The Hole Story - Golf Podcast

The Story of Desert Fox Golf with Scott Kovesdy

• BestBall • Season 4 • Episode 35

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Scott from Desert Fox Golf shares his inspiring journey from engineering to successful golf accessories business, highlighting innovation, challenges, and growth strategies.

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*Music by AlexGrohl via Pixabay

SPEAKER_00

That inflection point, you know, just tripped me and said, Hey, okay, what do I really want to do with my life? And that was the critical decision point. And I said, I'm walking away from Intel, I'm going to do this, you know, full time. And now you have two full-time guys going at this. And I took over all of the sales, operation, excuse me, sales, business development, marketing, blah, blah, blah. He could focus on operations, product. And we just, we just took off.

SPEAKER_01

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another edition of the Whole Story Podcast. Jonathan, nice dormy hat, man.

SPEAKER_02

Thanks. Uh behind the scenes, just found out again I'm still colorblind because I'm wearing this Bee Drady shirt that's got dots and it's a bluish color to me. And Robbie's shirt looks almost exactly the same. But I've found out that they're different colors and different styles.

SPEAKER_01

They're similar but different shades of blue. And yes, uh, mine's got the pocket. You have the cool, the cool whatever it is from Bee Gerati, which is great for this time of year because it's getting hot.

SPEAKER_02

The the fabric feels so good on your skin. Like these little dots thing, like if you just like to oddly rub your arm and stuff like that, it feels really nice. I like the dots.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, if you want to get some of those dots yourself. I'm sure that's exactly how they describe it on their website. I don't know if that's what it is. Our friends at Bee D Raddy uh appreciate you describing the massaging dots or whatever they are. There we go. It's massaging dots. Massaging dots. It's designed to keep you cool out on the course as we uh as we start to heat up. But yeah, thanks to our friends at Beadratdy and the entire Summit family of you know, uh Zero Search and Fairway and Green. Uh you can check them out and use Best Ball 20, and you can get a massaging dot shirt for 20% off what they would be. Oh yeah, very nice. Uh, speaking of Best Ball 20, uh, our guest that we just chatted with, Scott with Desert Fox Golf, they do some incredible things, and he was kind enough. He said, Hey, uh, do your listeners, should we should we give them a discount? And sure enough, so if you go to desertfoxgolf.com and use best ball 20, you'll get 20% off there. But yeah, we got a chat with Scott of Desert Fox Golf. Jonathan, what did you think of this one?

SPEAKER_02

Well, first of all, if it comes to business, I'm always intrigued to hear how their stories go, the decisions they make. And so I'm at some point I think I nerded out at least a little bit with some of the stuff. But they have so not not just like a solid core product in terms of how they were trying to solve a problem that they were having themselves, right? Which is usually the best way to get a business going. But then if you go to their website, they just have some fun stuff on there, they've got some unique things. The customization side of it, uh, you'll hear this in the interview the idea that member guests, if you're looking for an event of some kind. Uh now, if you're, I don't have an alma mater really when it comes to college stuff, but if you're a fan of sports and sporting people, then you can find your your particular brand of college more than likely on their thing, on their on their products as well. And so just another way to make life easier on the course, right? With a company that seems to be doing it the the right way, right? Trying to trying to uh build it built an America, put together, and then also just trying to help out people while we're out there, losing our phones, uh losing our mind, all the different stuff. I don't know if they can fix that last part, but they're trying.

SPEAKER_01

Well, you can get one of their speakers and have some nice meditation music uh while you carefully rub your own massage with the so wait, you're saying Lincoln Christian probably not in their uh in their database for custom stuff?

SPEAKER_02

Since it no longer exists, uh the LCU Lions we were the preachers whenever I was in c in school. The uh the Lincoln, it was Lincoln Bible Institute, then Lincoln Christian College, and then at some point we grew up and became a university with lions. And yeah, now it doesn't exist. Like a church owns the buildings, and it's a throwback, yeah. It would be a throwback. They'll have to go retro for that one. Preachers. I don't know. We didn't have like somebody slamming on a pulpit or anything. I don't know what our logo was, to be honest, but that's all right. Who knows?

SPEAKER_01

Well, uh, I'm sure if it was there, Scott and the team at Desert Fox could do it. But yeah, no, I agree, man. Just uh cool thing, another s another cool thing that somebody is doing in the game of golf. And I I loved our conversation and kind of the hey, what would you suggest golfers do? Like his answer for that was just spot on. Like I loved it. So that's a it's a great chat, another great new friend in the game. He's out in Arizona, so when you go see family, you guys are gonna tee it up together, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely, yeah. We'll be a couple blocks away from each other.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so a lot of fun. But this one, uh, y'all enjoy Scott with Desert Fox. All right, well, Scott, Mr. Desert Fox himself, welcome to the whole story podcast. Thank you for joining us today.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely, nice to be here. Thank you guys for having me on.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so we with all our guests, before we get into kind of the the cool things you're doing in the game with Desert Fox, like we want to know where and how your love for the game of golf came about. Like, when did you start playing this game?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you know, um, from a very, very young age as a kid, um, I grew up uh back in western Pennsylvania and lived very close to a golf course. So some of my first jobs were working at the driving range, you know, just starting to see people hit balls and stuff like that. When I was like a real young kid, we'd just scour the woods, right? Find lost golf balls, sit out on the fairway, sell them for, I don't know, probably five cents back then. I don't even remember. And uh, you know, that that kind of got me interested. And then by the time I was about, I think I was 12 or 13, a buddy of mine was a caddy over at Yaquigini Country Club, uh, which is our local course, and he said, Why don't you come over and caddy? And once I caddied, you know, met the guys, saw the lifestyle, the environment, you know, and really started to understand and learn the game, you know, I was pretty hooked. So I decided to start playing the game. Uh, ended up joining the high school golf team. And by the time I graduated, I was, I don't know, number probably number three, number four player on the team, made it to States a couple of times. And, you know, I I was just completely, just completely enthralled, you know, by the game. So at that point, you know, it becomes a lifelong thing, you know, at that age. I mean, I grew up in the 80s, so you know, we didn't have the type of golfers that we have out there now. Um, the competition was was different. Um, but then you still feel like you have a dream, you're gonna go pro. You know, I went to college, I ended up going to Penn State and you know, talked to the golf coach up there. He's like, What's the best finish you ever had? And I don't know, I've probably shot an 80 or something, you know, at one of the states. He's like, Yeah, you're you're not good enough. Um, in the nicest way possible. In the n in the nicest way possible. And so, you know, went on and became an engineer and you know, just it it was just a wild, you know, path forward. But I've always had golf in my blood. And, you know, when I moved out to Arizona, I started playing competitive golf again for, you know, the local Arizona Golf Association. Um, then really truly got to see some real good golfers and realized, yeah, you're not good enough to be to be anything other than an avid weekend golfer. And so that's what I've done the rest of my life and just always had hoped that somehow, some way I'd be able to get involved in the golf business. And, you know, fast forward X number of years back in 2018, my uh business partner Eric Fox, that's where the real Fox comes from. He's the true desert fox. Um, he and I started a company and saw a niche for phone holders for golf, and you know, it kind of all kind of blew up from there.

