The Rich Outdoors

EP 677 Josh Smith – MKC

What’s up! This week on the Rich Outdoors Podcast, I’m sitting down with Josh Smith—founder of Montana Knife Company and honestly one of the most inspiring entrepreneurs in the outdoor space right now. This is a podcast I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, and we did not disappoint.

Josh went from being a lineman for the power company, making knives on the side in a 200 square foot shop in his horse pasture, to building one of the most beloved brands in the hunting industry from the ground up. No investors, no conglomerates, no selling out. Just a guy who refused to quit and built something that hunters actually care about.

We talk about the origin story of MKC, why he saw a massive hole in the hunting knife market, and how he quietly infiltrated the hunting community like a Green Beret special ops team before anyone even knew he was there. We get into the Benchmade lawsuit and why his entire team cheered when they found out they were getting sued. We dive deep into building company culture at scale, hiring the right people, why listening to your customer beats watching your competitor every single time, and why most people have no idea how many hunters have never even heard of a brand they think everyone knows about.

But this one goes way beyond knives. We talk about Bridger Watch, building a product in a category dominated by giants, the parallels between what Josh built and what we’re trying to build, and the advice he gave me that I’m going to be thinking about for a long time. We also talk about legacy—knives that get passed down, stories behind the blades, and why sometimes the most important tool isn’t the most impressive one, it’s the one that means something.

This is one of those conversations that reminds you why you started. Whether you’re a hunter, an entrepreneur, or both—this episode is for you. Let’s get into it.

Interested in the Bridger Watch?

If you heard us talk about the smartwatch we’re building for hunters and want to be the first to know what we’re up to—head over to bridgerwatch.com and get on the list. Three years in the making and we’re just getting started. Go check it out.

Episode Sponsors

Tricer Tripods – They make gear that’s fast, light, and simple, from amazing tripods to bino mounts, panhead truck mounts, and now even bipods. Trier just dropped their new updated AD and BC tripods, and I got to test the new Tritech technology this year. The center post is now a T-post, which makes it pack down smaller and cleaner—Drew is a mad scientist and he just keeps innovating. If you want to use code TRO, it’ll save you 10% at checkout. Go support a great company. Head over to tricer.com.

Stone Glacier – If you’re in the market for a new pack, I ran the Sky Archer 6400 this year and packed out a lot of animals with it including a couple of elk. What I love about Stone Glacier packs is they work great whether you’re on a 10-day backpacking trip or day hunting from the side-by-side. Minimalist, tough, and they work. You don’t need to own multiple packs—this thing does it all. Check it out at stoneglacier.com and use code TRO for a discount.

Chapter Timestamps

0:00 – Intro & Sponsors

3:45 – Welcome Josh Smith: Driving Across Montana for a Podcast

6:30 – Why Josh Started Montana Knife Company

10:15 – Seeing the Gap: What Was Missing in the Hunting Knife Market

14:00 – Authenticity from Day One: Building Community Without Money

18:30 – Sending Knives Out with No Ask: How Word Spread

22:00 – From the Horse Pasture to 11 Employees: The Growth Timeline

26:15 – The Green Beret Strategy: Quietly Taking Over the Hunting Space

30:00 – Getting Sued by Benchmade (And Why the Team Cheered)

34:30 – Don’t Watch Your Competitor, Listen to Your Customer

38:15 – Scaling Fast Without Losing Culture

42:00 – Hiring Doers: What Josh Looks for in Employees

46:30 – The Pizza Rule: Why You Can’t Manage Too Many People

50:15 – How MKC Uses Transparency to Build Employee Buy-In

54:00 – Taking on Giants: Parallels Between MKC and Bridger Watch

58:30 – Most Hunters Have Never Heard of You (And Why That’s Exciting)

