Meet Jon and Aften Turner | Owners of Woods2Table

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jon and Aften Turner and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jon and Aften, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
The short answer is – we didn’t set out to start a business. I’m sure we’ve all heard the expression, “do something that you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” That expression always felt like a cliche to us. We both worked day jobs and were quite accustomed to the 9 to 5 corporate life. In our free time, we escaped to the outdoors at every opportunity. On nights and weekends, you’d find us in the woods or on the water. Whether it crawls, walks, runs, slithers, swims or flies in our part of the country, chances are we’ve hunted or fished for it. If we were successful, we took great pride in creating delicious meals with wild game. Through hunting and fishing, we’ve taught our children about respect for nature, animals, and living a healthier lifestyle and knowing where their food comes from. It turns out there are a lot of people like us who love the outdoors, have a passion for hunting, fishing, wild game cooking and wildlife conservation. We decided to start a social media company so we could share our adventures with the world in the hopes that we can encourage more people to get outside and try new things, share new outdoor experiences with family and friends, help hunters and fishermen perfect their crafts, and encourage the next generation to preserve the outdoors.

We started out doing something that was a passion of ours and it grew into a business, but it still doesn’t feel like work.

What should our readers know about your business?
There is a lot to unpack in this question! In terms of what sets us apart – it is very difficult to do anything that is really new and unique in social media these days. This is the very definition of a saturated market with almost no barriers to entry. It is a very tough industry and a tough way to make a dollar, if that is your motivation. What makes us different is that our motivation is our mission rather than the bottom line. We do this because it is our passion, and we hope we can inspire others to do the same and help protect that opportunity for future generations at the same time. We are a very family-oriented brand, so by definition the more time we invest in our company the more time we spend together. It’s a win-win for us.

Was it easy? Definitely not. In some ways, starting out in social media is easier than sustaining and growing. Initially, everything you put out is fresh and new. You’re a new face and brand and people are excited to see where it goes. It costs them nothing to click and follow you for a time. Keeping them interested is far more challenging. You have to find ways to produce content that is relevant to your audience, true to your brand, and not repetitive to everything else you’ve done. In an industry where your customers are expecting new content very frequently, that can be a challenge. It is definitely helpful to make a plan (think: production schedule) and stick to it. That will help you stay consistent and produce relevant content that will resonate with your audience. But, the plan only gets you part of the way there. For us – we’re filming in a variety of situations but typically some combination of being outdoors in variable (often low) light, unpredictable weather, damp or wet conditions, and wind and ambient noise that can mess with your audio. Add to that the fact that we’re pursuing wild animals that live on their own time and definitely don’t follow a script, we’re often in the woods with multiple people and kids and have to avoid all of us being seen or heard to have a successful hunt – and get it all on film. When I think about all of that, it’s a miracle we ever successfully make a video.

We’ve learned a lot along the way that would help someone starting out in the same industry. We’ll give you a few of these – rapid fire.

1. Priorities. Prepare yourself for the possibility of some disappointments in the field for the sake of filming. You’ll have occasions when you need to choose between the hunt and the footage – best to decide which you’ll prioritize in advance to save yourself the heartache later on. Make sure to maintain your priorities and focus. Don’t get so wrapped up in capturing and producing content that you forget why you’re outside in the first place.
2. Partnerships. Seek out like minded people in the same industry that are willing to share ideas and challenge yours. If they’re willing to share their mistakes with you, you can avoid making the same ones on your own.
3. Equipment. Audio / video equipment matters. Get the best equipment you can afford, but no more. To us, audio quality is probably more important than video quality, but that’s debatable.
4. Data. Take advantage of the analytics and reports that social media platforms make available to tell you what your audience likes the best, who watches your content and the best days and times to post.

The main thing we would want people to know about our story is that anyone can do this. I’m not just talking about social media and video production – not everyone is going to be interested in that. We had very little experience but a lot of interest when we started in the outdoors – but interest is all it takes. We learned how to hunt, harvest and cook as we went along and we all grew closer in the process. We’ve seen sunrises, sunsets and everything in between in some of the most amazing backdrops you can imagine. And, we’ve cooked up some pretty amazing meals with wild game! If that interests you, we’ll show you how!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Off grid. No matter what you do or where you’re from, life gets extremely busy. Who wouldn’t love the chance to get away from it all and let yourself slow down for just a little while? The Carolinas have so much to offer from the Appalachian mountains, beaches, and lakes in between. A few stand outs for us would be duck hunting in the Outer Banks, crabbing in Ocean Isle Beach, fishing in the Catawba River, hunting in the foothills, and relaxing in the Appalachian mountains (The Biltmore Estate in Asheville is incredible). Depending on the time of year, we would take a new friend to one of those to relax and camp, hunt and fish. Days would be spent in the woods or on the water; nights spent cooking our harvest and relaxing around a fire under a starlit sky.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
No one can succeed in business without the support of others. In social media, you probably need a multitude of people. For us, it starts with the thousands of people who have supported us across all of our social media platforms by watching our videos, sharing our content and encouraging us to keep moving forward. To people who have never tried to make it in this industry, it probably seems easy. But there’s a lot more to it than people realize, particularly when you’re making outdoor content. Our subscribers and followers are the backbone of our brand, and we are blown away by the friendships we’ve made along the way and the experiences we’ve been able to have because of the people who continue to follow our story. It has been incredible hearing the positive feedback and support from people all over the world. Sometimes we hear from people building things using our designs, or trying out one of our wild game recipes, or using information from one of our product reviews to make a purchase decision. We truly depend on that support to keep us going.

We are also fortunate to be connected with business partners like PS Seasoning and Blackstock Clothing who believed in us and trusted us with representing their brands early on in our journey. They helped give us a platform to grow our business and test and market their products.

One of our favorite things about this business is all of the doors it has opened to new experiences and opportunities to meet new people. We’ve made some great friends and have been able to collaborate with amazing people in the same industry who believe in the same things we do. We really don’t feel that we have competitors in this business, but a multitude of partners helping each other along. These relationships have been an integral part of growing our exposure across social media platforms and helping to grow our business.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/woods2table/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/woods2table/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Woods2Table