The Stand Outdoors

Kenny Zuspan of First Class Whitetails of Ohio shares how he turned his hunting passion in Meigs County into a fair-chase outfitting business grounded in faith. He manages a mix of owned and leased farms, focusing on soil health, food plots, and smart herd management while dealing with challenges like EHD. His wife Stephanie and their kids are deeply involved in both hunting and hosting guests. Kenny also talks about a high-stakes Whitetail Challenge, where teams hunt pre-managed Ohio farms during the rut for major cash prizes.

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MENTIONS:
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Psalm 37:4 – "Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart."
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REMEMBER: STAND FIRM IN THE FAITH & KEEP TARGETING THE TRUTH!

What is The Stand Outdoors?

Our mission is to take a stand for Christ while hunting from tree stands and enjoying God’s great outdoors. On every adventure, if you look for it, God will teach you something about Himself. That’s what we want to share, a show about awesome hunting and an awesome creator who made it all possible.

Speaker 1 0:00
The following is brought to you by the Stand Outdoors and is sponsored by Steel Pixel Studios, White Tail Heaven Outfitters, Hot Frog Print Media, and Word FM. Hey, welcome back to the Stand Outdoors, the show where faith and the great outdoors come together. I'm Dave Baker, along with the founder of the Stand Outdoors, Mike Hayes, and today our special guest is a hunting outfitter. His name is Kenny Susspan from First Class Whitetails of Ohio. All

Speaker 2 0:44
right, Kenny Susspan, how are you, brother? How's been busy? Yeah, it sounds like it. I've been following you, boy. I thought I was busy. It made me feel like I was on vacation.

Speaker 3 0:58
Yeah, and then the number of new farms I've picked up that we're adding. That yeah gets overwhelming, but a good overwhelming.

Speaker 2 1:05
And you're building a new lodge too, right?

Speaker 3 1:08
We're in the process of selling this one and buying a new one. Right. We hope works out.

Speaker 2 1:13
Okay.

Speaker 3 1:13
What we're buying has an 80 by 120 shop with heated concrete, and we want to turn it into our event center, so we have some Amish friends coming from Michigan Friday that are going to help me start putting the build plan together, so we can have it done for this season.

Speaker 2 1:31
Great!

Speaker 4 1:32
Wow,

Speaker 2 1:32
yeah, we've been interviewing some interesting people, and you're one of them. We we want to find out more about you.

Speaker 1 1:38
How'd you get started, Kenny, in doing outfitting work and getting land, and it's quite. It sounds like it's quite a process to even get started in the outfitting business.

Speaker 3 1:48
So in 2013, I started working for AEP on the river, and I, my daughter was born, so I wanted to be an entrepreneur, and I started crash route. And no, I started on the river in 2007, and in 13 I started a trash route, first class trash, and I took it from 300 customers and grew it and grew it and grew it until in 2020 they gave me an Entrepreneur of the Year award for what I had grown into, and they wanted me to do a piece for the Meigs County Meigs County tourist guide: What to do to tell people to come, why to come to what Meigs County, Ohio? What to do? What to come see? And it was a really hard question because there's not not much here. I so after thinking of it, they come here to use our river for fishing and our recreation. We have a great deer herd. We have good genetics, and you can drive down a public road on a November morning, and I counted 13 different states represented-not not 13 different trucks, 13 different states hunting. So it got me thinking, well, why can I not take our county's greatest asset, my greatest passion, and turn it into something big and put Megs County on a map to where I build something and bring in people from all over the country and bring in high-end people, NASCAR drivers, country singers, politicians, and build a show. I always wanted to build a show to where people say, you know, Mexican, Ohio. I know where that's at. That's where first-class whitetails is.

Speaker 1 3:18
I love that.

Speaker 2 3:19
Yeah, that's great. Now, were you always into hunting and fishing? How'd you get started in that?

