Ben of LandHub.com asked me if I could help him out by doing an interview with Rod White focusing on his company Land and Game, and of course I agreed. This was a fun interview and I do have to say I have never interviewed an Olympic Gold Medalist until now.


Rod, Can you tell us a little bit about your self?

I have a Gold and Bronze Olympic medals for Archery but my background is quite a bit different then most Olympic archers because I started out Bow hunting. I went out with my brother when I was 12 and missed a bunch of deer. My dad said I should take archery class, so I did. When I got to the class all the other kids had Olympic style recurve bows instead of compound bows like the one I was hunting with. At the end of the seasonal class there was a national competition and I came in next to last. The next year I set a goal of finishing in the top ten. The next year I came back to the competition and came in something like eighth. I figured if I could finish in eighth place I set my goal for the next year to place in the top three. The next year I took first. Soon I was traveling from Italy to Indonesia on Jr. World teams and made the men’s adult world team by the age of fifteen. By making small goals and accomplishing them, I eventually climbed the ladder toward the Olympic team and went on to win the Gold at nineteen. Having started as a bow hunter, which is pretty unique to archery target shooters, I picked up major hunting sponsors such as Realtree and Mathews. Through some of those sponsorships, I was introduced to mature deer in the Midwest. I grew up hunting in Pennsylvania and if you saw a 130 inch  buck it was the biggest thing you would ever see. So you can imagine the passion that was ignited in me on my first day on stand in Illinois when a 140 inch plus deer walked a treeless fence line all the way to my stand across a cut corn field. I was hooked on Midwestern bucks and traveled back to PA to pack my bags…I’ve lived here ever since.

Explain to my Readers what LandAndGame.com is.

It’s a land management and real estate company that helps clients find the right properties to fit their needs. Not every property can grow and hold mature bucks so the service we provide for committed clients is of tremendous value. Once we find the piece that matches their hunting preferences and style, we alter the habitat to grow mature whitetail bucks if it doesn’t already have what is essentially needed to accomplish our clients’ goals.

What Sets Land and Game apart from other land sales originations?

The biggest thing is the fact that we are a full service company with the ability to alter the land to produce the best deer possible for that property. We don’t just list the properties, we manage and balance the wild life, crops and over all investment for our clients. That’s something that no one here in the Midwest is doing although a lot of other companies are trying to replicate what we do. But it’s not that easy. Every property is unique like a fingerprint and the experience necessary to take it to its highest performance level possible isn’t something that can be mimicked or falsely represented. I personally design each property layout in a custom fashion based on literally thousands of days in the field in mature whitetail habitat from Alberta to Kansas. The essential ingredients needed to grow, hold, and harvest mature whitetails, remains constant in nearly every state. The types of plants that grow in different areas may change, but the types of landscape structures that produce consistent results remain constant. The complete understanding of all of that is something that can’t be taught in a classroom or by franchising a company name. We will always likely be a small group of professionals, that’s the only way to produce consistent results for our clients have it be in Iowa or Alabama.

What drives you and your team to be such a successful organization?

We are all accomplished in some aspect of hunting and or farm and business management. For instance Jimmer Kostroski killed the world record at the time typical velvet whitetail in Rochester Minnesota. Now that’s an area you don’t hear much about when it comes to mature whitetails! He is now partnered with us by bringing his own crew to our clients’ fields to implement habitat plans. Dereck Lewis learned the whole process through an apprenticeship with me logging countless hours of tree time and field work. I’ve made a huge investment in Dereck and he has proven himself in the field now with his own accomplishments. Now the clients he has been working with are producing results themselves as well. Another thing we do is work with our clients to learn about the whole process of managing the land. Our goals are generally not to just purely manage properties ourselves, it’s to get landowners off to the right start and down the right path to success. From there, most clients take on more and more of the management responsibility each year rather than completely doing the work for them. Although some clients choose that route, most know that part of the joy of landownership is producing their own results and a little dirt under their fingernails is an important part of the feeling of success.

Geographically what area of the country are your clients in?

Actually they are from all over the country we do have a lot from Louisiana for some reason, but a resoundingly large amount are residents within the borders of the states their property is located in. Be it Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Alabama, or Canada.

Can you inform my Readers about AHS?

It is the Advanced Habit System and it is a system to grow, hold whitetail deer on properties, and at the same time helping deer to reach their maximum potential. It’s really a very in-depth structure system of management and habitat manipulation that is put in place on properties in a multitude of environments and locales. It’s very complicated to those who are not familiar with habitat alteration, but most of our clients know that it produces consistent results. And, that’s what’s the system is all about…Results!

I have heard a little about the Ron Skoronski farm & know that you had a set time frame to sell it.
1. Can you tell me what makes the Ron Skoronski farm such a good property?

It is an anomaly in its self, being 3400 contiguous acres, which is unusual in southern Iowa. Not only does it produce trophy whitetails it is a great farm from an agricultural perspective too.

2. Would you be will in to let us in on some of the details of the sale?

The seller did not want to list the property with a realtor at all. They gave us a three month time limit and even with the economy in a good state that would have been a huge task. I had a client lined up to go preview the property and for the fist time ever the client didn’t show. How embarrassing! But the owner decided to stick with us given the unfortunate cards we were dealt. We put an accelerated marketing program in place. One of the elements involved inviting eight different realtors to preview the property. With such a large commission involved, we utilized the incentive to bring in other realtors networks. Combining that approach with the incredible video presentations and a multitude of other unique processes we utilize, we had four offers in 8 weeks and the client accepted the last one.

In your opinion what was the biggest factor in making the sale a success?

I don’t think I can say there was on big factor but a few that made this sale such a success. The seller was willing to sign an exclusive contract with a generous commission. By focusing on the property’s attributes and not the commissions. Utilizing our video talents and advanced property packaging. And most importantly, the accelerated marketing program as a whole.

What is the Legacy Land Partnership?

 It is a group of individuals who purchase average to below average land and watch it mature in to prime hunting land and an overall incredible investment opportunity. We utilize the land to maximize the potential of their investment and produce excellent returns both financially and in the form of antlers. A lot of these landowners only have limited time to hunt their properties and this program allows other hunters in the Legacy Land Partnership to use and enjoy the land for their specific hunting needs. Provided they are willing to be a part of the network, this helps to grow the entire group’s holdings and elevate the full utilization of the property.

What does it take for a property to reach Legacy Status?
 
First the Advanced Habitat System has to be put in place and then the land has to reach its maximum potential for what ever game the property owner would like to target. Have it be whitetail deer, pheasant, upland game etc. Finally when it becomes the ultimate property for the targeted species then it would reach Legacy status.
 
I want to thank Rod White for the time he took to do the interview. It was great to talk with him. We chatted for a little while after the interview and I think Rod is a stand up guy who just really enjoys the outdoors , bow hunting, teaching people (about land management, & bow hunting)  and running his business. I would also like to thank Ben at LandHub.com for making this whole intervew possible. All of the extra work he put in to make it work really was nice.