Craig Summit – Scraggly Bush Fur Products – The Name Says Enough!

Hey there and welcome to From the Ground Up Show where we

inspire and encourage the next generation of blue collar

leaders by interviewing and telling the stories of those

that have been there, done that and are often still doing it

today. We are extremely honored to have

Craig Summit joining us, as well as being the head of Scraggly

Bush Fur Products, makers of such products as the Squalid,

the Rack Sack, and the Squeezy. Craig is a Air Force veteran who

achieved the rank of Senior Master Sergeant.

He's a husband, a father, and an avid outdoor enthusiast.

So I'm sure you guys will enjoy hearing from Craig as much as I

have. He's got an awesome story and

we'll dive right in. So, Craig, welcome and thank you

for joining us. Oh, thank you, Thank you.

Really appreciate it. I know that you love that

outdoors and especially hunting, and you've made it out to my

neck of the woods here in the Big Horn Mountains outside of

Buffalo a few times. Are there any experiences that

really stuck in your mind and have a special memory you might

be willing to share with us? Yeah, so I absolutely love

Wyoming and if I could, if I could live out there and I

would, but I would have to say it fishing wise because I love

both hunting and fishing. Fishing, My friend Chris and I,

who runs the Wildlife Fund out there, Chris Mcbarns, We have

gone fishing in the Hole in the Wall, that place up by Sheridan,

the hole in the wall, just that Canyon is so beautiful looking

down in, in these deep pools of trout down, you know, it's just

an amazing place to go fishing. And then, but if hunting wise, I

would have to say it's it's hard to beat Last year when Chris and

my wife and I went hunting and this big bowl was just, you

know, raking a tree. And he came down the mountain

and he was going to walk away. But Chris was able to mew turn

him around. And I just see this massive rack

heading right. You know how they sway back and

forth heading right for us. And my wife, you know, shoots

him and gets this enormous bowl and we hiked out.

We hiked 5 miles out just on pure adrenaline in the rush of,

of killing that bull. So that's that's got to be the

highlight. That's good to hear.

I actually serve as part of our search and rescue team here in

Johnson County and I hate the hole in the wall.

We've had to haul quite a few people out of there that got

injured down in there. And I always complain anybody

that crawls down in there to chase a trout deserves to stay

there. So it it is a beautiful place

and it's a cool experience, but when when things go poorly, it

goes really poorly down there. Well, I, I don't doubt it that,

yeah, that is a steep climb to get down there.

And, you know, even at my age, I was, you know, looking at my

knees like, oh, I hope they can make it.

Yeah, and it seems like nobody that gets injured down there is

of small stature. It's always a job getting them

out so. Yeah, I bet.

We'll, we'll dive right in. I know you guys have launched

scraggly Bush fur products. It seems like it's kind of been

a meteoric rise. It's really taken off.

But what we really want to get to, where does the guy that

comes up with the idea for the squalid come from?

Can you tell us a little bit about your background and

growing up and who is Craig Summit?

Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up in Franklin

Township, Indiana, which is actually just southeast of

Indianapolis, and I would say right on the cusp between

suburbia and cornfields. So I had kind of the best of

both worlds. My friends were farmers and

cornfields, yet, you know, still had the comforts of what

suburbia offers. I guess the neighborhood was

solid lower middle, you know, we weren't impoverished by any

means, but you know, I would definitely say the average

person had more than more than we did.

But I'm not complaining. But that's, that's kind of the

area I grew up in. I grew up with the older

brother, a younger sister and a, and a single mom and she was a

she was an imposing woman, 6 foot one.

She was a, we'll call it fair, but firm.

So she, she was great. And then she even haunted too.

So you know, that that passion for the outdoors was from my, my

grandfather's side. But my, my, my mom actually had

a buck on the wall as I was growing up.

So it's not the not the biggest buck, you know, some people

would question while I was on the wall, but she wanted it on

the wall. So, so it was there anyway.

So I had to had a passion for the outdoors.

And yeah, that's kind of a little bit about me, about how

how I grew up. That's pretty cool.

My wife has reluctantly allowed me to hang a few mounts on the

wall. I've got a a mountain goat and a

couple of deer and a couple of elk.

But it was definitely not her idea.

So awesome. How about education?

What did school look like for you?

Yeah, so graduated high school and then I went to Butler

University with, as I mentioned, my buddy Chris Nick Barnes, who

runs a Wildlife Fund out there for Wyoming for you guys.

That's where I met him, actually.

You know, go figure. You go to a liberal arts school

like Butler and it's kind of hard to find people that are

into the outdoors. So I met Chris, who was wearing

a Carhartt at the time and and we, we immediately hit it off.

