Kurt Belding: Backcountry Hunting, Wildlife Conservation & Modern Masculinity | SMFG Podcast

In this episode, we sit down with legendary backcountry hunter Kurt Belding, founder of Western Obsessions TV. Kurt exposes the raw, unedited truth about what it really takes to survive remote hunts in the backcountry, why he chose to "burn the ships" at age 40 to make a career change to chase his passion, and the massive lie behind the "Hollywood version" of hunting media.

Brad and Kurt don't hold back as they dive deep into the modern war on hunting, the hypocrisy of anti-hunting agendas, how government herd culls waste taxpayer dollars, and the shocking truth about outdoor survival. They also tackle the decay of modern masculinity, how algorithmic echo chambers are dividing people and families, and why true environmental conservation relies almost entirely on the hunting community.

About Kurt Belding:

Kurt Belding is a passionate backcountry hunter, elite outdoor adventure consultant, and the visionary founder and host of the hunting channel Western Obsessions TV. Raised on a cattle farm in Nebraska, Kurt spent the majority of his life immersed in the hunting culture and developing a deep reverence for the outdoors. Before transitioning full-time into the outdoor industry, he was a highly driven entrepreneur in the fitness world, owning a gym, a sports nutrition retail chain, and multiple adjacent businesses.

Driven by a primal urge to strip away the distractions of modern concrete society and pursue a life of raw, authentic adventure, he decided to "burn the ships". With the full support of his wife and kids, he shut down and sold his traditional businesses to dedicate his life entirely to hunting adventures and showing others how to do the same. Today, Kurt brings decades of extreme backcountry experience to his audience—whether he is tracking elk with a bow at 13,000 feet in Colorado, or navigating life-and-death encounters with grizzly bears in the remote expanses of Alaska.

Online: https://westernobsessionstv.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@WesternObsessionsTV
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/western_obsessions_tv
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kurt.belding

#hunting #outdoors #wildlife

Transcript

Brad Banyas (00:07)
All right, welcome back everyone. We're live from the McBastard's Studio in Foco, USA. You're listening to the SALTY MF Goat and our guest is Kurt Belding. Kurt, welcome to the show, brother.

Kurt Belding (00:18)
Thanks, man. I appreciate ⁓ having me on, man. Sounds like a pretty badass show.

Brad Banyas (00:22)
Well, if we if we could have got the audio right, we would have been doing it four minutes ago, but we're good. We figured it out. We know you're a professional, so ⁓ we're we're we're in good hands with you. And ⁓ you know, I just ⁓ real quick, you know, I I know your story. Tell the audience a little bit about what you're doing with ⁓ your T V show. ⁓ just a quick background and then let's get into some good good stuff, man.

Kurt Belding (00:47)
Sure. Yeah. So, you know, I grew up hunting most of my life. been very entrepreneurial and ⁓ went just wild with some different types of businesses. A lot of like I I'm into fitness pretty hard too. So I did like some sports nutrition stuff, owned a gym. At some point I just owned too much stuff and I wasn't making money on anything because I was doing too much stuff and life was stressful. So I hit 40 and I was like, man, I don't want to be doing any of this stuff. All I wanted to do is go on really cool hunting adventures. And

And just travel and have great adventures. So I I literally like shut everything down, sold anything I could, told my wife and kids this is what I'm gonna do. Thank God they supported me and try to figure out how to make money in the hunting industry. And it just taken me about five years, but finally figured it out. So I go on these really cool hunt adventures. I'd film them, try to entertain other people, and then the other side of the business is then I help other hunters find adventures. So we do like a consulting side too. So so here I am on the podcast with you, Red.

Brad Banyas (01:47)
Dude, that's awesome. That sounds, that's that sounds like a good life. I I love the story you and I were talking a little before about, you know, kind of we're on the same same path. I was on the same path, you know, done a lot of stuff, had a lot of different type businesses, wanted to do some stuff that I thought was really fun. And, you know, as a hunter, you know, I mean, I I never grew up really hunting. ⁓ but when I got married, I married into a hunting family.

So my my first my first Christmas, I got a shotgun, then I got a pistol, then I got a bow and arrow. And I looked at I looked at my father in law, he's amazing, dude, man, ex Vietnam vet construction guy, just Gary Bennett, you're a great man. But all of any hunting prowess that I have, and I'm okay with a bow. I I'm nowhere near like yourself as a professional, ⁓ but I owe that to my father in law Gary Bennett and my brother in law Billy Bennett, who's younger than me. ⁓ but they

Kurt Belding (02:15)
Sure.

Ha ha ha.

Brad Banyas (02:43)
pretty much taught me how to hunt and hunt and I just I fell in love with it, man. It's just I I fell in love with it. Just just like you talking about the solitude. You know, I did a little bit of research on you. This the solitude of of being out there and being in nature. And a lot of people who don't hunt, you know this, they kind of miss the point sometimes of, you know, really what hunting's about. That's my personal opinion, but

Kurt Belding (02:52)
⁓

No, you're spot on, man. Like, especially guy people that don't hunt. I mean, we have a lot of anti hunters in the industry and I get a lot of hate from that, which we could definitely dig into that if you want to, but you know, people that are on the fence about it, just just not familiar with it, they kind of look at it as like, hunters just go out and kill animals. That is the goal. We we the goal is to go kill an animal. Very rarely does that happen. Ninety percent of the time we're out enjoying nature and and just immersing ourselves in nature, which is super healing and cleansing and

Brad Banyas (03:16)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Fuck

Kurt Belding (03:38)
Man, everyone needs to do it, you know, whether you're hunting or not.

Brad Banyas (03:41)
Dude, it's ancestral. I mean, there there wasn't a Kroger Publix down the road where you could go, you know, go get your favorite cut of meat. I mean, it's ancestral. It's it's it's part of the human experience, whether you like it or not, or whether it's politically been, you know, moved to one area or not. It's just ⁓ it's it it was one of the greatest gifts I've ever been given. I w I wasn't an anti-hunter. We just didn't, we you know, my dad didn't hunt, right? I mean, it was it's like exposing people.

Kurt Belding (03:43)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Brad Banyas (04:11)
to the outdoors or the nature side of it to me that I I always tell him like that was the greatest gift you ever you ever gave me because I ⁓ I I would have never experienced it. Right. And I I think you've done some great things. I mean I'm I'm curious. We can get into all stuff. We can get into right now what's going on with the all the anti-hunting stuff, them trying to ban hunting.

Ban fishing in certain public lands, certain states. I i it's it's it's absurd to me. So I'll go wherever you want to go 'cause I know you're gonna be a bigger expert th than I could ever be on it. So

Kurt Belding (04:43)
You know,

Brad, whatever you guys are interested in, whatever you think your listeners would enjoy and take value from, let's dig in 100%, man. Don't I won't hold back on anything. I'll tell you exactly what I think. So

Brad Banyas (04:55)
Please

don't, brother, because we're called salty MF and it does mean the bad word. And if you can't take it, don't listen to it. I doubt PET is listening to the show anyway. So ⁓ you know, people eating tasty animals. This was the funniest bumper s the f funniest bumper sticker I've ever seen. I I need to get one 'cause it was really funny. You know, one thing the the one thing I love about what you did is you took a passion, something you loved. I know you grew up in Nebraska, you grew up hunting. You took a passion and then you created, you know

Kurt Belding (05:08)
Ha ha.

That's hilarious.

Brad Banyas (05:23)
Western obsessions, right? You created a TV hunting like TV show. That's that's pretty cool, right? So in your ad in in your adventures, the the thing that I want, you know, I really want to hear about is I know that, you know, you've had a couple run in like, what is hunting a grizzly bear like with a bow? Cause that I mean, hey, I'm I'm I'll I'll say I'm a tough guy, but that sounds pretty, pretty damn scary.

Kurt Belding (05:31)
Yeah, yeah, thanks.

What's that?

Yeah, that's like the ultimate masculine hunt, right? Like I'm gonna go hunt this thing that could easily kill me within seconds with a stick and a string, right? Like that's it seems stupid, right? It's idiotic, but like only the you know, the dumbest masculine guys wanna do it, which is me, right? So I wanna do it. But but no, it's it you know, I went into Alaska, which is man, I tell you what, like I live in Colorado and I go deep in the mountains in the c in Colorado

Brad Banyas (06:00)
Who?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kurt Belding (06:19)
And I love being super remote away from humanity, right? And immersing into nature. But no matter how deep I get in Colorado, I'm a hike, a day's hike out to my truck, right? I'm not that remote. in Alaska, you're a hundred miles from any road system and there is no hiking out, right? Like that's really remote. So that's you know, that's the first feeling you get, like, dang man, if something goes sideways here, we're in a world of trouble.

Brad Banyas (06:44)
Yeah.

