The Outdoor Gibbon
Join me on my journey through stories and interviews talking to like-minded individuals. It doesn’t matter who you are this podcast will hopefully educate and guide you through the world deerstalking, shooting and the outdoor world.
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The Outdoor Gibbon
70 Beyond Shadow Bans: Building a Rural Social Platform
Frustrated by the constant shadow bans and content restrictions on mainstream social media? You're not alone. In this eye-opening conversation, Rachel Draper reveals the journey behind creating Stile Country, a revolutionary social media platform built specifically for those who love field sports and countryside pursuits.
Growing up on a Warwickshire smallholding and later working in the shooting industry, Rachel witnessed firsthand how major platforms increasingly censored legitimate outdoor activities. The turning point came when she and her gunmaker partner found themselves constantly battling arbitrary community guidelines that failed to understand the nuances of rural life. Rather than simply complaining, they took action – creating a digital space where hunters, shooters, and countryside enthusiasts could share without fear of censorship.
Unlike the dopamine-driven algorithms of mainstream platforms, Stile prioritizes quality connections over endless scrolling. The app's innovative features include location filtering to help users connect with like-minded people nearby, interest categories to customize content feeds, and a philosophy that encourages putting your phone down to actually enjoy the outdoors. Most refreshingly, Stile hides follower counts from public view, combating the harmful comparison culture that plagues conventional social media.
The platform has already attracted 1,500 users since its December launch, with support from organizations like the British Deer Society and a surprisingly balanced gender ratio approaching 50/50. While still in its early stages with plans to add video capabilities and other enhancements, Stile represents something increasingly rare in the digital landscape – a community-driven space that reflects the values of those who use it.
Whether you're tired of having your hunting photos removed, frustrated by arbitrary restrictions on firearm content, or simply seeking more meaningful connections with fellow countryside enthusiasts, Stile offers a refreshing alternative to the mainstream. Download the app today and join a growing community that celebrates rather than censors your outdoor lifestyle.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Outdoor Gibbon Podcast. I think this is episode 70. Wow, 70 episodes. There you go, flying along with episodes, flying along with the year. We are well into August.
Speaker 2:The grouse season was a good 11, 12 days ago. It actually means that that is the official start of the the game season. It only feels like yesterday that we were packing the shotguns up and that was the end of the game season, but uh, yeah, 2025 seems to be flying along very quickly. Hopefully we can slow it down a bit. So the uh, the start of the grass season was an interesting one. Interesting one.
Speaker 2:We decided to go for a walk on the 12th. Just myself and Tom down on the hill in Angus, took the dogs out. Absolutely fantastic day. Crystal clear, you could see for miles, very warm. We had a gentle stroll through the heather. It was a massive fly hatch. So over the top of the heather was just absolutely tons of black flies. Didn't seem to bother us too much. The dogs were quite content. We we wandered about, but I think because it was so hot nothing really wanted to move or it all moved off into cooler areas. But a good walk all the way around the hill took in quite a bit, didn't really see a lot. The black grouse got up in front of me a long way off and and flew out and yeah we, we got back to the motors.
Speaker 2:It was more of a catch-up start of the season, if you know what I mean, just sort of generally chatting out tactics for what we're going to do with the stags, walked up days and stuff like that, but it was. It was very pleasant to be out. What was nice while I was out was I had a message come through. First of all it it scared the hell out of me because it was about shooting rates and I looked at it and was like, oh no, what's going on? And it was the land to do with my syndicate. However, it was actually a pleasant surprise that I discovered that my landowner had a shooting rights on a small bit of grouse moor that I didn't even know about. So got to have a look at that a week later and discovered that we've actually got grouse, a beautiful bit of hillside and, yeah, not far from home as well. So another, another, really good, good day really.
Speaker 2:So where are we in the year now we are? Well, obviously we're into august, stags are in play. We're getting ready to uh to start getting guests out on the hill for those I know some estates already started. We've had lots of days of. Some estates have been out on the grouse already. Uh, you see photos on social media. It seems to be going quite well. It's just uh getting ready for it. I think my pheasants, my first batch of pheasants, turn up on friday. No saturday even so. Uh, we will be. Uh, we'll be very busy, very busy indeed. It's going to be a full-on year this year, having a pheasant shoot dealing with stags. Roebuck's still's still in at the moment. So we'll see how we get on.
Speaker 2:For anybody that listened in Scotland that came to the Moy Game Fair, you'll all know that we had those absolutely horrendous wins about a week before, and then that was for the setup of Moy. We had lots of tree damage and things like that again up this part of the country and unfortunately the Moy Game Fair was was cancelled, along with other shows. For example, our local local farming show, tariff show, was was cancelled after one day as well, due to high winds. The winds cleared off and it's it's really strange, but all the trees look as though they've almost been burnt around us. They're losing leaves because we've had such dry weather, this horrendous wind that came in. It's almost like looking out and it's turned to autumn very quickly.
Speaker 2:I think all the farmers are struggling massively. Harvests are down because it's been so dry for the beginning of the year. I was in one of the barley sheds today and I'm looking around going. They've cut four or five fields but there doesn't look to be enough enough crop in here and chatting with them they were saying that the yields are really down and the crops aren't there and they've almost died three weeks early. It's very unusual. Normally the grass margins get cut first, but to actually, on one of the farms, have the the fields with all the crop in it cut and the grass margins still to be standing is something I've never seen in the 10 years of living in Scotland.
