Charge Forward Podcast
The Charge Forward Podcast: Dedicated to those who choose to Charge Forward into the Storm when hit with challenges. This is what makes them different and has lead to their success. When in doubt.... Charge Forward!
Charge Forward Podcast
Bowling Beyond the Lanes: Ron Hickland Jr.’s Journey of Passion, Innovation, and Resilience
Bowling Beyond the Lanes: Ron Hickland Jr.’s Journey of Passion, Innovation, and Resilience
What does it take to design revolutionary bowling products and build a thriving business out of passion? In this episode of the Charge Forward Podcast, we sit down with Ron Hickland Jr., renowned bowling ball designer, Innovator and CEO of Creating the Difference, to uncover his extraordinary journey from engineer to entrepreneur.
Ron takes us back to his early days, where a love for bowling sparked by his father and a legendary designer paved the way for a groundbreaking career. Hear how an unexpected job loss became the turning point that inspired him to launch his own business, Creating a thriving community and innovative bowling products that continue to transform the industry.
Dive deep into Ron’s creative process—from brainstorming career possibilities on sticky notes to securing partnerships with legends like Pete Weber and navigating the challenges of product development under strict competition rules. Ron shares invaluable insights on turning setbacks into stepping stones, building a community that shares your vision, and leveraging customer feedback to achieve lasting success.
But it’s not all business—this episode takes a holistic approach to success. Learn how Ron prioritizes personal health and balances his career with well-being, offering a blueprint for leaders and entrepreneurs striving to reach their full potential. Whether you're a bowling enthusiast, an aspiring entrepreneur, or simply looking for inspiration, Ron’s story is a masterclass in innovation, resilience, and following your dreams.
🎧 Tune in now and charge forward with insights from one of the most creative minds in the bowling industry!
Want to connect with Ron Hickland Jr. and Creating the Difference?
- Website: https://ctdbowling.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ctdbowling/
- Facebook: Creating the Difference
- YouTube: Creating the Difference Channel
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Special Thanks to Our Sponsors:
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Thank you,
Jim Cripps
You are the cap for whatever goes on in your store, in your company, in your district, in your household. However excited you are, what you believe is possible, whatever that threshold is. Good afternoon team Jim Cripps here with the Charge Forward podcast, and I have a special guest for you today, mr Ron Hicklin Jr. He is the CEO, the janitor, the founder, the ball tester, the everything at CTD creating the difference, which is just an amazing brand. You know I love the whole team, the mission, all of it. Ron, thanks for coming in, man, thanks for having us here, absolutely. Now there's a lot of traditional bowling things like balls and pins and pin setters and those types of things. You're really kind of branching out into things that aren't traditional bowling.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we, you know we we kind of started the company, you know, almost almost 10 years ago actually, yeah, and we do the accessories. So all the things that you do to support your bowling ball right Ball cleaners, sanding pads, polishes, bowling bags so we do all the things that are around the bowling ball that you typically would have to just have to go buy, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, the theme of the charge forward podcast is really that of people who default to charging forward when other people see it as a sign that they're supposed to give up. And you really do fit that mold because, you know, take us back to when you decided that you wanted to be in bowling and and then all the way up to the wall that started kind of it was the catalyst for uh ctd.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so basically my dad's been a bowler, a real good bowler, and I kind of followed him around when I was a kid and it was cool because I actually met a bowling ball designer at a particular tournament and I was like, well, well, this is kind of cool. He was surrounded by all these people and I mean, he was like the man. So I'm like, well, what do you do? And he's like, I design bowling balls. And I'm like, well, that sounds like that's a pretty cool job. Like, maybe I want to do that. What do I have to do? And he's like, ah, you need to get a degree in either chemical engineering if you want to do the core. You know the inside piece. So I was like, okay, I was like, well, how much money do you make? I mean, I need to know that. Right, this is I'm like 16 years old. Right, that's right. And he's like, well, you see this Necklace that I have.
Speaker 2:He had a pendant on right, a necklace with a pendant on it. And I was like, yeah, I know that that's a bowling ball. At the ball I was called a sumo and he says, uh, well, I got five bucks a ball for every one of those that are sold. And the company that I made it for gave me the pendant when we sold a hundred thousand of them. So I'm like that's half a million dollars, that dude's rich, right, I want his job. So that was kind of like the, the inspiration that kind of got me going to um want to design bowling balls, uh, and then and then so I went to school, took a couple of chemistry classes and was like, yep, that ain't going to work, we need to do mechanical engineering. So, uh, got me a degree in mechanical engineering and then, literally right out of college, went to go work for a bowling ball company. Yeah, so and I and I wanted to design bowling balls. Like that was the whole goal, like design bowling balls.
Speaker 1:Now, to put that in perspective for people, how many people designed bowling balls at that time? Four. So you pick a career where there are four. I mean really realistically. The only way you could get to a tighter group, a harder job to have would be if you said I want to be the shortstop for the New York Yankees.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, basically. But you know, it's the same thing Like, if you whatever you, if you really want to do something right, then you'll do whatever you have to do and things will kind of work themselves out. So a couple of things happen right. So I happened to go to that tournament and that's where I met the guy, right. So when I was in college I actually gave up a couple of my spring breaks to go work for bowling ball companies just to kind of help. They have a tournament that happens every every year. It's called the national tournament. And basically I went to the national tournament and I said, hey, can I like, can I work in the pro shop? Can I help out? Can I? You know what can I do? I'll do anything just to be here, right. And because of doing that for free, right. Then my, and because of doing that for free, then my senior year I got an opportunity to meet the guy who ended up being my boss. He's like, hey, if you, the guy that was running the pro shop, was like, hey, if you can come back here in a couple days, you can actually do a ball test for the ball company and the guy who is in charge will be here. So I was like, okay, I'll be back, I'll be here in a couple days then. So things open up, doors open up like doors open up.
Speaker 2:When I graduated from college, I had three job offers. I had an offer from General Motors, because I worked for them during my summers. I had an offer from the bowling ball company. I had an offer from Anheuser-Busch. The Anheuser-Busch one's interesting because the Anheuser-Busch offer happened because I was on a plane ride to Reno and there was this lady in front of me and she had this big bag and she couldn't get the bag in the overhead bin and I'm like, here, I'll put it up there for you. So I put it up there for you, just being nice, right, I sit down and I find out like we're just having casual conversation, right, and she's a vice president for Anheuser-Busch.
Speaker 2:So I'm like, oh, wow. And she's like, hey, do you need a job? Because I'm like, yeah, I'm graduating in four more months or whatever. She's like you need a job. I'm like, well, I mean, yeah, sure, and what does that mean? She's like, well, we can get you in any of these facilities that we make. Like, we've got St Louis, we've got over here, we've got pick whatever one you want. So I went through the whole interview process and got a job offer from them, ended up taking the bowling ball offer because that's what I really wanted, right, that's what I wanted to do. And then I did that for almost 15 years and then they let me go. They're like what people were going to cut? So they cut me and it was like now what?
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you're, you're on this path and your path didn't, did, did not not include that, right? You know so a lot of people that would have crushed them a lot of, and not that it didn't. I mean, obviously it had to be a huge, not just smack in the face, but it would knock you down. So how did you decide, like how, what was the process for going? No, I'm still here.
Speaker 2:So what I did was, at my house I got, I mean, like a sticky note, but like a gigantic one, like one of those ones that's like, like you know, it's like two feet by three feet, right. So I had a bunch of those and I put those on the wall of my house and what I did was I would write down things that I would want, jobs that I'd want to do, and then I wrote down as many as I could like, just as many options as I could come up with it. I could think about it. I'd just write it down and then every morning when I woke up, I'd come downstairs and scratch one of them off. So just, you know, just started, right, sure, and going through that process it kind of helped me figure out that really I need to be my own boss, like that's what needs to happen, but that's cool.
Speaker 2:But what are you going to do? You know you can't, you can't go design bowling balls by yourself. That ain't gonna work, right, right, um, and I had some friends around and they were like, hey, well, you know, I don't know what do you want to do? And I'm like, well, let's just we'll put something together and see what happens, and the first product that we did was a backpack with bowling accessories in it. Okay, so it's a backpack, it's got sanding pads that you know. They weren't our sanding pads at the time, but we, we found some sanding pads and I had all these other glue, a little knife, just things that you would need as a bowler, sure, and we put it on Facebook and we were like, hey, would you guys buy this? And people were like, yeah, like, we absolutely buy it. So we didn't have a source for that stuff, any of this stuff. All right, this is stuff that I had at my house that we just put together. We had nail clippers in there.
Speaker 1:Right, I have them in my bag right now.
Speaker 2:See, see. And so what was cool was one of the items was a ball cleaner, and I was like, well, I can make my own ball cleaner. I don't need to go buy somebody's ball cleaner. I know how to make a ball cleaner, so I'll make a ball cleaner. So, me and my friends, we went and I got. This is funny If you go to my Instagram page, if you go back, you can find the photo where I have like 10 water bottles and the water bottles are are the full of different types of ball cleaner that we that I'd made up, and that was our first like, that was the first test.