SPEAKER_02

What's your home course out there? I'm assuming you say Arizona, it's Phoenix area, right? Like you're not in Solo or anything like that.

SPEAKER_00

So uh Nope No, we're down in uh Chandler. Yeah, we're down in Chandler, Arizona. Um, so I'm actually a member of Bear Creek's Golf, uh, Bear Creek Men's Golf Association down here, also a member of Aspen Country Club, which is up in Flagstaff. So we do have, you know, two locations that we kind of go back and forth when it gets too hot down here. Um, you know, that's kind of new for me. But yeah, we you know, we I play in a a bunch of different leagues down here, a lot of travel leagues where you get to rotate and play different courses. But I'm down in that Chandler area near Akateo Golf course in Bear Creek, if you're familiar with it.

SPEAKER_02

We've we've played Akateo. My dad lives in Gilbert, my sister lives in Chandler. Uh in one of the county islands, I believe it is. So Okay. Yeah. But uh it's a small world. It it is an absolute small world. I lived in Gilbert for about a year and a half back during the COVID, actually. During duck COVID, during COVID. Yeah. Which I didn't get to play a lot of golf then, but uh yeah. So you're not the desert fox, which is a whole separate story, like the most interesting man in the world, the desert fox. That's right.

SPEAKER_00

That is not me, that is my business partner.

SPEAKER_02

So what was it that? I mean, you're engineers, you're probably tinkering with stuff, always trying to figure out how to fix things and do that kind of stuff. What is it that the two of you look at each other and say, you know what we should do? We should come up with the golf cart and golf accessories in order for people to enjoy. Like, were you just dropping your phone every time, or did someone lose a phone for the fifth time on the fourth hole? And you go, There's gotta be a better option.

SPEAKER_00

100%. You nailed it. So um probably the, you know, if you remember back, you know, the 2010 through 18 type of era, the little golf GPS devices started to pop up, right? And you know, you look now, Skygolf is probably the one that has continued, you know, that that path forward, but there was also this move to, you know, smartphones, right? And the ability to download an app. And so I came across an app called the Grint, um, started using it. You know, my buddy Eric, you know, and and business partners started using it as well. Um, he's the true engineer behind this thing, you know what I mean? And he lost his phone, had it sitting on the on the seat three or four times. That's all it took. And he's like, all right, screw this. I we need something different. And at the same time, he was trying to build a better phone holder for his car. And so the wheels just kind of started turning. Uh, we were getting involved with 3D printing and all that stuff. And so we went out and he bought a little, you know, Zur Trax 3D printer that we sat in on his office desk. And next thing you know, we start printing prototypes. He's like, hey, check this out and sends me a picture. And it's just this plastic, you know, phone holder that's magnetized. We started with magnets, you know, on the on the golf court post. And I'm like, holy crap, what is that? I want one. He says, send me your specs for your phone, right? So then he builds one and prints it exactly for my phone, you know, and uh, you know, I used it and I'm like, dude, this is this is awesome. Let's I was just gonna go buy one. And sure enough, there were not a lot of options in the market. They were large metal, you know, cumbersome pieces. I'm not gonna put this thing in my golf bag, it weighs whatever, five pounds. Yeah. And uh, you know, and I'm like, man, that this might this might be something we can go build. And that's what kicked it all off, right? And uh, you know, there's about a 15-hour podcast that we can go into after that.

SPEAKER_01

I love it. So you know, you're you find this uh this problem, and it's funny, Jonathan and I were playing yesterday, and the guys in front of us wheeled back and said, Hey, you guys seen my phone? Like, so it is a problem uh out there for those that are riding in carts. And uh it's funny that you were a caddy at one point and now you're helping carry something else for the golfers out there. But what took you from 3D printing first prototype, second one that fits your phone to saying again, hey, let's start mass reducing these things because I'm guessing it's not still being done on your 3D printer in the garage.

SPEAKER_00

No, it's uh plastic injection molded. Um, you know, we have multiple factories that we work with, and it was a learning exercise, right? You're right, we're all we're both engineers by heart. Um my uh business partner taught himself design, you know, capabilities and skill sets. We reached out to manufacturers, learned the injection molding process, you know, all of the things that are necessary for design for manufacturing, all the stuff that's super hard that you don't appreciate as a consumer. Um, I look at something now and I think about it completely differently than I did before I started this company. Um both he and I come from the semiconductor space, right? Intel, AMD, that type of space, microchip, you know, where we're, you know, you just they're just two very, very different worlds, but a lot of similarity in terms of production and operations and those types of things. So, you know, we didn't know what we didn't know. And that's the beauty of entrepreneurship, right? You just start doing, you iterate, you move quickly. Um, you know, I think we counted it up. I think we were easily 280 or 300 prototypes, right? He would overdesign it, you know, it at one time you would turn one button and it would automatically move in 13 different directions and size for your phone, and you know, and you start different stuff. It's like, well, I'm just gonna build these inserts and you just snap them onto your phone until it fits. And all right, well, well, we hate that solution, right? And so you, you know, again, you just try different things. Um, I've probably the most fun story and maybe the most dangerous story uh was the strap that we use for the phone caddy. It's currently a um, you know, a hook and loop uh strap that just wraps around the post. Super simple, right? And we started out by making a rubber strap, and he decided to build his own vacuum chamber to um make our own straps in his house. And so, you know, it's pressurized, you know, vacuum chamber in our garage that we're like building rubber straps. He comes over and go, hey, I made a strap. I'm like, you did what? You know what I mean? It just blows your mind. It's like, I don't believe you didn't blow up your house trying to make a strap for the phone caddy, but that's how it all starts, right? And then, you know, as you start to reach out, you find suppliers, you find contacts, you take big risks. Uh, I remember, you know, using PayPal to send $1,500 to our rep in in in China, you know, to say, hey, go try to find me some factories over there. And I'm like, well, she's either gonna go buy a bunch of shoes or we're gonna get some factory reps, right? And sure enough, it starts coming in. And, you know, you take that next big plunge and you, you know, wire a bunch of money to get your first molds created and things like that. Um, complete transparency. Eric and I, we always wanted to be a made in the USA company. Um, when you look at the startup expense of creating a mold set here versus, you know, doing it in China, um, it's it's astonishing, right? And at the time, I had no idea if anybody would even give me a dollar for one of these things, right? So, you know, since then, fast forward, we've actually repatriated some of our molds. We actually have a facility here in the US that does plastic injection molding. You know, it's an amazing story, you know, that you know, you start one place, you do what you can afford, and then you keep moving forward from there. And uh, you know, that's that's kind of how you get it done. A lot, a lot of trial and error, a lot of just, I'm gonna make this thing happen, you know, and you just keep pounding and and just moving forward and and and and again just keep moving forward, you know, until you get it done.

