One Hell Of A Life Outdoor Podcast
The One Hell Of A Life Outdoor Podcast hosted by father-son duo Tony Vogel and Tristan Vogel, Owners of Zero Duck:30 and Zero Buck:30 . Our passion lies in bringing every hunter the REALITY of what it REALLY takes to hunt their target animal while equipping them with the knowledge to be a successful hunter and promoting the lost "old school values" that laid the foundation for the sport we love so much today.
One Hell Of A Life Outdoor Podcast
Carson Tharp is changing how duck hunters approach motion decoys forever. | Jahpoo Outdoors
When Carson Tharp got his first Labrador retriever in college, he had no idea it would lead to creating one of waterfowl hunting's most innovative decoy systems. But that's exactly what happened when his frustration with existing motion decoys sparked an entrepreneurial journey that's now revolutionizing how hunters approach bringing birds to the spread.
Carson joins us to share the remarkable story behind Jahpoo Outdoors and its game-changing motion decoy. Far from the typical hunting industry origin story, Carson's path took him from international relations studies at the University of Texas to developing a completely new approach to decoy technology. What makes this conversation particularly fascinating is how organic his progression was – driven purely by his passion for creating something he wanted for his own hunting, not initially as a business venture.
The Jahpoo name itself comes with an unexpectedly charming backstory involving Carson's dog Sadie, mischievous roommates, and a misheard line from "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." This personal touch underscores how the most authentic innovations often emerge from real experiences in the field rather than corporate boardrooms. Carson takes us through the challenging journey of product development – from crude prototypes and 3D printing to the complexities of injection molding and developing scratch-resistant paint that can withstand the harsh conditions waterfowlers face.
What truly stands out is Carson's persistence in the face of rejection and setbacks. When engineering friends initially dismissed his idea as impossible, he pushed forward anyway. When early trade show presentations featured not-quite-working prototypes, he adapted and persevered. This resilience speaks to the entrepreneurial spirit driving innovation throughout the outdoor industry and offers valuable lessons for anyone pursuing their own passion projects. Pre-orders for Jahpoo revolutionary decoys are available now at www.jahpoo.com – but with inventory expected to arrive in late August and limited quantities available, serious waterfowlers should act quickly to secure theirs for the upcoming season.
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what's going on, guys? Tristan and tony back with another episode of the one hub life outdoor podcast. We got an awesome guest today, japu outdoors y'all may have seen him, but truly a revolutionary product in the decoy game. Um, carson tharp, the owner of that company. We're excited to get him on in a little bit, uh, to learn about that whole story and just kind of uh talk about what the motivation was and, um, all that great stuff.
Speaker 2:You probably saw there's a cool clip with a Dr Duck talking about it and, uh, just kind of talking about how much of a game changer it is. So we're gonna get into that here in a little bit. But before we get into that we got to talk about what the duck is going on and, of course, our other segment, um, listener question of the week we're going to get into after the Carson interview. The Jaapu Carson interview will answer the listener question of the week and you get a koozie with that. Every time that we pick the person's question, we will be sending them a koozie. Like I said last time, it might be a hat or something cooler as this progresses, but let's get right into it, man. What the duck is going on. What's up, dad?
Speaker 3:What is going on? Son Happy to be here.
Speaker 3:You know um, just like grandpa used to say you only got today, you only got today, and that's why, uh, we run one hell of a life outdoors. Honestly, you know, just chasing that, chasing that, pursuit that, uh, addiction I guess you could call it. But no, everything's going great, man. I mean, it's hot as hell in atlanta right now, as you know. Um and uh, all we think about is the fact that your dad sold his boat and we can't be on lake lanier now I feel you there.
Speaker 2:I've thought about that several times. Uh, man, it's that'd be. That was a good time when we had that one deal. But I'm sure at some point in the future one of us will get a boat and we'll be back out there. But yeah, uh. So what I got for what the duck's going on today I know from talking with you on up off air you got a good good thing as well. Uh, mine's probably not as good. It's kind of more funny than anything.
Speaker 2:But I saw on uh tiktok this week that jay cutler is under fire former nfl quarterback bears, bears gunslinger uh, j Jay Cutler is under fire because he shot oh, and I see he's got sick on looking very handsome Jay Cutler shot a sable antelope in South Africa and you know, everybody is just, you know, having an absolute fit about him shooting this badass antelope.
Speaker 2:Having an absolute fit about him shooting this badass antelope and you know what I'll say about that is like if you've done any. It is weird when you see, like an exotic got get shot, but like from what? I don't know this exact example, but a lot of times when these exotic get shot, uh, it's actually funding more care of the animals than, like the poachers that would be attacking the animals. So it's actually better that these like outfitters, like take care of these animals over there. So shout out to jay cutler. I think it's pretty cool. I'm sure the meat's probably pretty solid too, and uh, that's what I got for what the duck's going on dude who isn't on the bigfoot vibe bro, come on like even us.
Speaker 2:That's what it was.
Speaker 3:Yes, the ai bigfoot yeah, aifoot, let me tell you something. It has been the entertainment of my soul since it started. And, bro, listen, there's so many good ones and I'm not going to like go down one. Tell you guys to go follow somebody specific, but man, I've seen some good ones, tristan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, I'm trying to pull up the one. I made a few of them for Cade the other day and I'm trying to find them what I love is that you know he's sitting there with a little lamb.
Speaker 3:The other day he's like, oh, meet my friend, he needs me and all this stuff. And then the next clip shows he goes today we're having lamb chops. He goes and we're gonna, we're gonna have crusted lamb chops. He goes. We went throughout the woods and found some things. We hope doesn't hurt us. And yeah, he's sitting there patting it on him.
Speaker 2:All right, so I'm gonna play. I figured out how to make these and I made some for our buddy, kade weatherford owns delta thunder outfitters to promote his business, so I'm going to go ahead and play these live on the podcast. Let's see here.
Speaker 5:I don't even got a license, but I'm smoking ducks out here at Delta Thunder Book now or I'm taking your spot.
Speaker 2:Call Kate, all right. All right, okay, wait, this is the one I did of his dog. This is not the ape.
Speaker 4:I've fetched 37 ducks, two gloves and one sandwich. Best season ever. Call my dad, cade, and book your hunt.
Speaker 2:All right, one more.
Speaker 3:I just smoked four ducks and peed a little Delta Thunder is nuts. Call Cade, before I book your spot.
Speaker 2:Oh God, it's classic. I love that, yeah, so, oh man, what a great trend. Shout out to AI, man, it's so good.
Speaker 3:It's so good. It's so good, it's so good I'm trying to be more involved in trends and following them. We know, old man, no, I know. What I feel great about is whenever I tell you guys about a trend that you're not even aware of yet. What's that? Don't put me on spot. I have to do lots of research to get ahead of you guys. I mean, like when I do social media, I joke about this all the time, like I try to get ahead, like sometimes it's a competition, honestly, where I'm just like dude, there's no way Tristan's going to see this before I do, and then I'll swear that you like liked it 14 milliseconds before I did Every time.
Speaker 2:Every time, every time. Yeah, we're just a little bit more plugged in, I guess I don't know no, but we just had the all-star game here in Atlanta.
Speaker 2:I know, dude, did you see Matt Olsen freaking the? It was like basically, they ended up going into overtime, I guess, and doing this home run derby. The NL still won, yep, but I think, if I remember right the um at the time the nl had six. I wasn't even watching the game. I saw this clip. I think the nl had six and, uh, the ale had five and it was right down the first baseline. He made this badass play to wait.
Speaker 3:A minute, wait, I fell asleep when the al was up or nl was up six. Oh, what?
Speaker 2:oh, yeah, no, it went, yeah, no it went into overtime. What Not overtime Extra?
Speaker 3:innings.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, extra innings. Duh, I'm an idiot.
Speaker 3:Dude, I'll tell you, one of the funniest things I saw associated with the All-Star game was what's the mascot for the Braves? What's his name?
Speaker 2:Hold on, it's not a blooper, is it? Hold on, hold on, it's not Blooper is it?
Speaker 3:Hold on, Hold on. Listen. This is funny, guys, if you haven't seen this yet.
Speaker 2:I think it's, yeah, it's Blooper.
Speaker 3:All right, blooper, I guess you know I didn't watch the Home Run Derby, but I guess Olsen went out in the first round and Blooper went into the puddle. You know the waterfall thing where the water is at Brave Stadium where there's that pool. He went into it and sat there depressed because he just didn't do nothing. He was over there cheering and everything, and then when that happened he just went over and it just shows him sitting in the water, dude like this. Completely depressed and that's all he did.