Speaker 2:We went out, we bold, and we got the balls dirty and then wiped them off. See which one cleaned the best? And that was a product. So I made it on ball cleaner, put it in the backpack, um, put it on Facebook and sold a hundred of them. It was like, well, that was interesting. Yeah, now it's real. Now, yeah, well, maybe we got something here, right. And then it was. And then, because we had the ball cleaner, we're like we can sell the ball cleaner, still, right.
Speaker 2:So um started with a ball cleaner and, uh, it just really started to snowball from there. There were some things that we could do that nobody else was looking at doing, and we did a couple more products that allowed us to take advantage of this kind of a rule that was there in place. Basically, the rule said you could wipe your bowling ball off during competition. So I knew a way to chemically alter the performance of your ball without altering the surface of the ball. So I created two products that chemically altered the surface to change what the bowling ball did, right, um, but it didn't violate the rule. So, uh, that was that was really good, because we were like, oh man, like this is great, like we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna destroy everybody with this, because nobody's even thinking this direction. And we did for about three years. And then, uh, and then the rule, the governing body, was like, hey, we're gonna make a rule change, yeah, we're gonna take that away from you well, you know.
Speaker 1:At the same time, though, that's really kind of like confirmation that you're making change. Yeah, they don't change rules if. If people aren't doing anything. Yeah, if you were styling out there and like six people are using your product, they don't care, but you're making waves, right, it probably had to also. I mean, it probably hurt initially, but then it probably also validated that you were, you were heading the right direction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean my. You know it depends on how you look at things, right. So I look at all of these things that happen right as okay, well, so now what? What do we do next then? If you're gonna, if we're gonna take, make a rule change that says that these products now you can't do it anymore.
Speaker 2:Basically, the rule change was you can only use products before or after competition. And this, these products, you specifically had to use during competition to make them work right, right, to be effective. So it was like, okay, we'll do something else. So they gave us a heads up. They said, hey, you know, we're going to make this rule change and in a couple years, this is what's going to happen. And everybody's like, oh no, you're going to go out of business. All you have is street bowl cleaners, basically. So your whole business model is not going to work. No, that's not how that works. So literally the day the rule change comes out, two days after that, I launch uh, sanding pads, and the sanding pads the the bowling industry has had basically had the same type of sanding pad for 20 years, and it didn't even come from bowling, it came from automotive.
Speaker 2:So it really wasn't even built for bowling, sure, um, so I built a set. I got with the, got a final supplier and built a sanding pad specifically for bowling balls, yeah, and when people tried it, they just absolutely loved that. And it's cool because even the people that weren't supposed to use the sanding pad they're like, well, we're sponsored by such and such company, so we really can't use yours. They were still buying them and they were still using them. So it was really cool, right, like the people that were supposed to were still doing it too.
Speaker 1:So it was cool, especially when you see somebody on TV and you're like, oh, that's my pad, correct, correct.
Speaker 2:Correct, so that was really neat. And then, like I said, so now you're like okay, we got sanding pads. Well, now what? So we've done a bunch of different products since then, but now where we're at like, uh, since then, but now where we're at like, now where we're headed, is now we're like well, why don't we do a sports supplement for bowling?
Speaker 1:We got the sauce, the sauce yeah absolutely, yeah, so we.
Speaker 2:So essentially, the idea there was is okay, how do you like, if you were a bowler, what would you do? What would you need from a supplement? Um, and the thing that really stuck out to me, me was, like, a lot of times people will drink like an energy drink, right, or they'll do a pre-workout or they'll do a hydration drink, but those aren't really built for bowling and they're not what a bowler needs, right, as a bowler, think of it this way when you have a lot of strikes in a row, you get a little anxious, right, that's right. I mean, you've had of strikes in a row, you get a little anxious, right, that's right. I mean, you've had 12 strikes in a row, and that 10th, 11th and 12th one they ain't the same as one, two and three, right, that's right. So like, so that matters. So, having some feeling calm, calming you down, you know, not having the super high and the super low, being more even, right, that's good. If you're a bowler, yeah, maybe not so much if you're a power lifter, but if you're a bowler, that's probably a good thing, right, that's right. Um, focusing, you know, when you, when you are in that pressure situation or not. You want to be able to focus on hitting your target. Um, so it was like these things are things that bowlers need, would could benefit from if they had it right. Yeah, so I want again go find another partner. Right, find a partner. Hey, I'm in bowling and this is kind of funny.
Speaker 2:So the guy that I talked to, he's like man, people ask me for this stuff. All the time. I get bombarded by people coming up to me saying they're going to create the next best sports supplement, whatever right he says. But if you know Pete Weber, then I'm interested and I was like, really, he's like, yeah, I said okay, one second, right. So I call Pete. I call him on the phone hey, are you going to be at the Hall of Fame thing for the PVA? He's like yeah, I said when we're there we have to get a photo. He's like no problem, all right. So then I go to the hall of fame thing. Like two weeks later I take the picture I sent to the guy. I'm like here you go. He's like okay, what you want to?
Speaker 1:do. That's real. And you know, I know that pete has the, has the reputation for being the bad boy on tour from when he was young and that kind of thing. But you know, I met him roughly a decade ago and he was just as cool with me as as anybody and you know he could have absolutely had a negative attitude towards me. He could, you know, he could and probably wouldn't have been wrong in any of in any of those and he literally was just like man. I've seen what you've done. He's like. I've seen you, you know, at some tournaments and this that, because I love it, just a, just a great guy and what a great connection to be able to pull out of your back pocket, yeah, and close a deal with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. So you know. So we launched that product and it's it's going game busters like no, but the same thing. Nobody in bowling has a product like that well, I think a lot of people it's.
Speaker 1:It's no different in bowling than it is in other industries and that you have so many people that have these blinders on. This is what we do, because it's what we've done, correct, and I think, as an entrepreneur, you have to always be looking at what are we going to do next, what is not being done, how do we create our own market for something? And I think one of the places that you've gone that has been just a game changer for you and really just impressive to watch is your membership, your subscribers. How did that all kind of transpire?
Speaker 2:So, at the end of the day, creating the difference is an education company. That's what we are. First, right, we sell products and services to fund the education, but we give the education away Like it's free. I've got, I don't know, probably 1,200 to 1,300 videos on YouTube. Then they're all free, like it's all free. It ain't free to create it.
Speaker 1:I can guarantee you it's not free to create that content, but it's all free.
Speaker 2:And the reason being is because I golf, but I'm terrible at golf, right, and the reason why I dislike golfing is because I'm bad at it. Nobody likes to do something that they're bad at, but I haven't been able to find good, qualified people to really help me per se. I mean, I say that, but that's the problem, right. So I was like well, in bowling, I can fix that, right, if you're a bowler, you're just getting into bowling, you don't even know how many pins are down there, right? Then come talk to us, right, we'll get you going the right way. We'll get you set up to know how to do the proper four-step approach. And that's really what we are. We're an education company and we help everybody, from the very beginning bowler, and we have literally the best player on the planet on our staff as well. So that's where this whole thing, this whole membership and this whole staffing, came into place. So essentially, it was like well, what we should do is get all of these people together and they can all turn. It can turn to a community where you can ask questions, right, ask questions and get help.
Speaker 2:So we started that and there's two versions, right, all everybody's in the same group. It's a gigantic Facebook group. There's like 8,000 people in there now and there are some people in there that are free because you can join for free. You don't have to pay a dime. You can get in there and get some discounts on our products and then get all the education for free.
Speaker 2:Or you can pay a monthly fee and then know what you're going to get and we give you, um, we give you products, and what's cool about that program is the program every year increases the price, but your price that you sign up at doesn't change. That's right. So basically, it's kind of like. You're kind of like you're buying it, You're paying it forward a little bit Meaning if you got started when we, when we first started doing this, you're paying like 25 bucks a month and you're still paying 25 bucks now, even though the subscription fee now is 70, know, so those people are like, they're like it's good for them, right, and they're getting and the and the only way it works is is if is that we deliver more value than the 70 dollars, right? So the guy who's paying 70 is still happy because he's getting more value than that. Yeah, the guy who's paying less than that is even more happy because he's paying less. But that deal was there when we didn't have you know very many things.
Speaker 1:There was 10 videos Correct, and there was one product Correct, yeah, correct. Well, it's a loyalty thing too, and that's one of the things that I think is so fantastic about the group, about the subscribers, about just really kind of everybody that's involved with CTD is everybody's passionate, not just about bowling but about each other and about the group and about the patch, and you know, um, it's, it's. I don't hesitate to use the word cult, but it I mean it is like a cult, like following.
Speaker 2:It's funny you say that. So, like, we have some people that have CTD tattoos I saw that and it's mind blowing. People that have ctd tattoos, I saw that and it's mind-blowing. Yeah, I mean, it's cool man like the, the.
