forward is, is, uh, it doesn't adapt to change, um, cultural change, industry change,

00:34:53.520 all those different things. And so I think my dad wasn't afraid to try new things. Um, you know,

00:34:58.740 we kind of always joke about one of the big things that my dad did say in the early eighties was,

00:35:03.580 uh, all of our guns before that had wood stocks on them, pretty wood stocks. So you can imagine

00:35:08.720 when my dad in the early eighties came through with the first fiberglass stock in the industry 0.96

00:35:12.520 and showed it to my grandpa, my grandpa said it was the ugliest piece of junk he'd ever seen.

00:35:16.720 And we'll never, never saw one of them. And now 85% of our sales doesn't have a wood stock on it 0.61

00:35:21.700 anymore. 85% really? Yeah. I mean, it's fiberglass and carbon fiber and different plastics and

00:35:26.960 composites and different things. It's, you know, it's, so it's kind of crazy to go, you know, you

00:35:32.780 look back and see, but it was my dad saying, no, I'm pretty sure this is kind of where things are

00:35:37.220 going here, dad. And then once they started selling them, my grandpa hopped on board and said it was

00:35:42.420 a good idea after all. But, uh, you know, so it's, I think things like that, where sometimes that's

00:35:47.660 where the importance of going and moving from generation to generation is right. I mean, you see the

00:35:53.740 same thing, like say in the church world or the nonprofit world or different things outside of

00:35:57.880 even business, you know, where it's like, man, as culture changes, like I always say is that the

00:36:03.260 message is the same, but the method can change. And, and so that message that's crucial to who we are

00:36:09.960 as Weatherby, it needs to say this, stay the same, but the, the method or that maybe the, the wrapping

00:36:16.080 around it or the marketing or whatever, it's still the same core principles that we had 75 years ago.

00:36:20.660 Sure. It looks a little bit different. My grandpa used to send Christmas cards every year to

00:36:25.180 thousands of people with like him in a big trophy room with a lot of animals and it's super old

00:36:29.680 school, but now you go, okay, digitally, how do we keep up with those things? He had the John Wayne.

00:36:33.900 So who do we have that is influencers? It's different, but it's, it looks different. And I

00:36:38.920 think in a lot of things in our life, and even as our kids grow up in our homes, it's, it's the

00:36:43.800 message is the same. The method might change. Rules are going to change. You're going to be given

00:36:47.800 more freedoms. Things change, but the message of who we want you to be as a kid or a child,

00:36:52.500 or eventually a man or a woman is, is going to be, um, it's going to be the same. If that makes

00:36:57.660 sense. That makes total sense. And it's actually pretty, it's pretty, uh, inspiring that your

00:37:02.260 grandfather could create that over a period of three generations, which I hope, and I imagine you

00:37:08.140 have aspirations. It'll turn into four and five and six and seven generations of, of Weatherby's,

00:37:13.300 you know, in, in this business and in this industry. I also think it's pretty telling and

00:37:18.320 fascinating that not only was your father open to the idea of, you know, synthetic stocks,

00:37:24.860 for example, but then also your grandfather, even though he created this business on the

00:37:29.040 back of, of wood stocks, for example, uh, was open at least to some degree and receptive

00:37:34.920 of changing with the times as well. I think that speaks highly of him too.

00:37:38.840 Sure. No, it does. And now I'm faced with the similar decisions, even now, kind of already

00:37:44.140 there's those sacred cows, if you would, that it's like, man, okay, if we, you know, can

00:37:49.400 we stop doing this? Can we start doing this? I mean, there are things you've done for decades

00:37:53.200 and it's like, okay, but maybe it's time to move on past this. And that's hard. And it's

00:37:58.460 a balance of respecting history. Um, and some of that in the legacy. And yet at the same time

00:38:03.780 going, it's, it's not my grandpa's company anymore. And if it was, it had gone out of business

00:38:07.580 and guess what? Someday if it goes a couple more generations, I hope they go. It's not

00:38:11.520 Adam's company anymore. Cause doggone it, it had gone out of business. And so it has to

00:38:15.460 change. It has to change with it. So there are things even my marketing team will say

00:38:19.480 and inside I'm like, Ooh, I don't know. That's a little bit edgy. I mean, I'm 40, 42, 43 next

00:38:24.980 month. It's not that I'm, uh, it's not, uh, you know, I'm kind of stuck in the middle

00:38:28.660 there, but you know, at the same time we need to reach out to the future generation that,

00:38:32.600 you know, hunting is kind of on the decline. And so it's, how do we get new hunters and

00:38:36.580 shooters out there in the field to be conservationists, to be hunters and gatherers,

00:38:40.580 to do those things. And it's, we do need to do things that sometimes are a little bit

00:38:44.000 uncomfortable. It's interesting. You talk about your marketing team because they're

00:38:47.580 looking at things probably relatively objectively, but they don't have the family history.

00:38:54.460 Correct. Right. They don't have the voice of grant, you know, my grandfather or my dad

00:38:59.160 in my head saying, I don't know. I don't know about this. Like, and actually all of the,

00:39:05.580 I don't want to say baggage is not, but just all of this sentiment that comes with

00:39:10.500 it being a family business as opposed to just being a business.

00:39:15.160 It's true. And what's really neat is our team respects that. And so they'll, even if they have

00:39:20.620 a great idea, which 90% of the time or whatever, it's like, yeah, go do this. You guys are doing

00:39:25.880 once in a while. It'll be like, now that just doesn't fit with our family brand. They,

00:39:30.080 they get that instantly and they go, you bet. Then we'll come back to you with something else.

00:39:35.540 It rarely does that happen. Cause I think they get it. I think they really do, which is awesome.

00:39:40.220 But if not, I think they understand that they get at the end of the day that my name's on the side of

00:39:45.140 that gun, you know? So it's like, they, they understand that, which is cool. You know? And

00:39:50.020 I think ultimately we want to have a team that's like that. And I think that's something we had this

00:39:53.520 grand opening here in Wyoming last week of a brand new facility. And there's a video we kind of put out

00:39:58.960 and talked about, um, there's an article actually came out yesterday and, uh, hunting and shooting

00:40:04.020 wire. And it was a guy who was out here and experienced things. And he said, what I felt

00:40:08.380 like was, I was a part of one big family last Thursday. And so it actually, he said, and most

00:40:14.480 of all, it wasn't just those that had the last name of Weatherby. It was all our employees. And he

00:40:18.280 wrote this whole article. And to me, it was a bigger compliment I could have received than launching

00:40:23.100 the coolest, newest product that we were going to sell a bazillion of. To me, it was this compliment

00:40:28.000 of saying like, man, we need more of this, uh, where we felt like Weatherby and all the people

00:40:35.280 that were a part in wearing those Weatherby shirts that day and a part of hosting us felt like they

00:40:39.640 had the same pride that they would have had their last name and not been Weatherby. And to me, that

00:40:43.540 was like reading this article was the greatest compliment I could receive. I think, you know,

00:40:47.420 cause it's about people ultimately men timeout. Let me hit the pause button real quick. Uh, I want

00:40:53.660 to tell you once again about the order man main event. The reason I keep bringing it up is

00:40:57.800 because I want you there. I really want you there. We don't have very many spots left.

00:41:01.120 So if you want to be there August 10th and 11th with an exclusive iron council dinner on the ninth,

00:41:07.020 then you need to get registered very, very quickly. I was going to say it's a meetup.

00:41:11.300 I hesitate to say meetup because it's so much more than that. Uh, you're going to get a chance to meet

00:41:16.000 me. Obviously I'll be there. My cohost Kip Sorenson, uh, and then also my partner in the order man events,

00:41:21.540 uh, the legacy and uprising experiences. His name is Matthew Arrington. You're going to meet all of us.

