Ducks Unlimited Podcast

00:00 Chris Jennings Hey everybody, welcome back to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm your host, Chris Jennings. Joining me today, we have an awesome guest. We have Amy Hall, who is the host of Her Wild Outdoors podcast. And also she's currently working for Tetra Hearing in Nashville or just south of

00:14 Amy Hall Nashville. Welcome to the DU podcast. Thank you. Thank you very much for having me. It's been a great conversation leading up to this conversation.

00:23 Chris Jennings I want to do something real quick that we do with all of our new guests on the DU podcast. And what I like to do is I like to let you kind of introduce yourself, where you're from. You can even expand on how you got into the position that you're in now and how you got into the

00:38 Amy Hall outdoors. But feel free to go and introduce yourself to our guests. Well, my name is Amy Hall. I'm from Middle Tennessee, the Nashville area. I am the brand manager of operations here at Tetra Hearing. It has been a great process transferring over from the Tennessee Wildlife Federation. And I guess that kind of melds both of my worlds together. I used to be in cardiac surgery at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. So pushing that medical background in with the outdoors allows me

01:11 Chris Jennings to have the best of both worlds of my education and experience to being here at Tetra. And so how did you get started with the podcast, Her Wild Outdoors? When did that start? Kind of

01:25 Amy Hall share with our audience how you began podcasting. Well, it started, it was maybe four years ago. I was in a group of new hunters that was kind of an online forum just to be able to get together and talk and learn and bounce ideas off of each other and grow as hunters. I didn't start hunting until about 10 years ago in my early 30s. And so I was introduced to all of these guys. There were no girls in the group. The female community in the outdoors for hunting specifically is a little bit smaller than men. And so there was a gentleman that was a part of the group that has a podcast out west. And he approached me and said, Hey, Amy, I'd love if you would host, guest host a few episodes. And it was to interview women. And he said it was a great explanation of it. He said, I can sympathize with women, but I can't empathize with them. So I think the conversation will sound different if you interview them. And it did. It was a great experience. It was my first time ever podcasting. But at the time being a new hunter, I absorbed everything that we were talking about, even if someone I was interviewing was new as well. We were growing together and it was a very, it was eye opening. It was encouraging. It was challenging. And we did 12 episodes. And at the end of them, I really didn't want those conversations to end. So that's how Her Wild Outdoors began. And I guest hosted for about a year for another podcast out of Texas, but went full time with my

03:14 Chris Jennings podcast. And, and golly, I just, I enjoyed every single conversation like you guys do on yours. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's really kind of how the DU podcast got started as myself and one of my co-hosts, Dr. Mike Brazier, we literally just sat around and talked about ducks all the time. And I think our producer at the time was like, you need to just start a podcast. We're like, all right, we can do that. So literally we just sit around and talked about ducks. And that's kind of how it came about. But that story is really interesting. And I always find it in it. Now, I grew up hunting. I didn't grow up duck hunting necessarily until I was 15, 16 years old. But I grew up hunting. My dad was a big squirrel hunter. And then kind of I transitioned into deer and then duck and then sold everything else and just focused on ducks. Growing up in middle Tennessee, you were around hunters. You just weren't really involved, you know, never really interested in what, what made that switch? Like, why did you be like, all of a sudden I'm going to, I'm going to

