Hunt West antelope workshop review
There are a lot of people trying to make money in the outdoor industry.
There are also a lot of people charging for products of value in the outdoor industry. There is an important distinction here. One has the odor of a scheme, hustle or money extraction ploy. The other functions with the understanding that products and information have value, and people should not feel obligated to give it away for free.
Wednesday I participated in a $20 antelope hunting webinar hosted by Jaden Bales, the Hunt West founder. It was a small group that met on Zoom and the value was quickly evident.
Hits
- The breakdown of license types, points and other variables is easy to understand. Jaden doesn’t sound like a guy who went to Wyoming once and is trying to make money selling a DIY course. He took the time to create easy to understand visuals to go with his explanations, so it wasn’t like an April 2020 staff meeting with heads in squares and awkward screen sharing.
- There is enough specificity to help develop a great plan, but not so much that Jaden is picking exact spots or guiding people to a specific location. This is smart yet obvious because there are no guarantees in hunting. The assumption therefore is that Jaden provides insight that isn’t available elsewhere, but isn’t attempting to sell an unrealistic experience. This is an hour-long workshop for $20, not a $100 Master Class that is $80 too expensive for some and 80-percent more content than someone else might need. This is not a knock on more robust classes or consulting. I bought an elk course for $80 and thought it was worth it. But this workshop model is clean, free of fat and the small group size allows for individualization.
- Jaden offers information in real-time rather than poach general information he read somewhere, pretended it was his own and put it behind a pay wall. He addressed how this spring will impact hunts this year and the lingering impact of winter kill. This is valuable information one should have before deciding whether or not to spend a few points.
Miss
- One miss is that there wasn’t an initial front-loading of information for Step 1 hunters. I suppose I could have asked, but I was mostly observing. Things I want to know about an out-of-state hunt are key times of day, when to move, shot distance expectation or what happens when a pronghorn spooks. Does it go 100 yards, turn and pose like many deer do? Or will it be in Montana by lunch? General field-judgement guidelines would help a hunter differentiate between a young buck and a solid buck so a hunter looking for a good representation of the species would have an idea of what he or she was looking at.
Jaden said he will be adding those components for his upcoming mule deer webinar which really leaves me without much else to comment on as far as missing elements. Again, it’s $20.
In the interest of full disclosure, Jaden and I are friends. But providing him flippant, idea-free feedback like a freshman in English class peer editing a 5-paragraph essay of a friend, does no good. It’s not my duty as a friend to just write “great job, I’d give it an A” at the top of any project an entrepreneur friend creates. We’re not 13-years old anymore.
Jaden occupies that space between ambiguous (but free) YouTube, podcast or article creator who informs you of what you might consider to make a plan, and the paid guide you tells you the plan and charges you two mortgage payments. Jaden knows his stuff, and the webinar is just like any other professional development or course one would take for work. The difference is you want to be there, and you’re not wondering which episode of The Office you are currently living while the boss carries on.
Jaden is friendly, confident and insightful and the webinar is a good use of $20. If $20 is out of your budget, reallocate funds from the dining-out or frivolous gear category.
