Episode 46: Interview with Kenny Thompson of Basys and Team MO-KAN

Hello and welcome to the WWIA podcast.

We're honored to have you join us in our mission to bring honor, connection and healing to America's combat wounded Purple Heart heroes.

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WWIA founder and CEO John McDaniel welcomes a longstanding friend and supporter of the foundation, Mister Kenny Thompson.

Kenny is a part of Mighty Team Mocan, an exceptional group of supporters who have been honoring and serving our combat wounded veterans through two outstanding annual events, the MoCan Ducks, Bucks and trapping event, currently in its 15th year, as well as the Mocan catfishing event, now in its 7th year.

Kenny is an avid and seasoned outdoorsman, having hunted and fished since he was a young boy and has traveled across the globe in pursuit of his bow hunting passion.

Kenny is also an integral part of the leadership team at basis, a leader in the payments processing industry and currently serves as executive vice president of partner relation.

We are honored to spend some time with Kenny and hope you enjoyed getting to know more about him and his story.

Let's jump into the conversation with John and Kenny now.

Hi, I'm John McDaniel, founder and CEO of the Wounded warriors in Action foundation, and this is our podcast honor Connect heal.

So today I have a very special guest with me, Kenny Thompson.

And Kenny, welcome to the program.

Thanks John.

Looking forward to it, Mandy.

Yeah, me too, man.

We're looking at each other big.

We can see each other on the Zoom call, but you can't see us, but we can see each other.

And we got big grins on our faces because Kenny and I have hunted together and known each other for.

I probably first met you at the first or second time that you guys ran Mocan, but everybody was new to me at that point.

But MoCan, the event that you and your amazing team support, is on its 15th year.

Can you believe that?

It's insane.

Yeah, it's insane.

Seems like yesterday.

And so I asked Kenny to be on the program because, one, he's a great american.

Two, he is just somebody that I'm fond of.

I met his father and hunted with you guys on your property a few years ago and you have just an amazing chunk of terrain there that supports the Mocan Missouri Kansas ducks and bucks event.

And I was fortunate enough you honored me by inviting me to your property.

I got to meet your dad, actually.

Hunted with your dad and shot a deer on your first time out there.

Just a beautiful Missouri buck.

And I'll tell you, it was a phenomenal experience.

You got a great family.

So tell us a little bit about.

Tell it.

Let's.

Let's start with your property.

You know, we were just chatting about that.

You're.

You're.

You're.

You're a big hunter.

Yeah.

I see pictures.

You've hunted all over the.

I say the globe, right?

I mean, you really.

You're.

I mean, you are a hunter.

A bow hunter.

Yes.

A bow hunter.

Yes.

All right.

A big time bow hunter.

I enjoy it thoroughly, my friend.

Yeah.

And you got some amazing animals on your, on your property.

So tell us, tell us a little bit about what's going on at your property.

I mean, what do you guys call it?

You said it.

We call it the cabin.

Tell us about that.

Yeah.

So we have just shy of 300 acres on that farm, John, and it's.

Now we have the barn and all the toys and the equipment that it takes to actually do what we want to do up there.

So we manage it exclusively for wildlife.

So primarily deer and turkey.

But it's a.

It's my little slice of heaven.

So I can.

I can get there in 22 minutes from my garage to the, to the gate.

And.

But it's.

You've hunted it.

It's.

It's.

It's so hilly.

It's, you know, timber and creek running through it.

It's.

It's.

It's a little oasis.

And it drives my wife nuts how much time and money I spend up there, but.

And I'll be up there thinking I'm away from everything, and she'll call me.

And it's 22 minutes.

You can come home and take care of whatever it is.

But it's.

It's a special place.

And that's one of the greatest things about connecting with wounded warriors in action is being able to share it with new friends every single year.

Yeah.

Well, we appreciate you doing that.

We certainly, certainly do.

And something about the bucks up in Missouri.

Of course, I hail from Wisconsin.

There's big deer up there.

We got a little chunk of property we call Camp Hackett.

But that's hardwoods.

I mean, it's northern Wisconsin.

And, you know, there's very little ag, where we are.

You guys have, you know, I think your property has got a fair amount of agriculture surrounding it.

Of course, you got a good mix of hardwoods and of course, you've got a water source there.

All the things that you need to kind of create a wildlife paradise.

But it just seems to me like the bucks that you guys, I've seen the pictures, you know, the bucks that you guys have hanging around are just monsters, man.

There, there's some big boys and we got, we got a couple big boys on camera this year too.

So it's, uh, it's shaping up and it's been a phenomenal year for, you know, for wildlife.

So we've had ample moisture up where we're at.

And like I said, we planted the food plots in spring this year, which is typically something we've never done, but they are looking incredible right now.

Yeah.

And you've got all the implements, the tractors, the discs, the sprayers, everything.

And so you did you have to learn how to do all that like I did.

I grew up on, on a farm my whole life.

And I've spent the rest of the time trying to figure out how to get back.

I'll tell you, there's nothing else like it if you ask me.

I didn't.

I grew up, I grew up adjacent to a farm in the country, but I am definitely not a farmer.

I didn't grow up on a farm.

But, you know, when I got that, that property and I, you know, the, the habitat bug bit me, if you will.

You know, like it does once you figure out, like, I actually made that grow and look at that and they're eating it.

Yes.

Holy cow.

You know, and then you figure out, oh, they like to bed in that.