Speaker 2:So it's certainly going to be a rocky ride through the year for everybody. I don't know how the farmers are going to do because obviously grain prices will be all over the place, but we'll just have to ride it out and see. So in this recording I have a great chat with Rachel Draper, who is the creator of the new social media app called Style. It's still in its infancy and we chat about the whole process and getting the app up and running, so hopefully you'll enjoy that chat. Anyway, let's get on and have a listen. The Outdoor Given podcast is proudly sponsored by the shooting and hunting academy, an online training platform and uk registered learning provider that provides a host of accredited and nationally available courses and masterclasses delivered by leading industry experts.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to another episode of the Outdoor Gibbon podcast. Tonight I am joined by Rachel from Style Country, the new social media platform. How are you doing? I'm very well, thank you. Thank you for having me on, no problem at all. So you are the face of this new platform. Let's get a bit of background about who you are and sort of how this all came into being.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course I will bore you with a really long story but I'm sure you can cut bits out. But I grew up on a small holding in Warwickshire so I was kind of introduced to farming field sports really early on. My father is a livestock auctioneer and still is still works in the market and he introduced me to game shooting when I was sort of five or six, really you know out picking up with the youth Sliff, labrador and just on farm shoots. But it really introduced me to that sort of you know, countryside community. As I grew up I took up clay shooting and really enjoyed it and then when I reached, I think, about 19, I started working for William Evans in London and they they sell guns and clothing, country clothing, um. And then I spent the next sort of 10 years working in the sort of shooting industry, um, and have enjoyed pretty much all of it really.
Speaker 3:I met my partner, my soon-to-be husband, um, who is a gun maker. I met him through work and we've sort of built our life around um, country pursuits and and gun making and um, and we share a lot of it online and that is kind of where style came about, um. So we've always found that gun related content doesn't necessarily go down so well on social media, as I'm sure a fair few of your listeners will have felt. Really anything field, sports related and even farming. You sometimes get the trolling or you get the shadow banning or the sort of breaches of community guidelines and we were just getting a bit fed up with it and we thought that you you know the big players in in the sort of social media space were never really going to listen to. It's quite a niche market when you're talking to sort of global social media platform. I was gonna?
Speaker 2:yeah, I was gonna. I was gonna say, considering that, obviously, the creator of the metaverse as, whatever his world, he is or was into hunting, and that's the crazy side to it, isn't it? You've got this fantastic platform, these platforms that we thought were going to be free speech, you could get away with what you wanted on them, created by a guy that actually has a passion for the outdoors, and all of a sudden, yeah, anything that we want to do that sort of speaks about the real world is a is an unliked, or um is a is a taboo subject I think that the problem with sort of the big social platforms is they've grown so big.
Speaker 3:They're such a big machine, aren't they? It's, it doesn't really cater for almost individual interests. It's just community guidelines that stretch across the globe and they don't take into account, you know, uk firearms licensing or or any of the kind of nuance around field sports. It's just, if it's guns it could potentially be bad but?
Speaker 2:but the crazy bit is, you read the guidelines and if you put up a picture of a gun or something like that, you're banned because it's drugs or uh something. And it's like, well, hang on a minute, how does this work? So they've tied that any. Any picture of a firearm scope or anything like that is obviously you're a drug runner and therefore we better ban you, kind of thing. And it's just like, yeah, wow, their AI just really doesn't. There's not a person sitting there going click, I don't like that. There is just an algorithm that's running through that and going yeah, it's a gum, must ban it.
Speaker 3:That's it, that's 100% it. And because I understand it, because it's such a big, you know it's a big business and there can't be a person sat there looking at every post, can they? Because it's so. You know so many posts going through, um, but just as my partner has his own gun making company, we sort of found it really frustrating with him trying to advertise his work, um, and we just thought that there's got to be a better way, because there's so many positives about social media, you know, meeting people who you wouldn't meet in day-to-day life, because chances are, if you live rurally, you might not see everyone, people that live hours away. If you're in the deepest, darkest depths of Scotland, you might not see that many people on a hours away. If you're in the deepest, darkest depths of scotland, you might not see that many people on day-to-day basis oh no, absolutely, and social media is is my.
Speaker 2:We were just. I was just literally talking to a friend of mine in, uh, in belgium, and that's how he's a hunter and I and he said, where exactly are you? And I was like he wants to come and visit. I sent him the details and he was like he wants to come and visit. I sent him the details and he got it on the map, but he went. That's 12 hours of driving. I think I might pass on that one at the moment. I'm like exactly, I'm as far up in the northeast of Scotland as you can go that's it exactly.
Speaker 3:And yeah, and you can. You can meet people you know online now. It opens so many doors and people can make you know, know, make careers out of it, and there's so much good that can come from it. You know, educating people who would never have a chance to maybe see shooting or hunting in their day to day life. They can find out more about it online, can't they? So we thought that we want to keep a lot of that side of things. We thought that we want to keep a lot of that side of things.
Speaker 3:But social media in the bigger picture has gone on to this short form content, this addictive sort of just advertising beast, really, that just wants to take your attention and it's not always in a positive way.
Speaker 3:We wanted to have a go at doing something a little bit different and really taking it back to the start of sort of Facebook and Instagram where and you just saw what your friends were doing, you know, on last weekend and looking stupid in the pub it was it was so much more wholesome, wasn't it? Rather, it was. You know. Now we've got influencers and and all sorts of things, and that's not a bad thing at all, but it's just, I think it's grown, it's almost outgrown us, and now we need to be really conscious of how we're consuming social media and style. We just wanted to create a place where people could meet each other digitally, learn a little bit, make new friends and then put their phones down and go out and do their field sports activities, ideally with these new people, um, and kind of get the best of both worlds so that was something I was looking at, because obviously that's part of the one of the features of style is you were just saying about meeting people locally.
Speaker 2:You've got like a filter so you can actually select how far away the people that obviously appear on your feed are. So, just out of curiosity, I wound mine down to to five miles. Well, there was nobody pushed it up to 50 miles. I almost need sort of the 600 mile mark, if you can, so that I can actually get people. But it's one of those things it's. It's in its early infancy. When did you actually launch the, the app?