1:02:15 – The Legacy of a Knife: Stories Behind the Blades

1:07:00 – Building a Family Heirloom vs. Building a Gadget

1:11:30 – Josh’s Advice for Bridger Watch

1:15:00 – Don’t Quit Your Day Job Yet: How to Chase a Dream Responsibly

1:18:30 – The People You Surround Yourself With Matter Everything

1:21:00 – Final Thoughts & What Josh is Most Excited About

Three Key Takeaways

Listen to Your Customer, Not Your Competitor – One of Josh’s most powerful pieces of advice: don’t open your competitor’s website every day and react to what they’re doing. Your product roadmap should be driven entirely by what your customer is telling you they need—not by what the big brand is doing. By the time you react to a competitor, you’re already behind. The companies that win are the ones so locked into their customer’s needs that by the time the big guy realizes what happened, it’s too late.

Most People Don’t Know You Exist—And That’s the Opportunity – MKC ran surveys recently and the percentage of hunters who had heard of them was shockingly low. Most companies would find that depressing. Josh and Brandon found it energizing. If you’ve built something great and most of your target market still doesn’t know you exist, you have an enormous runway in front of you. Stop assuming everyone knows your story. Tell it again. Tell it to the 3,000 people in that gymnasium down the road who’ve never heard it.

Culture Is Built Intentionally or It Isn’t Built at All – From bringing employees to trade shows as a reward, to reading the Attaboy box out loud at company meetings, to bringing in bankers and health insurance reps to teach employees about life—Josh has built a company where people feel cared about. That doesn’t happen by accident. It requires intentional decisions every single day to treat your people the way you’d want your own kids to be treated. And when people feel that, they go the extra mile and they keep the culture alive even when you can’t be in every room.

EP 676 Heart Rate, VO2 Max, and Hunt Readiness with MTNtough

What’s up! This week on the Rich Outdoors Podcast, I’m sitting down with Jason and Nick from MTN Tough Fitness to talk about something we’ve been geeking out on for a while—health metrics, performance tracking, and what “hunt readiness” actually means for backcountry hunters.

As we’re building the Bridger Watch (yeah, the smartwatch for hunters), we’ve been having deep conversations with the MTN Tough crew about what metrics actually matter when you’re training for elk season. Because here’s the thing: most fitness wearables are built for runners, cyclists, and gym rats—not for hunters humping 60 pounds on their back through deadfall at 9,000 feet.

Nick is a MTN Tough coach and physical therapist who programs their daily workouts, and Jason is one of their athletes who’s joining the Bridger team. These guys know what it takes to train for the mountains, and more importantly, they understand the difference between sustained Zone 2 cardio and getting absolutely crushed by a 42-minute Mountain Tough workout that leaves you laying on the floor.

We dive into what a “hunt readiness score” could look like, how to measure work capacity beyond just heart rate, why rucking strain is completely different than cardiovascular strain, and how we can use wearables to help hunters stay in that 80-90% efficiency zone all day long. We also talk about the mental side of fitness—how to make better decisions under fatigue, why discipline in the gym translates to discipline in the mountains, and what happens when you’re on day two of a hunt with frozen boots and a broken water filter.

This episode is part fitness science, part backcountry hunting strategy, and part startup talk about building products that actually solve problems hunters face. Whether you’re training for September or just trying to figure out how to not get your butt kicked on your next western hunt, there’s a lot of good stuff in here. Let’s get into it.

Tricer Tripods – They make gear that’s fast, light, and simple, from amazing tripods to bino mounts, panhead truck mounts, and now even bipods. Tricer makes gear that’s fast, light, and simple. I love their gear, and if you’re looking for a new system for better glassing, check out Tricer. Head over to the website tricer.com. They make great products and it’s just a great company. Awesome dudes. Been using the heck out of the bipod—killed a lot of critters with it. Use the code TRO and you’ll save yourself 10% at checkout.

Stone Glacier – I’ve packed out a lot of animals with my Stone Glacier pack this year. The Sky Archer 6400 has been with me to Alaska, British Columbia, Wyoming, Montana, and I love the thing. Whether it’s a 10-day backpack hunt or you’re day hunting from the side-by-side, that’s what I love about Stone Glacier—it’s minimalist, it’s lightweight. You can use it day hunting or for an alpine backpack hunt. Stone Glacier makes an entire suite of hardcore mountain hunting gear. If you’re in the market, head over to stoneglacier.com. Use the code TRO and you’ll save yourself a discount and get some great gear.

