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Ducks Unlimited Podcast is a constant discussion of all things waterfowl; from in-depth hunting tips and tactics, to waterfowl biology, research, science, and habitat updates. The DU Podcast is the go-to resource for waterfowl hunters and conservationists. Ducks Unlimited is the world's leader in wetlands conservation.
Matt Harrison: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm your host, Matt Harrison. We also have co-host Dr. Mike Brasher and one of my really good friends, Seth Dortch. Seth, it is so good to have you today.
Seth Dortch: It's good to be here. We made it happen. We made it happen. We adapted and overcome it.
Matt Harrison: That's it. We've got some great topics we're going to dive into here in just a minute. I'm super excited for everyone to be able to listen in. But before we hop into all these questions, if you don't mind, just give us a little bit of an introduction, kind of, of who Seth Dorch is, what you're doing in this stage of your life, and just kind of give us a background. Sure.
Seth Dortch: being Daddy Daycare. First off, thanks to you and Dr. Mike for having me and inviting me to be a part of it. It's an honor when I reflect on just my relationship with Ducks Unlimited and the development since being a little kid. It would be cool to go back and tell my younger self like, hey, we're in these experiences together. Absolutely. a community that we all love, and especially a category of wildlife and waterfowl and habitat conservation that DU is obviously leading the front on. So for me, professionally, working the outdoors and off-road space in various capacities, a lot of it has to deal with marketing and branding and media, which is a lot of the conversation that we'll have around today. And so I've been in my career capacity for about seven and a half years now. So, you know, it's just as much as I'm learning, the more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know. And the more I realize how much I don't know, the more I want to learn. Um, and so it's, you know, it's just that, that vicious cycle of, uh, learning how to, uh, be a pro, uh, in this space and in the outdoors and off-road world. Um, currently right now I work full-time for Rough Country, which is a aftermarket, um, company that makes pretty much anything you can put on your vehicle, truck, auto, UTV. Um, and then I do a lot of different partnership stuff in different capacities with, you know, Benelli USA, Heavy Shot, uh, media contributor for Ducks Unlimited in different capacities. And, um, so it's incredible because I get to, I get to merge a lot of the things that I personally love about just marketing and branding and media with the, the lifestyle that we, and so many of y'all. love to live around waterfowl hunting, conservation, science. And I'm just here to ask Dr. Mike questions about science.
Mike Brasher: I'm all answered out today.
Seth Dortch: Too many meetings. But yeah, so that's kind of where I'm at currently. And then personally, I'm a husband. You know, I'm a father of two little girls and everything kind of we talk about today, you know, that, um, that reality for me integrates into a lot of who I am and what I do. Uh, cause I consider, you know, how, how do I communicate these things to my little girls as they grow up and, um, just like me. Being a little kid, you know, going to Ducks Unlimited banquets and, you know, my dad would save the DU magazines for me once they came in the mail. Cause even though I am younger and we're kind of the social media age, you know, I, I, there was still a part of my life to where it was like, you know, DU magazine and DU website was kind of where you went to get your information.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
Seth Dortch: Um, and so, you know, I would lay in the floor and look at all the photos and read the stories and, you know, all the different things that really fueled my passion and, and, and inspired me in a lot of ways, um, for everything that I kind of do now. Um, and so, you know, my involvement with Ducks Unlimited, as a lot of that grew and developed, um, I, you know, I would go to banquets with my dads and steal all the DU stickers from all the tables and, you know, all Slapping on everything you own. No, for sure. Through all that, I mean, I don't even know if the game is still available, but, you know, ducks.org slash greenwings, whatever the URL was, I can't tell you, there used to be a duck ID game. Is that still a thing?
Mike Brasher: I don't know. I can tell you we have a waterfowl ID section on the Ducks Unlimited website.
