[00:00:11.100]
Hey everybody. Welcome to the Patty G show. I’m your host, Patty G. This week, we are talking my favorite sport so it’s kind of a little bit of a selfish episode. I know, but this week we’ve got Tom Cox from Golfballs.com. I am super excited to hear about his story here about his lessons learned along the way and just ultimately the world, And of customization with in the golf industry and everything that he’s learned as he’s grown. But before we get to that one, I give a big wonderful shout out and thank you to the amazing sponsors that bring this show to you each and every week Gov’t Taco, Falaya Real Estate, Mercedes-Benz of Baton Rouge, Horizon Financial Group, and you know our outfit today is always brought to you by McLavy LTD. Now, without further ado,

[00:00:53.300]
Tom, welcome to the show. Great to be here, Patty. Thank you for taking the Trek from Lafayette and coming over to Baton Rouge benefit. If you never a problem. Getting over that bridge. It’s always, it’s always easy. Glad to be here. I fight here ahead and I feel a sense of sarcasm in that common. Which anyone who ever travels the Baton Rouge Bridge? Or the new bridge, right? The 30 year old new bridge can relate to the difficulties going through that. But for those that aren’t Aware Tom. Who are you? And what the heck do you do? So Tom Cox, the husband of another of an entrepreneur. My wife Susan is owns her own business as well, and I have a five-year-old. We have a five year old named Thomas that. It’s pretty sure he’s in charge. So, I’ve got a to entrepreneur household with a, with a five-year-old.

[00:01:45.300]
About twenty twenty seven twenty eight years ago. I had this idea to start selling golf balls on the Internet. Ah. We called the company golf balls dot Com. And ah, we have been. Ah selling online. Ah. Since that point in time. Pretty steady. Pretty pretty, consistent growth. And I’ve said it enough times. And nobody’s argued the point. I think we were the first ecommerce business in Louisiana. Okay. I think so. I don’t. I don’t. I don’t know that. Yeah. I don’t know that. Anybody predates nineteen ninety five. The only person and then it. So then the question is, in Louisiana right so graphically in Louisiana and and in golf for the longest row and God alone just running online retailer and golf? Okay then. Yeah then, yeah, you’ve got. I guess I was thinking we’ve had passed gas. Bbq guys. Yeah. I know they were in the was angry. Tackling was actually here. Or who know we had Jason Jason? Yeah. We would we had. And he came on. Gosh twenty.

[00:02:43.500]
20, 20 20 at the end of 2020 and 2021, he came on and we filmed it out at Point Marie. So know where Jason come on. And so I think y’all would compete for a Louisiana retail e-commerce. They way to admit that, we were the we be, you know, we were first to the punch. So so we definitely predated those guys, their growth curve. It greatly accelerated greatly exceeded ours over time though. So great. Business great business. Oh yeah, correct. I think it’s two different marketplaces, right way to different marketplaces but now I’m curious with I guess at the time like for a golf you got to feel it and like if you want to get fit for a club or you want to hit a ball, like you, people have that notion of I got to go, try it out, right?

[00:03:31.700]
We’re now I think like the industry or the younger generation is getting into it. Like I just need like I’m blowing through two cases of balls around. You know, mum my dad when I, when I share the idea and when I said, hey I’m going to stop the other I’m going to quit my Jo B and I’m going to focus on this thing full time. He said well what why would anybody go to a website and buy golf balls when they can go to a store and and do it right? And so it’s kind of funny because He’s to this day. He’s never, he’s got a flip phone. That’s like, 15 years old. He’s never used the internet before. But he asked the right question though, right? Like we have to do something different and we have to sell something that that gives that gives customers a reason to keep coming back to us.

[00:04:17.300]
If it’s something easy to find anywhere, it will become a commodity and commodities. Get it. It’s a race to the bottom with price. And so that’s kinda we’ve you know, he doesn’t know it. I wouldn’t give him credit for that. But of course. But ah. But we always try to do things that that you just can’t get in a store or do things differently than other people. Other people I can produce. So that’s kind of where the customization comes in. So how did you er start this endeavor? I mean, you’ve got pushback from your parents. Obviously saying that no one’s ever gonna go and buy golf balls online. It’s it’s a dumb idea. Of what? Your wife being an entrepreneur. Was she an entrepreneur at the time? Are y’all married? So it’s? What’s the opposite? Bit younger than me. I would say that she was like twelve when I started golf balls dot Com. So she’s a good bit. Yeah. She’s good. But she’s a fair fair bit younger than me. Um. So so the idea for for the biz. So I was, ah.

[00:05:11.300]
Right in college, I was working at a country club. I became a country club manager but my hobby was always technology and computers. And so when the internet came along in the early 90s, I started spending as much time as I could learning about learning about the internet Technologies and how and it just seemed really clear to me. Like it was just obvious to me. It was going to be emailed and it was going to be video and then it was going to be communication and it was going to be Commerce, and it just seemed like it just It seemed obvious that every year people were going to be doing more things and buying more things online. And so there was one week in the, maybe it was like, October of 95 when I had a meeting with a web developer to build to a web developer, who became my one of the founders of golf balls.com.

[00:06:01.800]
To build a to build a website for the country club that I was running. And then that same week, I had a meeting with some divers that dive in the ponds to pull the, you know, the ball is you weren’t supposed to take out of the ditch, the the, to pull to pull the balls out of the ponds at the at the Country Club. And and we would buy, they would buy the balls from us, that’s kind of, that’s just kind of how it works. Or they and I got the idea to combine the two, I talked to the, to the web. And said can you build an e-commerce website? And I talked to the to the divers and said, do you guys have enough inventory to start filling orders if we built the website to start selling use golf balls. And so right you know by early 96 we had launched the website started selling these golf balls online. We quickly got out of the use ball business. Yeah and started focusing on customized products but that but that’s real that’s how it got started. So I was in the golf business.

[00:06:57.900]
Technology hobby hobbyist. Ah passion. And the Internet came along. And I said, who this is gonna be pretty good. This is going to be exciting. And so I was able to marry two things that I knew and really enjoyed to to start the business. So I mean, at the time was even called ecommerce shops, whereas there a term for it. I mean, with the Internet being so so new. I feel like it would just be what. How do you even start? So ah. I remember, like even a year after we started the business. If I would hear the word Internet, somebody speaking about the Internet, like like in a restaurant, it was kind of a big deal. So it was a very you know, there was none thing mainstream about ecommerce in in in in nineteen ninety six. But what? But what it did for us is is our first year was seventeen thousand and sales.

[00:07:48.000]
1996 after 1000. Well it’s incredibly small but but it’s a proof of concept. Right. Like it’s not first. Yeah yeah. It’s a it’s a proof of concept and then your to it was 70,000 and sales and your three. It was 200,000 in sales and then like I’ve still got a full-time job going and so this is like my part-time gig and something had to give and this is still a used ball Market this at that point really in year 3 was when we started Today, we started shifting to 2, so it was like, 98 99. And we started selling customized products, new products, and customized product. So, we got out of the started facing out of the, out of the out of the use ball business, but I kind of said self this is a hobby gone awry.