00:41:26.220 You're also going to meet the rest of the order man team and crew. It's going to be an incredible

00:41:30.240 experience, but not only are you going to meet us, you're going to meet 75 other like-minded men

00:41:35.100 who are accomplishing big things in regards to their relationships and their health and their

00:41:41.180 wealth, every facet of life. And you'll be able to bandwidth compete with these guys and learn from

00:41:46.520 these men in two days of instruction and activity, all designed to give you access to the network and the

00:41:53.100 framework for success. So if that sounds of something that you might be interested in,

00:41:58.460 then head to order a man.com slash main event, main event as in the state main. So order a man.com

00:42:05.620 slash main event. I hope to see you there. Get registered quickly. Uh, we'll get back to the

00:42:10.240 conversation right now and finish this up with Adam. I think that's one of the things that draws me to

00:42:15.700 what you guys are doing is, and I alluded to this earlier is, is, you know, technology, I don't want to

00:42:20.840 say it's easy. It's not, you know, there's always advancements and things you can do and push the

00:42:24.780 boundaries, but that's a dime a dozen. You know, I think one of the things that draws me to what you

00:42:29.920 guys are doing is this family brand. And I'm trying to create that with my kids. You know, how do I,

00:42:34.920 how do I create the, the launching pad, if you will, for them to do something great, whether it's

00:42:41.500 this, you know, or something similar to what I'm doing here or something completely different. How do I

00:42:46.120 create that, that foundation for growth and advancement and progress and having maybe a

00:42:53.360 better leg up than I had and that my mom or dad had when they were growing up? That's,

00:42:58.680 that's really important to me. But also still let them make their own choices, right? As they're

00:43:03.340 growing older at some point, it's like, you know, um, and I think that's, what's cool. What my dad did

00:43:08.180 with me. And as I mentioned, I went into ministry for a number of years and my dad was my biggest

00:43:13.080 supporter. And that's, what was cool is, is, um, it wasn't just about the business. It was about who

00:43:18.720 Adam was and who Adam was becoming. And remember I preached a sermon once and I got this most

00:43:24.200 encouraging text from him afterwards. He's like, you're exactly where you need to be. And so to

00:43:28.080 have a dad that supported me to pursue kind of my dreams and passions and those different things

00:43:32.300 and to go, Hey, whatever you're doing, go do it, be excellent and do it. And, uh, and he really got

00:43:37.360 that. And I think, um, I think that that, that was super important in my development and something I

00:43:42.780 want to do with my kids too, because I'm so passionate about this business, um, that, yeah,

00:43:47.680 do I want them involved? Absolutely. Um, but the last thing I want to do is handcuff them and bring

00:43:51.900 them in. Cause that's not going to help anybody. Sure. Yeah. So was his father like that or was his

00:43:57.060 father a little bit different? Where does that idea come from? His father was different. I think it

00:44:01.020 actually, the idea came from the fact that his father was different. I think it was that again,

00:44:05.640 uh, from rags, rags to riches story from the ground up building the business and all those

00:44:11.480 things. And so I think my dad saw that. And so I think he said, Hey, you know what, with my kids,

00:44:16.360 um, and this isn't to bag on my grandpa at all, they just had different life experiences to bring

00:44:20.720 them up to that. Of course. Yeah. And, and, and I mean, let's go back to what we were talking about

00:44:25.440 motive, even though maybe your grandfather without knowing the story wanted his, his son. How many

00:44:32.240 children did your grandfather have? Two girls and my dad. Okay. So let's say he wanted his son to be

00:44:38.320 in the business. I can't imagine that it was ill-willed as much as it, Hey, I created this for,

00:44:44.120 for us, right? This is for us, not just me. This is for all of us. Sure. And to reject this would be

00:44:50.420 rejecting me is kind of, I think how somebody feels in that circumstance sometimes. Yeah, definitely.

00:44:55.840 Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. So tell me why you decided then, cause you have three other

00:45:01.460 siblings. Did I understand that correctly? Correct. I'm the oldest of four. So brothers,

00:45:05.740 sisters, uh, one brother, two sisters. So there's two, each of us. Okay. So why, why go out and,

00:45:13.180 you know, you went into ministry and something that's completely unrelated. What was your thought

00:45:18.620 process? I'm sure that was probably maybe even a challenge for you knowing that. And again,

00:45:24.800 I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, but, or, or project here, but maybe there was some

00:45:28.460 expectation there. So tell me a little bit about why you decided to branch out into something

00:45:33.060 completely not related. Yeah. You know, it's a good question. And I wouldn't trade those years

00:45:38.460 for anything. I think, um, I was working at the business in college and got married young. And for

00:45:43.780 the first three, four years was working in a variety of departments from marketing to tech support to

00:45:48.420 customer service, to sales, to warranty, kind of just, my dad wanted me to kind of get a lot of the

00:45:54.240 different departments and get things down. And, and, uh, so I'd been doing a lot of, a lot of things

00:45:59.760 ministry wise and church work and missions. And it's really where my heart was. And, and so, uh,

00:46:05.220 my heart wasn't in the business at the time. Um, it probably because of that, maybe like my dad

00:46:10.580 probably felt as a kid sometime that it was like my dad making the decision for me, um, is how I would

00:46:15.740 have felt doing that. And so, so I left the business full time and went into ministry for a number of

00:46:22.800 years and just anything I do. I just kind of go in like all in, not partially in, but all in. And so,

00:46:29.600 um, you know, really for those years did that. Um, and, and, you know, really understood that,

00:46:36.740 you know, life's about more than the money we make or the things we accumulate. And it's,

00:46:40.720 it's about people. And ultimately, you know, for me and my belief in God and, and, you know,

00:46:46.180 who Jesus Christ is is super important to me. And so I was able to communicate that for a number of

00:46:50.940 years, um, during that time, um, really established who I was as a leader, as a communicator,

00:46:57.460 um, as a collaborator, as a team builder and all those kinds of things. And so when my dad came

00:47:04.000 to me a number of years ago and it was kind of like, Hey, uh, like I'm not getting any younger

00:47:09.740 here and, you know, let's have a talk about this and spend a long time just talking to people and

00:47:14.680 praying about, you know, what I should do and jumping back in. I knew that sure. All those years I,

00:47:19.300 I wasn't in business. I wasn't an expert in engineering or accounting, um, or, you know,

00:47:25.800 you name it, a lot of the different manufacturing or a lot of the different things. I knew that,

00:47:29.440 that I'd been developed as in many ways, as a leader and a communicator and a team builder.

00:47:33.840 And I just said, um, and if I were to come back and have that same passion that I believe I'd be,

00:47:40.160 you know, fitted for this spot and knew I'd need to come in and surround myself with an outstanding

00:47:44.700 team that are experts in different areas, which I believe, um, I'd like to say, I think we've

00:47:49.840 established here and, you know, been able to kind of build and, uh, really then kind of took that

00:47:55.340 other part. And I, I wouldn't take those years away. I think the results of the things that came

00:48:00.740 from that year, those years of people's lives was huge. And then even what happened in my own life

00:48:04.900 to be able to take those experiences and to shape me as a leader. There are days that I say,

00:48:09.040 oh man, all those years, like I have two degrees and they're in Bible related stuff. And I like run

00:48:13.660 a gun business. So I always say God has a sense of humor, but, um, as I'm doing this, it's like,

00:48:18.620 I wouldn't trade it for anything. And, and I believe it made me into the leader that I need to

00:48:22.660 be. And then every day it's just, it's a learning curve for me. And every day, I mean, I need to have

00:48:27.320 the humility to go, yeah, I don't know the answer to this, but I'm gonna go figure it out. I'm gonna

00:48:30.600 hire the right person to do the right things. And so, um, my team knows that, that I'm a very strong

00:48:35.400 leader in that sense. And, and, uh, certainly in, in casting vision and saying, we're going to go

00:48:40.000 this way and do this. It's why we're in Wyoming, um, is because I'm like, this is going to be best

00:48:45.160 for this brand, for this legacy, for the family, for the business. So we're going to do it regardless

00:48:49.620 of what it costs. We're going to do it. And so, and then, then I just, uh, try to build a team around

00:48:55.420 me that, uh, that are outstanding in what they do. You know, you've always, since I've known you,

00:49:01.100 which is, I think about a year maybe or so, I think we initially met around.