Speaker 3 3:26
Yep, my grandpa. He was my mentor. He was my father figure growing up, and we started. He had rabbit beagles. He was a small game hunter. He would run them rabbit dogs three or four days a week all year round. He loved the squirrel hunt, and he didn't do much deer and turkey hunting. He did a little just to take me and my cousin Brian Smith, who was 13 years older than me. Bubba would take me coon hunting and take me turkey hunting, and between them two, it's a passion I've always had.

Speaker 2 3:58
That's great. That's great. And you said you got your outfitter. I guess you got to get a license there or something. And how long ago was that?

Speaker 3 4:07
So you don't have to have a license. They actually are changing it in Ohio, according to my game warden. So there are more of restrictions. But in 2022, I started First class whitetails of Ohio. I started bought this lodge and leased eight farms, and we brought a handful of people in. We brought 14 hunters, I think, in that year just to get our feet wet. And the following year, 23, we brought in more, and then in 24 we had our full schedule, our first full schedule, really, and then last year was our second full schedule.

Speaker 2 4:45
I know last year because I was there.

Speaker 3 4:49
Fourth last year, we had a little limp. EHD had hit half my farms, which cut cut us down what we wanted to hunt. The good thing on those farms is I had a lot of good. Young deer that was still there. Like I got a farm I called Mitchell. Had three good, three good looking three year olds on it last year that are were all in that 131 40 range. That I am super excited to see what they look like this fall. Yeah, be

Speaker 1 5:13
nice. Well, you know,

Speaker 2 5:14
I remember when I was out there, I had a nice eight that was probably a 125. Do you remember that? And I was debating. This was like early in the week, and I had him out there on the corn, giving me every shot possible, and and I just kept growing those antlers in my head. But then reality would sink in. They were like, "But we knew you had 150s and that kind of thing out there. And we were, you know, I said, "I can't do it, you know. But it was probably 125, 130 max. I would say. Then I had another one come in. He was about 80 yards away, but he looked like he was maybe a 140, and couldn't call him in. And and I I think a little a smaller buck that was in there saw me moving around with the camera or whatever, and and kind of took off, and he followed him. And and then Joey, you remember Joey, big old tall Joey. Can't miss him. He had that big one. Remember that he saw about 80 yards. Well, he's like a 170 or something. You guys were figuring he saw him, and I never seen him hunt in the rain and the snow, and you know, and not be in a blind because he goes. I'm not going in a blind. I'm going to that same stand. I got to get this guy, you know. And so we had a blast. And I just want to let everybody know you got an incredible, you know, place there. Your stands are incredible, and and you know we're we're a place where we say we love to say that at our podcast. This is where where the outdoors and faith come together, and I noticed that at your place too. Tell me about that.

Speaker 3 6:45
I mean, there's no place in the world I feel closer to God than when I'm sitting in a deer stand. I mean, that's that's a place that I feel like that I'm most spiritually connected. And and you know, they always say if you put God in the center of your in the center of your life and keep him in the center of your business, then you're always going to prosper with it. And how how do I, and you know, put God, put Jesus into this? So my way of doing it, all of our hard side of blinds, our 12 points, and other blinds that we have out there. I've got the book by Steve Chapman, Life from a deer stand, a small Bible.

Speaker 2 7:21
I read half of it when I was there.

Speaker 3 7:24
You never know what someone's going through, and maybe they see that three or three days, and they pick it up and they read something, and what they read might change their life, and you know, then they can say someday, man, my life changed around sitting in a deer stand in Ohio.

Speaker 1 7:38
That's right. I love that. Hey, Kenny, how it's most of your properties leased that you hunt on. Is most leased, or do you have own? How much do you own and lease?

Speaker 3 7:46
I own eight farms currently. We've been we've bought two more this this year. Wow! I own eight, and I'm working on selling something, whether it's this or another piece of property I've got to buy the new lodge. And we've got roughly, I think, right now, right around 30 that we lease. So we just picked up a new 1100 35 acre lease, and that puts us pushing 7000 acres.

