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The Vision Quest Podcast
A podcast about life, sports, and life in sports! Enjoy!
The Vision Quest Podcast
#109 Martin Floriani: Innovating the Wrestling World!
This episode dives deep into the world of wrestling media with Martin Floriani, exploring his journey from a passionate athlete to the founder of prominent platforms such as FloWrestling, Rockfin, and the newly launched Boutboard. We discuss the challenges and triumphs of innovating within wrestling, the importance of community engagement, and the future of wrestling in the digital age.
• Martin Floriani’s early sporting influences
• Transition from football to wrestling in high school
• The pivotal role of Flow Sports in wrestling media
• Creation and mission of Rockfin for niche sports
• Launching Boutboard to improve wrestling events
• Future aspirations for organized wrestling experiences
Appleton Tattoo Links
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920 Hat Co. Links
https://920hatco.com/
https://www.instagram.com/920hatco/
https://www.facebook.com/920HatCo
Thank you all. Right, we are live. Like I said, we used to do two minutes of that. We're just gonna cut it short. We got, we gotta get a get an interview here with uh. I'm really glad actually that I'm able to sit down and talk with you about this. But we are, uh, this episode 110 of the vision quest podcast. But we are joined by none other than martin floriani. Sir, I appreciate you joining me you bet brad happy okay well, let's, let's talk about this.
Speaker 2:let's. I want to bring you on because, again, you are a very large name in wrestling media. You're one of the guys that started Flow Wrestling, right? You started Rockfin and now you've got this big thing called Boutboard, right, yeah, and we're going to talk about that, we're going to lead into that a little bit. So first, let's kind of talk about how you got into sports. We do this with everybody, from the time you remember sports to to now. So what, what do you remember first of, what kind of sports were you in when you were a kid?
Speaker 3:I love football, I was like football is your thing yeah, I love football. Okay, um, I didn't come from a wrestling background. I didn't really come from like an athletic parent household. My dad was a, a Italian immigrant, and I had three older sisters who really you know they kind of did maybe you know basketball in grade school or you know the local rec thing for a few school teams, but nothing big. But like I was just a sport nut and I loved football probably first and foremost.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay. So you mentioned that you weren't you didn't come from like a sports family either, so it wasn't a ton going on, so it sounds like it was just something that they put you in. Was it to like burn energy? Were you an energetic kid?
Speaker 3:yeah, I mean they didn't put me in anything. It was just me like saying, hey, I want to sign up for this, oh, yes, yeah, yeah, it was like okay, in the playground and then figuring out that there's teams and then like going to my mom and dad like, hey, I want to do this. Uh, they didn't. You know, they it's like, uh, my, yeah, it's I. I, they didn't really have any of that background. My dad was just probably more interested in academics and making sure that you know I was, I was doing good in school, but yeah, that was also important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, okay, right on. So when you let's say getting into like high school and stuff, what were you kind of thinking of already? I mean, obviously there's sports where we're a little just kind of on your own thing. But I mean, when you got into high school, were you kind of what were your dreams of wanting to go to college? What were your thoughts about moving on in life once you got into that area?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, it's just. I mean, my dad was a, he started his own, he had his own company, so I always kind of had that element and he would come home and he would like have me read like books that are just on different entrepreneurs or interesting stories. I remember he would like give me like little tests on like hey man, I saw this cool NBA test, I want you to take it. And so then we talk about it. And so for a long time there was always a seed in my head like I would go and do my own thing, and he planted that seed. So that was, that was very, that was a very strong current, I would say, growing up.
Speaker 3:But yeah, in high school I played football, pop Warner. I loved it. And then but it's interesting, you know, when you're in rec sports now, like I've seen a high level of wrestling and I know what good training is and there's so much in between right Between great training and good training and okay training, and there's different times and different seasons in people's lives where they need different things. But I never really had much of a structure around me for that. And so after Pop Warner in high school, I went to a much more academic school, which at the time, didn't have football. So I was really you know, it was really hard or I don't know crushed. You know, eighth grade crushed, fresh freshman year crushed because I'm going to this academic school as opposed to have an opportunity to play football, so but yeah, so that was that, was that was heading into high school, okay so where you, because you're talking a lot about business where did you wind up?
