Author Archives: David

Check In: 26 Days until 2016

I’m looking out the window at green grass and sunshine, the snow of last week is long gone, and yet, it’s December. The holidays are but a breath away, and before we know it, 2015 will be but a memory. It’s in these moments that I like to take a step back, get above and clear and take a tree stand view of my year. Did I accomplish what I set out to do? Am I moving forward toward the goals I set for myself, the same way our esteemed Governor Rick Snyder is moving Michigan “Forward”?

This was a pivotal year for me. My boys are getting bigger by the minute, and my companies are growing as well, in both size and opportunity. Just like in the great outdoors, changes in business can be as subtle as the leaves turning from green to red to gold or as bombastic as the storm that put 10 inches of snow on the lawn by morning.

As a hunter, a father and an entrepreneur, I know the key to facing change is to stay focused on my desired outcome and to be flexible; a “bend so you don’t break” attitude is essential on the hunt for success. I’ve been in conversations with colleagues where they are beating themselves up about not hitting a target, even though they have made considerable progress toward it throughout the year. As I listen to them, I realize that I do the exact same thing.

That’s why getting above and clear is so important. When you are in it, it’s hard to see the big picture. It’s vital to get out of a negative space, blaming yourself for coming up short. Whether the pace of your hunt has been modest or substantial, progress is progress. And as every entrepreneur knows, building a business is about the journey. Every step on your hunt leads to the next, so recognize that each increment gets you closer to what you want most. Keep moving FORWARD, hunters!

The Great Slide Ride – A New Generation Takes on our Family Thanksgiving Tradition

When I lived at home with my parents, every Thanksgiving, my dad would load up a car with me and my brother and whatever friends were hanging about and take us on a tour of Detroit’s great sliders and tamales. The “Slide Ride” is one of my favorite memories and gave me a real connection to my dad, especially as a teen when I was looking for as many reasons to get away as I could.

It was a set up from the start. My mom needed a clear house so she could get dinner prepped and ready, so she enlisted my dad to come up with an adventure. All those Thanksgivings, I never once thought about why my dad took us or what his plan was…I was so in the moment, looking forward to the next stop, hanging with my friends. I was never pre-occupied with anything beyond that experience and if I never said it then, let me say it now: Thank you, Dad, for making that day about more than turkey and football. You made a new tradition and an ocean of memories for me and so many of my Berkley boys – we are forever grateful.

Now it’s my turn to be the driver on the Great Slide Ride. Last year was the first for my boys, Hunter, River and Fischer. We took my dad on a ride from Birmingham to Mexican Town, eating our way through sliders and tamales, carrying on 34 years of Farbman tradition. I was so happy to be in that moment with my boys and my dad, it gave me an incredible sense of gratitude and comfort, joy and love…and isn’t that what Thanksgiving is all about?!?

This year, we are going big. We have a whole crew joining us, a caravan of friends and family and entirely new generation of kids on the ride. I have been making a conscious effort in my life to be present for my boys and my wife, telling them and showing them how I feel, no matter how cheesy or uncomfortable it is for any of us. There is nothing greater than sharing my feelings with 8-year old Hunter and having him get me. It fills me with pride I could not claim before now, that this boy and his beautiful soul is the product of my life. And I can only take credit for a small part of who he is, who he and his brothers will be, and I am forever grateful to their mother, my wife, for being on this journey of parenthood with me. I’d be lost without her and the grandparents on both sides that have set us up for success and created so many meaningful memories. After all, Thanksgiving is a day to be thankful for all the blessings in our lives.

It is my wish for you, hunters, that this Thanksgiving holiday you take the time to tell the important people in your lives that you love them. That they are the reason you get up in the morning or smile at nothing in the middle of the day, or sleep soundly through the night. Be the one making the memories this Thanksgiving and hunt down your gratitude they way I would track a ten-point buck on opening day. A grateful, fulfilled life is a much bigger trophy.

