Janet Holcomb, First Lady of the State of Indiana. State of Indiana photo with permission.
QA Outdoors
Janet, you’re the First Lady of the state of Indiana, but this is for your last year, right? You and your husband are term limited out.
Janet Holcomb
We are in our last year. Yes, that's correct. We have our eighth year. And we will be in office until January of 2025.
QA Outdoors
And then what?
Janet Holcomb Well, we don't know yet. We're still figuring that out. We want to get as much done as we possibly can this year. So we're trying to stay focused on the current job. I know my husband's going to have a lot of opportunities, and I'm sure I will, as well.
So yeah, we'll start looking at things you know, in a few months.
QA Outdoors
I read the State of the State address before I came up today and I had no idea the positive state the State of Indiana was in ... it's in a really pretty good place right now.
Janet Holcomb Today, Indiana’s in a fantastic place. When Mitch Daniels was elected before Eric, he really changed the course of the state. When he took office, we were in debt.
Mitch Daniels was the OMB director for George W. Bush for a period of time and he was known as “the Blade.” He came back and went to work on changing the trajectory of the state. Changed the course of, you know, the way we do business here. Since then, we've been operating on balanced budgets and paying down debt. We have a triple-A credit rating, which we've maintained for years now.
QA Outdoors
All right, but all that ends in January, and you go to being “former First Lady…” Have you really given that much thought?
Janet Holcomb
Not a whole lot ... yet.
But, we are looking forward to a little less busy life and having a little bit more flexibility with our time and maybe a little bit more time for fun things and leisure. We’ve worked a lot for the past seven plus years.
QA Outdoors
Well, it's a good transition to more fun. Here we are at the NRA world shoot, and you're competing. I’d say that might qualify as having some fun.
Janet Holcomb I am having fun today. Kind of doing a trial run for the World Shoot, checking out all the stages. It kind of helps the organizers figure out what they need to tweak before the real competitors come in. So we’re debugging. We're the guinea pigs today, but it's been a lot of fun.
QA Outdoors
You hunt I know. You shoot. In fact, you’re an instructor, correct? Does that ever cause you any awkward moments in your “other life”? Has Anyone ever asked you “how in the world can you do that?”
Janet Holcomb
Occasionally, people ask questions.
But my focus has always been on working with women, primarily women who have never held a gun before. And I think it's very empowering for women to learn - even if they decide that it's not something that they want to pursue or continue. At least they've tried it.
Have some understanding and then a little bit about safety and safely handling a firearm safely. Loading and unloading and just, you know, understand how that how it works. It's very empowering for women to learn.
I know a lot of women that I've worked with have gone on to do a lot more training and and have progressed in their skill
set. So, yeah, Safety and Training have always been my big focuses and working on women with women and helping empower them.
QA Outdoors
Do you occasionally see one of your students have that “aha moment” — when all the different feelings start to connect? Does it come at radically different times with the women you’ve worked with?
Janet Holcomb
You know I've had some women who've had -and shared- some personal experiences.
One woman I worked with had a cousin who died of a gunshot when they were kids. Itt was really pretty traumatic for her to to take her first shots. But she got through that and I think she was really glad she did.
And there are women who, you know, are fearful of the recoil or the noise or both.
Sometimes, I have to remind them to breathe or whatever. But I find that once women get through, you know, a few shots, they start to relax and start working on groupings. Women, I think, do a great job of listening and concentrating and taking verbal instruction and translating that into what they’re doing on the range.
QA Outdoors
I taught golf to people. And I want you to “agree or disagree” with this statement; “I would rather take a woman who has never tried anything more than I would try to teach any man who has ever tried that thing just once before I've gotten them out.” Is that a fair statement?
Janet Holcomb
(Laughing) Maybe ... I think women are different. We don't feel like we know everything. And we sort of think we're a little bit more open to listening.
QA Outdoors
We all know you (women) do know everything. Especially that the key to knowledge is more..more teaching…more coaching..more shooting…more hunting. You looking forward to doing “more” in 2025?
Janet Holcomb More time hunting, and shooting, for sure. And yes, more time coaching. Yeah, I'm sure I'll start working into the schedule a little bit more. But one thing that I've been focused on in the last couple of years is a slam of North American Wild Sheep. I have gotten two sheep so far and I have my final two hunts scheduled for 2025 to complete my slam.
QA Outdoors
Well, there you go. Got to have something on your agenda for all that spare time. So where are you headed for the sheep?
Janet Holcomb
So I've already been to the Yukon for a Dall RAM, that was in 2022 and in 2023 I harvested a beautiful stone sheep in British Columbia.
I'll be going to Mexico for desert sheep and I have a landowners tag lined up in the US for a Rocky Mountain Bighorn.
QA Outdoors
Envy is probably a good place to stop — and you need to get ready to shoot. So, we’ll stop right here. Thank you for taking time to do this.