04:12 Amy Hall be a hunter. Well, I think that yes, I was surrounded by hunters, but my family never hunted. So it skipped a generation. I think my grandfather was from Alabama and he hunted small game squirrel, dove, that kind of thing, but he never really passed it on. It was just something that he did. My dad didn't pick up on it and nobody else in my family at the time that I knew hunted. And it wasn't, I don't think it was necessarily that I wasn't interested. It was that I was never invited to try it. It was just kind of an assumed thing that I wouldn't necessarily want to do it. And so I don't blame anybody by any means, because, you know, that can be also my responsibility of saying, Hey, I'm interested in doing that, but I was never told no. So there's a difference, right? There's a difference in being told, no, you can't as a woman or as a kid, or I was never told no, it was just that I wasn't invited. And growing up still was never, I kind of moved, I moved into Birmingham, Alabama for a couple of years and moved up to middle Tennessee. And right around the time, my ex husband would work, well, he would hunt and bring home one deer a year at the time. And it was great. I loved having venison, but I wanted more. We were going through it faster than, than I was learning how to cook it in all of these different ways. My kids were starting to eat it more. My kids were 13 and fifth or three and five at the time that I started hunting. And they're now 13 and 15. And so it was, it was a challenge as a woman, just as it is for men, but kind of in a slightly different way to, to say, I'm going to step out of my mom role for the moment because they were too small at that point to go with me where I was going. And I didn't really know how to introduce them at the time, honestly. And so it was a little step of, I had to give myself permission to leave that role as a mom and go hunting because I hunted solo from day one. And so it was, and I've talked to a couple of women about that, that permission that we give each other, that it's like, okay, I can, I can do this. I can step away from my mom role for the moment and step into this hunting role, but it, it is a permission that we have to give each other. And it kind of feel, or to give ourselves because it kind of feels like that mom guilt of, of leaving a role that we feel very passionate about and, and go and do something else. And it has its own benefits, right? It has its own way of parenting by doing those things. And it grew into introducing the kids to hunting. They, they never hunted before, before I started hunting. And so it started with deer on five acres praying that they would cross that five acre line. And then it grew into public land hunting for deer. And then it grew into, Hey, I want to try bird hunting. So it went into waterfowl. So, and that honestly came from the podcast. Hey Amy, you should try other things. You know, if you like deer hunting, you might like waterfowl, you might like small game, you might.

07:44 Chris Jennings And that's kind of how it grew my interest in, in different pursuits. Yeah. I'd imagine with the podcast, you probably got a lot of feedback from people just saying, Hey, you know, you should try this or try that, you know, and you mentioned leaving to go hunting, you know, as a female, my wife always laughs because people ask like, Oh, does, does Tiffany hunt? And she's like, you know, she used to hunt, not a ton. She wasn't diehard before I moved here, you know, because it was really, really cold where I grew up hunting in Indiana and she was not a huge fan of that. But she used to hunt pretty regularly. But then once we had kids, you mentioned kind of giving yourself the permission. And she always just kind of joked around about the fact that it was like, well, it's hard to find a babysitter at 3am, you know, it's, and so like, you have to separate that in some way, shape or form and find a way to do it. And that probably a different level of difficulty compared to my perspective where I'm like, well, I'm going with such and such and we're leaving, you know, at three o'clock. So yeah, I mean, I definitely see how that's an interesting dynamic, but also, you know, we talk a lot about, you know, just people in general who didn't grow up hunting, didn't really grow up around it. It's very difficult to step into that, like you mentioned, and, you know, we're always hoping that, you know, as we do this podcast, there are people who might listen to this podcast who don't hunt, who we try and encourage like, hey, you know, we tell people all the time, like, you know, 40 years old, never hunted, you know, where do I start? And it's like, that's really difficult because how comfortable are you doing this? You're how comfortable? So I just kind of point people to, you know, show up at the next local Ducks Unlimited volunteer meet because that crowd is willing to, you know, those are the like-minded individuals, those people are willing to, you know, act as a mentor or at least introduce you. And, you know, along with that, they're not just duck hunters. Some of these guys are, you know, squirrel hunters, deer hunters, fishermen, all across the board. So that's, that's an interesting story of how you kind of stepped into that. But I do have to ask, what was the first thing that you hunted?

09:49 Amy Hall It was deer. It was deer like that's the first thing that you ever shot. Yes. And, and where I was hunting, it was, it's bow only, no guns are allowed. So it was definitely a challenge getting started, but it was in a very safe space. There were, there were people all around me in homes. So if I ever got into a circumstance that was uncomfortable, I could go knock on a door. It was a great way of being introduced while still having access to, to people close by. You're not in a remote wilderness out there by yourself. I mean, that, that's a different level. It has stepped into that since then, but it, it has been, it's just been stepping stones along the way. But yeah, deer was, was the first one. And the first time I got a deer and I could go from point A to point Z. So from being in a tree stand or being on the ground and shooting, harvesting a deer, doing the whole process of, of field dressing, dragging out, butchering, and processing my own meat. So from A to Z and then cooking it, it felt like that sense of

11:06 Chris Jennings independence. It was an amazing feeling. So who guided you along with through that process? Or were you like, I'm YouTube in this right now out in the field, field dressing a deer.

