#72 - USGolfTv: Nick Anason (YouTuber)

We made it to Episode 72 of the Behind the Golf Brand Podcast.  In this week's episode, I interview my good friend Nick Anson, of USGolfTV .  

Nick Anson, and the team at USGolfTV is dedicated to helping the amateur golfer lower their scores and improve their games. Coming to you from South Dakota, USGolfTV is geared toward providing the best information available through instructional videos from their resident PGA Teaching Professional, Todd Kolb. Todd's passion for instruction, with over 25 years of experience--combined with their commitment to bringing you information the average golfer doesn't have readily available--has their viewers and subscribers learning more about the game we all love. If you are struggling to improve your golf game, are new to the game and looking for a place to start, or just like engaging with other enthusiastic golfers, then be sure to join their community.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Today we play golf.

Speaker 2 0:02

Let me show you how we do it in the pros.

Speaker 3 0:05

Yeah. Welcome to behind the golf brand podcast. I never missed with the seven iron a conversation with some of the most interesting innovators and entrepreneurs behind the biggest names in golf.

Speaker 4 0:15

My friends were the golf clubs. I lived on the golf course. I lived on the driving range

Speaker 3 0:19

From pro.

Speaker 5 0:20

You should learn something from each and every single round you

Speaker 3 0:23

Play to fun from on and off the green.

Speaker 6 0:25

Why would you play golf? You don't play it for money. Just let

Speaker 7 0:28

Me

Speaker 3 0:28

Put the ball in a hole. This is behind the golf brand podcast with Paul liberatory.

Speaker 7 0:35

What's up guys, Paul from golfers authority. Welcome to the behind the golf brand podcast this week. I'm a good buddy. Nick from us golf TV. I've been working with Nick. Nick is probably one of the first people I've met when I started this journey like four years ago for reals. So I've been working with these guys since the beginning. They're great guys. They have a really cool like journey and you know, kind of what they're doing is different than what I do, but they're doing his so well. And you guys need to know more about'em. You might have already follow on Instagram and YouTube. Um, but, um, I'm really having a excited to have him on the show and talk shop. So without further ado, welcome to the show, Nick.

Speaker 8 1:14

Thank you. Thank you very much for having me. Yeah, it's uh, it's it's funny. Uh, it was just a, I wanna say about four or years ago, just a random email conversation back and forth talking about articles. And, uh, four years later here we are talking podcasts. So it's, it's,

Speaker 7 1:31

It's crazy.

Speaker 8 1:32

It, it is. It is, but it's, I mean, it's fun. This is, I like the idea of this whole, the whole premise of this finding, uh, a little more about off the path brands and you know, their cause everybody's unique. Everybody's got an interesting story and uh, you know,

Speaker 7 1:47

So I think I remember I wrote an article and then I saw you guys wrote the same article, right? Mm-hmm<affirmative> I was like, okay, cool. It was, it was like the most, it was like the GX seven or some,

Speaker 8 1:56

Probably something like that. Not,

Speaker 7 1:57

You know, one of those clubs. Right. I think it was G I'm almost positive with GX seven. Right. And so I'm like, oh, that's cool. Wrote about too. So then I, I reached out to you guys and I saw your website and I was like, oh, this is legit. Like, they're doing a really good job. They all, first of all, us golf TV has like so much instruction. Content is ridiculous, like, which is really good stuff. Cuz with Todd, I outreached to them and then I talked to Nick and we became friends and we like linked with each other and then we like started doing stuff together and then like, oh yeah, we do, you know, stuff for other brands. And that's how it all started. And that was literally four years ago. Mm-hmm<affirmative> and then what happened is I lost my emails because my email and this is true. I lost my emails, um, on my Gmail account. Just tips of advice here is don't Del accidentally delete your stuff like I did, you will never get it back. And so then I just reached out to Nick. I was like, Hey, how you doing? I'm talking to you like forever. So yeah.

Speaker 8 2:50

Um, when you told me that happened to you, I just think any small business who lives and breeds Google sheets and, and uh, Google docs and stuff probably would have, I mean the, the massive heart attack you'd have finding out that you no longer have access to any of those files.

Speaker 7 3:05

It was so shady.

Speaker 8 3:07

And I mean, I, I, I guess it can ha have, like you said, like there was really no backup, like you're Google, how is this not backed up? You know? I mean, just

Speaker 7 3:16

They're full of. They're lying

Speaker 8 3:19

Scared.

