Adam Weatherby – Faith, Leadership, and the Responsibility of a Legacy Brand

Can you tell me a little bit about your personal rifle setup?

What is it and why did you make this election you did?

Which one the biggest moment, moments of growth or success

came after a storm, came after the hardships and so just I

guess the older I get, I realized don't run from the

storm. You realize that when you face

the storm on the backside of the storm is is where the results

come from. I tend to usually pick the path

of most resistance. I picked the path of greatest

challenges, adventures. That's why I love hunting and

the outdoors in the Backcountry I love.

I love that, and I'm drawn to that.

And so I tend to be an adventurer at heart.

Hey there and welcome to From the Ground Up Show, the show

where we encourage and inspire the next generation of free

thinking leaders by telling the stories of those that have been

there, done that, and are still getting it done.

Building a life that they love with their hands, their heart

and their hustle. I'm your host, Eric Loden.

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Today I am super, super excited. I am joined in the studio by

Adam Leatherby of Wetherby Firearms and wow, Adam, we have

a number of acquaintances in common.

I don't think we've formally met before today.

And I know you're a super humble guy, but I might be fangirling a

little bit this morning. I can't believe that I get to

sit in a room and interview you and hear your story.

This is going to be really fun for me.

So Adam runs Wetherby Firearms in Sheridan, WY.

He is a former youth pastor, a husband, a father, and a

follower of Jesus. So, Adam, thanks for joining me

today. Thanks, Eric.

I'm excited what you're doing with this podcast and I'm

looking forward to our discussion today.

Not sure what's going to go, but those are the best ones.

So yeah, I love what you're doing.

Glad to be a part of it. It'll be fun.

So before we really dive in, I know everyone wants to know all

the details. Can you tell me a little bit

about your personal rifle setup? What is it and why did you make

the selection you did? Which one?

That's so. I can say the answer to this is

I'm always testing new product this year.

I like for instance, this hunting season I had 7, so 7

different rifles, scopes, packages, cartridges, etcetera.

That was actually between Brenda and I, my wife and I that we

used on our various hunts. So for me, when I hunt 90

something, percent of the time it is business related.

I know people will think this is a bad job, but my, my name's on

the product. And so therefore I'm an

influencer for my own brand, right?

So I get out there, shoot stuff, do hunting films, YouTube stuff,

website stuff, social media stuff, gathering content,

usually with film and photo and stuff like that.

And so I'm usually using new product, product that that we

need content for products that not that's not yet released.

So the answer is, yeah, it's it's kind of long, but but I

don't have one set up. OK, it's a it's kind of a lot

and it and it always changes, which people are like, well,

that'd be awesome. But I never get like a lot of

times I'm literally siding in again the day before I go, I'm

walking it out to, you know, distance and 1000 yards and

getting all dialed in and I'm in never hunt with that gun again.

Gotcha. Yeah, Well, are there any from

this year that you were super excited about?

I'm sure if they're all new products and Weatherby doesn't

right 8080. Percent will come out in 26

probably, yeah, used one's going to come out.

We're recording this in December and one's going to come out here

in January in in kind of the ultra lightweight scene, which

we've kind of been a leader out the last five years and we're

pushing the envelope yet again. So there's a teaser.

Uh huh. Yes.

I will be looking forward to that.

I know yeah, you guys have been really mixing it up in that

space and have some stuff I'm really excited about my my

wallet starts to hurt every time I get on your website.

So. Yeah.

So I didn't mean to avoid the questions.

It's just it's a hard one. It's a hard 1 for me.

I didn't use any classic or old stuff.

So yeah, yeah, more to come. More to come on that, Eric.

We'll be looking forward to it. So, Well, we actually postponed

this recording. Yeah.

We were supposed to record a couple weeks ago, but you were

out in the field helping one of your employees pack a bowl out.

Can you tell us a little bit about that story?

What? What did he get and what ended

up happening? Every year Brenda and I always

try to go, hey, you know, if there's a chance and we're in

town and somebody shoots something up in the mountain,

especially an elk and needs help packing out, that we'll, you

know, we'll get up there and put 1/4 on our back and, and get it

out. And so, so that morning I was

actually doing kind of quiet time reading the Bible, having

coffee was barely daylight. He had service where he's up,

he's in the Big Horn Mountains and he was up there and I texted

him and hey, good luck this morning and 5 minutes later got

a picture of a sunrise shot he made on a bull and he's solo.

He went in, it was the last day of the rifle season up in that

unit and he literally heard there were some bulls up in this

area. And so he like walked in that

night at like 10:11 PM with a little like spike camp on his

back because he heard there were bulls up in there 5 miles in

camp that night, got up in the morning, didn't hunt an hour and

shot a bull. So a lot of people that elk hunt

know that's not always the way it goes.

But So what it means is he didn't have a great plan for

getting it out. And so I knew that he didn't.

So a few of us said, hey, let's let's go up there and help him

pack it out. And we ended up having so much

help. I must admit it was one of the

lightest pack outs I've done on an elk.

So we dispersed it pretty good. So good deal.

I just had a front quarter and I can't remember if I had anything

else, but it wasn't much. But it's still 5 miles.

So I went and did 10 miles in the morning.

So it was good, but sorry about postponing.

That's fine. That's a great story.

And I think that speaks a lot to your leadership and your

commitment to your employees. It sounds like we were just

talking about your Christmas party you had last night, and

you seem really involved in their lives and really seem to

care about them. Is that accurate?

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, obviously, I mean, we're

only as good as our team. And that's what you know, we're

we're celebrating our 80th year in business and that's what we

wouldn't be here today if it weren't for just God blessing us

with an incredible team over the years.

And so whether it's the guy we helped pack out the elk or yeah,

the employees that were there last night and their kids, I

mean, that's what it's about being involved in their lives.

We did our purpose statement recently of kind of the why we

exist. Sure, we manufacture and sell

and market farms and ammo, but at the heart of it, we exist to

enrich people's lives as we glorify God, as we inspire the

dreams of hunters and shooters. And so those are, it's kind of,

it's about God, it's about people.

And then ultimately that it's about something greater too that

we make these inspirational products that people get to go

use in the field. And so it's all of all those

kind of things. So.

That's awesome. That's a great mission

statement. Yeah.

Or purpose statement. Yeah, Yeah, that's awesome.

Yeah. OK, Well, we'll we'll dive into

more the meat of the podcast where we always start.

We always start with your childhood.

Can you tell us a little bit about your childhood and what

was it like growing up the grandson of Roy Weatherby?

Sure. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, I grew up in

California. You know, we moved out here to

1. I mean, seven years ago, you

know, my grandpa moved the business to, well, not moved.

He started the business in Southern California in the 40s.

Obviously a different world than it is today, 80 years ago out

there. And so I grew up, I'm not in a

huge hunting and outdoors area. But yet, like you said, whether

be just kind of always being in my blood and part of all those

kind of things and shooting and hunting as a kid and whatnot.

But I don't know, kind of live the normal, normal kid life if

you would, as a child. And didn't ever know if I would

go into the family business or not, or what direction God would

take me. Gave Strinder my life to the

Lord at a fairly young age. And I've always been involved in

ministry and those sorts of things throughout it.

But. But yeah, so I, I grew up just

kind of as a California kid, in fact.

I mean, I love the outdoors and hunting and all those things.

But I also surfed and, you know, kayaked and fished in the ocean

and did all those kind of things too.

So kind of had this varied childhood, grown up out there,

met my wife. We were in junior high.

We've been, we were high school sweethearts, been together since

we were 14. So that's kind of a part of part

of that past, you know, there too.

And so we've been, yeah, we're celebrating 30 years marriage

this next year. And congratulations.

Thanks. Yeah.

So, so, yeah. So I met her and, and went away

to college for a few years, got married early, went into the

family business for a handful of years, worked my way up in a

bunch of different departments. And then and then kind of left

there to go into Christian full time ministry, got a seminary

degree and did all that. And then God called me back to

the family business. So just kind of a weaving

journey of trying to wake up every day and do what I'm

passionate about and what God's called me to.

Do OK. Yeah.

And so where you were at there in California, did you feel like

you were grown up with a little bit of celebrity status having

the weather be name or was that not really?

I mean, it's always been in the, I mean, not as much as say, if

I'd have grown up in Buffalo, WY, but it's always, yeah, you

know, it's certainly, you know, it's really in the 1st 15 to 20

years of the business, My grandpa, you know, helped

develop the business where it was somewhat of a household name

for anybody that was outdoors men or shooters or hunters.

And so obviously, yeah, whatever, whatever you're doing,

they hear your last name. You mean like the gun, you know?

So yeah, definitely. You know, growing up as a kid,

that was yeah, always, yeah, always a part of who we were.

Absolutely. OK.

And you said you started with the family business and then

moved into full time ministry and have come back, correct.

Can you tell us a little bit about the decision to leave, the

decision to come back and kind of what you did in between?

Yeah, yeah, that's a long story. I'll boil it down.