Kurt Belding (06:45)
You know what I mean? This could

be death. This is not like just uncomfortableness. Like this could be death, right? So that's the first of like, ⁓ you know, awakening of like, all right, but with some primal stuff going on for sure. And then it's hunting grizzly bear. And it nothing really hit me because it's just normal hunting. You know, a lot of it's just looking through the binos, trying to spot one, you know, like this normal stuff. We spotted two of about two miles off. Okay, let's make a move on

Still didn't really hit me because it's just normal hunting stuff for me. I'm carrying my bow. It didn't really hit me till I was about 300 yards from where we last saw two grizzly bears. And we're going through these really thick alders stuff where like I couldn't really even see five feet in front of me. And I've got and it's like over my head. So I got my bow hanging up ahead up above my head, above the alders. And I'm trying to go through, we're trying to be quiet the best we can, but I realized, wait.

Brad Banyas (07:30)
Yeah.

Kurt Belding (07:40)
I can only see five feet in front of me. And we don't know where these gruzzly bar bears are at right now, right? This is a very dangerous situation that we're walking into. And for the first time in my entire hunting career, I felt that different fear of like, ooh, this is bad. This is could be really bad. We're walking into something super dangerous, but like you can't just let that sit in the forefront of the mind. Like you got to push that back, right? And keep moving forward. So just push that back, kept moving forward.

Brad Banyas (08:04)
Yeah.

Kurt Belding (08:09)
You know, a little while after a couple hours after that, we slowly made a way where we we spotted them. They're taking a nap in this like valley. And ⁓ spot them, we're about 110 yards out. I've got my bow, my guide. You have to have a guide in Alaska. Great dude, by the way. He has his brush gun for bear defense. And we just realized there's four of us. It's me, my camera guy, my guide, and a packer. We're all sitting there and we realize, man, this is just way too dangerous to try to kill a bear with a bow. Because

One, it was super quiet. So like it would have been really hard to get stocked up into bow range. But even if I did, and even if I put on the perfect shot on this boar, male grizzly bear, he has a sow with him that they're breeding, they're bonded. And if I do get a perfect shot, he's going to run off in these thick alders. We're going to have to go in and to retrieve them, and that sal's going to be there, and we're going to have to contend with a live grizzly bear. You know, that's pissed. You know, so

Brad Banyas (08:50)
Yeah.

Yeah. Ab absolutely.

Kurt Belding (09:05)
Yeah, so I re we realized, hey man, this is super dangerous. So, you know, my guy's like, I think you should shoot it with my gun. I'm like, Yeah, you're probably right. You know, I'm okay like getting in something stupid myself, but dragging three other guys into something stupid, probably not a good idea, right? So

Brad Banyas (09:20)
Absolut absolutely. You know, you talk about the be the beauty of Alaska. If you can ever anyone that can ever go to Alaska if you've never been there, we went on a fishing trip. You know, we did halibut and then went in and king salmon and it was one of the most amazing things. But like you said, we're two float planes in. Like we're we're literally in the middle of nowhere. And then yeah, we ⁓ I saw a wolf.

Kurt Belding (09:21)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Brad Banyas (09:45)
You know, right across the river from us where we were fishing. And then ⁓ one night a b a bear got into the camp and was, you know, milling around. And, you know, it's just it's one of those things like you don't just don't realize how big these damn things are. And you're like, you know, I'm I'm done. 'Cause we're walking I didn't have a gun on me at all. You know, we're walking around, but the guy's like yeah, you'll be fine. You'll be fine. So ⁓ but Alaska's a just a a beautiful place. Beautiful place.

Kurt Belding (09:59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's amazing. You don't realize

how insignificant you are until you go to Alaska. You know, it's an amazing place for sure. Yeah. Yep.

Brad Banyas (10:17)
⁓ absolutely.

Sockeye one one night we went, our guide was great, a guy named Doug. Doug, if you're out there, you're awesome. He we they didn't like us because we never came home for dinner. We we'd fish till you know, it's light out there. We'd fish till two in the morning and we went up fishing sockeye one night just and he's like, ⁓ I'm like, What are you surviving? He's like, Nothing. You're just gonna throw it, you fly fish, right? You're just gonna like hook ⁓ And we caught I don't know how many we caught, but I I'll tell you, like what I'm

Kurt Belding (10:43)
⁓

Brad Banyas (10:47)
Kurt, when we were in the in the river, and ⁓ Doug's like, I'm like, he goes, look down in the water. And I'm like, okay. It was like a conveyor belt. It just fish, as many fish you could see just going by. And it was insane. It wasn't, it wasn't any fisherman acumen. You know, it wasn't any skill. You just hooked him and pulled in. But probably one of the greatest, ⁓ greatest ⁓ hours of my life that doing that that night. It was amazing. So in

Kurt Belding (11:08)
Yeah.

Yeah, that sounds like a blast,

man.

Brad Banyas (11:17)
You got it's gotta do Doug Rikert, Doug Rikert was the guide. But ⁓ so you know, from an elk perspective, you know, I I I people who've never had elk, who've never eaten elk. I mean, I ⁓ good elk elk stew, or you know, it's just amazing. What is your favorite? Is elk your favorite, you know, animal to hunt? Or I know you've done some stuff in New Zealand and some other areas, goat. what's your favorite, like your favorite animal to track?

Kurt Belding (11:44)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I've done a lot of stuff. I've been to Africa, Canada quite a bit, Mexico, New Zealand, you know, Alaska. I've been all over the place, but elk is still my favorite animal to hunt. 'Cause there's something about an elk man that just they're just an amazing animal. And I love to archery hunt elk 'cause it's for me it's the hardest hunt, physically hardest. And I call it like a a Masogee. A Masogee is just something super challenging, super physically hard that you probably like you have

maybe we'll succeed at, maybe not, right? But it's a super it you know, it really pushes you to the limit. And that's elk hunting for me with a bow. but yeah, and as far as the flavor of the meat too, man, you can't beat a elk's fantastic. Yeah.

Brad Banyas (12:29)
it's it

it's it it's amazing. So for all those all those meat ha haters out there and Bill Gates giving you the plastic meat. Yeah, you try some helk elk and tell us what you see. Tell us which one you prefer. Let's do a taste test. Which one do you like? The the the f plastic meat or or elk meat? Well, you

Kurt Belding (12:38)
Ha ha ha ha.

Yeah. Yeah.

⁓ no, I don't even think I've even

eaten the plastic meat, so yeah.

Brad Banyas (12:52)
Well yeah, I I'm I'm not interested in I'm not interested in whatever whatever they're doing. It's it's not good for you, so I'm not interested. I love Ted Nugent where he's talking about tofu and what it takes to to make tofu and you have to kill everything in the field. You have to kill the mice, the bunnies, the bugs and everything. And then at the end he's like, All you people eating tofu, he's like, f.. you. And it's the funniest it's just it's one of my favorite video clips of Ted Nugent.

Kurt Belding (13:11)
Mm-hmm.

Ha ha.

Brad Banyas (13:20)
Over and over. F you. F you. It's great. So what was ⁓ have you ever hunted red stag? I'm just curious. I've I've got a bone in my to to try to hunt red stag. I I d I don't I don't know. It just looks like it would be amazing. Have you ever done that?

Kurt Belding (13:20)
Uh-huh.

Yeah.

Yeah, so I was in New Zealand just this spring, right? And that's when you think of red stag hunting, you think of New Zealand typically. ⁓ so I didn't actually hunt the red stag. We we bumped into quite a few of I hunted tar and chamois. And and just for your your guys' knowledge and your listeners' knowledge, when you think of red stag, you see like these massive image of red stag, like there's antlers everywhere, they're massive an animals. But like the truth of the matter is when you go to a place like New Zealand, there's stag.

Brad Banyas (13:48)
Yeah. yeah.

Kurt Belding (14:04)
⁓ industry is enormous. It's like cattle farms. So they raise stag and breed stag to sell the meat and to harvest the velvet. So these massive stags are not free range. They are an estate high fence stag that has been raised and bred on a farm, but the stag gets old enough to be a hunted stag and they push it off into a different pen. So like you just have to be aware of that, you know, the truth of the matter of that, right?

Brad Banyas (14:10)
Wow.

wow.

sh I didn't know yeah. ⁓

Kurt Belding (14:34)
Yeah. So you can hunt free range stag,

Brad Banyas (14:36)
Yeah, I had no idea if they

Kurt Belding (14:38)
but it's not those massive genetic freaks that you see in a lot of these pictures. It's more like a five by five bull elk, like a two fifty, two hundred fifty inch bull elk is a free range stag. And in my opinion, you know, that's just my opinion, like nothing against anybody going over to kill a a hyphen stag, whatever, whatever's your your thing, go do it. I don't care. For me, I like the free range. I like the wildness of it, the challenge. That's what it's all about for me. It's not even the killing part.

