[0:00] Hello, friends. Welcome to another episode of Tell Us a Good Story. Today’s conversation has been about two years in the making. When we initially reached out to our next guest, he was president of the Magnolia Network. Now he is the president of the new Field & Stream brand. Two great jobs and lots of great stories with Mr. Doug McNamee. You guys, not only was this man president of Magnolia with Chip and Joanna, but he and his wife were the homeowners on the very first episode of Fixer Upper. That show would go on to become one of the top shows in cable television history. So how hard was it for them to eventually sell that house? And how hard was it for him to watch the episode? And what is it like to be close friends and try to go out in public with celebrities? Doug shared a hilarious story of going to a Baylor football game one time with Chip and the reactions they got from everyone at the game. It was actually very, very funny. You guys, we can’t wait for here this conversation with Mr. Doug McNamee.

[0:57] I’m Kevin. And I’m Stephanie. And during our marriage, we have dealt with an electrocution, a brain tumor, brain surgery. Then doctors telling us that children were not in our future, followed by miscarriage, and then Kevin’s cancer diagnosis. However, today we live a life completely healed and restored with three healthy children who doctors said were not possible. And we’re here to tell stories that inspire, give hope, and brighten your day. Welcome to Tell Us a Good Story.

[1:50] Chip and joanna please share us with your friends but regardless thank you for listening to tell us a good story all right stuff oh my gosh this kevin is two years in the making kevin and i’ve talked to this next guest on the phone i think twice and i’m excited for him to actually meet you oh i’m so excited about this i have so many questions for him well friends our next guest is a baylor university graduate he’s the former president of magnolia where he worked directly with chip and Joanna Gaines. And today he’s the president of the Field and Stream brand, which just relaunched this past January. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to Tell Us a Good Story, Mr. Doug McNamee. Doug McNamee, he’s here. Thanks guys. Doug. Great to be with you. Thank you for doing this. Hands down, this is probably the longest I’ve been in interaction with someone. You are very patient. You are kind. I don’t know if I merit the patience and the pursuit that you had to get me on this, but I’m grateful. I hope I can live up to the expectations and the billing. It’s going to be worth the wait. Guaranteed. I hope so. No pressure. You’re right. No pressure. Exactly.

[2:57] So now you’re part of Field and Stream. Are you like a fishing and hunting expert at this point? I’m assuming you are. No, I would say I’m as much of a fishing and hunting expert as I was a home decor export when I led Magnolia for Chip and Joe. So I dabble in it. I grew up on the coast and I enjoy fishing and I enjoy hunting. But there are far, far more knowledgeable people, especially on our staff in the actual spaces than myself. So I know it. And I know that other people are far better at it than I am. I should say are you hunting with gun are you more arrow oh uh yeah definitely don’t have the skill set to to hunt with a bow if i’m gonna bring something down i gotta use it i’ve got to be able to use a rifle or shotgun i’m not i’m not the accuracy of the boat what do you okay do you have any good fishing stories then at this point then doug i’ve got a couple good you know big ones that got away um landed a couple but i didn’t have my camera everybody’s gonna have a few of those stories. Yes. So I could give you all those, but I’ve got to build out a little bit more of a portfolio to be taken serious.

[4:00] So none are on your wall right now is what you’re saying. I mean, the biggest ones, you know, of course I didn’t, I didn’t have them, you know, I didn’t have the camera nearby when I got them. Right. That’s the story. That’s the way all the fishing stories go, but I’ve got, I’ve got some good ones. I got some sweet ones with my little girls and maybe not the biggest ones, but definitely some great stories around the ones we have been able document oh i love that okay so can you share the story doug of how you met chip and joanna gains because there’s a lot we can unpack there but can you share the initial sort of how you actually met them there in waco.

