Good Neighbor Podcast: Pittsburgh
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Pittsburgh. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Leila Carter helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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Good Neighbor Podcast: Pittsburgh
E17: Luxury Hunting goes Global with Joe Rossi's Wildside Adventures
What makes Joseph Rossi with Wildside Adventures a good neighbor?
What happens when a lifelong outdoorsman with a knack for storytelling decides to share his global connections with fellow adventure seekers? Joe Rossi's Wildside Adventures emerges as the answer—a luxury hunting and fishing tour company born from passion rather than mere business opportunity.
Rossi's remarkable journey unfolds across this captivating conversation, revealing how his 35-year corporate career at Emerson Electric provided the perfect backdrop for international exploration. His natural curiosity led to weekend hunting and fishing excursions that eventually sparked a decade-long television production showcasing outdoor adventures. Though the TV career ultimately proved unsustainable, the relationships forged with premier lodges worldwide became the foundation for Wildside Adventures.
From modest beginnings with just eight partner locations, Wild Side Adventures now boasts 45 carefully vetted lodges spanning every continent. Rossi's approach stands apart in the travel industry—he personally experiences 60-70% of the destinations he recommends, eliminating the guesswork that typically accompanies expensive adventure planning. His clients, primarily 50-80 year olds with the means and desire for exceptional experiences, benefit from this meticulous attention to detail.
The conversation takes a particularly fascinating turn when Rossi addresses hunting misconceptions, especially regarding African safaris. With passionate eloquence, he explains how regulated hunting has dramatically increased wildlife populations while providing essential protein to villages where children would otherwise go without. His firsthand accounts of delivering meat to grateful communities reveal the profound humanitarian impact these adventures can have.
What truly distinguishes Wildside Adventures is Rossi's commitment to personalization. Whether crafting a couples retreat in Panama with activities ranging from deep-sea fishing to yoga, or designing a South African itinerary featuring hot air balloon rides and game drives, each experience is tailored to exceed expectations. His story of transforming adamant non-hunters into enthusiastic participants illustrates his unique ability to open minds through authentic experiences.
Ready to discover what the world has to offer beyond the ordinary? Visit wildsidejoe.com and join the growing community of adventurers who've discovered that the best journeys begin with trusting an experienced guide.
To learn more about Wildside Adventures go to:
Wildside Adventures Travel Services
(412)352-8703
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lila Carter.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a luxury hunting and fishing tour company? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, joe Rossi, with Wild Side Adventures. Joe, how's it going?
Speaker 3:I'm doing very well. It's been raining a lot in Pittsburgh, but we all know what that's like, right?
Speaker 2:Oh, certainly, yeah, it's a season for it, and everyone forgets how to drive whenever there's a little bit of rain, it seems. Well, we're excited to learn all about you and your business. Tell us about your organization.
Speaker 3:Well, wildside Adventures Travel Service was started about five years ago during my actual real job. I was working for a company called Emerson Electric for 35 years, but I've hunted and fished all my life and when I started working in the utility industry I got to do a lot of traveling throughout North America and then eventually all over the world and eventually all over the world and started to couple my trips, weekends and extra day here and there to hunt or fish with friends, clients and I had the luxury of being able to travel all over the place and I got to see some really exciting things. Back in 2005, I got this just wild idea that I wanted to produce a television show about the outdoors and about hunting and fishing and you know, wild game cooking was a segment that I had on the show and I did that for for 10 years. I started this I'll try this and see what this is all about had no idea how to edit, no idea how to use a professional camera, so I went and read and read and learned and actually learned in a lot of college dorms with friends that had kids that were going to school for videography and cinematography. So I learned how to edit from these, uh, young people and learned how to uh, you know, produce a show and, uh, started doing it on my own and it actually lasted for 10 years and over the course of that 10 years I made a lot of friends and developed a lot of relationships with with high-end fishing lodges and hunting lodges all over North America. And after the 10 years it just got a little too expensive and sponsorships were tough to get and I decided to put an end to the TV career.