SPEAKER_02

Are you using the plastic mold guy there in Arizona in Phoenix?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, there, yeah, there's a bunch, yeah, there's a bunch of them out here, but we do have one right up the street from us. Um, we use them. Um, we do offer, you know, custom Pantone colors, but it's uh you know, 2,500 unit order, 5,000 units, right? So there's not a lot of people that are willing to plunk down that cash. So we still have our overseas production facilities, but we only buy parts. Everything else is shipped here. It's customized here. We do all the printing here in the United States. It's it's assembled in the United States, packaged, boxed, all that kind of stuff. Um, but just operationally, it's still a you know, it's still a product of ours that you know we have to you know produce, you know, overseas and bring pieces of it back here. Um since then we've added you know, speakers and towels and can coolers. We're in the process of launching two new products. You know, one of them is a magnetic phone holder, right? So it's the magnetic phone caddy. Um, you know, it's just crazy. It just kind of keeps going. But we've been in business now for almost eight years.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, and it's funny you think about you talk about whenever you start looking at things, right, in a store and a place and a whatever, and you suddenly understand the process that went behind that. Because I'm assuming you've had lots of people who are like, Well, how hard was it to build something to slide your phone into? And you're like, Well, go ahead. If you think it's Ted Easy, feel free to give it a shot. Because I say that because I'm a part of a company that's we're doing some molding and stuff like that too. That's why I asked about this the the local guy, because he's in Phoenix and we use him, and he's like, I can do this, this, and this, and this. But if you need it differently, it's got to be done somewhere else. And so talk about because you said eight years, which is congratulations, eight years in any business is a real thing, right? You've lived the ups and the downs. Talk about a little bit more about just those moments. Like, was there a moment where you went, all right, our wives are gonna kill us? There's no way we've we we've gotta go get real jobs again because this just isn't gonna work.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, that's what um, you know, to be again completely transparent, I was double dipping, you know what I mean? I mean, I worked full time at Intel, and then you come home and you work full time at Desert Fox Golf, right? It was it was exhausting, you know, it was probably the longest three years of my life. And so again, we started the company in March of 2018. We didn't sell our first product until September of that year, right? So it takes that long just to be able to get to something that you can actually sell. And we didn't really start selling at all until 2019, right? So 2019, we had two colors, right? Two phone caddies, two colors, and that was it. That was the company. The company wasn't a company, it was it was selling two products, right? And it's really only one product with two colors. And, you know, that entire year, you know, Eric is doing sales, he's doing engineering, he's doing all that kind of stuff. I was very fortunate to have a business partner that could put more of his time and energy into it because he had recently, you know, left his job and decided to do this full time. I was still, like I said, part-time in both locations, but honestly, it wasn't part-time. It's full-time doing, you're doing two jobs, you know. So all of 18, all of 19, all of 20. Finally, 21 comes along. Well, COVID happened, the COVID. Um, that was a bizarre world, right? Because golf was a silver lining, right? I mean, out here, we never really even shut down when it came to golf. People would go out and play golf because you could get outside. So at that time, the PGA also came in, the USGA and whatnot, and said, hey, electronic scorekeeping is good. You don't have to touch a pencil and a scorecard. So, you know, COVID for a lot of people was um catastrophic, terrible. And but for our business, it was a catalyst, right? For golf, for the industry, it was a catalyst, right? So many people found the game. You know, so that inflection point, you know, just tripped me and said, Hey, okay, what do I really want to do with my life? And that was the critical decision point. And I said, I'm walking away from Intel, I'm gonna do this, you know, full time. And now you have two full-time guys going at this, and I took over all of the sales, operation, excuse me, sales, business development, marketing, blah, blah, blah. He could focus on operations, product, and we just we just took off after that. So, you know, it's just been, you know, hundreds of percent, thousands of percent growth in the early days. It's fun when you grow from nothing, right? It's like, oh my God, we're up a thousand percent. Well, you were at zero yesterday. So, you know, um I love percentages. Um, and and so, you know, that you know, it takes off, and you know, and then and then from 21 on, this is all I've done. But that is probably one of those pivotal decision points um that we both were like, okay, are we gonna keep doing this? What are we doing? You know what I mean? And then of course, every day as an entrepreneur, one day you're you're oh my god, we're killing it. Next day, you know, something competitive comes out and you're like, oh my god, we're gonna die. You know what I mean? And it's just uh it's a it's a roller coaster.

SPEAKER_02

You talk about the percentages of like we're the fastest growing cell phone holder on golf card sticks than in the color orange in the last three months. That's right.

SPEAKER_00

That's right. You nailed it, you nailed it.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. Well, you you mentioned the uh the phone caddy, and and yes, there are more than two options now, and we'll talk about some of the other things that you guys are coming out with. But uh I notice on the site, like you're doing some uh marketing with different teams and things like that. So it's not just like the plain colors and stuff, but you know, as a team, you know, a fan of Penn State, I I didn't look hard enough to see if Penn State's in there, but you know, as a fan of your favorite team, you can customize and add uh there it is right there. Uh I figured I figured if there was one, it might be close. But but you guys are customizing it and changing it to where people can kind of like with clothes, bags, shoes, everything else, they can kind of express personalities through stuff like the phone caddy, correct?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's right. And everything that we've ever built by design has had customization as one of its core um requirements in the product development process. Um, we do literally 300 to 500 events and promotional things every single year. It's a huge part of our business. So when you think of us, a lot of times you think of direct to consumer, um, but we do a ton of business to business. We're in the promotional product space, um, the world of ASI and Sage, right? And so if you know that space, it's hey, I started the business, now I need to market and grow my brand. I need to put my logo on something so I can help, you know, get the word out of who I am. Well, in the golf industry, we provide you know those types of products. So we provide it for tea gifts, we provide it. For raffle prizes. We provide it for you know literally anything you could think of, just promotional reasons. You want to promote a podcast? I put your logo on our products, you give them out to your friends, give them out to people that are working on the thing. Um, we've been doing that for years. And uh you also mentioned the uh NCAA licensing. Did that over a year ago or into year two now with NCAA licensing? We've had over, I think, 42 to 45 schools, um, different licensing properties uh out there. Um I just showed you the Penn State one, right? So this is our Penn State speaker. It's called the DJ 10, you know, so it's got the logo on there. And then this guy isn't even launched yet, but I'm gonna show it to you anyways. This is our new magnetic phone holder that's customizable. So we have one on the website right now that has the orange fox head on it, but we just finished this design. Um we've pre-sold close to 4,000 of them, um, two events, actually, right? So they're customizing it, putting their country code logo on it, using it for events, that type of a thing. Um, charity golf events, huge, you know, business for us, right? Tons of charity golf tournaments want to put that on there. So the way we do that is we offer a volume discount, right? You buy 100, 200 of them, a full field, obviously, about 150 is what you need for all of the players. And we work that directly. So you contact us, we provide a free digital proof. And then, you know, again, it's funny because like year one, I mean, it was just one product, there it is, it's the phone caddy, right? Now, you know, we offer, I don't even know, probably about 15, 20 different products, you know, everything from drawstring bags, can coolers, tumblers, you know, put your logo on all of that. And, you know, depending on the event budget, you know, player, you know, player budget you have for the event, you choose what you know what fits, right? And um that's been that's been tremendous for us. The NCAA stuff has been an amazing undertaking as well. It's again, you think it's easy and you know, we're just gonna we're just gonna go make it happen. Um, getting the actual licensing isn't bad. You know, going through those uh hoops uh is not the biggest challenge. The biggest challenge is the management of it whenever you get it. You know, all of the inventory. Now I have you know 40 different SKUs, times three different products, times, you know, it just it just boom, it just blows up. The fan out is unbelievable, you know. And uh we're very fortunate because we print here in Arizona, we do all of our fulfillment from Arizona. You know, companies that don't have those types of, you know, skill sets and you have to rely on others to do it, it uh, you know, it's a lot, it's a lot to manage.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I was kind of wondering, was the collegiate thing driven because you just wanted Penn State on one of all your stuff, or was it actually a business decision? Because those two can be really close to each other when it comes to making calls.