Speaker 3:It was so funny and that's all he did. It was so funny.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I wish Katie had the opportunity. My wife had the opportunity to go to, I think, the All-Star game last night with her work and she was like, no, I got a lot going on this week and I was like, are you crazy? I'm like we're not going to have the All-Star game for probably another 15 years. So I don't know who knows if it'll be sooner than that, but it's not often that you get to host an all-star game.
Speaker 3:No, no no, and now I can't. This is definitely what the duck has been going on. Wimbledon, bro, let me tell you, I don't care if you like tennis or not, america is putting their foot down for tennis, bro. Women, up until this last major, have won three of the last four majors, and we had an american woman that took time off to find herself, came back in one year and made the finals of wibble in it, dude. Then you get the men's and you have yannick center versus alcaraz, number one, number two john mackinroe said that at the French Open, the finals was the best tennis match between those two he's ever seen in his entire career. Dude, these guys are talented. It's incredible. And if you love competition, man, follow these folks. I've gotten back into it and I'm like man. Why am I sitting here watching tennis?
Speaker 4:I guess it's sometimes why man, why am I sitting here?
Speaker 3:watching tennis. I guess it's sometimes why you go. Why am I sitting here watching golf? You know what I mean. But man, I'm telling you the competition level, that's what I got out of it. There's so much emotional change. You make a bad shot and you could check out and lose three games. You know what I mean. It's just, oh, the competition was immense and incredible, and not counting the fact that it was cool to see a bunch of people that can afford tickets that I can't. You know I think the average ticket was $15,000 for Wimbledon.
Speaker 2:Oh, just a duck boat. Yeah, just a duck boat. Oh man, Well, that's what the duck's going on. We've got an awesome podcast.
Speaker 3:Let's get it with Carson. We've got an awesome podcast.
Speaker 2:Let's get it with Carson, let's go Catch you all here in a second this summer.
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Speaker 2:Williamson Outfitters making the, the forgotten coast unforgettable. What's what's going on, guys? We're back with the one hub life outdoor podcast. We got carson tharp, the owner of japu outdoors, which y'all probably seen on social media if you heard the intro to the podcast. We were talking a little bit about that clip with him and dr duck um, and obviously it's just a unique product when it comes to the decoy motion game and uh, carson, thank you man, we're excited to learn a little bit about you, japu, and uh, all that good stuff all this technology and I mean, if you're a waterfowl hunter, you're what?
Speaker 3:let me? Let me back up. If you're in a super obsessed waterfowl hunter that spends like seven figures a year to do this game I'm being funny, but it feels like that um, dude, people like you that innovate the business are so inspiring and I love it's a quality product and I know for sure that if dennis held that and held it in his hand and talk highly about it, he, uh, he believes in it and I tell what he's one of the best out there, period. And man, we're super excited to learn more about you, your story, and let's rock into this thing.
Speaker 5:Yeah, gentlemen, I definitely appreciate you guys bringing me on. Absolutely, man. I think it's not something that necessarily was like, hey, let's make some money. It was more so, just a passion project, more so starting out the company itself. I don't want people to think I'm making this for the guys spending $7,000 a year, but it was more so like dude, I want this damn thing in my own spread.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course, dude, I've been there.
Speaker 5:Something else that everybody would love to utilize and you know share the effectiveness of it well, talk a little bit, man.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, actually two things. One kind of introduce yourself who you are, and like absolutely where you're from all that stuff yeah, and then, secondly, when we get through that I just saying this, I don't forget I really want to know, like what was like? Was there a moment where you're like, man, we need something else in the spread today and then this is why you thought of it, or whatever?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I will tell you this the reason why I respect people like you so much is Tristan, and I just did a video of a spinning wing decoy that I did a custom paint job on to make it a Wigeon.
Speaker 5:Okay, nice.
Speaker 3:Because I've never seen a Wigeon spinner and I'm like bro, bro, I'm so addicted to ducks that if I'm seeing widgeon I want that damn widgeon spinner. You know what I mean 100. But I don't possess obviously close to to the, to the um, ingenuity that, like, you've came up with. So, but man, tell us about, like, where you're from, you do what got you into hunting all that stuff.
Speaker 5:Absolutely, yeah for sure. So, um, I guess, before we jump into things too like I hope everybody listening like whether you take, hopefully you take away something from this, I mean. So a little bit about myself. Um, I was born in South Texas, born and raised um down in a small town called Victoria, and then I came up here to go to school at the University of Texas at Austin in 2020. I was a liberal arts major, tried to get into the notorious McComb School of Business, was denied and then had people constantly looking down like that won't work, especially on this idea, so I threw it on the back burner. But, yeah, I graduated in a natural relations and global studies major with a certificate in business Spanish. A focus in Latin American studies Wait wait, Can I pause you real quick?
Speaker 2:I want to keep hearing this, but what was the motivation on going to school for the everything you just said? The Latin studies, yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so I was originally. So here's what happened. I was going to go to Baylor. Both my parents went there and I was like stone cold, set on it. I was going to be in their finance program and then I woke up one day my roommates were like or not my roommates, sorry, my good friends of mine informed me that they got into UT and they're like dude, tharp, you should come to UT. And I was like what, don't go to Waco, waco, sucks. I started thinking about it and I was like Waco is out in the middle of nowhere, like everybody just goes to Dallas or Austin. And so I was. I'm like you know what, you guys are right. And I was like you know what, I'm gonna go to UT, I'll finish when it comes.
Speaker 5:Got to UT, chantel or arts or the international relations major, because it was versatile and it was also something that should prove me because I love travel and I already speak Spanish. And that just intrigued me because I love travel, um, I already speak Spanish and um, they had this energy track that I was like kind of my hedge, like my um, you know, put in my the part of my back pocket, so to say, um, if things go south. I'm going to do this Um. And so yeah, first semester went by not the greatest Um. Second semester I built up my gpa from like a I think it was like a two, six, um to a three, two and I ended up graduating with like a. I want to say it's like a three, seven, five. So, like you know, it was like horrible first semester just because I was an idiot. And then second semester it was like nose to the grindstone, back to back, just trying to get high A's. I was trying to get a hundred. Unfortunately, I saw that first semester and was like sorry, and then, just being a kid from South Texas, a lot of people also look down on that. But what I'm trying to say is it doesn't mean anything.
Speaker 5:I pursued finance directly after graduation. I graduated with COVID and so I actually went to go work as a FA. I thought it was all you know, roses and daisies on the other side, but it wasn't. But I got my seven, which is like a pretty hard finance exam to pass, and then in doing so is also doing some R and D um for job who had some liabilities occurring. Hold myself, um, that luck.
Speaker 5:This finance gig isn't necessarily keeping up with these expenses. Um, and I was like you know what? Oil is coming back. My heart and soul is in the energy industry and so let's try to make a switch. So I made a switch into oil and gas. I worked as a landowner for three and a half years, which solely funded getting Jopu up to the point of manufacturing, and then, yeah, last year jumped ship. I've been doing Jopu full time, getting a little bit of an eighth-month MBA, learning about how business works, production lines, marketing lines, a whole inch of a lot of accounting, which is not my favorite forte. And then, yeah, I've done some ventures on the side. Now I'm still dabbling in oil and gas, primarily doing brokerage in the mineral space, and then also working on a ceramics venture for my mom and then, on top of that, working on a tech venture. So, yeah, there's a big pivotal point in Jopu's foundation of whether it's going to continue or not, and I think something that I just want to share with.
Speaker 5:Like everybody is like, if somebody tells you no, it doesn't work, doesn't mean no. Like you, you can treat a job as if it's going to be your job or not. It's just up to you. If it is and you know I try to tell fellow entrepreneurs of you know, is it something you're going to do, want it to happen? You want to be your full time job. You got to treat it like it is. You know, like you can't just like come up to an obstacle and be like, oh well, there's that, and then start focusing on something else. You got to. You know, grab the bull by the horns and run with it.
Speaker 2:It's great advice man Wow fan.
Speaker 5:Wow, yeah, I mean that's.
