Behind the Camera: Zach Phillips on First Hunts & Hard Lessons | Country Outdoors EP 84

Описание: Zach Phillips is in the studio with host Mary O’Neill Phillips for a first-ever, pull-back-the-curtain, behind-the-camera episode of the Country Outdoors Podcast.

For years, Zach has been the quietly essential half of the story — husband, producer, creative partner, and the person who first brought Mary into the outdoors and took her on her very first hunt. As the show has evolved beyond musicians into storytellers, athletes, and creators, it was finally time to share his journey.

Zach traces his story back to a childhood spent moving from Indiana and Michigan to Europe and West Virginia while his dad worked as an engineer — with one grounding constant: visiting his grandparents’ farm in Missouri. His earliest memories are quail hunts with his dad, cousins, and uncles… and a Christmas-time solo hunt at nine years old, where he took a rabbit behind his grandpa’s house with a single-shot shotgun.

From binge-watching outdoor TV and reading Field & Stream magazines every Christmas… to running wild in South Georgia with friends, trapping, hunting, and chasing anything that moved — the obsession only grew.

Zach opens up about how he broke into the outdoor industry the hard way: filming hunts on a cheap handycam as a teenager, joining a small Louisiana TV show, working with Backwoods Life in high school, and eventually landing an internship with Sub7 after filming at Jeff Foxworthy’s farm — then learning editing and production through pure trial, error, and grit.

He also shares the biggest mistakes, lessons, bumps, bruises, and near-disasters that shaped him — including missing a record button on a mountain goat hunt, lost footage on an elk trip, and the time he fell 22 feet from a tree stand… and still got sent to film the next hunt.

And finally — how all those experiences led to the creation of Country Outdoors, the adventure series, and the life he and Mary now share both in front of and behind the camera.

In this episode:
✅ Childhood roots, the Missouri farm, and first hunts
✅ Moving constantly — but always returning to the outdoors
✅ Breaking into outdoor TV as a teenager with a handycam
✅ Sub7, Bone Collector, and learning production by fire
✅ Big mistakes, tough lessons, and industry realities
✅ The fall from a tree stand — and what came next
✅ Launching Country Outdoors + the adventure series
✅ Where outdoor storytelling is headed — and why authenticity matters

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