John Brown, Vice President

Like many children of the ‘70s, television played a huge role in John Brown’s life. Happy Days, Baa Baa Black Sheep, The White Shadow and Buck Rogers kept him occupied for hours. They were cool; that’s what mattered. At the time, he was much too young to consider television a career.

Then in the late ‘80s, John met Brian Godfrey. John farmed for Brian’s Uncle Vernon and learned his nephew had an interest in filming. The two rented Primos videos for cheap entertainment and studied storylines, shot angles, lighting and footage.

A couple of years later John found himself working in a dusty Monroe, La., lumberyard. Frustrated and broke, he figured there had to be a better way to make money and he kept going back to the idea of outdoor television. came an off-the-cuff meeting with NBC affiliate KTVE, which led to John hosting Outdoor News, a weekday segment that aired at 6:45 a.m.

He bought his first camera and began filming wildlife. A year later, the station asked if he wanted to do a weekly half-hour gig, and when ratings skyrocketed, he produced a segment for the evening news.

Over the next four years, John wrote script, shot video and edited. But money was tight, and he and his wife Jennifer were expecting their first child.

“I can't tell you how many times I wanted to quit and take a job that offered a steady paycheck. Jennifer, on the other hand, wouldn’t have it. She worked as many as three jobs so I could do what I loved.”

Three days after Brice’s birth, John and Jennifer piled in an old, blue Chevy pickup headed for Minnesota and a job at the North American Hunting Club, where John worked as an associate producer.

In 1999, the family moved again so John could freelance for Mossy Oak, Primos, Knight and Hale, Realtree and others, work that eventually led to a steady job with the National Wild Turkey Federation.

In 2000, NWTF’s producers turned out 13 new shows annually. By the time John left, he and three others were creating 78 new shows each year.

“There was no time to make the shows what they needed to be. I realized my work was suffering and I didn't want the rest of the industry seeing that. I wanted to work on a project and feel good about the final product, to know I put my best into it.”

BOSS Outdoors is in some ways a spin-off company. It’s about entrepreneurs taking what they’ve learned and making it better — on their own terms.

phone: (803) 275-7468
e-mail: john@bossoutdoors.net