Unfiltered Founders
Unfiltered Founders is a raw, real, and refreshing podcast for anyone ready to break free from the corporate grind and embrace the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship. Hosted by Darren Penquite and Andy Baker—two former corporate professionals turned business owners—this show dives deep into the highs, lows, and everything in between of starting and scaling a business.
Each episode features candid conversations about the unfiltered realities of entrepreneurship: the wins, the losses, the sleepless nights, and the lessons learned along the way. Whether you're just considering taking the leap or you're a seasoned business owner looking for perspective, encouragement, or the next big idea, Unfiltered Founders delivers honest insights and practical advice—with a dash of humor and a whole lot of heart.
Tune in for stories that inspire, advice you can actually use, and the kind of support every founder needs but rarely finds.
Unfiltered Founders
Betting on Yourself: Why Entrepreneurship Changes Everything
What does it really mean to bet on yourself? In this candid conversation with entrepreneur Cory, co-founder of Synergy Insurance Solutions, we dive deep into the mindset shift required to leave the perceived safety of corporate America for the unpredictable—yet potentially more rewarding—world of entrepreneurship.
Cory's journey from professional tennis coach to successful business owner offers a fascinating roadmap for anyone considering taking the entrepreneurial leap. He shares how his sports background instilled the competitive drive and resilience needed to thrive in business, particularly when facing rejection. "You're going to have to put in the extra reps," Cory explains, comparing business networking to athletic training. "In the business world, it might be doing a lot of elevator pitches and going to a lot of networking events or conferences."
Throughout his 24-year entrepreneurial career spanning three different businesses, Cory has discovered the power of strategic partnerships. Rather than trying to do everything himself, he's consistently partnered with people whose operational strengths complement his sales and business development expertise. This approach has allowed his ventures to scale in ways that would have been impossible alone. His story of pivoting from Showtime Marketing to Showtime Golf demonstrates the importance of recognizing when something isn't working and having the courage to change direction quickly.
Perhaps most compelling is Cory's perspective on freedom versus security. He frames the choice between entrepreneurship and corporate employment as being "a bull or a cow," asking listeners to consider what they truly value. "If I earn less money doing this versus climbing the corporate ladder, I'm okay with that because ultimately I value my time over the money piece of it." In an age where corporate jobs are increasingly vulnerable to disruption, the ability to control your own destiny may be the greatest security of all.
Ready to reconsider what true security means in your career? Listen now to challenge your assumptions and perhaps find the courage to bet on yourself.
Welcome to the unfiltered founders podcast. I am Darren.
Speaker 2:I'm Andy.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to another episode of Unfiltered Raw Business Talk. How's your week been, Andy?
Speaker 2:This has been a good week. I don't know if it's because summer's here and it's like you know it feels like opportunities outside too, but you know it's just been. It's been a good week, been a full week, a lot of activity, and you know these are the ones I thrive on. So a lot of energy going into it and a lot of energy heading through the rest of it.
Speaker 1:I love weeks like this I'm on vacation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, way to go. Way to pour lemon juice in there. Yes, if I was having a rough week, we'd be having conversations.
Speaker 1:But as entrepreneurs, we never completely get away from work. So I've still got my laptop, I'm still answering my phone, I'm still returning text messages and emails of course we got to do what we got to do, right.
Speaker 1:But that's right I am up at a bar run golf and rv resort in roseburg, oregon and they have the largest lazy river pool in the whole state and they got waterfalls and stuff for the kids and it's. It's a blast. My son and I are playing a lot of golf, the girls are spending all the time in the pool and life is good and I got, my I got my margarita. What are you drinking, andy?
Speaker 2:I've got. I've got a little bourbon right now.
Speaker 1:I like it. That'll be later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, oh yeah yeah, white Claw.
Speaker 3:That's the last thing I found in the fridge.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. White Claw is great. Love it, love it so.
Speaker 1:I'm in Roseburg, andy's in Medford, corey you're in San Diego, so we got the whole West Coast covered here.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's right From north to south, man.
Speaker 1:Corey welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:I'll let Andy do a formal introduction. Yeah, I'm excited. Corey is the co-founder of Synergy Insurance Solutions and he's also got a great history in entrepreneurship, business ownership, transactions of buying and selling. So Corey was one of the first people I thought of when we decided to start this show. So, corey, welcome, excited to have you on the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. I'm super happy to be here. You've come a long way in your podcast journey. We've done a few webinar things in the past and done some business deals and whatnot. But yeah, I'm super excited to be here and, darren, it's great to meet you as well.
Speaker 1:Likewise, likewise.
Speaker 3:Corey, what did you do before you got into the insurance industry? So I'll provide a little bit of background. I was actually in my 20s. I was actually a professional tennis coach. So I did full-time tennis coaching for top youth players here in San Diego, california, helped players that were trying to either play, you know, division I, division II, division III tennis or trying to go professional. I was either a hitting partner or a coach for many, many youth players here in Southern California.
