The Duck Commander Family (30 page)

John Godwin also works with Jase, Jep, and Martin in the duck-call assembly room. Godwin used to be in the rodeo and worked the graveyard shift at the local paper mill, which is the lifeblood of West Monroe. Godwin worked at the mill for sixteen years before he started working with us. John started going to Bible study at Phil’s house and hung around long enough to get a job with Duck Commander. John is a big hunter and knows about calls. Phil has more than forty duck blinds on his property, and Godwin is the guy who sets up and organizes the decoys and makes sure everything is working properly. He’s also Mr. Fix-It and can fix about anything, from the four-wheelers to the RV. But John is also smart enough to put in the accounting to Walmart and has overseen our shipping
department for years. John and his wife, Paula, have been best friends with my oldest brother, Alan, and his wife, Lisa, for years. He’s got a great attitude and is an overall great guy.

Paul Lewis, who was my best friend in high school, is our warehouse manager. Paul and I grew up playing basketball together, and he received a full scholarship to play at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. Paul played against Shaquille O’Neal and LSU one time, and Korie and I were so excited watching him on TV. Shaq fouled Paul, and Paul made one of two foul shots. In 1995, Paul got messed up selling dope and was busted transporting drugs in Texas. He got himself into a lot of trouble and was sentenced to fourteen years in federal prison. Every Friday night while Paul was incarcerated, we got a collect call from a federal prison. I tried to visit Paul as much as I could, but they moved him to federal prisons in Arkansas and Texas, so it was hard. When Paul was released, we had him moved to a halfway house in Monroe. I told the judge from day one that Paul had a job as soon as he was released. Paul made a big mistake, but he was a great friend, and I wasn’t going to give up on him. He got mixed up with the wrong people. We helped him get a truck and moved him into a trailer on Phil’s land. He was married in Phil’s yard, and I was proud to be his best man. He and his wife, Krystle, work for us; they have three children and they just bought a house in town.

Korie:
Willie and Paul have talked about how they took two paths in life. They even spoke to a youth group at our
camp last summer about how their lives turned out so differently. They told the kids about the two paths you can take in life, and Paul is a perfect example of what can go wrong. But Paul is also a great example of how you can change your life and how it’s not over because you make a mistake. Paul told the kids about how scared he was during that time of his life. He said he had a gun and couldn’t trust anybody, and how he feared it was either kill or be killed. Willie and I have talked about the milestones in his and Paul’s lives, like the year when our oldest son, John Luke, was born or the year in which Willie took over Duck Commander. For Paul, those years came and went while he was in prison. Paul’s life was put on hold for fourteen years because of a stupid mistake he made. But he learned from all of it. His attitude is incredible, and Paul remains one of our closest friends. We love him and his growing family.

Mountain Man came to us in an odd way. Our air conditioner was out and my housecleaner said she knew a guy who went by the name of Mountain Man who could fix it. She and I both shared a common interest in cooling the house down so I told her to get him over here. She warned me: “Now, he talks funny, but he know his air conditioners.” When Mountain Man showed up, I learned she was right. The guy’s speech was slower than pouring honey in January. We became friends and I invited him to watch while we made the pilot episode of
Duck Dynasty
. We were trying to lift a trailer in the air to hunt out of and I thought I could use all the redneck expertise
we could get. He impressed the producers and they thought, “We gotta get this guy on the show somehow.” In that same episode, Korie was having a garage sale and Mountain Man stopped by and bought my squirrel. And so a star was born. He now hosts his own radio show and enjoys people recognizing him. I think he likes the free food the best!

I like to say Duck Commander is a lot like duck wraps. Huh? No, really, it is. It’s a bunch of things that may not seem like they belong together, but when they all come together they make something spectacular. Everyone at Duck Commander brings something special to the table, and rather than fighting against one another, we complement each other. Do we have our disagreements? Of course! But we don’t take away from the unique flavors each one of us brings. We are all held together by a common love for family and for ducks, but more importantly we are fortunate to share a common faith. Our faith is the toothpick that holds the entire wrap together. If it wasn’t for our faith in God, I can assure you, we would fall apart.

How do you make a duck wrap? Take a duck breast, soak it well in brine, and then marinate it. You have to season it, split it, and then add in cream cheese, a sliver of real mozzarella cheese, and a half a slice of jalapeño pepper. Then you wrap it with thin (and cheap) bacon, and secure it all with a toothpick. Grill the wrap until the duck breast is medium-rare and the bacon is crisp. The finishing touch is glazing it with anything
sweet. We all have our different twists and versions of it. All the employees of Duck Commander make up a great company. Some of our employees are sweet, some are spicy hot, and a few are a bit cheesy. Each one of us has our roles and jobs. When we put everything together right, we do amazing things.

16

W
HATEVER YOU DO, WORK AT IT WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AS WORKING FOR THE
L
ORD, NOT FOR HUMAN MASTERS, SINCE YOU KNOW THAT YOU WILL RECEIVE AN INHERITANCE FROM THE
L
ORD AS A REWARD
. I
T IS THE
L
ORD
C
HRIST YOU ARE SERVING.

—C
OLOSSIANS
3:23–24

T
o tell you the truth, I
love
eating deer steak! Duck is good when you turn it into a gumbo or wrap bacon around it, but you really can’t beat good ol’ fried deer steak. It’s so easy to make. You just cut off the back strap, soak it in milk, put it in an egg wash, add a little seasoning, coat it in flour, and then fry it up. My mouth is watering right now thinking about it. Starting Buck Commander was pretty much a no-brainer. Growing up, we did a little deer hunting so we could eat. But hunting deer wasn’t Phil’s first love, so we didn’t do much of it. As I got older and started hunting on my own, I learned that I loved hunting deer. And like Phil, I was able to turn my passion into a successful business. After I took over Duck Commander, I was ready to branch out to something different. I knew that if I could somehow translate what we were doing with Duck Commander to deer hunting, the sky
would be the limit. Let’s face it: there are a lot more deer hunters out there than duck hunters.

Phil talked about getting into the deer market for quite a while, but it wasn’t where his passion lay and nothing ever came of it. Jep actually did try it one time. He filmed a deer hunt, but it turned out awful. So Dad thought, “Oh well, let’s just get back to hunting ducks.” But I was young and full of energy and was primed and ready to start something new.

I loved the challenge of going into an entirely different market and learning everything there is to know about hunting a different species, so Buck Commander was born in 2006. For our new company to be successful, I wanted to follow the blueprint of Duck Commander. I knew hunting DVDs would be the most important products we offered. We had to produce DVDs that would make people laugh and say, “Wow!” at the same time. There had to be big deer, humor, and great personalities on the Buck Commander DVDs. I watched deer-hunting shows that were on TV at the time and thought much of what I saw was boring. I believed we could do better.