11:17 Amy Hall I can tell you there were a couple of YouTube, YouTube processes on the way. I have had some great male mentors. One of my dear friends is a chief of wildlife here in Tennessee. And he was the one that taught me how to butcher. He butchered one side. I butchered the other side and took it from there. I've been able to teach other people along the way now from how to do it, but a lot of YouTube, a lot of classes, a lot of conversations with people, a lot of phone calls. Hey, can you walk me through this? Hey, this is different than I've ever seen before. Can you walk me through it? So it kind of all points back to community. I think that we talk a lot about how community is how we retain hunters in the outdoors. Without community, it becomes this lonely, there's just something about having community to back up on and to have that, hey man, I need some help. Or hey, can you come help me drag a deer out? I'm in a situation, I need help. So being able to call for help means a lot. And community is how I got into waterfowl hunting because it went from a solo adventure of deer hunting into this place where you can have a conversation and you can have breakfast with other people and you can learn how to duck call and you can learn how to work as a team. And so that's kind of how it went from solo deer hunting or taking a kid or in a mistake taking two kids at one time to going with a group of people waterfowl hunting. And that fills that void of community when you need it in the field. And it's a whole lot of fun.

13:10 Chris Jennings Yeah. And we talk about this a lot from a waterfowling perspective and getting new hunters into waterfowling. Very few people are just going to wake up one day and say, I'm going to be a duck hunter and then go on a duck hunt by themselves, without having anyone to kind of guide that process. And I think that's the difficult aspect of water. Did you kind of feel that when you were getting interested in hunting and hey, maybe going waterfowl hunting, what were some of the

13:38 Amy Hall things that kind of you had hesitancy about going waterfowl hunting? It's who am I going with? Do I trust these people? Are they people that I know? Do I know the guide? If I've got a guide coming, which right now I sound like a drowned duck calling. So I definitely need somebody who can call. Believe it or not, that's good for the ducks. Drowning duck, bless their hearts. So it is more about that feeling of safety with going waterfowl hunting. It's a group of people that I might only need to know one person in order to feel comfortable going. It's the same with turkey hunting. It's the same with snow goose. It's the same with any dove hunting. As long as I know one person and I trust that one person knows all of these other people, that's kind of my

14:40 Chris Jennings gauge of wanting to do something. It's just some safety in it. Yeah, no. And also, it's really, really hard to misidentify a deer. But when you step into the waterfowling world, there are multiple species potentially all coming in at the same time and every single one of them has a different bag limit. And to know that, the people around here that I hunt with have spent a lifetime learning that. But I always explain to new duck hunters, you don't have to know it your first time out because I'm going to tell you. But it's really a part of the process of becoming a waterfowl hunter is learning these species and being able to identify them on the wing and hand. Did you feel that that was something that you were like really studying up on beforehand or is it something that came after

15:32 Amy Hall kind of your first time? It was going into it because I, you will find this out about women. If you don't know it already or our listeners, we like to know everything going in. We will do research. We will do all of the studying we can. We don't want to be blind going into a situation. So looking at pictures of what ducks look like from the underbelly, listening to sounds, all of those things, preparing for it truly though never prepared me for what it was going to sound like and look like in the field. So trusting the person that you are with is vital

16:14 Chris Jennings to staying legal truthfully when you're out there. And that's very important for me. Yeah, you know, and there are in his kind of changing topics here, but our social media manager here, Mallory Murphy, she's been with us for probably four or five years. She grew up hunting and we have this conversation and a lot of it is because I do all the product coverage for the magazine and online. And but she always comes to me and she's like, man, there's just not great gear for women. And she's like, honestly, she's like, if you look at it now, it's 100 times better than what it was 15 years ago. When she was starting hunting, she's like, I'm wearing my brother's pants. And there was just nothing. How do you see that? How do you view that as really the industry wide kind of looking, not just waterfowl hunting necessarily, but all hunting in general, just, they're really opening those doors and providing quality gear, which is a total game

17:11 Amy Hall changer. We all know that. How do you kind of view that? I think that there are some companies that are doing it great. And you have to realize that if you're going for quality and if you're going for durability and you're going for actual usability in the field, you're going to spend money on it. And you look at it as an investment, whatever camo you are looking at, you find what works for you, even if that means mix matching things together. And I think that there's still some companies that need to work on how to do it better. And so it is definitely different from 10 years ago when I was getting hand-me-down youth clothing, which didn't have insulation and didn't have waterproof and didn't have anything like that. It has definitely come a long way. And there are some great companies out there that are female owned that are putting out camo that is specifically made by a woman to fit a woman. And it's pretty cool to be able to support them.