But, you know, essentially before we had kids, I was

working at the business and yet at the same time was I was doing

just a whole lot of ministry on the side.

And, you know, a lot of youth ministry at the get go and just

really felt every minute that I wasn't at work, I was just doing

ministry and working with young people and, and just felt that

fulfillment and meaning and purpose and all those things

that come with really doing what, you know, God's called you

to do. And so I'm the type of person

I'm, I'm, I'm driven by what I feel, by my calling, driven by

purpose, driven by that fulfillment and those things

that come more so than material things or all that other stuff.

Not that, that, you know, sure certainly isn't a driver for

everybody. So, yeah.

So I in my early 20s, even before I graduated college at

the time, left and went into into full time ministry out

there in California. And so, and you know, when I did

that, it wasn't, you know, people go, well, did you know

you're going to come back or when that's not the way I work,

It's like I got up every day and just went and did what I was

supposed to do that day. And that's just kind of the way

that I've been wired. Not that you don't forward think

and do those things, but ended up being 14 years of of doing

that. And, you know, maybe a dozen

years in, you know, or 13 years and whatever.

You know, my dad had come to me and, you know, hit my so my dad

ran it after my grandpa passed away in the 80s.

And so that second generation have been running it and it was

one of those, you know, it was, it was just I, I wasn't a

professional in the, in regards to manufacturing and all the

things that would come with running a business.

I had some of the natural skill sets and giftings of leadership

in communication, casting vision, forming teams,

collaborating, things that really you do when you run a

business. And then and then hopefully

you're just smart enough to hire for all your weaknesses and to

hire professionals in, you know, manufacturing and accounting and

marketing and engineering and all the things that you have to

have to run a business like ours.

And so anyways, after that period of years doing ministry,

just felt God's call back to the family business.

And there's a number of things that really went into that, but

one of them was like, it's a unique.

You always have to look at like what are the unique areas that

God put me in, the people that you know, for me, it's my last

name, the family I was born into.

There was kind of one person that could have done this job

right. And I'm like, look, somebody

else can come in and be a pastor at this church or do this

ministry is speak a message, do whatever.

And my real thing was can I come back and really step back into

Weatherby and yet still be, quote, a minister of the gospel,

right? Still try to love people the way

that God wants me to love them. Still use my gifts of speaking,

still use my gifts of pastoring and do those things, but not

have it be my place of work. And, you know, would I have

enough bandwidth to be able to to run a business and grow a

business and put everything into it and yet also live out that

passion on the side? And like, if you talk to Brenda,

my wife, she'll always say, you know, I tend to usually pick the

path of most resistance. I pick the path of greatest

challenges, adventures. That's why I love hunting in the

outdoors, in the Backcountry. I love, I love that.

And I'm drawn to that. And so I tend to be an

adventurer at heart. And so when I started to see

that, I said, man, that sounds like a path that's more unclear

to me. And as a result, that's what I

want to do. Yeah, good for you.

I know it was a few years ago, there were some brothers that

wrote a book called Do Harder Things, and it was kind of the

idea that when you're faced with a fork in the road, yeah, if you

choose the harder path, it usually turns out well, and

that's an opportunity to serve God through that.

It sounds like that's kind of what you've done.

Yeah, along the way. Yeah, so now I'm like, you know,

I Co Co pastor church with a couple other guys, you know, in

Sheridan and I travel and speak and try to use opportunities,

you know, like this to just, you know, do whatever I can to help

help other people as well. So try to do that.

But you know, I might also be back this afternoon at the

office in an in depth meeting on manufacturing.

So I I kind of wear all those hats.

Yeah, yeah. So how did your parents feel

about you moving away from the business and into ministry?

Were they supportive of? Very, very supportive.

My folks gave their life to the Lord in college and really kind

of went, went on the path of serving him and everything.

And so they, they were, yeah, some of my biggest fans.

It always have been along the way.

You know, my, my grandfather, really who, you know, the onset

of the company and kind of his entrepreneur story was really

starting with nothing. He was a poor farm kid in, in

Kansas, born in 1910 and moved out to California.

And when he started this business in his garage, you

know, he came from nothing. And and so, so really for my

dad, he grew up in the shadow of Roy Weatherby quite a bit.

And and my dad knew what that was like.

And so, you know, that presents its own challenges when you have

that real type a Gen. 1 entrepreneur.

And so my dad kind of just had maybe knowing what that was to

like to grow up under that raised me in a different way.

And I'm not saying the way my grandpa raised him was wrong, is

just different. And so I think my dad had seen

that and given me more freedom and really celebrating.

Yeah, the difference is that we might have.

Yeah, awesome. Yeah, Well, you articulate that

well, but I'm sure those were hard decisions.

I know. For sure.

I faced a similar dilemma as I came out of school, I had a

family business. It was an opportunity to take

over and also felt kinda calling to ministry and made a similar

decision that you're your career, your occupation doesn't

have to define your ministry. You know there is a path where

you can do. Yes.

I think so much of the time, like where we drive our income

from, you know, is like where we find our identity and that just

shouldn't be the case. And so it's like, am I am who I

am because of where I drive my income from or who I am because

that's the way God made me and my unique differences and skill

sets and calling, right. And so I think to be able to do

that, I think it's really important.

So, yeah, so it's good. So I mean, I'll we have a bunch

of people from our business that go to our church.

And so this last Sunday I preached and, you know, kind of

on an Advent thing up till Christmas.

And I see a Monday morning at work and we talk about guns and

Sunday night they're hearing about the light from John

chapter 1. And it's like, you know, we

should. That's the way we should live,

you know? Yeah.

So and I imagine both arenas provide opportunities to develop

your skill set that are symbiotic.

You probably maximize your communication that you've

learned in ministry, yes, and your care for people that helps

grow your business and a little bit vice versa.

Is that true? A. 100% yeah.

Yep. That's great.

Yeah. Well, you kind of touched on it

a little bit. But yeah, being the the grandson

of Roy Weatherby, kind of a a legend in the outdoor space and

then a son of Ed, who again grew the business and was kind of the

face of the brand. Those are some pretty big shoes

to fill. What was that transition like

when you came back and started taking over?

Did you feel the pressure of their legacy?

I did, but it's just not how I work.

I guess at the same time I just kind of do, I don't know, I'm

just kind of I just kind of step in and do.

So I'm not. So there was, there was

certainly a, you know, hey, here's a foundation, you know,

70 years, you know, don't go screw it up, you know, you know,

typically, I mean for a, for a business to go 3 generations now

it's at 80 years is very low single digit percentage odds.

And so it's it's so to be in there, it's like, yeah, that

foundation's there. But at the same time, I saw this

huge opportunity. So that's more the way I see it.

Rather than thinking of it as an intimidation part, it's more,

it's more what a foundation like people want to grow a brand and

have people know about their brand and their industry.

I didn't have to do that. The brand was well established

and everybody knew about it. It's it's known as a prestigious

premium brand. And I had to do nothing in order

to let people know about my brand.

Now what I had to do was rebrand like you have to do in a, in a

business that goes on for generations and decade after

decade is you have to do that or else it's going to die, right?

Kodak film or you know, you read those stories or automobile

brands that are trying to rebrand.

And so you know, what I would often hear growing up is it's

from old timers when my dad or my grandpa had this gun.

And so then my dad had to come in and do the same thing.

In fact, he relocated the business in California, about a

four hour drive away up the coast and had to almost form a

new team and rebrand and reidentify whether be that it's

not necessarily your dad's or granddad's gun anymore, but it's

relevant for you. And so the same was true really

when I took over from my dad as well, is like, you know, my dad

was toward the end of his career.

He'd ran it for, you know, 30 some odd years.

And it was an opportunity to come in, take that foundation

and build upon an incredible foundation.

So I didn't have to do that, and then I'm sure we'll get into it.

I think the move really played a part to that as well.

So, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's great.

Yeah. You have any advice that you

would offer to a multi generational business or

somebody looking to make that generational hand off?

Oh, man, yeah. I mean there's a lot, I mean,

it's family business and multi generational businesses can have

a lot, a lot of challenges. Certainly.

I just did a podcast a couple weeks ago with a all about

family business actually, and, and kind of chatted about some

of those things. In fact, Brenda was on there

with me too. My wife who kind of helps me run

the business as well. And so, yeah, there's a lot.

I mean, it's so dependent upon. It's just about people and it's

about relationships, it's about communication, it's about being

intentional. It's about at certain times, we

always say knowing what hat you're wearing.

Am I wearing a, am I wearing a brother, son, father hat right

now? Am I wearing a boss hat, an

employee hat, a shareholder hat, a board member hat?

What hat am I wearing? Is we're having this discussion

and trying to separate that so it doesn't ruin Thanksgiving

dinner. So you know what I mean?

So there's those things because there's a time family members

have to be bosses of other family members or you're handing

down shares or you're doing things.

There's times where things get a little bit dicey.

And so it's understanding those different roles and.

To be able to separate and segregate those things.

Otherwise, I think relationships can be destroyed in the process.