Speaker 2:Hopefully it sheds some light a little bit about myself, um who I am, and uh lay a good foundation yeah, no doubt, and I mean obviously, you know, one thing that strikes me about like hearing your story is, like you know, I think um it it's when you talk to innovators and like entrepreneurs in the waterfowl hunting space, you hear a lot of the stories of people that are, you know they were doing this job, whatever it may be. Most of the time it's not like your background per se, but doing a job, and then they kind of like reach this point where, like you said, they go all in on it and then that's that becomes their job. I just it's like so interesting to hear like you're obviously a very sharp guy and like the stuff that you know you're talking about the uh, ceramic venture with your mom and like the other things you do. Like you can tell like you have that like entrepreneurial, like uh, business mindset kind of ingrained in you. You know, I just think it's yeah interesting I appreciate it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean, it's definitely something that was just, you know, naturally given. Um, just learn it as you go. Tell you the truth, like to me, um, you know, I kind of like a motto of live with no regrets, uh, and then also, like you don't know until you try, I mean, my grandfather was probably one of my biggest uh, I don't know role models in life, always wanted to make him proud and it like kills me to this day because I was never able to show him the final decoy painted in a printed, you know retail box. But right before he died he was the one that pushed me over the ledge and he told me it's better to try and fail than not try at all. And it's like he was a big Winston Churchill guy.
Speaker 5:I just threw me all these Winston Churchill quotes. I mean, it's true, man, like you know it's better to try to do like and they're mighty things. And then, you know, not try them at all, because if you don't, you don't know what's going to happen. You know like, yeah, that's one thing that, like I try to ingrain in, you know, my interns, people I work with, are pursue your curiosities, don't be afraid to take risks, because I mean, what else is there to do in enjoying life if you're not, because otherwise you're sitting there in a desk job, just a hamster on a hamster wheel.
Speaker 2:No, I feel you man. Yeah, no, I feel you man. Yeah, no, I feel you I. I think honestly, personally, like I. I struggle with the same thing a lot because it's like there's always that balance right of like um, I, I do sales and stuff and it's just like it's nice. It's that balance of like what kind of sales I'm in uh packaging sales and okay, there you go it's just it's.
Speaker 5:It's that balance right where it's like a lot more complicated than people expect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no doubt, yeah, um, I I think not just necessarily talking to packaging sales, but I think, uh, any job that you do, it's always that balance right when it's like either a I want to make enough to where I can like kind of do whatever I want when it comes to like what I love to do, or you want to do what you love to do.
Speaker 2:So that's like at 28 years old, kind of the the how I feel about it, you know, and uh, I feel like a lot of people. You know, it seems like we're probably about the same age, carson. I think a lot of people our age are starting to feel that way, cause it's like you said, you know, do what you love. You never work a day in your life. But then there's the other side of it where it's like, well, if you can find a good career that you're okay with, then you can afford to go do what you love.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you know, you kind of like get caught in this like mental trance of like you know you're you're working for somebody else, you're, um, making somebody else's dream reality not your own and and like they hone you in just based off this idea of a salary.
Speaker 5:I'm like the salary is the trap, um, because you're so scared to like leave and you know not have that consistent income, that you find yourself stuck in that salary basis, um, but yeah, it's, it is funny. I have a lot of friends that are starting to wake up and realize and like everybody thought it was crazy Like three years ago, like thought, if you're starting your own company, I was like hell, it's just, it's what I want to do, I love it, I'm a creator, I'm a designer, like I want to keep, you know, making the thing I'm going to do it, cause I also have, like this self pride of um, you know I'm going to do, I'm going to do it, and if I don't, I find it embarrassing. We kind of make this happen, you know, um, and uh, yeah, it's funny Cause, like now I'm starting to find a lot of friends, like starting to come across that point. Like you know, one of my good friends approached me and he was like you know what man Like he?
Speaker 5:He quit his job and he's like I think I'm gonna open up a, uh, sun care company. I was like sun care, so yeah, I'm gonna open up a korean sun care company. I was like what do you mean? He's like they have these like special sunscreen that is like very unique and like it doesn't get oily, it's good for the reefs, like all these like stupid attributes. And I was like huh, hell, yeah, dude. Like don't fucking do it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, like that's sick, like I'm all about that, like I hate all this nasty stuff we buy and like it's like yeah, you know obviously like his sister's, like really big in a makeup and stuff and, um, she, he's like a finance wizard, um, and you know, he's also really big on, like you know, going to the beach and stuff surfing and, um, I was like, dude, this makes it a hundred percent for you.
Speaker 5:Like it's, it's cool seeing everybody pursue what they love, and I think there's like this trade-off, too that, like, a lot of people need to recognize like, uh, when pursuing entrepreneurialism, um, in their career or just life in general, is like, yeah, sure, like you might be losing that salary, you don't know what's going to happen, right? However, like you know it, it's would you rather be doing something you love, something that you're passionate about, versus something that you're, like you know, sitting in your desk chair and you're literally like reflecting yourself I hate that guy. Or like, god damn it. She's reaching out to me or, like you know, I remember looking back and being like what the fuck am I doing right now?
Speaker 5:like, actually like I like the landing love to have to dash, love my clients. I'm still close to my clients. I'm so close to my old co workers. However, the actual role itself was literally just sitting in a truck for nine hours a day and like I would drive out these taxes back to Austin. And boom, there went nine hours. I started like running the math, um, after two years, and I was like how much time am I spending in the truck, and it like ended up coming out to like after two years, I spent like a quarter of my like life, like three months, sitting in a truck and I was like, holy shit, like just forecasting three quarters from where I'm at now.
Speaker 5:It's just crazy to think about. I was like if I was spending eight hours a day, nine hours a day, spending time with my dog. You know, working on my physical health like how much better could I be, you know, and so it's just things like that Like you know you're working for somebody else and like you're working on this other entrepreneur job, but then you know this other time commitment, steaming yourself from this other time commitment, it's like how much further along could that one thing you're passionate about be For sure?
Speaker 2:man.
Speaker 5:If you were to give it that time that it needs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's all really great advice, dude.
Speaker 5:No.
Speaker 2:And I'm curious. So, like, when does Japu come into the picture of something like where? A where did this idea come from? B when, I guess you know?
Speaker 5:Yeah. So I think I'm gonna answer B. When it came into play with where falling, so good, b first and A. So it occurred back when I was in college. Um, I kind of woke up one day. One of my good friends, he got a dog and I was like dude, john, why'd you get a dog? Um, he was like dude. I just kind of was like you know what? I guess I'm in college, I'm on my own, I could have a dog. And I was like you're right, I've literally been asking since I was a kid in first grade, all the way up through my senior year of high school. Every Christmas, every birthday, I want a dog.
Speaker 3:Never got one, to the point, literally my grandma I didn't really remember her telling me it's in the teens that morning and maybe you're chasing ducks or geese, but now it's September and it's 85 degrees and you're hunting early teal or geese. As a waterfowler, you need dependable weather protection that will not break the bank. Founded in 1996, frogtogs is not only the leader in breathable wader technology, but a company you can depend on to keep you warm and dry head to toe, no matter your hunting environment. Stay bone dry by using discount code ZD315 for 15% off not only your first purchase, like most discount codes, but how about every single purchase you make from now until December 31st 2024?
Speaker 5:My parents, please get that boy a dog. So, yeah, I was just like I was like you know what, john? You're right, I can have a dog. I wasn't like actively shopping about it, um, but then about like a couple months later, um, one of my good friends from high school that I took ap kim with, she posted on her snapchat story a litter of yellow labs and I was like, oh, no shit. I reached out to her. I was like, hey, like are you selling these? What's the logistics and all this? She said, yeah, actually we just bred it with Sire, who's like a grand champion bird dog, with our bitch, who is just standard family dog. I was like it seems like a pretty solid duo. She was like, if you want, you could have first pick out of the litter before they go to, uh, the Sires family where they're all going to be trained in bird dogs. And I was like that sounds incredible, yes, please. So I went and visited the litter, put down my deposit, um, and then that was when they were four weeks old. I got Sadie at six weeks, so a little bit early.
Speaker 5:Um, I went out there and this is at the end of my junior year in college and they line up. They're like, do you want a boy or a girl? Tell her girl. They line up. All the girls, they're all sitting. Like it was weird as shit. They're all sitting in a line and I'm like, all right, who wants to be Sadie? And the only puppy that is now Sadie. Just paused and I'm like, all right, bingo, you're it. And like didn't give a care in the world about looks, about, you know, pause the eyes. You know interaction, like that was just. You know, it's like when you go to the roulette table you're like black or red, like you hit one or the other and just don't think about it. So I was like all right, say you're it. Um, so grab sadie. Um, and then brought her back to austin.