18:18 Chris Jennings And now here's a good question, because this is my wife and I have these conversations all the time because this was probably 10 or 12 years ago. They had an event, a DU event locally, and it was like women of wetlands, conservation funding. It was a big deal. And they still do it all the time, but it's a little different now. But I asked my wife, I said, hey, I'll get you a ticket for this. And she's like, okay. And she's looked at the little pamphlet that came with it. And it was, the door prizes were earrings and a necklace and this. And my wife's like, how come at your events, you get Benelli's? And so I think now that whole idea has changed in the last 15 years, even within DU structure. But did you see that kind of as kind of a slap in the face? I don't need everything to be pink. We taught Mallory, she does a women's water filing gear guide every fall. And if you look really closely at that, you'll notice there's nothing pink in that gear guide because she is one of those hunters who's like, does your shirt have a bright yellow star on it? Like, no, because I want to be camo. And she's like, why would mine be pink? So do you see that as kind of the same thing as kind of a weird, not slap in the face, but just something

19:33 Amy Hall where the industry hasn't grown into it yet? I think it's a growth thing. I don't want to down any company that's truly trying and truly pushing forward into female hunters. I think it's a growth thing. I think that 15 years ago, 10 to 15 years ago, they were, they were focused on women who supported hunters versus women who were hunters. And so it's going to be a slow process of growing out of, hey, these were the supporters of hunters and now they're growing into hunters. So yeah, whenever I see something pink, I'm like, they probably just pinked it and shrinked it. And if I'm in the Turkey woods, I can't have any color. Like I really need it to just be camo. And so yeah, it's, it can be frustrating, but at the same time, nothing is going to get done if we just complain about it. So I volunteer and I have volunteered as, hey, ask me the questions. What do you, what are the questions that you need for your camo line? What are some of the answers that I can give you that you can apply to that camo line and, and make it better? And so I want to be a part of the solution, not a part of the complaining problem. And I think you've got some great women out there who are doing the same thing.

21:16 Chris Jennings You know, you mentioned turkey hunting and deer hunting, waterfowl. I looked at your Instagram before we did all this and there's tons of awesome, I see you cooking all of this basically. And so I kind of wanted to touch on that because it is all part of the process. And you'd already mentioned it where you went from field dress to basically from A to Z with your first year. That's a different approach as well. You know, cooking wild game. Is that all part of that community? Did you get that? Or, you know, was that just something where you again, researching

21:46 Amy Hall again? That was, it was a way it started with how can I get my kids to eat this? So you start basic, right? You've got chili, you've got stew, you've got spaghetti, meatballs and spaghetti. Like you start easy. You start with that introductory meal, which I will still make for people who have never had a wild game before something familiar with bacon involved. But if you think about it, generations and generations and generations of male and female hunters, food has been something that hunting kind of encompasses. So if you go to hunt camp, I mean, you're, you're cooking what you've eaten. If you are in the duck blind, you are cooking breakfast and it usually has some kind of sausage, whether it's a wild game sausage or a lot of game bacon, or if you're bringing out some venison or you're cooking the duck that you just like, there's all of these things that, that food kind of encompasses the hunting world. So why not make it pretty? Why not make it beautiful? Why not make it something that isn't just fried today, but is actually cooked well and people can, can see a different side of wild game. And it's one way to bring the community in who isn't against hunting, but who might not necessarily be hunters to say, okay, this is, this tastes good. This is what you're doing with this. You are not wasting. My son can look at the wall and see the deer that he got when he was nine and have the food on the table and tell his friends, Hey, what you're eating is what I got and what I harvested and what I helped process and butcher and all of that. So there's a sense of pride that goes in it. But since, since every hunt has a story, that story should encompass the food that comes from it as well, or else it, it looks like it's a waste. Like, why do you do it? And yes, there are other reasons of why you do it. You do it for the community, you do it for tradition, you do it for family, you do it to pass on to your kids. But what do you do with that after the hunt is over? And so it kind of brings, it puts a bow on it, if you will, for the end result. And if it's beautiful and people can see a different side