Chapter Timestamps

0:00 – Intro: Fresh Off a MTN Tough Workout

3:15 – Meet Nick: MTN Tough Coach & Physical Therapist

6:30 – Jason Joins Bridger: Startup Life with a Kid on the Way

9:00 – Why We’re Talking About Health Metrics for Hunters

12:45 – The Backcountry Boondoggle: Testing Fitness in the Field

16:30 – How Many Miles? Average Archery Season Days

19:45 – Have You Ever Bonked on a Hunt?

23:15 – The Hunt Readiness Score: What Would It Look Like?

27:30 – Heart Rate Efficiency & Staying in the 80-90% Zone

31:00 – VO2 Max vs. Work Capacity: What Really Matters?

35:15 – The Rucking Problem: Muscular + Neurological Strain

38:45 – Measuring Strength Load vs. Cardio Load

41:30 – Subjective Scores & Mental Toughness Training

44:15 – Decision Making Under Fatigue

47:00 – Discipline in the Gym = Discipline in the Mountains

50:30 – Baby #2, Hunt Plans & Balancing Family Life

Three Key Takeaways

Heart Rate Monitoring Can Keep You in Your Efficiency Zone All Day – Most hunters blow themselves out on day one by pushing too hard when camp isn’t where they thought, or the trail is longer than expected. A wearable that monitors your heart rate and keeps you in an 80-90% efficiency zone (based on your current fitness level) could be the difference between being smoked for three days versus being able to hunt hard every single day. It’s not about going slow—it’s about understanding what pace your body can sustain without bonking.

Rucking Strain is Completely Different Than Cardiovascular Strain – Carrying 60-70 pounds on your back for 8 hours isn’t primarily a cardio challenge—it’s muscular, skeletal, and neurological strain. Most fitness wearables only measure cardiovascular load based on sustained heart rate, but they can’t quantify what it feels like to have weight on your frame all day. Building a “hunt readiness score” means figuring out how to measure both the cardio AND the strength components of backcountry hunting, which is why Mountain Tough’s blend of strength and conditioning is so effective.

Mental Toughness is Trainable Through Exposure to Hard Situations – The more you put yourself in challenging situations—whether that’s finishing brutal workouts when you want to quit, or waking up to frozen boots and pushing through anyway—the more you build the self-awareness and discipline to make good decisions under fatigue. It’s not about never wanting to quit; it’s about recognizing that thought, acknowledging it’s normal, and then choosing to push through. The fitness side removes one major stressor, so when other factors pop up (weather, wind, gear failure), you’re not also dealing with being physically smoked.

EP 675: Cal Arnold 

Alright, so this episode is one I’ve been looking forward to for a while. Cal Arnold is the real deal—a guy who’s built an incredible business, survived a plane crash that should’ve killed him, and came out the other side with a perspective that’ll make you rethink everything. We dive deep into entrepreneurship, the trades, building BTI Log Home Care from nothing, and what it actually takes to become your best self. Cal’s story is wild—from buying his first business for $35k with no money, to crashing his plane into a power line and spending months in a wheelchair, to building a multi-million dollar company while learning to walk again. But this isn’t just another success story. We get into the hard stuff: gratitude when life kicks your teeth in, why busy is lazy, the difference between speed and velocity, and how to actually focus when everything’s pulling you in different directions. If you’re an entrepreneur, a DIY hunter, or just someone trying to figure out how to live life on your terms, this one’s for you. Cal doesn’t sugarcoat anything, and honestly, I needed to hear a lot of what he shared this week. Let’s get into it.