Speaker 3:yes, absolutely so. It's very new. So we launched um at christmas. Okay, so we are. We're just hitting six months now, aren't we um? We came up with the idea last sort of february and then got talking to people in sort of march and had it built um all of last summer and through the autumn and then went live at Christmas. So, yes, it's very early days. It's essentially an MVP. It's the most basic thing we felt we could put out there. But we wanted to just get it out there and get some feedback, because you know, you can spend years trying to create this perfect app, perfect product. If you're not getting people using it, what you might like might not actually be that relevant.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, how are you finding the uptake? Obviously, I never got a chance to speak to you at the stalking show, but it was obviously you had a stand there and it seemed as though you had. As I was running around the place trying to talk to people and see things, there was always people coming to the stand and and interacting with you, so was that a positive experience absolutely yes.
Speaker 3:So we, um, so we. My partner, ian and his gun making business so he has exhibited at the stalking show last year as well and he had a stand again um, it's such a great event. We really, really think, you know, we back it so much Just really enjoyable. And the people you meet there are so well, everyone's there for a real reason. They, you know, they love what they do, don't they?
Speaker 3:And they're quite well informed and some of the conversations are brilliant. We found that pretty much everyone has liked the idea. We've had some great feedback on how we can improve. There's always a few teething issues, definitely people sort of signing up for the first time. It wasn't the smoothest process initially, um, so learning as we go, but I think pretty much everyone has said oh yeah, I kind of get that. I think you, I think that's probably worth doing, so yeah, hopefully it's got a lot of potential.
Speaker 2:I was going to say, because that's one of the big questions. Obviously, we touched on the big platforms. You've got out there and they have the ability that everybody knows of them and the interaction and the connection is massive. And it's people that log on to them aren't just there for, say, you've got a guy that's into his pheasant shooting. Well, they're not just logging on to Instagram to look at all the pheasant shooters, but they see the celebrity they like and they see the car advert or they see a bit of Clarkson's Farm, and that all comes through. Obviously, style at the moment is in its infancy. How do you plan to get the people to sort of go? Actually, I do want to use this app, but I'm not going to see every.
Speaker 3:I'm still going to probably end up using instagram or facebook or tiktok or something like that yeah, definitely, to be honest, we don't really want to compete with Instagram because they're so well known, so big and, like you say, I think they do a lot of good, because if you're posting on there, chances are the content will get to people that aren't involved in field sports, and that's still a really important thing to do, you know, spread that um and sort of bang the drum to other people.
Speaker 3:What we want to do with style is just, if you want a break from the kind of constant advertising, the constant bombardment of what's on social platforms, you can sort of find more, maybe organic content on there, or you can just have a place that's sort of free of the relentless adverts, free, hopefully, of the trolling. We've, you know, a zero tolerance on trolling and because, as it grows, it may be a target for antis, but I think, because pretty much everyone on there is pro field sports, there's no point in the antis getting on there really, because they're going to be, you know, shot down pretty hard yeah hopefully it will be much more of a sort of fair playing field in that sense.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, we're not looking to compete in terms of growing. We just want to keep having conversations with people really and sort of, you know, promoting the values behind it, the motivation behind it and, and hopefully, as it grows, people start finding interesting content. Um, and yeah, I think the problem is I think a lot of people are used to if you get a lot of likes, that is it, does you know your self-esteem good, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:it's the, it's the dopamine hit, isn't it? Because that's the whole thing about it. The body, the brain has this wonderful thing. The more likes you get, that little bit of dopamine kicks out and you get a bit of a buzz and and that's what social media is, is anything's about. It's that gratification. And you're getting it because, oh, I put this picture up and, oh, I got 20 likes or I've got. Suddenly you go to the next level and it's 200, and the next level it's 2000, and it's just like, wow, you can't and and at that point it's the constant, I've got to put more up, more up, more up. But hopefully people won't use your platform for that sort of sort of way of looking at it.
Speaker 3:That's exactly because, yes, I think you're always chasing on the current platforms for that, as you say, Whereas on Sky you might only get five likes, but someone that comments might be a you know, a genuine person that you have a real connection with, because it's kind of quality over quantity. It is what we're aiming for fantastic.
Speaker 2:So have you, obviously with this as a startup, are you trying to push it out and have you spoken or you may well have done? Have you spoken to any of like the big organizations? Ask the ngo and stuff like that to to help drive it, because obviously they've got as I find they've already got a fantastic database of all their members yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3:So. We've had a few conversations. We have um had one or two conversations with Basque um. We've spoken to the British Deer Society, who've been really supportive. Um the stalking excuse me, a stalking show. Um, david and diane have been wonderfully supportive. They've sort of sent out a bit of promotional um, bits for style, and, yeah, we're sort of we're having those initial conversations. I think everyone's very busy and you sort of have to prove yourself before people usually are willing to give you their valuable time, which is understandable. So at the moment, it's sort of oh yeah, we'll take a look and you know, early days, um, so we just need to keep pushing, I think but the membership you obviously.
Speaker 2:You can see the analytics and and your numbers are growing steadily, or is it? Does you get these classic like a nice big peak after the stalking show loads of people join and then it drops off again, and things like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely peaks and troughs, but overall it's growing steadily. So we've hit just over 1,500 users, so difficult to say if that's good or not.
Speaker 2:really it's, um, it's going up steadily, as we say, so I as I said that, to be honest, for something that's just just launched, you've, you've clicked over the 1500 users. It's it's. It's pretty good to be honest, isn't it? At at the end of the day, it's a positive sign that there's 1500 people on there but have actually taken the time to join, and it's like anything. It's like listeners to the podcast. You look at the analytics and you think, oh, is it growing? But then people come and talk to you and say, oh, I listened to that and I've told somebody else and all of a sudden, that's all it means, you've got an audience all it means you've got an audience.
Speaker 3:That's it exactly. And I think, again, it does go back to the sort of quality over quantity, because if you can, just if there's a few people that really believe in what you're doing and really enjoy it, I think it's worth doing, isn't it? Even if it's not hundreds of thousands a hundred percent.