Speaker 2:so I remember when I was a kid, when I was around 12, I started a baseball card business with my brother, or not my brother, my best friend, right so it was literally out of his parents basement. We just had a little sign that hung up from the side door and people came in the basement. Were you trying business? Like doing little business things as a kid too?
Speaker 3:Like you had lemonade stands, I guess. So it's a little weird, you know, not really. My dad always told me I have to be a good follower before I can be a good leader, and so I would work in his factory.
Speaker 3:I mean cut and steal I mean, and I was there with all like the violation of so many child labor laws, I'm sure I was there cutting drilling, you know, sandblasting, uh, spot welding, uh, all sorts of uh, wow, all sorts of things. Uh, from a kid doing that on saturdays cleaning toilets, you know, just cleaning, cleaning the bathrooms, cleaning, um, so, just like all sorts of things. Uh, growing, uh in high school, um, that was, and then in the summertime as well, just like he would. Just, you know, he just put me to work okay.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that I mean that sounds like a good old midwestern style type and I'm as far as wherever you were, but the midwestern style type kind of upbringing you know hard work, honesty, honest works, you know honest works, uh, pay all that stuff. So when you're in, kind of going into high school now, but did you, were you kind of getting into the business mind? Did you have an idea what you wanted to do once you got to, like your sophomore junior year? Were you thinking, yeah, I want to do what my dad does Because, man, he was working?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I I definitely had, like that was an element Like cause he's I was really close to him and he would always, like I said, he would always talk to me about business or how I should think about things and different aspects, and so I was very connected with him. So probably a lot more than I thought that, hey, man, this is, you know, I would maybe go do what he did or work at his company or you know something with him in some fashion.
Speaker 2:Nice, okay, I didn't ask this. Where were you born? Oh, chicago Park Ridge, illinois. Oh nice, oh man, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you were definitely coming up and that's crazy that you're mentioning like a manufacturing background. So I mean to me as a kid coming up, cause I, you know, I, my dad, was a manufacturer, didn't have his own company, but I basically said that I didn't want to do what my dad was doing, right, like I, I didn't. I appreciated, you know what he was doing, took the lessons, but I was like God, he works way too hard.
Speaker 2:Like I don't want to work that hard when I grow up, like, did you wind up thinking that too?
Speaker 3:uh, I definitely felt like there was um, as I got more distance, more educated, you know, obviously I have very strong personality right. So like he was an italian immigrant, so he passed a lot of that like, very like, uh, you know, when people say like there's an immigrant mentality, it's just kind of true. There's just a certain element of like when someone comes here and just gets to work and they don't really have much like my, my, my, no, no, my grandpa coming, I mean, when you think about like someone doing that and they're like going, and then they, they don't have anything, they don't have much of a structure and they just build whatever they have, um, there's just a certain level of like, um, they don't give a shit. It's kind of like yep, we're going, we're doing it, let's go, you know, and uh, I think they passed. There's a certain element of uh where I don't have maybe the risk. I don't have the risk fear, the fear of risk of that other people have.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah because I still have that. I have that for sure. Really. Yeah, the risk fear is still there. Well, I mean doing what I do. You know there's a lot of things I want to do, but it's like God, if I jump off and do that, what's going to happen? You know, I got a mortgage to pay for. I got, you know, this to pay for.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I want to I don't know if I should.
Speaker 2:So whatever he taught you, you were kind of able to kind of get past that and push forward right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I didn't. I would say I have a very little risk fear or high risk tolerance in another way to put it Right and so good and bad. It cuts for me and it cuts against me in a lot of ways too. So so, yeah, so that's that. For whatever environmental factors I grew up with, I think it's definitely something I grew up with.
Speaker 2:What were, what were some of the more memorable things that you remember as a kid Cause I know, like there and it's not even sports for me like I remember being at my grandparents well, I, I'm irish, german, right, so I had a grand, I grandparents that owned a tavern and I remember fourth of july parades. I remember you know all that kind of crazy kind of kid stuff, but what kind of sticks out in your mind the most is from your childhood that you still take with you to this day.