Speaker 5:Didn't know if you can be a bird dog or not, but kind of wanted to have it on the back burner. Um, but started with obedience. You know standard, uh, plain fetch with the ball. Then the frisbee. I was kind of like trying to mold her into an air bud. I was like I'm not really sure what I want you to do. I want you to do everything, um. And then, about two months after that, um, I was like crap, like if she's gonna be a bird dog, I need to start working with her right now. Um, and so I bought um a book off amazon the retriever training by tom dockkins and read it front to back.
Speaker 5:Um started, got a lead, started working with the bumper, and then, um September it was Labor Day weekend my now roommate approached me and was like, hey man, we're going out to our ranch to shoot guns. And I was like, really, and he was like, yeah, if you want to come, you can bring Shady. Like this would be perfect, she's's coming up on, I believe it was like four months. Um, it'd be a great time to introduce her to gunfire. And so we went out to the ranch, did the whole 22, then the 20 and 12 gauge, um, no reaction whatsoever. She was still retrieving the bumper. I was like all right, like we got a bird dog. And so, like you know, progressing from bumper to bird, you have to have birds.
Speaker 5:And I didn't grow up with a family that had land. Um, everything I hunted as a kid was primarily just being invited out to buddy's ranches, which was primarily just whitetail um, and so I was like, what am I gonna do? Um, my good buddy, he had done some dove hunting and uh, I was like, dude, where can we go? We got in contact with his dad. He told us about public hunting land. We got on tpwd, found a phl just south of austin, so ran down there, um, tried it out, just kind of, you know, as you do. They gave it a good college try trying to figure figure it out through trial and error.
Speaker 5:And around the second trip we got on some birds um, sadie would go retrieve them in the water. And then, um, it was about the third trip where we just had this like complete volley come in and it was just lights out and she broke and I was like you know, going into that, that hunting trip, I was like I need to focus on sadie, um, and so I don't know the lead she broke, yanked it. I'm like, no, come here. She came over, uh, healed, sat down and looked me in the eye and I just very vividly remember like this connection between her and I have, like it clicked, like, just like you know, she was like all these like months and hours, day by day, of training it's finally mapping out to here. So I became addicted after that point and was going every single second I could. I mean I was skipping football games um, skipping like parties with like girls, like it was like I have to get the dog out on birds um and like you know I was also.
Speaker 5:You know crack ass dawn ago. Everybody's like dude, dark, you're crazy. I'm like dude. I have like a five month old puppy, that's you know cold bird dog, retrie tree, where that's going to be the best, like I gotta go.
Speaker 5:Um, winter break hit, um, everybody went home. I was still here in Austin. My family just moved here, so I was staying in my apartment and um, I was like crap, what do I do? I say you love to swim. There is this park here called red bud bug.
Speaker 5:Um, fortunately you can't go anymore because it's got algae, but I would take her there literally every single day. Um, and we would go hit the bumper. And you know, do the essentially just act like we're hunting. You know, do the whole clap when you throw it. She, you make her sit. You know make some fake words, send her off. And it was about like I don't. Halfway through winter break I was like, say, he loves his quim, we're working with a bumper, I need to get her into duck hunting. And so I went down to Cabela's, bought a couple dozen decoys, went out to another PHL, didn't shoot shit. Then I was like, well, maybe I don't have enough decoys, so I went bought more decoys at cabela's, went back out the next day didn't shoot shit. I was like what the crap, what am?
Speaker 5:I doing and you know, and all this, like I'm watching youtube videos trying to figure out you know how to properly duck hunt, how it works, and around this time is when dive bombs starting to start up and you know it's just lights out green head, you know rain out, and I don't want to do that. There's got to be a way, like I just want to get a photo of save some green heads, um. And then I find out about motion, like motion interesting, and you know I start looking into it was a motion decoy. Oh, it's a decoy that mimics, um, moving birds. It's a robotic decoy essentially, and I was like, ah, you know that makes sense. Like who would have thought about that hey, one one thing real quick.
Speaker 2:I want to keep keep rolling with this, but I wanted I couldn't let uh us get too far down the trail without bringing this up. You know one I want to applaud you because the obsessiveness that you had with the sport is amazing to keep going Because you know what happens. One of the main motivations behind and I don't want to get on a whole 20-minute tangent about why we started our podcast, but one of the big things we're big on is showing the reality of hunting.
Speaker 2:And we have hunts on our YouTube where we get skunked.
Speaker 5:I'm glad y'all do that because, the whole.
Speaker 3:Thing is like I got one called win some, lose some.
Speaker 2:It was just up a minute ago while we're sitting here and I'm just like dude, we got our ass kicked that day, yeah so the whole thing is just because we've always wanted to show the reality of it, because there's so many people that get into the outdoors, man, that are like, you know, if they're not having especially our generation, like and younger, you know, if they're not having that instant gratification, it's kind of like, oh, I guess I'm gonna sell my stuff and do something else. I'll go golf or whatever.
Speaker 5:Yeah, oh, 100 and it's so fresh. It's like I see you guys do that and I'm like too, like I'll take them out for the first time. We get scott's. Like dude, that shit sucks. Like that's not fun. I'm like, well, it's fun when you shoot the birds like that, yeah, like, don't be wrong, it's still and it's hard to like. Portray to them like how it's still fun when you're not shooting because, like, yeah, even getting skunked, there's an enjoyment in it of like just being out with the boys. Like waking up, crack a dog, getting the breakfast sandwiches setting up spread, shooting the shit. That's all an enjoyment of the sport I think a lot of people lose sight of.
Speaker 3:Well, let's face it, I think probably the biggest publicist on this is Rogan. He's just like you've got to test yourself right, you've got to work hard for something, and that drives that. There's something inside of you that whenever you get your butt kicked doing something, there's still this sense of pride, a sense of accomplishment. And I don't want to take women out of the picture, because I know women that could outwork many men that listen to this. All right, but there's something special that happens when you work hard for something and when you get to enjoy that with everybody else as a team, it's pretty special.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, oh, 100%, and it's anything in life it's weightlifting, it's fitness, it's running, it's work, it's kids, it's everything, and hunting is one of those. Getting a limit of green heads is, I think, the the pinnacle of the peak.
Speaker 3:Your first yeah, so, yeah, so. Or, if you're from georgia, a limit of wood, wood ducks let's give it up for the woodies.
Speaker 2:So when I cut you off, you were talking about motion, and when it clicked right, yeah, motion yeah.
Speaker 5:So I was like in this wall, I like was watching everybody just shoot lights out limits. I hadn't shot anything. I was like what am I doing wrong? Find out, find out about motion duck decoys. So, uh, my third day duck hunting in a row, I run down to cabela's and I buy a spinning wing decoy, I go out um, invite my now co-founder and we got the dog and we're sitting on this tank, on this PHL and we have this spoonbill. I'm putting out decoys and we have a spoonbill land right behind me. It is shooting light. We were late to the spot and I was like shit, it's in the water still. I was like dude, there's a duck. I was like shit, stay in the water still. And I was like dude, there's a, there's a. I was like holy cow, I'm like so excited.
Speaker 2:I know that feeling so excited going out of the water like you know.
Speaker 5:kind of like you know like trying to sneak a cookie behind your mom type of like you know, like trying to be all quiet. Go sit down, say. He just asked me. This duck is still on the freaking tank on the opposite side of the water. He's like dude, should we shoot it? I was like I don't know man, like I can't shoot it. He's like dude, you shoot it? I'm like no, like I got the dog, I got it of the day. Was that her first duck retrieve? That was her first retrieve. We go back to our apartment, we butterfly it up, put it on the skillet. We have each one duck breast.
Speaker 2:That's the best thing I've ever tasted.
Speaker 5:Yeah, drove an hour and a half outside Three days. I mean the amount of energy just in terms of, like, my own personal expense, but also, just like you know, the gasoline and just everything that went into getting that one bird. It felt like I climbed a mountain man. So we got that and I was like, okay, motion, I need more motion. So I buy another spinning winged duck decoy. Um, then we go try another spot. So we weren't seeing birds. Um, it was actually on the colorado river. He was out of town, it was me and saty by myself and, um, I had about an hour after shooting light, I had three green wing teal come in and I'm just, like you know, I've watched all the call videos, I've watched the decoy setup.
Speaker 5:My buddy told me about this spot. I'm on the right spot, I've got motion and these would not commit. And I'm like what the hell is going wrong. Like I mean they're coming on the turn, I'm going nothing, and like they're just looking at me nothing, yeah, and like they're just looking at it. I'm like god, some of the bitch please come in. Like I want to. I want to like shoot more than one bird. Um, eventually, like I had another pass, don't shoot anything.