[00:08:33.700]
It’s so, so it either had to be a business, or it had or had to be sold to somebody, and we ended up previously, we had, we operated under several several other domain names. But in 98, we bought the domain, I raise some Capital, raise some money for the business and we kind of became full-time just just doing that. So, that was it. I’m genuinely curious. You don’t have to answer, how much did you pay for the domain name? Ninety? Five hundred dollars. That’s it so in 98, we bought it from a Canadian, a Canadian person or company the on the secondary market, for 95 hundred dollars, we thought it

[00:09:15.400]
But go back. Right. Like like like pretty high for the nobody knew the value of domains in nine nineteen ninety seven. Right. Like it could have been. It could have been like an AOL marketplace. World you. I don’t even know if you remember. I know AOL. No oil probably morally oil. But it’s variable. Your area. But your parents probably did your fares fall. We do. Ah. So so nobody knew how it was going to go. So so spending ten thousand dollars on a domain. Ah. But for what we did it was it was spot on. And then as kind as it became obvious that that domains were important. Two years later, we bought the domain golf ball dot Com or four fifty thousand dollars. And so even even that is like a bargain. And so so it’s a, you know, I don’t know what they’d be worth today. But it’s not like we can. We can’t really decouple them from for from the business. So it’s kind of it’s kind of kind of baked into.

[00:10:10.200]
It’s baked into the business. And so part of the reason that we had, we knew we had to buy. That is, we had raised, we had raised some capital and the local newspaper ran ran a front-page business story, golf balls, doc good. No golf ball.com scores an ace, golf ball.com. Well, that’s not our name, it’s not even. The company’s name is not even the company’s name. We said, Woo, okay, this is going to be a problem. How many people here, one thing and type another? And so that’s kind of been a less, you know that that Was an early lesson that that domain singular and plural is important. But but having both was important for us but that same rule applies to any, any business brand name. Particularly if it’s on

[00:10:52.200]
Yeah, especially learning real quickly about redirects. I’m sure we redirect everybody. We did from that. Yeah, so moving into the customization side. I mean, your, you first start off with divers getting recycled balls. Yep. Which now has started become a bigger business for people via the source of Amazon and all that other stuff that we’ll get to. But how did you connect with a manufacturer to start like, what’s customizing balls? A thing at the time. Did you kind of so you’re heading for the snuck in the back door with with our vendor accounts? So having a having a country club relationship through a country club, I, we had some pre-existing relationships with with all of the big Brands and golf and so like we just started

[00:11:40.700]
We just started using that account to place orders with them. And eventually, we transition to two direct accounts with the manufacturers and so customization and ninety eight was was ah. But before we started doing one dozen at a time and it cost customization was ordering for forty eight dozen with your logo on it. Ah right. Eight days, forty. Eight doesn’t like that. That was that was just the customization space before. And we didn’t invent the customization space. We just brought the minimums from forty eight thousand or twenty four dozen to one. Right. So we we were able to to kind of leverage technology in printing techniques to continue to drive that minimum down. So so so that now.

[00:12:28.700]
So that now we’re able to off. We can customize, we’ve got a partnership with with Zazzle. We print the sleeve at a time so if you want a ball with if you want three balls printed with with something unique on it, we’re able to do that as efficiently as we can print 100 dozen golf balls. So it’s kind of a combination. It’s a it’s a software technology and printing Equipment Technology that we’ve kind of developed to be able to enable that but kind of back to back to the Space. It was really, you could, you could get an, you can get pretty much anything you wanted with a logo on. It, it was a long turnaround time with them and you had to place that order with the manufacturer. That was pretty much the the state of the industry. So that’s how we started we quickly brought the W some burning pad, bring equipment and started doing it ourselves and then we bought some then state-of-the-art

[00:13:24.800]
Equipment that used a laser to burn a plate more quickly and more efficiently. And then over the last really last 15 years, we transition to digital printing. So that’s kind of kind of the transition. And digital’s made made everything a lot, a lot more efficient. And now, y’all can do like, the little packs that you’ve got on the table here. The set of like customisation, whether it be for anything company or personal matters, it’s that small of a package can be personalized. So so we during the Christmas holidays, we were probably doing probably printing 250 sets like that a day Each of which had six balls printed

[00:14:05.400]
Poker chips printed divot tool, printed and tees printed like so so it could it. Could we? It’s it’s the it’s our secret sauce is the software that allows us to kind of handle multiple products in multiple paths with multiple images, multiple images on it. And that’s an incredible to see how far that’s developed from twenty something years with earning the tit burning that the plays and doing, I’m sure to do it. It had to be. I mean, again, we talked about economies of scale when you gotta get the forty eight dozen balls. Now you can do three like right just able to do that is so insane. And it’s a competitive advantage. Yeah. Right like that. That that’s been. Ah. That and speed, are we? We looked at some numbers last week.

[00:14:49.400]
And we I think our average turnaround time was about a day and a half day and a half or two days or from the from the time that if it’s a consumer order, it’s about two days until until it ships from for a corporate order, it’s a little bit longer than that because there’s normally some back-and-forth we have people involved in that process. We want to get the logo, right? Because it’s a larger order, but then, once once it gets gets injected into our into our system, it’s a day or two before. For gets printed. Yes, it’s I mean because that’s as fast as you want it exhaust. Bounce. Bounce ideas are like for the corporate orders. You’ve got, okay. Here’s the here’s first proof, right? Pass it up your chain, okay? They want these revisions. All right, here’s the second proof, pass it up the chain and for them. It’s two weeks, they’re needed and four months, so they’re already order and everything. Yep. So I’ll step back just a minute about half of our about half of our business.

[00:15:42.700]
Is B2B custom customized for tournaments, or for businesses, or for golf outings. In the other half of our businesses, we consider B to C and that’s golfers buying for themselves or individuals buying buying a gift for someone. So, those are our, the, the B2B segment is, is high service because we definitely don’t want to get it right because it’s somebody’s logo at need in the in the B to C is really a self-service online, you proof it yourself. If you see the visualization and and your order goes through automatically, I’ve been on there and done the customization. It’s very simple and it’s very easy to walk through uploading your file adjusting everything. And then, if you’re doing just text, type out your text and getting it ordered that way. It’s very simple and easy to use in comparison to some other options that are out. Thank you for saying that we work really hard at usability and we believe less is more.

[00:16:40.700]
We also believe that software shouldn’t need instructions and so and so from from a we have been building user-friendly websites for twenty eight years. Ah. We’ve taken that same approach kind of highly visual highly, you know, really easy, intuitive to use. And we have developed all all of our internal workflow software with visual cues throughout the process. So it’s kind of a website turn inward to our business. That makes our production workflow. Ah. A lot more accurate than than I would say, most most systems do. And it makes it so like, I’ve done both sides. I’ve gone through Amazon for customization, go going through golf balls, dot Com for customization and yours.

[00:17:24.000]
Process is almost like looking like an Apple computer. It’s like designed for the end user design for the customer as opposed to Amazon. They’re working on, just get it. We’re going to make it look. Okay. And you don’t get to proof it at the end of the day, whereas y’all’s. It’s you have so many different options of customization. It’s fantastic. Yeah. And so super simple easy to use. There are so many things we could include that we do not so that it remains a simple process for for users. Like, we could, we could have Hundred font options that you could use to select for your purse, for your text on your golf ball, right? But but instead we have like, maybe 6 or 5 be cut because 500, you know, some people may think that’s that’s a that’s giving customers.