Speaker 3:That kind of sticks with you um I mean there's a lot um, I, um, I, when I was growing up, um, I mean there's a lot like uh, um. So my, my, my mom was at the. She was going through a lot of alcohol issues too. So when I was growing up it was very formative years that was happening and so you know those type of struggles of like not having, like having a really solid in one way dad Right, but a home that was kind of was very tumultuous, was difficult. She's been in AA for a couple of decades now so she's better, but that was definitely a difficult time and I think that caused some.
Speaker 3:But I was always concerned about the stability. Like, maybe in the back of my head there was always this concern about the stability. Like you put me, in the back of my head there was always this concern about the stability of, of of the family and and I didn't have that probably feeling, that of stability and security that kids have with a with a good solid home. Kids have, with a with a good solid home, consistency with parents that are not drunk, you know that are, you know they have, they can relate, sure and um, so yeah, so there was there's probably that just overall uh, unsettledness, that I remember as a kid, but I also remember having a ton of fun just playing sports and doing sports and and just wrapping myself in that as much as possible too. It's awesome, it's awesome.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we kind of talked a little bit about high school and we'll kind of get in towards the end of high school. Where were you? Were you in your junior year, senior year? Where were you starting to look at colleges? Were you thinking about college? About college? Were you like no way, I'm done with once, I'm done with high school, I'm done with school.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna go start something no, college was very much like expected and, um, my, uh, my sister was my two. I have three other sisters, um, and two of them were like outstanding students and they went off to college and so I was very much thinking, okay, this is, this is where this is the next steps. I mean really brilliant in a lot of ways. Um, and so I always was trying to strive to to meet, uh, uh, like kiss what their bottom of, what their academic standards, cause they had pretty high academic standards and so, um, and I was, you know, just a little bit more unorganized and and didn't didn't have what they had. So, um, um, so, yeah, so college was always a factor and and so, yeah, that's where, um, so I was looking to go to college, and, and, and so, yeah, that's where. So I was looking to go to college, and, and it was expected to go to college.
Speaker 2:Do you think? Do you think ADD was a role? Do you think you do you?
Speaker 3:think you had a little bit of that I know I did. I for sure did what you did. Yeah, yeah, oh yeah. It could be, you know why? Because it's like I don't know how much I I believe in the whole add. Or is it just the foods we eat, like we drank a ton of pop growing up, like soda, sure it, sure did. I don't feed any of that to my kids I couldn't believe how much soda I drank when I was a kid.
Speaker 3:I would drink it like it was, like you know, water. I feed my kids today, right, so it's just like it's to me. It is pretty. I'm sure it was also probably not as bad as today, like the stuff that they put in it. But but yeah, so I, I, I probably wasn't eating right, it probably wasn't sleeping right and doing some of the core things that you need to do. So, yeah, maybe ADD like ish.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. What. So what? What colleges did your sisters go to?
Speaker 3:So my one sister went, got accepted to the university of Chicago, but then decided to go to university of Illinois and and then the other one got a full ride, I think, to like Boston U, nice, but then she came back to Illinois as well. So they were all scholarshiped like kids that you know were, you know very much look up to in that regard.
Speaker 2:Did that sway your decision in looking for a college?
Speaker 3:What would you?
Speaker 2:mean Well, because your sister went to university of illinois, you're like I'm going to illinois or I'm going to boston college oh, um.
Speaker 3:No, I was more probably influenced by my friends at the time. You know my peer groups. I was more talking with them as they went to college. I was more immersed for a couple of years just with my peer groups and kind of formed my own opinions. Okay, where did you wind up going to school? In Indiana it's called Rose-Hulman, no kidding. Super intense engineering school, not really great with sports, although I just saw they have a punter, a D3 punter. I just saw they have a D3 punter who may get drafted. Lift that up.
Speaker 3:They were not great with sports, and as I got more and more kind of isolated into the academics portion, I really felt like I needed an outlet for for wrestling and doing what I wanted to do there, and so, um I I decided to transfer to cal poly okay, so now you mentioned wrestling in there.