Speaker 5:But in that moment, when those birds were working on me, I had this idea. I was like you know what? I need a motion duck decoy like the mojo pulsator. But it does the full range of motion. It goes head above water and then it goes butt up, head down and then vice versa, and I was like there's got to be something like that. So I go home, scour the internet I can't find anything. Um, I find like a jerk string, but I'm hunting public, I'm hiking in. It's typically just me and the dog. I'm going through, you know knee-deep, waist-deep mud and I was like I'm not setting that up. I'm typically juggling the guns, trying to stick the mojo in the ground, also managing the dog and the dog Sam, like that's. That's just not gonna work.
Speaker 5:And I saw some other contraptions yeah, I were like a car battery and I was like I'm not carrying a car battery in there. That seems heavy. Also like what if the dog gets caught up? And I was like, damn, like this can't be that complicated to make. I just started conceptualizing about it. I didn't really know what to do with it, being a little garage major in regards to, you know, product design, especially on the R&D of product design. But I was like I'm going to approach my two good friends that are probably the smartest people that I know. One is currently a product designer for Apple and then the other one is the head of a refinery in Houston. So not like he's managing a team, he's literally in control of the entire production of a refinery.
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Speaker 5:Like it's, it's very it's, they're very prestigious individuals. But I approached them at the time you know, you know we're all seniors in college, um. And they said, tharp, that is a stupid idea, that would not work. And I was like, well, I guess you're right. I like threw, I threw it on the back burner, didn't think any of it, hope it hit um.
Speaker 5:And in this process I was studying for my finance exams, moved in with one of my now good buddies and he approached me he's like Barb, how can we make some money? And I was like, I don't know, I don't want to sit here playing video games all day or watching Netflix or playing golf or doing nothing. And so I have this duck decoy idea and something like to like pause real quick in the in the timeline. Um, I, since my freshman year has been, I have this note in my, still on my phone, of just stupid ideas for products that come to mind that I would just write down, and that this was like one of them. That like wasn't like one of the ideas. My freshman year was a crane that was traveling in a vacuum propelled by magnets. And then, like, a month later, elon Musk came out with the announcement of the Hyperloop. And I was like God damn it.
Speaker 5:I was like almost there, and so this was the only idea that I had. That wasn't like unreasonable um. Also, like you know, I thought was pretty would would be fairly simple to create. Um, and so we started running with it. Um, we started doing some prototyping uh, cutting up decoys, putting motors and weights inside, trying to figure out how it works kind of figure it out. Um, I then approached my now co-founder, who's an engineer, and, um, yeah, man, since then, uh, here we are, it's been a uh, wild ride or wild roller coaster, um, but it's it's, it's been a good ride. Man, I'm very happy with the way things have come and where things are at, and, especially, really, really eager and excited to share with the public the new developments for this upcoming season.
Speaker 2:That's awesome man, and I had a couple questions. First one where did the name Japu come from? Because you hear that name and you're like what is a Japu, where does that come from?
Speaker 5:Yeah, you think it's like some stupid middle eastern like I don't know about that.
Speaker 2:I was just like I don't, I don't. I. Honestly, when I hear some of this.
Speaker 5:You should see some of the facebook comments.
Speaker 2:Man it's oh god these guys, oh dude when I, when I think about it, I think it's like that's got to be some louisiana shit, because you think of like uh, poodoo or whatever for a uh, a coot, and then like Piro for a canoe, like that's.
Speaker 5:That's what I think yeah, I mean it does have a little Asian twang to it. Um, so I it's hard because people ask me, like how'd you come with Jopu, which is like you know the company, but then also how'd you come with the name, and the two kind of come in tandem. Um, so, getting Sadie, why? I was like she, she's going to be my best dog, she's going to be the best dog ever. There will be no complaints. It was because my roommates in the year were like dude, I don't want to live with the dog. It's a POS and it doesn't listen, it's pooping and peeing and I was like that. That is. There are no if and or buts about this. This is non-negotiable. Um, and so, going in to senior year, they're like carson. Why did you name her shady? Even like girls are big, that's like the most generic name ever I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 2:I really like that name, though, yeah me too.
Speaker 5:That's good it's. I think it's a good, like you know, first lab like you gotta get out of the way.
Speaker 2:I know why you named it sadie because he had a crush on sadie robertson. That's why I'm just playing every like 13 year old boy at some point did 100 of it, I would do yeah anyway, it's got every channel dynasty.
Speaker 5:You know, eyes glued, um, but yeah, so named her sadie. And they're like that's a stupid name. Well, you know, it's got two syllables, easy to say, she responds to it, we're gonna run with it. But uh, my roommates wanted to name her something funny and and I was like okay, sorry, her name's Sadie. But I came back from the library one day and they were calling her Jopu and I was like this is literally the stupidest name I've ever heard of. What is this? And then they were saying Jopu Doris, and I was like this is obnoxious, please stop. And Sadie would like. Just based off the tone that they would say it in, sadie would get very excited. And then eventually it started getting to the point that she started having a recall and I was like getting pissed off. I was like yo, you're messing with my dog, like please stop yeah we got a pro athlete.
Speaker 2:here we're trying to accomplish some shit. You can't be easy.
Speaker 5:It accomplish some shit you can't. It's like it's like a living like you know being like. It's not like. This is like you know some, you know stupid gimmick of like a company or something right, okay, that's ironic.
Speaker 5:Um, you know, some stupid product or something like this is like you know, my life and soul is like in this dog, please stop. But that didn't do anything. It spread into, uh, greek life. It's threatened amongst their girls. They're all calling her job too. And I was like so when it came time to form the business, um, I was like you know, I saw all these other businesses, um, and their names. You know, the e to marketing a business and its marketability, branding is having a unique name. You want that uniqueness to be in relation to your product offering. And I was like well, stady was the inspiration for me and the company. And, going into that, japu is just some random made-up name, so let's just roll with it. So I got on business search, couldn't find anything. I was like, all right, I guess we're rolling with Jopu, jopu Outdoors.
Speaker 5:So, Jopu Outdoors was incorporated in April of 2021. And in 2023, I went on my first podcast, um, and my roommate that I was living with that came up with the fake name. Um approached me shortly thereafter and he was like, I told him essentially I thought that my roommates just made it up and he was like no, tharp, that's not what happened. I'm like what do you mean? He was like no man. We were watching the grinch stole christmas. I was like what, like dr seuss? And he's like yeah, uh, essentially at the very end of the grinch stills, christmas, the grinch is standing up on top of the mountain after stealing all the stuff from the who's. All the who's are dancing around the christmas tree singing yappu dory. And they thought they were saying jopu doris and they thought it was just so funny and so stupid and they just started saying that around. I guess they like said it in the movie or something and sadie got excited, um, and yeah, it stuck.
Speaker 5:So that's the name, yeah it's it's kind of two in tandem here. It's like we got sadie and we got dr seuss, so, um, that's, uh, that's the name. Job too for you that's awesome, man.
Speaker 2:What a great story, yeah oh yeah, man and you know, when it comes to you know you start. I think we're both really curious to hear, like what, um, from product development standpoint, right, it's like okay, how do you like okay, become here's the first prototype? And like you have this idea that you want it to.
Speaker 2:You know, have the head go around in the water and all that like you were talking about, look really like a feeding duck, because I think I mean, obviously I'm not telling you anything that's the only thing on the market that's acting like a truly feeding duck that is motion-based, and you know how does that whole process work as far as developing this thing and then like taking it to market.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so I mean like a little background too about me my mom's, so I told you about the ceramics venture. My mom's an art teacher and then she's been teaching ceramics forever. And then my dad he is a practicing radiologist but also it does glass blowing as a glass artist, and then my sister she's a dance artist. So like art, kind of like runs in my genes, naturally somehow some ways and form, sure that, that creativity team yeah, yeah, and I was never, you know that kid.
Speaker 5:That was like in high school. It was like I'm gonna go to art class and I'm gonna do, like you know, screw sports like dude. I was, like you know, varsity starting year, like you know, playing club, and high school like balls to the wall, sports, right. But um, I've always had this like attention to detail and, just you know, creativity and just imaginative um, or, I guess, imagination, I guess I should say um. So I based this product based off of, like seeing the jerk string and these other uh products that you have to sync a car battery with, or you have cables and you essentially run a calculus problem at 5 am when you're hungover and you've walked, like you know, 500 yards for deep mud. I was like I don't want that. I want simple ease of use and that's what our entire product offering is based around is that it can't get tangled up, it's easy to use, you don't have to pay extra for a remote, you don't have to pay extra for a remote, you don't have to sync a remote and it runs off of your standard.