Yeah. So is that something that came

relatively naturally to you guys?

No. Or is that something you have?

To be intentional. Down and OK today I'm wearing

the boss hat and this is the conversation.

Yeah. You know, I, no, you have to be

very intentional. Yeah, you have to do that.

And over time you kind of learn and you go, oh, this is getting

a little bit messy. And that's why we have to kind

of, I think, draw those delineating lines and separate

it a little bit. So there's definitely some

intentionality. And so I'd say even there's

some, you know, some good books out there, some podcasts.

It's the like Prairie Family podcasts are out of South

Dakota. I did a podcast on there

recently. It's anyways, there's just,

there's different organizations, different books we read that

really helped helped us because it just doesn't come naturally.

And so then you get a lot of dysfunction and a lot of family

businesses because it's not that way.

There's preferential treatment. There's, you know, there's just

all sorts of things that happen and you have to be, I think,

very intentional about that. You know, for my dad and I, we

have and still have to this day, a very good relationship and we

have a mutual respect and trust for each other.

We're different type of leaders, but we understand, you know, we

understand what that looks like. I always say as I look back,

like my grandfather was that type A driven entrepreneur and

just an innovator at the same time, my dad is very faithful,

very loyal, values. People did so much for employees

and took all that. And so they're different.

I always say like I want to blend the two of them, right?

I want to have that innovation and drive with that care and

love for people and God and that my father has.

And so to really kind of blend those.

So it's kind of, yeah, I think it's, it's important to, I don't

know, Yeah. You got to be intentional about

the type of leader you are for sure.

Yeah, yeah, You just hit the two things on a much smaller scale.

But we handed off our family business generationally and it

went very smoothly for us. My dad and I have a great

relationship and I always credit that to mutual respect.

I think the Horror Story you always hear is dad knew how to

do it, he built the business, everything right was his.

Yes, and junior thinks dads an idiot and has his own way to

come in and the butt heads absolutely come in with the

mutant respect of respect for the the leader that has been in

place and got it to where it was.

And also if if that father that I guess parent it doesn't have

to be father son has a respect for the child that they raised

and the education they got the experience they got.

It goes a lot smoother. Yes.

How big of a role do you think that plays in the transition?

Oh, it's huge. Yeah, it's huge.

And sometimes, yeah, you definitely have to.

And I, you know, it's, it's hard when you've had something and

it's your baby and somebody comes in and does it different.

You know, there's, it's that mutual respect is huge.

Absolutely, yeah. I think there's always a drive

to, to, if you're taking over, you feel like you have to make a

splash and make it your own and, and do your own thing.

And some restraint on the side of the younger generation to

recognize that there was some wisdom behind the ways that we

did things. Yeah.

And so you don't want to just jump in and change everything

all at once. You're likely to screw it up.

Yes, yeah, that. And that's where the respect for

the past, you know, comes from. You can definitely make too much

change too quickly, and I'm sure I'm guilty of that.

So, yeah, well, that's great. It sounds like, like you said,

the percentage of businesses that make even 1 yeah, slim, as

sure as they can do it. A third generation is incredibly

slim and it looks like you guys have done nothing but grow

through that. So yeah.

And I think thanks. I think, you know, like I said,

it's interesting that my dad moved the facility about a year

after my grandfather passed away.

And then and then and then Brenda and I moved the facility

out here to Wyoming, which I think then it is important.

And that's one of the things when you talk about multi

generational. And then and then even my dad,

he retired, moved out of state for a while with my mom and they

just kind of there's that healthy kind of separation and

allowing that next generation to really lead it and run it by

coming out to Wyoming. It was it was we were able to

breathe that new life and that next step and thing into it.

And so I think that's really important at the same time, you

know, so for us, it just naturally happened.

Each kind of passing of the baton through the generations

that there's also been just a relocation.

I think that's played part of it too.

And able to kind of form your new identity as a leader.

Yeah. So, yeah, that's interesting.

Instead of just going to Dad's office, yes, correct business,

yes, yeah, Dad's employees, you guys get a chance to kind of

make it your own and and make it new.

Right. We, we felt like third

generation entrepreneurs in a way.

I mean we have about 140 employees move probably 15 to 18

and that's it. And so obviously we had a huge,

huge kind of hiring thing that had to happen.

We built a new facility, so we were able to design that

facility. So there's a whole lot of things

that had to happen. But there was a point, you know,

where Brenda and I were looking at each other and we don't know

exactly who's all going to come because at the beginning they're

probably 50 that we're going to move.

But then when reality hits and you know, family and property

and kids and things, it's just a lot of people started dropping

off and not being able to move with us.

We just realized. So we felt like we had to take

this well established brand, but really restart it, you know, by

doing that, which was scary, but we actually, it's just awesome

the way it worked and God's kind of providential timing and all

the things that happened in rebranding.

But we were able to double the size of our business in three

years after moving to the state of Wyoming.

And that's a 70 something year old, 75 year old business at the

time. Wow, that's incredible.

So, you know, so it just shows you like you got to be able to

again, that hard thing, right, that risk and to do that.

So yeah. And I would imagine, I mean just

the process of moving, shutting down a facility, opening a new

one, hiring all those people, retraining.

I imagine there is a pretty significant dip in production

and and probably in a lot of fronts because your your

attention gets split so many different directions.

How do you prepare for that and how did you manage through that?

Yeah, we figured it out the hard way.

But I mean, it's just, I mean, it was a grueling couple years

really is what it was a lot, a lot of long days over a couple

years. You know, one of the things

having Brenda be a partner with me in the business is she she

took on a lot of the all the people and recruitment of

people. She's still this day overseas

people and culture. So the people part was huge.

And then the facility part, right?

And so she actually oversaw internally the the whole design

and construction of the new facility because for me, we

still needed to design guns, sell guns, market guns like we

had to. I had to be out there in the

industry and in the business and meeting with accounts and

suppliers, Like I had to keep all that going.

And so for me to talk about, you know, how to build an

underground range underneath our thing and all the logistics of

the airflow in a 300 yard tunnel and everything is like, I didn't

have the time to do that. And so, you know, we had to do

that. And then with key people that

were moving, they were a big part of it too.

So we had to really kind of hand that off and really kind of

divide up the responsibilities to keep things moving at the

same time, so. Yeah, sounds like Brenda plays a

pretty significant role. He does.

When does she come on in the business?

Yeah, a few years after I came back then she ended up coming

on. She got her masters in

organizational leadership and real passionate about the

leadership part and about the human part and all that kind of

stuff. She's already she's also, we

have like many husbands and wives do complimentary gifts

where I'm that visionary and that leader in that storyteller.

She's I mean, there's not a tea that doesn't get crossed.

She's very, you know, both rules and administration and things

and just making sure details are buttoned up.

I mean, she's a hard, hard working person and, and really

is able to kind of do those things.

And then, you know, overseas, our human resource department

and just the the care and recruitment and retainment of

our people and stuff. So she came in really with some

professional and educational outside experience and then was

able to bring that in, which is cool a whole lot more than I do.

I mean, I got a master's in theology, so I came in knowing

the Bible pretty well. She actually came in knowing

business and leadership better than me.

So yeah. Yeah, I recently got to hear her

speak at an event. We were both talking about

recruiting people into the greens and manufacturing.

I was very impressed with the enthusiasm, just energy, passion

that she brought to that. I had not realized how involved

she was in the business. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So Yep, Yep, Yep, yeah. She was up at the same time for

PEOPLE yesterday at this Christmas party.

She personally bought the, you know, 45 gifts for the kids who

were coming. She was up yesterday morning at

4:00 AM, made 15 homemade loaves of sourdough for last night's

Christmas party. So she puts her all into

everything, you know, So it's cool.

Yeah. Still a small family business,

or I guess it's a bigger family business, but that's great.

Yeah. And so how does that dynamic

work between the office and the business and coming home?

I'm sure you guys serve different leadership roles, take

on different areas of responsibility both at work and

at home. Has the dynamic of working

together in the business affected your marriage and your

home life at all? I'm sure it has.

I mean we've really figured it out though and kind of drawn

those lines. I mean, this morning at home,

first thing when the sun was coming up, we were, we were

talking about some business things and stuff that has to

happen over the next couple days.

And so, you know, probably the hardest part is more we, we lead

well together and we understand each other's lines and where we

lead and we don't step on each other's toes.

We figured that out over the years.

It's the, probably the hardest challenge for us is when to turn

it off and making sure we do. That's the hardest part.

The biggest challenge still for us, because we're both kind of

so driven, you know, together that it's, you know, we need to

find more times to, to turn work off and, and that becomes hard.

So that, that's probably the biggest challenge to actually

leading the business together. We've we've not that we have it

all figured out, but that's the less challenging part.

It's how to not lead the business together.

It's the challenging part. Gotcha.

Yeah. Yeah, kind of like the the

parents that when the kids leave they don't yes thing left to

talk. Right, guys, Right, yes.

We've plenty to talk about, the kids to talk, plenty to talk

about. Yeah, Uh huh.