Speaker 2:What did wrestling catch your eye?
Speaker 3:already in college uh, yeah, so I I started wrestling when I was a junior in high school.
Speaker 2:You did late yeah okay yeah, yeah, so I I started talking about that for a second and um, they didn't have football.
Speaker 3:So I was kind of like I was just didn't have much like really to get my aggression out, I just had a lot of, probably, aggression I wanted to get out. And so when I first experienced wrestling, I was like, oh my gosh, this is incredible. I actually remember I probably experienced it in eighth grade and I remember this the most time I was wrestling around with some kid who knew some wrestling moves and he put me into what I, I don't know is is, um, is like basically a chicken wing. Right, he's got chicken in the wrist and I'm thinking I could just get out and he just pins me and he's, and I was just like, oh my gosh, that was awesome. I mean, that was all in my head. I was like, no, but I was like that was Like I need to do more of that. But I didn't even really. No one told me oh, that's, you can have that with wrestling, you can go this route and do that.
Speaker 3:But I just remember that experience of this kid pinning me and I was just like. I was like how did this kid just pin me? That was crazy to me and I loved it. There was something deep that was like, oh man, I got to learn what this was and so. But that was probably in eighth grade and then I didn't no one really told me anything about it. But then when I in junior year, fall of junior year, I experienced it really substantively for the first time. That's why I really fell in love with it.
Speaker 2:So that was the one sport your school did have, or did they just happen to have a couple other sports, just not football? They just didn't have football. No kidding, that's crazy.
Speaker 3:Now they do. They've added it, but they didn't at the time.
Speaker 2:It probably is their moneymaker now, just guessing Right. Okay, so you wound up getting into wrestling then, but in in college, did you carry that through? When you, when you especially, went to Cal Poly, did you try to get on the wrestling team there? Yeah, yeah, I was on the wrestling team Nice, okay. So how? Okay, since you just started your junior year, then you go into did? They didn't have any college wrestling at the school you originally went to right, no sports.
Speaker 3:So when you get to Cal Poly, what was that like? I mean it wasn't a great wrestling school, right. So I was again kind of not in a great. I was not in a great wrestling school. I did have a pretty good high school coach. I thought I had a really pretty good high school coach. Man, I'm really appreciative of my high school coach and he, he set a really good structure for me. He was great. And but then when I went to the, when I went to the, the college it was I don't know, it just didn't, it was just not, it wasn't really paid attention to, it just was not a good structure for success. I could sense that pretty quickly. Did you wind up quitting?
Speaker 2:No, I transferred to Cal Poly. Right, that's what I thought you were talking about right now. Was Cal Poly wrestling? No, no, then I went to Cal Poly. I was at.
Speaker 3:Rose-Hulman. Then I went to Cal. Talking about right now was Cal Poly wrestling, oh no, no. So then I went to Cal Poly, I was at Rose-Hulman, then I went to Cal Poly and Cal Poly was legit. Man, I mean, cal Poly was awesome. Yeah, yeah, cal Poly is outstanding. It's just a great school and, man, even their coach now is great and I had great coaches there and that was just an awesome experience.
Speaker 2:So what was, what was one of the more memorable, I guess, experiences in college wrestling, especially at Cal Poly? What kind of sticks out in your mind the most?
Speaker 3:Uh, just going in, uh, in the I probably just going in the wrestling room and battling. It was great, you know. And so, like now I've started to mature. So I was on my fourth year of wrestling and now kind of going into my fifth year of wrestling, in sixth year I wrestled there and I started to go toe-to-toe with, uh, um, in some of the prac, in the. In the prac, I mean, I was what I'm probably below 500 wrestler out on division one ish, but in the practice room, you know, it's just, it's just great. It's just a great experience going up against these, really, you know, nationally ranked good kids, um and um, and that was, that was just awesome. And I felt like, hey, man, I could, I could take some of these guys down. I could. I, yeah, I could do some damage here.