Speaker 1 8:13
Now, what what are some of the challenges that you have? You know, kind of managing these properties. I'm assuming that a lease means you can go in and do things to the property, or how's that work? Or each lease is different. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 8:27
It just depends on the landowner and the relationship you have with them. Some are year to year and get them sold. That you know that okay, this is going to be short term. Some of them that are ones that I know the timber company is going to clear cut in a year or two, you know, and there's not as much, and that's why I like buying. That's why we continue to buy. Just yesterday, I took my mulcher in, I put in new plots, new plots, putting in new screening, planting fruit trees, putting in ponds, stuff that you you don't want to do on a property that you lease that might not even be yours next year. Right,

Speaker 1 9:00
that's right. Yeah, that's that's a challenge if you don't own it, and it's it's like hunting in West Virginia. I used to hunt national forest property and private property, and after a while, you just get so frustrated. So I'm going to go buy 55 acres so I can do what I want. Makes it a lot easier.

Speaker 2 9:15
Yeah.

Speaker 3 9:16
Yeah. So my our I got a buddy that goes in with me that's buying these farms with me, he came as a hunter, and he wanted to invest in some of these properties. and And I said, "Well, okay. Well, what do you want to do about the hunting? You know, do you want to hunt just the farms that we're buying? He said, "Absolutely not. He said, "You use that for first-class whitetails. I want access to all 40 farms because some of these farms we might not want to hunt. We might have some good young bucks that we don't want put pressure on, or it might get Lord hope not hit by EHD again. And so, our saving grace with EHD is we have farms in five different counties. It's all spread out within 30 minutes every direction of

Speaker 1 9:55
us.

Speaker 3 9:55
So I think that's really what helps because EHD really hit just in certain pockets, only affect. Certain farms, yeah.

Speaker 2 10:01
So what what would you say is your biggest challenge? Then is it

Speaker 1 10:05
managing all these managing

Speaker 2 10:06
all that? Do you think?

Speaker 3 10:09
That's the fun part. I like managing it. Yeah, I'm doing most of it alone. I think the hard part is I want everyone to be successful, and I wear it when they don't. So I push really hard, and I know it's unrealistic. Everybody's not going to kill a deer. It's and you can't have everyone kill a deer. You're not going to have nothing left,

Speaker 2 10:27
especially when you're picking. You get a lot of guys in

Speaker 3 10:29
camp that have unrealistic expectations that that feel like that you know a 160 is going to daylight every day in a food plot, and I show them the trail camera pictures. Like we know they're there, and you just got to be there when the Lord blesses you for Him to walk by for you. For sure. And when they don't have success, it wears me out. It it stresses me when they're not. If their deer ain't moving, and I know I can't control that. That I've done everything that I can control, but on the days it's bad, it it mentally wears me out because I feel like I'm felling.

Speaker 2 11:01
Yeah, that's a tough one. Yeah. Now this

Speaker 1 11:02
is mostly fair chase hunting.

Speaker 3 11:05
Yes, all 100% fair chase.

Speaker 1 11:07
Okay. And we

Speaker 3 11:08
got some great neighbors. We got neighbors that, you know, hunting's hunting. I go back to when I was a kid. If it was brown, I shot it. If it had horn, brown is dying. It was a bonus. It was bonus.

Speaker 1 11:17
Same. Yeah. Same.

Speaker 3 11:18
I understand there's people just like that. You know, there's teenage just like when I was a teenager, that I was pumped, and so I take that in effect with them. You kill what you guys want to kill. We're doing our part to grow mature deer, but in the same sense, I'm going to congratulate you. I'd like to share pictures with the neighbors. I'd like to help you recover that deer if I can and enjoy that

Speaker 2 11:39
process. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now I noticed when I was there, Stephanie was pretty involved. Matter of fact, she was hunting with you at another outfitter that I hunted in Kentucky, and she got a bruise. What was it? A 140 5147 class deer, and and so she's out there with you. She's a hunter herself, right? How many kids do you have Kenny?