It's the challenge, it's the physicality, ⁓ you know, of being in immersed in nature, that stuff. So

Brad Banyas (15:11)
absolutely. Well Scotland's got pretty good population of stag too, right?

Kurt Belding (15:16)
Yeah, and those are more ⁓ free range stag, but they're a smaller species of stag. They're like ⁓ are more called a red deer than a than like those big massive ones in New Zealand. I'm actually going to Argentina in April to hunt free range stag in Patagonia. ⁓ same thing, it's free range, but Ar Argentina also has the high fence, the state stag hunting. You know, it b hunting's a business, it's an industry just like everything else, man. So there ain't nothing wrong with it. It's just not my cup of tea, you know?

Brad Banyas (15:46)
Yeah, I always ask people like when they they're they're going to Texas or something, no offense, wherever, but they're doing high fence hunting and I'm like, okay, yeah, I get it. So th th they know exactly they know exactly where that big boy is and what he's doing, they're gonna put you on it, which which is fine. I mean, for most people that aren't a true hunter like you or in the industry, you know, for someone maybe it's a lifetime event, that's what they think hunting is, but technically probably not.

Kurt Belding (15:55)
Mm-hmm.

Mm. And there's

man, there's nothing wrong with that. And then that like a high fenced situation can cater to lot of people. Like maybe you're in a wheelchair and you can't go climb a mountain. Or you've you're brand new to hunting and you just want a cool experience. That's great. you know, it's maybe it's a youth hunt or like you want to make sure that your your child kills an animal so they have an enjoyment ⁓ experience. 'Cause like you take a a twelve year old kid on a mountain, it's not gonna be an enjoyable experience for

You know what I mean? So it all has its thing. That might be it. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure.

Brad Banyas (16:41)
Or a or an old fat guy. Or an old fat guy. P and

and I know that, you know, you kinda came out of the fitness, you know, world and known supplement stores and all that stuff, but like it's a different when you're up there hiking in altitude, I mean, it you you've you've got to be physically and mentally, as you kind of talk about, ready for that. I mean, it's

Yeah, you're talking about hiking eight miles, right? You're eight eight mile hike, you know, in a in a mountainous terrain is is is is not like, you know, walking down to the circle K. You know, it's it's definitely straining on you. So I mean fitness Yeah. So I I don't I you know, I know a lot of people ask you about fitness and all that, and it's obviously part of part of your life, but ⁓ let's get into some of the areas and I mean our audience likes truth.

Kurt Belding (17:07)
Mm-hmm.

For sure.

Yeah, for sure.

Mm-hmm.

Brad Banyas (17:35)
Our our our audience wants something that that that they may not know of. They're not going to hear in in a mainstream media or, you know, they're going to hear one position or one ideology versus another. I mean, what are your thoughts on all this? ⁓ kind of trying to try to pro prohibit people from, you know, doing things that are pretty natural on public land, you know, hunting, fishing, you know, whatever. I mean, what what are let's get into it?

Kurt Belding (17:37)
Sure.

Yeah.

Brad Banyas (18:02)
I mean you're you're you're in the you're you're an e expert, brother. Tell us about it.

Kurt Belding (18:04)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. ⁓ you know, and I'm not I'm not an ⁓ I'm an intelligent guy, right? So I can see both sides of the story. Like I'm not I'm a redneck from Nebraska that loves hunting. So like I that yeah, I am that, but I'm an intelligent redneck, right? So ⁓ you know, I understand the side of the anti hunter of like, look, these are beautiful animals. Why do you want to go murder them? Like, why not let the natural ecosystem take care of itself? So let's release

Wolves, let's release grizzly bears, let's release these apex predators to manage the population and let it run on its own. Cool. I understand the concept, right? I'm not fighting against that. But what they're not taking in into consideration is humanity. Humans are part of that landscape. You know, in a perfect world, we'll call it Yellowstone, where like they've got apex predators, they have ungulants, they have deer, they have elk, and it's an ecosystem that happens.

Yeah, if you isolate an ecosystem, that can run pretty well. But when humanity is in that ecosystem, and then you have recreational people going hiking into that ecosystem, which is pushing animals, right? It's putting stress upon animals. And and then the other things you have to think about is well, in order for these animals to have the habitat to live in, that costs a lot of money to preserve animals' bedrooms.

Right. To put to preserve where they live. That costs a tremendous amount of money. So if hunting goes away and we try to run it just upon their structure of let predators be predators and it will balance out the ecosystem, well, humanity has a footprint and money is what is needed to allow these animals to continue living. Otherwise, they will go extinct. ⁓ and the money that's raised is from hunters.

98% of the money that's raised is from hunting. You know, hunting by buying a license, that money goes to the wildlife's habitat. And I'm talking about, hey, here are mule deer travel corridors to summer range to winter range. This is their birthing area where they they have, you know, their the fawns or the calves. Like money has got to help protect that. If we don't have money.

That won't be protected and those animals will go and stink, distinct, or like they'll they'll go away. Right. So if we're not raising it by hunters, which is by tags, by donations, by raffles, by ammo, by weapons, by everything that is purchased, where's that money going to come from to do that? It's got to come from taxpayers. So, anti-hunters, are you okay with forking up billions of dollars?

To make sure those animals have a good habitat to live in. You know, that's one side of it. And we go down a whole other side of just talking about food, right? So, like, if you're a vegan, a vegetarian, great, awesome for you. Congratulations. That's great. I have no bias to you at all. But besides the point that you just made of like, you're still killing animals, whether you like it or not. But if you eat meat, right? But if you eat any kind of meat,

Brad Banyas (21:18)
Absolutely.

Kurt Belding (21:21)
You are also contributing to the killing of animals. If you eat any steak, if you eat any chicken, if you eat eggs, like whatever it is, you're contributing to killing animals. So like you can't be on some high horse and saying, let's save all the animals when you're contributing to killing. You're just not personally killing them yourself. You're contributing to the monster of the the the money game of producing, raising animals to kill them when they're living in some crappy little pen.

in their own manure. Like I grew up on a cattle farm. I know exactly what that looks like. Like that's not a good life. Like that cow's not having a good life. He's not it's no Disney movie. They're not running free on some grassland pasture for thousands of acres, right? Like you know? So

Brad Banyas (22:03)
Yeah, they're lo they're

they're they're locked in a warehouse somewhere in the dark. Yeah. It's it's it's crazy to see even like if you've ever seen like, you know, industrial pig farming or anything like that, ⁓ slaughterhouses. I mean, the you know, ⁓ talk about it it I think what people don't realize is really it depends on w where they're at in in the terrain, where they're at in the country. But I mean, I know here in the southeast, I mean, you know

Kurt Belding (22:09)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (22:29)
Deer herds can get overpopulated, which is not a good idea. It it they you know consume most of the foliage they're gonna eat, they get sick, they get diseased. You know, you have to someone has to call the herd. Now, whether that whether that's a a state sanctioned, you know, government person, hunters alleviate that, right? Versus having a a trained, you know, hunter that works for whoever, right?

Kurt Belding (22:32)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Absolutely.

Brad Banyas (22:57)
the DNR or whatever, it's it's recreational hunters that that are doing that work to make sure that herd is ⁓ is the right it's healthy and it's the right size. So I don't think a lot of people understand that. I you know, and maybe if I wasn't a hunter, I I I probably wouldn't pay attention to it either. But there is some science to around to around this process to where hunting can show that it's actually better for the environment that

Kurt Belding (23:01)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Brad Banyas (23:23)
The environmental side may not want to hear that, you know, they may not want to buy that, but ⁓ there's probably some ⁓ a a a lot of science behind, you know, the licensing itself. So

Kurt Belding (23:23)
It is.

Yeah.

No, and it's a great point that you just brought up of like, okay, and let's call it pr you know, problem animals too. Whether it be a deer or mule deer or a mountain lion, a bear, you know, now we have problem animals. So you have to pay someone to go kill that problem animal, right? If you're hiring a local state or government official to go do it, it costs the taxpayers money to do it rather than raising revenue for the hunter to do it. So if you're gonna have to call a herd because it's overpopulated, you know, now you're

you're hiring someone, you're paying money for someone to literally go out and murder hundreds of animals and then not use the meat. Like you a lot of times they just let lay, right? So like, I mean, wha what's your ideology? Do you want to l allow ⁓ money to be raised to protect the animals and give them a better life? And then every hunter, ninety percent of them, eat the meat and then feed their family with it and enjoy that lifestyle.

Brad Banyas (24:12)
Right. absolutely.

Kurt Belding (24:30)
Rather do you want to hire and pay for some government officials to go to murder a bunch of them because they're overpopulated, right? So it's crazy, right? ⁓

Brad Banyas (24:31)
Right.