Just don't, leave that alone.

Just don't touch that.

That's where they're gonna, that's where they like to sleep, you know, sort of thing.

And, you know, and then making these micro adjustments and then, you know, investing all this time and energy and getting your ph in the soil, you know, proper and, and all that.

And, but one thing you can't, you can't predict and you, you know, is rain, you know, and you got to have.

That's one of the key components to getting stuff to grow.

But when everything lines up and it works out like it sounds like it's doing for you this year, you know, there's just nothing like that feeling.

It's a great feeling, isn't it?

Yeah, it's there.

There's definitely an art and a science to it, but I.

Yeah, and it.

The amount of time and money I spend up there, it's insane.

If you actually looked at it, I could, you know, feed my, feed my family lobster every day and I'd be ahead.

But labor of love and I absolutely, I enjoy it.

And as, as more of the gray hairs sneak into my little so called beard, it, uh, your perspective on things change, and it's, it's even more fun sharing it with folks and, you know, getting.

I've got a close friend of mine, Dave crosswide.

Hank you've met from St.

Louis, a college buddy of mine that bow hunts with us, but he's the consummate deer hunting pal.

He comes over, he works his ass off, he cooks, he cleans, and he doesn't shoot any of the big deer.

So it's, he's a great guy to help with.

It's like, yeah, I saw scrubby again.

I think I'm going to take him tonight if he walks by me, you know.

Gotta love that guy.

Exactly.

It's good stuff.

That's, that's really cool.

And your dad is such a wonderful person, you know?

Tell me about your dad a little bit.

I, you know, I sat in the deer blind with him, and so we didn't get a chance to chat a whole lot because we were trying to be quiet, but I just think he's a fascinating man.

And I remember him fondly being the classic patriarch of the family, a soft spoken man.

But I'd like to hear your cut on your dad, because when I mentioned his name, your face lit up like a light bulb.

Pray someday that when, you know, my, somebody mentions me to my boys, the same thing happens.

I mean, you, you got a, you got a grin on your face, like now.

Like a rat eating an onion, man.

I love it.

I love it.

He is, he is a good, he's a, he's a man's man.

I mean, you know, 82 years old, still is like the energizer bunny.

Worked for the railroad his whole life.

And I, you know, never, never made a tremendous amount of money.

But he, you know, coming from a, you know, the time that he grew up in, in the forties, you know, he was a depression baby.

And they, I mean, they cherish every single thing that they've ever been blessed with.

And he has instilled that in me.

And he's the reason I hunt.

I mean, I've got two brothers.

They, they may hunt for a week under two in the year.

That's it.

During rifle season, he, he bought me my first bow after an elk hunt out in New Mexico.

And both of our guides had just gotten new bows, and they were.

We would get back in.

Into camp in the afternoon because it was hot, and they would go out and shoot their bows.

I had a bow growing up.

Never killed anything with it.

I, you know, just target.

And I would go hunting thinking I was a good hunter.

And I'm watching these guys shoot a water ball at 50 yards, and I couldn't fathom that with.

With a bow.

And so I picked it up and shot it a few times and told my dad, I said, this is.

This is the direction I'm going to go into.

And fast forward the following spring, he's asking me, you know, we went down and looked at bows.

He wanted to go to the bow shop with me and shot all these different bows.

And I was like, damn, they're.

They're expensive.

So I kept putting it off, and finally he's like, you can't just pick up a bow in November and go hunting.

There's a lot more practices involved with a bow.

And I soon realized that.

But he.

He found out which bow I liked and bought it.

And we go up to the cabin, turkey hunting.

One day, it was middle of the week, and we come in and had a cup of coffee, and I'm like, I gotta get.

I gotta get back to work.

He's like, well, there's something in here.

I think it's yours.

I'm like, it's not mine.

It's gotta be my brother's or something.

And he's like, no, I think it's yours.

And he had bought me that bow, and I.

I.

We joke about it, but it was the most expensive present I've ever received.

What was it?

Do you remember that?

Well, of course you remember.

Yeah, yeah.

It was a Matthews z seven extreme when they went to the.

What year is that?

2010.

And.

Yeah, yeah, crazy.

I got an.

I got an old MQ, too.

Okay?

Like second generation Matthews, but it.

I don't shoot.

I don't shoot it anymore.

That.

My wife especially likes to joke that buzz cost me about a million dollars, probably now with adding on to my room, game room, and all the trips to Africa and Alaska and Canada and Florida.

I've seen the photos of you guys in Alaska.

Weren't you guys like.

I mean, weren't you brown bear hunting.

With that thing, too grizzly hunting.

Did you.

Did you.

I beg your pardon, but did you kill one?

I did not.

But I did nothing get killed either.

Which is a better story.

So we're, we're hunting grizzlies up 4 hours north northeast of Anchorage, up near the wrangle mountains.

And it, it was, it was the craziest hunt I've ever been on.

We were in to kill this big, big grizzly.

And my guide, this was day four, my guide would tell me, show me pictures of bears they've had on cameras on different baits we went to.

And he would not show me this bear.

So I knew he must be a decent one.

So he's like, you'll know him when you see him.

And literally 4 hours after being in there sitting on the ground in a makeshift, you know, just ground blind with, with logs and limbs around us, sitting in two little chairs.

And here, here she comes.

And here he's following her.

And she was massive.

Walked up and rubbed her shoulder in against one of the logs we're sitting behind.

So I was within 3ft of this bear.