Speaker 7 3:19

Like I thought I was deleting an individual account, like individual user account, like, cause I was, they weren't on my team no more. That's what I thought I was doing, but no, I was actually deleting the entire account. So I lost email, Google drive. Like I lost the first year of like work, which is fine because it was like my first year of stuff, you know, posterity wise

Speaker 8 3:40

Really. I mean the, the way I'd see it is you got a chance to start a new<laugh>.

Speaker 7 3:45

Are you a golf pro? Like how, like what's your story? Me. Yeah. You,

Speaker 8 3:49

Oh yeah. So I, I, I love telling people this all the time. I could tell you how to fix your swing. I couldn't show you how to fix your swing since becoming, uh, a part, a golf company. I golf probably less than I ever had before. Um,

Speaker 7 4:03

If you got married and had kids

Speaker 8 4:04

Yeah. Married marriage and kids will do that to you. You, you, uh, prioritize your, your time a lot, a lot more efficiently then. So I mean, you know, so I think, I think last year I actually got out, I think I got out three times last year to play. And I think one of those times I to even played 18, I didn't just play a quick nine. So yeah. I mean, I think I probably shaved at least three or four strokes off my handicap just by playing three times. Not gonna lie. So no, uh, to answer your question, I am not a golf pro by any means. I have a plethora of knowledge at my disposal. Unfortunately I don't have the cred just to back that knowledge up. So no, I I'm, I'm not a pro by, by trade. I'm behind the camera for a reason.<laugh>

Speaker 7 4:47

Yeah. So like you grew up in you're in North Dakota, right? South Dakota, South Dakota. I always forget

Speaker 8 4:53

Sunny, sunny, South Dakota, the, the more tempered of the Dakotas. So it's 20 below five times a year instead of

Speaker 7 5:02

Oh, okay.<laugh> um, so you grew up in South Dakota mm-hmm<affirmative> and you probably just played, would you just play golf like everybody else, like with their dads and

Speaker 8 5:10

No, I mean, yeah. I mean, I played, I played a little bit growing up, like, you know, I played with my dad, I got his old set, you know, back when woods were even woods still then, uh, I can date myself like that. I think the, a first big head driver, I mean, I don't even remember what brand it was, but I remember thinking, man, I can hit this thing a quarter mile anyway, I didn't play golf in high school or anything like that. Um, I always liked golf, but it was, it was just kind of a, uh, a hobby more than anything. And then I, I went off to school and learned how to, uh, shoot and edit. I was actually more looking into cuz there's a lot of like news, uh, stations in, in the city. So I was thinking, probably doing something in, in news or broadcast. Uh, I did, I did some producing while I was at college for the local college, uh, newscast and I enjoyed it. So that was, that was kind of where I was headed and I met Todd, uh, working out and he just happened to ask me what I was doing that weekend. And at the time I was, I was doing some college football, just sideline shooting with a, with a camera. And I just told him, you know, I'm, I'm running camera for the, the college team this weekend. He's like, oh, I didn't know you did that. And um, he's like, well, I just happened to have a, a golf company and we're, we just happened to be in the, in the, uh, need for a camera guy. So we, we, you know, ex exchanged information, talked about, you know, Hey, let's, let's meet up and we'll, we'll talk a little bit more. And 10 years later here, I am still, still, still, uh, doing some golf tips with, with the same people. So it's not what I envision, but it's, it's, it's been a, it's been a fun ride,

Speaker 7 6:56

But initially, so when you started though, like, did you guys have the website or no,

Speaker 8 7:00

When we first start, what I should say when I first started the company was just a few years old. We had, we had our website, which at the time I, I think we had just launched us golf TV. I think it was SD golf, tv.com. Um, originally they, they started a, a, a 30 minute golf program for a regional cable company. Um, that's, that's kind of how the company started. And that was a few years before I was here. And that was pretty much what they had. They had the, the 30 minute show that they would, they would get some tips for, they'd go down to the PGA merchandise show in Orlando every year, um, interview small companies and just kind of get back stories and learn more about their products. That was kind of how they populated the show and with tips, um, some stand up, stuff like that, that was tutorial, stuff like that, you know, just better golf stuff I got, I got here, I think in the third season of that and the, that, that was pretty much the company at the time. It was a, and that's where the name us golf TV comes from is it was a TV show with a, with a website. So that's, that's, that's pretty much

Speaker 7 8:05

Initially. Yeah,

Speaker 8 8:07

That was, that was initially yep. Um,

Speaker 7 8:09

Like a cause you're regional, like wasn't like a regional TV show.

