We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matt Wesley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Matt, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?
This is the story of the beginning of a great opportunity that developed into a friendship of unspeakable gratitude. I am a YouTuber, among other things. I love the outdoors, and more importantly, show others how wonderful it can be.
In the winter of 2019 heading into 2020, I had entered a very simple giveaway of a fishing bait. I ended up winning the fishing lure from a YouTuber named Jay (FishManTV). I took those baits out in the dead of winter when fishing is the toughest and slowest and caught 2 HUGE smallmouth bass on back to back casts.
Well, I was so impressed by these lures, I made a video on my Instagram account (MattsFishinMission) and tagged the bait maker CAST CRAY OUTDOORS in the video. The next day, the owner saw it, loved the support, called me and asked if I’d like to join his pro-staff team. I did exactly that, and for the next year and a half would end up catching THOUSANDS of fish on Cast Cray’s baits!
I visited the Cast Cray production headquarters and even spent some time up in NorthEast Ohio with Rick, the owner, and he eventually gave me the company position of Relations Manager. I would use this position to help not only grow Cast Cray’s distribution, but their pro-staff, social media, and customer following.
So much was going well in our lives for my wife Jenn and myself that we decided to grow our family and start trying to have a baby!
Well, as life does sometimes…it threw us a wrench. My wife, Jenn, and I were given some terrible news in the late summer of 2021. As we were trying to conceive, we found out she had cervical cancer. And the treatment options meant that she would never be able to carry our baby given the damage the chemo and radiation would do to her reproductive system. We thought about, prayed about, and counseled with friends and family about our options. We found that if we could move fast enough on the process, we could create an embryo that would be biologically ours and have it stored in a chryo lab until we were ready and found a surrogate.
We were deflated when we saw the costs of the process were nearly in excess of $20,000, and that almost all the services were not covered under any insurance and also needed to be paid up front before anything could move forward.
THIS… is where my dear friend Rick stepped up on his own accord and started a fund campaign for us that would generate nearly $16,000 in just 2 short weeks. Not only did this give us the option to open the door to what we previously thought was a closed door… It opened our heart and gave us the hope we so desperately needed to see in our darkest hours. Rick shared the campaign with his connections throughout the fishing industry and all his other entrepreneurial peers as well as with our family and friends. Together they showed us that it TRULY takes a village! Rick constantly reminds me that he prays for us daily, and we are happy to say that we have found a surrogate and are moving forward with our plans to have a baby!
We are so grateful to have people like Rick and Mandy Provence in our lives! We love them dearly!
Matt, 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?
I started my love for video and photo in 2014. I bought a camera for my wife, a nice one… spent over $1000 on it! And as it happens, I fell in love with photo/video much more quickly than she did. Eventually I became a photographer/videographer as a side hustle, and then as my profession. This led me directly to my dearest passion… FISHING! Well how in the world do you combine those 2 odd hobbies? As it turns out, I was scrolling on YouTube one day in 2017, trying to find information on how to fish for bass. I started paying attention to these YouTubers and my skill was growing each time I went out!
I had a GoPro that had been sitting dormant since I took it on my honeymoon to Hawaii in 2013. Some of the YouTubers I was watching were just teenagers, and I thought ” if they can figure this out, surely I can as well!” So I strapped on my GoPro and started fishing creeks and rivers. I would bring it along on my kayak “Missions”. I had SO much footage saved up on my hard drive, I eventually got the itch for putting all this content out to the world. I think I had about 20 fishing trips just saved up and waiting on my hard drive when I finally got the nerve to put it all together on make a YouTube Channel ( Matt’s Fishin Mission ).
It began as a way to just document memories for me and Jenn, but grew into something more. I would get messages from people thanking me for showing them a fishing tip… or from an elderly man who was so excited that they could relive their youth from watching me creek walk an a place they remembered from 60 years ago. Since then, I’ve taken out kids, veterans, couples, friends, family, on my Fishin Missions… we’ve given away countless rods, reels, lures, and fly tying kits.. just in hopes that it sparks someones newfound passion for the outdoors and a respect for angling as a sport. This is TRULY been the most rewarding feeling and keeps me constantly striving to make more, better quality, and highly educational content EVERY DAY!
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Embracing what’s NEW. Embracing what’s edgy or scary. I can’t tell you how hard I FOUGHT against joining, consuming or even being associated with something like TikTok. I thought it was an immature teenage dance-app.
It was a mistake on my part. I took for granted that what made the app popular WAS NOT what I could use it for. I was missing a whole new style of content creation. For me, this would be the LIVE interactions by streaming my “Missions” on TikTok.
Once I gave in and started using the app. I gained 10,000 followers in a matter of weeks and formed a whole new community of supporters.
So don’t judge a process, platform, or even a person from what you’ve HEARD… EXPLORE IT!!! Find out for yourself how you can use something or someone’s skills, talents, or utility to GROW!
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
WOW… this is funny. I had a boring job in retail management. During that time I made a side hustle from photography and video. I started as most do by shooting my first few clients for “the exposure” HA!
But as my skill and love for that grew, I turned it into my full-time passion and work, and was able to leave my retail madness behind!
And what would you know… that THIS side-hustle-turned-profession would start to come full circle on itself! Now i’ve used my knowledge in photo and video to help propel my hobby of fishing, and NOW it seems my fishing is starting to earn me money, sponsorships, jobs, and may even lend itself to a new career. With monthly income from social media, sponsors, and tournament winnings, my fishing hobby may just become the new career. So, you could say im working on my 2nd generation of side hustles now!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattsfishinmission/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MattsFishinMission
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MattsFishinMission
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattsfishinmission Fishbrain: https://fishbrain.com/anglers/MattsFishinMission1
Image Credits
Matt Wesley Photography