Speaker 2:For me, probably the funnest part of my job is the interacting with people. I love doing that, right, and you, you learn so much, right, um, so that's fun. So, like, I'm in the group every day, looking, talking, responding. Uh, it's interesting. Though, as the company gets bigger and bigger, you have to begin to pull away from some of that, because there's other things that you know have to take up your time, but that's probably the one of the funnest things that I'm able to do is just be able to get in there and cut up with the group. As a matter of fact, like I. Like I kind of crack jokes in there too, right?
Speaker 2:So yesterday, uh, me and my my buddy chris, we're bowling, we're blowing, we're bowling the city tournament or whatever, and basically I'm left-handed, which essentially means that the lanes don't change very much, right, whereas a right-hander has other people on the same lane and it's changing the lane because there's oil on the lane and as you bowl, you move the oil around. Well, if you're a left-hander, the oil doesn't really move because you're the only one on that side. Primarily, that's what happens. Sure, so yesterday we're bowling and Chris essentially calls me a dummy. He basically calls me a dummy. He says you're not thinking like you don't think when you're bowling.
Speaker 2:And I thought about that for a minute and I was like you know what? I'm not going to think about this while I'm bowling right now, like I'm not, I'm just going to focus on the bowling, I'm not going to worry about that. But really, I mean, there was some truth there, right? Sure, you don't have to think because there's not as much transition, so it's a little bit easier. But the other side of that coin is is when it's when the lanes are hard on both sides, you know, then the left side doesn't change. So then it's hard, because it's neat to be able to go into the group and talk to people, get some feedback, and if we have questions or concerns, they immediately will let you know. Or praise, or praise, they'll let you know immediately. So it's awesome, it's a great feedback loop.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, a lot of times in business, the faster you can adjust, the faster you can modify your approach, the more successful you're going to be, and that, when something's not going right, you being able to course correct and how quickly you can do that, or how quickly you can make a decision, determines whether or not you come out on top. And I think the subscribers, the group, allows to use that instant feedback Now some of it will just be outliers and so you do have to use your own filter to say, okay, is this an outlier? Somebody's just jumping on here or is this a trend? Right, right, and so you know. I think also, one of the things that you do really well and the fact that you're as successful as you are is what you just said a minute ago is, you know, a lot of entrepreneurs, because they do respond to the post or because they are active on their social media or whatever, they feel like they have to keep that.
Speaker 1:Well, there's only so many hours in the day and at some point not only selfishly for you, but selfishly for every one of your team members, all of your team members selfishly need you leading the company, figuring out what the next thing is not necessarily responding to every post in social media or you out there still building those relationships that leads to the next partnership. So, you know, I tell people all the time I want my employees to be selfish. I need them to expect me to be selfish, because if we are selfish enough, we will take care of everybody else. Right? And a lot of business owners they just haven't gotten they. They feel they feel like they're betraying their team If they're not in there scrubbing the toilet or putting the labels on or fill in the blank whatever that needs. That is when reality is those employees need you out there leading the way Correct, and I think you've done a great job of you know, taking this from something that was on your kitchen table, you know, in your spare room, to where it is today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's interesting because I think when you're growing a business, you have to realize that you have to change. As the business grows, right, the needs change and you have to adapt. And you're right. I mean, it literally started in a small house.
Speaker 2:I remember we were pouring bowling ball cleaner in the living room out of a five-gallon bucket. You know what I mean? It was really, really nitty-gritty down in the dirt, but it was fun, that's just how it worked. And now we've got a full warehouse and we've got. It was really really nitty-gritty down in the dirt, but it was fun, that's just how it worked. And now we've got a full warehouse and we've got a bowling center and we've got buildings now. So it's a lot different. Now We've got machines that take care of all that for us. It's real. It's real, yeah, it's real. But you realize that as you're growing, you have to change the things that worked for you in the past, maybe when you were $100,000 or a half a million dollar company. That doesn't work at a million, that doesn't work at 2 million, and if you want to get more than 3 million, it's a completely different strategy. As a matter of fact, some of those strategies may be counterproductive. Right, and you're right, you only have so much time, so, and that becomes a commodity.
Speaker 1:It does, and I kind of look at it like this it's almost like shifting gears in a manual transmission right, like, if I stay in first, I'm holding myself back and this thing, this thing's going to blow up. So you have to get good at shifting gears and then, at the same time, when there's a market change or a rule change or something like that, you also have to be willing to shift, to downshift in order to pick speed back up. You know, if I go into a hill in fifth gear and I don't have the RPMs up, this ain't gonna work. And so you know, I think being that self-aware is critical, especially as you're moving through, as the, as the zeros add up, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think part of that, too, is surrounding yourself with people good, good people that can help help with that Right, like that's the thing. Like you, you only have so much time and there's only so much you can do as an individual, so you've got to have good people. If you've got good people, you can move really fast. That's right, really quick.
Speaker 1:So that's part of it too, especially those that are bought in on the mission correct. You know, and I think you've got a lot, of a lot of those now. Obviously, some of them have a lot of them bowling backgrounds, but a couple of them don't, and but they're all passionate and it's great to see. I mean, you know, especially with in fact we didn't talk about this before. If you will share a little bit about the Easter eggs, oh sure, because the Easter eggs to me. The first time I saw it it kind of blew my mind, but it has grown like crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's a promotion that we do within the group, right? So you have to be a staff member right To be able to even participate, and essentially what it is is it's an opportunity for you to spend however much money you want and then for us to send you whatever we want. That's essentially what happens Now. We give you a guarantee. The guarantee is, however much money you spend, we guarantee that you'll get more value back than what you spent, right? So if you spent 20 bucks, we're going to give you something that's 30 or 35 or 40 bucks more than what you spent, right? What's interesting is, the group loves this promotion to the point to where we have eggs as cheap as $5 and we'll have them as expensive as $10,000. And people have bought $10,000 eggs.
Speaker 1:And they've sold out. Oh yeah, Because you limit those higher end eggs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then part of what makes it fun, I think, is the anticipation. So then what happens is people will post hey, I bought a $50 egg and a $200 egg and a $100 egg. And then we tell them okay, we figured out how many we got. And it takes us a long time to do it because every time it is the single hardest thing that we do, because every time we do it we have to go look at their history. It's like Santa Claus we look at their order history. We see have to go look at like their history. It's like santa claus we look at their, we look at their order history. We see some of that. Look at their comments, right, and for little clues or hints on what to give them. So it literally is kind of like playing like santa claus at christmas. So we do that for every single one of these things and we're talking hundreds, if not thousands, of eggs, right, so it's a lot of eggs. Um, so what we do then is we say, okay, we know how many, we know how many we got. Now we know how long it's going to take for us to be able to fill this. It's going to be 30 days before they're all done, but within 30 days everybody will have their egg. So what people do is, the very first time we start shipping them, they will go look at the package weight and they'll be like my egg weighs 17 pounds. I may be getting a bowling ball, right. Or I spent $200 and mine only weighs eight pounds. It's definitely not a bowling ball, but what could it be? So there's anticipation that way, right? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Then when they actually get the package, everybody's doing an unboxing of it. Everybody in the group's unboxing it, because we make them individual. So just because you spent $200 and I spent $200 doesn't mean we're getting the same thing. Yeah, it might even be close to the same thing. So everybody wants to do an unboxing to show what they got. And, uh, man, it's a. It's probably. It's probably one of the coolest things, because everybody's involved, yeah, and they're all talking about what. Well, you know, this person did this and this person got this this time and oh, my goodness, he's got a trip and it's cool, it's a lot of fun. That's probably one of the coolest things that we do and outsider looking in, it's got to.
Speaker 1:It's a lot of fun. That's probably one of the coolest things that we do, and outsider looking in, it's got to be exhausting, but at the same time, when they start doing those unboxings, it makes it all worth it. Yeah, the team loves that part.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the team absolutely loves that part, because then it is a very, very intense, manually labor-intense process for us to do, intense, manually labor intense process for us to do. You're literally going to look at somebody's history and go, oh, they can't get this, this, this, this and this. They can't get these items, but based on what they spent, we should probably do this, this and this instead, and then we box it all up and ship it. So when the team gets to see these people open the package that they packed, they get all excited about it, right. So it's just, I mean, it's really cool, like it's really like Santa Claus.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's like Christmas. You go there and you open your box and you see what you got and everybody's excited, and a lot of times we put stuff in there that you know they've never even heard or seen before, and that makes it even more exclusive. Right, we have a specialty towel, for example. The only way you get the specialty towel is to buy an Easter egg. But you didn't know that, right, and then you got it and then we told you well, there's no more. Only the ones that got it were the Easter eggs. Then people are like, oh man, I should have bought an Easter egg. So it kind of builds itself. It does build itself, and then everybody's talking about and they're like, ah, it's a promotion that we do, blah, blah, blah. And they're like well, when are you going to do another one? You know what I mean, so it's cool.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think you also build excitement too with that exclusivity factor. Meaning, you know, I know, was it February when the breast cancer awareness BAM pads come out? Yep, and everybody you know some people that's the only one they want to use all year, Yep, so they stock up. And especially when you launch a new product, you know the shoes. I got to tell you which I did an unboxing on the shoes. They're fantastic, they look great. I mean I don't think you could have hit the nail on the head any better with that one. How have the shoes gone overall? Great, yeah, Great man, with that one.