Speaker 2:Did your parents as far as like, because obviously you tried football, things like that what were your parents' thoughts on you doing wrestling? Did they have any thoughts on that? Did they think it was a weird sport?
Speaker 3:It was super free-range parenting, that's awesome. It was just like that's awesome. It was no structure. It was like you're going off. Okay, I guess he's going off doing that. I remember I used to drive in high school, like an hour and a half to. It seems crazy to me now, but I would drive to the South side of Chicago to a practice Marist high school which had a pretty good practice room in the summer and it was like an hour 45 drive from and I would just do it. Yeah Well, you want it. No, I had bought my own car. No one said you know, no one was like hey, you, you shouldn't be driving two hours there, two hours back to the South side of Chicago to go to a practice. Like there was none, no one told me anything, I just did stuff. So it was. It was very free range.
Speaker 2:Nice what were you thinking about towards the end of your college career? What were you majoring in?
Speaker 3:I was engineering, mechanical engineering.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay. So this is the. This is where it gets interesting to me, right, like, I think about what you're doing now right, that's that's what's in my head is wrestling media, helping wrestling out and things like that. But you went to school for engineering. It makes me think of my sister-in-law who went to school for zoology and now she works in IT. Right, it's kind of different. So what were some of the things you were kind of thought process you were going through once you were starting to end college Was that did you get a job in engineering? Were you looking at getting a job in engineering?
Speaker 3:I remember I bought a suit because I was going to go do some interviews and I'm not a suit guy and I remember, wearing the suit, I went to like one of like the like the open resume. You know, I don't know, I just walked in there. I'm like what feels so weird and I'm like you go up and you put your name. I was like god, it's so dorky and I just left and I was like I don't know why I got this. My aunt, she got me the suit. She's like hey, you're gonna go on job interviews, get a suit. I'm just like, um, so I just put the suit away. I was like I don't think this is for me, this is not, uh, me going applying to boeing is, is not?
Speaker 2:so okay, okay. So what did you wind up getting for a job right out of college? What were you doing right out of college?
Speaker 3:uh, I moved my dad a little bit, okay, his company back to the hard work, yeah, um, kind of retaking all the knowledge I learned around the engineering and the process applying it there. And then I worked a little bit and another company that that I was an owner in just selling basically time to lawyer, kind of like automating their legal processes, processes like with the city around, like water certifications, zoning certifications, things like that, um, and that was um, um, and I didn't, I didn't enjoy it. And then then I was like, all right, I'm gonna do, I have this idea of what I want to do. And it was um, it was how we, how we started with flow.
Speaker 3:It was like I just the internet was just pop, starting to come off a little bit. You know, okay, I mean there's different stages of the internet, right, but like the internet was like. I was like at this point I was like, oh, okay, we could maybe do video on the internet. That that seemed like a possibility, we could maybe pull that off, and so just started flow sports from there so you started flow sports with with uh, with family right, so with your brother right yeah yep, and it's not.
Speaker 2:It was your sister, were one of your sisters involved in it as well, kind of got super critical.
Speaker 3:They were like, uh, my first backers, so they backed me, uh, going when I first started. I remember my one sister was pregnant with her second child and she like was going to medical school and she like gave me a five thousand dollar check. I was like, oh my gosh, holy god, thank you yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what, what, uh, what was one of the first videos you made?
Speaker 3:John Smith, john Smith.
Speaker 2:No kidding. First videos yeah, how did you get in touch? I mean the video itself, but how did you get in touch with someone like?
Speaker 3:that I just went to his office. So, like 2006, I went and watched the championships at Oklahoma City and I had this idea of this, what I wanted to do, and um, and then I was already up there, so I don't know if I went there or I went home, but then I went back and I went back and they were freaking just high as freaking can be. I think there's a year they had five champs or something, oh yeah, and I.
Speaker 3:And I came back and I came in the office I'm like, hey, man, this is what I'm doing. I had like a whole like website. I'm like this is what I'm doing. And he's like, hey, pick a calendar date and come back. And I picked a calendar date and I came back and I like I took like eight hours of John Smith's life. I was just like, oh, I had 150 questions and I was just asking, asking, asking, asking tons of questions. Yeah, that was a. That was the first video that I ever did. Was that? Uh, they did Mark branch. Uh, yeah, mark branch, he's awesome. They did Eric Guerrero Uh, and then those are the. Those are the first three videos we did okay.