Speaker 3:But I had all these contacts and all these people and I called them a little bit at a time and said hey, you know, would you guys be interested in me booking and sending clients to your lodge? I've been there. I really like it. I think it would be something that people would enjoy, and so I started doing that and I started out with about eight or nine lodges with the idea of keeping it small and just specifying and going into particular areas of trout fishing or deep sea fishing and things like that. Well, I think my website right now I have 45 lodges, so it just mushroomed over the last five years and a lot of people that own lodges have been contacting me. They see my Facebook and Instagram and they talk with people who I've sent on different trips.
Speaker 3:So now I have have lodges all over the world, um, and I've been to a lot of them. I haven't, um, I've been all over, uh, north america, from from the arctic circle, and then south america, central america, all the way down to the tip of argentina and all points in between, um, hunting and fishing in both of those um, and then I've got lodges up in iceland and I have lodges in ireland and denmark, and you name it just about any place on the planet you could think of uh, and over the last uh, over the last two to three years, I retired from my, uh, my regular job. So now I'm doing this full time and I am so busy. It's uh, but it's a passion, it's something that I don't even consider work. I spend hours and hours here, you know, setting up trips, and I don't know if you, if anyone, has had a chance to look at my Google reviews, but there's there's about 50, 55 reviews on there and there's not one that's less than five, five star.
Speaker 3:So I take a lot of pride in customer service and showing people things that they would never have the opportunity or the chance to see because they knew nothing about it. So that's kind of where you know I'm a one man show. I have some family that helps me do some of the graphic design. My daughter's into that and she does that. She actually worked for a safari company in South Africa now and she met her husband when I took her on a hunting trip and ended up, you know, they ended up talking with each other and eventually got married and now they live in South Africa six months out of the year and they live in the United States six months out of the year. So it's been great and I I'm really having a lot of fun, um, and I I'm getting more and more into some entertainment, entertainment, photo, safari kind of things where hunting is involved.
Speaker 3:And I understand 100% that everyone's not a hunter and everybody doesn't like hunting and that's fine, I have no issues with that. So I took I took the Africa thing because I think Africa people are afraid of Africa, people are afraid to experience it and go there because they hear, you know the media and they see TV and you know things like that. But I've already sent at least a dozen groups to South Africa and other parts of Africa without hunting or fishing, south Africa and other parts of Africa without hunting or fishing, just sightseeing Cape Town and Victoria Falls and Kruger National Park and P Lonsberg National Park. So I actually have a group I'm working on right now, 34 people going to Africa next spring. So you know I've been quite, very busy with it and expanding into, you know, some things outside of that realm of hunting or fishing, but my primary focus is hunting and fishing.
Speaker 2:Wow, that is brilliant. So did you get into the business through the TV show, or what initially sparked your interest in this?
Speaker 3:business, just the fact that I had so many friends and contacts in the industry through the tv business and I just hated to let it die and fade away. You know, I wanted to do something with it and I always had, you know, people that watched my show and it was a local broadcast. It was on on fsn pittsburgh for a while and root sports. You know the tri-state area, but if you had a national package to fox sports then you saw it all over the country and I had a lot of people calling saying, wow, that was really cool. How can I do that? Can I go there? What do I need to do to to go on that trip? And so that's kind of how the travel industry business started.
Speaker 3:I didn't want to give it up, I didn't want to get out of the industry and, like I said, I have so many friends all over the place and I have friends in Argentina and friends in Belize and friends in Mexico, just about any place I go. I've been there more than once. I just got back the other day, on Sunday morning, I got back from Cuba. That was my sixth trip to Cuba with clients and just fascinating. So you know, I just I love the interaction with people. I love the international flair and different countries and the cultures and I'm really into that kind of thing and I like sharing it with clients.
Speaker 2:Excellent, Joe. What are some myths or misconceptions in your industry?
Speaker 3:I think one of the biggest ones misconception is hunting. Hunting could be very, very controversial. You know I get a lot of I don't want to call it hate mail, but I get a lot of, you know messages like how could you do that, how could you, how could you kill those beautiful animals? And and I think it's a you know, it's education, a lot of it. Sure, hunting is hunting and you are taking an animal's life, but, but especially in Africa, africa only has animals because of hunting and that sounds crazy and it sounds confusing, but the fact of the matter is 99% of Africa's revenue is generated by hunting. Revenue is generated by American hunters and what happens is it the? Um, the property owners who own some of them are 200 000 acres, which is huge. Um, most of them, you know, they own 15, 10 000, 8 000, 20 000 acres. It generates revenue to manage their herds and it gives them revenue to protect the animals from poachers.