Speaker 5:AA battery pack you don't have to carry, you don't have to worry about being electrocuted in the water, it's our whole thing. So I mean, starting with it, it's problem-solving man Like you kind of have to like. For us is the concept, it's like what is like the initial mechanism, uh, to create this motion, especially inside of a um, buoyant shape of a decoy man. And luckily, I had some experience with product development, like unintentionally, when I was in middle school. I actually attended a national underwater robotics competition. Really, yeah, we created this underwater submarine that was tasked with sending, or it was tasked with going through an obstacle course underwater.
Speaker 5:it's about like 50 yards no kidding, that's pretty cool yeah, and then we also had to like raise objects to the surface, so like we'd like shoot ping pong balls and this bucket and like see who could do it the fastest, essentially, but it was the. The mechanical engineering with that and the electrical engineering were just very simple intro and I learned a lot in that and all that simple mechanics and electrical engineering directly applied into this. Obviously it's a lot more complicated and I've learned a lot more than what I did then, but that was, I'd say, kind of the start of our prototyping. Lots of 3D printing involved. Luckily, my co-founder, or my two co-founders, who are just incredible engineers, helped guide us along the way and just help of industry fault too. Take it from there.
Speaker 5:I mean, I think the biggest thing within any business, any product development which when I say product development, it could mean anything. It could be software, it could be hard goods, it could be soft goods, it could be consulting, even it's having the ability to assess the problem and like what is the question, what is the problem we're facing? And then starting to navigate all right, how can we solve this problem? Sure, and like what is the question, what is the problem we're facing? And then starting to navigate. All right, how can we solve this problem? Sure, um, and like, what is the best approach around? So, in similar light of us with this prototype, um, it was like, okay, we need a custom shell. Like how are we going to do this? We got drafted up in the computer. How do you do that? You do an autodesk. And then how do you go from the autodesk? How do you 3d print it? And like, why we having these problems with the 3D print? It's just a lot of research, dude, sure.
Speaker 2:Sounds like it man.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean now there's chat, gpt, so that kind of streamlines, some things. Don't get me wrong. At least to the current state we have not been able to make anything from it, but it helps with figuring out problems.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, believe me, we figuring out problems. Sure, yeah, man, believe me, we've tried it. Yeah, no, I can imagine. I bet there's probably some pretty entertaining, um uh, prototypes that were misprints.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, I mean we went through like I don't know, four or five different iterations. I mean the amount of duck decoys I've made, like I mean I'm over. I I mean obviously did the big production run last fall, but in terms of just complex um mechanism and it was just pulling teeth. I don't never forget our first trade show. I was so excited I I was like, okay, I'm gonna like once I got my first prototype and we just submitted our revisional patent application, I was like, okay, I'm gonna test the buying market. Um, there was a trade show going on here in Austin in March. Um, it was called the Hill Country Hoedown and the year previously, when I attended it, there was like Gunner Kennels, there was Hella Dry, uh, there's Pecos Tables, just a bunch of big outdoor brands. So I was like this is perfect, it's coming up.
Speaker 5:In March we just filed our non-provisional um, or sorry, our provisional application, and I was like I just got my prototype done. I was like you know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna make, I'm gonna order six 3d prints, uh, or material, I'm sorry, I'm gonna backtrack. I'm kind of all over the place. You guys, apologies, how are you doing, man, I'm going to order enough material for six 3D printed decoys and I'm going to go and I'm going to try to sell these six 3D printed decoys at the show. And I was all amped up. I was like this seems like a simple process I had in sourcing the 3D prints. I changed my supplier. I also changed the material type and I had chosen to take off a week of work. Products came in and I was assembling them and every night, all the way up to the show, I was up till like I don't know two in the morning, waking up at 6 am trying to make these six freaking decoys.
Speaker 5:Man, um, I was like running all these problems in the uh production production process that I run aware of that existed, uh, you know, a lot of them being very simple. Uh, it took me like two, three hours to figure out like what the heck is going wrong, like why does this part not fit? And then just figuring out some of the wrong orientation. Um, and also like the painting and, uh, the painting process was a pain because, one, getting the appearance right and figuring out how to paint a duck decoy was a whole dilemma, but then, two, also making sure the painting sticks. So I go through this whole week of production of these six decoys, and out of all six decoys, I don't get a single one to work on day one. I painted them, assembled them nothing. And out of all six decoys, I don't get a single one to work on day one. I painted them, assembled them nothing.
Speaker 5:And I was like, shoot, my co-founder comes into town, yeah, and we go to the show. We're showing our prototype. You know getting a lot of like great responses. It was like really reassuring Because I was like I remember calling my mom and like legitimately crying tears, mom, I failed. Legitimately crying tears, mom, I failed. This is a duds, it's not happening. Like I was, like I was beaten. But then I get the show and every single person came by. It's like this is sick, this is awesome, you gotta keep doing this. And I was like holy hell, like, yeah, I mean, we're like just like, oh man, we got something. You know, all amped up, we run to home depot directly after the show. We get all these uh parts and supplies to try to make the painting decoys work. Um, we start working on six the six and we're able to get two that were painted and so we like, go to the show.
Speaker 5:We're showing off these janky science fair, you know six painted decoys and dude we it was the best like I will never, will never forget that. It was probably one of my favorite memories of the company's foundation. But just to go to show like there's a lot of unexpected and a lot of complexities, and like designing these things and no matter like the difficulties that arise, it's just like having the ability to keep going. That really just kind of allows you to advance.
Speaker 5:And you know also I don't know if you guys are religious or not- but also looking to things such as family, and you know for me like God's a big part of my life, but also looking at God and, you know, using him as guidance and just trusting that there is a you know set path planned for you. And if I not go to plan directly just yet, just know to continue on. Um, yeah, man, it was. I will never forget that show. That was the first. And then we went to Delta. Uh, kind of similar experience. Um, were you there in 20?
Speaker 5:We got our first yeah, 23 at Little Rock. Yeah, yeah, and we got our first pre-orders and you know I sold I don't know eight decoys man and I thought I was the king of the world. I was like we got proof of product. Um, it's ended up going like I started fundraising, going to the manufacturing process, sit at the fan because I did not understand going from 3d printing to injection molding.
Speaker 5:How complicated it was and that's another thing that a lot of people don't understand about our products is like, oh, it looks ugly, like it has no texture, it's got shine, and so the reason why is because we were kind of pioneering a new manufacturing process in the decoy space, like all the decoys you see right now are what's called blow molded. Well, ours is injection molded, and the reason why you have to go injection molded is because of the internal mechanism that we have, and so, yeah, it's kind of like this idea of you design up all your parts of the computer and you send it and they cnc mold it and it's just like, okay, based off of, uh, the tolerance on the, the tooling and the parts coming out, you'd think there would be no problems, but wrong. There's all these different complexities with these different types of plastics and their cooling features. The way that plastic flows into the mold affects the way that the plastic shrinks, and then on top of this you have the paint adhesion factor, and so the manufacturing manufacturing we thought we were forecasting would take us like three months ended up just taking us like eight, and then, yeah, it sucked, and then I was like all right, I gotta paint this thing, and the paint I mean, I literally did not get it to be non-sticking until this new or sorry, scratch proof, until this upcoming season.
Speaker 5:Last season I added to where it was good, um, it was durable, but like it was you, you take a nail to it and it would scratch. This new one, like you could drag across concrete and it's it's fine. But, um, yeah, getting to the point of last year's, you know what I considered american made, or it was american made, but um, american made scratch proof paint, I guess I should say it took me four or five months to figure out you know what kind of paint to use, the proper process with it, the cure times associated with it, and then you know you have your different applications on it.
Speaker 3:So like, you've got to make sure you have.
Speaker 5:UV paint. Oh yeah, dude, it sucked, it was brutal, but yeah, we got it. Dude, it's a bad to the bone. New crank and decoy. I'm really excited to share it. Long story short, the prototype process is never ending, but it's a fun experience and it's a trial.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm curious, so I had a further question with this. But so how long have you got last year was your like first, like big run with us, like this past duck season?
Speaker 5:or no. Yeah, it was our first season.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm curious, um, I mean obviously because everybody outside looking in this is like a great idea. I'm curious, like, how was that feedback after this first season like, was it uh, really reassuring, I'm assuming?
Speaker 5:oh yeah, I was glad like we had repeat orders.