00:49:05.400 We met in Salt Lake one time, I think in the Mount Knox headquarters.

00:49:08.720 We did. Yeah. I think it was probably around or just before Total Archery Challenge of last year.

00:49:14.200 Yeah. You know, you've always struck me as somebody who's, who's confident, but not,

00:49:18.320 not cocky or arrogant, but somebody who's confident. And I imagine there's a lot of

00:49:21.820 grounding that comes through your ministry and what you've learned through, through the gospel and

00:49:26.380 through that avenue that you pursued. Would you say that's accurate?

00:49:30.700 A hundred percent. Yeah. I sometimes wonder who I'd be if I'd have stuck and stayed in the

00:49:36.480 business the whole time and not allowed those years for God to kind of refine me and shape me.

00:49:41.380 Yeah. So I agree whether that's dealing with other people or the humility, um, that, that I,

00:49:46.260 you know, hope that I would have. I mean, heck when a customer like gets escalated through customer

00:49:51.160 service and they're really upset once in a while, I talk to them, you know, to these customers or

00:49:55.740 whatever. I mean, a lot of people just, you know, in business could never admit that their product

00:50:00.440 failed or that they failed as a business. Yeah, man. I find one of the easiest ways is just admit

00:50:05.340 that we really, really blew it and we're going to really, really make it right. And boy, it wins

00:50:08.980 over customers fast. What an amazing opportunity, right? Yeah. And you talk about, you know, the

00:50:13.860 gospel. I mean, it's, that's what it is. Christ humbled himself even to the point of death on a cross.

00:50:18.220 And, you know, it's like, it's that humility to just do that. And sometimes when you tell

00:50:21.660 customers, yeah, we blew it. Uh, we goofed this thing up, but let me make it right. Um,

00:50:27.280 they're just like, Oh, okay. Yeah, that'd be great. And then later they're like, I'm your

00:50:30.520 biggest fan. And they hated your guts and sent you a nasty letter. You still get the handwritten

00:50:34.800 nasty customer letter. And we have hundreds of thousands of guns over 74 years. They're not

00:50:39.540 all bound to work. Yeah. Odds are you're going to have something that's not going to go quite

00:50:42.700 right. Exactly. But I think we spend these, this crazy amount of time, whether it's as a business

00:50:48.540 owner or just an individual excusing away our mistakes when it's, you know, if we just accepted

00:50:53.400 the fact that, you know, I screwed up, I'm sorry, here's what I can do to fix it. I think

00:50:59.780 people ultimately recognize themselves in, in those actions. Like, you know what? Yeah,

00:51:07.500 I screwed up too. I get that. Thanks for owning it. Thanks for making it right. That's what people

00:51:11.540 want. They just want, they want to be made right. They want to be made whole. That's all they're

00:51:15.260 looking for. And it's, there's a human element to it that I think people appreciate and authenticity.

00:51:19.640 And that's something they get about our brand. I think too, or certainly we want them to is to

00:51:24.580 understand we're not perfect. We're doing our darn best to put out the absolute best product that we

00:51:30.460 can and trying to be as cutting edge and all those different things. But at the end of it, I think in

00:51:34.920 today's society where so many things are just overly automated and whatever is like, even when people

00:51:40.600 talk to me, wow, okay, I'm talking to Weatherby, this is like, there is like an actual person

00:51:45.260 buying this brand. It's not just this mega whatever. And we're so used to that in society.

00:51:51.020 And so it is something unique about our brand that some other brands have as well. And I think that it

00:51:56.420 is that authenticity, that human element that people want to attach to instead of just having,

00:52:02.040 I don't know, everything from what we buy to whatever, it's just this, I don't know. You know what

00:52:07.080 I'm saying? Oh, I do a hundred percent. I mean, I think the technology is wonderful. I mean, I'm

00:52:11.340 not sure we would be connected without the technology, but as valuable as it is, there's

00:52:17.940 just something to be said for face-to-face interaction and human element. I do want to

00:52:22.740 go back to the transition with your father taking over the business and then you ultimately taking

00:52:27.680 over the business. Are your siblings involved at all or are they not involved in the business?

00:52:32.280 They're not, they're not currently. Um, you know, most of them have been off and on over

00:52:37.440 the years. And again, it's kind of back to that, you know, uh, you know, do with your

00:52:42.260 life, what you're going to do. My brother's actually, what's funny is, so my grandpa was

00:52:46.700 both the, he could create and work with his hands and he was a business guy, a people person.

00:52:51.320 My brother got the craftsman part and I can't build Jack. Like I am just, I am horrible with

00:52:58.600 my hands. I can't draw, I can't build, but I get the people skill part, right? And my

00:53:03.380 brother got the craftsman part. So we kind of split in half. So he's actually a custom

00:53:06.760 knife maker and is really kind of starting to grow his business. Um, his name's Dan

00:53:12.440 Weatherby, D Weatherby Forge, uh, to give him a shout out, probably dweatherbyforge.com or

00:53:17.420 something like that. But, uh, he, uh, he's unbelievable. He actually takes old gun parts

00:53:23.580 and gun barrels. He makes, I don't even know, I don't even get it. Like he had so,

00:53:28.400 I don't, he does it all on his own, all self-taught. He makes his own forges. He takes

00:53:32.800 Weatherby barrels, forges them down, makes this like San Mai and Damascus and all these blended 0.98

00:53:39.400 steels. And then he takes historical Weatherby stuff, whether it be antlers or like, he's got

00:53:45.000 some of this blackwood, African blackwood, my grandpa had, or a Cape Buffalo horn and tells

00:53:49.420 these stories or he'll put the cartridge case head in the back of the knife and leverages

00:53:54.140 the weather to be named because of it, but it's his own business. And he's just a craftsman.

00:53:58.940 Like he doesn't want to sit in an office. I mean, at the end of the day, everybody probably

00:54:02.300 thinks that I'm waiting. I'm out shooting every day. The reality is it's a business. I sit in a

00:54:06.000 lot of conference rooms and a lot of meetings, just like anybody else. And that would, that

00:54:09.660 drove my brother up the wall when he was in the business. He just wanted to go out there and

00:54:12.420 build stuff. And so he kind of has taken that, which has been really cool to see that take

00:54:17.580 off. I just have the utmost respect. He just, it's a phenomenal craftsman. He's just really

00:54:21.720 kind of getting it up and going. So he does that, which is cool.

00:54:24.900 Have you guys ever thought about, I don't know, partnering in some capacity, or do you

00:54:28.280 think that would take away from the experience for both of you?

00:54:30.340 We have a little bit, like we had a 70th anniversary gun, uh, four years ago and he

00:54:35.260 built 70 custom knives to go with 70 Weatherby's. That was kind of cool.

00:54:38.940 Yeah.