Speaker 3:And after my coaching career kind of finished up, I did about a 15-month backpacking trip around the world just to sort of find myself. I had just graduated from San Diego State University and decided to kind of sell everything and go on a big, you know sort of a wanderlust, vacation, slash, adventure travel. So I backpacked for 15 months, been very fortunate to have been to a lot of countries, a lot of places, and upon return I got into the golf industry. So you mentioned playing some golf while you're out there at the resort you're at. Yes, I'm a big golfer myself and as is my son, just like you said, your son's a big golfer. So that was sort of the main industry after tennis I got into. I owned and operated a company called Showtime Golf for about 16 years, and I also worked at a company called American Golf Corporation previous to that, so that sort of provided me sort of the background of being in the golf industry.
Speaker 1:What is Showtime?
Speaker 3:Golf, so Showtime Golf. We were basically based in San Diego but we represented about we were sort of a middleman, broker, slash, wholesaler, representing about 80 different golf courses all throughout the southwest and we would sell uh golf tee times, uh, corporate golf events. We worked with companies like Google, papa John's, heineken, national Hockey League. We would set up the golf events, sort of you know, basically helping the corporation come into San Diego and find the proper golf course venue. So we would do transportation, find the state you know, do the stay and play package. We could book the hotel, rental clubs, food and beverage, sort of you name it, sort of an a la carte or also all-inclusive options as far as golf goes. And we did 20 golf courses in San Diego, we did 20 in Las Vegas, 20 in the Phoenix Scottsdale area and 20 in Palm Springs.
Speaker 1:That's a lot going on.
Speaker 3:That's a lot going on. That was a lot going on for about 16 years. So, yeah, it was a great industry to be in and I learned a lot being in the industry previous to that at American Golf Corporation, and got my little taste of the corporate life and decided to kind of branch out on my own and ended up joining forces with a business partner of mine. His name was Ryan Vandervoort Great guy. I'm still good friends with him today and our sons are actually best friends and play a lot of golf together themselves as well.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that's that background, Great stuff. So I got to ask you your sports background how did that play into being an entrepreneur? As you know, you were obviously a competitor, and I'm sure you still are, so saying was isn't necessarily fair, but how did that play into it? All the things you learned in sports, what do you use today? How did that affect you today in entrepreneurship specifically?
Speaker 3:That's a good question. I say it started with. You know, I got a little bit of a background in entrepreneurship because at San Diego State I didn't go the typical business route as far as a major. The major that I chose was called Recreation Administration and it really taught me a lot in terms of the class size was very, very small. We did a lot of presentations and a lot of the classes that I took in those rec administration courses was basically how to put together a business plan and how to run a company. So from the early stages of you know, working a lot side by side with my professors and doing group projects with students at San Diego State with that particular major, it lended itself well to being in the tennis world as well as the golf world.
Speaker 3:I would say one major thing that I've learned from sports is just how to compete for business and how to just stay, have that competitive mindset. You're going to have to put in the extra reps, meaning you know reps in sports is like hitting a lot of tennis balls or a lot of golf balls. In the business world it might be doing a lot of elevator pitches and going to a lot of networking events or a lot of conferences. You just have to be willing to put in the extra time and those extra reps to make sure that your sales process and creating those relationships is done at a high volume, because we all know this is a volume-based business. You're not going to hit a home run and get a client with every single person you come in contact with. But the more people you do come in contact with and create good relationships with over the course of time, it will start to produce good results.
Speaker 1:How was it early on in learning how to accept rejection in the sales world?
Speaker 3:I learned you know coming, so in the tennis world I was sort of you know, I worked for a few different tennis facilities and didn't really have to deal with rejection because I was sort of in house sales right, they would just feed me players from the tennis facility. So that was pretty easy. All I had to do was the on-court stuff. Once I transitioned into the golf space and I worked for American Golf Corporation, I learned very quickly that I'm know I'm going to get paid a salary. I had a low salary and I got paid commission. So in order for me to ultimately earn any sort of a decent living, I'd really have to put in the extra time.
Speaker 3:And my business partner at Showtime Golf was actually a coworker of mine at American Golf Corporation. In fact he was the one that hired me. So I looked to him as almost like a mentor in the beginning stages of learning sort of how to sell, how to present the information, how to prospect properly, how to create a good elevator pitch and make sure you sort of knew what you were talking about, how to brand yourself and how to present the marketing material in a professional manner so that you could ultimately impress upon the potential client that you really do. A know what you're talking about. B you have a solid product C, your servicing is going to be top notch, and so on. So really leaning into people that can sort of mentor you and guide you at that younger age to make sure you can sort of, you know, learn the ins and outs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's cool. I was reading a book over the weekend. Just random side question how often do you guys read? I feel that, as an entrepreneur, I read more than I did when I was ever in the corporate world, do you guys?
Speaker 1:Not enough.
Speaker 2:Not enough.