Seth Dortch: I don't know if it's a game. I don't know if it's a game either. Yeah, so it was, you know, it was essentially, you know, you, jump on to a game, whatever you wanna call it, but it was identifying the ducks and that, I can't tell you how many times I did that. Did you get them right though? I would say eventually. You better say yeah. I would say eventually, but just like everything else, you gotta get your reps in. But, you know, I say all that to say this is, you know, those experiences, I didn't know them now that I look back now in so many different ways that impacted my interest into ducks and waterfowling and conservation and science in a lot of ways as I've developed the capacity to try to ask questions around this, you know, more so ask Dr. Mike questions about science and things like that. Um, and you know, as, as I got into, to college, I went to university of Tennessee at Martin. Um, I was working, so, you know, some people went into fraternity. My fraternity was final flight outfitters, which is a sporting goods dealer. Uh, that was, you know, growing up a little kid and in Northwest Tennessee, that was kind of like. That's what kind of a dream to go do that. Um, and so final flight is a huge, I'm pretty sure they're a lifetime sponsor now of ducks unlimited through many different capacities. So, you know, I got involved in the collegiate chapter there, um, eventually come in, uh, the collegiate chairman for that chapter and, um, you know, God bless Jimbo Robinson for, for, for putting up with all of us. Um, you know, and, and through, through all of that, you know, it's not, it wasn't just about. learning how to get people to come to a banquet, spend their money, support conservation. But for a college student, a lot of that is developing their character, developing their soft skills as a leader or somebody to step up to responsibility. um to to have you know to go have conversations with a business or somebody that may you know they may not even know and hey will you support our initiative that that we're doing and um I can't tell you how many different you know just valuable lessons that I've learned from from those seasons so yeah I mean Ducks Unlimited has kind of been a part of a lot of my life and in many different capacities and now with being a media media contributor whether it's through you know, social media or DU Magazine. It's just an honor to have the opportunity to be to the mic, to be, you know, a part of that table to generate the messaging around DU.
Mike Brasher: So I have a question here for you. We've heard a lot about kind of who you are already, but people can learn a lot more about you by going to some of your social media platforms, right? So just kind of go ahead and do that so people can go and see some of what you do throughout a year. Let's just go ahead and do that now.
Seth Dortch: Yep. Yep. So you can go to sethdorch.com or you can find me on any Instagram or any social media platform at the Seth Dorch. Um, you, you know, feel free to shoot me a DM and, um, anytime you have questions, uh, you know, I try to be as available as possible, um, which, you know, we'll talk about some of that, just the reality and challenges of, of working in the media space.
Mike Brasher: And so I might come back to that in terms of like, what do you do on a, throughout the course of the year, how it changes, but I don't want to do that right now because I want to go back to some of your experiences with the DU banquet system. And so quick plug here for our event fundraising team, uh, banquet system. Uh, if you haven't been to a Ducks Unlimited banquet, get to one and you can find out one where there is one near you, ducks.org forward slash event. Uh, we're coming into the hunting season. There's going to be a lot of excitement around those events. Go check those out. What was your first or most memorable sort of experience at a DU banquet?
Seth Dortch: Yep. So, I was born and raised in Milan, Tennessee. I'm not sure if Milan still has a chapter. South Gibson has a really good chapter.
Mike Brasher: If they don't, here's an opportunity for somebody to start one.
Seth Dortch: Yeah. So, South Gibson has a phenomenal chapter. I've been to several of their banquets in past history, especially for Final Fly. memorable is at the Milan Banquet. They used to have a youth duck calling contest. Um, and that's the only duck calling contest I've ever participated in. It's the only one I've ever won. So I was like, all right, we're, we're, we're batting 100% here. Yeah. No, I did. Yeah. Were you the only one in the contest? I was not. So, and that's, if you ask my dad, he was so, he was so pumped because I can't even remember how old I was. I mean, I couldn't do, you know, feed chuckle. No, it was just kind of the same cadence and everything. And I think I beat some dude that was like, you know, three or four years older. So, of course your dad's, your dad's fired up. But what was so cool about that, and this just goes back to the DU Banquets and a lot of what the initiative of Ducks Unlimited is, is providing exposure for people to expand their understanding and their experiences around the culture of DU, around the things that go on. Because in those times of being a young person, I have no idea how money is maximized for habitat and waterfowl conservation. But what I did know is there's a lot of people here that all love waterfowl hunting, and they're doing it to raise money to better take care of ducks and habitat. And from there, I've learned, obviously have learned a lot about what that requires, all the resources it takes. But yeah, back to your question. That was a pretty cool moment, yeah.
Mike Brasher: That's an episode in itself, you know, like, with a whole bunch of people, like, what were your favorite first memory or experience at a banquet?