OnX Hunt – The ultimate tool for elk hunters and the app I absolutely won’t go into the field without. Whether you’re e-scouting from the couch or actually hunting elk, OnX gives you detailed maps, property boundaries, and over 50 layers of mapping data including satellite imagery, offline maps, and waypoints. It helps you make smarter decisions no matter where you hunt. Save time, avoid mistakes, and stay connected to your crew. If you’re not an Elite member yet, you’re missing out on a whole other level of tools. Head over to onxmaps.com and use code TRO to save 20% off your membership.

Tricer – These guys make gear that’s fast, light, and simple. From bomber tripods to spotting scope mounts, panheads, truck mounts, and now even bipods—Tricer makes gear that just works. I’ve been running their bipod hard this season and it’s been rock solid. If you’re looking to upgrade your glassing system, check out Tricer. Head over to tricer.com, use code TRO at checkout, and save yourself 10%.

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 – Intro & Bridger Watch Announcement

6:15 – Meeting Cal Arnold & First Impressions

8:30 – Were You Always an Entrepreneur?

12:45 – The First Car & Learning to Hustle

16:20 – College Dropout to Ski Bum

19:40 – Buying the Soda Blasting Business

24:10 – Pawn Shop Financing & Early Struggles

28:35 – The Big Break & Building BTI Log Home Care

33:20 – The “Aha Moment” in Business

36:50 – The Contractor Doom Loop

41:15 – Why Most Tradespeople Shouldn’t Start Businesses

45:30 – Falling in Love with Business, Not the Trade

48:00 – COVID as a Dragon to Slay

51:45 – The Plane Crash Story Begins

56:20 – January 2nd, 2019 – The Day Everything Changed

1:01:30 – Waking Up in the Hospital

1:04:15 – The Power of Gratitude in the Wheelchair

1:08:40 – Choosing to Amputate & Keeping Your Foot

1:11:25 – Would You Go Back and Change It?

1:14:50 – Seasons of Life & Hunting Philosophy

1:19:30 – The Gratitude Muscle & Journaling

1:26:45 – Recognizing Gain vs. Chasing the Gap

1:31:20 – Removing Resistance & What Focus Really Means

1:38:15 – Busy is Lazy

1:42:30 – Speed vs. Velocity

1:46:50 – Efficiency vs. Effectiveness

1:50:00 – Writing a Book Someday?

1:52:15 – Outro

THREE KEY TAKEAWAYS

Gratitude is a Muscle You Must Exercise – Cal’s plane crash forced him into a wheelchair for months, but instead of falling into victimhood, he committed to writing down three things he was grateful for every day. This simple practice became the foundation for his recovery and business growth. You don’t need a wheelchair to start practicing gratitude—just 10 minutes and a journal. The discipline of recognizing what you have, rather than obsessing over what you don’t, is what separates those who thrive from those who survive.

Focus Means Saying No, Not Thinking Harder – We hear “focus” all the time, but Cal breaks down what it actually means: saying no to everything that doesn’t serve your one primary goal. It’s not about grinding harder or being “busy”—busy is lazy. It’s about ruthlessly eliminating distractions and resistance. Most of us are driving with the gas and brake pedal pressed at the same time. Real progress happens when you take your foot off the brake by cutting out the things that don’t matter, even if they feel productive.

Fall in Love with the Process, Not the Destination – If your only measure of success is the end result—whether that’s a dead bull, a business milestone, or a bank account number—you’ll miss 99% of your life. Cal built BTI over 20 years by showing up every day and doing the work, not by hitting some magical finish line. The same applies to hunting: if you only win when there’s an animal on the ground, you’re robbing yourself of the experience. Success is loving the daily grind, not reaching some arbitrary destination.

EP 674 Founding a New Tech Company

Alright, welcome to the show. This is a special episode—dawn of a new era, if you will. We’re doing something a little different today. I’m sitting at the table in our new podcast studio with my co-founders, and we’re finally pulling back the curtain on a project we’ve been working on in secret for almost three years.

Yeah, you heard that right. THREE YEARS. And we haven’t said much about it until now because, honestly, once you go long enough without saying anything, it’s like… where do you even start?