Speaker 3 12:01
We have three

Speaker 2 12:02
three kids, and they're what are their ages?

Speaker 3 12:05
213 year olds and a 20 year old. Ah,

Speaker 2 12:08
wow! Are they involved in it too?

Speaker 3 12:12
Yep, yep. Kylie killed her first no her second buck this year. She killed a 136 inch eight point at Everts.

Speaker 2 12:20
That's correct.

Speaker 3 12:20
An old mature deer that needed to go. Cadence had killed. She had her own special spot at my mom's house. That she was the only one that ever hunted. It wasn't mom. She hunted her whole life, and she's killed a couple really good deer off of it. Stephanie has. She next. That was her first deer. She just started. She had just started hunting when we started this, we started this business. She knew my passion for the outdoors, so she started, you know, taking care of the cooking and the cleaning and the hospitality. And and then as she watches everyone else's joy of killing, she wanted to enjoy it. So

Speaker 2 12:53
we started

Speaker 3 12:54
started hunting, and it's hard to take away from something that someone you know is coming pain to hunt.

Speaker 5 13:00
Yeah.

Speaker 3 13:00
So until we have our own little private farm, regardless, we're not bouncing around. This is what we're hunting, which I hope to have in the future for them. We really lay back until we try to get everyone else done before we do, and it kind of bit her the last couple years because the one deer that she was hoping made it made it. It actually got shot twice by the neighbors, but was still he dropped both sides, right? But while she was in the process of hunting him, he dropped both sides.

Speaker 2 13:27
Wow!

Speaker 3 13:28
And then another deer got killed by the neighbors, so I started taking her to Kentucky and taking her other places, trying to get her to

Speaker 1 13:36
yeah enjoy

Speaker 3 13:38
it before our season. Well, you might

Speaker 2 13:39
have spoiled her rotten. I don't know. Getting 147 right away, man. That's pretty dope.

Speaker 3 13:45
I did the kids the same way. My daughter killed 146 inch.

Speaker 2 13:50
Wow,

Speaker 3 13:50
at eight years old, and yeah, she she passes a lot of deer now.

Speaker 1 13:57
Oh, I bet she does. What's what's your season run in Ohio? How's what are the seasons? When they start? When they end? Bow, gun, all of it. Musket.

Speaker 3 14:06
Our season starts at the end of September. This year it comes in I think september 26, which is a great time for a feeding pattern. Deer are still hitting. They're not. They're not breaking up as much yet. They're still hitting the corn regularly. About that first week, October, they start dispersing, and all through October, you've got new bucks showing up. Come end of October, things are moving to their fall range. Our rut usually hits the first two weeks of November. Our gun season starts the week after Thanksgiving. It's seven days long, and then we have a two-day gun season that is right before Christmas, like december 20, 21st.

Speaker 1 14:41
Oh wow!

Speaker 3 14:42
And then and then a four day muzzleloader season early January, and our bow season doesn't go out till like february 4, february 7, something like.

Speaker 1 14:50
Now that two day gun, that's antler. That two day gun in December is that antlered? Deer that you can kill, or is it?

Speaker 3 14:57
You can kill antler in any of them. We don't have an antler.

Speaker 1 15:00
Wow, and how's the doe population in Ohio? The farms and the places that you do. How's the doe population doing?

Speaker 3 15:08
It was way overpopulated, and I think that EHD was God's way of helping us get the herd. Call the

Speaker 2 15:14
herd, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 15:16
We drug 36 deer. We found 36 deer that were killed, and only four of them were bucks.

Speaker 1 15:21
Okay,

Speaker 3 15:21
I feel like we had way too many does, and I think that the EHD overall is going to be positive effect because we're going to have a lot healthier deer. We're going to have

Speaker 1 15:30
huge

Speaker 3 15:31
deer quality numbers, less social pressure, more browse, and I think that you're going to see better deer until the doe numbers come up. And I want to try to keep my hunters and keep our farms in check to where we keep up with that buck to day ratio.

