We were lucky to catch up with Heath Cartee recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Heath, thanks for joining us today. One of the most important things we can do as business owners is ensure that our customers feel appreciated. What’s something you’ve done or seen a business owner do to help a customer feel valued?

I always try to remember, and try to instill in the guides who work for me, that while today may be just another Tuesday for us; for the client this may be the only day they get to themselves this year. This may be their one chance to get out and do something for themselves. Most folks we work with lives’ are very demanding. They have their own job, family, children, community, parents, etc. When they get a chance to get away and have us take care of their needs; they get to turn their brains off for awhile, a chance to breathe, a chance to not think about what they have been obsessing over or preoccupied with for most of their normal day. This day is special to them. It is probably not the money the client is most reluctant to spend, but rather the time. Most of our clients can always make more money, but their time (like everyone else’s) is fleeting, and once spent cannot be recovered. I stress to myself and my employees that this time they are spending with us is sacred and we should treat it as such. I stress that to go above and beyond is the standard. Today needs to have some magic in it. That is not such a tall order when one works and lives in a place like Pisgah. This is how we appreciate the customer. We do not waste their time. We give them rest, even when we are working them to the bone. Strive to give the customer not just your time, but an exceptional experience so that they will want to spend more of their time with you.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Heath Cartee and I am the owner and head guide at Pisgah Outdoors. I (like most fishing guides) stumbled into the industry. I hung around a fly shop until I was offered a chance to work in the shop by the manager. When I interviewed with the owner he misunderstood what I applied for, and hired me as a guide. Fifteen years later, here I am still stumbling my way through the industry, now as the owner of my own outfit. There was a lot of hard work in-between getting a shot and now. I was not a good guide when I first started. I wish I could find every client that I guided that first year and ask them to give me another shot now. A few I have had that chance with, and they continue to be repeat customers to this day. Being a fly fishing guide is…well let’s be honest…it’s a hobby job. Of course, I have often heard the old quote that “calling fly fishing a hobby, is like calling brain surgery a job.”

Pisgah Outdoors provides an experience, an opportunity, a chance. Do you think we will catch some fish? I really don’t know. But I do think you’re going to have a good time, and you are going to get multiple opportunities to catch some fish. I am confident that you will think of nothing else today but catching that fish, that alone is worth the price of admission. The next time you fish, you will be better, you will have some cool tricks to show off in front of your friends and you will want to do this again.

We teach fly fishing with the belief that there is no one right way to do it, but there are plenty of wrong ways to do it. Everyone fishes correctly differently, and almost everyone fishes incorrectly the same. There are about two dozen common mistakes and misconceptions about catching a fish on a fly, or casting a fly rod, or making a presentation, or mending a line, or making a drift, ad nauseam…. that almost everyone has. We teach the basics, then we watch for those common errors and quickly correct them. This allows the angler to develop their own style and method while staying within the boundaries of what actually works, and staying away from the preconceived notions they may have developed from watching a dilettante on You Tube, a dreamy movie staring Brad Pitt, or a commercial for erectile dysfunction medication.

What sets us apart from most other services is we are very angler focused and we are almost entirely focused on public waters and wild fish. We are more than willing to fish private waters, or stocked fish if the client requests those things, but we always prefer and suggest that we chase wild fish, preferably in wild places, and maybe we get very tired while we are at it. I can serve you up some slop on a bun if that’s what you are hungry for, no problem. However, if you want to eat adventurous and experience something you’ve never tasted before, I’ll get to cooking. I don’t know, maybe I’m a snob.

I am very proud of Pisgah, North Carolina, the mostly small persnickety trout we have here, and the fat aggressive NATIVE smallmouth bass. I am very proud to cast a fly to these fish. I am very proud when I and my angler have exhausted ourselves trying to accomplish a very simple thing, through a very complicated and difficult method. It is the difficulty of the method that teaches, creates the experience, demands understanding of not just the technique but more importantly the quarry.

Efficacy of equipment is the enemy of the experience.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I work as a fly fishing guide. Fly fishing is a very old sport. No one really knows when or where it began, but we know who it began with. It was a sport for the aristocracy. I am not an aristocrat. You are probably not an aristocrat either. Let us be honest with one another. We all want to be aristocrats, or at least one step higher on the socio-economic ladder than we currently are. Look at the label on your clothes. Look at the car parked in your drive. Take a look at your home, or even the town or part of town you live in. For most, this was a conscious decision motivated by an unconscious desire. This is important to recognize in ourselves and in our customers. Most of us wouldn’t know a true aristocrat if we met one (they tend to be very good at hiding in plain sight in this country). However, many of us currently are, or know someone who is, trying their hardest to appear like they are further up the ladder of success and wealth than the actually are. Fake it till you make it right?

Thorstein Veblen’s 1899 book “The Theory of the Leisure Class” melted my face off. I’ll need to read and reread many more times before most of it sinks in, but the concepts of conspicuous consumption, and emulation were an eye opener for me.

It is very important that I give my customers what they need, while never forgetting to give them what they want.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I’m a saver. It is a habit that I have learned, not one I was born into or with. I save for the things I want, and for things I do not yet know I want. When I decided to start my own business I had the small amount of capitol ($5000.00) on hand to do just that. In the first year, I did not take a salary but the business paid me back, and then some, at the end of the year. The next year I took a modest salary. I continue to do that today, while leaving as much as I can in the account for things the business wants/needs or things the business may want or need.

I did not take a PPP loan. I was too damn proud, and too damn suspicious of anything “free.”

I am an idiot.

That was probably the the worst business decision I have made thus far.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pisgahoutdoors.com
• Instagram: @pisgah_outdoors

Image Credits
Angler walking through the ferns (credit Jose Gonzalez) Image of angler stretched out and leaning on log (credit Elizabeth Quinn) Image of Heath Cartee with smallmouth bass from French Broad River (Credit Trey Miller)