Speaker 2:How have the shoes gone overall. Great, yeah, great man. We, we, uh, we ordered. You know there's a minimum quantity of shoes and that's a little scary, right, because shoes you know only certain sizes and you don't want to be left with a bunch but absolutely no issues. We've only got, I don't know, maybe 50 pair left. Yeah, I mean we sold an unbelievable amount of shoes and basically that was kind of neat because with the team we, we said hey look, this is what we're going to do. If you guys want to preorder it, you can preorder it. So basically they were I mean, three quarters of them were already gone before they even by the time they landed, right. So that's another thing that businesses can do as well, right, like leverage. If you're D to C, you can leverage the consumer base to help if you need it. Now, we didn't need the cash flow. We're totally fine, but it was cool because they got something that was really neat, unique, and we got to know that it was already bought and paid for before we even got it.
Speaker 1:So it was a win-win All right. So I got to ask did you take that best practice from somebody that I know is near and dear to your heart and you love their products, because you drove one here today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean there's a lot of things that I do, that I follow from Tesla what they do. I think Tesla is a very innovative company, right? You know, you're in this industry where it's three major companies and they all make gas cars and you're like want to make an electric car and everybody's like that's crazy. Because it is, yeah, and, as a matter of fact, one of those companies made an electric car for like a year and they're like, yeah, this is dumb, we're done, we're done doing this right. So I like, I like what they do, I like a lot of what they. They're very innovative.
Speaker 2:You know, the, the vehicle that I have. It can drive by itself, right? Um, it's got four-wheel steering, right, the back wheels turn and the front wheels turn both, which I didn't think that would be cool, but that's one of the coolest features of that vehicle, oh yeah, that, the fact that both wheels turn. So now the, the turning radius is very tight, very tight. So, yeah, I mean there's a lot of things that that I follow regarding, kind of how that company has grown and what their strategy is. Now they're working on a completely autonomous robo-taxi. Let me think about that for a minute. If you had a vehicle that didn't require any human to do anything except sit in it and get to your destination. That's a really, really big opportunity.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And scalable and highly scalable, and think about like places where, like, there are too many cars right, that's a great opportunity, yeah. So I like the vision, I like what they're doing. I don't necessarily agree with everything that they say, I mean, that's just kind of how it works but I like the, the company's vision, I like the company's mission. So there are some, there are some things that we take from them and we're like hey, we can do that in Bowling too, so let's do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, you know same thing. Let's just use the Cybertruck, for instance. So I forget how many million orders there were. But when he goes to build a plant, for that all he's got to do is this is how many orders we have. These are the deposits. Correct, that's the interest. Of course they're going to loan the money to build the plant.
Speaker 1:I mean it's a no brainer, but I think a lot of people they keep doing this. Oh, that's, that's a different, different, different industry, and I think one of the things that you do really well is you go, could I apply that here? And I think, as an entrepreneur, that's that's just what you have to do. That's your job, yeah.
Speaker 2:Your job is to try to grow your brand, grow your business, so you can look for inspiration everywhere. I mean, I'm in here in this really nice area thinking there's a lot of inspiration going on right here. I could use this, we could use that. This whole podcast thing is cool, so that's what you're supposed to do, though, right, and you're right. Like with the Cybertruck, I waited. I ordered that in 2019.
Speaker 2:So I waited a long time to get that truck right, and then, when I finally got it, get that truck right, yeah. And then when I finally got it, I was like this is stainless steel, which is terrible. Like it's terrible. I had it for three days and I was like this won't work, because when you touch it, leave a thumbprint or a fingerprint and they don't wash off. I don't know why, but it doesn't wash off either. So I went and got it wrapped. I got it wrapped black, and since then, we're all good to go. Now you can touch it and there's no fingerprints. But, um, you know, there's some, there's some mystique with that vehicle, because it's different well, but even the stainless steel is innovative in that.
Speaker 1:You know there's an expense. There's a significant expense to an auto manufacturer to have different colors, to be able to touch up a color, to do all the things, all the spray, spray booths, you name it or from a parts standpoint and what a genius move. In that one it's not $4,000 or $5,000 more expensive. Because he's not putting paint on it, you go out and you wrap it. You spend that $5,000 or $6,000 to have it wrapped.
Speaker 1:So you pick whatever color you want. And if they could have replacement parts in the field, they don't have to worry about what color they are. Nope, they're stainless. I mean, it's a pretty genius move. I almost liken it to, and I get that it was for a different reason. But Henry Ford was like you can have a Model T in any color you want, as long as it's black.
Speaker 2:As long as it's black, yep, as long as it's black. So it's interesting about that, right? So, like they had a lot of capital investment there, they have this thing called a gigapress, which is this gigantic machine that basically bends this stainless steel into the frame of the truck. Right, I mean a lot of capital expense, right. And then a lot of engineering and a lot of things you've got to create. I've got, like, a four-foot windshield wiper. It only has one, but it's got this gigantic. There's all these things that are very unique. Um, it's a big gamble because it could have just went, you know, could have just went terrible, but they're actually profitable with that vehicle already. And they did. They did another great job. They were like, hey, the first ones are going to be called the foundation series, which basically means you're a guinea pig, right.
Speaker 2:So I get this new truck, I drive it six miles and it starts going off, beeping at me like it's going to die, and I'm like, oh, my goodness, what happened? So I literally turn back around, I pull over to the side of the road and they're like, yeah, bring it back. So I bring it back. And they're like, yeah, it's messed up, we got to fix it, so they get it back. I have it for, I don't know, maybe another week and it's like, ah well, you bring it back again.
Speaker 2:So I had two or three things that were wrong that they fixed. But what's interesting because I'm a super fan, right, I'm not like blasting them on social media. I'm like, ah, well, you know, and and it is new tech, I mean, this is all brand new stuff, like no one's ever done this before. So you're gonna have these kind of things happen, right, you just gotta just got to be just roll with the punches, right. So I have a couple of things that get it fixed and now it's amazing, the truck's amazing, it does all these cool things and you get these over the air updates and it gets better and better over time. So you know, now it's good, it's all good.
Speaker 1:Well, and so one of my team members brought up a subject the other day and I it had never even crossed my mind, but I wondered if it had crossed yours, cause I know your mom and dad both drive Teslas, yep, right. And so his mom is in her early eighties and her sister doesn't drive. Her sister lives across the street and he took her to go look at a new car. Well, he's like. Well, we went to Tesla and I'm thinking you got an 80 plus year old woman that's going to adopt an electric car. And he goes. Well, yeah, she's in her 80s and if something happens, I don't want them to wreck and die or hurt somebody else. The car can take care of that. And it was like this light bulb. It had never occurred to me that that would be a market segment, for Tesla is the safety for our aging drivers.
Speaker 2:So it's funny you say that. So I've had one, two, I've had four Teslas, right, the first one I got was in 2016 and that car I was at a stoplight and the light turned. It was red, light turned green. The car behind me wasn't paying attention and ran into me. It hit me so hard. I hit the suv in front of me. I hit them so hard, deployed my airbag, so I'm like in the middle of and it's an suv that hit me and I hit an suv, so I'm like you, I got smashed right in the middle, right, so I ended up walking away from the accident.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm fine, the car was totaled, but it was at that moment that I decided that everybody that was that lived with me was going to have a tesla because the car, the car was, it was cool. The car was actually completely like destroyed, but the cage, you know, the, the, the cabin was completely. The people were protected, correct, and they were like there were like these eye beams in the front and in the back where it would absorb the crash and they would kick off all of the part, all of the, the panels and the glass and everything would go away from the cabin. It was it was. It was very interesting, but it was literally at that moment when I decided that everybody that I knew and loved was going to have a tesla, because I'm like, yeah, these cars are really really safe.
Speaker 1:Well that was a model S. Right, that was my last Yep, and you know, one of the things that I love about the model S is you know, not that Elon Musk doesn't swing for the fences really every time, but he came out and correct me if I'm wrong here it it was the highest safety test rating that had ever been achieved before, so much so that they tried to change the rules and say that it had to play in its own category. Correct that. I mean, I love that it. It's fantastic.
Speaker 2:I mean that that's that's what they do, right? They try to innovate and that's it goes. It's good and bad, right, like I told you, the truck I got this brand new truck and I had to take it back. So it's good and bad, but I think, at the end of the day, their heart is in the right place, their mission is in the right place and they're trying to do the right thing. They allow other companies to use their tech, their ip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're like these are our patents, but if you want to use it, go ahead well, if you look at people who are just at the top of the game period, those guys or girls, they will give away their best tips and tricks. Correct, because they know at the end of the day, they're still going to play that better, and they're not. You know, I think a lot of people are guarded like, oh, I can't tell my trick because then they might beat me. And he's one of those that's so bold and is willing to adapt. So well, he's like I'll give it away, I don't need it. I would like for the whole industry to get better, to protect more people, and we're just going to innovate together.