Speaker 1 15:43
Yeah, every time EHD hits in West Virginia, like the the three years after it hits, the bucks get increasingly bigger for some reason. I guess that's just the natural calling of the herd. I guess.

Speaker 2 15:54
Now, now listen, Kenny, is Joey's buck still out there? You know, Joey. Of course, he-that's his buck. You know.

Speaker 3 16:04
So there was two bucks that we know was there. They looked the same. One was an 8.1. was a 10 point.

Speaker 2 16:10
Right.

Speaker 3 16:10
The 10 point got killed by the neighbors, which is a guy that I managed his farm for. He killed him during gun season, and as far as we know, that eight point is an absolute giant. He's probably 170 inch eight point, but he is still out there as far as we know. Because we we're sure we would hear about it if someone would have killed that deer.

Speaker 2 16:26
Yeah, and I think that's the one. Yeah, it was an eight pointer. Beautiful, beautiful buck. Well, what I know with you know we were there with all these guys, and they were great guys. We had a blast. And what is maybe your what would you would think is your funniest story that you've encountered being a guide? Now don't talk talk about anything with me and Joe. You know we.

Speaker 3 16:51
I had a guy that brought his fiance or brought his girlfriend up, and she killed a she killed a nice 140. What was it? I think it was a mid 140s buck, and she was super excited. And he got down on one knee when she turned around, and he she told him, "Get up! Ain't time for this. You need to find a different time for that. We're hunting now. We're not getting married

Speaker 2 17:17
now. She had she had the fever now. That's great. I've

Speaker 3 17:21
had some great, you know, great turkey hunting stories, and you know, we've had some good times at our turkey competition. With uh, we've had times that we've killed birds, and we'll be sitting there talking, and 20 minutes later, the bird jumps up and runs away, and I got to watch these guys chase them down.

Speaker 2 17:37
Oh, turkeys can can bring out the best in you, can't they? You do really well with turkeys. Of what I was seeing,

Speaker 3 17:45
yeah, we killed 85 birds in five days this year. Wow!

Speaker 2 17:48
And you had that competition, right? That

Speaker 3 17:51
yep.

Speaker 2 17:51
Yeah, that sounds. Now tell us

Speaker 1 17:53
what you guys do in the fields. You're probably in a tractor a lot, and probably behind the computer looking at at pictures on cameras. But what kind of methodology do you kind of implement on your farms? What are you planting? What are you putting up? Corn, beans? What what are you doing to track the deer?

Speaker 3 18:12
So this year I planted a whole bunch of buckwheat, something that I can drill into that's healthy for your deer for your soils. I work with John Stolzfoos at Thunder Ridge Outdoors from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and we we drilled a bunch of buckwheat this year. We've got all his mineral spots out. He's got an Armor H 2o that we're putting in all our water sources that helps fight EHD. It's got billions of micro orbs. It's healthy for your deer. I have wicked log feeders that I like to put whitetail crunch in, so I feed year round on certain farms, certain bucks that I've got long term that I'm keeping. We're running the social hub hemp ropes, you know, keeping that stuff out. Other than that, we're we planted everything in buckwheat because every time I've planted soybeans, I don't get soybeans. I get deer demolishing them before they ever grow. So the next time I try to plant soybeans, I'm going to fence

Speaker 1 19:08
it and

Speaker 3 19:09
see if I can see a difference in fencing it. But this year we decided to do all buckwheat in it, and then we go through and plant our brassicas and our rage and stuff in August, beginning of August. We will start feeding corn in all of our spots here within the next week or so. We got all of our YSI cameras pulled. We put all of our new updates on them, and we are heading out to get all our feed spots rolling. I I move all my cameras when they shed their horns. I move my cameras to my turkey hunt spots. I'm looking for strut zones and different areas, and I do not want to move them back to deer until mid July when I know what deer it is and I see that frame. Even though I catch myself all the time trying to look through them, like now, what deer are passing? Right, right. Yeah. But once we get all these cameras out, then my sleeping habits. Get way smaller because I'm up every two hours checking cameras. Yeah, you are. Oh,

Speaker 2 20:04
I remember that at the camp, man. You were looking at, and you had hundreds and hundreds of pictures that you were looking at. It was like mind-boggling, but it was great.

