We recently connected with Christopher Joe and have shared our conversation below.

Christopher, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

Upon starting Connecting with Birds and Nature Tours, LLC October 31, 2018, to diversify my family’s Black Angus cattle farm, I have never owned a business. I have never went through filing documents to obtain a business number. I am not a training ornithologist. I have never marketed a business and took on the responsibilities that owning a business entails.
I wanted our private property to be used as a conduit to provide people the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors through activities such as birding, nature walking, biking, and camping.
We want to educate, demonstrate, and show others that they too can become friends of the environment though low impact ecotourism activities.
We want to be the beacon not only to this underserved area in the Black belt but to schools, universities, outdoor groups, birding groups, and anyone that wants to be “One with Nature.” Our passion is to inspire all people to enjoy and protect wildlife and the habitat that they thrive in.
As I set out to find how to be the best I can be, it required me to partner with others. To date, we have hosted over 800+ visitors on our property. We have been featured in multiple magazines, blogs, podcasts, television segments, and even a birding show called The Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper which is now streaming on Nat Geo Wild, Disney+, and other streaming services.

Christopher, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Christopher Joe. I’m a native of Greensboro, Alabama. I’m a 2007 graduate of Alabama A & M University in Normal, Alabama where I majored in Agribusiness Management. I’m currently the District Conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, an agency under within USDA, located in Macon County Alabama. I reside in Montgomery, Alabama with my wife Christy and 5-year-old daughter Summer Grace.
I offer birding tours, workshops, public speaking engagements, and guest tour guide for other groups and organizations. I take pride in having our private property be a site where people can come and enjoy nature. Oftentimes people don’t feel welcomed as they should while outdoors taking part in activities like birding.
I’m so proud of the organic growth of our business and the following we have garnered, so much so that to date, we have hosted over 800+ visitors on our property. We have been featured in multiple magazines, blogs, podcasts, television segments, and even a birding show called The Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper which is now streaming on Nat Geo Wild, Disney+, and other streaming services.

How did you build your audience on social media?

My philosophy for utilizing social media is how do I make people see that I’m just a guy with a love for what I’m doing. From conservation, to birding, to photography.
Being tech savvy allows me to do all of the content creation for myself. I’ve use a professional camera for photography, an I phone 14 Pro for high quality videos, a GoPro for POV content, and other gear to capture what I’ve been doing.
Doing this since 2018 has allowed people to see me grow in skills and ways to convey the subjects that I’m covering. I love to capture things as close to perfect as far as sharpness with pictures to clarity of videos. This allows me to spend time capturing and less time editing.
My advise to building a social media is staying true to what you have and not jumping on fads. People want to see you and that takes time and focus on what you do best.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Countless people that have toured with us say the same thing…”I feel like I know you.” They see my family present during tours and the relationship we have.
My mom is the entertainer that makes sure people are taken care of. She’ll oftentimes bring snakes and fruit to share with folks. He jokes are always timely.
My dad really shows folks how much work it takes to make our farm successful.
My wife, daughter, siblings, sisters in law, nieces and nephew all play a big part on us having the reputation that we have.
These interactions and people seeing us together shows how sincere we are about taking care of those that tour with us.
Truthfully people can see that we aren’t just putting on a friendly face. Years of consistency and quality interactions with groups and organizations still speaks for us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.connectingwithbirdsandnaturetours.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/birdsandnaturetours/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaKuif-ZQ4A9rgkerH_RWPw

Image Credits

All photos taken by Christopher Joe.