About 4 years ago Mark did some consultation work for us. Like most of y'all I followed his facebook and was impressed with his results. I contacted Mark for some consultation work and he came out and spent a day with us on the property. There is no doubt the guy know his stuff and his insight and direction has helped us a great deal with our deer herd and the quality of bucks we have taken over the years. However..... while he was working with us and in his prepared management plan we discussed some specific work that needed to be done on the property and discussed some ideas of how to accomplish what needed to be done. Mark gave us some names of people he knew who could handle the work and we had also had previously used a guy who did similar type work in the past. Once Mark left and completed the management plan we made several calls to the people he referred and also the guy we had used previously. Long story short we ended up using the guy we had worked with in the past because we were familiar with his work and he was going to be cheaper. He also had a different way of completing the work than the other guys mentioned and we chose to use him. Fast forward a few weeks later and I randomly get a call from Mark late one evening and he asked if we decided to use the guys he recommended to do the work. When I told him that we had decided to use the guy we used in the past and go a different route he became irate and stated that had he known we were going to use the other guy he would have never given us the idea in the first place. To be honest I was kind of taken back at first and I calmly told him that I appreciated his opinion but that we paid him good money for his services and just decided to go a different route. He then proceeded to go on and on about how his ideas were proprietary and that we had stolen his idea. I tried explaining to him again that we appreciated his consultation services and were very grateful for his work. I then let him know we just decided to go a different route and that I was unaware he was involved in this other type of work (at this point I assumed he was getting a kickback if we used his guys and that's why he was so upset). As he became angrier and angrier I just decided to end the conversation and that's the last time we've spoken.

After that conversation it all started to make sense, while I was riding around with him that day there was story after story of landowners he had worked for in the past (some of which are very well known in the outdoor industry) and there was always a common theme, pretty much that they were idiots and that he couldn't get along with them and he would either quit or would be let go after a period of time. He was just always very condescending of anyone who didn't agree with him and openly bashed anyone who didn't see it his way. All this to say that there is no doubt that the guy knows his stuff especially when it comes to managing habitat for big whitetails but he has a serious issue with getting along with people. We would have literally hired him every year to do consulting work for us bc we liked his advice so much had he not acted the way he did on the phone. This is just my two cents and I'm sure he nothing good to say about me but just wanted to share my personal experience with the guy and maybe save someone else the headache.