How Missing a Buck Put Me Back in the Hunt

My fall was a busy one, but that is no excuse for the events that follow. It was 7 am on November 15, the ever-coveted, much-anticipated opening day of rifle season in the great State of Michigan. Just as daylight was creeping in, along came the monster 10-point buck I’ve nicknamed OD. I’d been chasing OD since the start of the bow season a month and a half prior. He walked into the field broadside to me at 100 yards. I quickly slid my rifle into position, took aim and fired. Much to my surprise the animal acted untouched and began to run for the woods. Putting him in my scope, I fired again. Shockingly, he acted as if he were not hit at all. I was dumbfounded.

I waited three hours before going out to survey the scene as I had scanned all of the woods with my binoculars in hopes of seeing the beastly 10- point laid up somewhere. During those three grueling hours, I played it back time and time again in my head. The exact buck that I wanted had come to me in perfect position as if out of a dream.

I walked across the field and saw nothing other than some white belly hair. I had shot underneath him; I was sick to my stomach. What in the hell just happened? At first, like many things in life that don’t go the way we expect, I wanted to blame that missed shot on something outside my control. I took a practice shot at a target in the field and knew I had made a rookie mistake – I did not double check my weapon as I headed out that morning. My failure to ensure preparedness had caught up to me and cost me the trophy of a lifetime.

There are many times in life where we go into big situations thinking we’ve got it in the bag, not following through on reliable checks and balances that ensure success. Whether is it having a co-worker read through a presentation or charging your phone, if you are not prepared for your hunt, you are going to miss your mark. We must always check our weapons; we must always do the scouting work necessary to put us in a place for when the moment of truth presents itself. I had not followed my own advice in this situation and paid the price.

That afternoon, I sighted in the rifle for my evening sit and in another stroke of good fortune, one of the other bucks (named Chaser, clever, I know) I had spent much of bow season came along and offered the shot. It was a quick, on-the-move shot through the cedar trees about 150 yards from my blind. Chaser gave up the chase.

During bow season, I had a bow that was not seated in properly. During gun season, I had a gun was not sighted in properly. The responsibility was all mine. The only way to fix mistakes is to get back on that bike or sight in that rifle, tighten up your strategy and double check the plan and get back out there and start hunting again. This time prepared to take what you were after.

The Domino Effect: Hunting in Flow

When we were kids, there was a TV show called “That’s Incredible!” and people of all sorts would come on and display their talents. One of my favorite things to watch were the huge displays of dominoes; a tremendous example of cause and effect, how one tiny piece in big picture could cause all that disruption and create something new.

Do you see those domino moments in your hunt? Can you feel the turn, when everything is about to change? Do you have the foresight to set up the pieces of your life so they topple just the way you’d like?

In The Hunt, I call this flow – working at one with nature, creating circumstances that lead to success through meticulous setup and planning. Flow doesn’t just happen; we must use our human capabilities to leverage the non-stop opportunities life sends our way, and the power of that momentum keeps us moving on to the next hunt, the next achievement and the next breakthrough moment. When you are hunting in flow, you accomplish one step, and then the next and the next and the next, like dominos falling, in syncopated glory.

When the moment is right, let the arrow fly

Hunting season is right around the corner, and I can feel the impatience itching in that impossible spot to reach in the middle of my back. With a week left to go of bow season (and a week before the descent of the orange army), and months of waiting behind me, I’ve been thinking about hunting, waiting and wanting and what it is that instinctively guides some to find the right balance between patience and impatience. Right now, the rut is upon us and I am barely resisting the urge to get out to my tree stand and plan my strategy.

I’ve watched many a professional hunter hold on to an arrow with seemingly infinite patience, waiting for the right moment to shoot. I’ve also seen the same guy rip an arrow off without a moment’s hesitation. Knowing when to let an arrow fly is a combination of data and instinct – if you are too patient, the opportunity will pass, and if you are too jumpy, you might miss it altogether. Steve Jobs is one of my heroes, a man of singular vision and an interesting study in patience.