Speaker 3:And about 25 years ago hunting was banned in South Africa because there were so many groups against it. So when they finished hunting there, within 10 years, the population went down a hundredfold because the animals were being just brutally killed for horns and tusks and ivory and and everything. The meat went to waste and they found out that you know a population of animals that decreased that much. There was a problem, so they reintroduced hunting again back in I want to say the 90s, and the population of animals in South Africa at that time was 200,000 animals. Today there are over 20 million.
Speaker 3:So it's conservation, but you know people always misconstrue conservation with killing and say how could that be the one and the same? And then the you know the educational aspect of that is I've talked with so many people who are anti-hunters and didn't appreciate hunting and when I would sit down for them for a half an hour and explain the benefits, they go oh, I never knew that. That's fascinating, wow, I'll have to tell other people about that. So I think that when more people understand that and I'm not saying anybody that doesn't hunt is no good, or I totally respect everybody's opinion, if you don't like to hunt.
Speaker 3:That's fine. But where I have some issues is when people say, oh my God, how could you kill that animal? That's disgusting. You're, you're an awful person, but yet and I've been showing pictures of children in South Africa that the safari company I work with feeds hundreds and hundreds of children, starving children, tens of thousands of pounds of meat every day, and so everything goes to use. You know obviously you saw my trophies in my game room. You know I get the benefit of doing that hunt and I get the benefit of the trophies, but I also get to eat everything that's in this room. Pretty much I have had some of it to eat and the rest of it the skin, the bones, every part of that animal goes to the local villages and the amount of food that is provided that these kids, they will never see a steak, they will never eat chicken, they will never, you know, pork and some of the things that we just take for granted. They eat wild game meat and that's their total 100% source of protein. So when you see that and I've been to some of these villages and and actually dropped off a 50 gallon garbage bag full of meat just a bag and when you put that down. You would think that somebody gave them, you know, a $10 million house and an airplane and a boat. They, they, just, they. Just just to see the looks on their face and to listen to the way they thank you, and just profusely. It's very humbling and it's very emotional. It's. It's tough to see that. You know, and you know when, when things like that happen, it makes you feel so good that you're helping in a way that some people might think is weird, you know, or strange, but I enjoyed.
Speaker 3:I, you know, when the first time I went to Africa was in 2019. And that was a bucket list thing for me. It was something I want, always wanted to do. I wanted to go hunting in Africa and I said, okay, that's, that's going to be a one and done, I'll go over. You know, I'll do it, I'll see it, I'll experience it and then I can check it off the list.
Speaker 3:Well, I just came back in May. I was there for a month. That was my sixth trip to Africa, to South Africa. My daughter and son-in-law are living there right now this time of year because it's their hunting season, and I love it, absolutely, love it, absolutely love it. I plan to go back at least once a year for as long as I can get on an airplane and travel. It's fascinating and you know, and for the non-hunting people, I love taking them there to show them the animals, to show them the different parts of the country, how beautiful it is, how friendly the people are, and you know just what an experience it is to go to see that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Wow, what great insight that you had, joe, and how profound. To kind of address you know the elephant in the room, if you will, when it comes to you. Know a hunting company and kind of these kind of misconstrued ideas surrounding it. So I love that you just directly addressed that. So we know marketing is the heart of the business. Who are your target customers and how do you attract them?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I am working with a company out in Nevada that's doing my website and my Google and search engine optimization, instagram, facebook and that kind of thing my website and my Google and search engine optimization, instagram, facebook and that kind of thing. And I'm not one of the younger generation that can just pick up your phone and go through and create an Instagram page. I'm an old guy, I know how to use a computer, I can carry my phone, but so I have people doing that and my target audience is mostly 50 year old to 75, 80 year old. Um, you know, ladies and gentlemen, and the, the thing that really astounded me in the, especially in the fly fishing industry how many women are fly fishers and how many women travel the world. And it's really a cool thing to see, uh, when you go on a trip and there's a bunch of ladies that are fly fishermen and fisher ladies or whatever you call them. But it's uh, uh, it's fun to see that. And, um, you know, being that I'm only a single, um, you know single person, company, one, just me um, I don't have a huge budget to you know market and so I I am building, I have been building my business pretty much organically.
