Doug Champion: Rodeo, Presence, and Finding Your Next Level

Man, this one’s special. Doug Champion is back on the show for round two, and honestly, this is exactly why I love doing this podcast — you meet someone, you have a great conversation, and a year later you’re picking right back up like no time passed at all.

If you don’t know Doug, he’s the guy behind Champion Living, building the first real athlete development system for rodeo — fitness, nutrition, mental training, the whole thing — because for way too long rodeo has been behind the curve compared to sports like motocross when it comes to taking care of its athletes. His brother Richie Champion is a legend in bareback riding, nine-time NFR qualifier, and Doug just watched him ride his last horses ever at the Calgary Stampede. That story alone is worth the price of admission — chills, dude.

But this conversation goes so much deeper than rodeo. We get into the real stuff: what it actually costs to build a business that’s bigger than you, the guilt of missing time with your kids while you’re out chasing elk or building something for your family’s future, losing a dog that raised you into adulthood, and the discipline it takes to stop lying to yourself about why things keep going sideways.

We also get into hunting — my brutal 2024 season, tracking a bull nine miles after he got up and walked off, Doug’s buddy Travis and the giant mule deer that got away (and then didn’t), and why I’m changing my whole approach this year to actually see more animals instead of just walking more miles.

This is one of those episodes where we start talking about rodeo and end up talking about life. Grab your coffee, settle in, and let’s get after it.

Sponsors

onX Hunt Big shoutout to onX for this episode. They just rolled out a new Share feature inside the Go Track section of the app — think old-school Garmin Rino “see your buddy on the map” tech, but done right for 2024. You and your hunting partner can now share your live location with each other right in the app (works when you’re in service, so keep that in mind). It’s a small feature but a genuinely useful one if you hunt with a crew. Check it out at onxmaps.com and use code TRO for a discount on your membership.

Bridger Watch This one’s personal — I’ve been building this thing for a long time and I’m proud of what it’s become. Bridger Watch is a smartwatch built specifically for hunters. It does everything a normal smartwatch does (health tracking, fitness, texts) but the mapping is where it separates itself — best-in-class offline maps on a wearable, and a direct integration with onX so you can send waypoints, tracks, and markups straight to your watch. Park your truck, drop a waypoint in onX, send it to your wrist — now if your phone dies or you lose it, you’ve still got your way back. It’s not trying to replace your phone maps, it’s the backup you didn’t know you needed. Go check it out at bridgerwatch.com

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Sponsors: onX Hunt’s new Share feature & Bridger Watch’s smartwatch/onX integration
• 03:30 – Welcome back, Doug! Catching up a year later
• 05:00 – Doug’s all-in on hunting now — the struggle of finding time to scout with a growing business
• 10:00 – Burnout, growing a “lifestyle business” into a real company, and redefining what leveling up looks like
• 14:00 – The guilt of stepping away from the kids, and why the newborn years might actually be easier
• 18:00 – The 40th birthday Baldy lap story — missing fireworks, and what your kids actually see when you chase big goals
• 21:00 – What’s driving the business boom — investing in mentorship and the Alex Hormozi workshop
• 24:00 – Richie Champion’s final rodeo at the Calgary Stampede — the 90-point ride, the old horse, and an ending you couldn’t script
• 30:00 – Losing a 16-year-old dog, leaning into faith, and the journaling/affirmation practice that changed everything
• 36:00 – Business wins piling up — the Hooey collab, PBR partnership talks, and the new Montana State rodeo development program
• 39:00 – Why rodeo culture is behind other sports on fitness (and the motocross parallel)
• 44:00 – What actually separates great athletes at 22 — fearlessness, trainability, and coming to terms with risk
• 47:00 – Doug’s comeback from a broken back — seven years off, CrossFit, and the best ride of his life
• 50:00 – Cody’s rough 2024 season — a release malfunction, and tracking a bull nine miles after a bad shot
• 53:00 – 2024 plans: Utah spike hunt, general tags, Travis’s giant mule deer story, and using LandTrust to find new ground
• 56:00 – Closing thoughts on staying present, choosing positivity, and where to find the Champion Living x Hooey collab

Three Key Takeaways

1. Discipline beats intensity, every time. Both Doug and Cody hammer the same point from two totally different worlds (rodeo and elk hunting): the guys who succeed aren’t the ones grinding 80 hours a week or hiking 20 miles a day — they’re the ones being methodical, controlling what they can control, and getting a little better every single day. Effort without direction just burns you out.
2. Presence is a practice, not a personality trait. Doug’s shift toward journaling, writing daily affirmations, and consciously catching negative thought patterns didn’t happen overnight — it took months before he noticed a real shift. The takeaway: rewiring how you show up for your business, your family, and yourself is trainable, even if it feels slow and unglamorous at first.
3. The guilt of chasing your goals doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. Whether it’s missing a birthday for a training run or being gone during hunting season, both guys wrestle with feeling like they’re stealing time from their families. But as Doug’s own kid showed him — sometimes what looks like absence to you looks like inspiration to them.