Yeah, it it well,

I kind of look at it this way. It's gonna happen either way. If if some like what's what's interesting to me is not really growing up as a you know, in the hunting world, right? Not by my choice, just I wasn't ⁓ you know, exposed to it. What's interesting to me is most of the people that I know that are true hunters are are are very conservation oriented. You know, they're not just going out and you know, shooting Bambi, right? And and most of the

Kurt Belding (25:04)
Mm-hmm.

Brad Banyas (25:05)
the hunters, thank God that I was, you know, around people that kind of really valued the whole process. I mean, you know, hey, you w you had to clean it, you had to process it, and then you ate it. And, you know, when my kids were coming up and I was getting them into hunting, and that was great because they grew that passion they passed on to me, my kids got it earlier, right? Or I got it later in life. And, you know, I remember the first time ⁓ my youngest son shot a deer and we, you know, we were in a stand and

You know, he's a good shot. He's been around guns. He knows guns. But you know, he was sitting there and he I could tell he was like, you know, like you you ha you have a thought in your mind, I'm about to kill something, right? And I could see him. I'm like, hey buddy, you know, if you don't want to do this, pal, it it's okay. Like you you you don't have to do it. Just just sit here, it's awesome. And he's like, my god, this is awesome, Dad. This is awesome, you know, this is amazing. We've got a you know, a bunch of deer around us.

Kurt Belding (25:58)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (26:01)
And he finally goes, I I I'm ready. I I I'm gonna do it. And he shot his first deer and he was excited and whatever. And we went down and then, you know, he was excited about it. I'm like, Okay, let's let's get it up and you're you're gonna clean it. And he was like, What? And to sit there, you know, it's one of those things when you when you're when you're when you're preparing the deer and and doing that on your own, you really have the impact of what it means. Like what

Kurt Belding (26:26)
Mm-hmm.

Brad Banyas (26:27)
what that means and the responsibility and the accountability. And I think if it's if you grow up that way, I mean I'm sure there's a few there's there's a few out there that just wanna shoot some stuff. That's awesome. But for most part, every true hunter that I know or really into it, they're they're not they're not just out there like slaughtering animals, you know, so

Kurt Belding (26:47)
Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I mean, great point. Like, first of all, the Game Parks Wildlife Commissions monitor the trags really well anyway, right? So like it's not like you can just go out and kill a bunch of stuff. Like they're they're tracking the herds to say, okay, we can take X amount of animals out of this herd and they allocate those tags, right? But no, that's great, man, with your son and it's great for him to it to be in that environment, say, Hey, this is awesome. I'm around a bunch of deer. They don't even know we're here. This is amazing. And give them the choice, hey, you could take one or not.

Brad Banyas (26:57)
Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Kurt Belding (27:17)
But after you take one, now like that you have a big responsibility to that animal to take care of what you just took. You took that animal's life. And there's plenty of times, Brad, that like I'm six miles deep on 13,000 foot on a on a mountain and I just killed an elk. And I'm like, God, this is gonna suck. Like getting this elk off the mountain, like it it almost breaks a guy, right? But like I feel the responsibility. I took this animal's life and I need to show it respect.

Brad Banyas (27:36)
Ha ha ha.

Kurt Belding (27:47)
And take every ounce of meat off the that mountain, bring it back to my house, take care of that meat and feed my family with it because that's the respect that that animal deserves, you know.

Brad Banyas (27:58)
Absolutely. I mean, it's, you know, it's one of these things too. I heard you talking about it no matter how many times. And like, you know, I I like to bow hunt. That's probably my favorite. ⁓ but the JIT, the it like you it the adrenaline rush of like like it's insane, you know, because the adrenaline rush of when something comes in or you're about to take a shot or whatever, it never gets old. It's like when you if you you have children, right?

People ask me, I have four children, and they're like, what's it like after the fourth kid? I'm like, It's just as amazing as like my first child. Like it's a like it's almost like a miracle. Like I can't the feeling, I I can't even describe it. And I still like I I you know, I heard you, I don't know, I listened to you on a podcast and you were talking about those jitters. It's like something I don't think you're ever non your adrenaline is always just through the roof. Do you still have that feeling on on most of the yeah.

Kurt Belding (28:29)
Mm-hmm.

yeah.

Brad Banyas (28:57)
It's crazy.

Kurt Belding (28:58)
yeah, man. Like, you know, I'm forty six years old. I've been hunting for probably forty of those years, right? Like I grew up super young, but like after probably lots of animals taken, I still get that nervousness before the shot. You know, and I love the excitement for me is the ⁓ the plan and the stock. Like how do I how can I get close enough to this animal to have the opportunity?

For a shot. Like that's the real thing for me. But like, okay, I'm in for the shot. Like, that's a lot of pressure, man. And then there's also the pressure of like, I need to make a good shot. I don't want to wound this animal and make this animal suffer. You know? So, like, yeah, I get that that nervousness, the that after shot dump of adrenaline, that high you get afterwards, if you accomplish something that's really, really hard to do. You know, that's the other misperception is like they think we're just going out and it's super easy to go kill something.

Brad Banyas (29:33)
Absolutely. Yeah.

Kurt Belding (29:53)
No, man, like ten percent of hunters kill things. Like it's not it it doesn't happen every time out. It's a hard thing to do, you know, so for sure.

Brad Banyas (29:57)
Well,

I and stalking is an an art, right? I mean, the wind changes, you know, they hear you and just like, you know, being out open like that, where you're you're like, Hey, we're we're track this thing three miles away, two miles away, you know, five hundred I mean, it's it's like i the statistically your chances of getting there and actually being in a good spot, I don't know what they are, but it it's pretty low, I'm sure.

Kurt Belding (30:26)
Very low. Yeah, very low. Absolutely. Yeah. So like, you know, I can get kind of heady about it of like f in order for me to take an animal typically, I kind of feel like and I don't want, you know, anti hunters probably definitely go after this, but I just kind of feel like that it was like ⁓ not meant to be, but like it this is a bounty that was given by the universe, God, whatever you want to say, could right. Because man, everything has to go right. You see an animal, you make a move on it, those animals are smart.

Brad Banyas (30:27)
So yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Kurt Belding (30:54)
That wink can change any time. They can see really well. They can hear really well. They're way smarter than what we are. Like they're s they're there to survive. That's their number one, right? So if I'm gonna take the animal, man, that's a like a very small percent chance of happening. And I kind of feel like, okay, the universe gave me this bounty. So here's your here's the bounty for you, and you better respect it, right? So and then there's the other side of it that I that I really like to think about. Like if you ate an apple right now, Brad, right? You ate an apple, you that that apple goes into your body, your body regenerates.

Brad Banyas (31:00)
absolutely.

Kurt Belding (31:24)
millions of cells every day, whether it be skin cells, hair cells, organs, whatever. It it regenerates all the time, constantly. That apple goes in your body, you use that apple for energy to rebuild those cells. And that apple becomes the cells. So if you eat a bunch of garbage, your body turns into garbage, right? Like so when I take an elk or a deer or a pronghorn home and I'm consuming that pronghorn or elk or whatever, that animal literally becomes my body. So I get to carry that animal along with me.

for I don't know, however many years, right. So there's a different like whole new level that you can think about this stuff, you know.

Brad Banyas (31:53)
Yeah. Yeah, well

Well, mean, it's the the whole Native American Indians and the spiritual side of of taking an animal and the way that you know, the way that they think about it. I mean, it was it's it's part it's it's somewhat spiritual in some ways in the way that people approach it. So, I mean, it it and you're not gonna get that if you've never experienced it. You so

Kurt Belding (32:11)
absolutely.

Yeah.

Brad Banyas (32:20)
People can have an ideology about one thing or another, but if if you've never experienced like the they they don't know. Like I we have my daughter, not a big hunter, right? Not a big hunter. But ⁓ I always I always use these cases. we always go pheasant hunting, not not too far out, like South Dakota. We'd always do pheasant hunting. Every we've gone out there, I don't know, for the last twenty eight years. And she said, you know, you know, she's not she wasn't a big

I wanna say she's anti hunting, but she wasn't a big hunter, right? And she's like, Dad, I'd like to go with you guys. You know, I'm the only girl out of three, you know, three other boys and y'all are going to do I want I like outdoors. I want to go. And ⁓ you know, she did it and ⁓ she had the experience and shot, you know, a couple birds and ⁓ she was like it was amazing. She's like, I'm I'm done, I did it. But she's like that it's an experience that I will like treasure. Like and she's like, I'm I don't

Kurt Belding (32:50)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Brad Banyas (33:14)
Have the urge to go do it a lot, but it was just something she goes, I kinda get it now. Like I kinda I kinda get it. You know? So

Kurt Belding (33:20)
Yeah. Yeah.