So today, we’re talking about the backstory of Bridger—how we went from a frustrating Turkey hunt where I kept pulling out my phone to check maps, to building an entirely new smartwatch company from the ground up. This is the full origin story: the late nights, the engineering challenges, the AI-generated designs, the battles over battery life, and why we decided to build our own operating system instead of taking the easy route.

I’m joined by David, our product genius who’s lived overseas building IoT devices and somehow ended up designing watches with a bunch of rednecks in Montana. And Travis, our CFO/COO who ran FP&A for public companies and decided a hunting watch startup sounded like a great idea.

This episode is raw, real, and honestly, we almost didn’t release it. But we figured, you know what? You’ve been with us on this podcast journey for years—you deserve to know what we’ve been building.

Let’s get into it.

Upcoming Dates: 

Kickoff Party @ Schnees in Downtown Bozeman Friday Dec 5th at 5:30

Pre-sales open Tuesday Dec 9th at 10 am

Watches will ship February of 2026 (not in time for Christmas)

Join the Watch List Here

Maven Optics – Today’s show is also proudly supported by Maven Optics—direct-to-you, world-class glass with zero middleman markup. Binoculars, riflescopes, spotting scopes—they build it all in Wyoming with premium components at unreal prices. Host has rocked Maven for years and stands behind the quality and the people. Need new optics? Head to mavenbuilt.com, check out with code TRO, and score a free gift at checkout. Tell ‘em TRO sent you. www.mavenoptics.com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

Tricer Tripods – Fast, light, and simple—that’s what Tricer is all about. From amazing tripods to bino mounts and their new bipods, Tricer makes gear that just works. I’ve been using the heck out of their bipod and it’s helped me kill a lot of critters. Head over to triceroutdoor.com and use code TRO to save 10% at checkout.

Chapter Timestamps

0:00 – Intro & Sponsor Ads

1:46 – Welcome to the New Era: Bridger Watch Revealed

4:33 – Meet David: From Decathlon to IoT Product Design

10:15 – The Bar Company That Started It All

12:45 – The Turkey Hunt That Changed Everything

15:30 – The Bear Hunt with Travis: Phones, Maps & Frustration

18:00 – Raising Money for a Feasibility Study

20:45 – “You’ll Have to Build Your Own Operating System”

23:30 – Battery Life: The North Star We Wouldn’t Compromise On

26:15 – AI Creates Our Design: The Dolly Experiment

29:00 – Nine Designers Later: The Battle for “Hell Yes”

32:30 – “Have You Ever Seen a Round Map?”

35:00 – Winning the iF Design Award

37:15 – Software Deep Dive: Maps, Battery Life & Performance

40:00 – Lost in Arizona: Why We NEED Maps on Our Wrist

43:30 – Vision: Hunters, Warfighters, Firefighters

46:00 – Beta Program Announcement & Timeline

48:30 – Final Thoughts from the Co-Founders

Mapping Technology: Q&A and Clarification

How does mapping work on the Bridger Reckon?

We built Reckon and the Bridger OS to run any map as well as our own proprietary wearable-optimized mapping system. We have not officially signed with onX to integrate, but that has been the goal from the beginning and we are hopeful that technology is very close.

With that said, we knew if we wanted to be the best watch for hunters, that meant creating a wearable-native mapping experience that worked whether you use onX or anyone else. What we knew we had to have is the ability to bring in your waypoints, markups, routes, and saved information—because without your waypoints, your maps are pretty useless.

This is mapping built by hunters, for hunters. Not an afterthought, but the entire reason this watch exists.

Three Cool Features About the Bridger Reckon

Multi-Day Battery Life Without Compromise – From day one, we refused to build a watch that dies in 3 days. The Reckon is engineered to last an entire backcountry hunt. We built our own operating system specifically to achieve the battery life that serious hunters actually need, not what’s convenient for engineers to build. This goal allowed us to build one of the longest battery lifes of any wearable on the market.

