Author Archives: David Farbman

Make This A Holiday Weekend Full of Epic Memories

Make This A Holiday Weekend Full of Epic Memories

Last weekend I headed north to Antrim County, Michigan with my oldest son Hunter and we joined my mom and dad for some morel mushroom hunting action, a.k.a “binging.” Although we were faced with adverse weather conditions, the love and quality time was going strong. Through it we were able to capture a nice little video which you can click and watch below. It’s weekends like these that remind me how blessed I am to be able to spend time with family in the great outdoors.

As you head into this Memorial Day weekend remember to try and get outdoors. There’s something about long weekends, family time, and nature that makes life more special. While you’re enjoying your weekend remember to keep your eyes open for morels as they’re out in full force across much of the country.

Good luck binging and have a blessed weekend. Much love…

Reactionary Thinking

Reactionary Thinking

Most people react impulsively to things but the best hunters choose how to react. They take in all the information around them in the wild. After processing it, they intentionally decide to shoot or pause, to run or charge ahead. In both nature and in life, we run across situations that are tough – these trying times make you want to scream and yell, or flee. The best performers – in relationships, in the board room, in the gym – do what the best hunters do. They pause. They think. They decide. Only then do they act.

All too often, people cross our paths and leave a bad taste in our mouths. Your boss promotes your new colleague and you felt like you deserved it instead. Your neighbor just one-upped your home repair job that took you countless hours last weekend to complete. When someone rubs us the wrong way, we can choose to react with anger, jealousy, or fear. Many of us do react this way – with deeply rooted negativity. But the opposite is also a choice: to react with compassion. What choice do you make with your responses?

Every problem that comes up in your life has an opportunity for growth. Your peer’s promotion and not yours? Double down and work harder to show why you deserve it soon. Your neighbor’s badass backyard renovation? Good excuse to get to know him better – bring over a beer and toast his new setup. This compassionate reaction will change your outlook on your own problems and helps bring out positivity in others.

This is easier said than done – I get it. When something bothers you, it’s a gut reaction to be upset. Harness that and focus your attention like a hunter. Pause, think, decide, and then act. Next time you’re faced with someone with a clashing situation, start with compassion and you’ll be amazed how the circumstance changes for the better.

Attitude

Attitude

In the morning we wake up and start our day with a simple choice – whether we will be embracing that day for all it has to offer. Do you get up and stretch, prepping your mind and body for tasks ahead, or do you hit the snooze button and roll back over? Are you fired up to seize the opportunities you’ll face or are you just punching the clock, day in and day out? The list can go on and on, but the bottom line is crystal clear: we choose how we want to feel.

No matter what happens to you throughout the day, you choose how you’d like to process it. When a setback happens, do you view it as a problem or as an opportunity to fix the situation, grow, and do better next time?

When I start on a hunt, my attitude is hopeful, of course. I try to use all my skills and tools to the best of my ability the whole time I’m up in the tree stand, down in the brush, or wading through a riverbank. Even if it’s a day some people would call “unsuccessful” in the end, I always view it as a win. I got to spend the time out in nature, had a chance to work on my tracking patterns and learn the land – all of which I can use the next time around.

It’s just the way I choose to look at things – it can help you not just on the hunt, but in the board room and at your family’s kitchen table. If things aren’t going right and you’re feeling discouraged, stop blaming everything and everyone else. The choice is yours – start today. Adjust your attitude and watch what happens.

Outdoor Hub’s Extreme Mushroom Hunt

Outdoor Hub’s Extreme Mushroom Hunt

Last Monday, I went morel mushroom hunting—a.k.a. “binging”–with a few of my shroom collector buddies. We have started messing around over the last couple years with videos and this year we decided to step it up. As the founder of Outdoor Hub, I feel it is critical that our content covers the outdoors through all season, and sometimes this is experiential as in the case of the short video embedded below:

This hunt was filmed just outside of Kansas City, Missouri. Some friends and fellow morel junkies took us on the binging adventure along the river bottoms in and out of 12 plus miles of hiking. This video shows that hunting is not only about killing, rather it is about the time spent in nature and morel hunting is amongst my favorite of activities. I may even trade in deer hunting for morel hunting if I were forced to make a choice.