Speaker 2:I was going to say when you said that the thing that gets me is the british deer society. I feel their audience is audiences is sort of potentially it's an older generation. It's how you get the younger, that younger generation, and because, at the end of the day, yes, there's, there's lots of people. You can see it with Instagram, facebook and all the rest of it there's different, different generations use different parts of it. So Facebook is now everybody uses that, but that's the whole world's on facebook. But then there's instagram, there's the tiktoks of this world and so on and so forth. It's so it's how you're going to mark it out, to get that new generation of of people on board yeah, that is a tricky one because sort of country life does impact lots of different generations, doesn't it?
Speaker 3:there's so many different people in shooting and hunting. Um, the younger generation tending to be a bit more tech savvy, but yeah, it is a tricky one. I think we just have to keep looking at different avenues. Really, we're trying to work with people that have communities already. You know, like the stalking show, like yourself, to a certain extent, anyone that has a following.
Speaker 2:You've kind of done the hard work already no, and that's the best way in some cases to actually if it, if that's what that's what this whole community is about really, if we all share and support each other, we go forward as a one. The biggest problem, I find, I think at the moment and I'm not sure whether you would agree, but there's, there's still this well, we want to be number one at this and we don't want to share that with anybody, and it's like well, actually, guys, we're all doing the same thing and that's what we should be doing.
Speaker 3:That's it Exactly. And we are finding that the sort of people with potentially a smaller following or who do it through passion, rather than the really big companies, are much more receptive to working together. Companies are much more receptive to working together because I think they just see, you know, even if you're the new kid on the block, if you're doing it for the right reasons, exactly as you say, we can build together and it helps everyone. I think when you start kind of yeah, closing in your audience and it's just, this is all mine, it's not really the point of promoting what we're trying to promote. Um, so yeah, hopefully working with the right people is what it's all about, and giving back as well yeah, I think I think you're right.
Speaker 2:I think that's the difficult part. As you say, the bigger companies are like, well, we've got our advertising budget, we've done all of this, we're here because that's we've spent money, and it's like, well, actually, guys, you could, it doesn't cost you anything. Just to give somebody else a bit of a hey, here you go, step up the ladder, kind of thing. Here's a free bit of advertising on us and and, and I think that's the thing with this, with our community as it is. I think there's a slight breakdown in it.
Speaker 2:We have, we have rifts within the shooting community, and I think that's the biggest problem and we need as a. I think we've spoken I've spoken about this on many different platforms and podcasts and things like that about going forward as a one, and I think it was last, not last year, but the year before stalking show, the, the chairman no, the ceo of the british deer society did a lovely chat with me about going forward together. It doesn't matter where you come from. We've all got to drive in the same direction and I think that probably ties in beautifully for your platform.
Speaker 3:It's a way of linking everybody together yeah, that's exactly it, because I think in this industry, a lot of even if you look at a lot of the skills and the knowledge, and especially with a lot of people maybe not understanding the field sports industry, if we don't work as a team, we just allow know criticism to hit harder, I think, whereas if we just put on a united front, um, we do better for everyone.
Speaker 3:And yeah, style is really it's. It's about connecting people. I think one of the features we wanted to put on there was you can select what category you're interested in, because the field sports and countryside kind of community is quite a big one and someone who enjoys one part of it might not enjoy another part necessarily or want to maybe see certain content, but it gives the user control over that, rather than us trying to ban certain things, things. So it's a place to connect everyone whilst giving people control on what they want to see and what they want to share yeah, no, I have seen that that you can, because, because the the nature of field sports, it goes from everything, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:it does allow you to say because they're well, I know people that are involved, that are, they're into their, their equine, but they still don't like the idea of the shooting and things like that. So it still allows them to connect with people from that area, but they don't have to see the deer stalker or the the vermin control guy doing what he does. They know it happens, but they don't want it in their, in their connection that's it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's it exactly. It's being a united community, um, and and sort of taking from it what you want ideal, okay, okay, that that's good.
Speaker 2:So what's the sort of the? The main push and then the drive. Obviously, now for style. How are you going to get yourself going forward?
Speaker 3:yeah, so that is the question. So, um, we are hoping to do some really big updates soon, so just making the app better. Um, introducing videos is a big thing because at the moment it is just photos. We've done that because we are self-funding it and the data costs can get a little bit scary. So we've sort of initially wanted to start with just photos to make it all manageable. But we do appreciate videos need to be on there. So that's coming soon. And then just a few extra little bits to help people sort of find what they want to find on the app. We're potentially speaking to a few investors if we could get some investment that was.
Speaker 2:That was my next question for you. It's like you just said, self-funding and obviously anything like that. I know that. I know the feeling it. It just the cost can suddenly run away. Um, so yeah, getting a, getting an investor on board, but everybody at the moment is sort of tightening the purse strings and and there's no budgets for anything, it seems that's it, and it's a tricky thing in that you know we're not at sort of vc investment level at all.
Speaker 3:It's going to have to be an angel and it's going to have to be someone that you know loves the countryside and feels passionately about it. Um, so we're just we're looking for the right person and that would change, change the kind of the short term future. I think we'll get to where we need to be, but it would give us a lot of options pretty quickly if we could do that. But other than that, it's just sort of trying to do some projects with really cool people. We've got some something in the pipeline with the DeerCast. I know you've spoken, been on their podcast podcast before, and we think they're great guys. So we've got a sort of a little project lined up with them and just doing some really cool stuff like that. Hopefully people enjoy the content we can then put out from it and it grows us you know our audience and it grows their audience and, yeah, a win-win for everyone, hopefully.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, no, no, a hundred percent, and I think that that's the way forward. Obviously, getting investors and stuff like that. That that's one of the questions. Are they going to then want advertising? Because you say about we talked about other social media rams adverts down your, down your throat? Obviously, the next thing you've got is, if you suddenly take investors on, they're going to want to see either some sort of adverts or stuff like that. So suddenly you have to run ads through the app and at that point do you become more ad related just to get income?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we will have to monetize it at some point. The plan for it is to never do the sort of paid ad strategy but to charge a small monthly fee for business pages. And business pages have additional features like analytics, and you can do posts that have a link so it can take you directly through to a website, product page, wherever you want to direct your audience. But we felt that a monthly subscription subscription not yet once the apps you know the, the audience is big enough to sort of warrant that um would be the fairest way so that everyone is on sort of a fair playing field, because with paid ads a small business is never going to be able to compete with a large business that has this huge marketing budget that can just dominate the, the audience basically. So we sort of felt that if it was a manageable amount for you know pretty much everyone it would would be a bit fairer and hopefully they'll get value back um and then sort of work for everyone the outdoor.