Matt Harrison: So, pretty cool. Okay, so moving into our next question, and we've already talked a little bit about social media, but I want to dive in to this question that we have. So, if you're aware of social media and you're on social media platforms, you know that there are a lot of different pages, sites, groups that puts a ton of information out there, whether it be about gear, whether it be about seasons, whether it be about whatever you can think of. There is so many opinions out there and there's so many pages that put so much information and answers out there to the general public. And so my question to you is, is how do we decipher where we receive our information from and how do we listen to these certain groups or pages? How do we know, all right, this is information that, hey, I can listen to and I can believe, or look, I know for sure I don't need to be doing anything that I'm hearing here. So how- I'm going to sit back and listen. How do we decipher between information that is good and bad?
Seth Dortch: Yeah, man, it's a phenomenal question. I think it's continually evolving of strategy and tactics to really cipher through information. I mean, it seems as though and it just keeps getting more and there's more and more ways to consume information and, you know, around the social media aspect of it because for the most part, and there's many different forms of media, whether you look at traditional media, media like a podcast or, but What is consistently in front of us most of the time is our phones and our social media apps. And you start kind of breaking that down into different platforms, kind of have a different purpose. For me, and this is It's becoming more and more, you know, just really important to me. Like I said earlier, especially being a husband and a father and, you know, being a leader on the home front of cultivating, you know, two little girls and to hopefully the women that God needs for them to be, that this world needs for them to be. I'm really trying to understand how to communicate what I've learned. And I think some, I mean, the first thing I always look at and I always encourage other people to look at is, you know, don't, what I would offer is don't go to social media to define your identity, figure out who it's going to determine who I am, the way I use media, the way you post. I mean, then you start peeling back the layers of just perspective and all those different things. But I think it's very helpful to look to the people or organizations that have a massive stack of evidence, of who they are, what they've done, and the trust that they've built. Because with anything on social media, it's community and culture. You know, it's whether you're working for an organization, whether you're just involved in some category of interest, you know, it's so much of it's a trust factor. And it, I mean, for me, just in my own, you know, professional journey and personal journey, It takes time to build that trust, whether it's your followers, whether it's the people that you do everyday life with. And so, for example, with me and as my media influence has grown and developed, you get more followers. And it's incredibly important. I constantly think about the responsibility of that, like the fact that, yeah, it's numbers and it's followers, but it's people. It's people that either look up to you to give them influence in their lives, to impact their decision making, whether it's around categories like water fouling of gear and, you know, strategy and tactics and things like that. But it's also impacting like their, their habits and behaviors, the way they perceive things, the perspective they have, for example, towards like a Ducks Unlimited. Like, I mean, there's, you know, media is kind of what you make it. If you want to go to social media and find a lot of bad things to be worried about and consumed about, it's, you know. Yeah, you know, it's out there. If you want to go to social media and find a lot of good people that you want to be more like, um, that when you, and that's a lot of social media for me is there's a lot of men and women, um, altogether that I specifically follow for the reason of. When I look at them and the way that they live their life, not just the way that they post about their life, I want to be more like them. I want to either, maybe they have a skill set and ability that I really want to develop in my own life. Maybe they communicate with assertiveness and articulation and they can break down stories and all the different things. So much of it is that for me. especially in the waterfowling space, one, it's been helpful for me because I get the opportunity to almost see that pressure as a privilege to try to communicate in a healthy way to whether it's younger, older, whatever. But the overall space in general, the incredible things that we love about waterfowl and conservation and all the different things. On the flip side, my whole life isn't just social media. Like, even though I don't work for, for final flight anymore, I still hunt with them a lot and still do a lot of life with them. And so for example, having people like Kelly powers, Johnny powers trip, Ryan graves, uh, John Hoffman, you know, he, he worked, he's a photo editor for ducks unlimited. Um, he's in our hunt club. So, you know, my brother-in-law, Tyler, having those people in my, like, everyday life, and especially through hunting season, to bring me back to perspective of relationship and those kind of dynamics is extremely helpful. And I think in more ways it impacts me than I even know how to understand right now. Um, and we'll understand until later on down the road. So I would tell anybody, you know, the most important thing is look to people that are, are, are living in such a way or, or doing the thing in such a way that you want to be more alike and you can trust that factor. Um, and then obviously there's so many layers you can peel back on that. Cause then you go into a conversation like mainstream media versus, you know, social media platforms, like what do you, you know, and so I don't want to go super, super for FAR and all that. Obviously, we could all talk about that. But in specific for the context of this, of the water fouling space, even of brands, you know, it's one thing to, you know, brands have a, if it's a brand that has a, you know, top tier performing product, you know, look at the way that they invest in the communities. Look at the way that they partner with organizations like a Ducks Unlimited. Um, when their whole focus isn't just utilizing social media to, to gain dollars from the consumer. And then that's the transactional relationship, um, making, you know, watch, watch their behaviors, watch their patterns. Um, and that's, that's the way I try to live my life. And the way I try to utilize media is, you know, living it before I try to tell anybody to do it. Um, you know, living by example, but then also just building an undeniable stack of evidence that we are who we say we are and we do what we do. Because at the end of the day, and Dr. Mike, I know, can attest to this in the world of science, you know, outcomes and results are things that are factual. And I think it's healthy to really understand how we all can build those factors in our lives.