Speaker 1 20:14
Have you said you've you think you've learned a lot, like in the last five years, about what to do and the planning and what to, you know, what works and what doesn't, and getting this guy from Lancaster to help you out. Have you learned a lot in the last five years?

Speaker 3 20:26
Oh yeah, I mean there's so much that you know how important it don't matter what seed you put in the ground if that soil is not right. I mean it's

Speaker 1 20:34
yeah

Speaker 3 20:34
if your soil that's where the nutrients come from so you can buy any seed you want it ain't going to do a thing for anything if you ain't getting your soil right, because that's where the health comes. That's where everything grows into it. And

Speaker 1 20:45
okay, so soil management. So soil management for people that are are listening and that are doing this kind of thing, it's really about soil management as opposed to what seed you're using.

Speaker 3 20:57
Yes, soil health is number one because that is where that plant will get its nutrients. That's where that plant will grow to put it, give it to the deer. Yeah,

Speaker 1 21:05
and I'm hearing, I'm reading and listening a lot too that a lot of scrub plants, just junk stuff that you thought was junk, is really more healthier for the deer than beans and corn at times. I'm hearing. I don't know about buckwheat. I've never heard that before, but yeah. Well, Pennsylvania,

Speaker 2 21:21
we don't get that too much. Yeah, but buckwheat

Speaker 1 21:24
must be really good. I don't know. Is it cheap?

Speaker 3 21:27
I mean, it's not really. I wouldn't say it's cheap, but it's cheaper than clover. You know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have established clover plots, but buckwheat is really good for your soil. It it also creates a mulching bed when you go to

Speaker 1 21:43
yeah

Speaker 3 21:44
crimp it and drill into it and get that way it it smothers out all your weeds as well so really when you crimp it down what you plant that's what grows is that a nitro is

Speaker 1 21:52
buckwheat a nitrogen fixer does it help feed nitrogen or not yes okay good yes yeah yeah wow that's amazing yeah sounds like you're having success with it, and so really, you've been five years has been really kind of the sweet spot for you so far. That's been about what you've been doing with Varney outfitting.

Speaker 3 22:13
Yeah, this is this will be our fifth year, and as I continue to grow, I've got a big timber company that I'm working with that I continue taking getting farms from, and do I want to keep bringing more and more people in? And you know that adds more and more stress. I love managing land, but I don't want to have to continue bringing this bulk numbers.

Speaker 1 22:35
Right.

Speaker 3 22:35
So it got me trying to think: how can I still do this, do what I love, grow deer, and not have to bring so many people in, right? Hey, you know, it'd be a good

Speaker 2 22:42
idea is a competition, a white tail competition. I know that's where you're getting at, right?

Speaker 3 22:48
How can we do this? And yes, so I thought, how can I take my turkey competition that's very successful that I run 50 turkey hunters in five days, and how can so we come up with the whitetail challenge, and what we're doing is we are managing our farms, all of our farms, just like we're hunting ourselves, planting the food plots, putting the cameras and the minerals out, running the feeders, setting all the stands up, planting the screening, and I will have 15 teams that come into the whitetail challenge that will we will select which farms we do not want to hunt and we will not touch those farms early season.

Speaker 1 23:28
Okay,

Speaker 3 23:29
so 15 teams will get roughly 200 250 acres apiece, and those farms are set to the side. Feeders full, everything's good. We'll guide our small amount that we have season opener in middle of October on the other farms. On October 30th, these 15 teams come into our camp. They have all the blind draw. All the farms are laid out, and when your name comes up, draw you a packet. Once you draw your packet and open it up, that's the farm you drew, and we give you all the information, the history of the bucks, the current trail camera inventory. We give you access to the cameras. We will give you all the Onyx pins to where every food plot is, every stand, every access point, and then you have from October 31st to November 8th to do it your way. So you and your partner can saddle hunt. You can use our blinds. You can use our stands. You can hang your own. You choose. It's your your hunt. And I chose that time because deer are moving. New deer are showing up. You can grunt. You can rattle. You can use sense.