Speaker 2:Given podcast is proudly sponsored by the Shooting and Hunting Academy. Through the Academy, shooters, hunters and those involved in the use of firearms can gain an in-depth and unique level of training that enables them to shoot better, behave more effectively in the field, up their strike rates, as well as learning new skills, crucially those new to deer stalking. The academy also offers the proficient deer stalker certificate level one, the PDS1, a deer management certificate that is nationally recognized and accredited both by Lantra and UK Rural Skills. Visit the Shooting and Hunting Academy to find out more. Let's get back to the show and no, no, I, I agree.
Speaker 2:So no, that's very good and it's not going to be one of those things that everybody feels oh well, I, we've put an advert out, but we only get seen once a month or something like that, and they've got a big business that's there plowing money into it and and literally dominating your feed and to the point where you're like I don't want to use the app. All I ever see is this or that. Uh, so yeah, okay, it's interesting. So obviously you've. You were just talking about the earlier on, we were talking about the social media issues with the shadow banning and and things like that. How because it seems to go across the entire internet we talk about our activities being scrutinized, which doesn't matter what we, where we are. And I think the UK, we're probably the worst for it, because you take Austria, germany, you take Europe hunting is still very much part of the lifestyle, whereas the UK everything is very fluffy and Disney's had a massive, massive effect on us. How do we dry? How does style plan to sort of break that mold kind of thing?
Speaker 3:yeah. So I think the biggest thing with style is we want you people to be able to post whatever they want to post.
Speaker 3:Now that does throw issues, because obviously it has to be legal, of course yes we want it to be respectful to the quarry and moral, and that is, I suppose, to a certain extent individual. What's one person would find acceptable, another person might not. I think, again, that comes down to the sort of the filtering system, and we do have a reporting system on there and you know you can report posts that aren't that you don't like, and at the moment it is us monitoring it as it grows. We have to bring more people in um, but it is a tricky one because, yeah, we want it to be free speech of you know a bit strong, I don't know if you can ever have sort of free speech, but we want people to be able to share the, I think the reality of um, you know, hunting, farming, the reality of life, really everything dies, every animal die, mother nature is pretty graphic and cruel.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, but mother, mother nature is. Is is a pretty, she's a pretty cruel person when it comes to it and life is pretty harsh, especially farming, as you say, farming in the wildlife. It's. It's not pretty, but I think we've conditioned. Unfortunately, people are so well conditioned. Even within the stalking community, um, or the hunting community as a, as a general place, people still are conditioned about the graphics of things and I think, yes, stuff should be shown. But I think, as we are ambassadors, everybody that posts on social media technically is an ambassador for the countryside. It needs to have some sort of regulation of itself. So is that something that style could sort of do not training, but give people that sort of if you're going to post a picture of something dead, try to post it like this rather than here's the, here's the sunny, and not not the sunny side up, if you know what I mean kind of picture yeah, absolutely it's finding that line, isn't it?
Speaker 3:because I know there were some guidelines sent out about, you know, posting about field sports by one of the bigger players in the industry and they were great guidelines.
Speaker 3:But it's difficult to tell someone not to show blood or not to, you know, really show their quarry and to kind of soon you end up just having a photo shoot of a walk in the woods, maybe hinting at a rifle and a deer, and you kind of missed the rawness of the hunt and the experience.
Speaker 3:The other end of the spectrum is, you know, people showing, you know not decent shots and all sorts of things that aren't respectful to the quarry. So, absolutely, I think what we're hoping to build is that style will be so community-led because it will always be smaller than Instagram or any other platform. It will be led by the people who feel really strongly about promoting the countryside and they will hopefully self-regulate and manage and actually people that are posting stuff that is not, you know, seen as respectful will be called out on it, hopefully in a respectful, educational way of that's not right, tone it down instead of this blanket ban. So what we're hoping is that people that have the kind of the best interest of the countryside will be the overarching voice of style no, that's a little naive to think, but well it's.
Speaker 2:It's a hope, I suppose, isn't it? Because I think I think back to how things started and we had before facebook and all the rest of them. It was like the bulletin boards and and you log on to the stalking directory and stuff like that, and there was always a thousand experts who put something up, and there was a thousand thousand experts who put something up and there was a thousand comments, and I'm sure it was the same with the farming community, but most farmers never bothered going online. They just met people at the mart and had a chat about it. Um, but it's one of those things that, yes, I hope there is, but also, on the flip side of that, I know just how bad the community can be for being very what's the word? Negative about things. And and hopefully your platform doesn't attract that side of the situation we want everybody to have a. A constructive criticism is great, but the negativity side is is never good yes, yeah, we can tear ourselves down.
Speaker 3:I think, can't we, with this sort of infighting? And everyone's got an opinion, and I think I suppose that's that social media, as you say? Before we all had a soapbox to share our opinion. We just live and let live a bit more. You could say it's someone's base, whereas now, yeah, um, it's a lot easier, isn't it? Do you criticize? Um, I think that just has to be managed as we grow. I think that's probably the danger of growing quickly. If it could get out of hand, um, that we we will just have to to see where we go with it.
Speaker 2:I think yeah, no, well, I I really do hope that that can you see on your analytics what your male-female ratio is, because that's always an interesting topic at the end of the day to see, because you look on the other platforms and you get your scores back of what you're getting. So obviously, as a female driving this process forward, where do you sit? Is it a nice 50-50 balance or is there a definite um swing?