One of my favorite things about morels is the unknown factor. You never know what day they will pop. Their growth cycles are unpredictable, and the season is short as the conditions and ground temperature needs to be just right. In some parts of the country we get very segregated seasons. First the black or the grey morels come in and then it is the whites, and they are preceded by the yellows or the “jumbo booms” as we call them. In Kansas City, these mushrooms can come in together as the ground temperatures rise quicker than in the Midwest. This unpredictability combined with the short season (15-25 days) forces you to make your move quick.

Nobody likes to give up the whereabouts of the elusive morels. When you have a honey hole you don’t tell your friends, your family, even your wife and kids–unless they swear to keep it a secret. Morel mushroom hunting is the ultimate test of concentration and awareness in the woods as they are easy to walk past. Some people simply are not cut out for it, but many people are and each year I convert more and more non-mushroom hunters into binging junkies. The only downside is that finding morels along the side of the road has become more difficult as the sport grows in popularity.

We have two more mushroom hunting videos to shoot this year: one in Illinois and one in northern Michigan, and next year we are talking about trying to hit five states. After you watch one of our videos you will be thinking about morel hunting in a different light, and that is what we are after. I hope you enjoyed the video and you can find morel and other outdoor action on davidfarbman.commorels.com, and outdoorhub.com!

Wild Video Shoot

Wild Video Shoot

Late Tuesday night a bunch of us arrived at my friend’s farm in Saline, Michigan to hammer out a video and create more assets for my public speaking and book platform. By 5 am we were already cranking. At about 5:30 am our photographer arrived and we simultaneously cranked out video and still shots. The video piece that my man Matt Diddle was locking down needed to have us both up in a tree stand well before the sun began to rise.

The sunrise came in with incredible clarity and the pre-scouting we did to pick the perfect location for the shoot could not have worked out any better.  The weather was stellar and it all clicked beautifully.

As the morning moved on we continued the still photo shoot which was a little awkward at first but ended up yielding us some amazing assets.  As the later morning came in the UTV machine went dead and caused us to have to do some serious hiking back to the barn. Looking back, it seems that it all happened serendipitously as we continued to find incredible shots that would have been easy to miss moving quickly on the machine.

We then took a 4-wheeler out to jump-start the UTV but it stalled out as well. It became quite comical and at one point while I was waiting for the 4-wheeler to un-flood, I suggested we all go morel hunting even though I knew it was pretty early. About half-way through my “let’s all keep busy for fifteen minutes” morel hunt, I realized there was poison oak/ivy all around us.

Thankfully I was able to start the 4-wheeler, successfully jump the UTV, and wrap up the shoot in one piece before 1 pm and get everyone washed up with soap to get any oil from the plants washed off–I hope.

Essentially, despite the mild drama, we killed it on the shoot.

As I reflect now, I realize how cool some of my job is and how blessed I am to actually do this stuff for a living!

Our Journey into Cuba, the Forbidden Fruit

Our Journey into Cuba, the Forbidden Fruit

When I was first asked to join a mission to Cuba, I was like “Umm, yea when?” I mean, it is the “forbidden fruit” after all. I then became busy in life and woke up one day and I was Cuba-bound.

Upon arrival, I marveled at the 1950s and 60s Buicks, Chevys, Fords, even a freaking Studebaker–you name it, they were all there. We saw the sights, the good, the not so good, and the plain messed up as well. On this trip with 23 great guys we bonded in a special way, just a little different kind of a way. We were strangers in a strange land together.

With a beautiful ocean and architectural brilliance in the structures throughout the struggling city of Havana, Cuba is a confusing place, but it has potential. While showing some signs of promise, the city is in severe disrepair. The average income is believed to be around $20.00 per month, however healthcare and education are paid for by the Castro government. You read that right–twenty bucks a month.

As we sat together as a group on the last night of the trip for our debrief it was clear that we all grew from this trip, but we all missed our families, our friends, and our country. I feel far more blessed than I did just a week ago. Cuba and America and two different worlds, and while they may be close as the crow flies, they couldn’t be further apart.