Mike Brasher: One thing that I kind of wonder, Seth, whenever I heard Matt ask that question, and I was thinking about it as I heard you respond, the one thing that I always encourage people to do is, and a lot of people don't like this, but it's really important, is always question, always ask questions, because you're going to be inundated with lots of different sources of information, as you've just talked about, and I would say, Encourage people to question all information in a way that's healthy, right? You know, don't just believe things on the surface. Try to understand where it comes from, as you said. Sort of try to understand the reputation of the individuals or groups that may be providing that information. And sometimes this isn't easy. You have to dig deep and look. It's like a body of evidence type stuff. And I don't want to get too far down on the science side of things, but the same thing applies. You're consuming information regardless of whatever it is that you're looking at and there's more out there now than there ever has been. My question to you, kind of building on this, is you do that yourself. You are a source of information that people look to. You also look to other people and other folks in the media space or wherever else. How much do you find yourself studying, learning, adapting? How much of this is sort of what you do and your approach to things changes in response to the questions that you're asking and anything else that may be influencing kind of the way you're thinking? Sure.
Seth Dortch: No, I do it a lot in regards to my own work of seeking, looking, asking questions. And I do it in a lot of, you know, I try to do it in a lot of different categories. And even though it's kind of irrelevant, but it is relevant. I mean, some of the ways that I operate and even decisions that I make, even in my career of the outdoors and off-road world, you know, I consume a lot of information and content from kind of the health and fitness space. I consume a lot of content from the leadership space. And it, cause at the end of the day, whether you peel back any of this, even for ducks and conservation, like it's people involved in, in all the factors of it. Um, so it's all cross correlating. It's just, you know, how it applies in a certain category or sector. Um, and you know, that that's been. really challenging to me, no doubt. And I think it just reminds me the purpose of holding yourself to a higher standard than anyone else will ever hold you to. So as your influence grows or whatever, as your work and skillset grows, that The character capacity that you're challenging yourself with will far exceed what anybody else will challenge you with. I've seen result after result, but that's hard because nobody's going to do it perfect. I certainly don't do those things perfect, but developing that kind of strategy and tactic, that kind of operating standards for my own self in private allows me to perform the way I do in public. And that's, I mean, because at the end of the day, none of us are just representing ourselves. When you look at social media and however you use social media and posts, be mindful that you're not just representing yourself, whether it's on the personal front or the professional front, because You know, for the brands that I partner with, for the people I work for, for the communities that I spend time with. I mean, for example, you know, me talking about our final flight hunt club, like all those different guys, they're not all involved in the waterfowl industry, but you know, It's a responsibility. I'm a representation of the people that we've built around and those relationships. And all of that goes into reputation. And you can obviously find out a lot about somebody's reputation via social media. And it's a long game. It's building trust. Building relationship is a long game. And there's definitely ways that you can do that in unhealthy ways and ways that you can do that in healthy ways.
Matt Harrison: And one thing I've learned too with social media in the whole, and like you said, I'm big into a lot of the same things you said, outdoor, fitness, leadership, I love all that as well. One thing, and Dr. Mike kind of hit on this a little bit, you know, do your research, too. Like, it's so easy. I can open up my phone right now and go to any platform, anything, and I can see a news release about anything. Well, if you just read it, a lot of people just believe whatever they say, and they're just like, oh, you won't believe, look, this just happened. Well, time out.
Mike Brasher: Like, have you even… And you gotta be cautious of the terms that people use, too, to get your attention, right?