[4:34] Absolutely. So, you know, Chip and Joe were twofold. One, Joanna had the retail store, a little shop on Bosque. That’s kind of where she had found her passion in just in kind of early years as she was kind of deciding what she wanted to do professionally coming out of school. And Chip was on the remodeling side. And they had built a nice business here in Waco, Magnolia, both was the name of the store and also the remodeling business. And they were active remodelers in the home space in Waco with obviously pre any kind of media or TV thing. And so wife and I had, um, and there was a specific neighborhood, which they lived in, which a lot of the homes in Waco had turned over old historic, beautiful neighborhood, but there was a lot of homes that were being renovated. And we really just kind of cold called them and said, Hey, we we’ve heard good things. We know a few people that, um, you’ve done the remodel for, and we’d love for you guys to come over and do our home. And so they did our house pre any fixer up for fame. And they did an amazing job. Like we were incredibly happy, had a great experience, beautiful design, excellent quality of work, great value. And so that really is where the relationship started. And my wife found another home that was, you know, three or four blocks away from our existing place we’d lived in for a few years. And it had a for sale sign by Magnolia Realty. And so she called Joanna and said, Hey, what’s the story on this house?

[5:55] And they said, it’s for sale. You need to move quick because it’s in this desirable neighborhood. So it’s going to go fast. It’s a total gut job. You’re going to have to redo it. But if you guys are interested, you should do it.

[6:05] So wife was like, hey, I was out of town. She reached out. I found a cool house. This is a little bit off of a less busier street. And I’d love for us to explore. I was like, great, let’s go. And so we start to explore and we got to move fast. So this is a span of a day or two that’s It’s like either you got to make an offer or get out of the way. And during that time, Chip and Joe reached out and said, hey, I know this is weird, but there’s actually a production company that’s reached out to us and they’re interested in capturing us flipping a home with a couple. And we think this home and you all could be a great story for us to help do that with. And so it sounded cool. It sounded awesome. But it also was a legitimate, serious financial decision. So you needed to kind of set aside the two things and say, hey, we got to make a good call on it. Does this make sense for us financially? And if this also happens to include that aspect of it, great. But I would, I’d be lying if I told you initially it was a little bit of a distraction because you’re, you’re, it’s, this isn’t like they’re going to do the work for free. Right. You had to pay for it all. So we were really trying to be thoughtful in our decision making. And so.

[7:08] Long story short, we ended up buying the house. They did the remodeling. And at that point, they’d been contacted and they had a production company that had chosen them to film a pilot for Fixer Upper. And so that house and we were the couple in the house for the pilot episode. Initially, they didn’t even say that that episode was going to make HGTV. They said, hey, we’re going to film it and we’re going to show it to a focus group. If the focus group likes it, then we’ll get to run it as kind of a one show special. If that does well, then there may be something more out of this thing. And so they filmed it. I think they knew right when they filmed it, you know, less of anything to do with us and more just, you know, Chip and Joe being naturally who they are, that they had something special and they caught it and filmed it and went and said, hey, this is going straight to air. We’re going to put it on. And it aired on May 23rd, 2013 is when that episode aired. And before I think before the episode even aired, they had already signed them up for a full season. They knew that they had something super special. And so we had them do a house and had a great experience. And then a couple of years later, we had them do another house, but it just happened to be the pilot episode of what became one of the most successful shows on cable television history.

[8:20] All right, Steph, I’ve got a question for you. What’s your favorite book of all time? Obviously you met her where? Oh, I thought you were going to say the Bible. Oh, oops. What’s your second favorite book of all time? You met her where?

[8:39] A distant second totally distant it’s pretty good book sorry god it’s still a pretty good book but we’re so excited where can people get our book okay i know this uh amazon.com yes barnes and noble yes and and our website kevinstuff.com and what happens if they buy it off our website what do they get uh an autograph from us yes who wouldn’t want that so listeners if you’ve already read the book. Thank you so much. We’ve had such good feedback. One thing that helps us, if you can give us a review on amazon.com, we would greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much. And thank you for listening.

