Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 504 is my conversation with two heavy hitters in the outdoor space: Chad Mendes, the former UFC featherweight title contender, and Chad Belding, founder of the Banded waterfowl brand and host of The Fowl Life. We talk about turning a love of hunting and fishing into a business, how Chad Mendes built his Fins & Feathers trip company after retiring from the cage, how the two of them ended up partnering, and the grind behind any outdoor brand worth building.
▶ Watch on YouTube · 🎧 Listen now
Chad Mendes is a former UFC featherweight fighter and two-time title contender from Hanford, California, who grew up hunting blacktail and mule deer and fishing for bass, trout, and catfish. After retiring from fighting, he built Fins & Feathers, a company that organizes guided hunting and fishing trips where everyday outdoorsmen can spend time with professional athletes and outdoor personalities.
Chad Belding is the founder of the Banded waterfowl hunting brand and the host of The Fowl Life. Based in the Reno-Tahoe area, he is a longtime figure in the outdoor industry known for building brands, working with a wide network of partners, and being, in Chad Mendes' words, a business mastermind. He partnered with Chad Mendes on outdoor ventures after the two connected through the industry.
Fins & Feathers is the company Chad Mendes launched in 2015. It puts together a year-long schedule of guided hunting and fishing trips all over the world and books clients alongside athletes and outdoor personalities. The idea is to let people get to know these figures on a personal level — around a campfire or on a boat — rather than through a quick meet-and-greet handshake and photo. The first year, every trip sold out.
The two connected through the outdoor industry, with Chad Mendes pointing to Traeger and a meeting at the NRA convention in Louisville as the original link. From there they discovered shared passions and an overlapping network of partners, and the relationship grew into a working partnership. Chad Mendes describes Belding as a business mastermind who balances out his own more scattered, high-energy approach.
Chad Mendes points out that fighting income stops the moment you stop fighting — the UFC does not keep paying retired athletes. Knowing that, he set out to build something with lasting earning potential tied to the passions he grew up with. That foresight led to Fins & Feathers and his broader move into the outdoor industry as a second career.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 504 with Chad Mendes and Chad Belding is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
I have watched both of these guys work, and I have seen Chad Mendes at one sports show after another, grinding through setup and teardown for days at a time. That is not the image most people have of a UFC title contender. What got me to put the two Chads on together is that they each made a deliberate choice to turn the outdoors into a business and then found each other to do it better. I wanted to hear how that partnership actually came together and what they have learned building it.
Chad Mendes is clear-eyed about the fight game: the money stops when the fighting stops. He explains how that reality pushed him to build Fins & Feathers and a second career in the outdoors while he still had a platform. The way he thought about life after the cage is something any athlete should hear. Press play to hear it in his words.
Chad Mendes built Fins & Feathers around real time together — campfires, boats, hunting camp — instead of a handshake and a photo. He explains why the camaraderie of the outdoors lets people actually get to know athletes, and why that was an idea nobody else in the space was really running. The first year sold out completely. Watch the YouTube player above for the full story.
The connection traces back to Traeger and a meeting at the NRA convention in Louisville. From there, shared passions and an overlapping network turned into a real partnership. Chad Mendes calls Belding a business mastermind who balances out his own scattered energy. Hear how they describe complementing each other in the episode.
▶ Watch the full conversation on YouTube · 🎧 Listen now
Both Chads are honest that the sports-show circuit is a grind — four days straight of setup, teardown, and being on your feet, show after show. They talk about why they still love it, the people you meet, and the occasional jerk you run into. It is the unglamorous reality of building a brand. Watch the player above to hear it.
Chad Mendes admits he runs hot and scattered across a lot of businesses, while Belding brings the structure. They talk about how a partnership works when the two people fill each other's gaps instead of competing. If you have ever thought about going into business with someone, this is the section to listen to.
The day after this one, what stuck with me was Chad Mendes talking about the money ending the day the fighting ends. He saw it coming and built something durable instead of riding the fame as far as it would go. That is rarer than it should be.
And the partnership piece matters. Two driven people who admit what they are bad at and let the other person carry it — that is how good businesses get built. Both Chads clearly figured that out.
▶ Watch the full conversation on YouTube · 🎧 Listen now
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Chad Mendes is a former UFC featherweight fighter and two-time title contender from Hanford, California, who built the guided-trip company Fins & Feathers after retiring from the cage. Chad Belding is the founder of the Banded waterfowl brand and the host of The Fowl Life, a longtime outdoor-industry figure based in the Reno-Tahoe area. The two partnered after connecting through the outdoor business and now collaborate on ventures rooted in hunting and fishing.
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