I, and then here he comes and does the same except for he comes in, follows the script.

I've got my bow in my hand ready to go, trying to find a time to draw and slip an arrow in.

This bear takes about eight steps and then smells us and turns around and comes right back to us.

My guide, I see him out of the corner, my, sitting behind me trying to reach for his gun against the logs on our side.

And finally when that bear got, I don't know, I could touch him with my arrow.

And he was massive, just snarling and knew we did not, he did not want us there with his girlfriend.

So finally my guide grabbed the gun and pulled it up and he wheeled off and he's like, stick her.

And I'm like, I don't want her, I want him.

And he's like, be ready if she's here.

He's coming back.

And 20 minutes later he finally gets her out of there.

And we never got a shot.

But it was the most insane thing I've ever done in my life.

I set my, and I'm fine.

I was calm, cool until it was over.

And I set my bow in my lap.

My arrow is just sitting there just going on the, on the rest, I'm like, okay.

I set it down and then all of a sudden my legs start shaking.

My, my core is just, I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

I was like, that would be a cool story if you had to go.

I got, he got eight.

He got eaten by a grizzly bear.

Not that he had a heart attack and craft his pants after the.

So it was my guide, who's the outfitter, actually said he, in, you know, 17 years, never experienced anything like that.

And so it was one of those ones that got away, but it was probably ten times cooler story.

So.

Oh, my.

How big do you now that was it.

The male you were after, the male?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

How big was, how big was the boar?

He was big.

He, my guide said he would have been top three that they've ever killed up there, so.

But this is an interior grizzly, right?

Correct.

So, yeah.

Okay.

Up in the wrangle, Santa Lias, he.

Said he would have gone nine foot.

Oh, my God.

Easily.

So.

And we killed a couple buddies, killed.

You know, smaller ones, seven footers.

But after seeing that, I, uh, I wanted to hold out for him, but we never got another shot.

So.

Wow, that's a great story, man.

I'm glad, I'm glad, I'm glad it ended the way it did because you know that as, you know, that, that, that bear right there doesn't play that in a black bear.

No, no, no.

So.

And we had an opportunity on another bear.

It wasn't as big the, the last night right before dark.

So here you come in.

We were sitting at a tree stand this time, and I go to pull my bow up between my legs and my release hits the stand, and, and that was all she wrote.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

That's one thing about bow hunting, that I'm a, you know, I'm an, I'm an avid bow hunter.

Always happen.

I mean, I love it.

Um, but, uh, you know, the, the margins for error, you know, so slow or slim, rather, you know, that, you know, it's, it's unbelievable.

And when you, when you think about pursuing difficult things, you know, the pursuit of the difficult archery, a big, big game hunting, you know, archery with archery equipment is in that, you know, is in that arena.

And then certainly going for dangerous game animals like grizzly bear with it puts it at a whole new dimension.

Yeah.

And twist.

But, yeah, it's a, you know, big risk, big reward.

It's, I mean, just obviously a very sadistic personality that you have to be to be a bow hunter and sadistic slash optimistic, I'd say, because every day is probably, there's a 2% chance of success, but every day you're thinking today's the day it probably isn't, but, yeah.

Well, I mean, I've hunted up at our property in north woods of Wisconsin for 18 years and never killed a buck.

Oh, wow.

What does that tell you?

That's probably average statistics right there.

Yeah.

But to think that I'm going to go up there in the northwoods on a large parcel of property with all the preds, the wolves, the bear, etcetera, you know, and, and get one of those monsters, I've let several walk, you know, I'm not interested in shooting a basket six or a basket eight, you know, that's not why I'm there.

Yeah.

You know, and I do take deer, you know, for my family.

I take one every other year, usually, and, you know, doze.

But, you know, I've, you know, I've been doing this for a long time, so I'm not, I'm not interested in anything.

But one thing, you know, I know exactly what I'm looking for.

And, you know, I, that's like, on my bucket list, believe it or not, is to, with, with my bow is to knock down, you know, one of those big monsters that roam around out there.

But they're smart, they're hard to get to.

And, and if you think you're going to, you know, go up there in a weekend and do that, you know, well, you know, as my buddy likes to say, I hope you brought your lunch.

You know, it's so true.

I.

Our last hunt, the dead, that dad's probably going to go on big hunt.

We went down to west Texas.

We were 9 miles off the mexican border, 3 hours southwest of El Paso, and we were hunting odd ad in the Chiante mountain range.

And the outfitter kept telling me, you're not going to kill one of these with a bow.

You don't understand.

I was like, well, what are my odds?

And he goes, less than 3%.

I'm like, perfect.

And he couldn't understand that I was, and he, you know, everybody rifle hunts him, and I'm like, I'll pay you the same amount.

I want the opportunity.

And so after day three, he bet on a five day hunt.

He bet my guide that hunt, a free hunt if we got it done.

And my guide was more excited.

So I finally, I finally got one at 62 yards on the evening of day four.

So, you know, coming down to crunch time, and, I mean, the jubilation and the celebration afterwards, my, my guide, this kid was more excited than me because he got a free hunt out of the deal with his bow.

So cool.

Yeah.

First person to ever do it with a bow.

But most people don't even.

It's not that I'm some extraordinary bow hunter.

It's.

Most people don't have the patience or the gamble or their bet, so, yeah, it was fun.

Yeah.

That's a funny critter there.