[9:18] Okay, a lot to unpack there. So Doug and his wife are literally and that was my very first fun fact. Yeah, Doug and his wife were the initial pilot of Fixer Upper with Chip and Joe. Okay. Have you, did you ever watch the episode? I’ve seen it once. It’s not a, um, I would say it’s not a fun experience to watch yourself go through that on TV. Cause you’re like the amount of times that you like Brown at pricing conversations. You’re like, like I’m not a natural for this. Right. So I’m, this isn’t what I’m trained or exceptional at. So I would say it was a little bit of a painful experience just watching yourself, but obviously the episode was great and Chip and Joe are amazing, but I’ve seen it from start to finish one time okay my goodness so i have not watched that episode duck did you i wouldn’t i wouldn’t recommend it take your take take 47 minutes and apply it somewhere else did you end up doing any demo then with chip in that house on that pilot yes like like me personally yes.

[10:17] No no no okay they didn’t they were gonna let that happen that was that was probably you know probably some compliance folks that would have said don’t let this guy do this um so no i let Let the experts handle that. I stayed away from that. Okay. How nervous were you then, you and your wife, when they’re revealing it to you, right? Because they haven’t even, this is the first time they have done this. Yes. Right? Sure. So how nervous are you and your wife when they’re revealing, here’s what it looks like?

[10:42] Yeah, well, so they told first of all, you have to remember, this house is three blocks away from our current house. And they told us, yes, they told us, hey, don’t don’t go by that house. Like, we really want to capture an authentic moment. We really want this to be like, when you quote, reveal it, we want it to be the first time you’ve seen it. And so, I mean, we literally drove down a street every day, where if we took one turn to the right, that within a second, we’d see that house. And I can say with certainty, like we wanted to have a cool moment, like we didn’t do it. Like we truly honored that request and we never went by and saw it so like when they did their famous you know pull the curtain back in this case it’s kind of a like a metal stand that had the old picture that they split apart you see it like it was the the first time we had seen it since the actual like like when it was stripped down to nothing and so nervous i wouldn’t say i mean we this was our second home with them and we had a high level of trust with them and then add on the fact that we’re like these guys have a lot at stake here like they’ve got a potential right you know television show we we knew like we we trusted them on its own but then when you throw that aspect of it like oh they’re going to knock this out you know they’re going to be amazing at it and they obviously were and that’s why they’ve been so successful but i wouldn’t say it was nerves i think it was excitement and anxiousness but like we truly honored the request and didn’t see the the house before before that on moment where they rolled it back okay okay okay from the time that you’re like okay we signed the papers we want this house to when they pull back the curtain. How long of a span was that?

[12:08] It was quick. It’s probably like three months. I mean, in that particular scenario, they needed it from a TV talent. You know, there was commitments as far as like how quickly they needed to get it done. And so it was a grind. I mean, you know, it’s easy for us because we just signed the papers and kind of gave direction. But like they grinded it like to a point where, you know, I think they were having to kind of ask for forgiveness from neighbors for like some extended hours of working on the property property, to be able to accomplish it. But yeah, it was not a typical construction project. They were definitely overlapping, kind of overstepping to hopefully get it done. And they did. Okay. So at some point you move, is it tough to tell them, hey, all this work you did on this house, we’re putting on the market? Like, is it tough to have that conversation with them? Or they’re like, no, go ahead. Totally understand. No, you know, we, at the time it was just wife So we had no kids. And so we had our first shortly thereafter. And then a second, it wasn’t a house that was super conducive. It had stairs and a lot of stairs. And so it wasn’t great for for young kids. And so it was hard. We love that house. But for us, it was just we needed a house that could accommodate our needs of the family. And they were great. It wasn’t a you know, I think there was there became a little bit as the show became more and more prominent. And I think opportunists that saw kind of the financial chance to do it and then to, you know, get their upside. And I think that the show had to be a lot more intentional producers about finding people who really wanted to.