Speaker 3:I get a lot of you know, google, um, inquiries, uh, and that kind of thing. But you know what? One of the one of the points that you know I wanted to make you ask how to, how did my business grow, and everything? Uh, if you I don't. I don't know what your hobbies are or where you like to go, if you like to travel, but I know that 99.9% of all people, the first thing they do is okay, let's see, I want to go on a scuba diving trip in Tahiti which, by the way, I do scuba diving trips too. So you Google it scuba diving in Tahiti, right, and 25 lodges will pop up. So now you're sitting there going oh, oh, my God, 25. How do I know if this one's good? How do I know what this one offers? How do I know if I'm getting ripped off? How do I know if these people are just blowing smoke? How do I know if it's a quality organization? How do I know if they're safe? How do I know if their food's going to be good and I'm not going to get sick? So when you're planning a trip that will cost you between five and ten thousand dollars for one week per person, the guessing game is is mortifying, because you see everything on the Internet. How do you know who to believe? How do you know that that's what you're looking for? So what I try to do is a lot of I would say probably 60 to 70% of the lodges on my website.
Speaker 3:I've been to so I personally vetted them. I personally experienced the lodging, the food, the people, the guides, the transportation, the communication. You know, do they answer emails? Are they efficient? Do they give you the right information? So I try to take that guesswork out of it for my clients and I'll give you a perfect example.
Speaker 3:I had a client that I met a couple of years ago. He went on a trip with me through a friend of his that I knew. Years ago he went on a trip with me through a friend of his that I knew and he came back and said my God, that was the most amazing thing I've ever done. I didn't have to do a thing. So he told me. When he got back, he said my wife wants to go to Africa, her bucket list is to go to Africa and she, now that I'm going on these fishing trips with you, africa, and she, now that I'm going on these fishing trips with you. She has to do her Africa trip, which I'm going to go.
Speaker 3:So she calls, she calls me, and this, this is a great story and this is a perfect example of why I do what I do. She called, she said look. She said my dream has always been to ride in a hot air balloon in Africa. I've seen videos, I've seen movies, I've seen this. That's something I want to do. And I said well, okay, we could do that.
Speaker 3:And she goes. Well, I don't even know where to begin. And I said well, all right, I know your husband, your husband knows me. He said that he had a great time. I said why don't you let me plan your trip for you guys, so you don't have to worry about it? And she goes oh well, oh, you know, she was kind of taken aback by that because she had no idea. You know what I was going to do.
Speaker 3:I said trust me. I said I'll put it together, I'll send you an itinerary and if you want to change things or if you don't like something on there, let me know and we'll figure it out. And she goes. Okay, you know. I said the only thing I need to know is how much time do you have? So she said, well, we're going to do it like two weeks. I said okay. I said do you want to go hunting at all? Absolutely not. No, my husband's not going hunting. This is a couple's vacation, you know. She was very adamant about that. I said okay.
Speaker 3:So it took me about a month and I put a package together. There were six people going, three couples. They were all friends and I sent them the itinerary and she wrote back. She goes oh my God, this looks fantastic. I'm not going to change a thing, it looks perfect. I said okay. I said so. All I'm asking you to do is trust me, don't worry about anything. Just make sure that when I send you an email about your flight, you need to be in Cape town and this day and you need to leave Johannesburg on this day, and so on and so forth. She said, okay, fine.
Speaker 3:So I didn't hear from her until a couple of months before the trip. She's getting nervous and hey, you know the trip's coming up. Blah, blah, blah. Uh, how's things going? I said we're all ready to go. I said you have your plane tickets so fast forward to may, just this past.
Speaker 3:May they go to cape town five days. In Cape Town they spend three days, and then I was over there. So I met them in the national park and put them up in this gorgeous lodge and met them there and spent four days with them there and then after their trip they flew home. But when they were in Cape Town, they were there five days and I didn't hear a word. I didn't hear anything. I'm like, oh man, I don't know. I didn't hear a word. I didn't hear anything. I'm like, oh man, I don't know. They're not calling to, to, to complain, but they're not calling to say oh my God, what a great time.