No, I what I got two things to say about that. One, the experience with your child, if there's something I'm not sure exactly what it was what it is, but a hunt with your dad or mom as a child will burn into your memory as something you'll never forget. When there's many a moments as as being growing up as a kid that like you just forget about it, right? They just don't for some reason they just don't sit. But I remember a lot of times

hunting with my dad or my mom. My mom hunted a lot too. That man, those memories, I cherish them and I you know, they're sitting right there. So when you take your daughter pheasant hunting, that's probably something that she'll never forget and she'll always think fondly of like hanging out with you doing that. Right. So

Brad Banyas (34:04)
⁓ absolutely. And she loves the out if she loves the outdoors. So I mean she she loves the outdoors. But what I think is really amazing, so tell me about starting starting the hunting TV s you know program. It like you 'cause it it really with what you're doing and what I've seen kind of from what I've watched, I mean, you're bringing someone along for that experience. It's and that's

Kurt Belding (34:09)
Mm-hmm.

Brad Banyas (34:30)
Pretty cool. So if someone has not, you know, been a hunter or whatever watching the show, they can basically, you know, kind of see what the whole thing's about.

Kurt Belding (34:39)
For sure. And if you don't mind, Brad, I had one thought I wanted to like just co ⁓ like get off my chest here before I jump into that question. I it's there's something I've been struggling with lately that I just don't resonate with a lot of people. And and I don't and I tell my wife I just don't like people, which that's not true. I like people, but I just don't man, I just can't relate with a lot of people. I I spent a lot of time in the city. In my twenties I live at a downtown Denver. I was I was just hung out in the city. But like

I cannot relate to someone that lives in concrete, goes stands in line to get in traffic, to work their job eight to five, to the hardest thing that they have to do in a day is maybe their one hour workout where they walking on a treadmill and lifting a little bit of weights. They're just so comfortable in society. And that I just don't think that's where humans were meant to live. Like in concrete, indoors, in a c on a computer, in lines in traffic, and not doing anything difficult.

And I just cannot relate with it. And I think that's where a lot of our disease is coming from, the weakness of our society. So, like, all right, this may transition now into let's get outdoors and do something hard, right? So, like my television show, and you know, there's a lot of television shows, a lot of hunting shows out there where I wanted to do something different, where I think maybe some shows are just I don't know if I'd say going wrong, but it's just not my opinion. I don't think you should show the Hollywood version of your hunt.

Brad Banyas (36:06)
Yeah.

Kurt Belding (36:06)
You know what

I mean? Like if you make a mistake and you don't show it because you're afraid of what people may think of you, I just don't think that j like it doesn't do justice justice to the person watching it. And what happens a lot of time is these hunters are watching social media. They're watching these hunting t television shows or whatever c content they're consuming off of YouTube. And all they're seeing is success. And they're seeing all these professional hunters be perfect every time. Perfect shots, no mistakes.

That's not reality, man. That's not how things go. There's always mistakes. There's no such thing as a professional hunter. Like I'm amateur still. I'm just on a different amateur level. I learn every time I go out. So when I'm filming these hunts, I show all the mistakes that I make, man. If I miss something, I miss something. Like that grizzly bear hunt we were talking about. My guide handed me his rifle. I'm a hundred yards out, about to shoot a Volkswagen, and I missed.

Brad Banyas (36:34)
Yeah.

Kurt Belding (37:01)
How do you miss a Volkswagen at 100 yards? I don't know, but I did and I showed it, right? That way, like a new hunter, someone that thinks they might want to go hunting, they can see, well, I'm not perfect. If I do make a mistake on the mountain, it's okay. Or, you know, you know, Kurt does it. He does it all the time. He still screws up all the time. But on the other side of it, then I get other hunters talking a bunch of crap, right? I'm like, cool, man, you can talk a bunch of crap. That's fine. But at least I'm being real and honest about.

Brad Banyas (37:21)
Absolutely.

Kurt Belding (37:29)
my hunt, right? I'm not just showing the Hollywood version of it.

Brad Banyas (37:33)
Well, I mean that that's, you know, ⁓ this conversations like this, you know, it's one of the things I I never aspired to be a podcaster. I really don't give a shit. I like talking to people, I like listening to their stories, I like hearing other perspectives. But I mean, ⁓ the thing that I didn't want to do is you see all these things where everyone lives in kind of a Disney World type environment, like where everybody everybody is perfect. I've never met a perfect person.

I've never met a person that didn't have skeletons in their closet. I mean, that's kind of what makes people people, right? And I think the fact that if if if someone's gonna score every time, then they're well, good good for you, right? But it's it's just not reality. And I think things like people just being open, like I think people are moving away just like you. You're kind of a solitude guy. I'm a very solitude guy. You see me, and people think, man, this guy is this guy's out all the time, he's partying all the time.

Kurt Belding (38:04)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (38:27)
He's I I'm the kind of guy that I I just want to go like I just want to most of the time I just want to sit in a room by myself, right? I mean, it's just but I feel like it's a responsibility for people to share the truth and to actually share real things. Like you you you talk about things that went wrong in your life, you know, you're kind of like, hey, I've reached a point, I don't want to do this anymore. And you know, every man in the world out there reaches a point in their life where they

Well, I don't, you know, I don't my wife said something about midlife crisis at 50. I honey, I ain't gonna make it a hundred. So it ain't a midlife crisis. I mean, I passed that. I that was that was like at 37, right? I I just think that people like everybody goes through that. Like, because everyone's just tired of the bullshit, man. Everyone's tired of the fabricated bullshit. And, you know, things like this, that I hope that this show, you asked me, do I have an objective? This I don't have an objective.

Kurt Belding (39:00)
Yeah. ⁓

Brad Banyas (39:24)
Hey, if you're part of our audience and you like it, great. If you're part of our audience and you don't, I don't give a shit. Like we'll come up with something else and talk about something. You know, we'll have a Disney character on next week. I don't give a shit. But my only point in that is, is I think you saying that a lot of men feel that way. ⁓ a lot of people feel that way. It that society has kind of lost its soul, right? And in your storytelling through your adventures of something that you love and and put your own money in it.

Kurt Belding (39:32)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Brad Banyas (39:53)
And it's a great show, by the way, very high quality in my mind. ⁓ that's cool. I mean, it's cool because it's real. Like it it's real. So, anyways, that's my two cents. People

Kurt Belding (39:55)
Thank you.

Yeah, thanks. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's great two

cents, man, and I'm gonna piggyback on that to say, you know, you made a point of like, you know, every g every man we'll just speak of man 'cause I I don't understand women a lot of time, so we'll just leave that.

Brad Banyas (40:17)
I've been married thirty five years and I don't either, so we're all good. Yeah.

Kurt Belding (40:20)
Yeah. I think

every man feels that, like you say, right? Like they feel like, man, I just don't really enjoy what I'm doing, or like I just feel stuck. I'm like, well, I got a family, I got a mortgage, like I you know, I don't want to change because it's a security. I can't make a risk, but like, fuck, man. If you don't like what you're fucking doing, do something different. You have the power to do it, just fucking change. Like grab your nutsack and fucking do it. Like stop complaining, stop bitching, get tough.

Brad Banyas (40:32)
Yeah.

Yeah, it it absolutely

Absolutely.

Kurt Belding (40:49)
And burn the ships. I say burn the ships, man. Make a decision like with you and your podcast, man. Burn the ships. You have no other choice but to succeed. There is no going back and be a man and do it, you know?

Brad Banyas (40:51)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, you know, that's been that's been, you know, we get to get into societal things, which I personally love because I I I think we're being propagandized all the time. And they started desen they started desensitizing boys, you know, a a long time ago. I mean, you know, you can't take a kid that, you know, most boys are, you know, active, they're visual, they're physical, they're whatever, and make kids sit in chairs all day and tell they're wrong or overdose them on Adderall or, you know, something because you

Kurt Belding (41:12)
For sure.

Mm-hmm.

Brad Banyas (41:31)
Because they won't sit in a chair and listen to some dipshit that doesn't even know what they're doing. So I mean, I I'm I'm a you and I could probably go off on some pretty hairy shit. ⁓ I I don't I don't believe in that. I mean, when we grew up, and I'm not saying it, you know, I'm not saying that it's about being a tough guy all the time, but when we grew up, like if someone had a problem, if you ran your mouth, someone got hit. And you know, it set a pecking order for you to say, look, you can't disrespect someone or just, you know, do whatever you want.

Kurt Belding (41:53)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (42:01)
And not have a repercussion or be accountable for whatever you did. And to me, like my kids asked me because, like, God, you know, they they banned, they banned dodgeball. I mean, for God's sake, it's gulls. I mean, you know, we just grew up in a different time. And I feel like kind of the old guy now, because my dad would tell me, you're like, dad, shut the hell up, you know. ⁓ you guys don't know what it you don't know what it's like. But I kind of feel that way because I do think our kids were robbed of think about just being outside.