24:05 Chris Jennings of it, then, then that works. So what's your go-to? And here's a couple more cooking questions. So your go-to introduction to wild game. So you have someone who's never eaten wild game, not a hunter and you're, you're planning on cooking something wild game related. What's your go-to there to

24:24 Amy Hall introduce them? It depends on what region I'm cooking in. So in the south, a good bacon wrapped meatloaf is, is very welcomed. But if I'm somewhere else, truly just taking a backstrap and it's almost like a filet mignon with the bacon wrapped around it, cooked in butter, seared, and, and finished off, I'm, it's a perfect way that they can taste the meat, but at the same time, see that, you know, you get a filet and it's $40 in a restaurant and I'm serving it to you on the table because I harvested it. It shows the perfection that can, that can come from it. But then you can go into small game. Rabbit stew is one of my favorites, kind of like a dumpling, like a chicken and dumpling with rabbits. So yeah, I think that there's a couple different ways that you can, that you can make things that are familiar in people's minds and then just

25:21 Chris Jennings throw in that it's wild game. Yeah. You know, I'm always a big fan of doves and if you were to tell someone it's a dove, they're like, but if you don't tell them and you're just, you know, searing, yeah. Well, yeah, not even a popper. I'm gonna take it where you make like a teriyaki marinade and you grill on the grill real quick and they're just eating them and it's like meat candy and this is fantastic. What is it? Oh, it's dove. And they're like, what? But I always felt like that's a really good introduction. So the same thing would go for kids, right? Would you do approach it the same

25:53 Amy Hall way or did you approach it a little bit different introducing to kids? I mean, spaghetti is always a go-to for kids. So if we have friends over that their kids have never had it before, spaghetti is a great way, more chili. My daughter's favorite, favorite meal is heart. It's venison heart. And for her birthday every year, she saves the hearts that she gets and we do kebabs out of them. And it's her way of introducing to her friends. It's something that's kind of surprising, but it tastes good. And it's, it's just this, Hey, we've got pizza over here, but here's your appetizer. And, and it's a fun way to introduce to her friends what it's all about. So it's kind of

26:32 Chris Jennings cool. Yeah, no, that's a good one. I mean, I'm sure that you've probably had some nose turned up on, on occasions, you know, when you're having that party and some people are like, eh, I'm not going to mess with the deer heart, but I'm sure if they tried it, total game changer.

26:44 Amy Hall There's a, there's probably a little bit of peer pressure in that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But most of them walk away going, wow, I didn't expect it to be that good. And that's, that's fun for her to be able to, to share what she has done throughout the year and how hard she has worked the first year that she ever got. We, we, and I guess that's kind of ties into the conversation of kids and hunting. My kids never took, they never harvested an animal before watching the whole process first. That was a requirement that I had. I wanted them to see an animal taken. I wanted them to participate and see, um, field dressing and butchering and processing before they then made the decision to take a shot. And the first time my daughter got a deer, she wasn't with me or her father. She was with a friend and that friend had never field dressed a deer, which was very surprising. And so my daughter taught her how, and not only is that a sense of pride that your kid can do something without you being there, but it was, um, it was a sense of independence for her that she was not just able to do it, but she was able to share it with somebody else. And so, um, I don't know, I think that there's something about teaching kids how to hunt that, uh, that makes your experience as a hunter come full circle. Um, it's that whole learn, do teach that, that

28:22 Chris Jennings makes you a better hunter. Yeah, no. And that's kind of where I was going with my next question was, you know, kind of discussing your process, but some of the things that you see, you know, as far as kids getting into hunting, um, obviously, you know, you talk about that a lot and you've done it. Um, but what are some of the setbacks that you see now and not, and you don't even necessarily have to focus on female hunters here. It's all, yeah. So like any kid in general, like what are some of the things that you see that maybe are some barriers that, that you've come across where