Speaker 3:yeah, it is closer to 50 50 actually that than I think you would think, and part of that is um. I'm a member of the country girls uk and they've been very supportive and possibly just through the people that I've kind of connected with personally and maybe brought on board um. It does have a nice balance and again, sort of slightly younger people as well as the. You know it's quite a wide um variety of users at the moment, which is lovely um, and it brings different sort of approaches, different content, different views, um. So yeah, so far, so good with that that's really good because I think that's the.
Speaker 2:The critical part is, if it's all too much imbalance, it's very difficult, and I think females in field sports is a is a massive area that everybody keeps talking about. Yet I think a lot of of females are scared to post on social media for the, the instant backlash or the, the, the knockdown of some fella that shoots one deer a year but he's an expert and tells them they're doing everything wrong yeah, absolutely yeah, as you say, everyone has an opinion, I think.
Speaker 3:I think a lot of time people are trying to help, aren't they? And actually they're not. They're not helping at all, they're just knocking people's confidence. Um, I think it swings the other way and you get a lot of people, a lot of influencers, who are potentially looking the part and posting to attract a certain audience, that are not involved in the activities properly or you know it's a little bit false as well. So you get a spectrum of different users, um, and yeah, no, we've had some really wonderful people join who are young women, who actually they shoot really regularly. You know they're out every week. Um, they know more than the most guys probably, um, and could probably out shoot them as well. So, yeah, it's wonderful to see different sort of ambassadors, you say people with different representations of you know water, a game shot or a hunter looks like these days.
Speaker 2:No, and I think that's really good, that's really positive. Just going back to that topic, we were talking about getting the younger generation in. It's really difficult because we've seen up here with, obviously, shoots closing, you no longer get the young kids coming out for beating days. Get the young kids coming out for beating days around. So around me there used to be three, at least three or four large commercial shoots. They've all gone. So you now have lost that community of actually bringing the kids out for a day. And I know it's happening in england where shoots are struggling and the farm shoots are still there but they're not quite the same as the big commercial shoot where everybody can come in. How do we keep that, that younger generation interested, rather than sitting there on the games console or social media? Because I think that was the whole thing. For me it was you're out in the, in the countryside yeah, absolutely, and that's how I was introduced to it.
Speaker 3:It is that, um, you know you go along with your dad, or maybe your mum, or your aunt, uncle, and probably especially as a woman as well. If you're not, it can be quite daunting. You know, turning up at a playground, or you know I'm not very confident in stalking and having to arrange to go out with someone. It's really difficult, isn't it, to take that first step. I don't think children spend as much time outside in general these days, do they, because I just there weren't the options to sit at home when well, they can be glued to a screen now and they're like I can be in the warm, I don't have to get wet walking.
Speaker 2:What's that? Uh, exactly, I think as kids we never had that, and it was you would. Even mobile phones and technology now I'm showing my age you used to phone up somebody on the landline and you would arrange to meet them at somewhere tomorrow and you'd turn up and wait there and if they didn't turn up, you'd hang around for a bit longer and then you'd go home, whereas now it's the instant where are you, what you're doing, how far away are you, can you put me on the map, kind of thing. And I think that's the. That's the difference it's trying to explain to them.
Speaker 3:The countryside is fun yeah, absolutely, and I mean hopefully style can play a part in this. But I think the approach to just getting rid of social media isn't the right one because, as you say, you know the kids are on it and we need to use it positively to kind of bridge the gap between screen time and getting outside. I think all the young shots courses, you know the clay crowns, or anyone that can be actively involved in um, you know, taking their own children out, taking their their, you know, hopefully not random children out, but you know their nieces and nephews, anyone, yes, just getting anybody involved. There are open farms now, aren't there? Or there are, you know, working farms that have days where schools can come and see what's going on.
Speaker 3:It's a huge issue. I think you know the separation that sort of some children and even some adults have between where their food comes from. It comes from supermarket, okay, but no, there's no way to do that, but that's where what they see um. So, yeah, I think it's a systemic problem. Hopefully using social media well and thoughtfully can help to. You know, if they can meet people on there, you know, under parent, parental guidance, but see some really fun looking activities and then hopefully arrange to go and do it and actually get out there style I was going to say do you think style could be something that actually becomes more of a facilitator for this?
Speaker 2:because obviously, the things you were talking about getting people linking together and doing stuff like that this, this platform, potentially, as well as obviously showing all the pretty pictures of stuff we're doing and all the rest of it, could actually put people in contact with with others and and start to make those connections I would absolutely love it, too, when we sat and sort of went around the concept of style and what we wanted it to be.
Speaker 3:Um, you know I was talking about I'd love if we could have a hub on there, some kind of educational hub or portal where you can log in and there's videos, tutorials, lambing live all sort of happens on instagram. I know there are so many farming influences that do live, lambings and all sorts of things, but I think if we could have a dedicated place for the countryside, it would be easier to manage. Um, you know, and you could connect schools. You could have schools using it for that sort of thing. They, yeah, there's so so many options, so much potential with it. I think further down the road, but I really exactly as you say, I want it to be a social media app that facilitates real life experiences, rather than an app that wants to keep you on the app and if, if that makes sense, you need to get out there yeah, that makes perfect sense.
Speaker 2:So it it's kind of like you can plan your weekend and go well, actually, oh, I can go here, I can talk to this person, blah, blah, blah. Right, I can put the phone away now. Go out, take a few photos of my day, come home, I'll show, I'll share my experience. But I don't have to spend the entire day scrolling through random videos of somebody crashing a car and this and that and all the rest of it and you're just like, what have I actually done? Oh, I've done nothing all day. I've just sat on the phone. Oh, my screen time is massively up. Oh, and I got three likes Excellent, happy days.