[13:33] Do it for the longevity of it being their family home. And so we were there for, you know, we were there for, I think, three or four years after it filmed and loved the home. And actually, my wife still misses the neighborhood, but just needed to grow for what our family was. So, you know, we actually sold it. A lot of people started to take advantage of the buzz of that. And you had people coming from out of town buying these houses so they could say that at Fixer Upper House. And in our situation, we actually sold it to someone who was a missionary who had come back from overseas and didn’t even really know anything about the show. It just knew where they wanted to live. And so it really was a great example. It wasn’t like, oh, they wanted to take advantage of, oh, we want to fix her up. It was like, no, we love this home. It’s a beautiful home. Credit to the Gaines. But like, we don’t care about the show. We just want to be in this neighborhood. So for that purpose, I think it was really ideal because all the intents, I think, were genuine in honoring to the original purpose of what the renovation was all about. Oh, I love that. Because I was curious if you were going to have like, are people marketing these homes as fixer upper homes? And there’s a premium now. I was curious about that. It became a challenge that they had to kind of proactively address by saying, hey, they had to do a little bit more further homework to ensure people were buying it for the purpose of really making it their family home. So there was an opportunity. I think people started to exploit it a little bit. But for us, definitely it was a situation where we were loving it. We missed that home, but just wasn’t picking up where we were going. Yeah. Hey, Steph, I didn’t even think about that with buying this home, I want to be on TV. Yeah, for sure.

[15:02] If you like what you hear, please tell someone about us. As soon as this episode is over, go tell your spouse, your closest friend, a parent, a coworker, or share one of our posts on social media. However, if you don’t like what you’re hearing, please do not. Don’t tell anyone. Don’t tell anyone. Don’t tell anybody. Just disregard this message. Don’t worry about it. Forget about us. Yep. Go on with your merry day. And to get more information about us or our entire catalog of episodes, Be sure to check us out at kevinandsteph.com. Thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

[15:32] All right. Next fun fact about Doug. Doug grew up in Waco, Texas, went to undergrad at Baylor, worked at Baylor, and apparently was introduced to his wife by the head basketball coach at Baylor, Scott Drew. Really?

[15:48] So I got to stop you. I didn’t grow up in Waco. You did not? Okay. No. So I grew up in Lake Jackson. Jackson oh like Jackson okay and came to school at Waco so okay so that’s when you got to thank you yeah you bet thank you okay so how did you get a national championship basketball coach to play matchmaker for you Doug and can you share the story of like when you ended up proposing to your wife can you share that story with Steph, Yes. So first of all, he is an awesome human being. His family is incredible. And his intent, you know, is genuine in terms of his care for other folks. And so this is one of the many lives that he’s touched, Coach Shroof. And we happen to be a beneficiary of his kindness. And she, my wife was a babysitter for them, watched their daughter and she was in school and had just some mutual friends of Kelly, Scott’s wife, who had connected them. And so she was a babysitter that they use on a regular basis. And they just said, hey, I worked in college athletics at the time. And they were just kind enough to say, hey, this would be a great couple. So they played matchmaker and set us up on a date. And to their credit, obviously, it worked out well. As far as the actual engagement, you want the details of that? Well, I know how you proposed. Okay. So can you share the story of how you proposed there? That’s impressive because I’m trying to think. There’s not a whole lot of people that maybe know that story. So that’s good research. Thank you.

[17:12] So, okay. Here’s the quick story. I gave my wife a puzzle for her in one month in advance of her birthday. And I gave her the puzzle and I said, hey, you’ve got one month to complete this puzzle. And if you do, I’ll give you something even nicer on your birthday. So I said, you got a month, let’s figure it out. And so I had a picture of the two of us and I had gotten a ring Photoshopped, an engagement ring Photoshopped on her hand. And so I did the puzzle and I obviously took the pieces of the ring out.

