2017 marks the 10th anniversary of Carbon Media Group. What started with me and a few dedicated people in a converted closet at Farbman Group is now the online world leader for the outdoor industry. We’ve had our ups and downs, our wins and losses, but it’s all been worth it to be where we are now: a highly regarded source for news, a strong partner in our advertising relationships and an evolving platform for bringing top talent and constantly building up the community that loves to hunt, fish and shoot.

This has not been an easy climb. We’ve had to build our gear halfway up the mountain if you know what I mean. We’ve pivoted, we’ve tracked big trophy bucks; sometimes we brought home the trophy and sometimes we grew stronger and smarter from experience, more prepared for the hunt ahead.

Several times I’ve had to take a step back and consider letting the dream go.   But I’ll ask you all the same question I asked myself: when has anything great ever come to you without its ups and downs?  For us at Carbon, for you on a hunt, these moments of struggle and stress are mere challenges, not barriers.  The real payoff comes when you hunt smarter, stay true to your targets and remember that the hunt is as important as the trophy.

I want to thank everyone who has walked this road with me, whether for months or years and going on this journey with me.  From my brother and partner, Andy, to my wife Nadine: your support, strength, belief in the dark times has more often than not shown me the light.  To the current leadership team, the trust I have for you is boundless.  I know the next ten years will be just as fulfilling, frustrating and fascinating as the last.  Because we are all hunters.  And we will continue to hit our targets.

I can’t remember looking forward to a new year more than this one. I’ve got big plans for 2017 on every level: work, family, community. I plan to give more, do more, be more and still not lose the essence of my soul, always hunting and creating an opportunity for success.

In this time of resolutions and planning, rather than sharing what I’m going to do, I thought I’d tell you HOW I’m going to do it.  If you’ve read The Hunt, you can get right back in and study some of these techniques there. If you haven’t and you’d like to, shoot me an email and I’ll send you one!

Here are my top tips for making and sticking to resolutions and carrying them out throughout the year:

Write them down!  I did this just Monday.  I put it in my calendar, set aside the time and wrote down my goals for my family, my companies, my community.  It doesn’t have to be fancy.  You can use a journal, your iPad, a series of sticky notes.  The material doesn’t matter.  It needs to be something you can keep and refer to when you are feeling off course.

Associate a feeling with each goal.  Intellectually, you know you should, say, Exercise 2X per week.  Connecting that to an emotional result will help you get there!  Exercise creates endorphins, endorphins make you happy and relieve stress.  Now you are equating exercise with happiness.

Visualize yourself both working toward and reaching your goal.  Using the exercise example, see yourself on that treadmill, yoga mat, weight bench.  See yourself trimmer, looser, more well rested, happier.  Visualization is one of my favorite techniques.  It also allows you to plan for pitfalls and see barriers that might be in your way.

Check in with your goals: daily, weekly, monthly. Acknowledge small wins daily.  Break down your weekly goals into manageable parts so you can knock out one or two without breaking a sweat.  Be real with yourself monthly – are you moving forward?  Are you stuck?  Who or what can help you get moving?

Let’s make 2017 the best year yet! We are all hunters, and we will hit our targets.  I would love to know what your resolutions are and will do my best to help you stay on track throughout the year. Hit me up at david@dfarbman.com and go out and get what you are hunting for in 2017.  It’s gonna be epic!

This year one of my dreams came true, taking my oldest, Hunter, hunting for the first time.  Spending one-on-one time with this boy, with his big eyes and his kind heart, has given me a new appreciation for fatherhood. While it can seem like a thankless job, I’ve come to realize that Hunter is giving me just as much (if not more), than I am giving him. He is so full of light and wonder; I find myself drawn to him like a warm fire on a cold night.

We are blessed this year with a merging of the holidays; Hanukkah shares its first night with Christmas Eve. Both celebrate light and miracles and faith. And while we all don’t need to agree on what to worship and how, light is a beautiful place to start. I have faith in many things and, as you know, nature is one of them. I love how the morning light turns each day into a celebration of life. I love how the sunset is almost a prayer. I see the moon and look for signs, and show my boys the pictures the stars make in the night sky.

I’ve been given the incredible compliment of being a light for others. I hope this blog and my thoughts are a source of light for you. I hope they help you to be a source of light for others; it’s the best gift you can give. Light is guidance and warmth and love. It’s the beacon calling you home. It’s in your children’s eyes and your father’s embrace, your spouse greeting you after a long day, your colleague’s support on a tough project. This holiday, my hope for you, hunters, is a season filled with light.

Love, DFarbz

When we follow the same old pattern, we get the same results.  If you are at the point on a hunt when things aren’t moving, change it up!  Be flexible, pivot, experiment.

Thanks to the folks at Daily Fuel for this great video clip on how agility can get results. Enjoy and keep hunting!

Getting Agile to Get Results

As a guy that grew up living to take my stick and string or a rifle into the woods and chase deer around, I dreamed of the day I’d someday hunt with my own kids. A few years back, I took my oldest son Hunter out in the woods, but he was clearly too young. He shot his BB gun at everything that moved. This past Saturday, however, it all changed. Thanks to my good pal Michael who let us hit his farm, we had a place to crash and a good spot to hunt, all within an hour of home. How awesome is that?

From the moment we pulled out of the driveway and headed west to Saline, anticipation was high. Hunter was loaded with all sorts of questions and wanted to know the game plan. He also was ensuring that this was a real guys’ trip where rules other than safety were thrown out.

His questions included:

Dad, can we eat whatever we want?

Dad, can we drink Coke or at least Sprite?

Dad, can we stay up late and watch the new Ghostbusters movie together?

Dad, can we get the non-organic yogurts with the M&Ms?

Dad, can we do whatever we want?”

To these, I answered as any dad on a real guys’ trip would answer. “YUP!”

The morning hunt was chilly (rocking 38 degrees) but the covered blind and the seven weeks’ worth of hunting gear I schlepped to Saline and then to the blind with us came in handy and kept us warm enough. Both the morning and evening sits provided plenty of deer sightings, many within proximity, yet we didn’t see The One.

Having made a deal with Hunter midway through the evening sit that if we shot a big buck, we could spend the night again; he was on his A game and iPad time was down to a minimum. He was all eyes and ears in it. Many times, I welled up with a tear of happiness and pride. Here I was, father and son in the blind, just as I’d dreamed about for so many years.

As darkness was nearing, we had about 12 does in the field in front of us. Hunter whispers to me “Dad, we should shoot one of the does. We have a tag, you said, for one so let’s just do it and then we can hang here for the night.” I put my arm around him and said: “Buddy, I’m so happy you love this, someday soon we can do it again. That said, this is why they call it hunting, my man. You don’t get one every time and sometimes it’s just about this right here.” He looked at me with his tired little face and said: “Okay dad, thanks for making it awesome.”

And this, folks, is what I call the best hunt of my life!

Hunter asleep at deer camp.