Speaker 8 8:13

Yep. We were, we were just a regional, a cable

Speaker 7 8:15

Five

Speaker 8 8:16

Cable five, I believe, five state area, um, by the

Speaker 7 8:21

Midwest, right? Yep. Central

Speaker 8 8:22

Midwest. So the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, and I think parts of Wisconsin is what the reach was at the time. And I think they've expanded to, I think either six or seven states now, but at the time it was only the, the five. And then we did by our fifth season, we started branching out and getting a little bit bigger notoriety. Uh, we started doing stuff with, uh, Fox sports north, which was kind of more the Ohio through, you know, the gr the, the great lakes area. Um, and then we did some stuff. We started doing stuff with Cox, which was more the Gulf states, um, Florida through Louisiana. And I think they expanded into Oklahoma and actually had some, some touch points in, in, uh, Arizona and, and California, I think after a couple years and then altitude, which was more the Rocky mountain areas. So at the peak of our show, we were doing, I think, I think our reach was about 25 states through, uh, so

Speaker 7 9:21

Like how many episodes a month or were you, or how many episodes a week was, was being

Speaker 8 9:26

Entire show was me. I, I, I shot and edited and Bruce the whole show. So like, we, we weren't, Todd

Speaker 7 9:32

Was a star, right. Todd was

Speaker 8 9:33

Star.

Speaker 7 9:34

I was that. And you the only, and you're behind the scenes.

Speaker 8 9:37

Yeah. The only time you see me is you'll see my name and the production credits at the end. And then there's some bloopers, I think, with my swings. That's about all, that's about all you'd see of being that's

Speaker 7 9:46

Enough for you.

Speaker 8 9:47

Yeah. So, so it was mostly just Todd and, and we'd have an anchor and, and, you know, we'd, we did still do like the PGA show stuff and whatnot, and, you know, stuff like that. We do pro product reviews and stuff like that. So we only did I think, 10 or 12 episodes a year throughout the, the heart of the season. We'd, we'd start like, uh, late April early may, and then we'd finish late July, early August, depending on how the seasonality<laugh> when the weather would clear up enough for us to actually get some content shot. Are you

Speaker 7 10:18

Guys traveling a lot or are you guys shooting? No.

Speaker 8 10:20

No. So we, the only real traveling we did was we we'd go down to the, the PGA show in January. That was that. And we get that the heart of our, our content from that. Um, and that's where we do a lot of our partnerships with, with smaller companies. That was kind of the, the cool thing about what we were doing is we kind of offered a, a platform for these, these small companies that didn't have a big budget to like run a commercial, or, you know, I mean, at this time there wasn't, there wasn't a lot of YouTube ad spend or anything. Yeah. YouTube

Speaker 7 10:50

Was, nobody was literal, nobody YouTube

Speaker 8 10:52

At the time was still, you know, cat videos and chocolate rain and stuff. Like, you know, like people weren't were developing businesses around YouTube, you know? So like, even, even at that time, we were, we were barely doing anything on YouTube. So yeah. So we would, we would, we'd provide an opportunity for those smaller companies to, you know, buy a little air time for us to, you know, give'em a little notoriety and essentially it would just help us pay pay to get ourselves in those bigger markets. So, I mean, that was, that was pretty much the, the long and short of the show.

Speaker 7 11:26

So like you offered services that smaller brands at the time mm-hmm<affirmative> could not do themselves or figure it out or right. You know, and then say, well, you know, essentially you're doing a 30 minute show and part of that show you'll include that product potentially. And then they would pay whatever fee it would cost, but then like, Hey, you're part of a syndicated show across the United States. It'll be seen, Todd will use it out, whatever do it, you, whatever it might be. And they're like, okay, cool. Because that's what we can afford. Right. Yeah. And then we can give you the exposure cause we can't afford going to golf channel. Right. Or

Speaker 8 12:01

Whatever. Right. Right. And well, and the nice thing was that a lot of those companies, they had, you know, they'd have, they'd spend money on a nice website. Well, they didn't have any video to put on their website. Right. So we would shoot and edit and produce this nice video of an interview. And then they could use it how they wanted as well. So like, it wasn't like we had exclusive exclusivity to that content. We would allow them to put it out on their own channels. So, you know, they, they, a lot of'em, they would use that as a, as a video to, to populate their website so that they had something, you know, cuz video was really taken off at the time. And not a lot of people, nobody

Speaker 7 12:36

Had it,

Speaker 8 12:37

Nobody had it, it was expensive to produce this. This

Speaker 7 12:39

Is pre, it was pre influencer. This is pre right. Like this is those the, the five years before influencers and all you had was traditional methods of

Speaker 8 12:48

Right. You either. Yeah. You either got, you know, a local regional sorts program that you'd maybe advertise to. Or, I mean, I mean, if you had the means you'd, you'd advertise through like a golf digest or yeah.