SPEAKER_00

No, it's a great question. And what's really funny is uh Eric's a Michigan guy. So, you know, you got you got Michigan Penn State, right, in the in the same office. It's hysterical. Um, I I wouldn't say that it was a um I want Penn State on the product. It was a it was definitely driven as a business decision. Um, we knew that, you know, at some point in time, you know, we needed to do some licensing things and some deals and and see where that goes. Um, you know, and it and it, you know, like I said, it's it's been one of those things that's you know actually helped perpetuate the business. I mean, you buy a phone caddy, you really don't need another one for anywhere from you know four years, maybe even five years, right? It holds up very, very well. Eventually it's starting to look a little tattered and like, hey, I want to go buy another one. Well, we needed to have something that people would be, hey, you know, I went to this school or that school, and you know, I live out here in the desert where there's a lot of retirees, you know, and they love to show off oh yeah, Ohio State, of course, right? Um, and they just love, you know, that to just deck out their carts, right, and all the college gear. And so um it was a pretty easy decision to go into it. It's been a harder decision to, you know, figure out what we want to go after next and how. And of course, the minute you do this, it's like, well, I went to the University of Dayton. When are you gonna add my school? Well, it's number 1,252 on the list, right? And you know, it's hard, right? Because you want to do everything for everybody, but it, you know, you you obviously target the schools that are larger where the larger alumni bases are and those types of things, and try to round out the conferences, right? So I think I think we have almost everybody in the Big Ten now, um, you know, working on a couple, you know, big ones. And then of course, the way the licensing works, some of it is all under one entity, some of it is individually done, right? So you have to go to every single university. So um that's been challenging, you know, in and of itself as well. Um, so yeah, I'd say more of a business decision, but of course I love having my own stuff on it.

SPEAKER_01

Of course. Well, you mentioned the the charity aspect of tournaments, and then also for clubs that want to do it for those that might be listening and say, hey, that's a great idea, we've got an event coming up, or for a club that says, Hey, we've got our member guest, member, member, whatever, like what what's the turnaround time from when they reach out and say, Hey, here's something we would like to do, when could they expect to receive stuff?

SPEAKER_00

So I'm gonna answer the question two ways. Um, if you have your all of your information together and you have logos ready to go, from the minute you know we accept payment and and and the proof is ready to go, our standard lead time on all of our hard goods is only three weeks, and that includes one week shipping, okay? So that's ground shipping anywhere in the US. Um, our textile products where we have towels and bags and that type of stuff, it's a five-week lead time. Um, so that's from done, right? We have the proof and you're ready to go and you can get it done. We actually have done stuff in two days, uh, believe it or not, right? So we can do rush production, rush shipping. You have an overnight shipping and a rush one-day production. To crank out a hundred of these things, it's not, it's not that time consuming, you know, for us to get it done. What ends up happening is it's all depends on the busy season of the year, right? So right now we're at that early season. So I'm sitting here telling you we can get it done. You contact me in June or, you know, there or even May here in another month, and I might have a different answer for you. But, you know, almost anything is possible. It just obviously costs a little bit more money to bump yourself up in the queue. So that's our standard lead time, right? The average, you know, discussions back and forth, and hey, I'm having an event. I get a lot of, hey, I'm having an event. Okay, when is it? You know, what's your logo look like? All that kind of stuff. Um, that can take anywhere from, you know, two weeks to a month, you know, of just going back and forth. A lot of times, right, there's committees involved in this. So you generate, we we offer free digital proofs, right, right, which is huge. If you have a logo, I can turn around and give you a proof in less than 15 minutes, right? So once you have that proof, then you go into the committee. Usually there's a decision-making body that's saying, hey, I want the phone caddy or I want this, or we're also looking at shoes, we're looking, you know what I mean? And then budgets are kind of bouncing around, right? So that's that's probably the longest poll item in the, in the in the tent is that decision-making process for the committee themselves, for the people making the purchasing decision. Um, and we try to do everything we can um with respect to speed, right? If they want to change in a logo, um, my business partner created some tools for us that'll blow your mind. It's absolutely mind-blowing. I can take a logo and I can build an entire proof and generate it in literally minutes if it's a vector-based logo, right? You send me a PNG or, you know, a JPEG that I have to vectorize, I now have some tools at my disposal that I can still do it in less than 15 minutes. So it's just astonishing, you know, some of the tools that you build. I remember doing the early proofs. I would have been sitting there telling you, well, you're gonna send me your logo. I'm gonna get you a proof in two to three days. You know what I mean? And and it's just, it's just amazing how you optimize your business and your processes and those types of things. Um, but to get in touch with us, super easy. You know, you can just go to our website at desertfoxgolf.com. We have a couple of places on there for a form. You just fill out the information that you do know. Um, that form comes to us and we'll reach back out to you. If you have a logo that you already upload, we'll actually reach back out to you with that free proof. So boom, you have your proof, you know what the pricing is. You know, we send you our volume price list and you know, you're kind of off to the races in the decision-making process. So, again, very, very easy to get in touch with us and then we handle everything still, very high-touch, personal type of a discussion. You know, email back and forth, pick up the phone and call us. You know, we can walk you through the process. And then finally we place a uh, you know, we place a draft order and, you know, make payment and then we go into production.