Speaker 2:Correct and that's the right mindset. Right Back to the truck. Right, the truck has a 48 volt system in it, whereas most or all other vehicles are 12 volt systems. Right, so there's a massive advantage to having a 48 volt system the lot less wiring, uh, it's just easier to do stuff, blah, blah, blah. But the point is they're like, hey, you guys want to do this, anybody can use this. And it's kind of cool because we do a lot of that in terms of like with our education. Right, we give it all the way. We give it all away for free. If you are part of our group and you want coaching, we offer coaching for free. Um, because I believe that if you get better, then you want to stay, and that's the. That's the name of the game I want you to be bowling in your 80s. Bowling is one of those sports, one of the few sports that you can do when you're two and you can do when you're 92.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I think Don Durr made it to 91. 91. And was still bowling, still bowling.
Speaker 2:Yeah, still bowling. That's the thing. It's one of the few sports you can do that. It's a lifelong sport and it can. It can unite your entire family right. My entire family bowls and we bowl. We bowl events together. My daughter just got done bowling. She bowls collegiately but she bowled on national television about a month ago. That was a lot of fun for the entire family. My dad still bowls. It's my mom bowls, everybody bowls.
Speaker 1:Well, and the cool part too is you also get to celebrate that with the group Correct, and I think it also adds to your legitimacy Meaning when your daughter bowling they're on TV says okay, the coaching works, the products work. You know, I think the set kind of the same you know Bob learn was on a couple of weeks ago. Well, bob, as a coach, that works because Bob did it on tour, you know it. It it really does give you the credit you're due in that regard.
Speaker 2:What's interesting to me is the person that probably bowls the most is my wife. She bowls three leagues, you know, and like, because of the travel schedule, right, I bowl one, I bowl one, but I bowl tournaments still, but she bowls the most out of everybody. So it's just kind of funny Cause, like, as you like, you know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, I would have been bowling three, four or five leagues, right, and now I just I'm signed up for one, I do it and we're good, right, so it's just kind of cool to watch, but literally everybody in my entire family bowls.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah. Well, I'm not going to say they have to, because they obviously don't, but it helps. Yeah, and then we can do?
Speaker 2:we can have like family trips, Like we'll do family trips and we'll, you know, go to go somewhere and we'll bowl.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, now, one of the things that has worked out really well, I think, on the on the business side. So keep me, keep me honest. Here is one of the one of the conversations that we had is you needed a serious CPA to kind of handle some of the things that weren't going right in your business, and so introduced you to Valerie, and so how's that?
Speaker 2:going. Man, she's awesome, valerie is awesome, she's an amazing, amazing lady. She's prompt, she knows her stuff and she's personable, right, like you can talk to her, like I can call her up and be like hey, valerie, I got this notice from Delaware, I mean whatever. Like I got this notice from Delaware, I don't know what to do, and she's like it's okay, breathe, you know it's okay, breathe, you know it's okay, I'll take care of it, no problem. Just an awesome person.
Speaker 2:It's the same thing. Like you introduced me to her. So it's the same kind of thing where, like, you got to surround yourself, you got to find, you got, I came to you. I was like, hey, man, this is what's going on in my business, I need some help. I need some help. And you're like okay, well, let me see. When you got in there and you kind of saw what was going on and gave me some suggestions and helped guide me through a few little things that were going on, and you know and now I'll come on the other side of it it's like, yeah, that was really helpful. Like I'd tell anybody that's in business is you have to find good people and then protect them. Right, like, protect those people, because business is hard.
Speaker 1:Well, both inside and outside of your company. One of the things that I really like about Valerie is she wants to know your banker and your real estate person, and your lawyer all those people, your insurance person, so that, literally, they can game plan and come up with the right solution.
Speaker 1:That's not missing a piece and I say this about every time that we end up talking about Valerie is I don't want to be the middleman between my professionals. It's like, okay, if I've got this insurance guy, I've got this investment guy, I've got this real estate attorney, I've got this just regular attorney, I've got my CPA. You guys consult with each other and inform me what we need to do in order for me to get to my goals. This is where I'm trying to go. You'll help me get there the best way possible.
Speaker 1:Right, because when you play middleman one, how many conversations is that? I mean back and forth and back and forth, whereas they may actually ask a question they wouldn't have asked through you, that just all of a sudden changes the game, especially when you're talking about expansion. You know we're growing into another city, we're buying another piece of real estate. Well, how do we do that? With the least amount of cost or in the best way, or long-term, for the best tax liability situation, and so, yes, having great people in your team, but also making sure that you don't have the blinders on to think, oh no, no, I'm not going to spend any money on a CPA area. I'm not going to spend any money on an attorney. Usually you save so much money because you engage those people. That's the key right.
Speaker 2:It seems like it's a lot of expense and it's not cheap. It's not cheap, but you save a lot of money. And not only do you save a lot of money, you save a lot of time again. Time ends up being that commodity that you just that that becomes a real commodity for you. Yeah, so not having to worry about the delaware letter, you know what I mean. Like that matters, yeah, um, so, yeah, I, I think, I think that's what's really cool about her is that she, she does want to get involved, like she wanted to come and meet everybody, um, she wanted to, you know, understand more about the business. She's in the group, yeah, like valerie is in the group you know what I mean but she doesn't vote, but she's in the staff group. So it's really, it's really it's. She's a great person. I. I'm really grateful that, uh, you introduced me to her actually, and just, you know, our friendship has been a long.
Speaker 2:It's been for a long time too yeah and it's been very helpful, like especially as I'm navigating some of the things that happen in business. Right, I can give you a call. Hey Jim, hey man, you ever heard about this? Yeah, as a matter of fact, I got a guy for you. You know what I mean? That's right, you're the guy I can call. That's got a guy. So it's kind of cool. It's really cool actually.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I really do think it more money it is is the right people. People Like you'll get connected. You'll make the money if your mission is solid and you're doing the right things. But you, what you really need to do is you need to know the right people to get in those spaces, to be in those rooms or to be on that airplane, correct, and then you have to be open to it.
Speaker 1:I mean, the thing that I I think one of the things that I did I won't say I'm going to say incorrectly is, over my 30 years in business, the number of meals I've eaten alone and was almost prideful of that, like, oh, I'm going to take a little bit of time for myself, or you know, I'm just I'm going to pop out for a second, I'm going to pop out for a second the value in sharing a meal with somebody, to make that connection, to have a conversation that's not just about business to see if there's like, if this is deeper, like are we going to be friends? Or you know, can I call you out of the blue? That kind of thing. Sharing a meal with somebody is powerful. So I would encourage everybody out there, don't eat alone Like, use it as an excuse to go meet somebody, use it as an excuse to to further a business relationship into maybe something that lasts.
Speaker 1:I mean, we've been friends for almost 25 years. Yeah, you know. Uh, we were far different spaces back then, um, you know. But uh, who else along the way has been a great mentor for you.
Speaker 2:Man, a lot of people, uh, mentor for you. Man, there's a lot of people. You know, my father, you know, initially was very influential and very helpful. It's been very encouraging the whole way. Like he still helps out with the business to this day and he's been a great source of inspiration, you know. Or when things are rough, like when things are rough, he's like I just keep going, just keep going. You know what I mean. So that's, he's definitely one of them. Um, I would.
Speaker 2:There's there's a few other like people that just immediately come to mind. I mean, like I said, even talking to you, right, like you helped, hey, man, I got these, I got some questions, I got some concerns. I've never, I've never dealt with this before, you know, um, so even you know somebody yourself that I Um, uh, I would tell you that, uh, there was a guy named Dr Pleasure and he's an interesting, interesting guy, because when I got let go and I'm like man, what do I like? What am I supposed to do? Uh, he came in, he came into my life through my father.
Speaker 2:My dad said talk to this guy. So I talked to him and he and he was a really, really good, influential person in terms of just like shaping my mental outlook right, not looking at a situation as a negative, but looking at it as this is a way to move hot, to move forward. This is, this is a positive situation. Um, and you know, the one of the one of the key things that I would say that he kind of got me to look at and think is, when these things happen because they're going to happen that seem bad, to reframe it, refocus it, and you may find that that's the best thing that could. I mean being let go was like the best thing that could have happened to me, it was the catalyst to this life that you're in.
Speaker 1:Correct, yeah, correct.
Speaker 2:So and that's. But you need somebody that has either been through it or has gone through it, or can at least look at your situation from a different perspective and give you that perspective to go hey, it's not. I mean, yeah, it looks bad, but what about over here? Or what about this? Or do you think about what can happen now, like now you're free to do other stuff.
Speaker 1:Well, the whole reason that that you know people hire me as a coach on the business side is there's not that many people that have been from single digit through double digit to triple digit, millions in annual revenue. And so I've seen it, I've shifted the gears and so when you're, when you're looking for a guide, you're not looking for somebody who's talked about it, about it Hypothetically, you want somebody that's been there and can can be like oh, there's a, there's a landmine over there, don't go that direction. Um, and so again, it's filled with all these people and you will kind of step into taking a step back. You will either pay for it in time or with money, correct, and it's just up to you. Do you want to get there faster? Then pay for the experience, pay for somebody to guide you through that, as opposed to taking the bumps along the way Now, early on. You may not have the capital to do that, but as you grow sometimes you don't have. Like it's cost prohibitive for you to take that time you don't have a choice?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't have a choice, because the time is what matters and you can make the money, or the money will come, but you're not getting the time back. It's impossible, it's gone. Yeah, so you got to figure it out.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Now talking about getting time back, you've been working on your health. Well, I've been working on my health, so what's that journey look like for you?
