Episode description

It’s no secret that, during COVID, we began to see how bad the foreign supply chain crisis was. That woke a lot of people up to the reality of importing cheap products from overseas, adversarial countries. But we’ve spent the last century closing American manufacturing facilities and exporting our American jobs overseas. With new potential tariffs (which I believe are more of an economic bargaining tool to Trump), we again are starring down the barrel of high prices for everyday goods.

That’s part of the reason, I love what Josh Smith, Founder of Montana Knife Company is doing in a small town called Frenchtown in Montana. He’s putting Americans to work building American products – specifically, hunting, tactical, and culinary knives. Today we talk about the challenges with starting American-Made companies, what you’re likely to hear from competitors when you do, why growth isn’t always so linear and there are no overnight successes, why foreign markets are unfair business partnerships, and learning to build a business from the ground up – literally.

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:
(00:00) Building Relationships and Hunting Stories
(11:08) Knife Making and Hunting Stories
(15:37) Special Forces Knife Design Inspiration
(21:43) Examining Veteran Stories and Critique
(27:48) Balancing Public Image and Personal Life
(35:50) Knife Making Ethics and Production
(45:58) American Manufacturing, Tariffs, and Government Spending
(59:17) Building American Manufacturing and Relationships

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