Speaker 3:Corey, I've always got a couple of books that I'm reading but, truth be told, in full transparency, I'm the kind of guy that reads about five pages a night. I can't crank out three or four chapters at a time.
Speaker 2:I'm with you. I'm the slowest reader on the planet, just because I can't even hardly stay focused for long enough, but I will say I have to share this. I was reading a book on entrepreneurs and it talked really about it was almost a little bit about. Here's a collection of research and quotes from entrepreneurs and their experience.
Speaker 2:One of the things that I highlighted actually for this episode was there was research by a Stanford psychologist that said, when it comes to being successful, it's all about your mindset.
Speaker 2:And, corey, something you said earlier reminded me of this. It said successful people tend to focus on growth, solving problems and self-improvement, while unsuccessful people think of their abilities as fixed assets and they avoid challenges. It's interesting because I was actually having this conversation with my son right, because he's playing basketball competitively and he's starting to see the difference in mindset and that's what we're focusing on is we're keeping that positive mindset and moving everybody forward as a leader, because, at the end of the day, when it comes to leadership, that's influence your ability to influence others and so that mindset is so important. And so that mindset is it's so important and you know it's. When you were talking about that, it sounded like that's what you were taking from the sports world into the business world and knowing you and working with you that's certainly been my experience with you. Is that you know? Is that fair to say, do you think?
Speaker 3:I think so and first of all, thank you for saying that. I appreciate the kind words and I think and I know you've coached your son in basketball quite a bit and I I put in a lot of hard years of coaching my kids in a variety of different sports and I think teaching mental toughness is the hardest thing, especially in tennis at a very high level. You know, everybody can, once you get to, you know, d2, d1 athlete. The people that are trying to go professional are the people that can really stay positive in the face of adversity and understand. You know, hey, that point's over with. I can't dwell on the fact that I just lost that point. I need to move on to the next point. How do I get back to that positive mindset and really think in a positive way and get back to sort of focusing on what needs to be done and sort of that task at hand?
Speaker 2:So, um, yeah, there's definitely a lot of crossover, like, like you mentioned, in the sports world to the, to the business world, because there is a lot of rejection of business and you just have to you know sort of old school, the way our dads taught us right, just, uh, get, get back up after you fall off the horse and no-transcript if you're going to do it well and I think that's a good thing to remember, because in our world we're doing everything and that means that just by nature, we have to go faster, Right, but it's important to slow down and do things well, do them right and take your time, even if that means some things are just going to have to wait.
Speaker 3:That is very true. I think you had that good quote earlier and I'll add another quote in there I just read recently. It says you're not a product of your circumstances, you're a product of your decisions. So if you can ultimately keep a good mindset and be making good, positive decisions every step of the way whether it's in sports or business, or in a relationship with your kids or your wife or whoever it may be I think you're going to be a step ahead.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, and it's funny, know, it's funny when I, when I was in the corporate world, I actually looked for some sort of competitive history on that resume when I was hiring people. And you know, when I look back, it's there was some. You know, not every time would you be able to hire an athlete. I mean, you can't be discriminatory, of course, but you know when they apply and you look at people and you actually take a look at the different options that you have ahead of you. If they have some sort of competitive history, that's been a positive. And of course, that's more in the sales role, right, I mean, it's different in operations, a lot of things. But you know, when I was looking at sales, that was a big differentiator and I think you know, whether it's sports or whatever it is in your history that you have, learning how to overcome challenges and accept rejection is a huge part of owning a business and especially starting one from the ground up.
Speaker 1:Do your job interviews on the golf course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Gosh right Right.
Speaker 3:There you go Kill two birds with one stone right.
Speaker 2:You're thinking like an entrepreneur, not a corporate person. Stone right.
Speaker 1:You're thinking like an entrepreneur, not a corporate person. I know In a really sterile office it's supposed to be super all these behavior-based questions.
Speaker 2:Tell me about a time. There's nothing better than golf, even if they're a terrible golfer.
Speaker 1:You get to know. You get to see how people handle pressure. You get to see how people whether people have anger issues and what their temperament's like you get to see.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent yeah.
Speaker 3:Very true, you do learn a lot about people on a golf course, andy, to your point, talking about interviewing people with you know, maybe a sports background, a competitive background.
Speaker 3:To two quick instances I'll mention to you in the last probably month and a half I've started to do really good business with.