I was like, well, you know, here's here's actually a guy

that I can relate to. So I went to Butler for a few

years. And yeah, I went to Butler for a

few years and unfortunately my mother passed away when I was

starting my sophomore year. So I, you know, I didn't do so

hot after that. And, and school, school wise, a

little hard to concentrate. So I ended up, I ended up

dropping out and I was like, man, I need AI, need a foot in

my butt to, to get discipline, to get really get back on track.

So I ended up joining the military and it was a it was a

great decision because go figure, if you join the military

and they tell you what to do, you know, you typically do those

things and things get done. So I joined the military and

they have an awesome program where they, you're allowed to

use what's called tuition assistance.

And they ended up paying for the.

I finished my bachelor's degree and then immediately after I

finished my bachelor's degree, they pay for you to go and get

your master's. So as soon as I was done getting

my bachelor's from University of Omaha, NE, I immediately signed

up through Liberty University and and I got my MBA.

So that's a little bit about my education, yeah.

Yeah, that's awesome. And so outside of the the Air

Force and then launching scraggly Bush, have there been

many jobs there in between or is that kind of the limit of your

career experience? So if you consider I had a trap

line in high school, that's kind of where, you know, my

familiarity with with first started is, you know, to make to

make extra money for gas and stuff in high school.

Yeah, in high school we trapped, you know, Coon, Beaver, fox,

coyote, some muskrat and mink. But really, you know, after gas

and everything, you don't really make a whole lot.

But that's where I got familiar with skin in putting up furs and

stuff like that. But outside of outside of that,

it's, you know, I worked at Tractor Supply for a little bit

and, and yeah, that's about it. That's a great background.

My dad ran a trap line for a little while in school to raise

some money that that's great. So this has been like a a

lifelong pursuit for you. Your background with fur and

trapping and doing things out of furs has been a pretty broad

experience. You started pretty early.

Yeah, and like I said, I was fortunate to have friends who,

you know, lived on farms close to me to where we went out there

and they had the ground we could trap on.

So yeah, it was it was a great time growing up.

That's great. I might be a little bit envious

there. So, OK, so I got to know

Scraggly Bush. Where in the world does this

idea and this name come from? Absolutely.

So when my sister was getting I told you about my trapping trap

line and getting no furs in high school.

So I've always enjoyed working with furs.

But Fast forward to my sister getting married and I think it

was 20/17/2018. I wanted to make my sister a

funny gag gift for her wedding. So I, I made this squirrel

wallet and it was just, I mean, just, I mean, we're not talking

anywhere near the quality of the stuff we do now.

I tanned it. It was like hard as a rock.

Legs were sticking out. It was just, it was pretty

comical, but you know, that's what I was aiming for.

So I brought this, this squalid to my sister's wedding.

And it was, it was kind of a hit, you know, people, people

thought it was funny. And they started saying things

like, you know, so and so would want those or I bet you could

sell those. So my brain kind of got primed

and was like, you know, maybe this is a thing.

But I buried it in my brain and, and kept on, you know what I was

doing. And then Fast forward to 2021,

in January, I was in Wyoming again with Chris Mcbarn's and

we're cow hunting with Pat Crank, the former attorney

general of Wyoming, Which by the way, it's not like I rub elbows

with highfalutin people all the time.

Like this was just, it was just chance that, you know, Chris

knew him. So I just want to throw that out

there. You know I'm not.

I don't rub elbows with. Chris really has that skill.

He he knows how to connect people.

Yeah, and and not that, you know, Pat's a great guy.

He's hilarious. But as we're cow hunting and and

you're a hunter, so you understand this.

There's down time to hunting when you're not seeing game.

A lot of conversations come up and and Chris was nudging me is

like, you got to show Pat Crank that that squalid video.

So I took a video of the the wedding moment and I showed Pat

and that was just the the talk the rest of the trip, anytime we

had time to spare, it was talking about this, this

squalid. And he was telling me he's like,

I got all these buddies in Wyoming that would, you know,

just eat this up and buy 1. So this idea of selling squalid

just resurfaced in my brain. And when we went home after

this, this cow hunt, we had, you know, it was COVID era.

So we were sitting around and there's a lot of thinking

because there's not a lot going on in COVID era, You know,

you're trapped in your house. At least we were.

And so start thinking about it. And then we got, we got a

stimulus check. You know, I was still, I was

still getting paid. So I was still getting paid.

And we, we got $2400 me and my wife for the stimulus check.