SPEAKER_02

I'm still kind of stuck on 15 minutes of vectorization because you used to probably have to send some guy in Poland that you were just like subcontracting in order to get it done fast, right?

SPEAKER_00

That's how you start out by outsourcing it, then you learn how to do it yourself, then you find the tools to do it, and then you build your own tools to do it. And like I said, if you sent me a PNG, maybe you should try it after we're done. Send me your PNG logo, and you can hit from send, you can see how fast I get you a logo back.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, the vectorization's a real thing. Like that used to be a two-day process. We I've done different companies and we use guys overseas because they were you know 50 bucks instead of whatever it was here local. Um hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I of course that was probably 10, 15 years ago now. So I'm assuming the tools have gotten better.

SPEAKER_00

Just a bit. Just a little bit.

SPEAKER_01

Well, talk about you held up a speaker there. Talk about some of the other things that you guys are doing besides the phone caddy.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, obviously, so I'll just walk through the, you know, that's the original, that's the original one right there, right? And so it's fully adjustable, right? There's two thumb screws on the back of it. This one right there opens the wings, that way it expands and contracts. Um, from that we go to the magnetic, right? So this is the new magnetic phone holder. I mean, super simple, right? So this is a magnet, boom, attaches to the golf cart, and then this is mag safe, right? So hold your phone. You could twist it sideways. You know, it does a lot of things. There's a lot of a lot of nice things about the magnet. Of course, you know, you got to trust the magnet. It's by design, it has to come off the cart and you have to be able to get your phone off of it. So, you know, that's one of the reasons we didn't do magnets out of the gate. We, you know, we but but everything's changed with phones, you know. I mean, we have phone protection now. You don't buy your phone, it's rented, it's you know, I mean, things have just changed, right? So we've got those two core products. We've got the speaker. Um, what's wild about the speaker again, what you'll see about this is this surface, right? It's designed for customization. I can put a very detailed logo on that versus a lot of custom, a lot of speakers you have to print on the grill and you can't really see it. So that's magnetic. It's sloped so that you know it it fits onto the golf cart. We did a couple of really cool things with this. This has a USB cord integrated in it because every single time I'm out there, my speaker inevitably dies. So I don't have the cord in my bag, and so on and so forth. So it's changed the way I personally use this because I go out, I use the battery for two rounds, and then whenever it dies, I plug it into the golf cart, recharges, and you know, it can play while I'm using it, and then it's charging at the same time. I wrap it up, throw it in my bag, use it for battery, and so on and so forth. Um, another cool thing, I'll I'll show you my age. So, this right here is how you turn it on. It's a knob, right? So you turn it on, and you'll hear it say battery. Battery. Yeah, so this thing's gonna need charge. So this is your volume control as well. So it's up, down, and then off, right? A lot of people, it's so funny. You give this to my my kid who's like 18, 19 years old, he's like, Where's the button? You know what I mean? How do I do it, right? It's called a knob, you know, it's swiping. It's like exactly swiping on and everything.

SPEAKER_01

It's it's it's called a can I get to 11 though? That's the question. Oh, of course you can. Of course you can.

SPEAKER_00

You know, of course you can. So yeah, so those are our speakers. Um, we do some really cool little can cooler designs like for golf courses and stuff like that. Wow. So you put the name of the design on there, it fits a 12-ounce can. Um, you know, we have some tumblers, golf towels. So yeah, we have a lot of different things. Um, for the cigar, you know, aficionados out there, um, it's pretty cool. So this comes you know in a box with a cigar holder, and I'll just show you how that looks. So it actually slides into the bottom of the phone caddy, holds your cigar, and then what we did is we took this same piece and we created a magnetic version of it. So we're getting ready to launch that. That'll come up on the site here pretty soon. Um, and then we also have a cigar cutter divot repair tool. Um, and as I mentioned, we do some you know, bags, towels, those types of things. So lots of lots of good stuff up there.

SPEAKER_02

You you mentioned earlier though, at some point there becomes stock management and everything else because for every skew there becomes every color, for every color there becomes minimum orders, for every minimum order, there becomes customization, for every and all of a sudden you're like, well, we have eight products times eight thousand options. So how do you how do you manage that? Because that's a cash flow issue, it's a warehousing issue, it's an inventory issue, it's the you're guessing probably sometime in January, February, March how many we plan to sell over the the summer months, and then if you miss that mark, that's where you go to your sale button on your website because you got all the leftover stuff. The extra inventory. Yeah, exactly. So, what does that look like from a business perspective? Because again, it sounds easy. You found someone, you did it, and here we are eight years later, and you got the successful thing, but it's still a whole whole game to play.

SPEAKER_00

Our superpower is just in time customization. As I mentioned, what we do is we buy blanks, we buy piece parts, and we do everything quote unquote just in time, right? So everything that we have, we can turn into any SKU. Um, and so we don't have to hold all of that inventory. The only one that we have to backlog and hold a small amount of inventory for is for our direct-to-consumer business, for NCAA, those types of things. So what you'll do is you'll hold 10 Penn State phone caddies, 10 speakers, right? And every time you get down to a depletion, 10's not the right number. It's probably 20 or 30, right? But as you get down, you have, okay, hey, I got to run some Penn State. Hey, I got to run some, you know, South Carolina, hey, I got to run some Alabama. You know what I mean? And so, you know, that just gets put into the queue in between our larger production orders that are for events and those types of things. It's um, it's pretty amazing, it's pretty astonishing. But we have all of the customization, they call it decoration and the promotional space. All of that stuff is in-house. We do all of our own warehousing, we do all of our own fulfillment and shipping. So, from that perspective, that is really our superpower that allows us to have control over all aspects of the business in the production side of the equation. And to really blow your mind, um, we actually do logistics and fulfillment for a couple of other golf brands. So, because we have all the warehousing and those types of things, you know, we have the ability to do that. So we have some really tight collaborations. Um, we're not going big with it, we're not making it our core business. You know what I mean? But somebody that we know well, if they're like, hey, we need some help or some support, um, we went through it, right? Start out every day. I'm in my office and I print out my slips and I put it on my five packages and I run down to the post office and and I ship my product, right? At some point you go, oh my God, now I'm moving to the garage, right? Now I'm taking and I'm loading up the back of the truck, you know, and I'm hauling this crap down there every day. It's like, man, I really wish UPS or somebody would come to my house and pick this up, right? Right. There's that little bump growth stage that we fit that niche, you know, or that niche, I should say. And, you know, we we bridge that gap until you're ready to go to a full-blown 3PL, right? And that's a third-party logistics carrier, right? And um, you know, that's that's some stuff that we've done for, you know, for one of our other, you know, local, uh, well, not even local, he's out of Florida, but you know, one of our other brands out there, we work with them and you know, do some logistics and some fulfillment for them.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but when you talk about like from a business perspective, you figured out the just in time concept, which really sounds like you're more like a print shop than anything, right? Like the the logistics on those things, and then being able to manage that, and suddenly you're like, all right, well, what if we we bring on three businesses that we have relationships with to do this? Suddenly our overhead's completely taken care of. Like the warehouse that you're already in the middle of, and the people that you hire to manage and do all of your shipping now just becomes gravy, and maybe at some point you're like, we make a whole lot more money off of managing everybody else's stuff, and we'll just keep running our little thing on the side and it'll grow and do all the stuff. But I I find that fascinating to pivot like that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, your wheels are turning in the right direction inside your head. I will tell you that they don't turn the the right direction that you maybe think that it would, you know, because we had the same thoughts. Right. Um, you're absolutely right. It's a percentage of your overhead that goes away, but then you create new overhead because of it. But you you're abs you're you're you are spot on with the way that the wheels are turning inside your head. Um, you know, it it it is a business decision. And and when do you say yes? When do you say no? When's it a good fit? When's it's not? You know, a great example is apparel, right? We we well, we don't really do apparel, right? Right. And there's a big reason for that, right? Sizes and returns are wow, right? And if anybody's been doing it in the apparel business, I have a lot of friends that do it. Um, I listen to them and I listen to their success stories and their horror stories. And um, I don't know if I would ever go that route. You can come on my site and buy some t-shirts, you know what I mean? But I'm not, um I just don't have it in me, you know what I mean, to to manage that type of everything from the supply chain to the you know, refresh of the designs, plus the inventory and management. So, you know, we do we do keep our business um in a certain lane, if you will, right? And we don't really deviate from that. So there's like with all things, there's always guardrails, and you have to make a conscious decision of when you want to push those out or if you want to stay inside those lanes.

SPEAKER_01

Scott, what has been the most rewarding part to you over this journey over the last eight years?

SPEAKER_00

That's a fabulous question. Um and one that I haven't thought of. So this is gonna be a bit of a shoot from the hip. Um I think I think for me personally, it's the it's the ability to have enough success on your own, um, that I'm not an Intel employee anymore, for example. You know what I mean? That I mean, I had an amazing job. It was an amazing company, it's starting to maybe become one again, we'll see. Um, but it's a whole different world. You know what I mean? Um, I think that's probably the right answer for now. Um I raised two kids, you know, while while while building this company, you know what I mean? For them to see what we did, how we did it, you know, they each of them have worked for me. My, you know, my son was just in, you know, doing printing. He's a you know, col he's a college guy now, right? Um, my business partner had two daughters, right? Both of them worked for us, you know what I mean, at various stages of the game. Uh his daughter is actually uh, you know, a finance major down at the University of Arizona, and she's working for us part-time, you know what I mean? So to be able to do those things, I, you know, just to be able to do that for your kids and to be able to, you know, give them a view of there's another way to do something in this world, then you go do a nine to five job, I think has been very rewarding for me. Um, and then of course doing it in an industry that I've always had a personal passion for, right? The people that I've met, the, you know, the you know, the, you know, the um the the opportunities I've had in terms of, you know, playing golf courses or meeting people or having discussions. I mean, we've sold to celebrities, we've been parts of, you know, tournaments in the LPGA, the champions tour, the PGA. You know, it's it's wild, you know, to to be a part of that. Um, so I think that's I think that's it. It's like at the core, you know, I'm my own, I'm my own boss, so to speak. I don't work the nine to five anymore. From that, you get the expansion of look at how I've impacted my, you know, my kids, my family, my my business partner's family, my friends. And then the layer around that is the industry, you know, and the golf industry is awesome. I mean, it's it is a small world. I mean, we just you know kind of chatted about it, right? I mean, you get to meet a lot of people, you get to do a lot of things. Um, the other small brands, they're they're great people, you know, they're fun to work with and share the stories and all that kind of stuff. And and then, I mean, the golf world's weird, right? It's it's there's the that's literally like this this bottom segment of brands and stuff, and then there's this massive spike, and then you're a titleist. You know, there's not this, there's not a lot of the in-between. There's a couple, you know, companies that live in the in-between, middle, middle ground. Um, but you're either on this side or this side. And then, man, this is a long answer to a very what seems like a simple question. Um, the last piece of it is is the evolution of social media. Like what's wild is as we started this in 2018. Yes, we had, you know, Facebook and those types of platforms, but Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, all these other things have happened during that timeframe when golf creators were coming in and the YouTube transition and being, I don't want to say being a part of it because we're not, you know, the sexiest brand out there and all over the place on social media and all that. But to be able to be a part of that and witness that and, you know, again, the people that I've met, um, it's been wild. You know, I mean, you know, you you you you know, you get online, you follow some people, then you run into them at the PGA, you know, show. You know, could we go down there to Orlando every year and you're like, hey, I know you. You're like, I don't know you at all. You don't know me. You know what I mean? But here we are, we're like sharing information about the business or what they've done and those types of things. It's it it's wild. It's bizarre. It's it's stuff that I would have never thought I would have done in my life. Um, and I wouldn't have if I if I wouldn't have done this, right? I would have, you know, retired from Intel and I don't know, I'd be working as a as a freaking ranger somewhere right now.

SPEAKER_01

You you'd have your golf cart decked out with a lot of Penn State stuff.

SPEAKER_00

That's right. Yeah. Buying it from somebody else's company.

SPEAKER_02

From somebody else, of course. Of course. For for any business to survive eight years, you've you've made mistakes, right? And so for an entrepreneur out there who's maybe in year two and they feel like they just made the wrong turn and it's devastating because it it feels devastating in the moment. And it might be close too. Yeah. What what's one thing that you look back and go we should have made this pivot sooner? Or man, we decided to chase that rabbit and we chased it for two months too long. And we survived it, obviously, but still we we should have we should have cut the cut the nose off a lot earlier.