Speaker 3:One person is a high level banker who was also a division one tennis player and we obviously had tennis in common, but I just really appreciated his mindset and the way he kind of approached business and his sales strategy and whatnot. And the other person is a property and casualty broker here in San Diego and he played college baseball at San Diego State and so and he also comes from East County, san Diego, which is where I grew up so we had, you know, sort of we grew up in the same area but also had that sports mentality, that sports background. And we're just really trying to figure out, you know, how can we collaborate, how can we work together, how can we both be karma driven individuals and help each other grow and also do it in a competitive way. So it's almost like, hey, I'm going to refer a couple pieces of business to you, you're going to refer a couple pieces of business back to me. It's almost like we're competing to keep up with each other on referrals back and forth, and that's just a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know what I love? What you just brought up there is being in some sort of a community Because, let's face it, it, as an entrepreneur, you are entering one of the most lonely environments you can enter, because it's your vision, your thing to own. Some people are going to be for you, some people are going to be against you, and that's okay, but how valuable is it? And what kind of community did you build around yourself? Obviously, here with your, your friend, but how valuable has that been to you and your success?
Speaker 3:Community has been really important and I would, for myself, drill it down a little bit further in terms of I've been very much a partnership-based entrepreneur. So I've owned three different companies over the last 24 years and each one of those companies I had a business partner and that business partner was they served. A phenomenal purpose for me is that they were really really good and very skillful in the areas that I was not good and not skillful at, so they sort of filled that void. So you know myself, I feel very comfortable in the world of business development. You know strategic partnerships, creating referral programs, client acquisition, that sort of thing, sales and marketing business, all that sort of thing. That's sort of the world I live in.
Speaker 3:But from an operations standpoint and creating processes and really digging into the nitty gritty of the details, of the sort of the mundane, as I like to call it, I need someone to sort of fill that void for me. So all three businesses that I've owned and operated, I had that additional sort of community member, that business partner that sat alongside myself and we grew together and there were pros and cons to that. Obviously, you're going to earn half of the amount of money that you otherwise would, because there's two of you. But the pro side of it is I think you're going to create a strong relationship and a friendship with someone else and I think you're going to be able to scale a lot further in the long term, partnering with someone.
Speaker 3:And Andy, you and I we've done some deals together and that to me I've looked as a collaboration and a true partnership. We're in the same space sometimes and we help each other. We have conversations hey, who are you looking to talk to? Who are you looking to meet? How can I help you? How can you help me? It all goes around and I just love that piece of it. So that's been. My community is just kind of creating some of those you know, either whether it's a true business partner, like equity wise 50-50, or whether it's just a strategic partner that we can sort of you know, collaborate and work off of each other.
Speaker 2:I agree and I, you know, I would say, you know, I've had a partner, I've had partners in past ventures too, and I will say you know joint venture partners, you know, like what you and I have here, just kind of referral partners and working together on things, you build those relationships. It really is sometimes a check on your sanity, you know, at the end of the day, but also it's part of that community that you can share. You know, hey, like you and I were talking the other day, we're sharing observations in the market of what's happening. You know, here's a change. How are you adjusting your business? Which? Those are things you need in your business, especially when you're dealing on, you know, maybe more of a macro scale as opposed to maybe a micro scale.
Speaker 2:Micro scale, I think, is obviously important too. You have to have somebody keeping a pulse on the market with you, because you can't do everything. We just talked about how we do so much and we have so many things going on where I think that's also another value of a partner. You know, somebody having that different perspective and sharing with you and iron sharpens iron one man sharpens another right. So it's, you know you have somebody else involved that can tell you well, let's, let's hold on that one. Um. So I think it's huge yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no for sure. And and uh, you know, the conversation we literally just had yesterday was you were generous enough to share some new information with me about a marketing strategy that you're utilizing and you said, hey, if you want to jump on a call next week, I can explain a little bit more about that. And I was like, heck, yeah, I trust Andy Baker more than anybody, so let me get on that call and learn more about what you're doing, because maybe it'll work for myself. And then, you know, in the back of my head I'm thinking, oh wait, by the way, did introduce you to that might be looking at franchise opportunities and I don't think you guys have connected yet. So I'm like, let me, you know, sort of push that up in the inbox for myself and make sure that introduction happens. So these are just helpful ways we can all help each other grow.
Speaker 3:Like you mentioned, our, you know, iron sharpens iron. And one last piece of that I'll add is I'm sure you guys have heard of the acronym KLT, which is you know, know, like and trust, and that's something that's really helpful for obtaining new clients. But it also is helpful in obtaining new referral partners and strategic partners, which is you have to know them pretty well, you have to like them and you have to trust them. And for myself you know, andy, you and I have known each other now for a while I do like you, I do trust you. Therefore it checkmarks all the boxes and we can sort of move forward with helping each other succeed.
Speaker 2:Yeah definitely, definitely.
Speaker 1:So what comes first? Knowing somebody, liking somebody or trusting somebody?
Speaker 2:Well, you got to know Well.
Speaker 3:I think you're right.
Speaker 2:I mean, you do have to get to know somebody.
Speaker 1:Trust is intuition.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah, and knowing somebody too, I mean that takes time, you know, you don't? That's that's one thing. That, uh, you know, I, I usually all meet somebody and it's like you know, this seems like a decent person and I usually give people a chance um first, as opposed to taking the time Right and, and so that's where you know in, in my experience, that's what I've learned is is be a lot slower to trust and a lot quicker to know. And so spending more time getting to know people, um asking them questions, taking them out on the golf course, even in a figuratively here but um getting to know how to respond to things 100%.
Speaker 3:Good advice, for sure.
Speaker 2:So, darren, what about you? What about some of the community aspect do you have? I mean, you're more in the local market. I know you play in a couple different markets so you know it's got to be a little more complicated for you, but you know what's your experience in terms of community and how you built your business.
Speaker 1:You know, you get to know people. You know, like we were talking about, for me, getting to know people is first and foremost. Liking them and trusting them come later, because in the process of getting to know them, you get to know what their needs are. You get to know what their needs are, you get to know what their expectations are and you get to know how you can help their business. And, um, trust, uh, you know, the the only thing I have to put trust in, in, in, to people who I do business with is that they have to pay me. I have to trust that when I provide a service to them, that they're going to pay up.
Speaker 1:Um and and as far as liking people, you know it's. It's a blessing that I like so many of the people that I do business with, um, but that's not the case with everybody, but we still do business together.
Speaker 2:Isn't. Isn't it a luxury, though, when you get to the point where it's like you know what, I can actually turn this business down. It's not going to affect my life or my business.
Speaker 1:It is and, and you know, I I got a text message the other day from somebody saying, hey, I know you're on vacation, when do you come back? I'm like, oh, I'll be back Friday afternoon. Hey, can you squeeze me in this weekend? And I'm like, no, no, I really can't. We can talk next Wednesday or Thursday.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah right.
Speaker 3:Corey any experiences with you in terms of business. You've turned down. Maintain a certain level of integrity and character for yourself. So if it ever feels like someone I just can't picture myself doing business with long-term or it's maybe a turn and burn opportunity for them on the other side to utilize me as a vendor. There have been moments where I've said you know what? I just don't think this is going to be worth it. And if you take the money out of the equation, that's what I think is best about being an entrepreneur. You don't have to put 100% of the value on the money you're going to make from the client. You can put more value into the relationship you're going to build with them and the money can be a sort of a secondary piece for you.
Speaker 1:That's great advice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, along the way, I have turned down a few things over the years, but it's just because I didn't get the right vibe and the right feeling from that person. And you know, when you work in corporate America there's a budget you have to hit. There's a lot of sales pressure to hit that budget and that was a and you know you're getting that's a big part of why I've I got out of corporate America realizing how much money I'm making for someone else and what a small piece of the pie I was getting. And you know, I think a lot of people stay in corporate America because they it feels like a very stable thing and sometimes you just need to take risks and bet on yourself.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Andy and.
Speaker 1:I, andy and I, I believe, talked last week that if you take on one bad client, it can ruin your whole business.
Speaker 2:True, you know, I've, I've actually I started looking at them almost, um, you know cause I? I have a business to business side, um, and I almost look at those clients as what I want to work here. You know, when you, when, when you applied for companies sometime, there were red flags that you just may be overlooked Like, the followup is really poor. The communication may be poor, the you know this, that or the other thing Right, I have had experiences where I have had you know, we all have that public calendar nowadays.
Speaker 2:I have had people book on that calendar and cancel and reschedule and I had had it happen to me multiple times. We're talking four or five times and then finally I'm like you know what, I'm just not going to keep doing this. We're taking time off my calendar for other business, and so I canceled the final meeting. I said, hey, you know what, here's my availability these two times. If you're serious about getting together, let's get together, happy to still accommodate. But and I left it at that and never heard back, and it's like, if that communication is that bad, do I really believe that invoice is going to get paid when I send it in? Not a chance.
Speaker 3:So sometimes you've got to look for those red flags too right and you have to value your time as well, because there is I do some executive business coaching on the side and I usually do it with people that I'm just I'm really passionate about people being able to be their own business owner and not necessarily have to rely on corporate America, and I believe exactly what you, what you said right there. That's just a key, a very, very valid and key point.
Speaker 2:Well, and what? When you, when you took the leap, tell us about your leap from corporate America to entrepreneurship? You know, psychologically, financially, you know all the stuff that we go through as entrepreneurs to make that leap, because you know, I talk on a regular basis with people that are right there. You know they're at that ledge where they're scared, they're excited, they have all these emotions going around and they don't know what to do. But the one easy thing to do is to turn around and act like it never happened, and you're not going to do it anymore. You're just going to grab on to whatever you can grab onto and hold on and be quote unquote secure. So what was your experience like, corey, taking the leap?