Speaker 1 24:31
Yeah,

Speaker 3 24:31
they're not on a feeding pattern, and it's 125 inch minimum grow score. Once you shoot a deer, you have to call us. We do the recovery. We'll bring the thermal drone in, recover the deer, video it. We're making a show out of it, and you have to have a GoPro behind you and some kind of camera angle from your bow. Unless you're self filming, but we want to see you shooting that deer, you in the area, and we want to see the deer you're shooting. And we'll recover it. We'll have an official scorer come in each day. He'll grow score the deer, and the combined grow score of them 15 teams on november 9 will be $100,000 for first, 30,000 for second, 20,000 for third. Wow!

Speaker 1 25:16
Is this the first year you're doing it or second year?

Speaker 3 25:18
Yep, this is the first year for it, and how's the

Speaker 1 25:21
response been so far?

Speaker 3 25:23
Everyone says that once this first one's over with, and people see proof of concept,

Speaker 1 25:29
yeah, that

Speaker 3 25:30
they won't be able to get a spot in it because it'll be a waiting list a mile long. Sponsors loved it; they think that's going to be great content.

Speaker 1 25:37
Yeah,

Speaker 3 25:38
everyone I've talked to says, "Man, I can't. I'm already booked somewhere this year, but I want to come next year. Man, that's awesome because you're. Everyone says, okay, the value of it. Take away the money aspect of it. You and your good hunting buddy get a farm in Ohio that is set up, ready.

Speaker 1 25:56
Wow!

Speaker 3 25:56
With the feeders full, cameras running, food plots planted, that you get to come in and be the first to hunt for nine days. However, you want to do it.

Speaker 1 26:03
That's amazing. Staying

Speaker 3 26:04
at our lodge, eating our food, that alone is worth the trip. Yeah. And then you throw in the video, the the show that we're making, and the $100,000 to win, and hanging out with NASCAR drivers and people like Matt Busbus and stuff in camp. Huge.

Speaker 2 26:20
That'll be fun. That's huge.

Speaker 1 26:22
That is absolutely amazing, Kenny. That sounds like a fun time. I can't wait to see all the content that comes out of that this year. You're going to have a blast, but you're going to be super busy.

Speaker 3 26:32
We we want to grow this over the next three or four years to the million dollar whitetail challenge. Wow! And and that will be. And I don't want to do it all at once. As I get these farms, I want to pick up about 10 to 15 a year. That way, I can go in, get the roads established, get the food plots, get the blinds and the stand set, and get everything done each year and grow this to where this camp, yeah, has a million dollar prize pool and pays like a quarter million dollars to win. Now, will there

Speaker 1 27:00
be a limit to what you want to purchase over time? If you look down the road, five, eight years, is there going to be a moment where you say, "All right, we're kind of max. This is what we're going to live with for a while, or you just going to keep going?

Speaker 3 27:12
We're going to fill it out. Yeah, I mean, we'll we'll fill it out as we go. That's why we want to get the first one under our belt. Yeah, you know how how it goes and what kind of help I can pick up along the way. Well, now

Speaker 1 27:24
as far as but I'm saying as far as your land purchases and farm purchases and and that kind of thing, will you will you have a limit to what you want to actually purchase and get and own, or just

Speaker 3 27:36
whatever the Lord will bless me with? I hope that someday that I am able to either retire and you know sell it, or what I really want to do is just leave it to the kids and let them pass it on. Hopefully to my grandkids someday. That's a great idea. I love it.