28:54 Amy Hall you're like, Oh man, we could change this. Maybe it'd be better. Yeah. I think if we take it kind of one step at a time and we go with kids, that's our next generation, right? We've had a lot of conversations and discussions back and forth on how many hunters we have right now. And it's too crowded and it, but truly the numbers are not supporting that discussion. Um, our numbers are not up by any means. And when we look at the forecast for the future, those numbers are down drastically. So, so these kids are our next generation. They're the next hunters who are going to be buying licenses. They're our next conservationists. There, there are voters that are coming up, uh, boys and girls getting them out in to the field is extremely important, but you don't want to discourage them. I have a daughter and a son. They're very, very different in, in how they respond and how, um, what they love to do. My son is more social. Uh, he would much rather be in a, in a field dove hunting than sitting in a deer stand. Whereas my daughter kind of likes all of it. But when I first got them out, it was walks in the park or walks in field or public land. It was starting those small steps moving into it. It was, Hey, can you see the track? Hey, let's walk quiet. Let's listen for anything around us. And so then it geared up into, okay, you're going to come sit with mom in a, in a tree stand. Um, let's listen for the squirrels. Who wakes up first, birds or squirrels? And it's kind of treating it like a game in a way that you can kind of whisper through things. And honestly that, I mean, not to plug it because that's what I do, but that's one of the reasons why I love the hearing protection that I represent now is because it allows you to hear everything around you. There's no muffled noises. And I think that that was one of the downfalls that I had in the beginning with my kids was you'd put those muffs on, which is important. And any hearing protection is a positive thing, but they couldn't hear me and they couldn't hear, they couldn't hear nature. They couldn't hear anything sneak up on them. And so the most important thing is to have them fully aware. I want them to hear, but I also want them to be protected. I want them to hear a duck call and the wings coming in as you're listening, are they coming in on the left or the right? I want them to know directionally what's going on. But also if somebody's going to teach them or me how to blow a duck call, we need to be able to hear it. And so I think that some of those hurdles when you're teaching kids is putting them in a space where they can't be aware of their situation because that's how they learn. And so just making sure that you're able to do that, give them a set of binoculars so that they can look, keep all of their senses open. And because that's how we learn, but also giving them community. My daughter went on a duck hunt with a group of women who set up a duck, or not a duck, I'm sorry, a deer hunt with six girls her age. So within a window of her age, and she still talks to two of the girls that she was involved with on that hunt. And that was two years ago. And it's teaching her the value of community. It's teaching her that, yeah, nobody in her school hunts, but her as a female, but she has these two other girls, one in Kansas and one in Missouri that she can talk to. So I think that those hurdles go into adulthood of finding that community. And it's really hard for women to find a community where they retain staying in hunting. It's that I think that, I think that Clay and Chris, I think we might've talked about this in the past, that the number of women coming into hunting is vastly larger than men coming into hunting. Yet the number of women who exit our community on an annual basis is drastically larger as well. And it's because they weren't connected to a community. So I think that's why the podcast started. I think that's why I'm a part of groups like Wilderness that I'm a board member for, is just creating a community for women to feel safe, that they can walk into a room and see another female, which brings a sense of calm. It brings a sense of, okay, there are people here that are like me. They understand things. I can ask them questions and not feel intimidated. And I think it just, community is everything, whether you're a man or a woman, but I feel like there are more groups of men out there that are community focused than women

33:58 Chris Jennings right at this moment. And we just need to grow it. Yeah. And you mentioned when your daughter went on a hunt with six, it was an all women's hunt basically. And that is something that we talk about a lot as far as going to duck camp. We talk about going over to duck camp, staying over there. That can be very intimidating. It's difficult, just logistics in general can be difficult, but you're going over to a camp where there could be multiple, 10, 12 people, and 90% of them are men. Just statistically, that's right. But having that opportunity to where you can go to a camp that's all women, that I believe is really a game changer. And I mentioned Mallory earlier, she did a trip last year with Beretta and they hosted an all women's camp and she was like, man, it was the first, she grew up in duck camps her whole life, but that was the first time she'd ever been in a camp with all women. And she was like, it was totally comfortable, totally different at times, but totally, you know, she thought it was just such a great experience. And how would you recommend to women to try and find potential communities like that? I mean, do you get outreach from your podcast where they're like, hey, I'm hosting this or other groups that you're a part of, you know, that you would recommend to female hunters who are like, hey, I'm just looking to go out here and do this. There already may be hunters, but they've never really gone to a deer camp or a turkey camp or