We hunted them many, many years ago with the foundation out of, uh, out of near Roswell.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

And, uh, we.

We all tagged out.

That's a.

It's a.

That's an interesting critter.

You know, I mean, they're so cool.

Those chaps coming out of the Rocky Mountains and just.

Yeah.

Yeah, they're.

Have you hunted the gemsbuck or oryx out there in New Mexico on the missile range?

That's.

That's on my bucket list.

That would be fun.

Yeah.

Yeah, no doubt.

Okay, so let's.

We talk about that stuff all day, all day long.

But let's talk about your involvement, you know, with the foundation.

We said, you know, earlier, you know, you.

You know, you support one of our most vibrant chapters there.

Mocan, which, by the way, is done this year, will be the 15th year that you.

That you guys have put this on.

Brian Roderick and his team have put this thing on, you know, Terry Supple and all those great Americans, you know, that they're putting, like, for 15 years, they've put, you know, I think, ten combat wounded Purple Heart recipients out there in the ducks and bucks event that you guys have.

And it's every year.

Yeah, every year.

I mean, every year.

And now the, you know, the Department of Natural Resources involved, so there's a trap line component to it, you know, and then they started, about seven years ago, they started a catfishing event.

So, you know, what an amazing opportunity for our heroes, and it's probably our number one requested event.

Everybody, you know, I don't think there is anybody that doesn't want to go to Mocan.

I mean, they kill more ducks than polio's killed people, you know, and just all the.

I mean, everybody gets.

I mean, you go out there and you guys killed trophy animals, you know, trophy whitetail deer.

And that's just never happened at, you know, at our camp up there in northern Wisconsin.

So I know how difficult it is, but you guys got guys up there that have been preparing their.

This spot for a hero.

They wouldn't even let their brother hunt it, you know, seriously.

And they're like, no, that's all right.

We're saving that for the heroes, you know, and.

And then a, you know, combat wounded guy, they don't know, you know, they escort him to their tree stand, you know, and sit there with them.

And, you know, sometime that day, you know, they're going to knock down a, you know, a world class, you know, Missouri or Kansas timber buck.

And it's, it's really, it's really quite incredible.

But, you know, so you've been, you've been supporting that with your own, your own land and your family, and that's phenomenal.

But you work for a company called basis, right?

Correct.

And you guys just did a monster fundraiser and raised over $10,000 to support our heroes.

And I wanted to publicly thank you for that.

I know your leadership was 100% behind it, but please tell us about basis and then tell us a little bit about the fundraising activity that you did.

I'd love to hear it.

Well, it's something near and dear to my heart.

I was the very first employee at basis 21 and a half years ago.

And our CEO and founder, Brad Odo, has become one of my best friends, his family.

You've met his dad actually, at an event.

And that's probably one of the biggest things that I.

So we offer.

We started in a closet at one of our sister companies almost 22 years ago.

So we do payment processing.

So very glamorous.

Credit card, debit card processing.

We work with banks across the country, we work with software partners across the country, and we process for their customers.

We have many direct accounts and enterprise level accounts, but we never set out to be the biggest.

But we're, I don't know, top, top 30 processor in the country as far as volume now.

But we really excel in that card not present space.

So like think e commerce anytime that there's a transaction without the card being present, especially in the b two b circumstances, that's kind of our bread and butter.

So we're top 15 in that space.

We're the largest family owned processor.

We've not sold out.

We've never taken an ounce of private equity or joint venture money, which is probably couldn't do it today.

Nobody could do what we did 20 some years ago.

Today, like I said, we've morphed into a technology company so we can integrate our payments into virtually any platform out there, software, what have you, and we've got really tech heavy.

So we had a tech team of probably two people, two and a half, three years ago.

We have 47 on the product technology team, and they're doing some crazy things.

So we've hired a lot of really, really smart people and it's been a fun ride.

And in a way, it feels like we're just getting started.

So we can make, you know, we can take care of people better than the big boys and give them the same or better pricing.

So it's a fun, fun spot to be in.

It's fun spot to be in now that we're actually profitable and debt free so we can make decisions.

We're very, very big in the philanthropic circles.

We love to give back.

We've been so blessed and fortunate, what we've done the last 20 some years.

So we give all of our employees, we have almost 200 employees now.

Everybody gets dollar 500 to donate to a charity of their choice.

We've got approved charities like I think twelve different charities today.

Awesome.

And I fought pretty hard to get, to get WWIA in there.

So that's where the money came from last year and I'm hoping we can increase that again this year and just get the word out because it is something, it goes back to, you mentioned Roderick, but you know, from Brian and Lance and Brad and Doug and Terry, Kyle Evans is who personally his wife, God bless him, they do a lot.

And I don't know how Kyle gets it.

Makes it happen on that whiteboard that they have up in Napier, keeps everybody lined up.

It's what we call a sync matrix.

Yes, synchronization matrix.

You know, and it's complicated and why.

You know, I'd call it smoke and mirrors, but it's, it's so what they've done.

And yeah, I, I was probably in my dad, it was, my dad was the hardest one to, to convinced that we got to become a part of this.

And he's like, I know how much time and effort you spent up there and, you know, you've got these guys, you really want to bring in a couple hundreds to possibly, and I'm like, after I went to my first banquet twelve years ago, I like, yes, I want to be part of this.

And now I couldn't get dad to say no.

So it's, we've both enjoyed, obviously, dad, my dad is the one that gets to spend the time with our new heroes every single year.

And I have, he likes that I have to babysit our buddy Jake whipkey Jake after the very first time.

So Jake was my very first hunter ever.

And he said, I know all about what you guys do up here, and with all due respect, Mister Thompson, I'm not going to come up here and just shoot an average buck.

He said, if you'll give me permission to just take one of the hit list guys if I see him.

And so I showed him the three or $4 we had on our hit list.

The only one that I'd none of us had ever seen on the hoof, uh, was a deer called Narles Barkley.

He was an old, probably six and a half year old deer that was just on his way down, but he mass and wide and just a stud deer.

And that's the deer.

Jake got that first.

That first trip up, so it couldn't have happened.

It couldn't have wrote a better script, so.

Wow.

Then I was hooked.

Yeah.

That's phenomenal.

I appreciate you sharing all that with us, and thanks again for what basis is doing for the foundation and other charities.

It's really great when you work in an organization that has a culture that people enjoy and thrive in.

I was on your website, and I saw your CEO and.

And under the about tab, and, you know, there was a video of the employees, you know, talking about what life is like at basis, you know, and they all have smiles.

They're all relaxed.

I mean, you can tell.

I mean, you can't make that stuff up.

No.

You either have that going on or you don't have that going on.

That's corporate culture.

It's.

That's a leadership thing.

Thank you.

And it's.

It's harder and harder.

It was really easy when we had ten people and 27 and then 50 and with 200, it's.

It's difficult.

So that's kind of my adjunct title is chief.

Chief culture officer.

I couldn't agree with you more, man.

That's what I say all the time is like, well, senior leaders don't, you know, need to be spending time and have their finger on the pulse, and there's ways of doing it.

Okay.

You know, of understanding, you know, where we are, where.

Where is this?

Is this culture what I want?

Okay.

And.

And when you.

When it needs to be adjusted, how do you adjust it there?

I mean, that right there is a.

Is a leader task, and so you hit it right on the head, if you ask me.

It's.

It's our.

It's our, you know, our competitive advantage.

So we're dealing with, you know, the top, the big five out in our industry that are all publicly traded.

Not that theres anything wrong with that, but they have to make decisions based on next quarterly profits reports.

We can make decisions to take care of our partners and to make our partners look good to their customers, which is what weve been doing for 20 years.

And now we just do it at a little grander scale, and it still pays big dividends.

The golden rules still in play today, and most companies dont realize that, I dont think.

Yeah, it's been fun.

Well, good.

Yeah, good on you.

So what?

I mean, I'm just curious.

I mean, I don't want to have you say something you're not prepared to say, but I mean, how much longer are you going to be at this before you're free to take your sneakers and throw them up on the wire?

That's a great question.

That's the million dollar question.

My partner, our CEO, is basically never.

We've set up some things and we've got a pretty lofty goal ahead of us.

We're looking at double the company within the next two to four years, which is insanity the size that we've gotten.

But we think it's very doable and it's kind of a fun, new little challenge.

Unlike back in the year six, seven, eight, where we still hadn't turned a profit or we weren't profitable because we were putting all of our money back into growing the company and taking care of our customers and our partners.

So it's kind of a new challenge, if you will.

It's that bow hunter mentality again.

It's like, let's see if we can do this.

And I probably will never go away in entirety, but as you know, I live in Florida now and spend a lot of time down there and I can.

Covid taught us that we can work from anywhere.

So, like, we're having this conversation today.

It's no different.

Yeah, well, I know when we were in the pre show, as we were chatting, you know, you told me you're in the panhandle.

I was like, what?

You know, I knew, I knew you had, at least I thought you had some property there, but I didn't know that you were, you know, hot bunking.

Yes.

And that's so cool because I was telling you earlier, you know, my boys and I just love the panhandle and we were up there frog gigging and apalachicola.

Have you been to Apalachicola?

Not yet, but it's on my wife's list.

She wants to take a the day trip over there.

Go.

Yeah, you're going to love it.

Yeah, it's like an hour and a half from us, probably.

Piece of cake, man.

Yeah.

And, and it's really, really wonderful up in there and lots of opportunities for, for sportsmen.

Um, but, yeah, you know, that I always wondered, you know, they call it, you know, the forgotten coast.

Yeah.

Like, and I was like, or the hidden coast or something.

Like that, you know, and, and, and every time I've been up there, I'm like, I can't believe how underdeveloped it is.

I shouldn't say that out loud.

No, let's keep this a secret.

Let's edit that right now.

We don't.

Yeah.

All right.

No, it's true though.

It is, right?

I mean, I was blown away by how much property there is available.

I mean, just, I'm sure a lot of it's state, you know, maybe it might be state or county or federal land, but it just feels to me like Florida should feel.

I don't know how that sounds, but it's really, really nice.

I love it up there.

That's probably the greatest thing.

About 30 days.

There's a 24 miles stretch on the coast.

It's still underdeveloped for Florida standards.

No high rises.

You can't be more than 54ft high or something.

There's no chain restaurants.

Eight little communities that all have a different vibe.

So we're in great and beach.

Our house sits in a little subdivision that is completely surrounded by, by a state park or state forest.

So it'll never be developed around us.

On the other side where we walk across the street, you know, 38 to walk to a beach.

It's state park.

And it is like old school Florida.

Yeah, I love it.

We, we took our trailer up there, the boys and I did, and, um, you know, I was just, it was an advanced reconnaissance mission, you know, which I do a lot of, you know.

Yes.

You know, just, you know, because I'm like, hey, not just for me and my boys, but for the foundation, you know, I might find like, hey, I had not, honestly, I had not, I'd frog gigged as a kid, you know, I'm, and we, my boys and I bow hunt, bow fish all the time, like every day.

I mean, we live on the water.

So there's all.

I'm gonna have to come down there and join you on that.

Oh, yeah, I've only done it once.

Oh my God, it's so much fun, man.

I mean, we just have a hoot and, and there's one, there's a couple of species, well, one in particular that's unregulated, meaning you can shoot as many of them as you want.

And the same thing was like bullfrogs, you know.

What's the bag on this?

The guy goes, bag?

Yeah, there's the bag.

As many as you can carry.

He just looks at me and shakes his head like, don't, don't ask stupid questions, dude.

I'm like, okay, Roger, though, well, I.

Don'T know if you're.

We're in Florida.

I don't know if you remember this, but you hooked.

I think you hooked me up on my gator hunt down in.

Outside of Fort Myers.

I think you gave me a couple places and to look into, and.

Oh, my God, we had a hoot on that deal.

Yeah, I know.

It's so great, right?

So, anyway, one of the species here, that you can shoot as many as you want.

We don't, because, you know, a couple of them go a long ways, but I, um.

The the cownose ray.

Really?

Yeah.

And they taste like scallops, and.

And the.

And the heads that.

That you take that, you know, use all.

We use all of it, you know, minus the entrails.

You know, you don't do anything with that.

But, um, the head is the best bait for big shark that there is.

Really?

Oh, yeah.

You.

Can we.

I'll tell it.

I'll tell you this story real quick.

I wasn't planning on telling it, but I'll tell it now.

So we had one of these cow, you know, of the head of a cownose ray in the freezer from last year and one of the ones we didn't use.

And, like, how big are we talking for this head?

Uh, they're.

Okay.

So the size of a small cake.

Oh, wow.

They're pretty good size.

Yeah.

Yeah.

These things are dense animals, man.

Huh.

And they.

When they come through, they come through in hoards, like, just like a flock.

Okay.

Yeah.

And are you catching them?

Sticking them.

Sticking them.

Nice.

Yeah, that's the whole point.

Okay.

Yeah, run it.

Run an arrow through them, and then let the fun begin, because we're doing it on.

We do it on the flats.

They can't go down.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So they go everywhere.

It's fun.

Oh, yeah, it's fun.

It's fun.

The boys are just crazy over it.

You know, that's awesome.

But.

Because now you got hand line them in, you know?

But anyway, so we get this.

We get this cownose rain this head, and we go out.

The boys go, dad, we want to go.

We want to go sharking, you know, and I go, okay, let's do it.

So we load up the boat, go out there, got this, you know, got all the chum and everything.

We go out by this big marker out there in the bay, Tampa Bay.

And we anchor up, and I start chumming, and.

And then all of a sudden, Dylan, who's at the front of the boat.

We were probably into it maybe an hour.

And Dylan, who's up at the front of the boat, turns around and looks at me with his look on his face, like he can't talk, like he wants to say something, but he can't.

And then he goes, shark.

Dead.

Huge shark.

It's as big as the boat.

And I didn't see it.

And I got as an 18 foot flat skiff, but we're anchored up, and that kid knows what's what.

He's ten years old, but he knows what's what.

And just the look on his face.

I didn't see the fish.

Well, anyway, about literally, like maybe 15 seconds later, one of the rods goes off.

But.

And it's just.

It's sizzling, man.

And I grabbed the rod, and I figure it's gotta be this.

It's gotta be this shark, right?

And so I grabbed the rod, which is not typical in the bay.

Now, you get closer out there to the gulf, where, you know, where the bay meets the gulf, it's good chance of getting into a real big shark if you want to do it like hammerheads, when.

When, you know, when the tarpon around that brings a lot of big hammerheads in.

But.

So this.

This turns out to be a bull shark, right?

And a big bull shark.

And he grabs this thing, and I hooked him up, and I could feel the weight of it.

And I'm like, that is a big fish.

And.

And I'm holding.

I'm getting ready to pass the rod over to the boys because that's what I do.

I make sure he's hooked up.

And then they fight this fish.

Well, there was no stopping him, no turning him, no nothing.

He.

He was.

Went straight for the.

The structure, you know, with this bit.

There's a big tripod structure out there that's got a communications tower, and.

And that's where we were near.

We were about a hundred yards away from the thing set up, and it went right for that thing and ping.

You know, it was over just like that before it even started.

Oh, my God.

But, yeah, so, yeah, we have some fun out there.

We love it.

That is awesome.

I've never done anything like that.

Yeah.

We'll have to get you out there.

Yes.

Well, listen, I'm going to give you a last whack at the pinata here, buddy.

If you have any saved rounds or anything that you'd like to share with us.

Would love to hear from you.

Oh, dude.

I started making a list, but, I mean, obviously we hunted with you.

Jake was my maiden voyage with hunting through Mocane.

Jake Whitkeep.

And I mean, from Danny White to Mike riles, Nate shoemaker, Brett Bondarin.

Gabe hunted with us last year.

Oh, yeah.

Fierosteven.

You're cherry picking, and you're taking all the good dudes as you should.

I.

You know, I mean, that.

You know what?

Because they.

Anyway, I haven't had a bad one.