Speaker 2 27:49
That is beautiful. The great outdoors. Yep. You know where we meet God and and you know and it's a blast. I mean that's. I remember you know you talked about your passion. You had the passion for this, and you wanted to work in that passion. And and I I think so many people need to think about that. What are their passions? You know that they really love, right? And and then the Lord says, if you delight yourself in me, I'll give you the desires of your heart. In other words, He doesn't say I'm going to give you whatever you want, but he says I'm going to give you the desires of your heart. And a lot of people don't think about what he's saying there-that the desires you have will come from him. He's going to give you those desires, just like he gave you, Kenny. And doing a heck of a job and and putting the Lord first. I love that. Have have you were you raised up in a Christian family?

Speaker 3 28:44
Yes and no. My grandpa would always take me to church. My great uncle was the pastor, and my whole family would go to church every Sunday. And you know, I was raised by a single mother. Really, didn't have much of a dad growing up, and so that's where Grandpa stood into it, and so when did you come

Speaker 2 29:05
to know the Lord? To put your faith and trust in the Lord.

Speaker 3 29:08
I mean, I guess my whole life, really, there's no defined time for it. So it's been, you know, I've always been raised. We know that what's right. We know what's coming someday for all of us, I just strive every day to try to get better, and I know I can't ever meet what's expected of me through him. But I try. Yeah, yeah. Oh,

Speaker 2 29:33
I love it. I love it. And and you can see that you know you want to whatever you do, whatever your hands touch, you want to do to the glory of God. And and it's so obvious with you and Stephanie and it's been tremendous having you on as a guest. We Joey and I certainly enjoyed you know ben there with your your crew and and it was a lot of fun and hope we get to do it again. Go ahead. Yeah,

Speaker 1 29:56
how how can people get in touch with you and and. Find out more about what you're doing.

Speaker 3 30:01
OneCWOhio.com, our website has a lot of information. My, I got a film crew that's been helping me. Media crew that's doing it. He's actually here now. We're doing some B-roll footage today while we're working. After we get done, I do a lot on my Facebook. We have our TikTok and our Instagram, and yeah, you can look us up on Google. Even you know my phone number's on there: 740415080056.

Speaker 1 30:28
All right. Well, Kenny, thank you so much for taking time out. I know you're a busy man and got lots to do, and we appreciate the time being on the stand outdoors. Appreciate you. Thank you, Kenny. Appreciate you guys.

Speaker 3 30:37
All right. Take care, bro. See you now,

Speaker 1 30:39
buddy.

Speaker 3 30:39
See you guys.

Speaker 1 30:49
We would love to hear from you. We'd love to hear your stories. So please send us a note or question by going to our homepage at thestandoutdoors.com and hit the contact tab. Also, we'd love to pray for you too. Leave your prayer request by hitting the contact tab or do you know Jesus tab.

Speaker 2 31:07
Yeah. Also, check out our targeting the truth Bible studies. We have these Bible studies that include hunting videos. I mean, think about it. When was the last time you went to a Bible study and got to watch a hunting video? Well, that's what targeting the truth Bible studies include. You watch a video, then I share the three to five minute spiritual message at the end. But then you go into the five discussion questions. You have leaders' guide. You have everything you need. They're so good right there to have a men's group. You know you can download it, and guess what, guys? It's all free. It's right there for you. Anybody in the stinking world that has this has a computer can can download this for free, and we you know we want to keep it that way because we want to reach as many people in the outdoor community as we can.

Speaker 1 31:58
And it's all found at thestandoutdoors.com. Check it out. Hey, Mike and I, we want to thank you for joining us today on the podcast. You can find it anywhere. It's on Apple, Spotify, many other platforms. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, share it with a fellow hunter, and you can get all the details about our guests. Any links can be found on our show notes, and you can find us online anytime, day or night, 24 hours a day, free of charge. Thestandoutdoors.com. That's thestandoutdoors.com. Until next time, for my

Speaker 2 32:30
case, I'm Dave Baker. And remember, stand firm in the faith and keep targeting the truth.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai