From the Woods to a Greater Purpose: CJ and Sydney McMahon Are Building a Life Beyond the Hunt

For CJ and Sydney McMahon, the outdoors is more than an escape from business. It is where ambition gets quiet, perspective gets sharper, and two driven people remember why they are working so hard in the first place.

CJ, a popular bowhunter, is also the founder of ATMInvestors.com, a company focused on acquiring cash-flowing ATM businesses and building investment opportunities around an industry that is decidedly less glamorous than the latest technology startup.

Sydney, a woman of faith, service, discipline and action who currently is a Senior Capital Accountant with nearly a decade of experience in healthcare finance, shares that connection to hunting, and together the couple have made the outdoor lifestyle a meaningful part of their relationship. They also share something larger: Joy in the Fight, the charity they co-founded to support families facing the terrifying reality of a loved one fighting for life in an intensive care unit while everyday financial obligations continue piling up.

“Hunting takes so much patience because there are going to be days when you sit for hours and don’t see a single thing,” Sydney says. “You still have to prepare, put in the work, and continue showing up even though there is no guarantee you’ll get the result you want that day.”

Sydney sees the same principle in business and charitable work. “Things don’t always happen on the timeline you expect, but if you stay dedicated and continue putting in the work, you are still moving closer to where you want to be.”

That mindset complements CJ’s motto: “Outwork failure.”

“I’ve failed plenty of times in my life and in business, but I’ve learned that failure doesn’t have to be final,” he says. “You can’t control every setback or circumstance, but you can control your effort, your discipline, and whether you get back up.”

For a couple balancing demanding careers and a growing nonprofit, the woods also provide something increasingly rare: silence. Sydney’s favorite hunting ground is her father’s Tennessee property, a rugged landscape of steep wooded ridges dotted with oak, chestnut and persimmon trees. CJ enjoys finding overlooked one-acre pockets around developed areas and solving the puzzle of how deer travel through them.

“Getting outdoors together gives CJ and me the chance to slow down and just be connected to nature and one another,” Sydney says. “Hunting requires you to be quiet and still, so it naturally quiets a lot of the noise that comes with everyday life.”

Their hunting styles reflect their partnership. Both use Hoyt bows with Ultraview sights, Latitude Method 2 saddles and Workhorse platforms, while Reveal X Pro trail cameras help them understand deer movement. Depending on conditions, they may saddle hunt or stay on the ground.

One ground hunt last season became particularly memorable when Sydney pursued a target buck she nicknamed “Willy Wonka.” Near a blowdown, Sydney asked CJ to try a bleat call. Seconds later, the buck charged down the hill and stopped behind a tree roughly 30 yards away. Before a clean shot appeared, it caught their ground scent and disappeared.

They went home without him, but not empty-handed.

“It was a great reminder that a successful hunt isn’t always measured by what you bring home,” Sydney says.

That philosophy reaches well beyond deer season. Joy in the Fight was created around families experiencing moments when conventional definitions of success suddenly become irrelevant. When someone is critically ill, mortgages, utility bills and other expenses do not stop. The organization is being developed to provide meaningful assistance and joyful experiences while building a foundation capable of serving families responsibly.

Nature helps keep that mission in focus for Sydney. “Being in nature reminds me that success is about so much more than money or professional accomplishments,” she says. “It is also having the freedom to be present with the people you love, appreciating what God has created, and using what you’ve been given to help other people.”

Her faith is central to that outlook. Sydney points to 1 Peter 1:6–7 and its message about trials refining faith.

The McMahons bring the same supportive dynamic to hunting that they do to their professional lives. They are competitive, Sydney admits, but never at the expense of each other. CJ has a major target buck in his sights this year, and Sydney hopes to be behind him filming when the opportunity arrives.

“His wins feel like my wins because I genuinely love celebrating him, and he gives me that same support,” she says. “We are on the same team, whether we’re hunting, building a business, or growing Joy in the Fight.”

Their upcoming wedding will not turn that shared passion into a camouflage theme. They envision something classy, timeless and elegant. The honeymoon, however, is unmistakably theirs: a horseback elk hunt in New Mexico. They are already training for the physical demands of the adventure.

Professionally, CJ plans to continue scaling ATMInvestors by acquiring cash-flowing ATM businesses, expanding its investor base and building institutional-level infrastructure. Joy in the Fight, meanwhile, remains focused on establishing the foundation necessary for long-term impact.

Yet perhaps their most useful lesson for other ambitious couples has nothing to do with scaling anything. Sydney says shared passions should restore a relationship, not become another item on a performance checklist. Sometimes she skips a hunt simply because she is not feeling it.

“You don’t always have to be accomplishing something,” she says. “Sometimes sitting quietly together in the woods or spending a day on the lake is exactly what you need to reconnect.”

For CJ and Sydney McMahon, the outdoors is where patience becomes practice, setbacks become stories and success gets stripped to its essentials. They reward preparation, humility and presence, and those are principles the McMahons are carrying from the tree stand into business, charity and the life they are building together.

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