And I said, you know, hey, if there's ever been an opportunity

here, it is because we're getting money we weren't

expecting or counting on. So then I had to present the

idea to the boss that is my wife.

And I was like, honey, I have an idea what we could do with this,

this the stimulus money. And you know, we're not rich.

So $2400 that that's a lot of money.

So initially I was like, I think we should start a business

selling squirrel wallets. And her reaction was about like,

you could guess it was like, yeah, that's not happening.

But I slowly started to to convince her by saying, you

know, OK, we'll take the $2400, which we weren't expecting

anyways, and that's all we'll put into it.

We won't put a dime more. If it generates revenue, great,

then we'll use that revenue to fund, you know, further

development of the business or whatever.

But we won't go over that 2400 cap.

And I think reluctantly, she finally signed up and signed up

for the idea of starting the business.

Oh man, I can only imagine how that conversation would have

gone in my house. It was difficult, I'll tell you

that, but yeah. That's.

Awesome. So yeah, we get, we get

questions all the time about the name.

And so one of my best friends growing up was a firefighter

paramedic and we used his first and last name, he always told us

translated in, in Gaelic to Scraggly Bush.

So naturally as teenagers, this immediately became his, his

nickname. So we called him Scraggly Bush

as his nickname forever. And then unfortunately, he, he

ended up committing suicide in 2012.

So I thought, you know what, what a great, what a great way

to, you know, honor him, kind of poke fun of them at the same

time honor them and then the the name also suits the business

well, so. That's awesome.

Oh man, So Covid's going on. You have this crazy idea to

launch this business and now it seems like it's kind of taken

off in a huge way. I see your products all over the

place. I, I had the personal connection

through Chris, the mutual friend, but I'm seeing your

products pop up all over the place.

Tell me a little bit about the story of building this business

and and how it blew up on you. Yeah, so I am not

technologically inclined, neither is my wife.

Technology is not our biggest asset if you will.

So just building the initial website and getting everything

started. We also don't know, we don't

have anybody in our family that owns a business.

So you know, this is all from scratch for this is all brand

new to us. So we managed to build a website

for the business and it worked and we launched March 30th,

2021. And you know, outside of a few

friends and family ordering, it's pretty much crickets for

the first, first month or two. And we're like, oh man, well,

maybe this maybe 2400's all this thing's going to take because

maybe it'll just die. But we got we got lucky.

And I had never heard of TikTok in my entire life.

And my buddy hits me. I, yeah, my buddy hits me up and

says, well, maybe should think about, you know, throwing a

video up on TikTok. And I was like, well, I don't

know what that is, but I'll make a video for you.

And July 4th, we're, we're super patriotic here.

Me and my wife are. So July 4th, we made this video

where I was, I had a squalate on my side.

It's on our website if you ever want to go check it out.

We had a squalate on my side and then I had a big possum pack in

the front and I put a a tall boy Budweiser in the possum pack and

we played the beautiful music of Lee Greenwood's What is it Glad

to be American or what? What is it?

What is it Proud to be American? That song in the background and

my cheers, you know, said happy birthday America as I pull out

this Budweiser from my possum pack and we we gave the video to

my buddy thinking, you know, yeah, we'll see what he can do.

And within a matter of a day or two, this video had hit a

million plus views. So we go from literally no one

but yeah, we go from literally no one but family and friends

know about us to viral Internet. And we just, you know, that's,

that's, that's what put us on the map.

That's awesome. So where does the inspiration

for all of these products come from?

You know, the squalid started with your sister's wedding, but

you guys have a million products.

I was checking out your website just a little bit ago and you

got the rack pack and the possum pack and the squeezy.

And where do you come up with these ideas?

Yeah, you know, I, I don't know, I think, I think, you know, my

passion for the outdoors designed with wanting to make

people laugh. I really enjoy like making

people laugh and, and having a good time.

I think that just comes together and I'm like, what funny product

can we we come out with that people, it's functional, people

can use it, but at the same time, all, you know, the primary

purpose is to share a laugh or like, you know, draw attention.

So I, I think that's kind of, that's kind of where that comes

from. Maybe the veteran sense of

humor. Oh man, sorry I totally forgot

where I go was going. I'm going to have to do some

editing on this one. You're good.

But as far as, as far as inspiration goes, outside of

outside of products, the the drive to like do something

different or, or to go get it is I think, you know, I have an

older brother. So there's that sibling rivalry.

And, and he has always been a successful welder.

He's he's, he's been super successful.