Speaker 3:Well, funny enough. So this was back in my early corporate golf days prior to starting the company Showtime Golf. So I'll kind of go back to that. I was in my late, let's see, I was in my late 20s, early 30s and I had just finished my 15-month around the world backpacking trip and you know, I worked at this company, this company, for a couple of years and, in all honesty, my I was making a very, very low salary. I had some, you know, some there was some potential there at this company, but my salary is just very, very low. But I had a big budget and a lot of pressure and I had a lot of golf courses that I had to report to. I was representing a lot of golf courses in San Diego and I had to basically produce results. So my budget was, you know, one to two million dollars a year of premium or or sales that I had to hit. So I'm using the premium word like insurance, but sales I had to hit and my salary was just really, really low. And my soon to be business partner was already at the national account manager level. He was making more than me, he was on more of a pathway to do some great things in the industry. But I looked at this. I said, look, we've got these really big budgets to hit. They're putting a lot of pressure on us. We now know. We've worked here now.
Speaker 3:He worked there for four years, I worked there for two years we understood how the whole game. Once you understand how the game works, you start to realize how much you could earn for yourself if you were to figure out how to slice, just cut out even just a tiny slice of that pie. So once you understand the vendor relationships, you have some of the client relationships, you understand corporate America, you understand servicing and the product, and once you understand the game, it's a little bit less ultimately of a risk. So for me personally, I just wasn't making enough money for it to be considered too big of a risk for me. I think it was more of a risk for my business partner because, like I said, he was earning more than myself and he probably could have gone on to be a general manager of a golf course or something like that. But at the end of the day I think we were both very, very happy that we split off and jumped into the fire, so to speak. You have to learn how to write a business plan and do a fictitious business name and get a business license.
Speaker 3:And part of our business plan wasn't even related to golf. In the beginning stages Our company was actually called Showtime Marketing and part of our company was going to be to throw corporate events. So we actually threw two or three corporate events and realized very quickly how difficult that was going to be because it was very expensive to rent out hotel space at hotels and pack those rooms with 200 people. So part of our initial business plan which we've you know, I wouldn't call it a failure we kind of learned. It was a learning experience. We learned, hey, we're going to have to pivot from that portion of our company and lean more into the golf division. So within the first year we learned very quickly like, hey, let's change that name from Showtime Marketing to Showtime Golf and get into the tea time corporate event space, which is what we had been doing a lot more of at our company.
Speaker 1:Was it a difficult sell to anyone in your family when you decided to take the leap?
Speaker 3:I was. This was before I was married. So I had a girlfriend at the time and I think she really believed in me. She believed in the vision. She also was really good friends with my business partner's wife. So the four of us could talk about this and really kind of crunch the numbers and figure out what it would look like. But we already had a lot of these. So we did a lot of business with hotels. All of our referral business was coming from the hotels. So my job was basically to do what we would call blitzing. So that's physically going out. As you guys might know, I'm kind of dating myself with that terminology. This is pre-e-commerce. So this is before we had launched websites or anything like that Physically going to 80 to 100 different hotels in San.
Speaker 3:Diego and having conversations with the concierge, the bellman, the sales managers, the directors of sales, the general manager, the convention services staff and just handing out like actual physical brochures. Like I still hold on to this one, this is my golf brochure. I don't know if you can see it too well, my golf brochure. I still hold on to this to this day from the golf days and it's just basically here's who we are, here's what we do, here's the referral program. Everybody gets a little kickback if you refer business to us. And it's sort of how the world worked back then and it was a volume-based business. The more places you visit, I only need to book one foursome per month per hotel and I'll be doing pretty well. So that means I need to visit a lot of hotels. And I started to realize, well, hey, what if we do the Palm Springs market and launch 20 courses out there? Then what if we launched the Vegas market? Then what if we launched the Scottsdale Phoenix market? And then what if we add in transportation?
Speaker 3:And then we ended up buying 50 sets of tailor-made golf clubs. So then we would rent our golf clubs for our clients. And then we bought two Chevy Suburbans and we started doing transportation packages to the course. So every possible revenue stream attached to that client became something that we could earn money from, and what it did was it sort of ingrained in those concierge and those sales managers. Hey, let's talk to Corey and Ryan. They're the place to go for anything related to golf, not just a tee time, but they can do the full event. They could do transportation All inclusive. They could do the food and beverage. Whatever it is, it's all inclusive.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. One question too, going back a little bit to what you said when you took the leap from corporate America, you were talking about the money. Know the, the money I can replace the money right, and all the pressure you're getting because you had this big budget you had to hit. Um, since you left corporate America, the pressure. Has it remained the same? Has it been less? Has it been different? You know more? Tell us about what the pressure is like now when you're setting that number and you're accountable to yourself, not to a corporate structure.
Speaker 3:I would say I try not. I still I try not to focus on the numbers and I just try to focus on the task at hand. And the task at hand is being very strategic in terms of understanding and this is one big piece of advice I would give to any young entrepreneurs is that there are 10 or 15 different ways to market and promote a sales or service that you offer, and every single one of those ways can work in some way, shape or form. But the quicker you can understand which two or three or four ways can win you the client the fastest, utilizing the least amount of time, the least amount of money, but still close the client and hopefully it'll be a client that you can maintain for months and years to come. That's what will save you time.