00:54:39.240 And then we have a new showroom set up here in our Wyoming location with a lot of people

00:54:43.440 coming through. And so we have, I got a few of his custom knives down there for sale

00:54:47.340 right now. So there's things like that. So we'll kind of collaborate a little bit, but

00:54:51.120 at the same time, it's cool for him to kind of have his own deal too, which is really kind

00:54:56.360 of neat where he's out in his shop 95% of the time. And when he has to, he has to go

00:55:00.900 like work on a website or do things like that. But like, he just wants to build and he's like,

00:55:05.920 it's cool. My, my best friend growing up just did a video that just saw last week. He was

00:55:09.900 up for the grand opening. He's still out in California. He showed me the video and it

00:55:13.620 actually starts with my grandfather in this video and tells this story. And I was moved,

00:55:17.900 brought to tears, like to just know that my brother got that part. And it's just,

00:55:22.760 I just can't tell you how much respect I have for him for that. The business part,

00:55:26.940 he can't really stand. And, you know, just cause that's not his deal, but he just loves

00:55:30.460 making stuff. He's really good at it.

00:55:31.960 That's interesting.

00:55:32.640 It's kind of cool.

00:55:33.120 Yeah, no, that's, that's, that's really cool. I mean, it's cool to see each of you guys

00:55:36.460 step into your own strengths and really magnify those strengths to ultimately create something

00:55:41.120 that's going to be valuable to other people. You used an interesting word earlier. You said

00:55:46.580 leverage, and I think leverage the weather be name. I think a lot of people can look at that and think

00:55:51.660 that might have a negative connotation. Like I'm, I'm leveraging it. I'm using what somebody else

00:55:56.300 created. I'd really love to hear your perspective on this idea of leveraging and your thought behind

00:56:01.840 that. Cause obviously you're working on something that ultimately somebody else created. Now your goal

00:56:07.420 to magnify it. Right. Sure. And I mean, that's what I'm trying to do right now. I'd be a fool

00:56:12.680 to go start my own gun business and call it something different. That'd be the stupidest 1.00

00:56:16.820 thing I could ever do. Right. I mean, to go Adam's guns, I don't think it'd go over well. And so 1.00

00:56:23.500 to be able to do that as a family, we realized that my grandfather started something and that's

00:56:28.840 an opportunity. And that's one of the benefits about family. There are things that we can build off

00:56:33.380 from generations before us. There are things that we can refine and make better. There's things that

00:56:37.920 we can start from scratch, but I think in family to recognize what's come before us is really cool.

00:56:43.980 And so we just have that opportunity to be able to do that. Does that make sense, Ryan? I think

00:56:49.360 it does to me. I mean, I don't see anything wrong with that. I ultimately, I think that's the point.

00:56:54.820 You know, I look at myself, my dad was out of the picture by the time I was three years old,

00:56:58.660 but I look at myself as being intimately involved with my kids and why wouldn't I want them to

00:57:04.320 leverage the Mickler name? You know, my dad made what he made of it. I'm ultimately trying to make

00:57:10.200 even more of it. I'd love for my children to take the Mickler name and create some sort of

00:57:15.660 phenomenal legacy for themselves and their family and their communities and the people they're trying

00:57:20.960 to serve. Like, I don't see anything wrong with that, but I also know- I think it's a healthy

00:57:24.460 family pride. Right. I mean, why wouldn't you? But there is, there is sometimes this negativity

00:57:29.680 that just kind of permeates through society and people think, well, you know, you wouldn't be

00:57:34.420 where you are if it wasn't for your dad or your grandfather. And I'm sure you'd probably get some

00:57:38.820 of that as well. Sure. Sure. I'm like, yeah, I wouldn't. So it's a blessing to be Adam Weatherby.

00:57:44.460 What can I say? Right. Yeah. It's not, it's not like you need to disown it because you happen to

00:57:49.660 be, you know, the term of the day is privileged, right? Sure. But that's also one of those things

00:57:55.660 that you have to go. Like when I came back to the business full time in, in really good. Okay.

00:58:01.020 If I'm going to come back, like I'm going to come back and it's, you know, going to give this thing

00:58:04.620 my all, but it's also like, look, I have the privilege of being born into what I think is a

00:58:09.600 pretty cool family. I love the outdoors. I love firearms. Like, I mean, I always say like my grandpa

00:58:13.600 could have like had a big toilet paper company and probably been more successful. More people wipe

00:58:17.940 their butts and shoot guns, but it's like, I wouldn't have been very passionate. I'm not a 0.94

00:58:22.740 passionate butt wiper. Right. And so like, but I'm a passionate outdoorsman. I love adventures. I love

00:58:28.060 pursuing game. I love eating wild game. I love everything about it. It's just, I'm passionate

00:58:31.820 about it. So to me, I'm like, man, to be born in this family is like, it is a privilege. So you can

00:58:36.540 say, are you privileged? Yes, I am. Because it's a blessing. Like, so I go, look, I don't want to take

00:58:41.860 that lightly though, at the same time. Now it's one thing to say, I'm going to do that. And then I'm

00:58:45.680 going to go squander it all. Right. And I'm just going to go live wildly or do whatever with some

00:58:50.420 inheritance someday. Or it's another to go, can I take it and make it better? Right. Can I take

00:58:56.060 what was handed to me? And, and I don't know if necessarily handed is the word either, but,

00:59:01.460 but that's something that I get the privilege of leading. Can it be healthier when I'm done?

00:59:07.500 Can, uh, can we be making better products? Can we, can we have a healthier workforce? Can we do

00:59:12.740 whatever? And can we take it and make it better? And so there's creating something, but there's

00:59:17.840 also saying like, look, I've been given something and I want to make it our products better for our

00:59:23.160 customers, for our employees, like for whatever. I mean, I take it as a huge responsibility. There's a

00:59:27.220 lot of people take a paycheck with my name on it and they're feeding their families. So the more

00:59:30.920 successful I can make the business, the better I can make those people's lives. And so it's a whole

00:59:35.400 reciprocating thing. I think when you talk about that, but it sounds like your father did a pretty

00:59:39.660 good job of not just, here you go. Here's everything that, that the grandfather and dad

00:59:44.260 created in here. Now you get to enjoy it. But it sounds like even though they had some, some level

00:59:50.640 of success that they made you earn that the right to be able to lead the organization. Did you come,

00:59:56.420 when you came back after your ministry, what, what role or capacity did you come back into the

01:00:02.180 business in? Sure. No, at that point I came back kind of as number two behind my dad. Okay. So at that

01:00:08.160 point it was like, I'm going to be leading these people. And so that was my dad's kind of thing

01:00:13.380 was let's just come back and let's do this. Otherwise it's going to be a slow, painful

01:00:17.340 process and you're going to have to gain people's respect. Let's just tell it like it is. You're

01:00:21.380 coming back. You're going to take over for me. I came back as COO under CEO. Did I have a clue what

01:00:26.320 I was doing? No, but I just came in and soaked it in like a sponge and learned from my dad. And then,

01:00:31.720 you know, spent those first few years just kind of doing that, riding,

01:00:34.600 kind of riding shotgun with him. And it's just because of the way I jumped into things. I mean,

01:00:41.320 I just, I just jumped in, you know, feet first and because it is a family business, people aren't

01:00:46.660 going to go, Oh, that's not fair. This or that. They're like, yeah, that's kind of what happens

01:00:49.860 in the family business. And to be honest, people go with, people think they actually saw it as

01:00:55.000 potential longevity for their career and their job because otherwise, I don't know, maybe Ed

01:00:59.740 Weatherby could have sold the company. You, maybe he could have brought some outside family

01:01:03.760 person that wouldn't have liked me and fired me. So for them, they actually saw it as a sense of

01:01:08.120 like a future career potentially for them. I, you know, I didn't think about that because

01:01:12.380 immediately I go to, and the question I wanted to ask is, do you feel like there was any sort of

01:01:16.800 contention or animosity or even just some grumblings and questions about bringing you on as a number two

01:01:24.280 when you weren't really qualified? I wasn't qualified. Yeah. I wasn't. And no, there was,

01:01:31.940 but I knew a lot of those people, um, and even within the industry. And so, um, so I think that

01:01:39.180 really helps, you know, I mean, just being in the family, it, it, uh, um, I know there wasn't much

01:01:45.140 animosity. I, I, there, I'm sure there was buying those doors. Uh, but for me, it was pretty much an

01:01:50.660 overwhelming support. And then when I just jumped in really passionate about the future,

01:01:54.700 they said, wow, okay, this is, this is great. You know, it's, and I'm not a person and you don't

01:01:59.500 have to know me for very long. I'm not going to just put something on cruise control. Like

01:02:02.960 if I'm going to do something, I want it to grow. I want it to be successful. I want to be a part of

01:02:06.600 a winning team. I'm competitive. So they see that as, as being winning for the whole team.