Think about it from think about from a nature perspective or a hunting perspective or a sports perspective. They shut down the fucking world, man, for four years. And you don't think that psychologically, not just boys, affects girls, affects anybody. They shut the damn world down. And like, so, hey man, I'm with you. Like, yeah, you you can get tough or have a thick skin or follow along, but

Kurt Belding (42:30)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. ⁓

Mm-hmm.

Brad Banyas (42:55)
Sometimes the people that are telling you what to do don't have your best interest in mind. Absolutely. Probably ninety nine point nine percent.

Kurt Belding (43:00)
Yeah, most of the time. Yeah. Most

absolutely, man. Most of the time there's an agenda of some sort and whatever you're hearing is you're hearing it for a reason because whoever's in control of that media is telling you what they want you to hear to manipulate of some sort. We could do it, we can go down a huge rabbit hole in that, but but yeah, just but

Brad Banyas (43:18)
yeah. Yeah. We can do whatever we we can do whatever we fucking want. So I mean I I I don't give a shit. You can get in whatever you want, but

hey it's called the Salty F goat. We're in the McBastard studio. I don't give a shit. And the reality of it is, you know, the hardest thing I'm gonna tell you this 'cause it's I I've been in the technology space for a long time. Not not so much on entertainment or anything like that, but I I can't believe

Kurt Belding (43:26)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Brad Banyas (43:42)
Like the algorithms and the censorship and the shit, like we're we're not doing off the wall stuff. I mean, we're not it's not crazy. It might be on an edge, but it's just who we are. And I I I really my eyes were opened. You know, we've named a company Salt DMF, which may not have been a good idea, but ⁓ you know, the real the reality of it is like I I couldn't believe like shit that we were blocking. Like people were blocking us for stuff we were saying, and it wasn't like some off-the-wall stuff, and I was like

Kurt Belding (43:58)
Hmm.

Brad Banyas (44:11)
These are everyday work like this is bizarre. Like when we grew up, you you were you were loyal, right? You had honor, you know, friendship meant something. You never turned on your boys, like the community. Like everyone talks about community, but most of those people are full of shit. Like they they're they're full of shit. My only point in that was is I was shocked because I'd never been doing anything media. I didn't do any of the shit. Shocked.

Kurt Belding (44:28)
yeah.

Brad Banyas (44:38)
Of how much we got blocked or how much you know we were being ⁓ banned. We had a hat that we had an American Party goat hat that they they literally shut down an account. And it was a it was a collegiate design of a goat. And it's just so people need to wake the fuck up. But hey, to your point, brother, yeah. I mean, every men need to get some balls. Hey, no offense. No offense if you don't like controversy. I I get it, you know. I but

Kurt Belding (44:45)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Brad Banyas (45:08)
If if someone's gonna keep poking ya, maybe you oughta get up and, you know, do something about it. I don't know.

Kurt Belding (45:14)
Well, for sure, man. You look at the last generations, like, you know, I think we fall in a similar generation, right? And the generation before us, it men just keep getting weaker as the generations go. And I don't know if it's good times equal soft men, or if it's technology, or if it's a maybe a combination of everything, societal pressures of like, we don't want no ma you know, toxic masculinity, you know, the fight against that, right? Like, fuck, yeah. Like there's n

Brad Banyas (45:37)
I I I hate that word. I hate that yeah, I hate that word.

Kurt Belding (45:42)
There's a huge lack of masculinity. And I'm not talking about some dude that beats his wife and think that's masculinity or abuses her his kids. Masculinity is being a man and taking control of your you know, taking care of your family, taking care of your responsibilities, treating women correctly. You know, that's masculine stuff, but just not being a little pussy. You know what I mean? ⁓

Brad Banyas (46:03)
well absolutely. Well, you

know, the the divisiveness is it the divisiveness in my mind is controlled and systemized. I don't care if it's gender gender based, racist based, whatever. They don't want people to get along. They you you have you have to have an enemy. It has to be one side again the the green people against the whatever, ⁓

Kurt Belding (46:12)
Yeah.

⁓ yeah.

Brad Banyas (46:28)
Off purple people, whatever it is, they do not, we're all very similar. And I've met people, I deal with people all over the world, different religions, different cultures, different whatever. And I can tell you in all honesty, with the people that we deal with, they are no different than me or my family. They're doing stuff with their family, they're taking their kids to sports, they care about their kids, they care about providing a good living. There's very little difference, maybe than other what they eat.

Kurt Belding (46:30)
Mm-hmm.

Brad Banyas (46:59)
What they, you know, what they dress like or some of their cultural things that they do, you know, for whatever it is, religion or whatever it is. Other than that, if I sit down with all these different people, they're me. They may be a different, they may be a different color, they may speak a different language, they may talk funny to me or whatever, but we're pretty much the same. And that's the that's the lie.

Kurt Belding (47:20)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (47:22)
that people tell other people to keep them divisive and hey, you need to hate these people because they did this, or you need to hate now, don't get me wrong. There's assholes in every culture. There's there's all different colored people are assholes, you know. So that's humanity. And I think ⁓ if if they isolate you or break you apart, it it makes their job easier. So we're definitely getting banned after this one, but that's okay. Fuck it. Who cares? ⁓ Fuck it.

Kurt Belding (47:31)
For sure.

Yeah.

Well, man, to you know, Brad,

if you if you really look at it, right? Like the people in power are the politicians in government, right? That that's a lot of power there. But the only reason they have any power is be like the power comes from the people. We're the one electing a lot of these people in. And for them to make anything happen, they need the the vote of the people or they need the people behind it. But if we stand together as a whole unit, we're the most powerful, powerful force in the United States, right?

Brad Banyas (47:52)
Mm-hmm.

Kurt Belding (48:16)
So they need to divide, they need to divide and conquer. So, you know, ⁓ obviously a Democratic versus Republican, that's a very easy division. So one thing I started noticing a couple of years ago is my daughter's algorithm is completely different than my algorithm. Where when I'm watching some content, maybe Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, I'm, you know, it's showing me super Republican stuff, right? Very conservative of ideologies.

Brad Banyas (48:17)
Absolutely.

Kurt Belding (48:46)
Now I've taken the same topic and I look at my daughters, and we have conversations on this and thank God we can talk about without killing each other. But she's like, look what I'm seeing on my algorithm. This is the same topic, but it's a completely different story. So she's being fed the liberal left-wing democratic view. I'm being fed the democrat the Republican conservative view. And division is being created by what we're consuming. Right. So that, and you have to have that.

Brad Banyas (49:00)
Absolutely.

Kurt Belding (49:13)
To keep the people divided to be able to control and run the world. And then it's like, then you obviously see the things of like, hey, look what's happening in the world over here. But guess what? We're slipping in the back door over here as your attention is off somewhere else, right? Like I think people need to wake up to a lot of those things. And those are that's definitely happening, man. And that's definitely interesting, the division and the misdirection of shit, you know.

Brad Banyas (49:26)
⁓ yeah.

yeah. Well, yeah, those algorithms, yeah, they definitely well, they see they've got all your information, dude. They've got your demographics, where you went to school, what you know, they they have all this stuff. So I mean, that's easy for them to do that in the algorithms today. But I I think I always tell people, Hey, look, I'm a constitutionalist. I was raised conservative. You vote republic you you didn't have a choice, you vote Republican, Democrat. I was raised conservative, you always vote voted Republican, y'all whatever. I don't really get into politics, but I tell people, hey, I'm a constitutionalist, right?

And I don't I don't I don't really get I don't give a shit what side you're on or whatever, but if you're doing stuff that's gonna hurt the the bulk of the people, then you you I don't care what side you're on. I don't care who you are. But you're right. I mean unity unity's hard to everyone like a lot of people like to bitch and complain, dude. A lot of people like drama and you've been around people long enough. There's more people that love drama than

Kurt Belding (50:07)
I like that.

Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Banyas (50:31)
than love the truth. And there's more people that want to stir the drama up because just back to the accountability thing that you were talking about, just do what you need to do, take care of your business. They don't want to do that because they they perceive that's too hard or they don't have the confidence to do it. So it's easier just to get on the sludge rail and, you know, start pushing sludge out the back of the truck. So there I I this is the most political I've been, Dawson. ⁓ I don't I because I don't give a sh I yeah. No.

Kurt Belding (50:42)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

You know, I I never used to be political at all.

I it's weird. I I didn't get political until I hit, you know, in my 40s, where I usually I don't give a shit, you know, like whatever. As long as it's not I call it my happy little bubble, right? Like my world is what I see. I don't care what goes on out outside of my world. If it affects my world, now you're in my bubble, now that we're gonna have problem, right? Like that's how I used to be. Now I'm like, okay, I'm branching out and getting a little more political.

Brad Banyas (51:01)
No, I don't I don't give a shit.

Yeah.

Well it's

Kurt Belding (51:24)
And I just find myself just being a little bit more charged on things than I used to be, you know.

Brad Banyas (51:25)
Yeah.