[17:47] Um so that she didn’t she didn’t know what’s going on and so so i gave her the box minus like three pieces and so i was like hey get this done and we’ll have a we’ll have a better gift for you on your birthday and so i went to pick her up on her birthday and she’s crying because she couldn’t complete the puzzle because she thought she lost the pieces so she had the puzzle laid out and she literally has opened the door and she’s in tears and she’s like i’m so sad i’m so sorry like i lost these pieces and like, I felt bad. I was like, Oh, you probably should have thought about like the potential impact associated with that emotionally. But I was like, it’s all right. We got to roll with it. So I said, I said, Hey, don’t worry about it. We’re all good. So I had lined up a surprise quote birthday party for her with a bunch of friends at a restaurant. And so she had no idea. So we drive over there, we come in surprise. It’s her, you know, her friends, her family, et cetera. And everybody’s there thinks it’s a birthday party. So we go on, I have a great day, et cetera. Everything’s all gone great. I have a great dinner, not day. And at the end of it, I was like, hey, we need to go do dessert elsewhere. Like this seems like a moment we should go find dessert elsewhere. So I had a trolley pull over at that time. Everybody in the building loads up and goes in the trolley. And I was like, hey, that’s crowded. Let’s you and I take a different car. So trolley goes off and it goes over to what is now the old football stadium for Baylor. But they take all the friends and family they take up into one of the sky suites.

[19:14] So that they can watch what’s going on. And I blindfold Lacey, drive her to the stadium.

[19:20] And I had friends that had helped. And so on the 50 yard line, there was a stool with a box. And in the suite, the picture that was at their house had been picked up and moved and put into the suite.

[19:31] So I blindfold her. I stop. We get out, walk her over. I set her on the stool. I said, OK, it’s your birthday. You got one more present to open up. And so she opens the present. And obviously inside the box are the three remaining puzzle pieces. And she can see by connecting them that it’s a ring on a finger. So I was like, all right, so we have a deal here. You’ve got the puzzle completed. So you get to win the prize. Right. You get the next gift. And so so I gave her another box, which was the ring and and the rest is history. And so the great thing about that was, one, and she got to go up and put the actual puzzle pieces in the real puzzle with her family there. And I tell folks the best thing about that story is that it gave a chance for everybody to be a part of it. But it was still a private moment for us. So it’s like you could see it from afar and you can observe it. And imagine being in a football stadium with nobody in it with all the lights off and the spotlight on the 50-yard line. And so you can see it and you knew it was special. And so her family and friends could say, hey, we’re a part of it, but from a distance. So it worked out well. It’s probably my single greatest moment of creativity and innovation. My wife would say it’s all been downhill from there. But no, all kidding aside, it was a fun night. It really worked out well and everything went off with a lot of help as planned. Do you have the puzzle still?

[20:50] Yes, signed by everybody that went to the party and framed in our house next to a picture of the stool with the spotlight and the actual picture on top of it. So yeah, we do. I love that. Okay, that’s even better than I thought. Oh, that’s really good. You did it in the football stadium with the spotlight with the stool. I didn’t know about the puzzle and all that. So that’s even more creative. I’ve never heard of the puzzle before. That’s really good. Amazing. How did you come up with the puzzle? I don’t know. It was back when I was really thoughtful and creative. I will say this. Don’t do black and white. That made it real hard. But it turned out really well. It was a special night for sure.

[21:34] All right, Steph, I’m going to test you again here. What is your favorite book of all time? Obviously, it’s the Bible, Kevin. Yes. Nailed it. Very good. This time you didn’t say the book we wrote called You Met Her Where. But it’s still a really good book. That is true. And it would make a great gift for friends or relatives on their birthday or for Christmas. Friends, you can order your copy of our book titled You Met Her Where? At kevinandsteph.com. And we will make sure to personally sign a copy for you or whoever you want. And as always, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