SPEAKER_00

Another great question. Pivoting, you use the right word. I think the thing that's really critical is that you have to not only be willing to pivot, but then actually do it. Right. So there's there's the willingness and then there's the doing. Right. And I think a lot of us think that we're willing to pivot from something, but actually doing it is way harder. I will tell you as a great example, the magnetic you know revolution that's hitting us right now is one of our current biggest challenges for the company. A lot of people want the magnetic phone holder, right? And we've resisted it and I'll and I'll use another example. I showed you this, right? It's a black phone caddy. We know that more people are going to leave something that's black on a phone or excuse me on a golf cart than something that's bright orange, right? There's a reason the first one was bright orange. And so you as a as a company as a as somebody that you're trying to help people, you're like, I don't offer it in black because I don't want you to leave it behind. Right. It outsells every other color three to you know three times. You know what I mean? And so at some point you have to say, look, you know, even though I'm trying to do quote unquote the right thing that I think is right and aligned with either my values or what I'm doing as a company or whatever, there's also listening to the market. You know what I mean? And if they're shouting at you saying I want a black phone caddy, you go build a black phone caddy. Same thing happened with the magnetics, right? So with magnetics, we know that you can knock the thing off the golf cart. It's magnet. It has to it's by design you can knock your phone off the golf cart, right? But what's what's interesting about it is all magnetics aren't built equally. You know what I mean? And there's ways to build stronger magnets and source different things. And you know, so that's where we put our attention and effort. And I would say that you know that would be a good example of I would have loved to have done that a year earlier. You know what I mean? I would have loved to have been selling that for a year versus only six months at this point in time. And then the customized version I would have loved to have done that sooner. You know what I mean? So I think if I look back it it would always be I wish I would have done this sooner. I wish I would have done this sooner. I wish I would have done this sooner. That's the thing that that I think happens for me. And it's not that I'm not willing to do it. It's actually doing it. And there's always a million reasons why. Well I'm really busy doing this or this is currently successful or well I'll take a look at it next year. I mean our speaker we had the idea to do this speaker I don't even know probably two years, three years before we actually brought it to market. I've got stuff in the hopper right now that I haven't brought to market, right? That we haven't that we haven't, you know, that we've made excuses to do. But I think you know knowing your numbers um the financial side of this um again I'm very fortunate to have you know basically a living computer that is my business partner that just is a he's a numbers guy. You know what I mean? He can do stuff in his head and you know it's it's something that's invaluable, right? So it's it's having that ability to actually go do what you want to go do. Realize that you could probably do it faster than what you think, you know, and I I you know the ones that I've seen my friends get get nailed on and I guess us to a little bit of a degree is not letting go of something that's not going well. You know, it's your baby right that one is the one that I see most people um get crushed on. We are lucky I'm just going to say lucky. I mean we we had a product that did really really well and didn't have to have that hard decision. You know what I mean? There's a couple of other products we've launched that haven't done as well but we haven't really had one yet that you launch it and you just you love it to death and you won't let it go. You know what I mean? And there's a couple there's a couple people that we've looked at and like, dude you just you gotta you gotta pet you got to let it go. You know what I mean? And that's the financials, right? If you really understand your financials and you look at the numbers and you allow that to be your data driven you know mind mindset, then I think you're in good shape. And that's again a superpower of ours is I have an analytical guy that has, I don't want to say he has no emotion. He's he is a human. But he's he's what balances me. You know what I mean? I would have had us do things probably to our dismay. Like I, you know, I mean I'm a passionate I'm like a much more you know from the heart type of a thing, you know what I mean? Versus that mentality of you know look at the numbers and this is a really bad thing to go do. I give my business partner all the credit in the world to challenge me in those areas and you know that yin and yang is has you know helped us a lot you know to just say dude here's here's the numbers you tell me how these numbers are going to flip around and we'll go do it. And I'm like, yeah, can't tell you how to do that. Let's shut that down. You know what I mean? So that's that's probably the biggest thing.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Well having a good business partner is uh is the makes it all worth it and that's why I'm thankful for Jonathan uh kind of like you are for uh for Eric. So vice versa equal. Yep. Yep. Well um Scott, we know we can keep asking you a ton of questions about what you guys are doing uh and we want to respect your time so we'll start wrapping up with some of the questions that we typically ask our guest. The first one is about your golf game and we want to know the story of your most memorable golf shot.

SPEAKER_00

You guys yeah it's like you think I would just have these answers off the top of my head right um so I have two whole I have two hole in ones right I have two aces and clearly you know that's you know that's one of one of them sitting back there you can see my catney line up there so my cat's name was Nittany um wild um you know I had a buddy of mine from yeah he's laughing at me at Penn State dude it is what it is um I named my cat Nittany um and so you know I had a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in years from Florida came out and said hey you want to go play around the golf sure you know we were you know college buddies right went out and got that home in one when I was out with him right the problem with that the the the problem with that was number first off it was my first home in one but I didn't see it go in. You know what I mean? So it's the classic it's down the hill and it's like dude you know and he's yelling it's in the hole right and you drive up and it's not there and you're like looking around you're like it didn't go in. It went over the green and you look in the hole and it's in there. That that was pretty memorable but the second one is even more memorable and that was out at Seville Country Club because I got to see it go in and then it's crazy but you it's like a it's almost a story that's unbelievable. They were doing a giveaway promotion as part of the country club of a golf trip. So I ended up winning a trip to Pinehurst for two and I took my now business partner Eric on that trip to Pinehurst and it was at a bar in Pinehurst where he and I looked at each other and said let's let's do this for real and let's start the company that's so I don't think you can have a more memorable you know golf shot that then ties to what led to what I'm doing today than that. And it's just uh just a crazy story. I was with three of my you know really best friends they remember it every day they had to sign off and I'm like why am I signing off on this what did I win? I want a wedge you know what I mean no you want a trip to freaking and they had a whole list you know there's like you know whatever 20 courses on there and I'm like Pinehurst and I called them and and they're like oh yeah you're registered you know you congratulations you want a trip to Pinehurst I'm like you're full of crap like come on and sure enough yeah it was it was legit so it was uh it was quite the experience I would say that's pretty memorable.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah thanks that's yeah a hole in one led to the desert fox you know it's crazy right it's crazy that's so great well another thing we like to do is just a little back and forth called the quick nine uh the first question what is the favorite course that you've ever played?

SPEAKER_00

I'm gonna say facility. I'm a huge fan of Bandon Dunes and then if I have to pick a course there um I go back and forth between Pacific and Trails. So two very different golf courses they're very different than Arizona but I'm gonna go with a facility I'm a I'm a huge Bandin fan.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah I love it. That's uh those are on our bucket list so we gotta ask what uh course or destination is at the top of your bucket list.

SPEAKER_00

I'd say right now um I'm I'm very interested in in getting out to um you know out into like whistling straight. I I I I I I want to get out there and play those courses. You know I haven't been up in that part of the the country so I think that's probably on my on my next my next bucket list things to do.

SPEAKER_02

Sounds like a business trip where you need to do like some research and things to figure out if you could work with them. Yeah for sure what what what is your favorite course that no one knows about I'm gonna go with oh wow favorite course that no one knows about I'll give you the Arizona one it's Quintero.