[00:18:10.500]
More choices. We view it as complexity and the parrot you know, people will freeze up if given too many, too many choices in a situation like that. Yeah. And it’s, ER, Doc’s of choice. Exactly. Exactly. It gives them way too many options. And then your time from starting the order to completing the order goes from five minutes to five hours because there are just so many different fonts and options. But you also have the catch-all by being able to upload a JPEG or whatever file you need to. And then that’s the File. It’s going to be printed. So if you’ve got your certain font that you have to maintain you just need an image of it or something and then you can upload it and that’s what’s going to be printed. So it’s like you’re here’s your six but then here’s your catch and get it however you want, you just have to upload it or you have to order enough and we’ll our artists will do it for you, okay? So you have that option as well. At least we have a, we have several graphic artists that work with our, with our corporate team. We call it corporate team, but some individuals

[00:19:05.700]
Go through that path as well. If you don’t know exactly what you want, think they can help you with that. So so you you’re getting everybody in every level everybody in golf. Ah. Golf ball. Golf balls are consumable a highly highly consumable as as I think I think any anybody would admit, yes, ah. And so so we feel like we’re in a really nice, nice spot in the in the business. People like things customised in in golf balls or ah, or a consumable. We don’t just sell balls. We sell like a full range of golf products, shoes, gloves bags. The works. But we kind of lead out with with golf balls and ah. Over eighty percent of what we sell now. And it’s growing every year. It is customized. So our our market position is customization. Yeah. I was about about to say, I’ll do a lot more than golf balls. Which I want to get to. But I want to go back a little bit further to when you were making them yourself. Okay. So you had the experience with the manufacturers dealing with that being managed on the golf course. But customization. That’s.

[00:20:05.700]
Managing a golf course customizing products, two very different things. What was that? Like going through the decision to take that in-house, we felt like it was a Natural Evolution for the business and the industry and it and it was what it was going to take to be different than everyone else in the market. We kind of felt like people would be willing to pay pay a premium to hat to have something printed in a one dozen. Ian, just the way they want and that they’d be willing to pay for that and that no one else. You can’t get that in a retail store. So we were trying to differentiate from retail stores early on. That’s an easy way because there’s no printers in in, in retail stores. Right? And so, so we kind of had open season on on a lot of, you know, one dozen low minimum customization for a while.

[00:20:59.300]
As the manufacturers began to extend lower their minimums and offer that to our competition, we had to come up with new and different types of creative products and imagery that would differentiate us and speed to continue to differentiate us from from from what’s available in the market. So having a website was differentiated at first because it wasn’t a store selling online selling online was different. And then, as Amazon has kind of eaten, all of the Commodities all the commodity products and driven driven the price down. It’s good for the consumer, right? But it, but it’s difficult to, it’s difficult for online businesses that don’t have proprietary product or a differentiator. So as Amazon became more of a force in online, retail stores were less less important competing with Amazon became more important and are differentiated customized products became even even a stronger part of our business.

[00:21:57.600]
So on that same topic, good Joel. Explore selling on Amazon? Or was it always? We got to get the customers driven back to our websites. So we we were one of their first. Ah. To Gulf merchants in their in their sporting goods. And I remember the discussion. And and um, I’m friends with the guy today. That was the cattle chori manager. He said, we have no plans to to to be to to build direct relationships with manufacturers and Biden RESA which obviously obviously a lot has changed in right and in that in that twenty years. But ah? But what we focus on. So we did we. We sold. Ah. We sold a lot of product on Amazon. Ah. As a percentage of our business, it’s like one to two percent now.

[00:22:44.100]
Let me think about that. Probably one to two percent. Now we are we are focused on selling customized products on Amazon now though, so Amazon as you know, has it has a customization engine. We have we have kind of adapted our process to their to their customization engine. And so there is there. If you buy customized golf balls on Amazon, there is a good chance, you’re buying them from us, okay, so you would, you would get the shipment for you would likely get the shipment. From from golf balls.com. I think we in all likelihood, we’re probably we’re greater than probably 60 or 70% of the customized balls that are, they’re sold on sold on Amazon and I think they don’t tell me so, but, but I yeah, they don’t let you know. Yeah, they don’t let me know, but I think that’s about right? Okay. What even then, it’s still not the same as what y’all have on the website because they have

[00:23:37.000]
They probably give you a certain set of parameters to work with it’s Tech its text on a ball or it’s a photo upload on a ball and we’ve got a half a dozen other cool things, including licensed teams and all kinds of stuff that you can get on golf balls. Gotcha. So, when did y’all decide to kind of move beyond the name into different product categories? So we, when we moved from New Iberia to Lafayette in it was 2004. Yo, we opened the store, we open the store in part because it made our Brands feel better or manufacturers, feel better if you get, you can’t talk to go, Sarge, most people in this room, can’t go back to 2004 and have have could have too many clear thoughts about about that? It was a long time ago but but in 2004 the world had just recovered from the.com. Boss.

[00:24:31.300]
And there is a lot of questions around ecommerce businesses, because so many of them have gone out of business. One of the things that that added credibility to to to your business or my in particular and golf. If you had a store, you are more legitimate storefront than if you were an ecommerce only business. And so so we had the inventory much much of the inventory. Anyway we opened. We moved into the new location. Ah. Part of the new location was a was a retail store. And as long as we were gonna have the inventory we might as well put put that inventory online. And so it’s a small, you know, clubs and shoes. And it’s a small part of what we sell. But but it’s a big part of what we sell in the retail store.

[00:25:13.400]
It’s you know if you walk in our retail store it’s like it’s like any retail you know most retail Segal stores that you would you would walk in we carry that same selection but if you notice if you watch the Golf Channel and something tells me you do yeah you probably watch it. Did you watch tiger recently maybe maybe yeah I passed out Genesis and I was kind of glued to the glued to the TV to. Yeah, we had some commercials anyway just back to the story are commercials we always lead out with with customized golf balls because it’s what We do different and it’s what we do and it’s what we want to be known in. The golfing Community is a place to go for customized golf balls and kind of a also golf balls but also leading out with customization because it’s different. Yeah and that’s ultimately what people are.

[00:26:00.300]
Now, it like it used to be for your corporate companies. They would want to, that’s how their branding, their promotion. I go to a golf tournament, they’ll put that out there. And now, it’s almost as if customization is so much a gift option and then it becomes a gag gift option, then it becomes a bachelor party option and then it just it keeps on carrying on with how and when should you customize the ball to our now? It’s like I’m going to visit some family and friends there a good golf you know they love playing golf and bring them some customized balls whether it’s thank you or you know What why would you why would you ever like we want people to think, why would you ever gift with a blank golf ball, right? Like why would you ever do that right? And you shouldn’t yeah, you should feel bad if you do. I’m just saying you should feel bad. Like Mom. I’m not gonna lie. My wife and she probably bought it from golf balls.com. Yeah, gave me some customized golf balls for like one of the first years the show was created. She, I think, I don’t feel too ramazan her where she ordered from, but it was text customized, golf balls. And I opened up. I’m like, this is the

[00:26:59.900]
Coolest thing ever. And it was. Don’t knock him through a window. So don’t don’t break somebody’s window with it. I because they’ll know. I have not broken a window on any golf ever. Ah. So going into the to the towel game and everything of that nature going into the clubs, I mean, do y’all y’all carry all this an actual inventory. We we. We do. So so we carry a. Ah. Carry a lot of golf balls as you might imagine. Right. But but we carry a, ah. Probably two twice the amount of inventory that we would you would think we would need for a retail store. And so that that services that services most of our online business.

[00:27:43.400]
Some of the products that we sell, if it’s a custom shaft on a driver, we’re not going to. We may not stock that we will. Like there there are a thousand different ways that you can that you can configure a driver, right? So so many of those are many of those would be those would be drop shipped and choose. We kind of carry a baseline selection. Some of the shoes that we carrier online would be would be drop shipped, right? So, it’s kind of a combination for the not for the non. Kind of core customized products that we sell. Some of the others would be Dropship but we do, we do stock plenty of it. Okay. And house by say I was perusing like the Callaway website the other day, and there’s just such you can now customize everything from your grip, to your shaft to guests. There’s so much customization within the World of Golf. It’s almost unreal at this point that anybody would be able to maintain an inventory like that without being a manufacturer, right?

[00:28:39.500]
So what has I mean, going back to getting the balls and they use ball Market? Did you actually do any of the diving yourself? You know, I have friends that swear that they saw me diving in the ponds, but I don’t even know how to dive in a pond like I can swim but but I would, you know, I wouldn’t know what to do. So, no, I’ve never. I’ve never lost a golf cart in a pond. I’ve never slid in a pond before and I’ve never tried to retrieve golf balls. From upon. But we worked with many, many companies, early early on in the in the business to do that because it isn’t like it’s crazy how many balls are in those small pod oh that are pulled out that people don’t even I guess realize driving by you know, that’s a very, you know, small pause probably nothing in there but just the bottom of it just in it. And then you see the crafty old guys with, like, a some type of Gadget that they throw in the pond or rake balls, you know,

[00:29:35.800]
They’re never going to buy balls. They never have to buy balls. They’re like they’re on the back of the golf course on the on a pond and they’re pulling the use balls out. So you said earlier shouldn’t have been pulling the balls out of the ditch. Is it not allowed to harvest collect golf balls from hazards? So you’re free to do what you would like to do. I would say that that that in the in the in your rules in the club rules and regulations. They would probably say that that you’re not. You can pull your own ball out, but you’re not able to pull a whole mass. You know. Batches of balls out of out of our ponds. It’s our private property and we get money for the for the. You know, we that the the the they try to monetize that. But if you don’t get caught right, you obviously you didn’t get caught.

[00:30:24.700]
What I mean by that point even do it, you know? Yeah, right right. Well, they could have been your boss. You could have dated those were actually my boss look. If I play however many balls, I’ve hid in those water, I could never pull out enough as I putting it. Like, let’s just be a, that’s a fair argument. That’s a fair argument. I mean, how many sleeves of balls am I going through? And just one hole because that water hazard such a mental game. Yep, to hit over it or hit around. It’s insane. Yep, I have that problem, too. You just, you sit down. You, like, you try to find your spot that you’re going to hit your ball. All and then as soon as you put your head down you go. There’s water, there’s water, there’s water, and you swing. And you go, yeah, found the water. So going back to finding new products and everything. Do you all go to trade shows? We do every year, the lat, we went this year covid years. Nobody went to

[00:31:14.400]
We didn’t go to any trade shows, but the, the, the big show that we go to is the annual PGA show in Orlando. It’s, it’s it. It’s the global. It’s the global Golf Show for people that that cell into the golf industry and people that buy, we don’t have a booth because we don’t really sell to golf pros or people that resell per se. But but it’s where we explore for, look for new products, build new relation, build relationships with our vendors and And in that that’s the show that we go to. We also go to print shows where there where we might learn about new printing techniques or new Machinery, that that’s available in the market. We have, we haven’t been to a print show in a couple years but

[00:32:01.100]
We we used to go normally. We’ll go onto your just to just to see what’s new to see if there’s some type of new new customization that we might want to offer and customization could be on the outside of the box. Ah. Customization. I think packaging is going to be an interesting way for us to for us to do more customization over time in differentiate it’ll it’ll mean a big capital investment and some equipment, but I think packaging could be could be, ah, you know, if you’re gonna give somebody a sleeve of golf balls with with your logo or something cool on it, if you can make the the the sleeve that you’re giving it to them in look really cool and customized. I think that you know who knows where this is gonna go with that. That could be in the roadmap rank is coming customizing a sleeve, that’s.

[00:32:46.000]
That’s a whole different animal at that point. The it’s a different print process but but we’d have to develop that competency but we wouldn’t we probably wouldn’t do a slow. I don’t we might do a sleeve but we probably do a dozen but but it would be it would follow the theme. It would follow us a theme that would make giving it away at the packaging is coolest. The as cool as the the balls with the messaging on it, right? Because I mean at that point I mean do you consider yourself more in the promotional industry or It more for the golfers industry. Yeah, it’s about. It’s a, it’s half and half. It’s about half and half, big orders for businesses and events, and tournaments, and smaller orders for individual golfers and gift buyers that those are really the two, the two positions of the

[00:33:35.400]
So in the all work with tournaments like within the PGA Tour within other tours, do y’all have tournaments will actually order customized balls for players or for whatever reason are generally, just companies, going to tournaments that will order the balls. It’s a, I think, I think most, if you think about PGA Tour events, most of those have direct relationships with manufacturers, they’ve got a tournament organization that organization interfaces directly with all of the same manufacturers that we do. If they want it done in a way that we uniquely offer than we may get that business. It’s sometimes it’s more, it’s more, the, a fundraising golf tournament or a corporate outing or a business that’s going to a trade show, that they know that people are excited about the game of golf, and they want to give away sleeves of golf balls. We do shirts with logos. We, you know, it’s

[00:34:29.900]
It’s not. It’s not the big PGA tour events that that we support. But it’s kind of it’s any step down from there all the way to a foursome of buddies going on a weekend trip that want to have a theme for their for their for their weekend. Get together of. I’ve been a part of this. Not some some charity. Golf tournaments are like it’d be cool to show to the course with custom hats and custom shirts. If you’re going to travel to play golf, you need to commemorate it with golf balls, right. Absolutely. Look and party for like. Come on. You have the golf pun names. It’s perfect. Yeah. So when did you realize that what you were doing was no longer like a small business? I know you said your first. She was seventeen then seventy than two hundred. What point did you recognize? Oh my gosh. This is actually going to be a successful business.

[00:35:24.700]
So it was when I had to make the decision to stop being involved in the other businesses that are other things that I was doing and focus on this. And this was kind of like in the, in the 98 99 time frame. I had I had some other business interests that I was involved in and kind of decided either web development firm, an interest in a limousine company, some other things, some other, you know, entrepreneurial things. And when this one’s stuck, I realized I really need it. If I’m going to do it, I really need this. This is the one that has the greatest potential and that I am most uniquely suited to be successful with right. Like,

[00:36:08.500]
I don’t, I don’t my background in my skill. I don’t need to run a limousine company and like building, a, an e-commerce golf business. I felt like I was uniquely suited in position to be to be successful in because of my background. Right? Having the course, history, everything. I mean. So what? How are those Converse, did you have business partners in the other entities that you had to have difficult conversations with? What was that? Like, the telling them, I’m stepping away, but they were all, they were all pretty small and it was just an odd kind of an obvious. It was an obvious, next step. It was it was, it was only difficult in that. And that I was used to having a Jo B. And when you, when you make that transition from from from like a nine to five,

[00:36:58.400]
Completely to a hey, if this thing works. Great. If it doesn’t work. Ah. It’s not great. And for for a lot of reasons. Ah it. It’s you kinda have to be ready for that. But but it’s it’s what it’s the circumstance. And it’s the it’s it’s what every entrepreneur has to deal with with, ah, and has to address. Otherwise you. You can’t be an entrepreneur, and you can’t start a small business, right. You can start it in. It’s infancy. But at some point you have to kind of cut the cord. Ah. You have to cut the cord or you can kind of have a side gig. A lot of people have side gigs. And and that’s fine. But if if if you’re really onto something and you’re the right person to to delete it. Ah you. You have to give it all your effort.

[00:37:42.500]
And we’re there ever times where you were uncertain, that you made that right? Call to cut the court. There, there were times when I, when I used to live at the country at the country club that I managed and and then I’m like, I’m watching the guys cut the grass and I’m thinking I wish I was cutting grass today like because everybody does like everybody that starts a business, every entrepreneur goes through its Cycles up and it Cycles down and you have challenges and you have to overcome challenges. Has or you wind down the business and you move on doing each new challenge or you wind down the business. And you say, man this this entrepreneur things not right for me, I think I think I want to work for some for somebody else and it’s not right for everybody but there were you know, all businesses have Cycles golf ball slot cam has been no different. There have been particularly early on in the.com, crash. You know, there’s always there’s always times when you, when you when you question.

[00:38:43.200]
Should I should I have made this decision and in looking back today it was right decision. So in how was it for y’all going through that.com crash like it sounds funny to say but there were literally board level discussions and this was going on all over the country. I think we need to take.com out of our name. Want to replace it with what? I don’t know. Like that it was anyway. It was there. There was such a there was such Negativity around not calm because there had been such hype around it, that that among the investment community. And like, they’re there were businesses that were obviously.com businesses that they were like, stripping the.com.

[00:39:26.500]
Off the back of it so that they wouldn’t be associated with kind of kind of the the mess. That was the the mess. That was the crash anyway. We kind of stuck to it and and it turned out having dot Com and your name is not a bad thing, right. That’s gonna save around. Took it turned out that way. Yeah. But I mean, at the time it’s everybody probably in in the room may not have been around. Yeah. In such capacity as you were at the time going through the dot Com bus. But it’s thinking back of okay. We had to change our name because of what’s happening across the globe. Like yeah, that thought process has now it’s relevant to license code, right. Yeah. It’s a reasonable discuss ocean to have right? It’s not. It’s not an unreasonable discussion. Our business name is so core to what we do like if you see our commercial golf channel, it’s easy to remember, because it’s the product that we sell. And it’s where you go to buy it. Like I think we’re we have we have additional leverage.

[00:40:24.200]
With our media, a cut because what we do, what we sell and where you buy it is just so easy to remember. Where do I buy my golf balls? My customized golf balls, golf balls.com like it’s just it just fits together and I think it makes it it makes for a better connection when somebody sees our commercials, by the time they’re ready to buy, they may remember the, it should be pretty easy for them to remember that they that they saw the products. On golf balls.com. Well, I’m sure now with all the Google rankings in the SEO if in by types in customized golf balls, y’all going to be the number one hit. We do our very best to be it to be at the top for natural and paid where it makes sense.

[00:41:08.500]
In Google does their best to make sure that none of the natural listings. See the see the light of day. I’m sure I’m not the first, I’m not, you know, if your number if you’re number one in, natural search on Google. Now, it does, it doesn’t mean what it used to know. Now, I feel like it’s set up. So, if you Google something, you have to actually scroll down before you find a natural listing because it all they’ve got five or six ads. And so, it’s ad ad, ad, ad ad. Panic and it’s like, wow what, what am I even? I have to sift through now, to find something organic and natural or knowing that people pay by click on Google. If it’s somebody who I’m like. Mmm, I’m going to click on this website, several times, to get your typewriter, click try to be a considerate Shopper. Yeah. And and if I’m looking for something, I try, you know, and I see the company name, I avoid the pain.

[00:42:04.400]
The paid clicks and I go to the natural listings. I just try to be considerate in that way. And and if they are, I’ve seen somewhere I’ve googled a search term. And they’ve been like they’re paid and then two or three down as their national. And I go the same route on my alright, I’m I’m I’m not. I’m buying. Somebody considers on be concerned. I’m not gonna make you pay that. Yeah. Seventy five cents or dollar. Fifty or forty. Five. Five dollars. Whatever the whatever the term was, how much I paid for it. Not gonna make you pay for that. I’m just gonna go to your organic click, and from an ad spend that can make an impact if you have thousands of people doing that a day. Not doing that. Click we. We are two biggest buckets of advertising. One is golf channel, and the other is a paid search. And so we we the those are those are the biggest drivers. Ah. The biggest source of new business. That that we that we have.

[00:42:54.100]
And we measure it, I’m sure you’ve had other guests on here that are that sell online. We measure it as as granularly as we can, and we try to measure everything to 2 to a positive return on investment. So if we spend a dollar, we try to generate five or seven times that dollar for every dollar that we spend in a particular particular media channel. So how do y’all tracks? I’m always curious from a TV side of things but the Golf Channel. How are you able to track that return? It’s really hard and so I’ll give you a funny example. We in year one, we had a Baseline.

[00:43:37.500]
The first year we did it, we were able to track it using Google analytics because we had never done it before. And there was there was no prior year comparison to to are you familiar with Google. We have GA okay, so so it all it buckets into other or not. It’s in kind of the non tracked traffic and then at buckets into your paid and your natural and natural Search terms. So when so when we I’ll give you an example, I watch The Genesis you watch The Genesis. We thought we were only going to have like three commercials during tournament play. We ended up with like six or

[00:44:21.100]
And when tiger was on the course and in those commercials ran, I’m like jumping in front of GA going alright. Well I’m well I’m watching real time. What watched the numbers go up and then? And then you see you see what it does. It doesn’t just drive traffic direct traffic to the website. It dries drives. Ah. It drives all of the channels so every because people are going online and they’re searching. They’re there just because they see golf balls dot Com doesn’t mean that they’re going to go and they’re gonna type golf balls dot Com right. Quite often they do. And they get hijacked by search, and they and they they click the natural or the paid search. And so so so it’s kind of accommodate. It’s a combination of those to answer your question. We were able to track it very well. In your one. It. It was a very positive positive Comp.

[00:45:12.500]
And it’s been more difficult to track. But when we have X, like, the last week there in when tigers on the course, and everyone’s watching, and our commercial runs on Golf Channel, we just know it works. You’re, you’re you’re able to go look at those time frames. Yeah, because it gets for a tournament put like, four tournaments. You can run the time, okay. When you met you get off and yeah you could track it at a very granular level. It’s not, it’s not as exact. As the pay-per-click stuff, right. But but you can get pretty close. Yeah, I’m sure the more and more tournaments, you’re like, hey, who’s playing this week? Okay, we do it. It was a bit, was surprised. We had our, we had our plan lined up before tiger announced that he was playing. So it was kind of like like a big upside surprise.

[00:46:04.100]
For it was an upside surprise for everybody in golf to did they say, they’d the committee made the cut was a big deal to, I know he played through the weekend. Yeah, so did. I I’m curious if we can get into the, the negotiation side with the golf channel. Are they selling you on who’s going to play that weekend? And if so, did they sell you at a discount before tiger announced and that they charge a premium after tiger announced, how does that work? So There isn’t, I wouldn’t say anything is discounted, it’s the Golf Channel. Yeah, I would say generally speaking, when you buy TV, you’re buying reach and you’re buying, you’re buying

[00:46:47.200]
An estimated number of eyeballs, that that that they’re that they’re going to be reaching. Ah. In any. Given period of time. That that the that. That’s kinda how it works. And and an even though we like we have a really nice upside for that particular week, it’s all baked into the overall exposures that we. Ah. That we that we buy gosh commercials that we buy. So they’re saying you’re gonna do six like a package of tournaments and whatever. It’s not just good. Yeah. It’s not just tournaments for us. It’s it’s we we we tell them. Ah. In particular times where we do want to run and when we don’t want to run and they and they have fled, you know, and and they have flexible ability to to to to place it. Yeah. And how how is that become impacted with like the streaming channels? Now like with Hulu with all those other channels where people can watch golf.

[00:47:37.800]
Is there any change at all? Or is your now having to work out deals with them because they’re running their own? So we have I use fubo TV. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that, all part of it. Yeah. And fubo runs runs Golf Channel, so it’s got the it’s got the exact same commercials that it run on the Golf Channel, not every sling. It’s probably a different, you know, who lose probably probably, probably different. All of them. Probably have different. We have not started to buy digital digital streaming separate from separate, from Golf Channel. So it’s an opportunity, it’s an opportunity for us. Golf Channel. Still got a lot of reach. Oh yeah. It’s got it.

[00:48:21.800]
It’s got a lot of reach of Golf Channel’s like we know your people are going to be here and we’re just going to sit back and say whatever you want to come. Yep. We’ve got, we’ve built it. They are here. They only have the best golf day of the best. The biggest reach, the best golf audience. Yeah, well and now you’ve got so many people taking that and making like Golf Channel’s to be used on social media, like on YouTube Tick-Tock. Instagram, you’ve got people that are making specific channels and they’re just playing golf in filming it and now, It’s like almost decentralizing the golf world where it is. People now have golf podcast where they just talk about the game of golf or do a recap. They’ll go play around, they’ll sit down, I’ll just talk about the rounding, people will consume so much of that. I know, I’ll tell you that, that’s an area that we have not. It’s very difficult to measure and to generate positive Roi on that type of an expense.

[00:49:17.800]
Ah. Into scale that type of expense. That that that I could, I’ll be the first to admit we’re not great at it and we have not. We have not committed a lot resources to to to be great at social. At this point. It’s it’s in our roadmap will be great at it one day. We’re just not great at it right out right now. We’re really good at email, marketing, TV and tea, V and paper. Click and so were, you know, as an entrepreneur, you have to know where you’re good and where you’re not. And so, you know, at least we think we know where we’re good and we’re we’re not. We met. We may be wrong, but I’d say you’re doing pretty well with what you’re doing. So in the in the areas where we’re where we have where we have competency, I think I think we we try to do well, and it’s.

[00:49:58.800]
It’s crazy to me to see kind of like an age shift of when people are starting to get introduced the gulf in that age demographic is like starting to get younger and younger over the years. And I’m sure especially since the pandemic, you’ll probably seen just an upscale in actual people starting to play golf like more and more. People are picking up the sport. I’ll give you a couple of a couple of data points. One related to golf rounds in covid in the other related to Top Golf and Gall n in on. Course golf. Okay. Okay, so covid assured in a new surge of golfers and America probably around the world but that’s not our Market specifically specifically in America. The interesting thing is that so many Industries saw a covid spike

[00:50:50.700]
And then a dip following the covid spike golf. Had a covid spike and then it just kept going and then it just kept going and then it’s like, like two years. You’ve got, just as many or more golfers, playing playing about the same number of rounds as that covid. Spike as the, as the year of the, the Cobra covid spiked, you know, outdoor social distancing, golf is King. You know, I’ve got, I’ve got more free time on my hands laid, man. Nia rounds of three or golf. Now, we walked the course and we brought our wives and they were bringing the coolers and we laid many rounds of those, I’m sure. And so the interesting thing that’s happened is part of the stickiness of people entering golf one is, is they really enjoy it? Like, it has brought a lot of new people into the game, but Top Golf has introduced non golfers.

[00:51:44.100]
To golf. Ah. Young people in particular to golf. In a way that’s kind of in their in their environment in a cool place. Or it’s fun. And there has been a direct matriculation from from. Ah. First-time top golf golfers to encore. Encore scoffers. So so you’ve kind of now got with ta op golf and the growth of that which who doesn’t love Topgolf. It’s like, how much how much like one? There’s a top golf opening three minutes from my house. I said, there’s there’s one that’s coming the ostrich. I was a kid. I can’t wait. It’s gonna be like guaranteed. My kid is gonna love golf, okay. Because we’re gonna go, we’re gonna go to top golf and he’s gonna he’s just going to have a ball with it and and a guaranteed I’m gonna somehow manage to get that to to to get that joy onto the onto the golf course will. Top golf is help.

[00:52:32.800]
This helped kind of maintain and grow the golfer base when there would normally have been some down. Matriculation, we just haven’t seen that matriculation. So the future of the golf industry we think is very strong, covid helped, but the top golf is like a feeder system to to, from off course, to on course. And introducing people to the game in a way that is fun. And also getting people to play it turn. It’s not, it’s not intimidating, right? Yeah. There’s nothing intimidates. Dating about Top Golf and it yeah kind of game a faiz it game of faiz a traditional a traditional sport that you could say has a set of rules that is a little stodgy right? Like I hope my friends at the USGA don’t you know but you know it’s

[00:53:20.100]
From the kids point of view, from a, from a, you know, it might, it might not be, it might not be as looses as they like, but Top Golf is, is the bridge right? You know, they won’t, they won’t let me grab my ball, hit in the water and I found and say, oh, I found my ball. If I’m not, I don’t have to take a penalty stroke. I can keep playing at the same Strokes. No, you gotta take get that. You got set of rules that are bound and rigid and you have to play Within them or as Top Golf just just hit the ball. Yep. And if you make it in, One of the little targets you get more points. Yep. And that’s it. There’s no other set of rules that you have to adhere to which on a percent is increasing. Those people’s desire to go, let me go try this outdoors in a nice beautiful day getting able to be outside and playing and walking a little bit and getting some and watch some once you make that once you know, if you

[00:54:11.800]
Any kind of a game at top golf and you take that to a golf course? And your first time out isn’t a disaster because everybody’s first time out? If you haven’t haven’t had some arrange time is just not gonna be fun, right? Like it’s just not like it’s much more fun if you have some preparation. Ah. Ahead of time. And I think that that helps that certainly helps as well it helps with, ah, the fun leading up to it. And in that transfer that that, funnily that fun extends to their first round on course. And if you play a lot of top golf and you’re very good at it, you’re probably be pretty good. On a course. Depending on what. The style of gameplay that you use a top golf. If you’re playing certain colors you’ve got to hit. You gotta work on your aim. But it is also not going to help. Hopefully on the course. Yeah. So as we start to kind of wind down the show, Tom, we have a set list of questions. We’d like to ask everybody. So the first one is, what is something you did as a kid? You wish you could still do today? Um.