[22:05] All right, Steph. Next fun fact about Doug here. So 19 years after going to Baylor as a freshman and eventually becoming the Senior Associate Athletics Director at Baylor. Doug left his position there for a once-in-a-lifetime job, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with Chip and Joe, and became the president at Magnolia, which was and has been one of the fastest-growing brands in the country. So, Doug, I’m curious. When you were named president of Magnolia, did everyone just come out of the woodwork, Doug? It was like pitching you ideas, wanting to meet Chip and Joe. Like, hey, let me tell you this idea about TV, right? Right. Did like what’s what happened when they named you that? Yeah, I mean, it’s a it was I mean, they are highly sought after personalities and have been incredibly successful. And so getting close to them and getting them to be a part of something or speak or partner, et cetera, like they still to this day have a tremendous amount of outreach that comes their way. And so, yeah, anybody that gets involved in their web, you know, they definitely feel that. And when you lead the company, you definitely feel that because everybody understands the power associated with the brand.

[23:18] And so, yeah, you all of a sudden got real popular for access and for reasons that many times were pure, like many times truly like well-intended opportunities, but obviously a lot that you have to bet and kind of sit through. Yeah um i felt a little bit of what they feel and i think that their approachability is kind of like normal people where people feel like even more inclined to try to reach out to them or to tell their story or they see them out in public as opposed to a traditional celebrity who may have a little bit of a buffer associated with it so like i saw a lot of it and definitely felt a lot of that outreach because people saw me as a route to get to them as well too so yeah the dynamics was definitely changed after after that day for sure for all of us did you have any like weird pitches yes like somebody that’s not tracking you down at the airport or anything like that for for like yeah yeah i mean um yes there was definitely i mean i would say there were some pretty elaborate pitches as far as like people who want to come work for the company who would send stuff or send videos or send some pretty extravagant ideas and i mean there was also So I would say oftentimes other communities that recognize the impact of Chip and Joe on Waco that wanted to replicate that. And they would make pitches for why they should be the next the second location of the silos in Magnolia.

[24:39] And some, I would say, just like off the wall concepts and ideas and like towns that you may have never heard of. Well, people probably said the same about, you know, Waco before Chip and Joe in some regard. So it wasn’t crazy, but I became much more geographically educated with towns trying to reach out and seeing if they could get the next brick and mortar of Magnolia manifestation come to their town. That definitely was an interesting part of the equation. I bet.

[25:04] Okay. So final question on them, because you saw a lot when you were working with them and even being close friends with them, Doug. Sure. What’s one of the more unique fan interactions that you’ve seen that they’ve had to deal with, right? Right. Because their life changed completely once Fixer Upper went on the air and then even more so once they started Magnolia. So I guess what’s what’s one of the interesting things you’ve seen them like, oh, my gosh, have to have to deal with because they are so approachable and everybody thinks they’re like their best friends.

[25:34] Yeah, I mean, and they and they span across so many different demographics where people are attracted to them and love them. And I would say, first of all, they’re very distinctive looking individuals like you can recognize them in a crowd. And so they don’t blend in. It’s not like you’re like they can kind of, you know, occasionally you’ll see Joe put a hat on and try to stay low profile. And Chip has such a distinctive look. He was always wearing those boots and the jeans and the white T-shirt, the aviator shades and the hat on backwards. So they don’t kind of blend into the landscape well. So they deal with that. I would say I won’t identify the individual.

[26:10] But a very prominent politician that we were with at a football game who had hosted us for a football game had Chip as a guest. And as we were progressing through the pregame and the stadium, everybody was wanting pictures with Chip. Like I watched this happen. Everybody wanted to get a picture with Chip. and a lot of people were handing the phone to this to this very prominent politician and saying can you take our picture and he didn’t like it i’ll just say that like i think one or two times into it he’s like yeah i can do this and then it’s like oh these people don’t even know who i am and this is in this person’s geographical um the region so he probably should have been pretty well known and yet i think people were so excited and enamored with chip that they literally were handing the phone saying to this guy, take my picture. And he didn’t care for it. A couple of times he went with it. And a couple of times it was like, no, I’m not doing that. So that became pretty entertaining to watch. I mean, like sports figures, I guess, like politicians, celebrities.