The guy came out of the womb able to build whatever he wanted

to do or build whatever he wanted to build, do whatever he

wants to do. So I think, you know, that Sybil

sibling rivalry kind of pushed me to like try something new

and, and try to get ahead. And it's it's a super easy path

when you have someone in front of you that's already doing very

well. And you can kind of just look at

them and be like, oh, OK, yeah, I'll follow in your list.

So I know your wife was a slow adopter it it took a little bit

of convincing to get her on board, but it seems like you

guys are kind of doing this together.

Has she come around to the idea of running this business and the

potential that it has? Oh, absolutely.

So our first goal when we started this thing was, you

know, we have that connection with Wyoming to elk hunt.

We wanted to come out and do a bull hunt.

We had done the cow hunt. So one of the main drivers

behind starting this business was, you know, as an out of

stater, elk hunts are kind of expensive.

I mean, you're talking, you're talking 5 grand if you end up

putting down an elk, if you pay for processing, if you know, if

you're going to put one on the wall, all the stuff.

So we just wanted to be able to afford AL Con.

And if we did that, if we met that goal, we'd be tickled pink.

Well, we set a, you know, we set a goal of like 5 to 8000 because

that's probably what it's going to cost to go on a decent hunt

out there. And luckily at the end of year

one, we were able to meet that goal.

And we were, we were tickled pink to to meet that, that small

goal we had set. You know, we were we were

elated. And then I think it was really

then the fact that this business was enabling an adventure or

trip is really when I saw the the approval in her eyes, if you

will, like, OK, yeah, this this really can't be a thing.

What has been the most difficult part of your journey so far?

Have you had any big roadblocks that you thought were going to

shut you down? Or any sleepless nights?

Really difficult moment. So, so like I mentioned, getting

started when you don't really know anybody that has done this

before was, I mean, in effect, you're kind of like trailblazing

because you, you have no idea what you're doing, don't have a

lot of people to, to ask questions about.

But outside of that, one of the most difficult things was after

that video hit 1,000,000 views, we were, we were nowhere near

ready for that. We didn't have, we didn't have

the supply of furs on hand. We weren't ready for the growth.

Yeah. So that was another difficult

thing. And the the other thing is when

we first started this business, we just had one, one kid that

couldn't even walk yet. So, you know, I could easily go

to the basement or go and, and and get a lot of work done and

there wasn't a lot of loss. We now have three kids, so three

young ones. So working around their

schedule, you know, I've shifted to where I sew and work on the

business a lot later at night. And so I would say those are

probably the most difficult things.

Yeah, that that third kid is really a game changer.

We have three ourselves, and that was the one that we had

one, it was new. You're figuring it out.

The second one, you're just adding a second to the same, you

doubled the amount of work. But then we we felt like we had

the 2 under control and OK, we've done this twice.

We kind of know what we're doing.

Like what's the big deal with the 3rd?

It's just 50% more. And holy cow, that third was

that changed the game in a big way.

Is that the case for you? Oh yeah, yeah, you're no longer

a man to man defense. So we're, you know, one person

is always stuck with the baby or stuck with two.

I, I should say stuck. One person either has two kids

or one person has the baby. And yeah, that it's, it's

definitely, it's, it's a challenge, that's for sure.

Yeah. The friends that I've talked to

that have been bold enough to go for it tell me that the 4th

isn't as bad, that that that number 3 is the big game

changer. But we weren't bold enough to go

for it though. 3 is the limit in our house, no?

Same here, more power to them. Glad for them, but I think 3 is

definitely where we'll be stopping it.

Yeah, So I know you have a lot of background trapping and doing

furs yourselves. Do you still source most of your

furs yourself or do you buy them?

You know, I, I really wish we could source our furs ourselves.

I wish I could make a living by shooting squirrels all day or

shooting raccoons, you know? But no, we have, we have about

four or five different supplier, first suppliers from the Midwest

where we get our furs already tan.

You know, I would love to expand in the future where we, we, we

have that process where I'm, I'm buying furs direct from hunters

and from trappers and I have a Skinner or I skin it myself and

then we tan it. I'd love to incorporate that

later on down the line or expand into that.

But as of right now, we just have our first suppliers and we

buy them already 10, but they're all from they're all from

America and we don't we don't use any farm fur either, so.

Oh, so they're all naturally harvested?

Yes. Yeah, all of our all of our

animals we use are naturally harvested.

We don't use any farm fur, which is is interesting because you

would think our clientele wouldn't necessarily ask

questions like that or, or care about that.

But we, we routinely have emails and and phone calls to ask, are

our furs, you know, responsibly harvested?

Or are they just they want to know more about how the animal

was harvested So they could, I guess in their minds, justify

walking around with a a squirrel koozie?