Speaker 3:Well, when they showed up in the other part of the country, where I was at, she came up to me and gave me this big hug and said oh my God, way, way, way, way, way beyond my expectations, this has been phenomenal. And then then they did the hot air balloon ride. And then they did. So we took them on the last day. I said, how about if we go on a game drive? And a game drive is where you get in one of the vehicles with the open ends and you know the tent roof type thing, and you drive around through the, through the bush and you look for animals. Well, we did that and we were up close and personal with more animals they can than they can even imagine.
Speaker 3:And and by the end of that day she goes hey, we have one more day. Do you think we could go hunting? And I was just blown away. Oh, my god, you want to go hunting? Yeah, we'd like to try it. We'd like to try it. I said how many people she goes? Four out of the six of us want to hunt. So it was her and three of the guys. So I called my outfitter. I said, hey, can we set up a hunt tomorrow? I know it's last notice, it's last minute notice, can we do this? And he goes yeah, absolutely, what do you guys want to do? And so I told him well, the next day we go out. And she was the first one and she took an impala. So now I just spoke with him yesterday, umseeing with it and going back on a hunt instead of a sightseeing tour. It was a cool experience. That's why I love it that's.
Speaker 2:That's why I love excellent. Yeah, it sounds like you are truly a professional in kind of crafting these remarkable experiences for people, and it seems as though you're a people person too. Have you ever thought about doing your own broadcast?
Speaker 3:I am actually in the process. I could talk for hours and hours and days and days about, you know, because I've been. Really I've been hunting and fishing since I was 10 years old, so I mean over over, I don't want to say, but you know, 50, 55, plus years. I've been, you know, out in the, in the woods and in the streams and lakes and rivers, and you know doing that kind of thing and, again, I love sharing it with people you know and doing things with people there.
Speaker 3:I do trips to Panama that are a combination and they're couples trips for husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, whatever significant others, where you do not have to be a fisherman to go there and have a wonderful time, because the resort is a private resort and I usually get enough people to go there.
Speaker 3:Where, no, a wonderful time, because the resort is a private resort and I usually get enough people to go there. Where, no, there are no other guests, so it's only my guests and they're snorkeling and scuba diving and horseback riding and hiking and kayaking and paddle boarding and yoga classes and pottery and you know. So there's something for everybody there. But the hardcore fishermen like myself will get on the fishing boats and go out and fish for marlin and sailfish and tuna and mahi and you know all the big game fish and um, you know, and, and I'm about about the food too. I, I am a food guy, foodie. If you, so to speak, um, and if the lodge doesn't have good food, I'm not going there. So these places all have great chefs and they, they really, really know how to entertain and take care of clients and uh, so I, I enjoy that aspect of it as well so Joe um, please tell our listeners one thing that they should remember about Wild Side Adventures.
Speaker 3:Well, one thing you can remember about Wild Side Adventures if you plan a trip with me, it's going to be the easiest planning that you've ever done. I can assure you you're going to have a great time and I'm going to answer your texts and your emails and try and show you and it's on my business card and my tag and show you a trip of a lifetime. And just go to my Google, go to my Google reviews and read some of them. And I have people that are, you know, ladies, gentlemen, young people, older people, and they've all had great times.
Speaker 2:And how can our listeners learn more about Wildside Adventures?
Speaker 3:You can go on. My website is wildsidejoecom. You can shoot me an email at joe at wildsidejoecom, ask any questions and I'll return phone calls and answer any questions you have. I enjoy what I do and I love talking with people and meeting new people. And watching people experience something out of the country or in the country for the first time is a thrill.
Speaker 2:Well, Joe, I really appreciate your time today and having you as a guest on our show. We wish you and your business the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you very much, Lila. I appreciate your time and I appreciate you giving me the opportunity, especially here in western Pennsylvania. I was born and raised here, so anybody around that needs anything please get a hold of me.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPPittsburghcom. That's GNPPittsburghcom, or call 412-561-9956.