Speaker 3:A hundred percent. That is completely it, because I go on Instagram to look at something someone's profile for a you know just to find out some information Before I know it. I'm looking at something that I don't even want to look at, but it captures your attention and it keeps coming up and you, yeah. Every time you go on there, it's another 10 minutes out of your day.
Speaker 2:Well, it's like you click on the search and it's completely irrelevant things, unless you're about to type something in to find somebody's profile, but it's sort of that one oh, I'll see what that is and that video leads you to the next reel or the next set of photos and, as you say, an hour's gone by, your cup of tea's gone cold and all of a sudden it's like I really should go do some work exactly, yes.
Speaker 3:So yeah, we want style to be that, that middleman, yeah, that gets you, gets you out there, gets you sharing um, that doesn't take away from your time outside fantastic.
Speaker 2:So how is how do you plan to? Obviously I don't know, we don't think we cover this how do you plan to get the word out there? Obviously you can't be at every show and you can't talk to every individual in the uk. So what's the next plan to to drive you forward and get that membership to grow?
Speaker 3:I mean that is the big question. We've exhausted our budget. To be honest, it's taking quite a lot of money to build the app, um and maintain it. So we're trying to get creative. We are at the game fair, you know. We're going to be talking to people there, um. I think we we're talking to a few different people about sort of doing small promotional, you know, projects, a little bit paid advertising, um. We'd rather not put loads of money into kind of traditional marketing because it feels a bit forced. We want to just, you know, just get to know people. Hopefully they sort of think we're all right people and and are willing to back us. But yeah, I think it's just trying to widen our social network, you know, our real life network, and work with people and if we can support their little ventures or just do what we can, I think I need a little bit of help with the marketing.
Speaker 2:So this is sort of the question I have to people and I put in podcasts and ask people to do.
Speaker 2:It's one of those things. I've said it about deerstalking If every deerstalker in the UK took one person out, all of a sudden that's a huge number of people that actually get to experience deerstalking. And it's the same with the podcast. If you share this podcast or any of my podcast with one person, that's another person listening. So maybe it's a drive to have that with with your. Your advertising is to say to everybody your 1500 members, for example, now share this. Because if somebody shares it and we see it starting to come up more on the normal socials I know I've shared it and and occasionally things get shared around but it's one of those things. If, if you can get the people that have got the a few thousand members to say, go look at this app, maybe that's the way forward and it's it's a bit more of a push on on those guys us to do a bit more of a push on those guys us to do a bit more of a drive for you, definitely, I mean, that would be amazing.
Speaker 3:I think another thing is really looking after the people that are already on there as well, and we're very keen to sort of take their feedback and improve it for the people that have signed up early.
Speaker 3:Because if you signed up and you enjoy using it and you kind of can see the future of it, you're more likely to share it and to keep using it and to keep, you know, pushing it around, because we can do sort of blanket marketing and receive, you know, a few more signups, but if it's not improving, it's not growing kind of from within. We don't want people to sign up and then never use it. That doesn't work for us. We want people to, you know, be on there enjoying it and using it in their sort of day-to-day life, hopefully every few weeks, but, um, so, yeah, looking after the kind of original supporters as well is a big thing, um, but, yes, absolutely, like you say, if everyone could just tell their friend they go shooting with, you know, have you tried this app? Um, that would get us a long way so the next one is will this expand?
Speaker 2:are you, do you have any plans to expand this outside of the uk? Because obviously, as we just touched on, the scandinavian and european hunting community is massive and they really do. Compared to British, british hunters, they have a, they, they have really good followings. Is there a way of getting this into Europe, do you think?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. We do actually have some users from Europe, particularly sort of gun makers from all over the world really, that have signed up. We've got someone from Australia on there, which is pretty cool. Um, so, yes, we'd love to to expand, um, you know, globally.
Speaker 3:Really, I think it worries me a little bit because I don't know that much about different hunting cultures, um, and I would love to find out more. I should take the time to do a bit more research and to you know, know, to get to know different people. But it is, you know, I am very sort of cautious of I'm probably not the right ambassador for those markets or you know, those communities, because I feel like I hopefully promote British countryside well, because I really really genuinely feel passionately about it and love it and understand it and have grown up in it. Um, so maybe, as you say, if we can find a few people out there that have a bit of a following but love what they do and represent different hunting traditions and cultures, that would be wonderful to for them to kind of take ownership of of that area and, you know, and spread it through their, their communities, and that'd be wonderful oh well, I'm, I'm pretty sure, go and listen to my back catalogue.
Speaker 2:We've trawled around europe talking to people, um, and, and there are, there are definitely people that I've spoken to that would probably, if, if it, if it as it grows, we'll probably jump on board, because I think every, every hunter I speak to, or everybody involved in in something to do with the countryside, even photographers, are getting shadow banned. I know a wildlife photographer that literally gets shadow banned because if you put something up and it's the wrong color scheme or something like that, it's classified as nudity and you're just like it's a red squirrel. How can it be nudity? Oh well, it's, it's matched the wrong color palette or something like that, and of course, all of a sudden, the squirrel gets, um, gets a shadow ban for for nudity things, and you're just like this is, this is madness, isn't it?
Speaker 3:it is madness when the amount of stuff that gets through and gets shown to you, which is actually nudity and I'm not, you know, approved or anything you can post, that doesn't offend me, but the amount of stuff that actually is slightly inappropriate 100, 100 and and and the things that we do are the real world.
Speaker 2:or a farmer shows you an issue with a cow or a lamb or something like that, which actually is, is reality. Okay, we go back to that chat, that things get banned, but yeah, the stuff that does make it through, it's crazy and nothing filters that out. And I think I've got three children and it's trying to keep them safe on the internet is the hardest part.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. We've got two young daughters who are they're only three and about 18 months at the moment. So hope you know that's a long time off, but it's scary to you know, to think about what they're going to to be accessing. And yeah, I think at the moment, at the moment, I'd rather they just don't have social media, but then they'd be missing out on so much, wouldn't they as well?