35:33 Amy Hall something like that. I think that there are great communities out there that do trips. But the things that I like to focus on are the communities and the programs that are teaching as well. So I can go on a hunt all day long, but if I didn't learn anything that I can then take back and apply to my own community and grow my own community, then I kind of take a step back and I go, okay, I would like to find a group that is also teaching. Wild hernats is a great example because they're involved in multiple different areas. They do trips, they do experiences, but everything is laced with education to create individual hunters and independent hunters or fishermen or gatherers or whatever it is, there's always education involved with that. So if I were to suggest how to find a group, it would be searching for groups that also teach. And yes, I do have a couple of groups that come up every now and then and say, hey, Amy, this is what we're doing and this is what we're doing. And it's great to be able to encourage other people to be a part of it. But I definitely vet those groups and make sure that they're also teaching just because you need to be able to pass that on. It's our responsibility to learn, but it's also our responsibility to teach. So that's very important to me is to be able to learn and then pass it on.

37:13 Chris Jennings 06 Now that I mean, that is very important. We've, we deal with several groups within Ducks Unlimited that that focus on that teaching aspect. You know, before we get you out of here, I do have to ask, what is your favorite waterfowl hunt? Like your ideal situation as far as habitat, shooting,

37:33 Amy Hall whatever. What would be your ideal situation there? Well, I can tell you that the times that I have been hunting waterfowl, I've been on real foot, which is in West Tennessee, which is very competitive with everybody around everybody. It's very loud. It can be very energetic. But then being in a quiet blind where you might just be covered up or it might just trickle in little bits at a time is also great with me. The one thing that I have not tried that I'm really excited about trying is timber hunting. My brothers, neither one of them waterfowl hunted until I introduced them to it. And now they have gone. I mean, one of my younger brothers is now, I mean, he's timber hunting. He's out in West Tennessee and Arkansas. And I'm now jealous of him because he's getting to do all of this. But timber hunting is something that I really, it is on my bucket

38:31 Chris Jennings list to get done in the next year. Awesome. Well, we may have to figure out a way to make that happen. I'm sure that there's some people around the office here that might be able to handle that request.

38:42 Amy Hall Yeah, it'd be a great learning experience. Right? Oh yeah. I mean, honestly,

38:46 Chris Jennings timber hunting is what everybody looks at as one of the most pristine situations, an ideal hunting situation, beautiful scenery, everything about it is just fantastic. But I mean, I grew up in Indiana and I've always thought, oh, timber hunting, the most spectacular thing ever, and had no idea what it really, really was until I moved here and how special it is. So

39:12 Amy Hall maybe we can make that happen this year. It'd be fun. It'd be fun to get some women out and try that because it's not, again, going in a blind, going with a guide to a blind and having that experience is awesome, but it's easier to find ways to do that than timber hunting. And I guess

39:31 Chris Jennings that's why it hasn't necessarily happened yet, but yeah, it'll happen. It'll happen. Amy, this has been fantastic. Before I get you out of here, I just want to let you tell our audience where they can find your podcast, where they can find you on Instagram, anything like that, to where anyone listening to this who's like, Hey, you know, I want to either share this information

39:51 Amy Hall to a female hunter or youth hunter or anything, anyone, where can they find you? So you can find me on Instagram. I'm Amy Hall underscore Hunter. Her wild outdoors is everywhere. You can listen to it on Spotify and Apple podcast. You can find it just on the internet, but it's also on Instagram. It's on Facebook. Like you can find me pretty much anywhere like that. And then of course,

40:16 Chris Jennings I work here in middle Tennessee at Tetra hearing. Awesome. I appreciate it. I'd like to thank my guest, Amy Hall, the brand manager of operations for Tetra hearing. Also the host of her wild outdoors for joining us today and talking about, you know, introducing everyone to hunting. I'd like to thank Chris Isaac, our producer for putting the show together and getting it out to you. And I'd like to thank you, the listener for joining us on the podcast and supporting Welland's conservation.