Speaker 2:So it first started out as kind of like man, you know, I'm just, I'm overweight, I'm not in shape, I'm getting tired when I bowl, there's just all these things. I don't feel good. My back hurts, my neck hurts, like all these things, right. And it's like one of my employees, dustin, he started working out, right, he started working out. Dude lost a ton of weight. I mean, he lost like 60 pounds, bro, and he is ripped. Yeah, he's ripped now. So anyway.
Speaker 2:So I'm like man, I got to start doing something. I can't live like this. This is not fun. This is not fun. So I start going to the gym and, like anything, I start trying to figure out more about like, what should you be doing? You know? Should I do weights? Should I do free weights? Should I do the machines? You know what? What is a Smith machine, like? You know all these things, right. So I start learning more and more and more about it. I get me a little routine. Then what ends up happening is one day, it just clicks. It clicks. It's like this is what I'm doing now Every day.
Speaker 2:First thing in the morning, we're going to get up, we're going to go to the gym. That's just what we do. It's an hour, you're going to do it, you're going to enjoy it. Then you're like, okay, I'm starting to see a little muscle here, a little muscle there getting a little better. But man, I still I still got this belly. Like what's going on with my belly Right? And then you're like, oh well, you got to get this nutrition thing down. So you're like, what does that look like? Like what? What kind of landscape is that? And then that's a whole different deal. Holy cow, is there a lot, lot going on?
Speaker 1:there and you can go in 50 different directions.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, everybody's an expert oh yeah, claims to be anyway, and what's funny about that is when I so I, I travel all over the world. Right, when I go to these other countries, I don't see the obesity that I see here, and it's, I mean, it's like way, way different yeah um, I'm like, well, why is it so?
Speaker 2:then I'm like, why is that? Why are like this is the greatest nation in the world, why are? Are we all fat? Like what's going on, right? So then we start looking at the food, right, and you start looking at so then this is, this is kind of the thing, that that thing, that kind of it, kind of did it for me. They're like go look at the ingredients of whatever you're going to eat. If you can't pronounce them, that's probably a problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah Right. So I'm looking up food, I'm looking it up and I'm like, oh, wow, this is. I'm like, well, this material, this substance that's in this product we used to use that in making bowling balls.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I saw that post and it blew my mind. I was like, oh, yeah, it's used to using making bowling balls and it's you're going to, you're going to ingest it. So it's like, hmm, okay, so maybe we can make some changes. So now, right, I start looking at like the best foods right are like single ingredient foods. Right. If you go and you want broccoli, you just want broccoli, not broccoli. With all this other stuff, you can't pronounce Just plain broccoli, right, or whatever the food is that you want to eat. But that's part of it, that's a big part of it, and I would tell you that the eating is probably 70%. Yeah, it's more, if not more, right, because you can get some muscle. You can gain muscle by lifting weights, that's fine, but if you don't get rid of the fat, you're never going to see it.
Speaker 1:Well, I was going to CrossFit. I've been going to CrossFit anywhere from three to six days a week for the last two years and didn't lose any weight until about six or seven months ago. And I went animal based, so not total carnivore, but basically single ingredient, beef or a little bit, a little bit of dairy every once in a while, a little bit of fruit, and drop 35 pounds. Well, now, that's, that made a difference. You know I could move, but I still looked the same. Then fast forward after I got the diet right, okay, well, now you drop 35 pounds in 90 days. Well, that's a game changer. And you know, if you look at, I think it's almost interesting in that. You know you, valerie and I have really spirited business conversations. We've also gone through significant health journeys and that you know. Valerie is down right at 100 pounds, I'm down 90 pounds and I mean you look better than I've ever seen you.
Speaker 2:Thanks, man. You look the healthiest I've ever seen you. I feel better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now I will say this A little bit of a spoiler alert. I just recently took a cellular test and it came back that I have Lyme. Okay, I have Epstein-Barr, which is the mono and aluminum toxicity.
Speaker 1:So, I take my first treatment on Wednesday to try to get rid of that, and they give you an overall health score. And so my overall health score out of a hundred was a 53. Oh wow, and she goes. You know you must feel terrible. And I said I feel the best I've felt in my adult life. And she goes. I can't explain that. And I said, well, I can. And she goes. I can't explain that. And I said, well, I can. I don't know where I started. You know, 10 years ago. I was probably a 23. Right, you know. And she goes. Well, nobody's ever said that.
Speaker 1:And I said, well, you know, you're telling me that I should be in the 80s in order to be healthy, and I'm scoring a 53 when I feel the best I've ever felt. I can't wait till I get to 80s. Right, let's see what that's going to be like. But you know, I do think it's a mission that everybody has to be ready for. Nobody can talk you into it. You just have to get over it one day. You have to just get sick and tired of it and just be like I'm changing. And for anybody out there that's looking for that January 1st thing, if you're waiting until January 1st. You're not going to do it Like if you're serious about it, you'll start about this. You'll start on it the day you get serious about it.
Speaker 2:Right, and really it's about like that first month is kind of rough, like it's rough because you, you're not used to it, but it's like anything, it's like anything else Once you get in the habit of doing it. It's not, it's just part of the routine. And, like I said, the food, the food thing, man, that's a big deal. I look at all the ingredients of all the foods that I'm eating and make some decisions based on it. It doesn't mean I'm perfect, right, and you're not going to be perfect, but but you can make better decisions, absolutely you can. You can pass the windies, right, you know you can pass it or you can go to it depends on what you want to do. But at the end of the day, I think, once you realize, before I didn't even know, like I didn't even know, that I was eating all these things that just really weren't good for me, right, yeah, but now I know. So now it's a choice and I can choose to make the right decision, whereas before I didn't even know now is this?
Speaker 1:is this just a you mission, or is? Is the family on board with it too? Are they they making some choices?
Speaker 2:it's the same thing, like once you start, once you start something, then everybody jumps on it, right. I mean, that's what you want, that's what you want, yeah. So, and it's funny too, because the same thing, my wife, like she saw, she started seeing me do this thing. I'm doing all myself, right, I'm doing myself. And she's like, hey, uh, you're looking kind of good right there. I was like, oh, thanks, you know, it's all good, whatever. You said that when I was fat too, so it doesn't really matter, right. So then, next thing I know, she's like, hey, uh, what's that app? You know what's the app you're using and when, what are you doing at the gym? And asking questions, oh, sure, well, let me, let me, let me, let me hook you up, right.
Speaker 2:So then, about three months later, I look over, I'm looking, I'm looking, I'm like man, you got some back muscles over there. She was like, oh well, you know, I just I'm going, but she goes every single day too. So, and my daughter, my daughter, um, same thing, when, uh, when, when she's a sophomore now, um, after her freshman year, she came down and same thing. She's like I was like, hey, I'm gonna teach you this, this food thing, and this is kind of cool. So, uh, she actually had some friends come down with her, so it was four girls and I said we're going to go shopping and we're going to go buy whatever you want, but before we actually purchase it, we're going to look at the ingredients. So I made them go get whatever they wanted and they started reading all these ingredients and I'm like go, look that up, go. It was very eyeopening for them, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause they didn't know either.
Speaker 2:And it's like a scavenger hunt.
Speaker 1:It is that they've got to participate in. It's not you preaching to them, you figure it out. It's them going through this discovery process.
Speaker 2:And what's kind of interesting about that, and this is one way you can kind of tell. Basically, when you go to the grocery store, you have to stay on. The four walls is in the middle, yeah, because it keeps longer. Because it keeps longer, exactly, and you think about that, like your food's supposed to spoil, right? If it doesn't spoil, that's probably a problem, right? So, yeah, so that was so everybody's on that kind of the health thing and we all, like even my mom and my dad, right, we're all kind of like, you know, we send each other, we use a app, there's an app called Yuka that we use and we basically use that app and we will send each other. Well, look, I found this, this is Yuka approved, or this one isn't Yuka approved, and there's things that we thought we liked, that were oh, this is going to be super healthy and it's it's terrible for you, right? Or things that we thought were maybe okay and then it's being good, so it's a journey journey, and you know that accountability is critical in that.
Speaker 1:You know, I've got a friend of mine and he's always been lighter than I I've been all the way up till just recently and I said, man, I'll do it with you, like. And so every day we send each other the macros. And so you know, there's that accountability, like I gotta send this, somebody else is gonna look at it. That matters.
Speaker 2:Massive man, massive. We have me, dustin and my buddy Chris. We have a group and actually Nisa too. We have a Snapchat Every morning. We all snap each other a picture of the gym Every morning and the moment you don't want to go and you're like, ah, I ain't feeling it today, and you see that picture from Dustin where he snaps me. I'm going to the gym now.