Yep. So what has been your most

difficult step since you returned and have kind of

started taking over? Probably that move, yeah, I mean

just out you know difficult. I mean it was at a time where we

are getting heavily constricted in California with all sorts of

regulations and different things.

Cost of business was high, regulations were high.

So it was business was very poor then having to financially get

up and move, lose most your people, rehire people, double

hire for a long time. So you have the gap, have a

downtime in production, ship things over here, all the costs

associated with it. We moved to teenagers that were

in high school. It's a very difficult time to

move. So that was very challenging.

I mean, we left our church body a, you know, 25 plus years in

California and left all of our family.

So that by far was the hardest. Yeah, any one of those things

you just rouse off. Right, but people are like, oh,

moving's hard I'm like, you know, start moving a factory

people and and semi is full of equipment.

So it was that was definitely by far the most challenging.

Yeah. It's something I never want to

do again. But it was 1 is it may end up

being the best choice of of my third chapter of running this,

you know, the 3rd chapter of whether it be here running the

business definitely was amazing for the business in so many

ways. But it but it was a very

challenging, yeah, very challenging time to do it.

So for for that old of a business and it's manufacturing,

you're not just moving offices and computers, you know, you got

CNC machines and large pieces of equipment and you know, I mean,

it's a lot of infrastructure in place to to make sure it's all

up and going. So, yeah, yeah.

Can you remember a particular moment or time in that process

when you were most afraid or maybe questioned things?

You know, it often comes back to the personal.

You know, it's probably with our kids in those things.

So, you know, there were weeks we were in church and hadn't

found a church yet. And it's before we ended up

planning a church. And so they're just, it was more

in the personal side than the business side, if that makes

sense. I don't think I ever really

doubted on the business side. It's like, I don't know, gotta

let it sustain that long. I won't say I wasn't worried

about it. I definitely spent some days

worrying. But it's probably more on that

personal side when it comes back to affect the family, you know?

So, yeah. Yeah, I know we talked a little

bit about the celebrity maybe being different between

California and here in Wyoming. Sure.

Yeah, you guys came and visited our church at one point in time.

And I know there were a lot of guys in congregation very

disappointed that you decided to go.

Somewhere, yes, Yeah. Well, the the 35 mile drive on

the highway, we wanted to be at a church in our own community.

Loved the church, actually really enjoyed it.

And we were here a couple times. We just said we believe church

is about local community. And so to have that community

and to be 35 mile away, for us, it wasn't gonna work.

But yeah. It seems like it's a great

decision. Yeah, for sure.

That was all the in my circle. It's the weather.

Bees were here. This.

Weekend. That's funny.

Yeah. And then my kids had to grow up

with that, you know, So when they did move here to this

community different than California, you know, it was

definitely, it was hard for them to escape that and just be a

normal kid when they moved here. So that was like, I think an

added pressure and challenge for them as well.

So. OK.

Yeah, yeah. Well, OK, you, you brought that

in. I wasn't planning to ask this

question, but you know, you're the third generation.

Have you started discussions with your kids about what the

4th generation looks like is or any of them interested?

I mean, they both, yeah, they've worked on and off at the place

in the factory growing up. They're off doing kind of the

finishing up. My son's finishing up college.

Daughter just did. She's going in the medical

field. So, yeah, you never know me,

just like me. I mean, I took the long way

around. And so just like my dad did with

me, there's there's no pressure there, but opportunities are

there. And I think that's a healthy way

to to have it. So and in my time, frankly

outside the business for me, it was ministry.

But even if it's other people in other other businesses, I think

is really important sometimes rather than it being the only

thing, you know. And so, you know, so my son's

thinking about, I think going away for a little bit and

because to be in our family business means you're in

Sheridan, WY, because that's where our factory is.

You don't work remote when you build stuff.

Yeah, you got to be, you know what I'm saying?

When you build stuff, you got to be where you're building stuff.

So you'll probably move away for a bit and get his feet wet out

there and we'll see what happens.

So, yeah, yeah. That's great.

Yeah. I appreciate that you have that

same attitude your dad did. Yeah.

Yeah. No pressure, but.

It was awesome for me and I want to provide that where the

opportunity is there, but hopefully the pressure isn't.

There's enough pressure anyways, I don't need to put any extra.

Yeah, it sounds like our fathers would get along well.

That's kind of the exact same. That's cool, that's cool, that's

neat. So why Sheridan WY?

How did you settle on Sheridan? What was that process like?

Yeah, we looked at, we looked at probably a half a dozen Western

states. We just always being a Western

United States based company, we knew we wanted to stay out West.

So it was kind of the Rockies in West.

We talked to 1/2 a dozen states. We'd yeah, we, I mean there are

a number of things that we needed.

I think there we we kind of wanted to move somewhere where

just the hunting and outdoors part were a little bit more a

part of the local culture than we had on the coast of

California. So we're looking for that, that

really authentic outdoors experience.

We were looking obviously for a state that would that would be

more an advocate for the Second Amendment in a way that we agree

with to be less regulatory, less tax invasive, all those kind of

things without getting political that that California had really

become. And so obviously most states fit

that bill more than California. So we had a lot of states to

choose from. Frankly, we wrote off Wyoming

for a while just thinking it's so remote.

Can we, can we really hire a workforce, retain a workforce?

The is the infrastructure there even from a shipping standpoint?

I mean, we have both, you know, freight trucks, parcel trucks

come in and out every day. We're both domestic,

internationally, airports, ports.

So just knew this is kind of the frozen tundra in the middle of

nowhere, the least populated state.

So we kind of wrote it off for a while and talked to some other

Western states that frankly had some more people in

infrastructure and and yet it was fall of 20 or fall of 2016.

Brenda and I are family actually with the kids.

We're out hunting in Wyoming, which is kind of all I knew in

Wyoming was there's a good game. I didn't know much else about

the state. And so, you know, 100 grown up

off and on my whole life out here.

And so we're out here hunting and on the drive home, Brenda

was hot spot and over in the passenger seat with a laptop and

just goes, what about Wyoming? And we've been involved with

conversations with other economic development departments

in other States. And at the time we kind of had

put the move maybe on pause for a little bit 'cause we just

running the business and that giant distraction.

And we got back, we got in touch with the Wyoming Business

Council, which is under the governors office in the state of

Wyoming. And probably a week later, I was

on the phone with Governor Meade, formed a friendship with

him and his team. Kind of the rest was history.

They put the full core press and said, hey, we want you out here.

We have a lot of jobs that are really based on energy that have

boom and bust and we want some more things that are stable,

which apparently thought firearms was which, you know,

it's funny too. So relative.

And so so we started to really look heavily at Wyoming.

And then it came down to, OK, well, you know, where's the

place that's going to be big enough from a people standpoint,

infrastructure standpoint. So we knew it needed to be by an

Interstate. Well, that throws off, you know,

a lot of western Wyoming, really.

I mean, Cody and Jackson and all those things.

Obviously Jackson's too expensive to have a factory in

and other things, but so we knew that it kind of narrowed things

down. So we need to be by an

Interstate. We needed to have a large enough

population base, which 90% of the towns of Wyoming are not

going to have either, you know, for the needs that we would have

for our business and our employees.

So really came down to a handful or less of cities.

I think that we're really going to work for us.

Sheridan's at, you know, 4000 feet, some other cities here are

7000 plus and we're moving from California and that was just

scary to a lot of people, maybe including us, you know, at the

beginning. And you know, so from a climate

standpoint, the, the Bighorn Mountains, our local Sheridan

College, our tool machine program, some of their trades

and different things, good support there.

So we got just a lot of a lot of local support in Sheridan too,

you know, obviously just just great hunting, you know, a town

that was wasn't afraid to grow. It's not like we want to bring

California here. And a lot of people get real

worried about it. You know, we knew we'd bring

some jobs and, and things to the, you know, to to the area,

but they were supportive of that, supportive of, of coming.

So really, so much of it was about the people of Wyoming and

then really the people of this area that really just made it so

welcoming. And in the end, yeah, it was a

pretty easy choice, to be honest.

That's great. Yeah, Well, I've.

I've not heard anything but positive about it.

No, you had to get out more. Yeah.

So no, it's, it's great. I love Buffalo down here,

though. It's we love, you know, I mean,

it's kind of the gateway at one of the main points up to the

Bighorns. So we we come through Buffalo a

lot and I and I love it. I mean, obviously just size why

Sheridan's a little bit bigger and we just need a little bit

more people to draw from. But we actually always have some

employees that commute up from Buffalo and stuff.

And a few times a winter of the road gets closed and they can't

get into work. But.

But we love Buffalo as well. Yeah, Yeah, you guys would have

to hire almost everybody in town, right?

Yeah. Well, you alluded to it a little

bit earlier. I've noticed just watching from

the outside in, in the last few years, you really have kind of

rebranded and you said your dad faced that same problem of, you

know, this is not your dad's gun.