Speaker 3:So I put the pressure I put on myself is to make sure I don't spend too much of my capacity and my time and energy trying every single marketing strategy known to man. I have to be very quick in processing information of what I truly think will work, and now I have a 24-year sample size of what has worked in the past and also what hasn't worked. I have to pay very close attention to. Some of the times I've sort of failed, so to speak and once again those are just learning experiences and then lean more into the ways that do work for me. So I try not to focus on hitting a budget or hitting a number I mean I've got those in my head but just keep putting one foot in front of the other and focusing on the types of marketing that has worked the best.
Speaker 1:Well, there's a saying when you do the right thing, the money will come.
Speaker 3:Well said, very true, well said.
Speaker 2:Well, tell us a little bit about the failures. I mean we, you know, failure is that thing we all experience and it's not necessarily, you know, a failure, it's a learning experience. We've heard that and that's really. That's the truth. You know, and I always go back to sports, and basketball tends to be one of my, my sports that I go back to every time and I I love um one of Michael Jordan's quotes where it's like I never lost, just ran out of time, you know. But uh, you know, corey, what about?
Speaker 3:what about a failure that you learn from and what you learned from it? Can you share something like that with us? I would say, if I go back to when our company was called Showtime Marketing in the beginning days, you know understanding that you need to be able to pivot quickly and be okay with saying you know what that one didn't work right. It's time for me to move on, because, at the end of the day, you're not getting there's no guaranteed paycheck. You're when you're as an entrepreneur, you're basically it's. It's essentially commission only.
Speaker 3:So the key takeaway is to make sure you're willing to pivot away from some of those quote unquote bad ideas as as as quickly as you can. So that's one big takeaway, I would say from a. You know learning from your learning from your fails. And then the other thing too is no, when you're young, you know learning from your learning from your fails. And the other thing, too is know, when you're young you feel like you can just tackle the world every single day and work 60, 70 hours a week. As you get older and you have kids and a family, you have to realize what your capacity is, and so you do have to start working a little bit smarter versus harder, and understanding that you know it's better to put really good quality time into something as opposed to just spinning your wheels and, just you know, pecking away at the computer keys for 60 hours a week, just because it's not about how much time you've put in, it's about how much quality time you've put in. So understanding capacity is a really key factor.
Speaker 2:That's a great point, and it actually makes me remember something again from the book that I was reading about kind of the habits of successful people, and that is they don't see failure as failure. We see it as something to learn, something to make note of, yeah, an opportunity to like the market crashing right. The people that make the money are the ones that see the opportunity, not the ones that are like, oh my gosh, everything's going going away now. It's horrible.
Speaker 1:Look at how many people got rich off COVID.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, there we go and a down economy. I mean there's people making money in a down economy. I mean it's easy right For some people, that's just what they do, that's what they wait for.
Speaker 3:Yes, and in the COVID space and I haven't spoken much about this obviously I have a business partner as well.
Speaker 3:We do synergy insurance solutions, so we do group health benefits for for companies and during COVID we sort of lucked into this.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't say it was necessarily a great decision on our part, but we we partnered with a, a really good enrollment firm that does virtual agent assisted enrollments.
Speaker 3:So a lot of our competitors were still doing paper enrollments, like physically going to the place of business and doing an enrollment with the entire group of the employee base, whereas what we were able to do by partnering with this enrollment firm was everything was done virtually and it's a one-on-one and it allowed us to scale our company during COVID because we weren't allowed to physically go into the places of business anyhow. So because we had that partnership in place, it allowed us to land a lot more clients that were looking for that type of a solution. So to this day now we're licensed in, I believe, about 16 different states where we do about eight or 10 different industries, and everything is still virtual agent assisted and it works really well. Now, as we can see, the whole world has leaned into this whole concept of let's do a lot of business through Zoom calls. Just like we're on this podcast now, I'm on Zoom calls all day, every day. I don't see as many clients face-to-face as I once did back in the Showtime golf days.
Speaker 1:Which allows you to see more clients in a day and not yeah, not be putting miles or gas in a vehicle.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but here's the and here's the key to that, and this is the piece I do miss. You want to, you still want to figure out how to carve out time to visit your clients, and maybe maybe the the way you're, maybe the way you're visiting them will be a little bit different. Maybe it won't be to do the enrollment in person, but maybe it'll be dropping off a gift or just to say hello, or maybe it's taking them out to lunch. You've got more time to treat your clients, or even your referral sources in a different way and just kind of take care of people in a different way.
Speaker 1:COVID, it was a once in a lifetime type situation just kind of take care of people in a different way. Covid, it was a once-in-a-lifetime type situation we ended up in where people were forced into entrepreneurship because people lost their jobs, they needed something to do and everybody's world was turned upside down. Everything in life had to be done different, so there was no better time to come up with an idea and run with it, right.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:Because everything was being done differently.
Speaker 2:So yeah.