Speaker 2:So what was it called flow at that time? Did you call it flow okay, yeah, okay, where did you wind up? Because obviously we know where it went to. But in the early days, as I mentioned joe williamson and things like that when, when did you guys start kind of building the crew as you went along? Was that just right away, just grab some college guys that you knew, or how did that all work out?
Speaker 3:no, I no, I just started grinding. I mean it was just banging my head against the wall and just going from place to place and getting videos and learning how to do this stuff, just really. And then certain people would be like oh, I think Ben Askren introduced me to Joe Williamson. He's like OK, at first I interviewed Ben, he kind of shrugged me off and I was like screw this, weird. But then I saw him again. He's like hey, man, that was well, I saw, because he saw what I did. He was like oh, dude, I really love what you did.
Speaker 3:And then yeah put me in touch with joe and um, joe was, um was a great addition. Um, and then yeah, so, so then we just went from there and yeah, month after month, year after year, just grinding.
Speaker 2:How did you get? How did you wind up running into Joe K?
Speaker 3:Joe.
Speaker 2:K yeah.
Speaker 3:Oh, joe K came on. I don't know what year Joe K came on, but it was. I don't know what year Joe Kenya came on, but it was, it was. I don't know Joe, what, what years you come on.
Speaker 2:Popping, joe. You can tell us in the comments. We'll. We'll keep scrolling, we'll keep going here. But so interesting crew.
Speaker 2:I remember watching it early on when I was a little. It's not like it was forever, but when my kids were younger and I first discovered it, right, I came up wrestling where you didn't I mean it was, it was still, um, what do you call it? Bullpens? You line up underneath your brackets. You didn't have youtube, nothing like that to watch it. When I saw this, I was like you gotta be kidding me, because the first thing I saw were the brands brothers. Right, that was the first thing that I saw, because, I mean, I grew, grew up loving Iowa, so, knowing what was out there, and then my kids were starting to get into wrestling, I was like this is awesome. So we all started to really dive in 2017 Joe says 2017.
Speaker 2:But I remember watching it and enjoying it. I can't believe there's this much wrestling media out here, right, you don't think of it in the grand scheme of things like the entire world, but like it was, just seemed like it was so big at the time, right? So watching all the videos, all the live feeds, things like that now go down further down the road. When did you wind up leaving flow 2018? Oh, geez, not too long after joe got there, yeah. So when, when you left, I was it just a. You wanted to start something else, wanted to do another business? Why'd you want to believe him?
Speaker 3:It was just disagreement on the direction of the company. Okay, Investors, they, you know, some board members are saying, hey, I think they were expecting me to stay. Some people were like asking me hey, like you got to stay, you know you got to stay, you got to stay. But I was just like, no, I'm out. And so it was just like it was just going in a direction that I didn't. I didn't, I didn't like.
Speaker 2:So when you, when you left, was Rockman on your brain? Was that something that you were? You're like there's a better way to do this kind of thing.