01:02:11.580 What do you feel like you did that, that, that maybe you got right and potentially even some

01:02:17.120 things wrong as you came into the business and you tried to, you know, incorporate yourself into

01:02:22.560 the, into the, the culture that was being created and then build the credibility and trust that you

01:02:28.580 needed to lead these individuals. How many people do you employ by the way?

01:02:32.500 About 70.

01:02:33.360 Okay. So, so what did you do to, to, to garner the trust and respect of these 70 individuals?

01:02:41.060 And maybe it was fewer at the time to, to be able to be, you know, led by you now.

01:02:45.220 Sure. I never, I mean, I knew the first year I wanted to be a listener.

01:02:50.420 It's always good to be a listener, but I wanted to do an extra dose of it that first year and

01:02:55.300 really listen and learn as much as I possibly could. So I spent a lot of time trying to do

01:03:01.820 that the first year. I remember taking out different departments to lunch. Hey, go take

01:03:06.480 out whatever this assembly, you know, line to lunch for the shipping department. Just wanted

01:03:10.520 to, wanted to go and learn and let them know that I knew there were things I could learn from

01:03:14.920 them, not just to gain their support, but I actually needed to learn from them as well.

01:03:19.160 So it was really a, a twofold strategy there.

01:03:21.980 Definitely.

01:03:22.700 And so I knew for that first year that I did, you know, now knowing what I know, there were

01:03:26.900 things, if I were to go back, knowing what I know now, I'd have made some changes sooner

01:03:31.840 and just done things, you know, as things, you know, were just changing, you know, so rapidly.

01:03:37.720 Changes within the business structure, organization processes, what?

01:03:43.600 No, probably more just overall strategies, whether it be, yeah, whether it be products

01:03:49.500 or, you know, suppliers or manufacturing or, I mean, there's so many different people ask

01:03:53.820 what I, you know, what do you do? What's it like to be CEO of a gun business? It's like,

01:03:57.600 like today, man, I have a number of meetings all day and one's future product planning meeting.

01:04:02.940 Last meeting I just came out of was more of kind of an immediate, you know, more hands

01:04:08.440 on deck thing. There'll be an engineering meeting. You know, some's just raw, just finance stuff.

01:04:14.620 So it's, it's kind of a little bit of everything. And then some's marketing that always tends

01:04:18.660 to be the most fun. Usually marketing means that I get to go hold a gun in a really cool

01:04:23.080 spot. Sometimes take a cool animal, take some pictures, take it, take an animal harvest.

01:04:27.620 Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, it's not a bad part of my job, but there's a lot of things

01:04:32.020 that really, you know, come with it. But I think now the more that I grow in it, the more I learn

01:04:37.740 to, when I know the thing that I need to do as a leader, I do it quicker.

01:04:43.900 Do you feel like you, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it makes sense.

01:04:46.720 I felt like I had to earn that respect. And even though I knew eventually I wanted to get to here,

01:04:51.220 it took me a while to bring people. And now I'm like, no, we need to do this. And we're going to

01:04:54.700 do this now. I'm, I rip band-aids off a lot more than I used to, if that makes sense.

01:04:59.560 Yeah. Cause what I was going to ask you is, do you feel like you were, for lack of a better term,

01:05:05.600 treading on thin ice a little bit in implementing some of these strategies?

01:05:09.700 Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And, and even just gaining the confidence in myself,

01:05:13.440 you know, to, uh, to, to be that leader. Absolutely. But I'll definitely now there's,

01:05:19.380 there's no more ice, you know, and my dad's done a great job at saying, no, Adam's, Adam's your leader.

01:05:24.040 So, you know, let's, let's follow him. And it's, and I try to build a collaborative,

01:05:28.740 you know, environment and team. And there's times come down to it where sure, I got to make the call.

01:05:33.400 You got to do that as a leader. But, um, I really trust a lot of people that work for me and trust

01:05:39.040 their insight. And so, I mean, a lot of my job just walking in and out of different offices going,

01:05:44.240 Hey, what about this? And man, this deal is coming through. You think we should do this deal or not?

01:05:47.680 Ah, you know, and so it's, there's a lot of that that takes place. Don't make a lot of decisions

01:05:52.960 on my own. And my wife works in the business with me too. And so she, her, her and I and our dog

01:05:59.380 share an office. And so, uh, we, uh, you know, she married into it and yet, um, she has a lot of

01:06:07.440 gifts that I don't, which is really handy, um, at home and in the business. Um, she has a master's

01:06:13.100 in organizational leadership and leads a lot of the people and administrative and compliance

01:06:18.360 and just the nuts and bolts of, of getting the business done. She oversees HR. She's great with 1.00

01:06:25.220 people. And that can allow me to focus on more of the vision of the business and moving forward

01:06:29.580 with a lot of my executive team. And so we really worked to go together well in that too. And this

01:06:34.600 whole move, the building project, the grand opening we just had hiring all the new people. We needed 50

01:06:40.240 new people. We had 3,500 applicants in the last year. She was over all that. If I had got into

01:06:48.480 that, we'd gone out of business because I wouldn't be able to just lead the day to day, you know? And

01:06:52.420 so we still need to do that. So we're also a good team together and that's, what's kind of cool.

01:06:56.840 She's got the last name now too, and she's a hunter and a shooter and help spearhead her women's line. 1.00

01:07:01.780 And so we have a blast kind of doing things together, which is really cool.

01:07:04.920 Yeah, that's cool. I mean, I'm in the position now with my organization where it's,

01:07:08.300 it's such a small business that up until this point, I've been a little bit of everything,

01:07:12.940 right? I sweep the floors, I do the mail, I do this, I do that, I do the marketing, I do it all.

01:07:18.580 And I think the next stage that we're at right now is how do we delegate? How do we bring the

01:07:24.080 right people on? How do I relinquish some of the control? How do I give some of my authority to

01:07:30.760 other individuals to act on my behalf? I see it as being a valuable skill and something I need to

01:07:38.040 learn to develop, but also a very difficult challenge for me as well.

01:07:43.360 No, I, I agree. And yeah, I mean, I, sometimes they envy, you know, you like, or somebody like

01:07:49.760 you, you know, that's like, you get to kind of do all that and it kind of sounds like fun,

01:07:53.120 but at the same time you probably go, man, it'd be nice to have a team of people to help.

01:07:56.940 Well, I mean, the grass is always greener, right? You don't, you don't always appreciate what you have.

01:08:02.420 Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So what's your dad's capacity in the business now? Is he,

01:08:09.440 is he still involved in the business? Has he stepped back and retired completely? Where's he at?

01:08:13.520 Yeah. So, you know, um, yeah, he doesn't, so we just moved to Wyoming, him and my mom retired a

01:08:18.640 couple of years ago to Oregon. And so they're up there. And, and so, um, he's, uh, so he's kind of

01:08:25.300 officially retired. He's chairman of the board. So he's, he's involved in real big picture stuff and,

01:08:29.660 and he's there, you know, usually either coming into work or home, like me calling him in the

01:08:34.800 trucks, my main time, just to update him and run stuff by him and things like that. So, um, yeah,

01:08:40.140 so he's still, still involved, but at the same time, I'm like, you know, dad, you just gave three

01:08:44.560 or four decades to this business and, uh, like go enjoy some time with mom and the grandkids and all

01:08:50.400 those kinds of things too. And so one for him to feel free to do that. And he does, which is cool.