Speaker 1:I that you know the work, the line of work that I do was in practice well before COVID. But COVID kind of forced me into entrepreneurship because I was in the corporate world and I tell Andy this all the time, I kick myself every day why, why I didn't do this 10 years ago, right you know 20 years ago.
Speaker 3:Are you? Are you enjoying? Are you enjoying the freedom of being an entrepreneur, cause I think that's the biggest value takeaway.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm sitting having this conversation with you guys at a golf and RV resort right now, through the middle of a week.
Speaker 3:So I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1:So you know it's it's not all roses. You know entrepreneurship is hard. You don't get weekends off. You're, you know you're constantly, constantly working, um, but we have the freedom of being able to set our own schedule. We have the freedom of being able to take our work with us if we want to go somewhere.
Speaker 2:And you didn't have to submit a time off request to somebody that could have said no for just no reason.
Speaker 1:So true, I didn't know that that's so true, yeah, and be limited to that, you know, two to three weeks of paid vacation time a year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I will say Now we get as much vacation time as we want, it's just not paid. It took me a while to get you know. I'm gonna take some time off and it's like I don't need to tell anybody. I'm gonna like you know. I think it's tomorrow. I'm knocking off a little early and go play golf with a friend of mine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well and, like my, my business partner, um, she, you know, and that's the other advantage of having a business partner is you can kind of take time off and it's no stress. I can hold down the fort when she's gone. So she goes to Paris, france, two or three times a year for a few weeks at a time and she just works on a different time zone. And she just got back and she's going to Panama pretty soon. Then she's got a trip to New York and I've got different trips.
Speaker 3:So as long as you get the work done, you're okay. And if you do have to work on the weekends, like like Dan was talking about, I'm sorry, like Darren was talking about, you know you can compartmentalize and say you know what, I do have five hours worth of work I need to get done this weekend, but I'm going to set the timeframe that I do it. Maybe it's going to be, you know, late at night, after the kids are already asleep, so I don't interrupt family time. So you can kind of select when you want to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I've taken calls on vacations, but it's quick, you know it's. You know just you can structure your way around it, which is kind of nice, you know it's like hey you guys, you know you guys are going to sit down and have some appetizers while I'm going to go step out, take a phone call and I'll be back and have some dinner. It'll be great.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and certain things in my line of work anyway. Things are somewhat seasonal. I mean, my busy time of year is April, may, june, and I mean it's June right now. It's the end of June. I shouldn't be taking any time off, but I wanted to do it before the weather got obscenely hot, yeah, yeah. Right, right, but usually, you know, March, april, may, I don't take any time off. Just not a wise business move to do that Right. Other than that, I'm pretty flexible.
Speaker 2:Right on. Well, hey, corey, thanks for being here today. It's been awesome. You know, I think we're going to have to have you back. I think there's a lot more uh wisdom in there that we haven't even scratched the surface on, but, um, anytime, yeah, man, in, uh. In summary, tell us, if you can, what entrepreneurship has meant for you and you know why you would encourage somebody else to think about it.
Speaker 3:I would encourage someone else to think about entrepreneurship because it really is a complete mindset shift. It's you're not quote unquote working for the man. You are the man. And I talk to my kids all the time about do you want to be a bull or a cow? Here are the choices you have in life and there's nothing wrong with if you want to climb that corporate ladder and if that's how your brain works. More power to you. That's just for me myself. It wasn't how my brain works. Pay yourself versus how much someone is paying you. Or you want to be able to control how much vacation you get versus having someone tell you you have to fill out a form. Those freedoms to me are worth it. And if I earn less money doing this versus climbing the corporate ladder, I'm okay with that because ultimately I value my time over the money piece of it. So that's, and everyone's different, so there's no judgment either way. Awesome.
Speaker 1:You're delusional if you think there's no risk in the corporate world 1000%, my friend, True, it's even true.
Speaker 2:You know a lot of people go. I don't want to go to business for myself.
Speaker 1:My job is secure. I know that I got a good retirement. I know that I'm set for the rest of my life. We hear it every day about some company completely unexpectedly turning upside down.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Especially with artificial intelligence. Yeah, if you go with AI now, nobody's safe. There's going to be a lot of interesting layoffs and it's going to be interesting to see what happens to the unemployment rate.
Speaker 1:But at least, if you are an entrepreneur, you can mitigate your own risk. You can pivot.
Speaker 2:You can pivot 100%. You can pivot, that's why I say, no matter what happens to the economy, I'm still going to have a job. I'm still going to have something. I may not make doing financially, you know just bringing it in. But hey, either way, nobody can take anything from me on that one.
Speaker 3:You can change your name from Showtime Marketing to Showtime Golf, and it'll all be okay.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's right, Corey. Thanks for being here today. Man Pleasure, as always.
Speaker 3:Thanks guys. I appreciate the time. It was a great experience and I wish you both the best and happy to jump on in the future. Awesome.
Speaker 1:All right, thanks, corey, nice meeting you. We'll do it again next week, take care.