SPEAKER_00

Um a lot of people don't know about it out here. Um it's way out like in the middle of nowhere um but it was it's probably the best course here in the valley. Um another one you know that I would probably say that I absolutely love is and I don't get the I've I've only played it once right and I just got back from there was out in Punta Cana. Um and you know it you know there there's just it's just you know it's just an epic thing because you're on the gol you know you're on the ocean and all that kind of stuff. But you know I'm I'm gonna go with Quintero, you know, here look I'll keep it local. It works. Who is in your dream force them? That's a great one. Um for me I mean I grew up you know I grew up in the you know in the in the 80s you know type of a thing right so I mean I I I wish it wasn't I wish it wasn't the way that it is but I'm gonna sort still throw tiger in there. I mean I you know he was and is and always will be the on the golf side just pure golf. I mean he's a I just wish the rest of it wasn't wasn't there. So I'd I'm gonna throw I'll throw Tiger in there you know for sure. I mean I'd I'd definitely love to to see how that goes. I mean I would probably you know I'd probably throw I don't know I guess I'm just a a golf fan because I'd I'd love I'd love to play around with young Jack you know at the at the same time you know and just watch those two go at it you know what I mean like at their primes if you took Tiger in his prime and Jack in his prime and and play around the golf with those two guys would be absolutely amazing. Um and then you know after that um I don't know I I guess I just need a threesome and then whoever wants to join me. You'd have lots of offers.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah people would be people be willing to join the young Jack young tiger mainly mainly to watch you play golf though let's be honest. Oh that's of course that's probably what it is all right what has been your favorite snack that you've had at a turn so I'm actually gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna pitch I'm gonna pitch the gleezy.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know if you've heard of it but it's yeah you know what I mean but that's the new all beef hot dog thing and all that jazz. I mean those guys are killing it. I think they're gonna absolutely dominate the world I'm a hot dog guy at the turn always have been um I grew up I told you guys Western Pennsylvania I actually used to work at a a uh golf course called Butler's golf course I still think it's one of the best hot dogs ever made I don't know where the hell we got them from I used to work in the kitchen too you know what I mean I don't know where they came from but I mean the you know just nice you know nice big juicy hot dog type of thing and you know you can't you can't beat a hot dog at the turn and like I said the Gleese's they're killing it I think it I think it's you know it's it's high quality product and all that jazz can't beat it.

SPEAKER_01

Love it. Yeah I've had one and it is really really good. Yep.

SPEAKER_00

All right favorite golf course logo wow then see that sucks because we do so many golf courses you know what I mean like I can't I couldn't even I couldn't even answer that question. I don't I don't have a favorite golf course I played the fifth I I I it's like unanswerable. I mean I I don't even have an answer for that question because it's so hard because I see it on my products all the time and I'm like I love that logo on this product I hate that one I love this one I hate that one so um yeah I don't have an answer for you that makes me wonder do you just have like stacks of golf caddy like all just sitting there on your golf cart every time because you're like which one do I want to grab today? Not for me but if you come into our shop we have them hanging on strings right and so we'll see one that we love and we just hang them on strings right and they're just like they're like all over the they're like all over the place or we print something we we'll do proofs and we we use tape right and so they're just on this wall right and there's just there's logos everywhere and you know what really is really hard is you know you end up needing to do something with marketing and you're like hey you remember that logo and you're like no I like it's just like my brain just seizes up and I'm like I've done thousands of logos you know I have no clue you know what the heck to go do. So uh I I can't tell you I have a favorite man I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02

That's all right. Oh just a wall just a wall of fame. Yep. Yep. All right what has been your favorite pro shop purchase oh pro shop purchase when you see how much I stuff I buy from a pro shop.

SPEAKER_00

You know I I would probably have to say head cover. So I currently have one from Black Desert. It's just a sick looking putter cover. I'm a huge fan of Dormy right uh Dormy workshop that I that that's what I have on my woods right dormy workshop covers but um I've gotten to the point now when I travel I mean I have a hat from everywhere the again logos right but I'm starting to kind of get into the putter head cover and that type of thing and it's just black desert has it looks like volcano like a volcanic like rock you know which is of course it's carved out of the you know the volcanoes up there the you know the lava rock it's pretty sick and I get a lot of compliments on it. It's orange and black so it kind of ties into the whole desert fox golf orange. Um but that's right now up there that's my that's my current favorite that's awesome. I love it. All right what is one thing golfers should do I think I'm not that I got so figure so you finally answered something or asked me something I actually tell everybody golfers should always stop in the middle of their round multiple times, turn around and look backwards down the fairway to the T. We always play the golf course T to green T to green right and and we are always we're we're we're very rarely looking at everything else that's going on around us right and when I started to do that my appreciation and overall joy and peace that I found in the middle of a round of golf like it went up like 10x and you know it I don't remember when I did it but you know there I do it now every single time at Bandon Dunes on old Mac number three you hit and you go past the ghost tree and you're walking up this hill. And when you crest that hill it's just this like mecca of golf there's just pins everywhere you can see everything. And I stop and you turn around you do a 360 I do a pan o every single time with the video and I just started doing that more and more and more and and and it's wild because you look backwards and you're like oh my God look what was behind the T or look at that view or you know all this kind of stuff. There's just so much to a golf course that you don't actually take in or appreciate what you're doing in the moment until you can just kind of pause and and and do that. Take yourself out of the game it's not about the game it's not about what's going on and just enjoy and appreciate where you are in this world. I mean golf courses are by far one of the most beautiful you know places in the world you're ever going to be at you know what I mean? So in the four hours you're out there, take a pause turn around and and enjoy what you know the scenery and everything that you're experiencing. You know um I've given that I've given that advice to a couple people they've said thanks so who knows maybe maybe some others will appreciate that as well.

SPEAKER_02

That'll preach answer. All right last question finish this sentence the best part of golf is I'd say the ability to to to remove everything else that's going on in your life.

SPEAKER_00

That's my escape. It's wild I started wearing this whoop right so the whole whoop band thing um it knows when I'm out playing golf because like believe it or not like my stress level goes way down my attention to detail like it's my release right when I'm on a golf course you know that's the best thing for me. I'm in the moment. I mean it's about golf it's about hitting that next shot it's about you know doing whatever it is that you're doing if it's competitive if it's friends different emotions different vibes different whatever but it's my release the best part of golf for me is it's a release from the quote unquote real world always has been and really genuinely hope it always will be. Great stuff.

SPEAKER_01

Scott, this has been so much fun man I appreciate you and what you're doing with Desert Fox Golf. Uh we'll have links in the show notes to to all your stuff but again desertfoxgolf.com is where you can go find find out all the uh all the great things you guys are doing um and I highly encourage anybody that's got an event uh a group any course out there to go check it out and it sounds like there's fairly reasonable turnaround uh and easy folks to work with so thank you again for uh for joining us today hey really appreciate that guys thanks for the time absolutely well for Scott and Jonathan this is Robbie and you guys have been listening to another episode of the Whole Story Podcast

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Jonathan Hill

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Robby Woodard

Co-host