01:08:55.120 It was, it's a hard, it's a hard letting go. Um, but, uh, I think, you know, my dad's done as good

01:09:01.640 as anybody I've seen at really being able to do that. And, and it's something like, you know,

01:09:06.880 Lord willing, if, if I, you know, live a semi decent long life that I can do someday too,

01:09:11.180 and not work till the day I'm dead. Um, and, uh, to be able to kind of do that. And I think,

01:09:16.120 um, I think it's kind of a cool thing. I think geographically, cause we're not in the same state

01:09:20.500 right now. It makes it easier, probably really hard for him to let go. I would imagine if I was

01:09:25.360 him, he'd be like, man, I got to go down to the office. Cause that's what he's always done.

01:09:28.920 Right. We just, he knows that we just had a guy we celebrated on Thursday. Yeah. I don't know if

01:09:35.380 you heard about anything, but this is unbelievable. He came in 1961 at 18 years old to work for my

01:09:42.160 grandpa. And when we just moved this year, 50, almost 58 years, 57, I think in a half,

01:09:50.500 years, he'd worked for the Weatherby company. Wow. And he's still with the organization.

01:09:56.860 Well, when we just moved this year, he retired. Okay. Um, if we wouldn't have, he, I don't,

01:10:02.340 Dean has still have been here for sure. So we celebrated him and, uh, at our grand opening day

01:10:08.080 and did some cool, you know, that's amazing stuff, but yeah, it's pretty, that kind of loyalty is

01:10:13.440 pretty, pretty outstanding. So he'd worked there. He was my dad's first boss. Really? He came to work

01:10:19.520 there when, I mean, 1961, my dad was only 10. Yeah. I guess that makes sense. Yeah. Crazy.

01:10:24.820 So, uh, anyways, side note, I don't know what that had to do with anything, but I don't know,

01:10:29.320 but I think it's pretty interesting. We're talking about letting go. Oh, and walking away. But that's

01:10:33.180 what, when I talked to Dean, when he was here, he's like, you know, he's like, yeah, it's been a,

01:10:39.120 it's been a struggle. And I, you know, a lot of us don't think about what that's like,

01:10:42.140 but to kind of produce, produce for a whole life. And then to kind of step back from that,

01:10:45.500 like, it's pretty hard thing to do for some people. I know it is for, for this guy, Dean.

01:10:49.500 So, well, I mean, I think it's, I think it'd be difficult for any, anybody who's invested to some

01:10:54.900 capacity in his work. I think that's actually a pretty good sign. Like if you can't let go,

01:10:58.500 it means you care, right? Yeah. Oh my gosh. And Dean cares about this company as much as anybody

01:11:04.700 in the world. I bet. I mean, for him to be there for, for what, nearly six decades now,

01:11:09.300 I think that's, uh, crazy. Do you and your dad butt heads at all on any of the decisions or

01:11:16.240 how, how, how do those differences work out? We get together unbelievably well. We, we just,

01:11:21.500 we, uh, we get along. There's a mutual respect. Um, and, uh, I respect, uh, sure. Do we lead

01:11:31.440 different? Yeah. Do we have different styles? Absolutely. Um, but I think I respect what's

01:11:37.140 gone before me and he has a mutual respect for me and he'll tell people, I just, I trust Adam with

01:11:42.700 the business. And so I think when you, when it goes wrong is when that next generation or whoever

01:11:48.940 is following that doesn't get the trust in both actions and words. So my dad has verbally

01:11:55.380 communicated that I trust Adam and he's backed it up by allowing me to make the decisions that I need to

01:12:02.540 make. Um, was there any, a point where, where it wasn't that way, where maybe he was saying one

01:12:07.960 thing, but his actions were, were something else. I think that's actually pretty common. So I'm curious

01:12:12.660 if you guys dealt with that. To be honest, and I'm not just trying to sugarcoat it, but I think

01:12:18.680 really a lot of it's due to my dad's humility, you know, um, where, uh, he just has really done a

01:12:27.260 phenomenal job at not stepping on my toes. To be honest, it's, it's, uh, I think it is an

01:12:32.800 exception. It was, I think, harder from one to two than it was two to three. Um, and you know,

01:12:37.680 my dad's one of the nicest guys you'll meet and, and, uh, he's just, uh, people go, yeah,

01:12:42.200 he's just, he's a kind, humble guy. And, uh, sometimes I say, yeah, I need that. I got a bit

01:12:47.440 of my grandpa and a bit of my dad. I got the drive from my grandpa and I hope to, you know, be able to

01:12:51.780 blend the two and, you know, uh, get some of the parts from my dad too, because people go,

01:12:56.340 but yeah, I mean, Ed Weatherby's one of the nicest guys you'll meet.

01:12:59.240 Well, I think that's a testament to probably both of you, you know, and the fact that he's,

01:13:02.640 he's got the humility and the level of confidence in you, but then also that you've earned that too,

01:13:07.040 because if you hadn't earned that, I imagine the story would be completely different.

01:13:10.600 Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Tell me about, and I know we're, we're bumping up against time here a little

01:13:15.340 bit. I do want to ask you some other questions. It's your podcast. So whatever the heck you want.

01:13:18.400 Okay. I just want to make sure. I mean, I know you're a busy guy, so tell me about your,

01:13:23.140 uh, your recent transition to Wyoming. You moved from California, central California,

01:13:27.300 if I understand correctly, uh, to Wyoming. Tell me a little bit about that thought process.

01:13:33.800 Yeah. I mean, it was a different state than it was in 1945. No doubt. Uh, politically, uh,

01:13:39.760 business climate, gun climate, a little bit of everything. So it's a tough place, uh, to do business,

01:13:45.080 uh, as a manufacturer and then particularly as a firearms manufacturer. Um, so my dad had looked

01:13:50.840 kind of over the years and I think, cause he just was, was there and it wasn't that bad.

01:13:56.060 It was more towards the end of his career. Things started getting a lot tougher. So when I came in

01:14:00.100 with a lot more runway left, it didn't take long to kind of figure out, wait a minute, uh, you got

01:14:05.060 our product on the shelf in a store next to all these competitors products, and we got a lot of

01:14:09.860 disadvantages. So it was hard for us to be competitive. What do you mean disadvantages? Like

01:14:14.420 what? Well, I mean, so your, your, your business climate, let's say comparing our two states,

01:14:19.600 right? So a move from California to Wyoming, the most populous state to the least populous,

01:14:23.800 the most, uh, strictest gun laws to arguably the most not strictest in Wyoming. It's a wild west

01:14:30.780 out here. Um, it's, uh, you know, the tax climate of probably arguably one of the absolute worst states

01:14:36.120 to, uh, like three, four years in a row. Uh, Wyoming has been the number one, uh, business

01:14:41.080 friendly tax environment in the country. Um, you look at, uh, um, you know, uh, also even just

01:14:48.380 personnel cost a living. So what you got to pay your employees there. Um, you know, what we had

01:14:53.040 to do as a business, you look at keeping the lights on there, man, you lost money, just turning

01:14:56.060 the power. I mean, power is twice as much there. So it's just higher costs. Now it was a weather

01:14:59.660 great. Yeah. Um, you know, it was, uh, we had a lot of great employees that we were still able to

01:15:04.120 find there. Um, there's a lot of good things. I don't want to dog on California because I mean,

01:15:08.740 that's where our history was, you know, and that's where we have a lot of family members. We have a lot

01:15:13.360 of loyal employees that weren't able to move with us for one reason or another due to family reasons

01:15:17.420 most often. So a lot of amazing things are, so I don't want to paint it like it was awful. And

01:15:21.560 our local area we're on the central coast of California was just amazing. It's a, it's a

01:15:26.740 beautiful area. It's not the crowded places that most people think of for California. We didn't have

01:15:31.100 traffic. Like, don't get me wrong. Like life was good. Um, but at the same time we knew to move

01:15:37.140 forward and to grow, um, we were going to need to change a lot of those things. When I go back to

01:15:41.700 the competitor's products, we weren't competing against anybody that was in California. Okay.