Yeah, yeah. It might just add to the unique,

unique appeal of the product of just knowing that it's not a a

mass produced kind of farmed product, but that there's,

there's something unique about it as well.

So that's awesome. Yep.

Yes, Sir. So you said it was March of 2021

is when you started to your 4 1/2 years in here.

Has there been a moment that was a really scary moment in

launching this business? Was there a time that you

weren't really sure you were going to make it, or a time that

you're pretty overwhelmed? You know, as far as starting the

business, even though we don't, we didn't know a whole lot.

I was I was never I've never been scared to take a risk or

try something new. So I wouldn't say like the

initial start was that that scary.

I would say the scary part is, is and you as a hunter, you

understand there's so many regulations that governing fur

bearer and taking and and then you interwo interwoven with

business regulations now. So I guess what I'm always

scared of is there's going to be some obscure regulation that I

haven't read up on or like, you know, what if I fail to do

something, because again, this business thing is, is all new to

me. If I if I, you know, fail to

like I do my own taxes. What if, what if I, you know,

make a, an error on my taxes or if I fail to just that kind of

like administrative error is, is kind of what keeps me up at

night. But yeah, that's what I would

say. Oh man, I think that's a fear

for every business owner out there.

The the IRS is, I've heard it called the KGB quite a few

times. It's a little bit scary messing

with them so. That's hilarious.

Yeah, yeah. Awesome.

When in your journey with Scraggly Bush and building this

business, has there been anything where you kind of had

your mind set in One Direction and this experience of building

a business, being an entrepreneur, exposing yourself

to new things has kind of shifted or changed your mind

about anything? Yeah, I have learned to listen

to my wife quite a bit more because she she is great when

envisioning products. So the First off, she runs the

business while I'm at my other job during the during the day

she takes care of all like supply chain fulfillment,

answering phone calls. So she's fantastic.

So I got to give her credit for that, but also just her ability

to envision what a product should look like is is better

than mine. I don't know what kind of trait

that is in your brain that allows you to see things before

they're made, but she has got a leg up on me in that department.

And for products specifically, I'm thinking of the Possum pack.

So we go to, we go to build this possum pack and I'm thinking,

OK, so I'm going to cut 4 pieces out.

We're going to make it like a rectangle.

It's going to be this intricate thing.

And then I remember clear as day, my wife takes a possum pelt

and then she just turns it to the side and says, why don't you

just cut the head off right here?

And that's your, it's already intact.

You don't have to do any sewing. And I was like, why?

Why did I not think of that? That's genius.

So, and there's been a couple other instances where she's

just, she's, you know, kind of guided me and said, no, let's, I

think it'd be easier if we just did it this way, so.

Oh man, we'd all probably bet be better off if we listen to our

wives more often. That's true, yeah.

But has there been a major mistake that you feel like

you've made building this business or something that you

regret you wish you could have done differently?

Yeah. You know, I think not

advertising adequately in the beginning.

I think we could have got a quicker start had we

appropriately advertised our products in the beginning.

And then when we did have that huge surge on TikTok the initial

time, I mean that we lost out. We lost out on so many orders

because the surge happened and we didn't have any furs.

Sorry, we didn't have not near the amount of furs that we

needed to keep up with this massive surge after, you know,

the million views hit. And instead of like taking

pre-orders or setting up the website for pre-orders, we just

turned it off because we said, well, we don't want to

disappoint customers because, you know, we don't have the

product. We can't guarantee we have the

product. At that time we only had one

first supplier and we you know, so another thing is, you know,

not having multiple suppliers lined up.

But what we should have done is if we knew we're going to be

advertising in that capacity, we should have had one products

made free ahead of time and we should have had the the supplies

ready to go and no. And we should have known how to

enable pre-orders and that way we can take people's order and

get back to them later. So I think a lot about that

situation and we have grown a lot since then.

We now prior to advertising or putting videos out, we ensure

that we have quite a bit of supply on hand and we've kind of

developed some surge, some surge tactics, if you will.

Yeah, that's probably a difficult thing to manage in

your business. Yeah, because there's only so

many squirrels out there and there's, there's only so many

people that sell squirrel pelts. So, yeah, I, I tease people and,

and like, I tease people and like to tell them that I, I own

the squirrel market in the US and I don't know if that's true,

but. That's great.

So your first advertisement went out, you said you knew nothing

about TikTok. A friend kind of took care of it

for you. Have you learned a little bit

about TikTok or social media since then?

I have, I, you know, I entrust my wife with all those accounts.

I don't, I don't have them on my phone.