[27:12] Actresses, like you name it. Yeah. Like they all had this tremendous affection and still do for Chip and Joe because they’re everyday people, right? Everyday challenges that people just love and gravitate to. And it’s been fascinating to watch for sure. I think that’s what makes them so special yeah right because we relate to them yes and they’re authentic what what they appear to be on on the surface is exactly who they are there is no disingenuous nature to them at all that’s amazing all right final fun fact doug is now the president of the new field and stream brand that was announced this past january the iconic magazine which dates back to 1871 i didn’t know that over 150 years is making a comeback with the help of doug and country musicians, Eric Church and Morgan Wallen.

[27:58] A lot to unpack there as well, Doug. So first off, how do you meet Eric Church, Morgan Wallen, to the point where like, hey, you guys want to buy a company? Like, how did that evolve, Doug? Yeah. So it actually ties back to Chip and Joe, because one of the first things that I did at Magnolia is Chip, in his impulsive, typical, like courageous, but crazy way, bought a downtown building in Waco, a 60,000 square foot building that had been vacant for 30 years on an impulse and said, hey, figure out something to do with this thing. And so my previous life had given me an opportunity to observe some hotel redevelopment that one of the general partners in this equation, Ben Wappert, had done with graduate hotels. And I’d stayed at a graduate hotel and I’d seen how they’d taken these old historic buildings and renovated them and created masterpieces. And long story short, Ben and Chip and Joe in a joint venture built and launched a hotel here in Waco about six months ago, Hotel 1928, which was ultimately the fruition of that initial conversation. So just developed a great relationship with Ben and a friendship. And Ben and Eric were partners on what is now just opened a new downtown bar venue in Nashville. And so Ben is really kind of the key conduit. He’s the one that’s so well connected to so many great folks. Ben helped put the whole thing together and assemble our team and get those guys and some other really talented people involved in the endeavor.

[29:22] It’s an iconic brand. It was a brand that had been left out to potentially go in a different direction and stopped printing the publication.

[29:29] Dick’s Sporting Goods had ownership on the retail side. They stopped using the brand in a retail capacity.

[29:35] We really saw it as like a pivotal moment for the brand where it had a chance to be salvaged and refurbished and brought back in a really prominent way in a unified way, or it might potentially go in a different direction. And so, yeah, I use the expression, we’ve got a 150-year-old startup company, and that’s what it feels like. Like we’re really trying to figure out how do you find success and viability in the media landscape today and do so with a brand that is so well respected and so well known. But also, you know, it’s been a while since it’s been at the level of prominence that we think it deserves to be. Okay, so all the stuff that goes into it, right? You’ve got the new print magazine, right? You’ve got music festivals. You got all the digital content.

[30:17] What’s the other stuff that is involved with the relaunch of the brand, Doug? Sure. people trust us. They’ve read the pages of Field and Stream for 100 plus years, and we’re going to make sure that that’s the case going forward. How do we leverage that relationship to support both our readers and our consumers and the brand? And I think that’s what is really the key kind of question that we’re exploring right now and trying to figure out what makes the most sense for us. Well, listeners, for more information about Doug and primarily the company, you can go to the website field and stream.com. We’ll put links in our show notes on our website so you can go right to that. But super excited for this new opportunity for you, Doug. And thank you so much for saying yes to Steph and I. I know it’s been pretty much two years now in the making as we were introduced to you by our good friend, Bob.

[31:06] So thank you so much for doing this, sir. Thank you. And I know, you know, we’ve been quiet trying to get our plans together and kind of I’m operating in stealth mode. So I’ve had to ask for your patience. And I’m really grateful for you guys to wait this out. It’s been an honor to get to chat with you. Oh, well worth the wait. It was worth it. Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too. Thanks, Doug. Thank you. Friends, we want to encourage you to please follow us wherever you listen to this, whether it’s on the Apple Podcast app, iHeartRadio, Spotify, or one of the other platforms. You guys, it’s completely free. And while you’re there, feel free to give us a rating or a nice review. Thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.