01:15:47.820 So if I'm a local business and I'm a laundromat, I'm competing against the next laundromat in town.

01:15:52.160 We all got those same rules. Uh, for me, uh, we had all those, a lot of those handicaps on good 1.00

01:15:59.520 things, but we had a lot of handicaps. And so that doesn't help us keep the price down for instance of

01:16:04.760 the product and allow us to be competitive in a lot of different ways. And it's our customer doesn't

01:16:09.300 care. No, they don't, they don't want to know the story. They don't care about the story.

01:16:12.920 I don't care if your taxes are worse. I just want a good product for a good price. And so,

01:16:17.560 uh, there were just the disadvantages just lined up to be too many things. And it's unfortunate.

01:16:22.020 They're like good folks out there. And, um, you know, but there's, there's maybe some that aren't

01:16:27.080 quite as good, um, that made a lot of decisions along the way that I think made a lot of businesses

01:16:31.560 leave California and particularly if you're a firearms business. So we needed a place that was really

01:16:35.860 going to honor and uphold the second amendment. That was really important to us and, um, our

01:16:40.340 rights and our customers, honestly, um, you know, too. So man, moving to California or to Wyoming

01:16:46.020 was about as opposite as you can get from California. And even the weather, uh, we went

01:16:51.300 pretty miles to, let me tell you about this winter, man. Yeah. Wait till the winter, right? Yeah,

01:16:55.800 definitely. Yeah. Why, uh, why Wyoming? I mean, you could have been moved to, you know, Utah or Idaho

01:17:01.320 or Texas or any of those other states. And we, and we looked at a lot of other states. We, we knew

01:17:06.720 we're a, we're a Western based company. I mean, just growing up Western big game hunting to just

01:17:13.720 the mountains and all those things. Like, um, even in California, you know, everybody thinks the cities

01:17:18.700 and beaches, there's some beautiful mountains in California and, you know, Yosemite and, you know,

01:17:23.560 tons of national forest area. So we knew we want to be a Western state. So we looked at about a half

01:17:27.440 a dozen states. Um, and really when it came down to it, um, Wyoming, uh, just really shined, um,

01:17:35.460 from the top down, you know, they've had a lot of, a lot of things really dependent upon energy. And so

01:17:39.700 they, they, which can be cyclical for the economy. And so they just really wanted to bring in some more,

01:17:44.980 uh, manufacturing, more stable business and different things. So, uh, then governor Matt Mead,

01:17:50.580 um, who's just in office for two terms and was just here for our grand opening last week. Um,

01:17:56.080 I talked to him personally a few years back and just began a conversation with him and he just

01:18:01.060 said, no, this is the type of business that Wyoming's made for. And, uh, from the top down,

01:18:06.540 just said, we're, we're going to get you here and we're going to do what it takes. Um, honestly,

01:18:09.720 their incentive packages were better than any other state. They just came through in the end.

01:18:13.740 Um, we're not a giant business. Our brand's pretty big, but you know, we employ 70, we don't

01:18:17.820 play 700 or 7,000. There's a lot bigger businesses out there. And so, um, and so we, um, we could tell

01:18:25.640 it just, Wyoming is a great fit. It's, it's amazing outdoor opportunities, amazing hunting,

01:18:30.880 uh, phenomenal gun laws, great tax and business climate. Um, and, uh, so we ended up, uh, yeah,

01:18:37.320 Wyoming, like I said, they just, you know, just the people, everything about it. There was just so

01:18:42.300 many reasons. It was just a phenomenal fit. I mean, last week for the grand opening, we had,

01:18:47.920 um, you know, the, the, the new governor's wife, the first lady, she was here. The governor had to be 0.88

01:18:52.800 out in DC that day, but on the former governor, Matt Mead, and then you name it on down to all

01:18:56.980 the state officials, the city officials. I mean, it was like whole state just, uh, they're so excited

01:19:02.660 to have what it be. And, uh, we're here. I love it, man. I, I mean, from the outside looking in and

01:19:08.360 from, from the service level, it seems to be a pretty good fit. So I'm, I'm excited for what you

01:19:12.580 guys are doing. It is excited for, uh, your growth and expansion. And of course, what they're able to

01:19:18.480 create in, in jobs and things like that. I think that's, that's amazing. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Well,

01:19:24.160 Hey, we're, we're bumping up against time winding down a little bit here. I do want to ask you a

01:19:27.420 couple additional questions. Uh, the first one I did mention to you earlier that I was going to ask

01:19:32.000 is what does it mean to be a man? I mean, you come from a generation of, uh, or, or a legacy,

01:19:36.840 I should say of men who, who seemed to uphold this pretty well from my perspective. I'd love to hear

01:19:41.640 yours. No, that's true. You know, one of the things I've actually quoted it a few times,

01:19:47.260 I don't even know where you got it from, but I saw it on, on like your Instagram or something.

01:19:51.660 And it was a quote and it was one of the best ones I'd see. I have a teenage boy, a teenage

01:19:56.840 male in my house, a boy becoming a man. Right. Sure. And, uh, which is, you know, kind of what

01:20:02.040 happens. And anyways, it was a quote on one of your, I think it was your Instagram feed and I'll butcher

01:20:08.040 it, but basically in essence, it said the boys consume and men produce. Uh, yeah, but it was

01:20:14.120 worded a little bit better. And I don't know if you stole it from somewhere. I'm sure I did. I don't

01:20:18.460 have a whole lot of original thoughts, so I'm sure I did. You put out some good stuff and I thought,

01:20:23.740 man, I don't know if there's a much better definition. I mean, that's just, uh, the difference

01:20:29.820 between a boy and a man. And when I think about, you know, I was in youth ministry for a long time and

01:20:34.040 saw a lot of young boys becoming men. And it's at that point in your life where

01:20:37.660 you realize that it's not all about yourself, that it's about making your world better,

01:20:43.080 your family better, your business better. It's about giving back. And even as you become a man

01:20:48.000 to realize, like, it's not about my own, like the things that I don't know, my own kingdom.

01:20:53.980 It's about, you know, my opinion, God's God's kingdom. And then about really it's, it's about

01:20:58.640 my family. It's about loving my wife. It's about putting others first. And it's about that,

01:21:03.220 that producing of making, uh, you know, really enhancing the world as we know it. And it's not

01:21:10.000 about yourself. And I think, you know, like even, uh, a verse in scripture, um, believe, you know,

01:21:17.700 when Joshua said as, you know, Hey, you can serve who you want, but as for me and my household,

01:21:21.520 like we're going to serve the Lord. And it's like, well, wait, can you make that choice for your own,

01:21:25.320 your, your whole house? And it's like, well, as a man, like if we lead and do it right, then yes.

01:21:31.060 Yeah. And that's not just about claiming it by words, but it's about our actions as well. I think

01:21:35.920 really kind of backing that up, if that makes sense, but I don't know if that's, you didn't

01:21:40.740 give me enough time. If you'd emailed me a few days ago, I'd have come up with something better,

01:21:43.600 but I wanted to be on the fly because I like it better like that, man. It's raw. It's authentic.

01:21:48.640 It's real. Sure. And, uh, it makes total sense. And I, I'm in alignment with what you're saying.

01:21:53.800 I appreciate that, uh, that perspective.