Speaker 3:Different, different media no, not really um, I was so zeroed in on on flow, uh. So then when I left it was like, okay, uh took a couple months, but I was really interested in um, in how networks form and how they work, and so I spent a couple months just kind of studying that.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, it took a little time to figure something out, okay, so when did Rockfin finally hit? Was that a year or two after? No, just a couple months after, oh, and then boom. So, because I'm currently trying to create an app right now, which it's not easy, right, kind of joe and I are working a little together on it, but with with that being said, and you've gone through flow, was it easier this time around doing something like rockfin, uh, some ways, yeah, yeah, okay, okay, all right, so we, we know where this goes to. Then rock fin is still your thing, right, you still. You still own own rock fin, but now you can't. You came up with belt board and I've been onto it, because there's actually an event that my son was in on it it was the big cheese from WI wrestle and didn't really realize anything about it until, actually, I talked to Joe and then saw you post something about it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So let's talk. We already talked about it, you and I, but let's bring up the origin story again. I think it was something to the effect you were at a tournament and just kind of waiting because track went down right.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, I was with my son and it's funny because it's like you know, we're in Texas, so it's not like we have wrestling everywhere, so it's not like we have wrestling everywhere, so it's hard, but it's hard to be a wrestling parent here, yeah and uh, and so I was like you know what, um, I'm going to get? We're going to get some good looks at this tournament. It's called the Sockyard Stampede, it's in Dallas.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And, uh, it's like all right, let's, let's go up there and get some good looks. And I'm like, looking at the weigh-in schedule and it's like you can only weigh in the night before. I'm like or or or like you, yeah, it was night before weigh-ins and I'm like okay, so that means we gotta weigh in. That means we gotta drive up there now and then spend the night and do it, you know. And so I was like, okay, um, common, but hey, let's make a trip of it. That's good. Sure, I have friends up there. Let's go out to dinner. Good, okay, we go and do that. Then the next morning I noticed they changed the schedule from the previous year. I need a personal admin at all times around me because I read something too fast and I just move and I'm like oh gosh, we're, that's not I should be and I should be there.
Speaker 3:Um and so, um and so I I realized, oh shoot, they changed the schedule from last year. It doesn't start till noon. All right, we'll just go get breakfast and, you know, go to a book store and then go. And so then we get there, you know, like whatever 30 minutes before Um, and it's like delayed three hours.
Speaker 3:I'm like, and my wife calls me, she's like, how did Monroe do? And I'm like, dude, we haven't even started wrestling. I'm like this is ridiculous. And I just remember like walking past these other parents and it was just like that thousand yard stare of like, oh my gosh, what am I involved in? And so then my son wrestled and it was. It was great. Once he got going wrestling he had five matches, but a quarter of those kids went 0-2. Another was. Another quarter went like one and two, it's like it was.
Speaker 3:It was just a realization where I was just like at the time I was like I would remember was sitting because the us open was there too and I was with monroe, and my son loves football. We have a great time when we're in central texas. It's like football king out here. Yeah Right, I mean, you've got quarterbacks that went to the local high school, that are playing in the NFL and it's like everything is zero to round football and you go to the football and it's so organized, it's so nice as a parent, it works.
Speaker 3:It's like they've put a lot of thought into all these different aspects around football. It's not just a coincidence. They think about it and they execute and they put on a great uh experience for every facet of the stakeholder, whether it's a football player, the parent, the coaches. It's like organized and done right. I mean I'm sure they have improvements to make, but it's like so far advanced relative to my experience with wrestling as a wrestling parent in texas and, and so I you know, sitting in the stands I was just like, why am I even doing this? Like we could just go do football, I mean. I mean I love wrestling, but like there's other things yeah well, I was just.
Speaker 3:That was at that point where I was like either I'm gonna do something else or I'm just gonna, uh, I'm gonna fix this.
Speaker 2:And so then I talked a couple other things, a couple other coincidences happened around that time where I was like okay, maybe I should be doing this, and so that's when I died falling so that and I noticed that on there because I've gone into a couple of the different uh events that have occurred yeah, I haven't been on a live event yet, but going through and I mean you can go through you can see who's where you can click on the on the match you can takes you right to the mat where they wrestled, or takes you to the past match that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:What type of nuances within your, your app, the about the ballpark app, make it so different from like and you can go in and see it like? Visually it's different already, right, but the but the um, uh, the background of it, the back side of it, what makes it different from the rest?
Speaker 3:right, uh, well, I think it think it's so I've done like. I ran my first tournament where I was like, hey, I'm just going to run a tournament and some guys like, hey, man, I want to use the software. I said, yeah, I can use the software, let's, let's go. It was up the street, so I ran it and I think one of the things is is that everyone just knows what to do. Like there's not a lot of talking, there's not a lot of questions like, hey, what's going on with this, this, this, and we can get better too.
