We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Matt Wright. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Matt below.

Alright, Matt thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with 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?

Customer appreciation must be forged as strong any steel. Most all our orders come with a personalized thank you video for their business. We take videos and photos of us making their knife. This allows each customer to be part of the build of their custom and know they’re not just a serial number.

To take it a step further, we offer complimentary laser engraving to personalize the customer’s knife with their name or initials. Sometimes a special creedo or quote is even engraved to accompany them on their next adventure. We always include a personalized note in every order as well as a special touch in their packaging to let them know they’re part of our Extreme Instinct family.

The feedback when customers receive their order is a resounding “WOW, thank you for taking the time to personalize my order.” A simple ‘thank you’ to each and everyone of our customers goes a long way because we value every customer and client. We believe in business there is no business without creating a customer relationship that will last forever. We’ve been honored to make memorial knives that includes the loved one’s ashes as a lasting tribute. The knives we build today we wish to be passed on to generations to come. When customers are like family, this relationship is galvanized with each custom order. It’s an honor for us to receive orders from other family members who grew up with an Extreme Instinct knife that they used.

Our warranty is an unconditional lifetime guarantee. We want every customer to stay sharp and carve out those lasting memories.

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 Extreme Instinct from the ground up in 2005. After multiple commercially made knives failed to perform I decided to take things into my own hands. I now make knives – guaranteed for life – to meet any demand and come out razor-sharp. Each knife is hand built, hand ground, and hand sharpened by me with all materials from the USA. As a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, my training ingrained a further understanding of the importance of tools you can trust. The only way to continue to innovate and improve gear is to test it to the max.

I spend almost as much time field testing as I do in the shop. Over the last eight years and all over the world, I’ve spent over 300 days surviving literally stripped of all gear with only a knife to survive. In some of these adventures you can see many challenges on Discovery Channel’s “Naked and Afraid”. Whether guiding or teaching survival alongside my accomplished wife, Brooke, we’re constantly pushing ourselves and set the bar for what’s possible. What drives me is hearing customers’ stories using my knives whether for everyday use to survival, hunting, fishing, or the kitchen that I poured my heart and soul into.

I don’t fall into one label with what I do. I’m a custom knife maker, survival guide, boat captain, and motivational speaker. I specialize in quality gear and in teaching skill sets to empower people’s passions to thrive in life.

I’m best known throughout the world as “The Savage or Jungle Warrior” on Discovery Channel’s “Naked and Afraid.” I’m most proud of being able to empower people to be the best version of themselves. What sets me apart from others is my determination to never settle for anything less than trying to accomplish the impossible.

What sets me apart from the crowd is I spend just as much time out in the field honing skills and using the tools of the trade that I make at Extreme Instinct. It’s one thing to build a knife, it’s another to live a profession where you have to trust your life with that knife. Before I ever made one blade, I understood the importance of quality and details. Before I ever taught someone survival, I fought through the wilderness to understand what’s needed to keep you alive. I took these real-life adventures and built the skills and tools around them.

While I stand at the grinder crafting the next knife, I am reminded of what it means to have one item to trust with your life. As many have witnessed on the Discovery Channel’s “Naked and Afraid,” I have taken my own advice more than literally. I’ve gone out for hundreds of days primitively surviving all over the world’s wildest and harshest places, stripped of everything – butt naked – with only a knife. I do this not for the cameras, but instead to help others that you can take one item, a mindful of skills and thrive in the wild and every day life. Even if it seems you have nothing, remember you always have the ability to overcome and exceed at any obstacle. In today’s world it’s easy to lose sight of what that knife someone carries on their belt means or the skills they have in their mind truly embody.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I started my knife and survival business in 2005, it was operated out of a very small shop in Lakewood. It wasn’t ideal, but I made it work with the equipment and tools I had at that time. For years, I sold my knives on my website, local expos, hunting clients and locals in the Colorado community. A crucial turning point came in 2009 when I realized I had a calling to do something much greater and join the United States Air Force.

I trained in the Air Force Special Operations to join the elite ranks as a Tactical Air Control Party Specialist (TACP). In my spare time, I still enjoyed making knives and utilizing some of my training into the way I made each knife. I then suffered an unfortunate injury that abruptly ended my military career. With this pivot again in my life I was dedicated to stay in the fight. I used up most every free moment of my time making knives exclusively for military members and special operations soldiers deployed overseas at no cost to them. I did so to give back to fellow service men and women, never making a profit. I was now making more knives weekly than ever before and by proxy this elevated my knife making and attention to detail as each knife was tested to the extreme.

Making that significant decision altered my path in life and career for the better – proving that following your passion is paramount to growth and opportunity. What began in a small space, has expanded now with customers and fan base from all over the world.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Following my service in the Air Force, I continued making knives and my business continued to grow as word spread locally selling my collection at various gun, knife and outdoor expos. This allowed me to increase business and expand my equipment. In 2012 at the Castle Rock Gun Show, I met my business partner who would become my wife, Brooke. She saw the untapped potential in my business and knew I could elevate my knives to the next level. Brooke’s background brought years of expertise in marketing, advertising, video and media relations. Additionally, she brought an insatiable drive and perseverance from which she credits to her 7 years of Taekwondo training to become a certified 2nd degree black belt. She was the key to the vital missing components of Extreme Instinct. After years of working full time at her marketing and communications job in nonprofit, Brooke helped to build the brand of Extreme Instinct, both locally and nationally. We both realized that working together we could elevate and transform the company – with our unique custom knives, outdoor guiding and survival training. With the forge fired up in our hearts, Brooke and I decided to take the plunge to make Extreme Instinct our full-time career.

Starting and pursuing a small business is not for the faint of heart. Working for yourself is both rewarding and sometimes uncertain. We were afforded the opportunity to expand into a bigger, more efficient shop and added more equipment into our arsenal. Brooke and I used our sweat equity into the crucial building blocks that Extreme Instinct needed in order to be at it’s best potential. After being pulled away from the shop for many survival challenges over the years on the Discovery Channel’s show “Naked and Afraid” – my signature survival knife quickly became the most sought after custom survival knife and bushcraft knives in the industry. Brooke would later take on her own challenge of surviving the wild on Discovery to put her own skills to the test. The only way to grow is to continue to learn and test ones skills and knowledge.

In addition to the incredible skill set Brooke brings to our business, you will also find her in our shop having learned how to make knives, custom handles, and expanding her knowledge of the art and science of metallurgy.

To fully utilize our expertise and passion for educating the art of the wild, Brooke decided we needed to add survival training and guided trips into our business model. It didn’t happen overnight, but over the years business has continued to soar with our custom orders – having gained local, national and international exposure and notoriety of our offerings.

Together, we are a multifaceted team, continuing to pursue our all-American made handcrafted knives, inspiring those to build confidence, to enjoy the outdoors and master the art of survival.

Contact Info:

• Website: ExtremeInstinct.com
• Instagram: @Extreme_Instinct
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExtremeInstinct
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheExtremeinstinct

Image Credits
Brooke Wright