Matt Harrison: Clickbait. There's clickbait. Masterful marketing. Literally, people, you know, I mean, there's all kinds of stuff that you can say, you know. It could be anything. This, this, and this happened. And they're like, oh my goodness, I got a click on it. Then you read it and you're like, well, that didn't happen. But that's one thing I've learned is like, okay, if I see something, it can be about anything, sports, hunting, fitness. Well, this just happened. Well, time out. Let me go check. this source that I trust, that I know for a fact, well, okay, well, they released about it, so I do believe it a lot more now. Well, let me just now go to, you know, this category or, you know, business or whatever that it happened to, and let me see if they've released something about it, right? Well, if they released it, Okay, now I can believe it. But it's so easy, and I see it all the time. You know, people that they take, and it don't even have to be a post. They can hear something, go straight to session. I mean, y'all won't believe what just happened. Like, this was just released. You know, there's not a hunting season this year. And you're like, well, where did you get this? For the record, that's not true. That's not true at all. That's not true. What I'm saying is, though, is there's people that take information and do zero research. They see it and believe it. Right? And there's, and this day and time, a lot of the things that said, I believe half the things that said, and I believe everything that you say. You know what I mean?
Seth Dortch: Like. There's, so the, the Jocko Willink, he, you know, big influence in the leadership world, excellent, you know, Navy SEAL. Um, I've learned that, you know, there, there's something they call in the military community called the OODA loop. Um, so observe, orient, decide and act. Um, so it's kind of, it's a loop of, of a way that you can detach yourself from the emotional connection of whatever you just consumed, watched, experienced. Um, and that's been phenomenally helpful for me as I try to implement that, you know, in my life and all different, but especially with social media. Um, observe, you know, observing what you've just read, what you've just consumed, orient yourself to that, you know, okay, you know, just mind frame wise and making a decision off of that information you consume, taking an action, you know, am I going to believe it? And am I not going to believe it? Um, and then running through that loop. And I think, you know, a large part of just that social media consumption aspect. And this goes back to my point of look to people. And that have done the work of building the trust by building an undeniable stack of evidence that they are who they are. And that goes, I mean, to the importance of Ducks Unlimited, this podcast. I mean, even when, you know, Dr. Mike and I first met, I'd obviously watched him a lot and, you know, watch the… I'm gonna give you a huge ramp up here. You know, watch the way he… But it's a prime example. You have a lot of influence, not only in the educational, you know, world of science, because of the work you've put in, the experiences you've had, the leadership that you've stepped into, but also in the world of taking complex situations, complex dynamic, why am I not killing more ducks, what's going on with the ducks, all these different things. And figuring out ways to communicate that and packaging that for people like me that I don't have a PhD, I don't understand all the jargon, but I can consume and digest a lot of the information and the questions that you are already you know, asking in so many different ways. And so, you know, things like that and behavior like that is why it's so important and the value that's added through initiatives like the DU podcast that, you know, we're here on right now, all the different episodes, topics, things like that, that people can generally not come to and from a place of like, oh, everything Dr. Mike or whoever's on the episode says is, you know, truth of all ages, but generally overall, you can trust the initiative and the information that's being deployed to our minds, to our perspectives. And I mean, it's just, it's a game changer, for sure.
Mike Brasher: I appreciate those comments. They make me a little uncomfortable. It's all good. But I do want to say, they make me uncomfortable because I, You see me, you hear me just because of my association with Ducks Unlimited. It's not anything that I've done necessarily. It is because of who Ducks Unlimited is, who our following is, what our reputation is, and all of the information that I convey in any of the work that I do. And I'm fortunate to have this opportunity and I do. enjoy being one to help disseminate some of this information, but that information all comes from the hundreds of other waterfowl scientists, researchers, graduate students across the country. I am, I'm very, this role that I've kind of stepped into on sort of the communication side of things, never really thought I'd be doing this. People ask me a lot of times what I think about what I find myself doing now. It has actually helped me stay engaged on a lot of topics that I ordinarily would not have if I wasn't doing this, because I feel an obligation to represent our organization, to represent the scientific community, the conservation community, in sharing the good work and the great information that they are generating. And so, there comes a lot, there is a lot of pressure that comes with that. If you want to get it right, you want to give credit to the people that are actually doing it. For a lot of this, I'm just, just kind of a mouthpiece on some of this.