Speaker 3:But like, when you go to it, I think it's a lot, it's a lot clearer of like, hey, what do you? What does actually need to happen here? And, and my goal, my, my goal is to make a an element where you know a new parent comes in, they're like they don't have to, like you know, my, my sister started had her kids wrestle and she's like what is? Like you have to like go and look and learn, and it's just this really weird element where you it's very difficult for someone new to come in the sport. But not only that. I want to make it so that it's incredibly great for, like, the top end of the sport. It's super, super diehards, right, but also you can ease your way into that very easily.
Speaker 3:In every step of the way, you know what to do and then, through through the process, the vision is is to put on better events and make sure to communicate to the tournament operators. Hey, these are the type of events this is, these are how many matches you're going to get, right? This is are the matches good matches? Are they bad matches? Okay, you know, like it doesn't do anyone any good if I go out there, my son goes out and 10 seconds gets a pin. Yeah, right, right, he might be reinforcing bad technique in that scenario so you're referencing like seating.
Speaker 2:Does it do seating?
Speaker 3:no, uh, no, no, it doesn't do seating right now, but our goal is just to make it so that our goal is just to put on better events throughout okay, throughout the whole nation and be able to just assist people in putting on better events, because I and I've always said but it's, it's a start yeah, and I've only seen it on the phone side, like in going through there, so I've never seen it on.
Speaker 2:You know running a tournament from it or you know keeping score, anything like that, but what, where does what's the? What's the? Because the filters on there are great. You can search for an athlete. I believe you can see. You know you can. There's lots of ways you can figure out where you need to go and what you're looking for within a tournament. So it's it's not complicated and it's very simple. You guys have simplified it quite a bit. Yeah, on the on the other side of it, is that something that you can? You plug in your computer and you keep score from it as well?
Speaker 3:oh, yeah, yeah, yeah okay, okay, or keeper, yeah, that you that each mat keeps the score okay. And then there's the head table. That puts on the, the bracketing, and the scores feed to the head table are you going to integrate it into Rockfin? Yeah, we're going to we're we're doing more, we're going to go more and more on that front, 100% yeah.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, I know you got a tight schedule. I wanted to talk about ballport, If there's. Is there something you want to add about ballport that we don't know about? That's coming up, something we should watch for.
Speaker 3:Our goal is just continual improvement in a really systematic way. We built a really strong, large foundation so that we can go really high. I kind of think of how big of a foundation did you start off with and we built a really strong foundation. So we might not have every single feature that is out there right now, but we've got a really good, a good base where we can add, where we're going to be adding things pretty methodically as we go, and so so, yeah, I'm just I'm excited to put on better events and work with, work with other tournaments or with other organizations to help them put on the best events, to put the best facing front, facing forward for for wrestling, and improve the approve how people go and experience events. That's really what, what our goal is.
Speaker 2:Well and I know us in the wrestling world just as regular Joe's kind of out here. We appreciate what you've done so far. I mean flow wrestling to rock fin to now ball board. So we're excited. We here at Vision Quest Podcast are excited. We want to keep following and see what's going on. We follow everything you've got going on. We watch your glaring really egregious stuff.
Speaker 2:Nice nice, it's fantastic it's fantastic, so we appreciate everything that you do and, like I said, I know you're busy when I get out of your hair. Your daughter's got a birthday coming up, so happy birthday to her yeah we'll get her a present, but we are going to wind up leaving this here. I don't know if you have any shout outs guys. You want to say hi, to tell them to have a great day, kind of thing. You got any shout outs at all, uh?
Speaker 3:no, I'm good. Shout out to the texas, uh, uh, to the texas wrestling community.
Speaker 2:Um, yes, yeah, yeah, you are congratulations that you're the president of texas usa wrestling yep chairman. Chairman, congratulations on that as well. Yeah, we, we appreciate what we believe you're going to be doing yeah down yeah. So let's let's spread that around, so I will leave it at that. It's been another episode of the vision quest podcast. I want to talk to you for just a minute once we're done here.
Speaker 2:So, we're going to. We're going to tell everybody peace out and we're going to hang it up and then that's going to be it. Appreciate it. Thank you.
