A wandering stream, a forested trail – when you’re outdoors, there are many paths to take. Somehow Jon and Gina Brunson found the best path that exists in the outdoors – the shared one.
Gina grew up in a family large enough to staff more than two dozen baseball teams. By the time she was eighteen, she’d shared her house with the 250 children given foster care by her parents. Still, she found time for lots of fishing time with her dad, and also competed on school track, softball and gymnastics teams.
Jon also grew up fishing, and also added hunting and camping to the mix. He got his start helping his family raise and train English Pointers, and by the time he was eight years old, he faced a huge decision almost daily – which should he take into the woods with him, his bow or shotgun? His parents, brothers and sisters knew – if they needed to find Jon, there was no sense looking for him in the house. From sunup to sundown, Jon was exploring and hunting in the woods.
After college, Jon worked as a sales and marketing executive until at thirty years old, he launched his own marketing firm.
While running the new company, he also worked on software for the outdoor industry, and soon introduced Sportsmanlog.com, which branched into Huntinglog.com and Fishinglog.com. The websites gave outdoor enthusiasts a place to store information about their hunting and fishing outings – at 40,000 plus members, it’s still growing.
Jon and Gina met 18 years ago, and it wasn’t long before Gina’s natural competitive spirit focused on big whitetails. She’s taken several bucks that scored better than 150, and also record book black buck, axis deer, alligator and buffalo.
Somehow the busy couple has found time to have six children. Both say that for them, the true value of the outdoors is not in the downed game, but in watching their children learn to enjoy the outdoors as they do.
2004 found Jon and Gina welcoming another newcomer to the family – JBO Production Inc., which quickly began winning many industry awards. Due to its success, JBO Production also began to create and produce other outdoor shows, such as American Huntress and Country Boys Outdoors (featuring Chicago Bulls center Brad Miller).
In 2007, Jon and Gina packed their six children into an RV for a Florida to South Dakota road trip and whitetail hunt. It was the first show for their newest venture, Addicted to the Outdoors (ATTO), which has a revolutionary format that takes viewers along with them as they pursue game.
Choosing a name for the new show was easy, since both Jon, Gina and their children are Addicted to the Outdoors. Are they living the dream? Yes, their particular dream, where a man, his wife and their children together explore those wandering streams and forested trails of the outdoors.