01:21:55.480 And I think ultimately like humility, what I call repentance, you know, like we were talking

01:22:01.840 earlier, like it's such a huge part of it. Um, we're going to all have our egos and our own

01:22:06.400 things, but at the end of the day to, I don't know, I think a true man admits when he blew it

01:22:11.300 and we've all been there and some of us do a better job than others. And I hope that I can

01:22:15.800 do a better job of realizing I'm not going to be perfect, uh, and never will be. And so in the

01:22:21.520 meantime, like strive to do it best I can to produce or to do whatever it can to make the

01:22:26.280 world, my family, my business better. And when I don't have the humility to just go, man, I blew

01:22:31.420 it there. Will you forgive me? I was wrong. And, and, uh, it makes better marriages, better

01:22:35.640 businesses, a little bit better, everything, man. I appreciate that. I like that. I like that.

01:22:40.080 That's powerful. Well, man, how do we connect with you? Learn more about, uh, Weatherby and what

01:22:44.240 you guys are up to and of course get connected. Sure. Absolutely. Uh, I mean, business websites,

01:22:49.800 it's weatherby.com probably could have figured that one out, um, and seen what's going on

01:22:53.940 there. You got that website early, man. Weatherby.com. You must've picked it up early.

01:22:58.800 We did. We've been around a while. Um, so, uh, we actually just started a podcast. Um,

01:23:04.760 so I didn't know that. Yeah. We've just done a few and we're like, Hey, people are always

01:23:08.980 wanting to know the Weatherby story because there is a lot of people behind the brand and we are

01:23:12.220 different in that way. And so my marketing team launched that. And, and so, uh, it's called

01:23:17.420 on our Mark. Okay. The Weatherby podcast and on our Mark kind of, it's just about accuracy

01:23:24.060 and those things like Mark and then our Mark five, a bunch of play on words, but on our Mark

01:23:27.620 the Weatherby podcast. So, um, so that's kind of cool. Maybe we'll have to have you on there

01:23:31.440 sometime. It'd be fun to, then that way you can answer questions and be on that end of

01:23:36.320 it. It'll be fun. Um, and then, uh, just, uh, as far as me personally, uh, I think in Instagram,

01:23:42.580 I'm Adam Weatherby, probably Facebook. I think I'm probably the same thing. My public profile

01:23:47.120 there I think is Adam Weatherby as well. So, um, yeah. So if you follow me, I try to just

01:23:52.040 post a lot of just authentic things, both behind the scenes at the company, as well as anytime

01:23:56.540 I get outdoors, I tend to have marketing teams and photographers with me. So it makes it look

01:24:00.500 like I'm having a good time. So it is challenging, but I try to let the world know that I am and

01:24:06.160 they'll go, man, you're on that hunt. I'm like, no, I'm in a conference room. I just posted

01:24:08.940 that photo from last year's hunt. There's a lot you can do on Instagram that makes it look

01:24:14.740 different than maybe reality. So it's good to have conversations like this for sure.

01:24:18.800 It is. And people will see, Oh, okay. The dude's, the dude's real. He probably blows it just like

01:24:23.500 me. Right. Well, Adam, man, I want to let you know, I appreciate our friendship. We haven't known

01:24:28.420 each other that long and we've had some, some limited interaction, but man, I've always been

01:24:32.480 impressed by you. And thanks man. Since I, since I met you that first time and just started

01:24:37.080 looking up what you do, I appreciate it. I think it's, it's there's not a lot of people

01:24:41.400 out there doing what you're doing. And, and, and so I, like I said, man, even that quote

01:24:48.020 that I remember, I think it was probably three months ago, you posted it. I mean, even showed

01:24:51.260 it to my wife and just, I think what you're doing and listening to some of your podcasts

01:24:55.820 and just seeing a bit about what you're doing, I think is refreshing and I think it's really

01:25:00.260 needed. So I applaud you and just for doing that and being bold and moving forward. And I

01:25:05.940 know probably running your own deal from the ground up, Scott did hard, hard days with

01:25:09.140 it and just your, your realness and authenticity is refreshing too. So I mean that I'm not just

01:25:13.720 trying to blow smoke up your skirt here for a podcast, but I mean it. So that's why, you

01:25:18.140 know, when you said, Hey, come on. I'm like, dude, I'm going to jump at this chance. I appreciate

01:25:20.800 what you do. So appreciate it, man. The, the, the, the feeling is mutual. So cool. Looking forward

01:25:25.980 to getting to know you better, know your story better and, and just being connected in some

01:25:29.780 capacity. Thanks, Adam. Thanks, Ryan. Gentlemen, there it is my conversation

01:25:35.040 with the one and only Adam Weatherby. I hope you enjoyed that one. Um, I, I really enjoyed

01:25:39.880 that conversation. I'd been looking to, uh, forward to it for, for months and he did not

01:25:46.280 disappoint. Everything that he shared was exactly what I thought he would and some additional

01:25:51.040 insight into the, the challenges and the successes and victories and setbacks and failures that

01:25:56.580 come with not only life, but trying to lead an organization and moving the organization

01:26:02.480 and, uh, really carrying on the mantle that his grandfather and ultimately his father,

01:26:08.080 uh, created. So pretty powerful stuff. Uh, if you're anything like me, you have a desire

01:26:13.660 to leave a legacy, whether it's through a business or just the way that you're showing up as a

01:26:18.080 father and a husband and a leader within the community. Um, I hope this one gives you some

01:26:22.720 insights. That is my ultimate goal that it gave you some insights into how to lead and become

01:26:26.500 the type of leader who will leave a legacy far beyond, uh, the time that we all leave

01:26:31.880 this world. So if you would guys, make sure you connect with Adam, make sure you connect

01:26:36.700 with me. You can hit us up on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, wherever you're doing the

01:26:41.900 social media thing. I'm telling you, I'm very, very active on Instagram. If there was one platform

01:26:46.520 I'm most active on it's Instagram. So if you're there, you can follow the order of man

01:26:51.800 account. I don't post there very often. I mostly post on my personal page about being

01:26:56.800 a better man and the challenges I'm dealing with. I try to be as real as possible. So I'm

01:27:01.220 not just sharing my highlight reel, but sharing the struggles that I have as a man as well.

01:27:05.920 So let's connect over there. Uh, it's at Instagram and it's at Ryan Mickler. My last name is spelled

01:27:11.620 M I C H L E R. All right. So go check it out there. Uh, make sure you subscribe, leave a rating

01:27:17.260 and review. If you haven't done that yet, I think we have, I don't know, I'd have to look,

01:27:21.060 but I want to say we have over 3000 ratings and reviews on iTunes. Let's bump that up.

01:27:25.560 That goes a long way, believe it or not, in promoting the visibility of the show and ultimately

01:27:30.680 getting this into the ears and minds of more people. And you know, as well as I do, how much

01:27:37.140 this, uh, this mission of reclaiming, restoring masculinity is, is needed in society. So as

01:27:42.320 always, guys, I appreciate you being on this path and this journey with me. You inspire me

01:27:46.060 each and every day, and I'm a better man, not only because of this movement and leading this

01:27:50.040 movement, but because I get to hear from you, I hear your stories. I connect with you.

01:27:54.420 We have conversations, whether it's through our meetups, like we have in Maine order, man.com

01:27:59.280 slash main event, uh, or on Instagram or wherever you're doing social media. Uh, it's inspiring

01:28:05.020 to hear from you guys and see what you're doing in your life. So I appreciate you for that.

01:28:08.540 All right, guys, we'll let you get out of here until tomorrow for our ask me anything, but go

01:28:13.540 out there, take action, become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to

01:28:18.480 the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the

01:28:22.900 man you are meant to be. We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.

Order of Man - July 09, 2019

Creating a Generational Business ｜ ADAM WEATHERBY

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