I jumped at the chance to go to the North American Taxidermy Championship this past January in Raleigh, North Carolina. I have many supporters and co-creators of Taxidermy Direct and several were going to be present at Big Rock’s show; I wanted to meet them in person: Brenda Duvall (although I already visited The Safari Room last summer and had talked with her at length); Randy Mitchell from Wild Rooms with his amazing habitat designs; and of course, Russell Knight, not for his Mounted in Alaska fame, but for his genuine interest in my success.
Russell, along with a panel of other industry-leading taxidermists, was hosting a taxidermy round table. They were scheduled to listen and answer our questions about running a taxidermy business, industry trends, and anything else we wanted to talk about. The cast of “characters” were Russell Knight, Fred Vanderburg, and Larry Blomquist, all industry leaders and legends in their own right. Knight’s Round Table didn’t disappoint. What follows are the cherry-picked highlights about business.