It can be your gun that's relevant and you guys have don't

in or dove into that full force. Can you tell me a little bit

about what that process looks like or or maybe some of the

decisions there? Were there anything that was

difficult letting go of maybe the the tradition and moving

into a a new generation? I think a couple things about

that. I think you know, in, in regards

to that, well, first and foremost, I think part of that

rebranding was, was the team that we were going to have.

We brought some quality people with us.

We, we left unfortunately some quality people out in

California. We had to, but we we were able

to hire a a great team. And so first and foremost, it's

that I think it's our people that saw the vision for the

future and for the next chapter of Wetherby and fully embraced

it. And so I think that that

reforming of that team was crucial.

Hats off to Brenda for a lot of that on on that people's side.

I may have been involved in a little bit as well, but but I

think that that was really important.

But it is it is also continually important to respect and honor

the past while moving forward. Like even I'll say for

California, as much as people trash it, I'll say California

has a rich history for Wetherby if it weren't for my

grandfather's opportunities in Southern California.

I mean, he had John Wayne and Roy Rogers in his shop before

anybody knew who he was. And so like California provided

a great past and we honor that. But the future was not

California. The future for us is in Wyoming.

And so the same is true with some of our products.

We just this year, I think here's a great example.

So this year's our 80th. I don't know if you saw online

or anything that 80th anniversary rifle we.

Launched. I drool over it all.

But we, we have the historic wood, really, really, really

high grade exhibition wood, our traditional Mark 5 action like a

lot of traditional things in 300 Weatherby, our oldest, most

traditional, kind of one of our most oldest traditional

calibers. And yet we have a carbon fiber

barrel and titanium. And so we tried to blend modern

materials with past craftsmanship and tried to say,

this is a bit of who Weatherby is where because that's where we

can differ in our competition. There's a lot of folks that have

sprung up in the last, say 2025 years that are doing a lot of

the new edgy stuff and using new materials, but they don't have

that same story that we do in the past.

And so it's, I think it's really embracing both of those and

never, never letting go of that history and remembering where

you came from. Yeah, that's awesome.

I love that rifle for those same reasons.

There's just something about a, a walnut stock.

Yeah. That speaks to the heart a

little more than the new carbon fiber.

And yeah, that's a beautiful rifle.

And now hearing the story behind it.

Yeah, yeah. I really wish I could have

snagged one of those. That's a beautiful rifle.

I'm not sure I could bring myself to actually shoot it

though. Yes, yes, that one's mostly

fashion less function all fashion.

And yeah, we had a custom gunsmith on a few weeks ago.

He was discussing maybe a trend that I've noticed in the

industry towards more, more custom rifles and getting into a

lot of the the newer cutting edge materials.

And it seems like you guys have really stepped into that space

and competed kind of providing some of the the custom rifles

semi custom. Do you see that same trend as

well and has that influenced some of the decisions you're

making? 100% yeah.

You know, I don't want to give everybody our secret sauce

recipe here, but in a sense that's really we're, we're in a

lot of price points, right? I mean, you can get a Weatherby

probably is it as cheap as 5 to 600 bucks and upwards of

$10,000, right? And everywhere in between.

Our sweet spot is, is doing a lot what?

Because we're not, we're not as big as, you know, a Ruger or a

Savage of these guys that just pump out, you know, thousands of

guns a month, right? We're also not the custom shop

guys. They're not even 1000 bucks,

1000 guns a year, right? I mean we're still shipping a

lot of guns a year and we're in big boxers and we're all over.

But our sweet spot is really putting a lot of custom features

in maybe a middle to upper end production rifle.

And so to be honest, a lot of the folks out there that are

doing five $10,000 plus rifles is, is, is turning out to be

very well for us because we offer a lot of those same

features at often half to 1/3 of the price.

And so we'll have guys where they're like, man, I really want

that gun. They're drooling over it.

Well, it's $10,000. They come in, find it from us

for $2900 with 90% of the features on it.

And so that tends to be a real sweet spot for us.

And yet it's a brand that people know and trust and has been

around for a long time too. So it that, that, yeah, that's

absolutely probably one of our sweet spots that we operate in.

We're never going to make a as inexpensive as Ruger can do.

We're just never going to be able to do that.

But we're also never going to be the guys that are we're not a

custom shop either. And so we we find kind of that

niche in there a little bit. So and.

It seems like that probably speaks a little bit to your

history. Like from my perspective outside

looking in, it seems like that was kind of the niche of the

last two generations as well was it wasn't the low end cheap

production rifle. You guys offer kind of premium

products in a production line and you're just bringing that

into the the newest technology? Yes, absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome.

It seems like, yeah, 20 years ago, everybody in the field just

had a low end mass produced production rifle.

And if you saw, I mean a Weatherby or especially a custom

was kind of a rare thing in the special thing.

And now it seems like those higher end rifles are becoming

more and more common and you guys are really taking advantage

of that market. Definitely.

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I, I think the same thing.

I have dove into the custom rifle market a little bit and I

often hop on your website like man, you got everything I was

looking for in a package that's a third the price.

Like we had this funny story. It came from a show we were at.

AI think it was a wild sheep show, I can't remember which one

or western hunt show or something.

And we were out there and the guy came in our booth and we

were showing him one of our rifles and he fell in love with

it. And he goes, it's only, you

know, it was a titanium. It was like a $3000 gun, right?

I mean, it's the upper end for our production, right?

And he's like, wow, it's only 3000.

And he goes, I'll be right back. I'm like, I'm like, oh, OK, The

guy left and and he runs, comes back 20 minutes later and we go,

where'd you go? And he's like, well, I just

cancelled my custom gun I bought over there for three times as

much money. He says it's exactly the same

gun. I come back here and I'm buying

this one. I'm like, felt bad for the

custom guy, but it felt pretty good at the same time.

Yeah. Yeah, that's great.

Well, I know you you talked a little bit about the move.

That's probably the the simple answer here.

And also significantly increasing growing your sales in

the last few years. Was there anything that caused a

delay in that growth that you would handle differently if you

could do it again? Yeah.

I mean, there's all sorts of things.

It seems like most of them are external factors that you can't

predict, you know, in, in things, I mean, it's, it's

especially in our industry, like many, there's, there's highs and

lows and there's spikes and you know, in the firearms industry,

it's, you know, you get the boom and bust and they maybe see the

oil industry, but in firearms you do as well.

It's often politically driven and things that don't really

even have to do with our products specifically, but it's

other people's. And so, you know, we had right

after we moved, we hit some great tailwinds.

You know, 21 and 22 are the best couple years for the whole

industry in the history of firearms industry in the US.

So we had a lot of things. Then when that happens and that

goes away and over inventory out there, the kind of the demand

goes down. So supply is up everywhere.

It's just your basic economics that kind of happened.

But a lot of it is, yeah, a lot of it is just external factors,

right? I mean, we make a lot of

internal blunders as well, you know, I'm sure, but but a lot of

it is just the the uncertainty of external factors, which, you

know, I mean, this year we had tariffs, right?

And you know, kind of, you know, that was kind of insult to

injury. I think for a lot of businesses.

We manufacture a ton of stuff in the USA, ton of stuff in

Sheridan Mark 5 rifles, three O 7 rifles are all built here, but

we do some importing as well, depending on the price point.

We do some Italian shotguns as well.

So we, you know, we have different things and nobody knew

that was going to come like it did in a in a hurry and the

uncertainty of it and where it was going to stick.

And it was one percentage one day.

And so a lot of the challenges are just, but those will always

be there. The the external things that are

going to come in. So it's how are you dealing with

those things And as a leader? And there's probably been times

where I freak out too much at the external things when they

come, but they're always going to be there.

You can chart out a plan. I mean, right now we have a four

year strategic plan. It's not going to happen like it

is on paper. It never does ever.

You know, you can never bat 1000 to know what's going on.

And so I think so much of what I've learned is to, you know,

you, you know, you got a plan for those times that they're

going to come and you got to know that they're there.

I tend to be probably one of my biggest mistakes.

So I tend to be what what sometimes I've been called a

forceful optimist. This can be awesome.

This is where we're going. And you do that.

But at the same time, you have to plan in that it's not going

to always go that way. There's going to be things,

there's days that are messy. You're going to have machines

that breakdown on the shop floor.

You can have people resign that you never thought would quit.

You're going to have tariffs that come out of the middle of

nowhere where you're gonna have an industry that does something

crazy, weird. You're just gonna have you're

gonna have whatever the anti gun world doing things and passing

things that you don't know. It's just there's so many

external forces and so you always have to know that those

things are gonna be there. Yeah, Yeah.

That's some good advice. I see young business guys that

they get into an industry on an upswing, yeah, they think that

that's just gonna continue forever and that external

factor. Drops, they're in.

If we've learned anything over 80 years, it's, you know, one

day you're just, you're making a bunch of money and the next

you're like, well, you know how you can make payroll in two

weeks, you know, And so it's, it's everywhere in between.

And if you've had a business long enough, you know, you'll

know that for sure. So yeah.