So I don't know.

They're all.

Those are all.

Those are all top notch dudes.

Good dudes.

And I still talk to them somewhat regularly, which is the cool thing.

Well, that's the good stuff, right?

I mean, that's.

That's.

That's the good stuff.

You know, in our little Mocan video, it's like these guys come as complete strangers, and how they leave his family three or four days later, you can't fake that.

And it's just good dudes meeting good dudes, and they all have a common, common bond and theme, and they're all good Americans.

And the your honor, heal and connect motto is couldn't be better.

I mean, with the 20, the 22 a day that veterans that we lose, it's kudos to you, my friend, for doing what you've done and starting a movement like you have, brother.

Thank you, man.

It's just every day.

Of course.

I'm just coming.

You know, we were scheduled to do this last week, but I had the.

I had the COVID number four for me.

Thank you.

Yeah, so.

But good thing I got that vaccination, you know what I mean?

Thank God we still have you with us.

I know, man.

You know, I'm like a cockroach.

I'm just hard to kill.

I just keep coming at you like, oh, there he is again.

But I, you know, is gone for a few days out of the office, and I come back, and there's a pile of things for me to sign, and that's not atypical, but these are all thank yous, recognition rewards, and things like this for people that have supported the cause.

And we have a full time person now, Caitlin, that does all of our thank yous and recognition awards and things like this.

She's busy, very busy.

And so here I am, day one, back in the office.

Course, yesterday was a holiday, and I'm signing these things.

I read them all, sign them, take the time to do a little note.

And I just paused there for a minute, and I was like, this job, I've been doing that for 18 years of personally signing every single, everyone.

Yeah.

I mean, if you gave us money or support and you just, and you're get, you're getting, you know, you know, I'm signing something for you, you know, and, and I say, you know, when this, when this starts to get old for me, I'm going to stop doing this job.

I'll look at you.

I've got a few sitting here on my desk.

Yeah, exactly.

Along with one of our.

Can't see it with me sitting here, but.

Oh, yeah, one of our little auction items from, from the can event.

My american flag.

Yeah.

Well, anyway, I'll tell you, I'm just humbled by it.

Okay?

And that's by the point, you know, wasn't me signing paperwork.

But the point is, is that I, you know, overcome, you know, as I was reflecting on, you know, the beginning of this thing and the genesis and, you know, and I'll say this, you know, you know, Brian Roderick and, you know, of course, you know, he's got a great supporting cast.

You know, Doug was there, you know, the lance, you know, eventually Bradley, you know.

And so here we are.

It was those three, the three horsemen of the apocalypse, me and Jake and some heroes in a hotel.

First time at Mocan 15 years ago.

And Brian, you know, I think we hunted that day, or maybe it was the last day, I can't remember, but it was during the event.

The heroes got checked in their room, and Brian's like, come out.

Come on over here.

I got something for you.

I'm like, okay.

So Jake and I saunter over to his truck.

It opens up the back of the truck, and he pulls out this bank bag, and he hands it to me, and I'm like, I didn't, I didn't say anything.

I mean, I looked at Jake, I looked at the bag, I looked at Brian, I opened it up, I zip, and I look in it, and it's stuck.

Stuff full of cash, full of money and checks, and I zipped it back up, and I handed it back to him, and I said, I don't know what this is, but he's like, that's for you.

I go, what do you mean, that's for me?

Goes, we raised that for you.

And I was like, I'm probably started, I mean, I probably started blowing snot bubbles, man.

Yeah.

It never happened.

That was the very first time.

No kidding.

15.

Swear to God, 15 years ago.

The very first time anybody handed me money from an event.

Oh, wow.

That's awesome.

And, and, and, yeah, awesome.

So, I mean, I.

Mocan has been, obviously been leading the way in many, many ways.

But when you start adding up, here's the equation.

Like the secret sauce, it starts with some super high quality people whose names we've already mentioned that have an idea and say, you know what?

We're going to do this.

It starts with that idea and high quality people.

And then on top of that, you have to superimpose an opportunity where we can go pursue wild game and do that in an effective and efficient manner in a place that doesn't have to necessarily be teaming with game, but whether it provides good opportunities for our hunting and fishing exploits.

There's that piece.

The other piece is critical to it is this idea of community engagement.

You know, it takes a team, right?

And now you got these leaders who are building this team, all for a cause to help our nation's combat wounded, you know, and there you go.

Not now.

You've got the components, all the components for, you know, to be successful in that space.

And you guys certainly are.

You've been knocking out of the park, and I just.

I know I couldn't be more proud of you and, and that entire team.

It's really amazing.

Well, thank you, sir.

And obviously, the feeling is mutual, so it's crazy to you just kind of reflected on it for a second.

But the ripple effect that you started.

What did you say?

18 years ago?

Yeah, I mean, you have to sit back and kind of pinch yourself at times to see, oh, my God, the people that you've positively affected.

I mean, one of our hunters that I still talked to all the time basically told me that I had.

I felt like I had zero purpose in his life.

And that weekend opened my eyes that there's actually people that I had no idea actually cared.

And it.

That's pretty powerful.

And it's.

To let somebody come shoot 160 inch buck off my place seems like a pretty small thing to do.