Speaker 2:so yeah, I think. I think the world's changed. The social media has a has a great, it has a very big educational things we spoke about, but it also has a very dark side. Um, and it's easy from from a few clicks you can go from something that's completely innocent to something that's pretty gruesome. And I think if style can be there is that everybody that's involved in it knows that the chances it's going to be 99 okay, you might see a dead animal, but it's 99 going to be safe. Then it is sort of the platform you want to push people towards and say, well, actually I don't mind my daughter going through that because she's going to see horses, she's going to see things that I bring home anyway. She's going to see a pheasant or a deer, that's not a problem, she, she sees that on a daily basis or a or a lamb or a calf or something of that nature. There's nothing in there that's really scary, but I don't want to see all the other gruesome stuff that you see on the other social platforms yeah, that's it.
Speaker 3:And and also the sort of comparison culture, um on. You know the bigger mainstream platforms and and there may be some of that on style, but I just can't see it in the same way. You know it's, but we hit the likes on. You know how many followers you have, um, you can see it on your own profile, but other people can't see it.
Speaker 2:I did notice that, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, whereas when you're a young man as well, I'm sure, but particularly a young woman or a teenage girl, it's all about kind of the validation you get from strangers through this app and hopefully the style is a bit more you just just real life, um. So yeah, it is a. It's a minefield, I think, isn't it?
Speaker 2:well, I, I take my hat off to you for actually being able to to to do something. So many people have talked about these apps and actually I was chatting about your app with my friend who is a photographer, because he's fed up, completely fed up with everything that goes on with the work he does. He, he does a lot of model shots and things like that, but fashionally, and yet he just spends most of his time dealing with shadow bands. He said bottoms and bums and things like that instantaneously get you a ban, and yet it's. It's crazy. And he I've pointed him in the direction of style and said well, look, they've created this, this platform. So he's thinking, well, I might need to talk to them and actually see to them how they've done it so that I can create one for the photography world at the end of the day. So it's obviously it's starting to.
Speaker 2:The cogs are rolling. You, you aren't a Mark Zuckerberg with an infinite pot of money at the end of the day, but he started off by doing this in his bedroom at university and it, it, it grew arms and legs. So hopefully, potentially we'll see in 20 years down the line we might have this conversation again and and you live in some super mansion with some super yacht that would be nice.
Speaker 3:That would be nice, um, yeah, I mean just just the same old cottage. But yeah, if we could grow a bit. And actually, you know, just people really enjoy it and make a little bit of money out of it.
Speaker 2:You know, it needs to pay for itself I think that's the key, as long as long as it goes forward and it keeps true to where you you're trying to achieve. I think that's the most important part and all we can ask for yeah, that's it, yeah it's.
Speaker 3:It's going to be a learning experience and, um, I think the biggest thing was we moaned about it for so long. And I just think, if you're, if you want to moan about something, at least try and, you know, and change it. If, if we all kind of rely on someone else doing it, um, or just just be the change you want to see, that's very cheesy, isn't it?
Speaker 2:but no, no 100 and I think I I would. I would take my hat off to you and say, yeah, I think everybody sits there and moans about it and moans that we were all banned, but yeah, you, you've actually taken the next step. Put some hard-earned cash into it and produce something. So, if anybody's listening to this I hope they are get on that. Get on that app and sign up and and support it. At the end of the day, let's, let's move it forward and hopefully, yeah, uk to start with, we'll have a fantastic platform and then we can bring all our european hunting friends in and we'll really grow this and and get it out the park, kind of thing thank you, that'd be amazing but also to everyone who use of it.
Speaker 3:If there's stuff you don't like about it or do like, do tell us. Like we want that feedback. That's, I think, is a big difference, in that it's just myself and Ian. Um, we are here to listen. You know we want to grow it for people. So any feedback that people can give don't moan about it to your friend do tell us so we can fix it no, and I think that's that's a really important one.
Speaker 2:I think far too many people just go and it happens through every industry. They'll moan about it and they'll put it up on social media. I went on this and and this was rubbish and all the rest. It's like but did you actually tell the manufacturer or the owner? Oh no, well, it's like if you go and talk to them, they can generally rectify it or get the ball rolling and make it better.
Speaker 2:Definitely yeah, that's it Give us a chance to fix it and then moan about us afterwards Fantastic. Well, I think that we've pretty much covered everything, so is there anything else that Stiles is about to do that you need to tell us about.
Speaker 3:No, I think that is the main thing. As I said, we have got some exciting improvements coming soon, but they'll be over the next month or so. We will be at the game fair. Ian's got a stand in Gunmakers Row, so he's IS Wheatman Girl and Rifle Makers, so if you see him, I'll be there at some point as well, so come and say hello.
Speaker 2:And just the main game fair. You're not coming up to Schoon, the Scottish game fair?
Speaker 3:We're not, I'm afraid. I would love to and we desperately want to get out a bit more. But with the girls as they they are, we are just a little bit we're trying to juggle, you know. You know how it is with three and that's even tougher. So yeah, we're just a little bit tied to sort of local at the moment. But give it a couple of years and we will hopefully be here, there and everywhere well, absolutely, you've got two.
Speaker 2:You've got two free advertising agents in a couple of years' time, cover them in T-shirts and send them around the place Absolutely, superb. Well, thank you very much for giving up an evening, especially when you've got youngsters as well. And, yeah, look forward to seeing how style develops.
Speaker 3:Brilliant. Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 2:No problem. Really interesting chat about social media there. So hopefully this style app could kick off and get going. It'll only get going with your support. So if you're not a member of the app already, go and find it, go log in, go sign up for it. I know they've been doing since I recorded this podcast. They've actually been doing a load more to the app, so there's more stuff going on. So I think we recorded the podcast back in June. Well, we're two months down the line now, so hopefully there's been a bit more development in there. So, yeah, go give them support. Anyway, we will catch you on the next one.