Wearable-Optimized Mapping with Your Data – Maps you can actual use! The Reckon is designed to import YOUR waypoints, routes, and markups from whatever mapping platform you use. We built the Bridger OS from scratch to handle real mapping functionality on your wrist. We build wearable first mapping that allows you to navigate the mountains from your smartwatch.

AI-Designed Hardware That Won an International Award – We used AI (Dolly) to generate our initial watch design concept, then spent months refining it with industrial designers until it was absolutely perfect. The result? We won the prestigious iF Design Award—proving that a couple of rednecks in Montana can out-design the establishment when they refuse to compromise on what hunters actually need.

EP 673: Adam Callinan From Cubicle to Mountains

What’s up everyone! This week I sat down with Adam Callinan, entrepreneur and founder of Bottle Keeper (which sold over $60 million worth of product), and now the creator of Pentane, a tech platform for e-commerce brands. Adam and I dive deep into what it really takes to build a business that gives you the freedom to live the life you want, whether that’s hunting 100 days a year or just having more time with your kids.

We get into the nitty-gritty of entrepreneurship: the hospital-worthy panic attacks on launch day, the strategic patience required to make it through those critical first inflection points, and why most people completely screw up their pricing strategy. Adam breaks down how he and his cousin turned a hacksawed water bottle prototype into a multi-million dollar company with ZERO employees for years, and how you can actually test product ideas today without spending a fortune.

But this isn’t just a business podcast, we also talk about the parallels between building companies and hunting in the backcountry, the importance of doing hard things, and why getting comfortable being uncomfortable might be the most valuable skill you can develop. If you’re trying to build something that funds your passion for the outdoors, this episode is packed with real, actionable wisdom.

OnX Hunt – The ultimate hunting app just keeps getting better. Their new weather feature is a game-changer—tap anywhere on the map and get hyperlocal weather data that actually takes topography into account. No more guessing based on the nearest town. See wind variations across different parts of your hunting area and plan accordingly. Become an Elite member and get all the premium features. Head to onxmaps.com and use code TRO to save 20%.

Maven Optics – Direct-to-consumer optics out of Wyoming that punch way above their price point. From binos to rangefinders to rifle scopes, Maven delivers exceptional quality without the big box store markup. When people finally try them, the response is always the same: “Oh man, these are actually really good.” Check them out at mavenbuilt.com and use code TRO for a special gift at checkout.

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

03:15 – Moving to Montana and the COVID exodus

08:20 – Getting into entrepreneurship and the path away from medicine

14:45 – The birth of Bottle Keeper and testing product ideas

22:30 – Crowdfunding, the Gizmodo article, and the name change

26:10 – Landing in the emergency room on launch day

30:45 – Building durability and getting comfortable being uncomfortable

35:20 – Perspective, hard things, and learning from people like Cal Arnold

41:00 – The importance of mentorship (and anti-mentorship)

46:30 – When to trust your gut vs. seeking outside advice

51:15 – Product development and pricing strategy mistakes

57:40 – The Facebook video inflection point and scaling to $30M

1:02:20 – Building a lifestyle business vs. unicorn hunting

1:05:50 – Strategic patience in hunting and business

1:08:00 – Closing thoughts

Three Key Takeaways

Test Before You Invest – Don’t quit your day job and go all-in on an unproven idea. Use tools like crowdfunding, 3D printing, and AI mockups to validate that strangers (not just family) will actually pay real money for your product at a profitable price point before spending significant time or capital.

Price Testing Changes Everything – Most entrepreneurs underprice their products based on what feels “fair” rather than what customers will actually pay. Adam tested Bottle Keeper from $20 to $40 over two years—that extra $20 margin was pure profit and enabled the company to scale even as advertising costs increased.

Durability Beats Talent – Businesses fail because people quit, not because the business itself fails. Building mental and emotional durability through perspective, doing hard things, and learning to be less reactive is more valuable than having the perfect idea or strategy. Those who can weather the storms long enough to reach their first major inflection point are the ones who succeed.