[00:55:11.800]
One of my favorite things to do and it was in high school. I was on the debate team and I just loved it. So I loved every bit of it if there is an adult debate team. Well there is it’s being a lawyer. I thought I thought I thought I thought I was going to be a lawyer and then the my entrepreneur Gene activated and took me out of like I was studying for the LSAT and I thought I was going to do that and then you know the business entrepreneur Gene kicked in and kind of derailed derail that That I’m, you know, it turns out that was, that was, that was a good thing for me. Yeah. Like, but answer your question. I loved being on the debate team and I love the bay. I just enjoyed to you. You were on the I was yes. So I was I was on the home school debate team because I was home-schooled through high school and we would compete around the country at different tournaments and, yes, absolutely. The last one was that, it was decided, we dig Team policy style debate, okay? So we debated policies, and teams of two,

[00:56:08.600]
And I loved it. That’s who. So, I don’t know what it’s called now, but it was like a CX. It was like, you could crawl you. It was same. It was, it was a two-man team, two person team, and you would and you would have a you you would have a topic the year, the topic would run for the full year and I just loved it. Absolutely loved it. The same exact style we had just left it and you have like your constructive speeches. You’d have cross-examination that first constructive speech and it took a year and a half before. Someone asks someone who went to a tournament I was in Baton Rouge. And they watched they wash me debate and they were like, so, what do you like, what are you reading off of? You know, whenever you get up there? Like, I know like you give these these eight minute long speeches, how do you know who you’re going to compete against and what you have to say?

[00:56:50.700]
We don’t have anything really prepared. We’ve done research on the broader topic, and we generally know what people’s cases are. And then everything else we’re rats. That’s all. Ad-lib. We’re just responding directly to what they’ve gotten supported with evidence. There’s no pre-written anything except for the first speech in a blew their mind like, yeah, whoa. I mean, y’all all all this stuff isn’t prepared like no. None of the stuff is prepared. So you refuse to do it on the fly. Yeah. And I think it’s in a tight timeframe. Oh yeah. That was great. Two minutes of prep for the whole round. Yeah. I loved it. It was love that about you now. So you’ve saved here, man. So you’ve gone through a lot over the last twenty some odd years. Yeah. And you’ve had a lot of ups and downs. A lot of business changes and adaptations. What are three lessons that you have learned over time? So so one is people people are the most important part of your or your business period.

[00:57:48.700]
End of end, of end of story, if young, if if 55 year-old, Tom could talk to 20 something year old Tom, he would say, spend most of your time hiring and cultivating. Great people in your organization. Now, I have a great team. Now, I can’t speak highly enough about about our leadership organization. I’ve got some some longtime employees, some some Some relatively new new team members a great deep bench, the bench for leadership, great team now, but I think I could have accelerated, the growth of the business and the success of the business, by focusing my time and L can’t delegate.

[00:58:35.500]
You know, entrepreneurial leaders can’t delegate that to anybody on get recruiting and getting the best possible people on on the team. That’s I think I think that’s number one. Absolutely I’d say number two is is review your financials every single month. If you don’t do that then you’re not really running a business. If you’re not producing financials that then something’s going to sneak up on you and get you. and it’s not going to be good and in the context of understanding and reviewing your financials and it’s you either know it or you don’t profit is different from cash flow and entrepreneurs need to understand the difference between between profit and cash flow. They are distinct, you can be profitable and go out of business.

[00:59:26.500]
Ah yeah. And that there’s there’s just there’s so much to that. We could spend an entire podcast just talking about the nuances. My my inner CPA is loving that. Yeah. Yep. Fact I’m ah, ah, I’m the on the, um. The chairman of the opportunity, machines, startup startup. Ah. Incubator. Business incubator in Lafayette. And like, that’s one of the anytime I get to anytime I’m in front of entrepreneurs. That’s one of the things that I always that I always talk about is like there’s a difference, but you have to know your numbers. You have to care. And it’s not really a business if you’re not watching your numbers hundred percent. And that is one of the main reasons why I wanted to become a CPA was to help entrepreneurs.

[01:00:11.900]
Go through that and understand the importance of it, because they don’t like, it’s not fun. It’s like, it’s like it’s the it’s probably the least fun thing they’ll do. But it’s the most important thing. They’ll do to make sure that their business survives. See, I think it’s fun. So I disagree well, I better do your, what, if you’re one of those? You’re one of those, right? Yeah, I do too, to do personal financials for my wife and I every month in QuickBooks. Yes, I’m one of those where you guys actually sit down and review immediate Really Gonna Do. Yeah, and you’re the only one I know that does that it is. It took her a year and a half before she started, appreciating a balance sheet. Yeah, you expect me to do. It’s easy and she was for the longest Patrick, don’t sing, I just want the pl how we did for the month. Just don’t do not send me a bouncer, like okay? No, no. We’re going to sit down and go through this, so you understand. So I’ll give you a funny analogy though. My wife’s got has her own business. She’s had it for

[01:01:09.500]
Over 15 years in her company’s called logo jet. They manufacture, most of the printers that we used to print on golf balls and she we were I was a customer of logo jet before, as I said, before he ever party interest, we were a customer for many years before before I asked I asked her out on on on our first date but but we do talk about financials at home, just not our personal like not personal like I helped her review her business financials, right? And and, and, and I’ve got to tell you, I’ve got a team. We, she has a team team that helps to, but she just asked me to kind of get ones over here. Now, just, just just a once-over because I’ve been doing it looking at financials for a long time. You’ve probably looked at more than me, though. Front, you you probably have, probably, I probably have not looked as long not as for, for sure. Not as long, but of a variety of. Yeah, lots of. But it’s

[01:02:04.600]
It’s equally as important in your personal life as it is in your business life, especially as an entrepreneur. It is because if you’re not paying attention to what you’re spending on a personal level and there comes a month where it’s tight in the business and you gotta pull from your personal assets and you can’t because you don’t, there’s nothing there because you’ve either not watched it and been careful. You can personally be upside down. And at that point where you’re gonna go you, you can’t? You can’t ah. Out income expenses. If if you if you don’t watch your expenses, you can certainly get out of it. Get out of hand. Um. And I’d say the law. I’d say number three is is say no a lot.

[01:02:47.200]
And that is it’s so hard for a young entrepreneur to say no, when a customer is willing to give them business, but it’s not the right business or it will take them down a tangent that takes them off of their off of it, you know, it’s so easy for entrepreneurs to chase shiny objects. And in even today, I’ve like sometimes I chase shiny objects and sometimes it works out. And but, but we don’t chase any shiny object. We chase a lot less shiny objects now than than we used to, but saying no a lot both in in in the lines of business that you’ll pursue how you will take.

[01:03:29.600]
The type of business, you, you will accept or not accept place, a hive place, a high value on your own time. A lot of entrepreneurs don’t do that and then in your personal life, kind of find those things. Don’t just don’t say yes. Because someone asks, right, like I guard my time, like I can do my best to guard my free time so that I can spend it on, on my family on businesses. And on that too, I’m on the lobby. Board of directors. I’m on their executive committee and opportunity machine and like, and that’s it for cut because because, you know, you have to put, you have to put up some some limiters. And so, I try to spend time where its most impactful, and that means I say, no an awful lot, right? And its people don’t understand that, not everybody understands that to you until you find yourself in a spot where you have to say, no a lot. And then

[01:04:26.600]
And I I’m at that point where like always I’ve lost two or three years. It’s like, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And now twenty twenty three is like the year of no for me. And it’s like, I just have to find the point where it’s enough enough and you have to recognize we’re all given twenty four hours in a day. Yeah. No more, no less. And you can choose how to spend them wisely. And sometimes saying, no, is that wise choice. And you’re saying can’t do it. Sorry. Twenty nose for everyone. Yes. Like like, I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s really good number. I don’t know what the ratio is, but but every everybody’s got a different right. Everybody hates to say no. Yeah. Because it’s it’s a no. Nobody likes it. Yeah. And yes, ask your five year old now as my fifteen month old, they don’t like no. Yeah. Yeah. So what is something you love about Louisiana? Um.