Speaker 1:Well, it's like Saturday, you know, saturday it was a hero workout at uh, at at our CrossFit gym, and so it's. It was a thousand box step ups. And at 12 minutes before class, I'm still laying in bed, I'm like I am not going. And at 12 minutes before class, I'm still laying in bed. I'm like I am not going. And, uh, you know, I just scrolled through my phone and somebody had posted they were out in front of the gym. I'm like, okay, I'm going going and, and I only I only did 500, but I mean 50 minutes of doing box step ups nonstop with no break. I mean you're dead. But it's like, okay, I did that, I did the hard thing, you did it, though Now I get the rest of my day Correct, and that's what I would tell anybody is just suck it up and go do it.
Speaker 2:You just got to go. You just got to get there and some of my friends were like, well, why don't you do it at home? And I'm like no, I have to, I have to do it. Well, and you cold plunge too right, so that my wife Emily was like well, why don't you just get a cold plunge?
Speaker 1:And I was like honey. If, if I it's downstairs, I will make up some excuses to why. Right now is not the right time, correct. But if I drive across town, I paid to get in that 42 degree water. I'm getting in, you're getting in, and so sometimes you just have to know yourself well enough in order to play the game. Correct, correct. Now you know, along with talking about food, we got Thanksgiving come up, and so tomorrow, when this episode comes out, tomorrow will be Black Friday, today's Thanksgiving. So, number one happy Thanksgiving everybody. But two, what do you got cooking on the CTD front for Black Friday?
Speaker 2:Man, we got some deals right. We're going to do some deals. You know, the product, the sauce, it hasn't been discounted at all. Yeah, under any circumstance, we're going to do a discount on that product, so that'll be an opportunity for people to try it that haven't tried it. It's cool. We got a hundred reviews a hundred reviews on this product and 96% of them are five stars. That's right.
Speaker 1:Well, and I'm I'm literally drinking it right now Like I had. I mixed one before the podcast, awesome yeah.
Speaker 2:And it helps right, like, yeah, absolutely for bowling. You can use it in any circumstance where you need increased focus, where you want some mental clarity and you want to mellow out things right. So lots of opportunities. So we're going to do this. We're going to do Sauce on Black Friday as a discount, and also sanding pads People love the sanding pads. We're going to do some of our. We have some bowling bags too. We're going to do some specials on some bowling bags too. Basically, going to do some specials on some bowling bags too. So, basically, if you go to our website, you know ctdbowlingcom, you go there and you're going to be able to see a lot of our stuff, um, specially set up for black Friday, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Now, uh, in this, this next segment we do, is called things we think but do not say, and so it's meant to be a little controversial. And so what do you? What do you think? Is something out there that you're like, you know what? That is just so true. I have to tell people.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of things out there like that. You know what I mean. There's a lot going through my mind right now when you say that Well you know, the food thing.
Speaker 1:The food thing is a real one, that's huge actually, that's actually a really good one.
Speaker 2:The food one, right? Because you don't. You think. You just assume that it's good, you assume that it's healthy, you assume that there's oversight and that things are fine and that when you go to the grocery store and you get the salmon, that it's good.
Speaker 1:It's healthy, or that when it has a heart healthy logo on it, that it actually is heart healthy, correct, and we know that that's bought and paid for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's just not how it is, man. You just got to go do your homework you bought and paid for. Yeah, that's just not how it is, man. You just got to go do your homework. You have to go look, like I thought, for me. I thought salmon was good. I'm like man, go get some salmon, I'll lose weight, I'll be healthy. And then I saw how the salmon are actually farmed and how the process actually is and what's actually going on, and I was like oh my goodness, if it doesn't say line caught, stay away, it's bad, yeah, bad.
Speaker 1:here's another ugly one is have you ever looked at how tilapia is farmed? Oh yeah, we're not even gonna talk about it, just stay away from tilapia and you know what, though, but like same thing.
Speaker 2:Oh, tilap fish man, it's gonna be great for you, it's good for your heart, it's great for it. It can be, it be, but it depends on how it's made or how it was caught, or how it's been processed when the fish has been its whole life.
Speaker 1:Correct, correct. Yeah, here's what I think you should do. You know that post where you called out that there was a food ingredient that was also in bowling balls. I think you should tweet that out and tag RFK he will go, he'll go after.
Speaker 2:you know, I've seen and I've seen, I've seen, I saw recently where um there's a lady and she was doing it was doing that with um uh, cereal talking about. Like the cereal that we have here isn't the same as a cereal that they have elsewhere, that they produce in the same factory, that they make in the exact same factory.
Speaker 1:Crazy right.
Speaker 2:All to get some more vibrant colors. Right, ours has got like 72 ingredients and the one across the pond is like 10 ingredients and it's in the same factory. Same factory, yeah, you just got to pay attention. I think that's one of the things where we, as consumers, we need to be more cognizant of that.
Speaker 1:Well, you make change with your wallet. That's true, plain and simple. And unless people are being vocal about it, unless people are calling for change, it's not going to happen. Because, I mean, they have a model in place right now. And what is it doing? It's making people sick, yeah, and then it's feeding big pharma, and I'm all for people making money. But when you're making money because you're making people sick, that's just ugly. Um. So I mean, but we have, we have to be informed, we have, we have to actually take action. It's not easy. I mean, easy is doing what we've always done yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so I think the the things we think, but do not say is you got to own your own? Like don't, don't assume that somebody else is taking care of you, no one's going to save you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're going to have to go in there and do some research and figure it out and make intelligent decisions and question. The big part of it is just questioning, right, yeah, because I read this is funny too. So I saw a commercial for Ozempic, right, and I'm watching it with my daughter or whatever, and I'm like I want you to read what they're saying, right? So they're saying all these things and I mean it is what it is and it does work and yada, yada, yada. But they literally type like write right out they say because, like the lady says, she's like you know, I've been on this ozempic and I've lost x amount of weight and I'm, I'm and I'm keeping it off. That's what she says. But literally, when she says that if you pause it, the words say you know, 80 of the people that stop taking it immediately gain the weight back. Yeah, but nobody reads that.
Speaker 1:So so you got to read. And two, even if you go down that path. So we've got a neighbor and she's lost over 125 pounds. That's awesome. Like she said, she got her life. She's like I didn't say I got it back. She goes as an adult. I got life and you know I'm incredibly proud of her. It's been a hard, even with those types of tools in her tool belt. It has been incredibly hard.
Speaker 1:But one of the things that she did is the doctors, a lot of doctors, and obviously the big pharma wants you to keep going up in dose, and she told her doctor no, she goes, I'm staying at the five. So I guess, from what I understand, you start off at two and a half, you go to five, you can go all the way to like 15 or 17. Oh wow. And a lot of people go all and of course you're spending more money. Of course you know, and she goes. I want to be able to keep this off, so she goes, even if I lose it slower, because I stated this.
Speaker 1:Well then, when I want to transition and come off of it, I feel like I can and I'm like how profound, I mean, cause I think a lot of people would selfishly be like, oh my gosh, if, if, if, two and a half or five is good, what am I going to be at 12? Let's hurry up and get there. Um, and so I would just use that word. Of caution is, like you know have your eyes open, no matter what tools you decide to leverage, whether it's just food, whether it's exercise, and pick the right exercise for you, you know, for me it's. I need the class, I need to look over and see Miss Pam, who's 72 years old and has Parkinson's, sweating it out, doing the box steps. So I got no excuse, no excuse, no excuse.
Speaker 2:No, excuse yeah.
Speaker 1:So, um, but, man, I love that you're on this health journey and it's fantastic. And, uh, you know, some days when I'm feeling exhausted or tired or over it and you post your gym pick, I'm like, all right, now I gotta go. Awesome man.
Speaker 2:Awesome it's. It's awesome to see that's what I said Get around good people. So like I see you doing the cold plunge, I see you doing the CrossFit, I see all these things. So same thing with Valerie, you know. So it's really cool, like it's good people help good people. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:That's right ships Now. So if we were going to do something huge for charity and we were going to have a celebrity bowling match, you got to pick four team members to bowl with you and a commentator, and the whole point of this thing is to raise the most money for charity. I mean, we've had some crazy ones like um miles throughout. Uh, fred Flintstone Okay, bob went with. You know, the great went with the great players from the different eras. So, alive or dead celebrity or somebody you know who's on the team.