Well, you know, I think be you Yeah, and I think you you sometimes you have to whoops, I think we got a delay. ⁓ I think you have to be because ⁓ some of the the decisions that people make from a legal side or whatever it may be, ⁓ impact things that you're doing. I mean, impact things around your livelihood. You're you're a hunting TV producer, that's your business. I mean, so

These things that are going on from a legal and law perspective can it can literally aff affect your business. And I'll go back to COVID and everybody hates when I do that. They're like, that's old. I'm like, I'll never forget it because it put millions and millions of small businesses out of business. Like it it it it put it put millions of people like you and I that worked hard, didn't do anything wrong, they're gone. It and it you know, they're gone. So

Kurt Belding (52:15)
Yes.

Yep. And it's

for sure. And I at the time of COVID hit, I owned a r s a retail chain of sports nutrition stores. And when the government forced a shutdown of business, I posted something saying this is this is gonna be really bad to the economy and it's gonna be really bad for small business. Like this is this is really detrimental. And I got a lot of hate on that be of people saying, Look, Kurt, it sounds like you don't

care about people that are dying from COVID. Like you don't care about these people's lives. I'm like, you know, valid point. People died from COVID. I get that. ⁓ but what you just did wrecked millions, millions of lives financially. And you're a hundred percent right. Like it hugely affected us. Very bad, you know.

Brad Banyas (53:12)
Yeah, it and but it bothers me. I keep bringing it up. I'll bring it up every time is because we talk to a lot of entrepreneurs. I mean, this shows this show's eclectic. You know, we might have an athlete in here, someone in the hunting industry, someone, you know, whatever they're doing. ⁓ it it it affected so many people that like it you you can't just sweep that shit under the rug.

Right, I saw something really funny about the the with the Hontavirus or whatever. And ⁓ it it it said well the Hunter virus is is now been taken away by the aliens because the American people didn't give a shit and they weren't gonna buy it, so they just took it off. I just thought it was a bit like a funny meme, you know. I was like, yeah, that's true. That kinda died real quick, right? Hey, it ain't happening again, fellas. So good luck. But but yeah.

Kurt Belding (53:48)
Ha ha.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is

funny how we're becoming quite desensitized to a lot of shit now. Right? Before we're the society is way more sensitive to things are going on politically. Now we're like kind of starting to wake up a little bit, like, mm, I'm not believing everything that I hear. So whatever I'm watching on the news, I don't think I trust you guys. This new virus coming out. Yep, we've been down that road. We're not buying into that shit.

Brad Banyas (54:17)
Yeah.

Kurt Belding (54:19)
You know what I mean?

Brad Banyas (54:19)
Yeah.

Kurt Belding (54:19)
Like we are becoming a little bit desensitized to all the propaganda and all the bullshit that's going on.

Brad Banyas (54:24)
Yeah.

Well, it's awesome because you can just grab your bow and say, Hey man, I'm I'm I'm I'm going off into the mountains. Y'all let y'all let me know if all this shit burns down, I'm I'm gonna be gone. And that and that's another that's another great thing that I, you know, I'm just telling people that haven't experienced ⁓ hunting or the outdoor not just hunting, the outdoors, fishing, fly fishing, getting out, you know, whatever, kayaking, whatever you're doing, is it's it's such it's such a

Kurt Belding (54:34)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (54:53)
like release when you're sitting out in the middle of a river and you're just there fishing, regardless of whether you catch a fish. It's it's like so like one solitude, like holy shit, like this, this is just awesome. Like there's no phone. There's no one nagging on you. There's no bullshit about, you know, whatever ideology that someone's pushing with you on that day. And I just encourage people, anyone, you know, the my take on this is just encourage people to

Kurt Belding (54:55)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Brad Banyas (55:22)
Go experience the outdoors, man, whatever you're doing. What whatever you're fishing, rafting, you know, what skeet shoot whatever the hell you're doing. You don't have to go out and try to shoot a grizzly bear, but I mean that might be cool, but definitely bring a gun. You got you got a lot of balls, man. I I you know, that's one thing I'm like my father in law and them did a lot, they do a lot of elk hunting as well. And ⁓ you know, one night they had they had

Kurt Belding (55:35)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Brad Banyas (55:49)
you know, horsed in somewhere and they were in the middle of nowhere. And he said, you know, there's not many times. I this guy, he was in Vietnam. I mean, he's he's seen a lot of shit, right? He goes, I'll have to be honest with you. When I looked over and the guide had an AK set 47 laying on his chest, I'm like, what is that for? He goes, wait, you'll see. And he said that night, the bears were just in and all over. And he was like, it's like first time I he's like it's first time I'd like ever been like, ⁓ shit. Like, you know, shit, this is scary. So

Kurt Belding (56:11)
my gosh.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Brad Banyas (56:19)
So

Kurt Belding (56:20)
Yeah, and and nature doesn't need to be that scary, but you still need to be aware what's going on and ⁓ but yeah to your point, like getting out of nature, there's a lot of science behind getting in nature. And there's a lot of science around the electrical currents of trees and plants that when you touch a tree, that resets your electrical current. There's a lot of science obviously behind sunlight, the distress of it, the physicality of it, you know, like you said, you know

Now I'm not worried about all my stresses and and problems and worries. I have one focus. Either I'm hiking to here or I'm after this animal or I'm trying to catch this fish and you su hyper focus. But it's such a cleansing feeling. It's like for me, the the process is day one. I'm excited, I'm in the mountains and or wherever I'm out in nature. It's about day three that I see the best benefits from being immersed in nature, where now I'm starting to feel like I'm part of the ecosystem.

of where I'm at. I don't feel like I'm an alien to the ecosystem of where I'm at. And I feel like I'm a part of it. And but when I come back from an adventure, man, it's like a complete cleanse. It's a cleanse on my I feel like my electrical system, my soul, my psyche, like, you know, it puts things in perspective of like, man, I need to be I need to step up my husband game. I need to step up my father game, you know.

Brad Banyas (57:38)
⁓ absolut Absolutely.

And well it's phys it's physical too. I mean it's physical straining too. It's good for you to get, you know, today we're so sedentary, right? You know, sitting sitting behind computer desk or whatever. And it it's just it's just good for the soul, good for your body. Yeah, my n my neighbors think it's weird when I go out and ground naked in the morning, but I mean I don't you know, I told to get over it. ⁓ I'm just kidding. ⁓

Kurt Belding (57:48)
Uh-huh.

Yeah. ⁓ You can't have any of that clothing impeding your electrical current, huh?

Brad Banyas (58:08)
I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. No, well well the

Kurt Belding (58:08)
Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Banyas (58:11)
the the pol the police were only called once. So but ⁓ I I thought they couldn't see. So well man, you're you're you're you're ⁓ you know you're you're amazing in what you're doing and how how was it to start because I I told you before the show we we kind of were working on this new kind of brand owned broadcasting platform called Roe One X. Sorry for the shameless plug, but I'm interested in like

Kurt Belding (58:19)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (58:37)
just putting on and producing ⁓ a a TV show, like what is that like for for for someone who wants to get out there? Maybe they have, you know, a kind of a background like you and it could be in fishing, could be in whatever they're doing. Like what what was that like and how how how how did you kind of just say, I'm gonna I'm gonna build a TV show. I'm gonna like was that a a a an arduous thing? Or was it really

Kurt Belding (58:59)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (59:04)
difficult for you, money wise, all that kind of stuff. I'm just curio I'm curious. I'm not yeah.

Kurt Belding (59:08)
Yeah.

No, it's a great question, man. And ⁓ you know, like I said, I've been entrepreneurial most of my life. So the the basic structure that I understand is you may have a plan. Let's call it filming a fishing show, or I want to bring a camera out with me and film while I'm fishing or hiking or whatever it might be, and I want to start a YouTube channel. The basic was what's going to happen is you're going to fail a lot. A lot. It's going to suck.

You're gonna get punched in the face day after day. You know, but the reality of is every time you fail, you learn and you adjust. So, like when I first started filming, it was just some self-filming stuff. I used a GoPro and I had no idea how to run my camera equipment, which made the hunting and fishing suck because then I was not killing anything and it's messed up my hunts and the footage was terrible and I like

accidentally hit slow mo or like high speed when I shouldn't like it was absolutely terrible, Brad. But I just didn't give up, man. I just kept pushing forward of like, okay, well, that I just got punched in the face there. Learn that. Don't do that again. And you just keep doing it again. And yeah, like it took me five years to really figure it out, man. Like most people don't last three months when they're trying to do something new. Like so you know like by game plan or business plan number one is not going to work.

