Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kurt Belding. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Kurt thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Hi guys the latest business I started is Western Obsessions TV. This is a hunting show. I go on hunting adventures all over the world and document and film my adventure to be able to entertain others.

I started this two years ago when I turned 40. When I turned 40 I realized that I wanted to live my life the way “I” wanted to live it. I had just sold a couple other businesses and decided I wanted to go on amazing hunting adventures, film them for others to watch and be entertained, this was the birth of Western Obsessions TV. I have always been somewhat obsessed with hunting and the adventure it brings. One of my main goals here is to be able to live my life doing this and to be able to do this until I am 80 or dead.

The Idea to execution – The idea sounds amazing and almost too good to be true. Most of the people I know are jealous that I get the opportunity to even give this a shot to be able to live my life this way. But to execute this is another story. Just like any business you start you have to understand the market you are going in very well. So really it was just diving in and learning as much as I could as fast as I could. So I started to watch as many hunting shows as I could to get an understanding and a feel for the market and to see where the opportunity may lie. The next step was to plan a bunch of hunts to go on to cut my teeth on how to film and hunt at the same time. I understood that hunting typically has a very low success rate as it was and I need to to have 10-12 successful filmed hunts a year. This was going to be a huge undertaking. Then it came the difficulties of filming while hunting. I either needed to bring a camera guy with me or try to self film while I hunted. Both of those proved to be very difficult. It has been 2 years since I have jumped into this venture and I am still learning and growing. It has still yet to be determined if Im going to be able to support my self to live life this way, but I am going to give it everything I have and have no regrets either way.

Kurt , 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?

The latest business I started is Western Obsessions TV. This is a hunting show. I go on hunting adventures all over the world and document and film my adventure to be able to entertain others.

I started this two years ago when I turned 40. Turning 40 I realized that I wanted to live my life the way “I” wanted to live it. I had just sold a couple other businesses and decided I wanted to go on amazing hunting adventures, film them for others to watch and be entertained, this was the birth of Western Obsessions TV. I have always been somewhat obsessed with hunting and the adventure it brings. One of my main goals here is to be able to live my life doing this and to be able to do this until I am 80 or dead.

What I bring to this market is authenticity. When I go on a hunting adventure I document and film the adventure exactly the way it happens. The mistakes, mishaps, misses, and failures. My viewers appreciate the realism of the show and through my mistakes, failures and successes they take away a lot of education that they can use on their hunts.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

In my experience as an entrepreneur that has managed many teams, the number one thing I do is find out exactly what that team member wants out of life. Sometimes they man not know exactly what they want so I will help them navigate their desires to find exactly what they want their life to look like. By understanding this I have the opportunity to see if by my employment I can help them achieve this. If that answer is yes, then I paint a picture on how he or she can obtain their goal with me. We set a game plan and go for it. This is a win win situation for me and the employee. Not only are they on a path of achieving what they want out of life but it aligns with what I need in my business. Together we get what we want. To keep morale high we just revisit this goal on a monthly basis as a reminder that their goal is achievable.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I have learned in entrepreneurship is not everyone is meant to own their own business.

I created a chain of retail stores that I ended up franchising. My belief was that I could teach anyone to own their own business successfully by following the systems I had in place. After a few year of beating my head against the wall over some failing franchises. I came to the realization not everyone was born the way I was. Not everyone was meant to own their own business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.westernobsessionstv.com/
• Instagram: @western_obsessions_tv
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurt-belding-2293b418/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFuEfML_J4Wce950bgH65PQ