Matt Harrison: And you take pride in your work, too. You know, I mean, Dr. Mike's one, and we'll just continue, we'll go down the line giving him compliments. We're gonna make you really uncomfortable. Yeah, hey. Here next, everybody. But no, before I actually started working with Ducks Unlimited, I was able and fortunate enough to meet Dr. Mike. We're going to go back to the very first question that you asked me. We won't go off into that.
Seth Dortch: We won't dive off into that.
Matt Harrison: I will.
Mike Brasher: I can hear, Dr. Mike. There was a pool table involved, I can tell you that.
Matt Harrison: And a ping pong table. That's right. But, now, you know, Dr. Mike, Off the bat, I'd never met him before in my life, and like I said, I had the pleasure before starting working with Ducks Unlimited to meet him. And, of course, I had every question in the world that a waterfowler is going to have towards a waterfowl scientist. And I just, you know, I think my first question to him was, is, do you think the flight patterns have shifted?
Seth Dortch: And he was like, Here we go.
Matt Harrison: How much time do you got?
Mike Brasher: I said, really? That's the first question you're going to come with?
Seth Dortch: It's like, I did not see that coming.
Matt Harrison: It's like, how many layers of the onion do you want to build back? But, you know, Dr. Mike, you know, clearly off the bat, not only is he extremely knowledgeable in waterfowl science, But, he's also, like you said, has a way of explaining it to people, and like I said, I'm giving him his props here. And, you know, we have this side of the podcast, but then we also have the science-based side that Dr. Mike leads, and the information there is information that, yeah, there may be, like you said, some jargon to hit those out there that you're like, whoop, that's over my head, like, you gotta have a PhD. I don't have one. I do have a Ph.D. I'm poor, hungry, and determined. Just got to exercise that.
Seth Dortch: Just got to exercise that. My Ph.D.
Matt Harrison: I have a Ph.D., but I'm poor, hungry, and determined.
Seth Dortch: I don't have one. That's the waterfowler's Ph.D. That's my Ph.D., okay?
Matt Harrison: But I don't have that, but Dr. Mike does a great job of getting the information out there to anybody to understand. Now, like I just shared, there are times that you may be like, I don't know what he's talking about. And there be times, I mean, he's a genius, but he does a great job with that side of the podcast. And I am kind of giving us a little push here. For science-based facts, when it comes to waterfowl and conservation, the DU podcast is a great… And I'm not the head of that, so I'm not… Dr. Mike leads that charge, and that's a great, great place for you to come and get that information.
Seth Dortch: No, absolutely. I mean, it's… Like I said twice already, there's a massive stack of evidence that reveals just what this, you know, what the podcast is about, what the whole team, not just Dr. Mike, I'll plug that. I mean, you think it's like I said earlier, like as I've grown and developed a greater understanding of what all it takes within the Ducks Unlimited ecosystem to do what DU does and who DU has become. I mean, it's, Um, but yes, I mean, and that's, I mean, information wise that, and that's why I kind of brought it up is just the fact of having the DU podcast, having that information, having, you know, somebody one with the ability to kind of, you know, kind of, you know, kind of, you know, kind of, you know, kind of, you know, kind of, you know, kind of, you know, kind of, you know, kind of, you know, kind of, you know, kind of, you know, kind of, you know, kind of, you know, figure out how to communicate and articulate the information, but somebody that actually really cares. And that's, you know, even as you unpack social media, man, there's a lot of people. I mean, for example, Kelly Powers, I get to spend a lot of time with him, get to hunt with him a lot. I mean, one of the most phenomenal, just innovative, people that I know, um, and he's really not on social media at all. Um, you know, a lot of it, you know, he does stuff for, you know, his work or, you know, Higdon outdoors TV, stuff like that. Um, but other than that, he, he's really. behind the scenes. And, you know, there's so many people that I spend time with. I mean, for example, there's so many scientists out there that are a part of the DU organization that, yeah, they're not the media front, but so much of the work that they're doing and the value they're adding to the people around them and to the end state of the results for Ducks Unlimited, it's all a part of that, all a part. So, you know, and You know, sometimes as I realize the responsibility of my media influence and that kind of pressure is a privilege dynamic, sometimes I'm just like, man, but really, you're the one I want people to be coming to for like heavy information, you know. people like KP he like he's the one I want to be talking to people about like hey here's your strategy and tactics on how to be really effective so I take it you know all these different people that I spend time with and especially for all of us in media you know it's a responsibility of ours to to bear in a in a really incredible way to be the primary communicator for all those many people that have put in the work, invested in us, invested in this organization, in the research, in the development, all the things. And, you know, I definitely don't take that lightly, just like y'all do.