It's it's the game plan or business plan one hundred and thirty seven that's actually going to start to work for you. Right. So like it didn't get a little more tactically. Like we have to learn camera gear. You have to learn how to hunt with camera gear. If you have a camera person with you, they have to know how to hunt also. Otherwise you're babysitting a camera guy and saying, Stop yelling or stop being loud. Don't stand up and look at the animal, right? Like like Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Banyas (1:00:55)
Hey you you can't take a shit right there right now, bud. You got you gotta hold it. ⁓

Kurt Belding (1:01:01)
So it was a huge learning

curve, man, but just like your podcast, just like your guys' business, I guarantee you your first game plan didn't work. And it's like the hundred and fiftieth game plan that, like, okay, now things are starting to work, you know.

Brad Banyas (1:01:13)
absolutely. It's so funny because I people get tired of me saying this, but you you validate it, so so thank you very much for validating it. ⁓ I always tell people if you're gonna do something, you have to give it five years. And and people look at me like, are you inside? Like, look, I've been doing a lot of shit for 30 plus years, man. And it before we get really

Kurt Belding (1:01:27)
Mm-hmm.

Brad Banyas (1:01:38)
It's not just you might have a good thing, you might be going, whatever, but to get any really momentum or awareness, that first one, two years, you're like you're saying like you're just feeling shit out. You're trying to find your tribe, your audience, you know, messaging. And that no one come you can't put that shit in Chat GPT and come out with, okay, just build me a billion dollar business. I love that shit. I love hearing that shit because that is the biggest crock of shit to all you young people out there. You are being sold a a ⁓

Kurt Belding (1:02:02)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (1:02:07)
book of goods that is bullshit. So don't think you're gonna go on Chat GPT or Claude and do a billion dollar business and and sit there in your in your skivvies eating Skittles or whatever and you're gonna be a tycoon tomorrow. It's not happening. So but anyways.

Kurt Belding (1:02:21)
Yeah. No.

Man, to your point, I am an AI advocate. I use a lot of AI in my business. It makes things a lot easier. But if I plugged into my claw or chat, whatever, hey, ⁓ how do I become successful at a podcast? How do I become successful at filming hunts? It'll give you a pretty decent game plan. But you have to fucking execute the game plan. And when that game plan doesn't work, you gotta k write up another game plan, right? Like so if you can't execute, nothing's gonna work. You know? So

Brad Banyas (1:02:37)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I absolutely.

I took a picture of myself and said, What are the chances of this guy making it as a podcast? And it was not good.

An old guy in a beard? Well, nobody wants to hear this guy pontificate. Hey, dude, go go go wash lettuce at Wendy's. But yeah, no, man. It so well, dude, I I I love the fact of what you're doing and ⁓ just how you're doing it and your story behind it, and it's just it's amazing. I'd love to get tell a little bit about

Kurt Belding (1:03:08)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (1:03:23)
For you guys on the business side, because you're guiding too. I love it. You're kind of you're verticalizing your business, right? You know, you're you're hunting, you've got your a TV show, and then you guys offer ⁓ you know, basically hunt services. So t let's talk about that and get it out there. Cause I know a lot of people that would probably wanna probably want to get out there with you guys.

Kurt Belding (1:03:29)
Uh-huh.

Yeah, no, for sure. I appreciate that plug and allow me to talk about my business, right? So I've always thank you. I I've learned in entrepreneurship throughout my years of just trial and error and screwing a bunch of stuff up is if I keep things centralized and spinning off each other, it it stays as one topic. So like in my sports nutrition realm, I had owned sports nutrition stores. Well then I started creating my own ⁓ manufacturing my own supplements and then I started making my own meal preps.

Brad Banyas (1:03:47)
Absolutely. It's about you, brother.

Kurt Belding (1:04:11)
And I s and then I brought in videographers and designers to do my own advertising. Then I started doing my own you know, ad creative agencies. Like everything spun off each other. So I have the same concept with the hunting. I wanted to go on really cool hunting adventures and film it. Had no idea how if I'm gonna make money or not. I started doing that and I realized like I'm probably not gonna make much money on just brand sponsors. Right. That doesn't really that's not a thing really that much anymore.

So how else am I make money? I'm like, well, shoot, I'm already building some cool relationships, going on some badass adventures. Other people want to do that too. So I started to like, so I started like ⁓ connecting them with outfitters, and then outfitters would give me a referral fee. And these are these are guys that I've hunted personally with. I know they're great guys that run a good operation. The client is looking for an adventure, but they're in fear because there's a lot of bad outfitters out there that will just take your money and walk you around the mountain.

So instead of them doing all the labor and all the work, they just come to me and say, Kurt, you've been on this, you've experienced it. Would you recommend it? And I say yes or no, or let me find you something that does work well for you. Get them connected, and I make a referral fee from the outfitter, right? So like the the business principle behind behind it is pretty simple, pretty easy. and then you obviously you gotta throw in some good tactics of marketing, running a good website, SEO. I use AI for my meta ads and running an AI agent to be able to appointment set for my sales.

our consultant team, right? And scaling a business. How do you scale a business? Well, you have to increase inventory, but you also have to increase some labor on the consultant side and then the marketing and like, you know, there's all the tactics that go in it. But the gist of it is I'm I'm doing cool adventures. If you want to do a cool adventure, I have the place for you. It's been vetted. You'll have a great time. There you go.

Brad Banyas (1:05:56)
Right, sold, man. That that was a great that that's sold. Yeah, I have I have I have so many people that ask, and you're right, you know, a good outfit or it's just kinda like you one of my kids just went fishing and he was like, I don't know, we've been out before, but like we didn't catch any fish. And I was like, Well, that guy was more worried about your where your ⁓ he didn't want you to have your phones to pinpoint, you know, where you guys were. Why didn't you tell him to quit worrying about where the where the you know the pinpoint was and just catch fish? That would have been better. So ⁓ well dude

Kurt Belding (1:06:00)
Ha

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Brad Banyas (1:06:24)
Well, Kurt, I hope you I hope you've enjoyed it. I mean, we're we're ⁓ we're big on entrepreneurship, big on people just doing really cool shit, but also people that are true to themselves, right? And you know, our our whole get up is just you know, just be yourself. You know, it doesn't doesn't matter what you are. You don't you don't have to be hunting elk or hunting grizzly to do cool stuff. You can do whatever. But just be your damn self. And so that's what we're about, brother. I hope I hope you you're in the you're part of the Salty MF family now. So

Kurt Belding (1:06:39)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (1:06:54)
We'll stay with ya and ⁓ we we'd love to continue to ⁓ I need to get out there and see you guys. It'll be a lot of fun.

Kurt Belding (1:07:00)
Heck yeah, man. That'd be great. I'd love to come in studio sometime and hang out with you guys. And if you ever want to go on an adventure, you know who to talk to. But you're right. Like as soon as you stop worrying about what other people think about you, it's a lot pretty free yeah, that's freeing, man. Just be who you are and don't apologize for it. Yeah, it's great.

Brad Banyas (1:07:17)
Yeah. Yeah. You know, the real reality of it is ⁓ most people don't like you anyways. They just don't tell you. That's what I that's what I've learned. They they think if you're in a position of power in a position of whatever, they they kinda I guess they kinda facilitate you sometimes. But the reality is they they don't y you know, care about what your family thinks about you or your wife or girlfriend or whatever or or good buddies. But ⁓ you know, my dad always just tells Hey man, if you can count the number of ⁓

Kurt Belding (1:07:23)
Right.

Brad Banyas (1:07:44)
True friends on one hand when you die, you've had a good life. So there's only five fingers on one hand. So that that message sat in my brain. Like I knew I got what he was saying to me. Like you you're you're you're not at your funeral. It's amazing when you see ⁓ all these people that pass, who really is there at their funeral of who said they were really great friends with them and good friends with them, but who the real people that are there. And ⁓ so hey, be one of those people.

Kurt Belding (1:07:50)
Yeah.

That's great point.

Brad Banyas (1:08:13)
Be one of the be be one of the five

Kurt Belding (1:08:14)
For sure. I'd like it.

Brad Banyas (1:08:15)
fingers. One of the five fingers, man. Well, brother, if you don't if hey, tell it tell everybody just in closing where they can get to you and so and we'll put all this in the notes, but I always like to do it just so you can ⁓ whoever's listening can spark their mind.

Kurt Belding (1:08:19)
I like it. That's great. Great advice.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, thanks. ⁓ you know, the website's the easiest place to go to, Western Obsessions TV.com, where you can see a lot of the television episodes. You can see some of the hunt adventures that we offer. ⁓ if you kinda want to see what I do day to day, like some of those hard workouts or some of the dumb stuff I do, that's like an Instagram, Facebook, TikTok thing, you know. So you could check that out too.

Brad Banyas (1:08:47)
Ha ha.

That's awesome. Well, Kurt, you're part of part of part of the brotherhood now, man. I appreciate you taking the time to be with us, and ⁓ we'll definitely stay in touch.

Kurt Belding (1:08:59)
Thanks, Brad. Appreciate you, man.

Brad Banyas (1:09:01)
salty nation, that's it.