Speaker 2:I think you'd want some people that are like I think a good person, he's a bowler. He's a good bowler actually too. He's Mookie Betts, oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And a local guy, that's easy right. He's a good bowler actually too. He's Mookie Betts. Oh, absolutely. And a local guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's easy right he just got another World Series ring. I think he's got three rings now, which is insane. That's right, but that's a great one. He's going to get a big draw. It's funny, too, because I actually know bowl. Nelly Nelly bowls as well, right. So these are actually people that actually do bowl, but they're celebrities, right. I think those three guys would definitely bring a lot of people. Terrell Owens is another one that they would bring people, and their celebrity status or whatever past or present would help to bring people to the event. Yeah, man, I think you gotta go, or whatever past or present would help to bring people to the event. Yeah, yeah, man, I think you gotta go. You bring people to the event, I'll be there, yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, All right. Who's gonna commentate? I mean just the most live event.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you need somebody. You gotta have somebody who DJ Khaled. I love it, dj Khaled. I love it, dj Khaled. I could just see him. Oh yeah, I could just see him doing it. That'd be fun, that'd be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I think it absolutely would be. It's a fun exercise to just go through and be like, okay, if I got to design this thing, if it was to get as many eyes on as possible. And who is it?
Speaker 2:you know who would do the lanes, who p diddy?
Speaker 1:I don't think there's anything I'd say to that one. Oh my goodness. Um, you know the all.
Speaker 2:Right, here's another one, so you got a commentator, who would you have as the hype band? Um, so now you need somebody who's just full of energy, right like all the promoter of promoters I mean, I like joe rogan yeah I think he, I think we could do that he's actually on my list so like on my list. He's, he's on there yeah, he could do that. I think he'd be really good at that okay uh yeah, you, you got to have.
Speaker 2:Have you ever seen that power slap thing that they're doing? You ever seen that? That's crazy.
Speaker 1:I think I want to see it live. That whole thing is crazy and it's like invite only.
Speaker 2:Oh, it is, I think.
Speaker 1:So actually on Nick's podcast that he was just on the guy that owns Hostage Tape. So Hostage Tape owns, uh, hostage tape. So hostage tape is a sponsor, is a sponsor of power slap, really. Yeah, and the ufc and so, um, like they, they end up in this power slap match, or you know, obviously they weren't participating, they were, they were uh just watching. But he was like, oh my gosh, it's so, and so it's so, and so apparently dana white, basically they he's got four or five special guests and so between rounds everybody gets their time in the hot seat to sit beside Dana, and kind of network and that kind of thing. Okay, and so it's pretty cool. And then it looks like Castle's got a question for us. Yeah, so you can buy tickets, but you have to sit in the very back of the arena.
Speaker 2:Okay, so there you go.
Speaker 1:So to get in the inner circle you got to have a big boy invite.
Speaker 2:I mean, I see it. Have you seen it Castle? Yeah, I see some shorts about it. What do you think?
Speaker 2:I think, it's crazy that they're getting up there and they're slapping each other in the face, slapping them in the face. Think about how bad that't hurt. Like full, like full pledge, all in. Like knock the ear thing, knock the ear, plug out your ear and some of them get knocked out. Oh, some people just fall right down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you think about the big guys that are up there and they're just over there slapping people in the face it's crazy.
Speaker 2:It's crazy, but I can't. I can't stop watching it, like when I see it pop up in my feet. I have to watch the whole thing.
Speaker 1:I gotta see oh it's got shock value for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So Castle. You have a question for Mr Ron. Yeah, how many times do you bowl a week?
Speaker 2:So I bowl about three times a week Three times, yeah, and we do a lot of. So I bowl league once a week, right, that's a once a week thing, right. But then we do a lot of of bowling ball reviews. So all of the ball manufacturers send us bowling balls for us to review them. So that's another 150 bowling balls right there that you get that. You got to go bowl. You want to come help me man? Yeah, all right, that'd be awesome, that'd be cool. Have you come help me test some bowling balls? That's right, it's rough, it sounds like a lot of fun and it is until, yeah, I gave you up to X amount more balls.
Speaker 1:Exactly Well, you know Billy LeVan, he has to test some balls with you, Yep, and I got to tell you for the last 20 plus years, Billy's probably my favorite bowler to bowl against, because I have to bring my A game. I don't know what it is about, Billy, that, just like whenever we're bowling against each other, our teams are bowling against each other. You know our teams are bowling against each other. I just got to bring it it sets that spark on fire.
Speaker 2:There you go, it sets that spark. Yeah, absolutely, and he's a good bowler. He's a good bowler, he's a good friend. He's helped me with some stuff too. He's helped me with some business stuff as well. Good friend and good bowler and definitely good competitor, for sure.
Speaker 1:I love it. Um, well, so how do people find you? I mean, there's you got some big stuff coming up. So tomorrow is black Friday. Uh, obviously, the sauce is going to be on sale for the first time ever, going to have some other promotions on some bags and some other the gear that you need for this year. Uh, you absolutely can make somebody's Christmas present uh list happen. Um, but how do they, how do they get in touch with you? Somebody out there has heard about you. They've seen the logos, but they're just not quite sure what it's about. How do they get in touch?
Speaker 2:So the website is the easiest way to do it right. The website is ctd. Charlie Tango, david bowlingcom. Go to the website and you'll I mean going with the sale you'll see that immediately It'll be the top banner item so you can click that banner. You'll be able to see all the items right there that are on sale for Black Friday. But that's the best way to get a hold of us. And then, obviously, if you had any questions or even comments, you can always email us too at help at ctdbowlingcom.
Speaker 1:Well, and how would somebody sign up to join the membership and kind of be in that inner circle? And there's also an approval process, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so basically everybody's got to go through an approval process. Um, if you want to be on our free or paid subscription plan either one of them, but same thing you go to the website ctdbowlingcom. There's three lines that'll pop up right. You push that and you'll see an option for uh, joining our staff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it and I do love that there is a selection process that happens and you guys look at. You know, are they overall, are they positive person? You know it's it's to make sure that you're protecting the group as it grows.
Speaker 2:Correct. Yeah, we actually. We have kids in the group, so we've got some. We've got some very specialized rules right that you've got to follow, and if you don't follow the rules, you break the rules, you got to pay, like there's um, it's, it's one of those things where we want to be inclusive, so we want everybody who wants to join to be able to join, but there are some rules right we have to. There's things we've got to follow, um to the safety of everybody, uh, especially with, uh, you know the, the, the way the world is now. You know that's a big deal, um, but the rules are very plainly written. They're very explained. We've got very good moderators that really are on type of top of stuff and the group and the group inherently knows too. So if somebody's doing something they shouldn't be doing, it doesn't take but a few seconds and they're it's addressed immediately.
Speaker 1:well and um, if somebody's passing through, so let's's just say cause some people may not even know where you're located. So, hopkinsville Tennessee, kentucky, sorry, clarksville Tennessee and Hopkinsville, kentucky, if they're passing through, they could, they could set an appointment to get their arsenal taken a look at, help build an arsenal. Come in for for training and coaching, just do a tour, I mean what. Come in for training and coaching, just do a tour. I mean what? All can they?
Speaker 2:do at the education center? Yeah, so we've got a few options. So our main building is in Hopkinsville, kentucky, and it's the CTD Education Center. If you're interested in that, you can go to ctdeducationcentercom too, and they'll give you all the information. That's for people that want to practice, people that want to get a lesson, people that want to learn how to drill bowling balls Anything related to getting better at bowling. We have the equipment and the technology to be able to do that right there in that facility. Our warehouse is in Clarksville, tennessee. It's open.
Speaker 2:The public wants to come to buy product. They can buy product there, but there's nothing there that they could technically do. We do. We just recently opened up a pro shop too. So we've got a pro shop in Clarksville, tennessee, at the Pinnacle Bowling Center. So we have a pro shop there. You can come in there and we've got all the stuff you could possibly want there the bags and the shoes and the balls and the lessons. We've got a guy there you covered. If you want to get involved with bowling just getting started, come see us. If you're a professional bowler and you want to get a little better, come see us too. We got you.
Speaker 1:That pro shop. That's new, it is new, that's new, that's exciting.
Speaker 1:I love that. Yep, that's good, well, cool. Well, ron, thanks so much, for there's going to be some people that either know now more about you and how to kind of get in touch, how to become a better bowler Obviously, some probably for the first time just because they watch the podcast they're getting introduced to you. Maybe they want to get some gear, or maybe it just inspires them to get out there and take their family bowling. Either way, it's all great stuff. Absolutely Thanks for coming in and, castle, thanks for asking some questions. Yeah, you bet, absolutely Well. Team, you heard it here on the Charge Forward podcast. Please get out there, spend some time with your family. Bowling is a great way to do it, because you know there are plenty of other sports out there that are fantastic, but maybe not everybody from three years old to 93 can do that, whereas you can absolutely take the family bowling. You can spend some quality time. The laughter, the camaraderie. Just the time that you spend with each other will pay dividends forever. So get out there. And again, thanks so much for tuning in to the Charge Forward podcast. Until next time. We'll see you later.
Speaker 1:Team is Jim Cripps here with the Charge Forward podcast. I just want to tell you I love you, I appreciate you listening, I appreciate you for subscribing and sharing the Charge Forward podcast with people you know and you love, because that's what we're here for. We are here to share the amazing stories, the things that people have been through, the ways that they were able to improve their life, so that you can take little nuggets from theirs and help improve your story and be better tomorrow than you were today. I hope that this is the tool you needed at the right time and that you find value in the amazing guests that we bring each and every week. Thanks so much and don't forget new episodes drop every Thursday.