Matt Harrison: Well, moving on, continuing to talk about media. I want you to elaborate a little bit, and you actually did a little bit earlier, whether you know it or not, about the do's and don'ts of social media. And you talked a little bit about your character. Don't be stupid.
Seth Dortch: Don't be stupid.
Matt Harrison: It's as simple as that.
Mike Brasher: Don't be stupid. Photos last a long time. A long time.
Seth Dortch: Especially if you get in politics.
Matt Harrison: But you talked about, you know, what you represent. You represent more than yourself, right? And especially for somebody like yourself, for myself, Dr. Mike, we represent a lot of things, so we have to be extremely careful. But let's say we're talking, and this is all made up, but let's say we're talking to a 16-year-old, you know, high school boy that's wanting to get involved. They want to be a seth torch, okay? What… are the do's and don'ts of the social media and media world. Because we know, like you just said, once it's out there, buddy, it's out there. And it's going to stay out there. You can take it down. You can delete it. You can trash it. You can delete it from your deletes. But once it's out there and it's been seen, It's insane, and that goes with anything. I'm not saying, I mean, that's good, that's bad, that's the good, bad, and ugly. Right, it's just reality. But the do's and don'ts of social media are so important if you're wanting to get involved, because I know, even from kind of part of my job here at DU, when we have to do certain things with certain groups, we have to look. You have to be careful. You have to, this damn world that we live in, you can't just go, hey, come, you know, come be a part of this. Come do this. We want you here. We want you there. We want you speaking on behalf of Ducks Unlimited. Well, time out. We gotta research, right? But how important is that? And how do people realize? And like you said, just don't be stupid. It's almost as simple as that. But- That's all relative now. What are those do's and don'ts? And I'm gonna say this and I'm gonna turn it over to you. I tell a lot of people this. If you have to think about should you or should you not post it- Sure. That's a good guardrail. If you have to sit there and say, should I post this? Don't. So, I'm going to turn it over to you.
Seth Dortch:
Mike Brasher: So, okay. How important, you talked about all that you're doing there, all that you're thinking in terms of engaging on different platforms from a personal standpoint, for your mental wellbeing. Yeah. How important is it to get away from all of that?
Seth Dortch: It's very important. Um, I definitely have my own protocols. I guess you, as you would say, um, you know, in regards to just in a 24 hour day, um, you know, for my standard day, I'm usually up like three 45, four o'clock because I've got two little girls. Yeah. So I, I've been to, so I've been, so this has been a requirement. I mean, like, yeah, past two months. So, you know, Lucy, which is my oldest, she's waking up. So I try to work out before. So like my workout time. is like no media. I'm using that time obviously, one, to build myself physically, keep myself healthy, but I'm also processing a lot mentally about whether it's preparing for what's going on in my day and social media. The thing about social media and the amount of information that comes in, so much of it can be just a distraction. Is it really fueling effective decision-making and human operation, whether it's personally or professionally, or is it just distracting us from being present in our everyday lives? And it's like I told Matt earlier, at the end of the day, when I come home and I park the truck in the driveway, You know, my wife and my girls, they don't need a public figure. They need a very present father and husband. And, you know, knowing when to dial that down and when to dial it up. And I'm, I mean, just as I talk about it, I'm in that process of learning more and more about it, about how I need to shift dynamics, just knowing where I'm at. And especially in a world of where it's just like, you know, just grind it out put in the work like yes that is incredibly important but just like any top level fitness performance person will tell you if you want to perform at a high level you need to be you have to learn how to rest you have to learn how to process you have to you know learn just yourself and the more that you learn yourself the more you can help other people learn about themselves um it's kind of like You know, I don't know who coined it, but you can only take people as far as you're willing to go yourself. Um, and so, you know, it all impacts your media consumption because you could spend all day long just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. And, um, but, you know, how's that moving the needle in your life? Um, you know, I want to always want to. you know, amplify the benefit of media. Uh, and I mean, I'm, it would be one thing for me to like, you know, bash media and talk about it, but it is because of media. I have a career and I have, you know, the responsibilities that I do. I mean, relationships like this. Um, but on the flip side, just like with anything else that can, um, it can take over people's lives and negatively impact. who they are, so I definitely try to challenge myself before I challenge anybody else to learn ways and protocols to give yourself space from it, give yourself time to process information that you're seeing, and that's, you know, even in the creative process, that's very helpful.