[01:05:20.100]
The people in the culture and most of the time the weather, believe it or not, it’s a great, it’s a great place to raise a family, it’s a great place to start a business. In many, in many ways, I was a, my wife’s Canadian and I was able to convince her to move from Canada to Louisiana, and she loves Louisiana. She moved her business. Here she moved, you know, we’ve Got her mom here now and so I still want to pay those import fees. I understand. Yeah yeah, but but they love being in Louisiana. It’s just a it’s a fun family friendly.

[01:06:02.600]
Generally speaking pro-business, kind of a kind of a kind of a place to be. There’s a there’s a lot of work yet to be done. We have we know that and Lobby does a good job trying trying staying focused on that work, but but it is, it’s a great place. So only there’s endless rounds of potential within here that we can all do a little bit every day to make it a better place. Yep. So for the final question, Tom, what can I do to help you? So, before meeting, you number one, the fact, the fact that love debate to big deal. So anyway, I’ll talk about golf a lot, please. I appreciate that. I would say, one of the things that I’m most passionate about is helping entrepreneurs and trying to create, I would just say Heroes out of aspiring entrepreneurs and I think you do,

[01:06:58.900]
I think you I think you bring people on your show. Ah. In it. And it showcases. Ah. Small businesses, large businesses, but every large business was a small business that it at some point in time. And I think entrepreneurship solves a lot of problems. It solves disparities. Ah it. It creates motivation. It helps. It helps with potential paths for people. Ah. And and and I think if I can ask of you just keep doing what you’re doing and making heroes out of out of, ah, young, aspiring entrepreneurs that can influence a whole generate, you know, a generation of young people to to to consider that, ah. When they’re when they’re going through school or when they have when they have their own ideas. I mean, that’s ultimately one of the main reasons why it got started was to find.

[01:07:51.300]
People that had great businesses where they were new or they’ve been around since the 90s and just showcase them and say these were all started here in Louisiana. There’s no reason why. Your next business idea has to go to some big different city outside of our state to happen because all these companies have happened here, you know, and that’s someone asking what are the requirements to get on the show. So they got to be a Louisiana based business and I’ve got to talk to the owner of the founder because they’re the ones that are going to share. You know, we had some times where Tom had to get in the pond, it go get golf balls to sell, right? Like, you know, they have a story of yours of lie. I could. Apply to me many, many times. Many times I’ve taken my shoes off to get some golf balls together on before they were mind. But yeah, they may be legally, maybe not who’s to say, yeah, but still having the stories of how they got started. The difficulties. They work through and recognizing the opportunities where they did.

[01:08:50.200]
That’s the ultimate best thing that people can learn from. Is that storytelling? And the passion, that business owners and Founders and that anybody can do it, it’s not easy. It takes work. But anybody anybody can do it. Absolutely. Well, thank you, Tom, for coming on the show, really appreciate your time about it. Thank you for driving in to come here and sit down with us. I appreciate it. You bet you bet had a great time, good. I’m glad to hear what I have to debate a little bit and put do some mock debates. So thank you, Tom for coming and thank you everybody. As for watching the show, whether you are watching us listening to us seeing this on social media, whatever platform you’re consuming us, I greatly appreciate it. I know the guests to as well. Next time you’re in the mood for some golf gear, or maybe you’re just curious to buy somebody a customized gift and there are golfer or they just like golf attire. Check out golf balls.com, not golf ball, cam golf balls.com and make sure to learn know that, how did you show since you so? Thank you all. So very much and a big wonderful shot to the amazing sponsors and make the show each and every

[01:09:49.200]
Here a little bit more about them right now. So your home for three hundred and ninety nine dollars flat-fee with Felicia. No seriously. Vallejo will list your home on the MLS and help you get all the way to the closing table for as little as three ninety nine flat fee. Our online platform is insanely easy to use and will save you thousands. If you’re thinking about selling your home in twenty twenty two and want to keep more of your hard-earned equity in your pocket. You need to check out Felicia Felicia real estate reimagined. Thank you so very much for listening to this episode of the Patty. Gee show brought to you by government Taco. They’re located on the corner of government street and Jefferson highway J, as always slinging up a new taco of the moth. So if you’re a frequent or to government taco, let us know in the comments which you thought about this month’s taco of the month if you’re not a frequent or maybe trying out this month taco might just convert you big. Thanks over to them. A government taco for making the Patty G show possible.

[01:10:48.900]
Imagine taxing on a plane looking toward the end of the runway. It seems so far away. It’s even hard to see it. And that’s what the concept of retirement probably felt like when you were in your 20s 30s and 40s, way far in the distance, not visible, or even a concern. But as you turn 50, something happens. Retirement suddenly seems like something real something. Not too far away in your 50s. You are rolling down the runway. Mint is getting closer and closer faster and faster weeks and months zipping by. But are you even ready for a successful take off to retirement. Fear, not, they’re still Runway left but the time is now time to make progress and time to get a plan, the runway decade will help you get organized, get energized and give you the direction, you need to take off to your desired retirement, the runway decade building a

[01:11:46.400]
Fireman flight plan in your 50s. Thank you to Mercedes-Benz of Baton Rouge for making this show possible. Nick pintus is a past guest. We love having him on listening to him. Talk about the culture. They have over at Mercedes-Benz of Baton Rouge, is really an incredible thing to hear, how they treat, not only their employees. But every customer that walks through the door, you are more than just a number to them, they’re going to give you that white glove, concierge service. Every step of the way they’re going to make you feel like family and take what can be a stressful time. Time in people’s life shopping for a car, they’re going to make it so enjoyable and so pleasurable. You’re going to want to go back there time and time again for every new vehicle. Thank you so very much for Mercedes-Benz and making this show possible.

[01:12:35.700]
Thank you to our wonderful sponsors: Lake Men’s Health Center with our the physicians group, guys. I know it’s tough to get out and go to the doctor. I know it’s challenging to find time in our busy days, but I promise you sign up to be a part of this group with doctor Curtis Jackson and Dr. Tyler Boudreau. You won’t regret it for several reasons. But most of those being the fact of the time it saves where you’re able to get on the same day. Get that appointment done and spin that time. You need to talk with them. About what? Your health goals and concerns are as well as ensuring that the financial investments you have, you will be able to live out and see those come to fruition. So if your an investing guy, you know all about about and planning for the future and investing in the future, there’s no other more important thing to invest in than your health. Make sure you go check them out. Our lady of the lake physicians, group men’s health center and tell Patty G you.

[01:13:28.900]
McLavy LTD, a proud sponsor of the Patty G show has been serving. The Baton Rouge area proudly for 40-plus years, gentlemen. And ladies, if you’re shopping for your man, there is no other place in the Baton Rouge area to get your clothing. Whether it’s game day needs every day, needs business attire, formal attire, whatever you want. Go over there, see Frank and Ashley, it’s a father-daughter Duo, they do incredible things in their store. They will outfit you from as simply a shirt that you Need for one evening or all the way to a full wardrobe. Overhaul, they’re going to take care of you every step of the way and be sure, and let them know that Patty G show sent you.