Yeah. Is there something that you wish

you would have learned earlier? I mean, as a whole, it's

interesting because I got my degree and had all this

experience in ministry. What that did was rather than

just staying in the family business, I felt like I came in

behind. So when I came back about a

dozen years ago, I had to make up for a lost time of just even

general business knowledge and a lot of different things.

And so, but at the same time, I wouldn't go back and trade those

years of ministry for anything, for anything.

Never trade that. But there was a handicap that I

felt just having come in doing those awesome, amazing things

for all those years. And I wouldn't trade it for

anything. But there's times where I came

in that I man, I am super under qualified right now.

You know, look at your degree in theology on the wall.

You see all your years of ministry experience and you

think how in the world am I running all these different

departments not knowing what's going on.

So I think for me it was just that those years of not knowing

business and then and then coming in, because when I came

back, I kind of didn't work my way back up.

I just kind of came in. I was COO and took over my dad

pretty quickly because he was kind of, he was running out of

steam at the end of his career. Been doing it for decades, just

super faithful. But it was kind of like come in

and take that next step pretty quick.

So, you know, I'm sure there's a lot of mistakes I made just

early on, you know, just being naive to a lot of things, just

business. Yeah, yeah.

OK. Is there something?

A particular viewpoint or topic where you have changed your

opinion significantly as a result of the experience you've

had. I don't know, that's so general.

It's hard for me to think, you know, there's, I mean, I mean,

the answer is yes. I just can't think of an example

that would be good to share necessarily.

Give me just a second. I mean, there's kind of things

going through my mind. It's how to boil them down to be

able to communicate them, you know?

Yeah. I mean, one thing I've learned,

something people told me early on, is it's never as good as it

looks from the outside, and it's never as bad as it looks from

the inside. That's good.

And you're always, you look at your competition, you look at

other businesses, other industries, and you go to

they're crushing it. Oh, their margin must be

amazing. They're not having these

problems. It's so much simpler.

They have less regulations or you look at these things

whenever you get on the inside, it's never as bad as it looks.

And so I think the longer I'm in business, the more I realize

being a business owner is just hard.

And so sometimes I think that we'll arrive.

We're not, we're not. We're never arriving.

It's always a work in progress, right?

And so I think maybe to answer your question, like early on,

every time when we get here, when we hit this milestone,

we'll be able to be here. It's just not the way it works,

at least in my experience right now.

These guys that are starting these AI companies and they're

worth billions of dollars. Five years later, I don't know,

they might have a different story for me.

I mean, we're in, it's a tough industry.

It's highly competitive, it's fairly low margins.

It's a lot of expense, it's a lot of regulations, it's a lot

of risk. There's a ton of compliance.

There's ATF, there's you name it, right?

There's, I mean the, the liability, I mean, our insurance

costs, I mean, we're making things that shoot like things to

kill it like this is so there's so many things.

And so it's just, but it's awesome.

It's never as good as look from the outside.

It's never bad as it is on the inside.

So I guess that's maybe how I'd answer your question a little

bit. Yeah, I really like that.

I guess that would probably be something that's true for me is

when you see a business from the inside, you see the the

liability, the stress. And yeah, you always hear

people. Oh, it must be nice.

Or, you know, I think Dave Ramsey, he probably snagged it

from somebody else. I can't remember the reference,

but he always says, you know, after 20 years of hard work, you

become an overnight success. Yes, yes.

Nobody sees the sleepless nights.

Nobody sees the the fear of being able to make payroll.

Nobody sees the regulations that change that didn't alter your

whole business. All they see is the big win.

Yeah. And they assume that you just

lucked into it. Yes, there's a lot of liability,

there's a lot of stress, there's a lot of work that you behind

those absolutely easy wins. Yeah, we always say it's sausage

making is messy. You see it in the final

packaging at the story. Like, man, that sausage looks

good. You go into a sausage factory,

it probably don't look too good. Like sometimes we do that.

I'll, you know, tell my key people I'll be traveling.

I'm like, hey, how's the sausage making today?

Like, man, is messy, you know, because it's just the way it is.

Mine, the scenes, by the time it's all said and done, you do

the QC checks, you get it out there and you got something good

to present to your customers. But sometimes sausage making is

messy. That's yeah, yeah.

That's good. Have you made a major mistake

that you wish you could have avoided?

Well, yeah, like every every week.

Every week. I mean, sometimes you, you might

launch a product too early, you know, and and then, you know,

you're delayed in your shipments because you, you have a high

level of, you know, quality that you're doing, but you're eager.

I tend to be impatient. I would say most of my mistakes

are built off of impatience. OK.

And I and I shoot 1st and ask questions later.

And so the older I get, I'm hoping I can learn that more and

more. Yeah.

There's some wisdom there as. Well, yeah.

Maybe the flip side to that question, have you ever made

what I call a beneficial mistake?

A mistake that the the lesson you learned ended up outweighing

the consequences of the mistake. Yeah, that happens all the time.

I mean, you, you stumble into something, right?

And yet sometimes it's our trials, our mistakes and the

perseverance you learn in that where you learn the biggest

things in business, right? Even in life, it's the same way

when things don't go according to plan, like that's when that's

when things work out better. So yeah, mistakes or accidents

too. I mean, you can, you can have

accidents stumble you into, I think something worthwhile that

you, that you learn from too. So no, absolutely.

I think there's, there's plenty of mistakes or you know, that

you make and even sometimes you make a hire and ends up not

being the right person, but you learn from that who you need

later and you know, so I think there's, there's things from all

of that. Yeah, in kind of in kind of

learning. So sometimes you it takes one

mistake or in a product ID or whatever and you have a flop

that's out there in a product, but then you never do that

mistake again. And so, you know, you have to

have the one bad one to avoid the next 10.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you could start over and go

back to the beginning of your career as a as a minister, would

you do something differently? No, No.

That I wouldn't because I just look back on that time and go

like, no, I pretty, I think I can confidently say no on that.

Like that was just AI think a pure like God calling me and me

just following the call, but not knowing what the heck's going on

and learning as I go and learning ministry as I go

learning people that process. It was so unplanned, so anything

else would be planning. And that's what was so great

about is it was just trying to follow the Holy Spirit's call

and just trying to be obedient. And so that's what was so

awesome about it was just learning along the way.

So I think, I think if you, if you listen to God's voice and

you follow his call, that's a life without regret, right?

And that's when it's when you listen to your own voice or you

ignore that higher calling, that's a life of regret.

And so that's why I think as I look back to that time, I don't,

I don't have any regrets. That's great, honestly.

Yeah, In business, you have regrets in different decisions

and you can hyper analyze everything.

But in ministry, unless you're doing something out of selfish

ambition, then if you're just getting up and your goal is to

serve the Lord and to serve others, regardless of who shows

up or what the critics say, it doesn't matter.

That's what's so you know, there's verse in the Bible,

First Corinthians 1558 that says if you labor for the Lord, it's

not in vain. And that's what so I'm like, if

I labored for the Lord today, here's what's cool at the end of

the day, whether it be today, I'm like, OK, there's going to

be revenue numbers and sales. I'm going to have what I booked

in sales today. I'm going to have what I went

out, what went out the door and invoiced.

I get a report at six O clock every night if I don't get on my

computer system during the day and at the end of the day, it's

kind of now businesses measured right and it's what our costs

are and there's things in ministry world.

If you labor for the Lord, it's not in vain.

So your ROI is like up to the Lord and that's what's cool.

You just you just do the obedience, you just step out and

whether you know some of those people's lives that you

ministered to end up turning around and walking the narrow

Rd. Well, great.

If they don't, that's not up to you.

The results are not up to you. That's up to the Lord.

You're just called to go serve him.

The results are up to him. So that's why I said there's no

regrets in that. I'm more regrets in business

because it's measured. Business is measured off of

those tangible financial results and spreadsheets.

So you tend to have that, but the other ones you just hand

that over you in the same as a parent, you raise a, you know,

proverb says we should raise a child in the way they should go.

Well, you raise them, they go. The rest is, I mean, I got kids

in their 20s, we raised them, they're going, we're not, we're

not micromanaging their decisions anymore.

That's you know what I mean, The decisions they make now, that's

on them, not on us anymore. So I think it's that that real

kind of understanding and trusting God in those moments.

Yeah, that's good stuff, Good stuff.

Yeah. Sounds like the way you run your

business, you have a lot of ministry in your business and

ministering to your employees and your customers.

You feel similarly about. I know you know the business

side of things can be measured on that report you get every

night at 6:00. Sure, you get that same

satisfaction of serving the Lord and and having that work come to

the fruition that it will in your current role as you did

when you were serving in full time ministry.

Yeah, Yeah, definitely. I mean, you can get caught up in

the weeds a whole lot more probably in business.

And there's just, you know, in the complexity of our business,

there's just a lot of, there's just a lot of things and

unknowns and there's so many departments and things that go

into the the business. So I can get my focus tripped

up, you know? You know, at the end of my life,

it's not about how many guns we shipped or what our customers

thought of us online on Instagram comments, you know,

like, that's not the judge of my life or my career as the CEO of

Wetherby. It should be off something

better. But boy, there's times where you

get tripped up on that, you know, and you just get hung up

in the small things become the big things.