So, buddy, I gotta tell you, you just, you just touched on it right there that, you know, and, and I got goosebumps when you said it, you know, and, you know, these guys and gals that go off and, you know, and wearing our country's uniform and into combat someplace and, you know, defending freedom and executing the orders that are issued to them in, you know, to accomplish those, you know, our national objectives, whatever they might be, you know, you know, and then they get wounded and they have to, a lot of times, take off their uniform because their service, they can no longer serve their country.

So the one thing that they really wanted to do, they no longer can do, and they have to leave it, and that leaves a huge void in their life.

Now they're back in the block, and sometimes they unfortunately turn to drugs or alcohol or then they have financial issues, either not being told, you know, what to do, when to do, and how to do it, and that their team is gone, and then they start drifting and then bad things start happening.

Right.

But to have people like you and your community open their homes, their hearts, and give of their resources to people that you don't know and have never met before, and who've done this for their country and come back and now you're doing this for them, you know, you know, it must be a feeling like no feeling they've ever had.

Whatever they get from it, I don't think touches what we get from it.

Just the conversation I've had with my guys up here that are involved.

And just the hug I get from Jake every single year when he pulls in down the lane to the cabin is, I mean, I couldn't, I couldn't put a price up.

I wish I could bottle that up.

That's no lie.

It's.

And you touched on it there.

And that was something I didn't understand for.

For a number of years that I guess I didn't understand the magnitude of what these guys and gals are going through.

They're part of a team, and that team is taken away.

And everybody that I've met is like, with the exception of one.

And he had a very valid reason why.

He was like, I'm done.

I'm good.

They all wanted.

They could all, if they could all go back, they would go back immediately.

And some of, some of the things these guys have done to get, you know, to get wounded in combat, I mean, shit, it makes my bear story look, look tame.

And they, 95% of them all are like, I wish I could get back there, you know, tomorrow.

So I know they're excellent human beings.

To have shows that somebody does care for them, because I think it's kind of, it's kind of questionable at times with our national political landscape today, so.

Yeah, well, that's the.

Well, that's the thing is, you know, we're doing something.

That's what.

That's the, that's one of the great little voids, you know, that charities can fill.

Yes, they really can.

And, you know, it's, the government can't do it and should not do it.

When the government gets involved in things, you know, I'm going to go off.

I'm not going to go off here on a tirade.

But, you know, when the government gets involved, we need government, okay?

And it's really good for certain things like national defense and funding it and all of this, you know, the instruments of power that, you know, we need to have control of and dominate in space, in that space, but we don't want them involved in things like that.

They can't do something like this.

So there's this space here that is a small space, but we can fill that with a lot of goodness, and we can use the government's help, and it does help us.

The government does provide some limited opportunities for charities and veterans in the way of grants.

So I think they're doing what they reasonably can, but the rest of it is really up to our society.

That's what we've got to do.

Right.

We've got to fill that void somehow.

But, you know, yeah, it is.

It's.

It's an honor and it's a privilege.

And I do pinch myself.

And I'm reminded, you know, when we were, you know, at the height of.

And we're still engaged in the global war on terror, that's, let's, let's be honest about it.

But in the, in the height of these things, when I was at special operations command here in Tampa as my last assignment, and it was zero, five, six, and seven pretty tough years for the home team, and that's when a lot of these guys got wounded.

And so we were hiring some of the brightest minds on the planet it to help us understand how it is that we're going to be successful in the global war on terror.

As the global synchronizer of this operation, as SOCOm got tagged with the global synchronizer of the Gwat, if you will.

We're just trying to wrestle this thing to the ground and figure it out.

And we were bringing in all these 100 pound heads from Harvard and Princeton and Yale and these really smart people that were telling us about, we were learning about the ideology and formulating our plans on how we were going to defeat them.

Yada, yada, yada.

And so one of the things was this idea.

Ideology defeating an idea.

Well, I don't want to get too deep into this, but it's hard to defeat a good idea.

The terrorists have a lot of bad ideas.

It's unfortunate.

It's really hard to defeat bad ideas when somebody's that committed to it, too.

Right?

That's.

Amen.

Right?

That's amazing.

I mean, they're just as committed to their.

They got bad ideas okay.

Those are some of those really bad ideas, and they've really twisted and contorted a religion, in a sense, but it's also equally as hard to defeat a good idea.

Oh, yeah.

And when you have a good idea with the commitment, other people start grabbing it and running with it, then you know you've got something.

It's hard to.

It's hard to beat defeat bad ideas, but it's equally as hard, if not harder, to defeat a good idea when people are committed to it.

You came up with a good idea, my friend.

Yeah.

Well, thank you very much, and I'm honored that you and your team there have grabbed onto it.

And I thank you again for all that you've done, and I look forward to seeing you in the woodline.

Yes, once again.

Someday, I hope, maybe on the water, man.

I mean, we're gonna be like.

We live in the same state.

I know.

Let's.

Let's.

Let's make that happen.

Like I said, I'll be down there after Christmas through march, so.

Okay.

Let's.

Let's find a way.

I'll come.

I'll come down and go hunt some sharks with you.

Yeah, man.

Let's do that.

Yeah.

That would be phenomenal.

All right.

You got it, buddy.

Thanks for everything you do.

Hey, thank you, John.

I appreciate it.

But it's very fun being a small part of this organization.

You're a great human being.

And please thank your leadership and all the folks at basis that did a great job raising all that money.

We genuinely appreciate it.

You bet.

It's our pleasure, brother.

All right, Kenny, I'll talk to you later.

See you, man.

Bye bye.

Thank you for listening to the WWIA podcast.

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