But she's much more savvy in the social media realm than I am.

But yeah, we learned all, all kinds of things, you know, if it

turns out, if you get enough views over a certain point in

time, you can get paid for it. And yeah, so it's, it's a whole

new world. And I'm lucky that my wife knows

way more about TikTok and social advertising and stuff like that.

So. That's awesome.

Awesome. Well, good for you.

I always like to ask, have you made a beneficial mistake?

A mistake that in the long run they ended up helping you build

your business or taught you a lesson that is really going to

help you build upon? Is there anything that comes to

mind? I think so and I can, we can

laugh at it now, but you know, there's probably quite a bit of

sales we lost due to this one. But when, when we first

launched, we decided we were going to make skunk koozies.

And we're we're anticipating some, some good sales to come

out of this because we had a lot of inquiries about, hey, would

you do skunk fur? Would you do skunk fur?

That is nothing I ever entertained because I didn't

think people would want a skunk fur up to their lips, you know,

so, so we could have launched the skunk koozie and I was super

excited. I had high hopes and we launched

and it's just crickets. And I'm thinking like what is

what is going on here? And it goes, it goes a month,

maybe a month and a half and we get our first order and I look

at the order and the price. When we had entered the price,

we didn't double check and we fat fingered in like it was

something ridiculous like an extra zero or two zeros.

But it was an astronomical price for this skunk koozie.

No wonder nobody bought one for that price.

But eventually someone did. We were able to refund them

what, you know, the difference from what we wanted to sell it

for and what they purchased it. But lesson learned is like

attention to detail, double checking you know your website,

what the advertisements, what you put on there because it

could it could really mess mess up.

So. OK, that's a good lesson to

learn. So what has been your biggest

win so far? Has there been a moment that

stands out as just a a super high high?

A time when you're like, Oh my gosh, we never thought we would

be here? Oh, outside of seeing the people

that originally looked at me like I was crazy for starting

this kind of business and you know, the, the people, you know,

I kind of expected people to kind of look down a little bit

and be like, you know, like, I can't believe you're not

embarrassed to, to do this sort of thing.

And proving them wrong has been in, I don't know, a drive, maybe

it's a childish drive of mine, but I like to, I like that I was

able to prove them wrong. And now it's, you know, a

significant source of income for us.

But I, I think one of the moments where the like, this is

it, we made it moment was when we got onto when Theo Von on his

podcast, which is a, is a pretty, a pretty popular

podcast. And Theo Von pulled up our

product and he's, he's pulling up our website and he's going

through it. And his guest is Luke Holmes,

which we, you know, we listen to Luke Colmes every day.

We love Luke Colmes. And to have these, like have

these celebrities, people we would never dream of meeting,

you know, of course we didn't meet him.

But to have them going through our business, it was, you know,

and, and showing our products to people and, and joking about our

products, it was like, holy cow. Like I can't, you know, I can't

believe we're here. So yeah.

Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome.

And that show appears to have gone pretty wide and far.

I know I've heard about that show a few times from a few

different people. Did that make a big difference

in your sales? Yeah, Yeah, it really did.

And you know, we didn't get a heads up before that.

So we didn't get a heads up that that was going to air.

They were, they were just using the website to to look at

products. So we just got this.

Massive surge in sales in the middle of nowhere.

And we're like, what is going on?

We didn't, we didn't put a video out.

We didn't put an ad out. And I was just, I was sewing, I

don't know, like till midnight every night for a solid month.

And we're trying to figure out where this come from.

And eventually my sister said, holy cow, did you guys know you

were on this podcast? And I was like news to me, but

thanks for letting me know. That's great.

Well, that brings me to another question I had.

You work a full time job, a day job.

You've got three kids. This business you built almost

as a gag has just completely blown up.

How do you find the time to manage all of this?

That yeah, that is a that's a good question.

You know, and, and I will, I will admit that in the

beginning, I don't know if my time management was the best.

I think, you know, in the beginning you have to grind

pretty hard in order to get it off the ground.

So that's what I was concerned with.

But I think, I think I spent too much time with business

dealings. I could have and I could have

spent more time with the wife and kids.

Since then, I've learned some time management, more time

management techniques. And I'll work as soon as I get

off. I'll prioritize hanging out with

the kiddos, making sure I'm there for dinner.

And then, you know, we have a hard bedtime for the kids at

8:00 PM and I make sure I stick to that bedtime.

And then I'll immediately go downstairs and start sewing for

however long it takes. And then another thing that

we've been able to do that helps with time management as we get

crushed every holiday season because our, our products, you

know, align with the white elephant style gift.

They align with the kind of like a stocking stuffer, if you will.

So now we've learned from that and we've, we can better

estimate how much we're going to have in the winter, how many

sales we're going to have in the winter and throughout the summer

when our sales are not, our sales volume is not as high, I

will still, you know, actively work and so a lot ahead of time.

So we'll have a a surplus heading into the holiday season.

So that's kind of, you know, kind of the lessons we learned

on how to better manage time. Yeah, that's great.

And I know you've got a pretty significant background in the

armed forces. Have the the lessons you learned

there, the leadership principles, maybe just the the

personality that inclined someone to that type of a

career, that background, has that played a role in building

your business? I think so, because, you know,

with, with the military, it's, it's always the next, it's, it's

the next man up mentality. If for some reason the leader is

out that day, someone else has to assume the role.

And, and you, you can't be afraid to take on that role.

You, you have to do it. You're the only one there to do

it. So I think that has allowed me

to, to view risk taking and there's a lot of risk associated

with starting a business. And, and I, I think that has

allowed me to just kind of, yeah, I think it, I think the

military has allowed me to say, you know what, like I'm going to

give it my best shot. And if I fail, then, you know,

at least we, at least we gave it a try.

But also I, I do have to give them kudos that I came in to the

military extrinsically motivated.

You know, I didn't really have, I would love to say that I was

born with, you know, intrinsic motivation and just could sit

down and, and do whatever I wanted for hours at a time.

But that was just not the case. It was something that was

developed through the military where I, you know, was forced to

do things and then eventually learned that, hey, you know, if

I have my, you know, I built up my own internal drive for

success because when you, when you get a taste, in my opinion,

when you get a taste of success, it's kind of contagious and you

want to keep chasing that. So military gave me the

opportunity to, you know, take risks on leading and take risks

on new positions. And ever since then, if

something new, a new position or something pops up, I always

raise my hand because, you know, it could never hurt to try.

So I think that's where it influenced.

That's great. What may motivate you to keep

going when things get hard? Oh man, I think if I were when

things get hard, I have the I have if I set a goal, I like to

achieve that goal. And one of my overarching goals

that I have had since I was a kid again, going about to my

back to my passion for the outdoors is I grew up hunting

and fishing on other people's property.

Always had to ask permission, always had to get permission.

And I always had this, this idea of owning my own property, you

know, getting the manipulate the land, getting to just, you know,

not asking for permission to go hunt and just enjoy like boots

on the ground on my own acreage. And I still have that goal to

this day. So when, you know, when, when

things get rough, I, I, I pull up, I'll pull up lands of

America, I'll pull up Zillow. And my motivation is looking at,

you know, pieces of property that I think, you know, my, my

family would enjoy hunting on for, for generations, you know,

So that's, that's, that's what helps me.

That's awesome. Yeah, that'll do it.

That pushes you there. So this is one of my favorite

questions. We've not talked about this

before, but are you a person of some sort of faith and has that

played a role in your journey? I am, yeah.

So I would say that the way it has played, I'm a Christian, but

I would say the way that has played a role is my passion for

the outdoors is kind of driven by that because you're you're a

hunter as well. So you understand that sitting

and how serene and calm it is when you're, say, sitting in a

tree stand, you can really connect with your faith.

You can really connect with God when you're surrounded by

beauty. I mean, the sunsets you see as a

hunter, as a fisherman, that the sights you see are, are

incredible. It's, it's, it's incredibly hard

to be the, you know, I've had, I've had birds land on the brim

of my hat. I've had squirrels run over my

boot like those kind of nature experiences and the beauty of

it, it just, I think that's what it, it further drives my passion

for the outdoors and and my faith so.

That's great. So what?

What is next for the scraggly Bush Fur Company?

Do you have any new products coming out?

Do you have what? What's your wild dream of?

It may not happen, but where would you like to see your

products or your company go? Yeah.

So we we have a couple really good ideas.

I think I kind of want to, I kind of want to go more into

expand more into the garment industry.

I have some ideas. I don't want to throw a couple

of them out there because I don't want anybody to steal

them, but I think they'd be really good.

But as far as expanding and seeing where a company goes, I

would, I would love to get into some of these significant

retailers, these brick and mortar locations.

You know, I don't, I don't think it's far fetched to, you know,

one day see our product in Bass Pro.

I, I yeah, it might, it might sound like a lofty goal, but you

know, I would love, I would love to see that happen.

And then if we could expand as I mentioned earlier to where we

are acquiring, acquiring the furs and we own the Tanner

tanning process because that's really what kind of our margins

right now. What hinders our margins is the

fact that I buy the pre tan furs.

If we were able to, you know, kind of own that process of it,

I think that would really help. And you know, I might get to

hunt a lot more if I was involved in acquiring the.

Yeah, that'd be great. So what, what does the business

look like right now? I know you were talking about

doing a lot of the sewing. Are you still sewing all the

products yourself? Do you have a staff helping with

that? Yeah, yeah.

Unfortunately my yeah, it's just me and my wife currently.

And that's, that's somewhere immediately where we, yeah,

where we need to expand is I haven't taken the leap yet of

hiring on permanent personnel. Now we've hired some temporary

additional personnel during the holiday season to to help out

with the surge. But you know, I need AI need to

hire on more people and get them working full time.

So I could focus on, you know, maybe going out to conventions.

We would love to go out and you know, go out to boat for boat

sport travel shows, these hunting shows, fur trapper

conventions, stuff like that. So to answer your question,

currently I'm sitting in my shop which is my basement and I have

racks upon racks of furs behind me, totes and stacks of squalids

to my right in a dry erase board of things to get done on my

right. So it might sound rudimentary

right now, but I think, I think in due time we'll, we'll grow.

That's great. I hope that you do I I love

checking out your products. I love seeing the new things

that you have coming, and that's pretty cool, so.

I appreciate it. Well, I know you love coming out

here to Wyoming and hunting the Big Horns and fishing.

Do you have any upcoming trips planned?

You know, I think we're planning to come out to Buffalo again in

February to visit my friend Chris Mcbarns.

Our kids are the same age, but that lake to Smet that, you

know, I have been out to Buffalo I think what 7 or 8 Times Now

and I've never fished lake to Smet.

And it's just this big body of water just staring at me every

time we drive by it to go hunt. So I want to, I think I want to

rope Chris in in February to, to brave the elements and go and go

ice fish the the dismet. OK, well, when you do that, let

me know. I, I personally don't do a lot

of ice fishing, but I know quite a few people that do.

We might be able to hook you up and and see if we can improve

your odds a little bit. So.

Oh. Absolutely, I appreciate.

It cool. Well, thank you so much for

joining us. Something I asked all of our

guests. Is there anybody you'd like to

see on the show? Somebody that you think has a

really cool story or somebody like yourself that just has an

incredible product, an odd product, an industry or a niche

that you'd like to learn some more about?

Oh, that is a that's a good question.

Someone that has a product that interesting.

You know, I might have to get back to you on that specific

question. Although if I, if I don't tell

you that my wife should come on the show and tell her side of

the story, I think she's going to be pretty upset.

So I'm going to go ahead and say my wife so I don't get in

trouble and so she can share her part of the story.

Yeah. Oh man, that is a great idea.

I think maybe we should have a couples edition.

We could bring you both on and and let you tell both sides of

it. So that's a great idea.

I'm guessing in your specific industry maybe you don't use

these tools as much, but it's a segment we do every show to

either fuel or settle the debate.

If you have to pick a cordless tool, what brand are you

picking? Wow.

I, you know, I hope I don't offend people out there with my

choice because I'm probably the last person to choose.

My brother is probably going to hear this and go crazy because

he is, he is the the guy that can build anything and has like

tools upon tools. So you know, I'm going to have

to go with DeWalt because that's what I have.

I know it's not the highest quality of a cordless products,

but that's what I have. That's what I know and you know,

I was able to finish my basement this this this winter with

DeWalt products. So that's that's what I'm going

to go with. Fair enough.

That works for me. I'm a DeWalt guy myself.

Again, I haven't tested them all.

That's just kind of what I wound up with, but that works for me.

So awesome. Well, Craig, thank you so much

for joining us. This has been awesome.

If the listeners want to check out your products, find you,

reach out to you, what's going to be the best way to get in

touch with you? Yeah, absolutely.

So www.scragglybushfurproducts.com,

you can go to our website right there and view all of our

wonderful products. And then also if you want to

send us a message, it's got our link to our e-mail.

It's got our link to our social media on there as well.

So you can get us up there. Sounds good.

Well, thank you guys so much for joining us here on From the

Ground Up show. If you want to be part of a

future show as a guest or if you have a question to ask of one of

our expert guests, please find us online at From the Ground up

show.com or you can find us on social media at From the Ground

Up Show. And if you have benefited from

the show, if you have enjoyed the content or learned

something, it would mean a lot if you could like subscribe,

share. That's our best tool for getting

the show out and it means a lot to us.

So thank you guys so much. And until next week, keep

grinding.