Matt Harrison: Even like you just said right there, even on the creative side, if you don't take those breaks and refresh and recharge, that's, you know, prior to coming on with DU, that's what I did full-time was content creation, photographer, videographer. Man, if you just constantly never shut off, and I'm not saying don't be ambitious and don't never stop, but what I'm saying is, if you don't ever shut your brain off, It's tough to keep your creative juices flowing, if that makes sense. And that's what I found myself, you know, sometimes, whether it be a day, it may be half a day, but just to recharge, get away from it, then restart, refresh, and recharge. So, you know, finding that balance is tough. It can be really tough, but it's important, especially in the content creation world.
Mike Brasher: So, I got a question for you. When you said, shut your brain off, you know, is important. It's very tough for me to shut my brain off. Sure.
Matt Harrison: Very tough.
Mike Brasher: But when it is easy for me to do it is when I'm hunting. But when you're hunting… Brings many challenges.
Seth Dortch: That's right.
Mike Brasher: How do you balance that? How conflicted are you on the fact that, man, this is what got me into this business. I mean, my passion is in hunting and being in the outdoors, but now you have an obligation to do content creation while you're there, because given the role that I find myself in, when I am hunting, I find myself temporarily thinking about, well, should I do this? Should I do that? Or could this be something that our organization could use? But I'm like, man, this is really my time. I don't want to give that up. Because for me, that's when my brain shuts off and I just go back to being a teenager. And I love that. But for you?
Seth Dortch: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's, it's a great question. It's always going to be a challenge in some form or fashion. Um, yes, I, I'm, I've, I have learned and I am learning different ways to mitigate, uh, kind of that, that impact. Um, so maybe I'll, you know, I'll go on a hunt and I, you know, I may take like a, some iPhone photos or some videos, but, uh, you know, no camera gear, you know, no, Just going in, choosing the mentality of like, okay, I'm here for this experience and not trying to think about how to maximize that experience for all the work-related things that, yes, it's good. I definitely default towards, okay, what type of content are we getting? How's everybody dialed in? Are we doing everything right? All the different things. That's been a big struggle in a lot of different ways. I'm thankful for that struggle because it's a reality and I've kind of had to learn this mentality and just remind myself I'm thankful for that struggle and that kind of just tension because it's a reality that I'm getting to do work around a lifestyle and around these spaces that I've so thoroughly love and enjoy. And so, you know, that's on me to find ways to kind of help mitigate and, you know, not lose the passion and the love for the thing while you're making, you know, a career off that thing. And so, you know, that's definitely important to have some hunts, to have some experiences to where it's not just so performance demanding, while at the same time, like, I'm ready to rock with some performance.
Mike Brasher: It's probably not unlike the conflicted nature that a lot of outfitters live in. For sure. You know, because they probably got into that, well, almost certainly got into that profession because they love to hunt or fish, were really good at it, and they wanted to share that with other people and make a life out of it. But, but then it becomes their, their job. And so, it's probably really important for them also to take time to themselves and just get back to what it was that they were connected with.
Seth Dortch: Yeah. Yeah. You definitely have to remind, remind yourself of your why, you know, why, why you got into it, what, what led you into it. I mean, and even conversations like this are always good reminders to me, um, of, you know, all those, you know, when you're a young person and you have these experiences, you're not, your mind frame isn't okay, you know, What position am I in this company or what partnership do I have? What content do they need? How am I going to frame this up on social media or what platform? It was all in that experience and just reminding yourself of that mentality. And even as we all grow older, we can still develop and intersect that mentality into the work and the performance that is required of us, that is expected of us, and that we all, you know, I know for us three, we want to be a pro at. And so, you know, it's just a process in itself, just like anything else. No doubt.
Matt Harrison: Well, Seth, man, it has been a pleasure. Thank you so much for all the really good information you have put out there. I know that I enjoyed it, and also our listeners and watchers. Dr. Mike, thank you so much for being a part. It was a great, great podcast. Thank you all so much for tuning in to the Ducks Limited Podcast.
Seth Dortch: I guess the real question is, are the waterfowl migrations really shifting? Oh, cut! Where's your cut?