And it's not how it should be. You know, That's why I like last

night at that Christmas party, Brenda and I came home so

encouraged. You know, a lot of people have,

you know, since we've moved here, been a part of the team

and a lot of the people have come on and they've been raising

families and a lot of little kids there.

Last night when they started with us, those kids weren't

there. And so just seeing that, you

have to remember it's about that and the people and, and

everything. But oh boy, I get sideways a lot

of days because I get, I'm very driven and focused and results

oriented in business and I'm competitive.

So that competitive part of me wants to win.

Well, the way you win in business is by, you know,

shipping a good product to customers and having them love

it. So and you're not shipping

product, you're upset when there's quality problems, you're

upset when there's customers that are upset, you're upset.

So it's, it's, it is hard in business sometimes, but you got

to and that's what Brenda and I help each other out on that.

When it's rare that we both have a day where we get sideways,

it's usually other days and then we can kind of hold each other

up. And that's one of the benefits

of it. That's great.

Yeah. I think as I've talked to a lot

of leaders, the best leaders care more about their people and

loving their people than they do the success of their business.

But yeah, you just nailed it. So when there's clear metrics

over here and soft metrics over here, it's really easy to get

tied up over here. Do you have any advice for maybe

a young leader to help reset that and keep the focus where it

needs to be while maintaining that that drive and then

competitive edge? I mean, for me it's it just

starts every day. It's every morning.

I mean, you got to get up, put your head back on straight again

if you got sideways the day before.

So for me, what that looks like is it's a cup of coffee.

It's looking at the Big Horn Mountains out my back window and

it's my Bible open and it's praying with my wife.

That's what it is for me on weekdays.

I got to, I got to start the day now by 10:30.

I may be sideways already, but I got to make sure I start every

day fresh, every day new. His mercies are new every

morning. Doesn't matter what happened the

day before. It's new opportunities in front

of you that day. And it's it's taking advantage

of those things. I think a day at a time.

That's good. Yeah.

Yeah. And to not to not.

I don't look back very often. It's fault and a strength even

like, you know, my wife says like if somebody leaves or

resigns, whether being like, I'm really bummed about it cuz

they're a good team member. Yeah, about an hour after they

resigned, I've moved on. Yeah, it's, it's hard.

Like it's like, well, don't know, We got to care about the

people. And I'm like, I'm moving, like

I'm going, we got to fill that role.

We got to. And so I just tend to kind of

move forward. And so that next day you can't

look back, You can't have those regrets.

I think every day it's got to be about, about what matters.

So. Yeah, yeah, that's good advice.

So what has been your biggest win as a leader?

What are you most proud of? Like at Weatherby or?

Let's do both at Weatherby and just in general.

Sure, sure. Yeah.

I mean it whether be, I think it's, I think this whole chapter

of being in Wyoming and just rebranding the company,

rebranding the product lineup and forming a new team and just

having this next chapter, you just look back on it and you go,

it was a ton of work. And the things that were a ton

of work over the hardest end up on the flip side typically being

those biggest wins later. And so as hard as it was in

those couple years to look back afterwards and see, and there's

other internal things I want to share in the podcast and you

know, ownership things. So whatever, you know, a lot of

behind the scenes things, but then I want the world to know on

the Internet. But there's just a lot of,

there's a lot of things. So when you come through those

hardest times, so as a business, it's that looking back, seeing

the perseverance through that and, and coming out on the other

side and just some of those big wins or when you launch a new, a

new product, we got some exciting launches coming up here

in January. We do a product launch often

it's years in the making. And so you just, you get those

wins where you look back and you go, man, it was everything from

the initial concept and it's engineering, it's production,

it's marketing, it's all the departments.

And so I love seeing a team win, right?

And so when the whole business wins, when all the employees,

when, when the brand wins, when all those things like it's just

awesome. I think on that flip side, you

know, to, to be able to see and just look back and go, man, look

at what together we were able to accomplish.

And that there's just that's exciting.

It's rewarding when that happens.

And so, you know, I think with that too, though, I think being

able to like for in this podcast, I've had countless

opportunities to, to be able, I mean, I probably, you know, I

think last week I did 2 podcasts.

I was on another CEO podcast in our industry, another industry

one. I'm on 2 tomorrow.

So it's also, and then I travel and speak a lot.

And so it's also to be able to to uniquely, you know, as a

communicator, as a pastor, as those things to be able to blend

that into the business that some of the biggest wins for me have

been able to see that and to hopefully be able to encourage

others, which I think is what is great about this podcast.

So that's that's a big win just on the business side, maybe just

what I shared, but to be able to, to really blend those things

together. I know it's a unique thing to be

in ministry for the first half and then some people do business

and then kind of retire and maybe do some ministry.

So it's kind of a unique experience, unique resume.

If you would that obviously I was, I would have never got the

job if my last name wasn't Weatherby to come in and run

this company. So I know I cheated and by being

born into the family that I did, but it as a result, it's been

really fun sometimes to be able to use my name and business as a

platform to speak to bigger and more important things, life

changing things. So that's that to me is I think

a big one. Yeah, yeah, that's great.

It's been a pleasure for me to get to watch that as as a

Christian and a business owner to see you leverage your

position to make a big impact is is really cool.

So thank you and thank you for making the time to join us

today. You bet.

No, it's been fun. What has been your best resource

to grow? As a leader, a few, I think it's

finding other mentors, especially for me.

I came back into business having a experience in ministry.

I needed to find people, other leaders, other CE OS in my case,

or business owners, people in our industry that I sat down and

spent some time with. There was a another guy in the

industry that runs a a big company.

Most people would know and, and he, I remember when I, I came

back to business, there was a time and I was doing some

restructuring and all sorts of things.

And I just flew out to where he's at and sat on his couch and

spent, spent a day on a laptop and said help me.

And so I think, I think 1 is just finding other people that

are do excellent work in whatever that is.

And really I think doing that. So for me, sure, I read books,

you know, I got an education. I did those different things.

But but for me, I learned best from people.

OK, Yeah. Do you have some advice to

finding those quality people, those quality mentors?

What do you look for specifically in someone that

you're going to give a voice into your life?

I, I go, could they run this company better than me?

And if the answer is yes, then I'll probably look to them for

advice. And, and I have lots of people I

can now they don't have my last name that there's things they're

going to lack. But but it's those kind of

people, you know, that, that truly, I was talking to a guy

this week. He was CEO of a multi billion

dollar company out of our industry.

I was talking to him this week and he's on some boards now and

he retired and and I just was talking about board member

position maybe someday. And I just go because like, at

the end of the day, you made your career by getting just a

college education and working hard.

I said I didn't. I was just, I had the right last

name. So I need to surround myself

with people like you, you know, and so where he truly built a

company, grew it by billions of dollars.

I'm like, that guy actually knows what he's doing.

I probably if I have an opportunity to talk to him.

I will, you know, So, yeah, that's good.

Yeah, that's good. You've talked about quite a few

hard things that you've persevered through.

What is it that gives you motivation to keep pressing when

things get hard? It's weird.

It's part of, it's just the way I'm wired like even like a like

a I've done a ton of triathlons. I'm doing 1/2 Ironman this next

year. I'm turning 50.

And you know, that's not things most people go.

That's something I want to do, go spend a day running, biking

and swimming without stopping. And, and, and so I kind of just

wired that way #1 you know, and, and I think, you know, just for

the, the perseverance, I think I know that when I look back, I

have to see that the biggest moments of growth or success

came after a storm, came after the hardships.

And so just I guess the older I get, I realized don't run from

the storm. In fact, I was speaking a mutual

friend of ours, Jim Ramos, I was speaking out at a a man camp.

He did this last year. And the theme he came up with

his into the storm and he had on it a bison on the logo and for

the camp. And I took my daughter bison

hunting. She in college drew a bison tag

and I took her out to, you know, by the Tetons out there and did

the did the hunt out there and she got a bison.

It was awesome, you know, but those creatures, that's what

they do, They don't they don't run.

They just stand and face the storm.

And as leaders, sometimes we're called to face the storm, not

run into the storm. And I think the older you live,

the more people you lead, the more organizations you run, the

more ministries you're a part of.

You realize that when you face the storm on the backside of the

storm is is where the results come from.

Yeah, that's good. You know, that's something I

wrestle with just as an individual and as a father is

the, the times of my life when my life was most rich and that

I, I grew the most. We're right on the back end of

the most difficult things. And so like as a father, I want

my kids to experience that richness, but yet I never want

to hope difficulty on them and finding that balance of, yeah,

facing into the storm when it comes.

So you get that richness, that growth.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's cool, man.

A lot of good questions, Eric. Well, we're getting towards the

end. We got just a few.

Yeah. This is my favorite question.