Speaker 3:I've seen some I've seen some, some guys on youtube actually run some shorts oh, no way really yeah, yeah, I saw one, just the other day. Email those to me because I haven't seen any of them yeah, dude, I just saw one the other day and forgive me for not saving it, but I just I just looked random through youtube shorts and I go oh, I guess that's somebody that worked with carson or somebody was just talking about your product and how good it was huh, oh, that fires me up, man.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, it's really good like last. So I, like you know it was my eight month mda. So Part of running a business is customer service, whether it's sales, consulting, whatever. My first batch I had a bug in. I think it was like 20% of the decoys I started having customers reach out. Y'all know Duck Hunters.
Speaker 3:This was a bug that I didn't know about. Yeah, this is the worst fucking product man. Your mom, go to hell, you know whatever.
Speaker 5:I'm getting beat up on email and phone calls and text messages and like, bro, at this period of time, like you know, I left my you know high paying oil and gas job to pursue selling duck decoys and on top of I was not spending any money on marketing at the time. So I was just into dumps because I was just getting beat up by these people. I was like, damn it, I got a cheap product. Nobody wants to buy it, what the hell. But then at the end of the season I woke up. I was like I'm not spending money on marketing, like what am I doing? Started spending on marketing, sales started and I was like, oh, wow, this is good. And then towards the end of season I had customers that had pre-ordered from me a year early that never received their decoy text.
Speaker 5:Me Like I've had this thing all season. This is great, like I love it. And like run comments like I can't be more happier to have this thing. Uh, these things are great. Like you know the testimonies. Like talking to dr duck, he's like really, really excited for us coming up this this upcoming season. It's just like it's really reassuring to get that kind of feedback because you know, it's like that moment with sadie, like, granted, it was three months, but you know, jop, who's been four years, lots of time, lots of money, like grit, sweat, uh, just poured into this thing and you know it's, we're not. We're not anywhere near. You know, yeti coolers, but um, we're, uh, we're working on it, man that's a great ai video show.
Speaker 3:J japu decoy uh says it's bear proof I'll show you.
Speaker 2:I'll show you alligator proof. Maybe we uh, we're on the marsh quite a bit. Yeah, we hunt a spot every time or two, or you might encounter, you know, 10, 10 or 30 alligators, I don't know't know, One morning during early teal season we did count over 62 plus sets of eyes. It was the most insane thing Good.
Speaker 3:God, we could just see In Florida. Yeah, Actually this is southeast Georgia. This is right on the border. We panned over and I won't tell you what happened, but I did. This is right on the border and we panned over and I won't tell you what happened. But I did hear some other duck hunters got attacked and I did hear a couple rounds go off in self defense. I'll tell you this man like I don't.
Speaker 5:I do not tango with alligators. I've never encountered one, thankfully but they scare the living shit out of me. My dad used to have a house in Florida. I don't know what it is about reptiles, but I just do not.
Speaker 2:Well, dude, they're just like they're reaction. Dude, they're just soulless, Like they just react.
Speaker 3:The thing that pisses us off the most about is they learn the behavior, hear the shots, hear the water splash. They've got this learned behavior of just like, no different than you hear about. You've got a gator or a crocodile on Amazon, right, and they know these egrets that nest above them and they're going to drop some chicks and they're going to be there to get them. Same thing down in the South dude. I mean they just know. That's what pisses me off most is that they just take our ducks. Yeah, that's what pisses me off most is that they just take our ducks yeah.
Speaker 2:And you know what's crazy? Carson is the state wild. We've had the Georgia waterfowl biologist on the podcast.
Speaker 3:That specializes with gators.
Speaker 1:Guess what else she's? Yeah, it's gators, that's the other thing.
Speaker 2:She's the biologist and so it's like we're trying to explain to her that, like we were teal hunting and saw 62 gators, she's like that's great. We're like I don't know if it's great. We're like no, it's not.
Speaker 3:It's not terrifying? Yeah, no, but then you got to flow into the whole process of a wetland, you know, and why they're important and all that kind of stuff, you know.
Speaker 5:But as selfish duck hunters, we're just like no, yeah, and all that kind of stuff you know. But as selfish duck hunters, we're just like no, yeah. Yeah, they're very important and it's like wow, because, like you know, we're all about like conservation.
Speaker 5:But I'd definitely be more covered up in frogs that gators couldn't kill than gators oh yeah well I'm right there with you, man like I I intentionally do not hunt anywhere that there are gators like I will hunt, like the coast sometimes, but more so like hunting the the delta, where it's like turning to salt water. At least I know that from experience. There's no gators in there, um, but when I like hear people go out to like there's this lake called choke canyon here in texas that is notorious for having gators on it. The only good side I think I would say about it is you have a really good probability of shooting a cinnamon, but um, I just don't find the trade-off um satisfying enough to go go hunt with a 16 foot alligator right next to you or, like you know, while you're retrieving birds like people are like you know, say the horror stories about dogs yeah, it's a different ballgame when you have a dog with you, for sure yeah, what about all the spottings of all these uh bull sharks in the, in the brackish waters?
Speaker 3:I mean, honestly, I never even considered that I'd like my leg gets it and I'm like, oh, it's a red fish, you know, or? Something but it could have been a bull shark you know that's actually very true.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I know very much so yeah yeah, I don't know man.
Speaker 2:It comes back to that whole thing like same thing. It's like black bears grizzlies are a different story, but it's kind of like everyone gets that like fear of oh my god, I'm gonna attack by a black bear and it's like the reality of. It's like one person a year gets attacked by a black bear. There's like two, two people a year.
Speaker 5:That's so true, it's usually pretty dumb people. It's like, yeah, what is the percentage of actual attacks to encounters?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I saw this video the other day about attacks by bison on the human population and this guy is like unfortunately, all of these videos are stupid people. They're just walking up to a bison at Yellowstone going hey you look cuddly on TV. Wham, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 5:I mean, it's no different than approaching a bull. You know, no doubt they're, yeah, thousand pound animals that you know are just nothing but pure muscle and you know you poke it off and piss off, it's going to.
Speaker 2:You know, have some self-defense you know you poke it off and piss off, it's gonna, you know, have some self-defense, that's right. So so, carson, you know outlook for this season? Uh, are you going to be at a, delta or b ducks?
Speaker 5:yeah, we'll be at both. We'll be at delta ducks. Uh, we'll also be at game fair. Um, what is that? October, we'll be at shin film festival awesome dude.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we're going to be at ducks, so we're definitely going to come by the booth. Definitely ought to grab some pictures, shake hands, all that good stuff.
Speaker 3:Get a little media going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because we're going to be. We haven't really ironed out the details yet, but we're thinking about doing one of those deals where we walk around with, you know, the mic and the camera and just like ask random questions and whatever, and like if you get it right, we'll give you like one hub life.
Speaker 3:I almost want to do like the old school, like jaywalking. Do you remember that when Jay Leno he would call it jaywalking he would walk down the street right before the show and walk up and go who is the previous president? And people would give some crazy answers, dude, I mean, he would just ask him like all right, so right now you know just something that you would think most people would know if y'all did that, like if people going inside the inside the convention center I'm thinking, like you know just some off the wall fact about like a mallard that would make you think it's like a diver duck.
Speaker 2:And then you're like oh, fun fact it's actually, they'll guess, canvasback. You're like no, it's a mallard.
Speaker 5:I mean, dude, you hit people with like the stereotypical, like why are there more birds on one side than the other? I'm pretty sure you'll get some good responses.
Speaker 3:Just walk up some responses. You walk up some a from the south and just go where you from. They're like georgia.
Speaker 2:You'd be like wood duck or mallard you know I mean, but anyway, definitely, uh, super excited to meet you there, man, and, um, you know, as far as what else you got planned for the season, is there anything else that like stands out to you, or any just personal, like hunting trips that you're excited for?
Speaker 5:oh, dude, I mean, I mean there's a lot. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm ready to be in the blind hanging out with buddies and working the dog, watching birds work and all that jazz. But yeah, I mean I'm excited to share the new product, I'm excited to share the new features of it. We've got, you know, a product line that we are working on that I'm eager to share new products, developments, um, on top of that. So, like, kind of, uh, like we have, we have a lot of stuff cooking that I'm really, really eager to um to share with the public. Um, and this upcoming season as well, we're gonna, we're planning on doing a boat ramp tour. We're calling it the jopu boat ramp rodeo. Um, we'll be once a month going to a boat ramp here in texas, arkansas, and then, um, oklahoma, uh, just setting up shop, making some breakfast, tacos, hang out some merch, just to meet the community.