He was impatient with his employees and with technology, but he was never impatient about delivering his vision to the world. He had a hunter-like gauge of timing, of when consumers would be ready for his next innovation. That kind of laser-focused tight-rope walking between patience and impatience is one of the most valuable lessons we can learn from Steve, from my boy Bone Collector Michael Waddell, from all the great hunters, in business and the field that have brought us to where we are today.

Finding that balance is not easy, an imperfect science at best. I’ve got a few tips for each side of the scale.

If you are impatient and too often jumping the gun:

Gather more data.
See the value in letting things develop.
Work on your strategy.

If patience has become too much of a virtue:

Spend some time in visualization. Lay your challenge out like a movie and watch for the pivot points you can imagine.
Learn to trust the data and your intuition.
When the moment is right, let the arrow fly.

Ultimately, the journey to finding the balance you seek will likely take a lifetime. But, as it is often said, life is about the journey, not the destination. Every hunt, whether you take home a trophy or not, has a value of its own. And the more balanced you hunt, the more likely you will be to hit your targets, eventually losing uncertainty and gaining the instinct that makes great hunters great: when to hold on and when to let go.

Carbon is the new black: Disruption is the future

Disruption is innovation that changes the status quo. For those of us who remember, Blockbuster Video was a hallmark institution of Friday nights in the 1990s. For just a few dollars and a membership card, you had walls and shelves of decades of Hollywood at your disposal. Sure, dropping off and picking up was a hassle. And the late fees! Always a bummer. Then along came Netflix. We will mail you the movie. You can mail it back to us. And no late fees. Ever. All for a small monthly fee that was less than your weekly Blockbuster budget.

Now, we all know what happened to Blockbuster. But did you know they had the opportunity to buy Netflix, and they passed? Netflix didn’t dwell on the mail order model for long; they are now immersed in on-demand, digital streaming and with 49% of millennials subscribing, their continued willingness to embrace the future keeps them at the head of the pack.

In 2007, when I Iaunched OutdoorHub, the outdoor industry leaders shook their heads and called me overly optimistic about the impact the internet would have on everyday life, let alone the outdoors. But my experience in real estate allowed me to look at the opportunity and build something new: an aggregated ad network merging hundreds of outdoor websites. Then we took OutdoorHub and pivoted it into Carbon Media Group, a media and content machine, producing over 3,000 pieces of original content to our users.

That forward-thinking media mentality and willingness to buck convention led us to CarbonTV.com: an OTT platform (Over The Top: distribution of media without a telecom network) platform delivering outdoor programming to our core audience across all smart phones, tablets, PCs and smart TVs. This disruption is a win-win: now our users can take CarbonTV programming into the tree stand, fishing boat, or deer blind and our clients can reach their audience wherever they are. We work with producers and publishers of all sizes to get their content to an exponentially growing audience of millennials, as well as finding new viewers through cross-promotion on the Carbon Media ecosystem. CarbonTV Is helping producers build their brand, monetize the hard work of their content while driving better ratings for their traditional shows. CarbonTV is the future; this model of disruption is becoming the new standard.

The future defines the future. What worked yesterday and what works today will not be what works tomorrow. Even if the result is the same (delivering entertainment into customer’s homes), the method, the business model, the staff, the technology can all be adapted. What change or pivot can you make to your business that will improve your chance for success? We must adapt and change or die. Innovate to evolve. Survival of the fittest.

What does this have to do with hunting? As experienced deer hunters know, you don’t hunt where the deer has been, you hunt where they are going. You study the deer, take in the data, routine and use that knowledge to formulate a hypothesis about where the deer will be when it is time to let an arrow fly. My advice to you, hunters, when hunting for the future: go where the buck is going and not where the buck has been.