You've talked about it quite a little bit, but to dive in

specifically, I know that you're a person of faith and

specifically a Jesus follower. How has that affected the way

that you lead and the way that you run your business?

Does, yeah. It's everything.

I mean, it's what hopefully makes it not just being merely

selfish ambition, but the way you lead is towards these

greater causes, right, Is, you know, living out what he called

us to live, to love God and love others.

And I mean, so it, it, it redefines your purpose, your

success, all those things, right?

So if you're if you're focused on those things first and

foremost, then it makes the days where you failed as a business

or as a leader to go, yeah, but I'm not a failure as a person

because you have a different identity, right?

So my identity is found in who I am in Christ, not in the success

of a product launch, you know, And so at the end of the day,

like it changes your whole perspective on everything.

I think it's the people that get so consumed in the if, if that

business that you've started or that you've inherited, that

you're growing becomes everything to you, then then

you're missing out on what's most important.

Your identity can be wrapped around in it.

And if your identity is wrapped around in it, then then your

life passes or fails based on the success of if you sold

enough widgets or your services were good enough or whatever it

is. So, yeah, yeah, OK.

Yeah. Well, a lot of the audience that

we have here on the show are tradesmen, blue collar guys and

you guys employ 140 people, most of which are what I would

consider kind of a blue collar industry is a a future or a

career in manufacturing. Is there still opportunity

there? There's plenty of opportunity.

We got jobs posted daily. There certainly is.

It's not something you, you know, you don't hear from

people. What do you want to do when you

grow up? I want to build stuff, you know,

I want to, I want to work in a factory.

I want to, it's just not there are more and more people wanting

to do different things, work from home, more services,

software, etcetera. But I mean, US manufacturing, I

was just talking to an employee last night, works in our stock,

carbon fiber stock department. I was talking to him at the at

the Christmas party. He goes, man, it's so cool

because like, I'll go into a gun store, I'll be at a Scheels or

your local store, a Sportsman's and I see like a carbon fiber

stock and I see that paint job and I go, I'm out of hand

painted that stock. And so like, you know, to be

able to like, you know, a lot of it's gone away, but to be able

to be involved in US manufacturing and build stuff.

And then he goes, and I remember when my supervisor first day I

worked, he goes, just remember, we're building guns.

And there's a lot of things you could build that aren't as cool

as that, you know, so, so I think, you know, there is still

still something to be had there. And there's a lot of challenges

and a lot of obstacles and it's not going to be easy.

So you got to be, you know, at the end of the day, no matter

what you're building, you're still building stuff.

And it's hard. So whether we're making, you

know, cool firearms that people want, we're building some widget

that's, I don't know, going on something else that's not as

exciting, Like you're still it's, it's hard work and people

got to be cut out for it. And there's, I mean, there's

typically in making stuff, there's capital needed to, you

know, upfront. So you got to it takes money to

make money. So it's just a hard reality.

Do you see, or I guess what trends do you see, is the labor

force becoming more plentiful or less for manufacturing?

Jobs far less, far less. I was out at a another major US

gun manufacturer much larger than us this year and they have

factories in multiple States and they said it doesn't matter the

state we're in, it's getting harder and harder and harder to

find people. And so it's, it's hard people,

you know, and, and frankly, there's some depending on the

level that you're in, there's some people depend on your skill

set. If you move up, if you're a

manager, what kind of equipment you're running, there's

somewhere you can make a great living.

But but frankly, in order to make products and have them

competitive, if it's a lower, we could lower skilled job, meaning

we can train you in a couple weeks on your job, then, you

know, then people are going to sometimes what happens, they

want to jump out of that. So they do this and they want to

move up. So, you know, there's, there's,

you know, in a factory, though, there, there you need people on

the assembly line, frankly, you do.

And those people aren't going to be making six figures.

And so that's just the reality of it, right.

And so it's hard. And so, yeah, when I talk to

folks, even in other industries, it's it's hard.

The labor force is hard right now and it's getting harder.

Absolutely, yeah. Do you see a trend towards more

opportunity in those positions? Are some of those wages maybe

balancing with some of the other options those people would have?

Yeah, they're definitely, I mean, you know, yeah, I mean our

entry level price, you know, entry level wage versus what

when we moved here seven years ago was significantly higher,

you know, so you have to be kind of competitive, you know, to

what's out there for sure. So, you know, there's more, I

think there's more and more opportunities and depending on

the person and how motivated they are too, there's

opportunities to work up within an organization as well.

And so if you can work into management or operating more,

you know, more complicated equipment or whatever those

things are, then I think there's there's opportunity there.

And then I think for those that want to go down more the quote,

professional route, I mean, sure.

Well, if we're going to hire an engineer, they're probably going

to have an engineering degree and probably experience in

engineering. So if they're going to come in

and be in our IT department or they're going to be whatever,

you know, they, they, you know, then there's plenty in the

professional world or marketing, you know, accounting, not going

to hire somebody in accounting that doesn't haven't worked with

numbers before or money. So you know, there's going to be

those, But then there's also areas just to work up, you know,

learning. I have our director of

manufacturing that runs our whole factory floor came in to

work for us back in California when he was 18.

And he was, I think, I don't know, putting boxes on the

shelves for not a lot of dollars per hour when he was 18.

And now he's running the whole factory floor.

So there's opportunities, but, you know, people go, well, how

did he do that? Well, I'll tell you what he did.

He worked extremely hard. He was extremely passionate.

He behaved according to our values.

I can just walk you through our values, but I mean, he behaved

according to our values. He had a phenomenal attitude.

He was willing and willing to learn new skills, right?

So there's a number of things. And so, but because of that, he

was able to work his way up. So but there has to be patience

in that. Folks come in and you know, 90

days later upset they haven't been promoted.

It's like, well, you just got here, this other guy got

promoted, has been here 4 1/2 years.

So you know it, it takes time. Yeah, Yeah.

I think that's something that gets missed in that conversation

so much. Like you said, there's

somebody's got to run the machines and if it's a a low end

task, it has a lesser end wage and some somebody's got to work

the fast food. Somebody's got to do all of

these things, correct? But those jobs were never

intended to be the like the the lifelong career, and often times

those jobs are the starting point to move.

Sure. Where?

You want to be yes to put in the time right to get there but but.

Also, the world manufacturing has to go around just frankly

with people that are OK with that, that don't have a desire.

They don't want leaders. There's people that are great

individual contributors and like I don't ever want to manage a

person. You kidding me?

That sounds messy and I'm OK. I'm OK living at this wage,

getting some decent bumps and different things.

We love those kind of people because sometimes you just need

those people rather than they start and they want to move on

to something else real quick. You need some consistency there.

So there's also people like that that are wired that way and we

need that in the manufacturing world.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a place for the kids

that don't want to go to school and they want to get a job and.

Totally and totally and work on some.

Yeah. And we and we sometimes get

people for two to three years and then they say I'm gonna go

be a firefighter now goodbye or I'm gonna go, you know.

And so we get them along the way for two to three years in their

career journey. But then they go, you know, I'm

gonna want to go do something else.

You know, we got lost some of the Sheriff's Department or I'm

going to go commute out to the mines out here and there's just

folks that want a career change, you know, too.

So it's understandable. OK, Yeah.

Well, is there anything you could give us a little heads up

on that might be coming out or releasing from Weatherby?

Yeah, January, we got a couple big launches.

So the first week or two of January, I always get we got a

lot of because we have a lot of shows that we end up at trade

shows. And so at those shows, they'll

be, you know, be those products that you can take a look at

where there's a wild sheep show in Reno, Western Hunt Show and

and Salt Lake Safari Club in Nashville, all those kind of

places you can you can head to and see some of them.

So they'll be out for our show season.

So we got a couple things and the rifle line and the ammo line

coming out first of the year. OK, Yeah.

I'll be watching through social media, yes, Yeah.

Is there anybody that you would like to see on this show?

Somebody that has a cool story, a cool background, or maybe

works in a really unique industry that would be fun to

learn more about? That's local cuz we're out in

the middle of nowhere, you know? We are we do remote so we can we

can call them in from anywhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't know. I have to give that some

thought. I'll follow up with you on that

for sure. I don't want to name drop them

on here. Maybe they don't want, I don't

know. Maybe they'll tell you now.

And our last question, we ask every guest either fuel or

settle the debate. I know this isn't maybe what you

do every day, but if you had a job to do with a cordless tool,

which brand do you prefer? Milwaukee.

Milwaukee. Okay, yeah, DeWalt and Milwaukee

are kind of running neck and. Neck.

Yeah, you're either yellow or red, right?

It's not cuz it's better. It's just what you grow up on.

It's what you end up with and you learn to trust it, you know?

So yeah, yeah. Milwaukee.

Yeah, there it is. Well.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate you joining

us, Eric, in the time. This has been awesome.

Yeah, I've been looking forward to this for a long time.

Good. Thank you.

Awesome. Thanks, Eric.

Appreciate it man. Yeah, yeah.

And thank you guys for joining us here on From the Ground Up

Show. Again, if you enjoy the content,

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