Speaker 3:Um so.
Speaker 5:I'm excited to do that, and then yeah, we'll also be doing some hunts with some, some outfitters and some friends and family and, um, yeah, I think it's, it's going to be, it's going to. I'm excited to wake up in February and see. See what has occurred.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, man, you all has occurred. That's awesome man. Well, we'll tell everybody you know a where they can get this thing from um how much does it cost and all that, yeah, and you know um yeah all that, absolutely, absolutely, more than that.
Speaker 5:I do appreciate y'all sending the opportunity. So, um, yeah, if you're interested, um, or have questions about the product itself, who we? You just go to our website, it's wwwjapucom. You can also find us on Instagram, facebook, tiktok, youtube, linkedin, even Spotify. If you all want some new age music, nice, yeah, we're selling, as of current, the Mallard Decoy and the Matt Black. The Mallard is retailing at $189,000, as well as the Matt Black is retailing at I believe it's like $163,000 right now.
Speaker 5:We are going to be throwing in a complimentary rechargeable battery with every pre-order until we get inventory here in the US. Right now, we are projecting inventory to land here end of August. Obviously, given the whole global trade war dynamics, we will keep everybody updated as we get closer and if things change. However, if you want a decoy for this upcoming season, we strongly encourage you to go and pre-order now. Um, once you get the chargeable battery pack but two, you're also ensuring that you're getting your decoy in season or before season starts.
Speaker 5:Um, the last thing we want to have happen is season hits, inventory lands and you decide you want to decoy and we don't have any inventory until March of next year. So, yes, please, if you're interested, go to the website wwwjopucom. Any questions, concerns, find us on social media. Email us at info at jopucom and we will get back to you. Also, if you're going to be attending any of the trade shows the Delta Ducks Game Fair, you name it feel free to swing by. I would love to you know, shake hand, show you about the product and talk shop awesome carson love it dude, thank you so much for the time tonight.
Speaker 2:We really enjoyed learning about the product and, uh excited to meet you at ducks man yeah, man, I can't wait to shake your hand bro absolutely, boys, I enjoyed it and yeah, thank you, and don't be shy to feel.
Speaker 5:Anything sounds anything.
Speaker 2:Sounds good. Carson, appreciate you, man. Take care of yourself, we'll see you soon.
Speaker 3:Safe travels.
Speaker 5:Bye-bye.
Speaker 3:Carson All right guys.
Speaker 2:I hope you enjoyed that podcast with Carson.
Speaker 3:Dude, that was awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had a blast with him. So, listener. Question of the week, right, all right question that we got this week is from chris seaton and I believe chris is out in oklahoma, if I remember right. Um, and how accurate are the numbers that are put out on the hatch results and number of ducks? And being a uh, tech savvy person I'd like to call myself. I went ahead. Actually I gotta do it again because, uh, it disappeared. But I went ahead and put this in the chat gpt earlier because, I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm not smart enough to have the answer to that.
Speaker 3:Let me see I've got a general answer for it.
Speaker 2:Well, you can go ahead and work on that while I'm working on the chat GPT. Well, here's the bottom line.
Speaker 3:We have to depend on the resources that we have, all right. So what that consists of and I urge you to go look on Ducks Unlimited and Delta Waterfowl's websites and go do some research what it really boils down to is they're going out there and making assessments and using the technology they have. Now technology's been changing. I mean, we're starting to use drones and stuff instead of just dragging fences and jumping birds and checking nests. See what the hatch rate is. You know Delta has done such an incredible job with predator management. It's an open book it really is. But here's what I can say confidently we are with technology and research that's going into this. Now we're more accurate than we ever have been. That is a 100% proven fact, because we're utilizing technology to come up with this stuff. And these folks that do this stuff the biologists and the volunteers that participate in this they're trying to produce the best numbers for us, you know. So at the end of the day, it comes down on the data that drives it right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Honestly, I think that was a great answer and I think that's most of what I saw when I put this in the chat GPT earlier. At the end of the day, it's estimate, not exact count.
Speaker 3:So it's like you kind of got to take this thing with a grain of salt. It's way better than it was in the 50s. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2:And at the end of the day, it's like, okay, if you're looking at these numbers and you're thinking, man, it's higher this year and I'm gonna have a exponentially better duck season, that's probably not the way to look at it, because this is not really the reality of things.
Speaker 3:There's so many different variables, so situational like, for example, and we've talked about this fortress and we happen to be in a pocket with delta thunder outfitters where, bro, you're gonna see all the pintails you can dream of, dream of, like we've seen that for years now, and but you could be five miles away maybe and not see them at all. So you think the pintail population is terrible, right, you know what I'm saying. So it's so situational into specifically where you are, in so many ways, as far as I guess, uh, perception goes yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, um, at the end of the day, I think, uh, just keep in mind it's an estimate, um, and basically you know the way they're doing. This stuff is which you probably can speak to a lot of this off of memory, dad, but you know aerial surveys. So essentially, you know they might be looking at ponds, they might be looking at fields, whatever, and they're trying to basically take an area. And from what I read earlier is, like you know, they You're doing a sample.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, they're doing a sample and then, like, extrapolating that across the whole area and basically, depending on how they're trying to hit the prime time of the breeding season so they can get the most accurate data. But, like, depending on the winter, depending on x, y and z, the water, the, the, the species. Yeah, you, they might not be getting the most accurate aerial view and they're just doing their best and it really just depends on environmental factors.
Speaker 3:Well, I'll tell you this.
Speaker 2:One thing that was important is, even though that can vary. Actually, kate asked we were talking about this the other night and he asked kind of the same thing and I'm like you know I wouldn't're accurate like to the if 38.2 million ducks and we got that many yeah but you know, there might be 35 million ducks there might be 39 million ducks. There might be 42, I think, within. I think with like within a few million, it's probably pretty accurate, because it's just that.
Speaker 3:That's all I was going to say, is just I think it's pretty people way smarter than us that have came up with these perimeters yes to to gauge this stuff right. It's just like the density when you look into a square. And if let's say that you look into a square that is 100 by 100 right, I saying yards and let's say you count 120 ducks, if you see that same square multiplied 10 times, it's pretty easy math for a rough estimate.
Speaker 2:I remember the thing I was going to add to that is. The other thing I read was that over the course of how many years have've been doing this? Like 60, 70 years? Oh, it's a long time. It's something ridiculous.
Speaker 3:COVID was like one of the first times they couldn't do it. The only time, yeah, the only time, I think yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's been going on for 60, 70 years. There's a lot of people involved in it and over the course of all that time it's, at the bare minimum, showed like these trends so like you know, you're gonna have variants year over year, but when you look at 70 years of data, then all of a sudden you get a much clearer picture on how many ducks there probably are. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:So I think, uh, when you look at the big picture and look at it like an estimate, it's probably relatively accurate here's what I will say on an individual waterfowl species, or mother and father, let's just drake hen, male goose, female goose and I know this is just a very small sample, but this puts it in perspective for me. I live on a lake. We've got resident geese. I can tell that these same two by their markings. They've been together for four years. I've watched them do a nest three years in a row and it failed. In a neighborhood. It's a pretty big lake but it's a neighborhood where you would think, dude, best odds ever, right, three out of four years those nests failed. This is the first year after four years that they had two chicks which think about that in the wild, with all the predators and all the things that can go wrong. I just, it's a. They got a tough job, they really do.
Speaker 2:No doubt. Well, guys, appreciate you tuning in to another episode of the one hub life outdoor podcast. Chris, we got a koozie on your way. Uh, probably tomorrow, the day after. Um, and appreciate the questions, guys, remember, uh, every week we're going to do this, probably the day of or the day before. If you look for us on instagram or the other socials, primarily instagram I'm going to put something up that just prompts you guys to drop a question and, uh, the question we pick, we're gonna get you guys a, uh, obviously, a shout out on the show and then, um, some free merch.
Speaker 3:So yeah, yeah, tag us, if you, I mean yeah, that's the other thing.
Speaker 2:When you get it, tag us. Yeah, man, show it, show it off. Yep, appreciate you guys. It's one hell of a life and uh, we'll be at the again. If you didn't hear it earlier, we're going to be at the ducks and limited expo here in August 1st weekend. So if you see us, say hi and we'll do the same for y'all and we're excited to connect. So it's one hell of a life. Let's go.
Speaker 1:I've been southbound. I've been hell bound, riding on a midnight train Going too fast. Now Think I'll slow down Standing in the pouring rain.