Speaker 7 13:03

Who does, that's the thing. Right.

Speaker 8 13:05

And one of those, nobody does. I mean, those, the fun and kind of sad thing. When you go to the PGA shows like you see rose and, and rose of spirit, like just all these people who had, who had a vision and an idea to, and the, the guts to, to give this a shot. Well, I mean those boots, I think those boots were

Speaker 7 13:27

Minimum 10 grand, 10 grand,

Speaker 8 13:29

You know, that

Speaker 7 13:31

That's, that's the thing. Right? Cause like that's one thing my dad had a Trini, I told you about, we still have it, you know, mm-hmm<affirmative> but like that's what I learned from him at a, at a younger age where like the chips are really stacked against you. Right. Because, and you, and you, there's a false notion that if you go to the PGA show that you've made it right. Like that you just that's, it, people think that, and there's a, I mean, it's a 1% chance it's gonna, and, and so, you know, I saw that with my dad's company in like 2000 and the 2001, he went and he's like, yeah, it was not what I thought. Right.<affirmative> and he didn't get a booth. He shared a booth with somebody, or I dunno, I think it was with Gulf treating.com and, um, you know, it's funny because like it's sad. It really is because they spend so much money and these things are really cool and where the product is really, you know, innovative. And, and it's just the next step is to get over the hill, right. To actually like, get it out there and like the stack, like I said, like just it's impossible. I mean, yeah, you got more money. Right. Which you might not have on any money. Cause you just spend all your money buying the first 100 of those products or buying a booth of the PGA show, you know? And, and I think like that's what I love about what we do is like, I love small midsize brands because they're the ones that are doing stuff in my opinion. And they're the ones that I don't know, I would love watching'em grow. Right. Right. Be, be a part of that, you know, without taking advantage of'em.

Speaker 8 14:58

Yeah. Well, and like, and that's what I meant by the, the fun, but also the sad part is, you know, you have this great product, but once you get in your 10 by 10 and you're in rows of other 10, by tens of other people with interest, like it's so hard to get any sort of traction in, in a place like that. You know? And a lot of people that go down to the PGA show, like they're there for the experience and they're not capitalizing on that, that potential that they have in front of'em. And the, the sad thing was the next year, 90% of companies weren't there the next

Speaker 7 15:32

Year. You can't

Speaker 8 15:33

Afford it. You know, if you saw somebody there two or three years in a row, they probably were actually doing pretty well. But also at the same time, a lot of them probably realized, well, I can probably make more bank for my buck doing something else on my own. I

Speaker 7 15:45

Go run, I could take 10 or 15 grand run ads on Google or Facebook. And mm-hmm,<affirmative> make money from that. I being seen at a convention. And I saw people like when I went two years ago, like some of my friends were because like they thought they were getting one thing and then they got something else and they're in the wrong area, which means they'll never be seen. Right. Like, yeah. And like, I, my buddy was like, I spent$8,000 and it, it was literally 10 by 10, he say spent$8,000 for it. And it was like, this, it, it was like the saddest thing. It was too. Like mm-hmm,<affirmative>, I'll never do this again. You know? Right. And the one thing I learned too is like, I don't know, it's good to have a booth if you can afford it and you can man it, but like if you're the head of a company or you're want you, whoever you're mover or shaker is those person needs to be walking around talking to people in their own booth because they're not gonna gonna find you. It's like a to mile of booms. Right. Mm-hmm<affirmative> like, yeah. So that's kind of cool that like, you guys, like you guys, one of the first to really do that, I would think that I've heard of

Speaker 8 16:40

Before. Yeah. When we were, when we were doing a lot of it at the beginning, like we weren't even, like, it was just content filling. Right. So we weren't even charging, it was just filling content for the show content.

Speaker 7 16:52

Yeah.

Speaker 8 16:53

Yeah. Well it cost us money to get down there as well. And we kind of found, you know, like you, you have to,

Speaker 7 16:58

No, I understand.

Speaker 8 17:00

Yeah. Like, and like, is

Speaker 7 17:02

That free? It's not free for you. Somebody has to pay for it. Right. Either you or them and it's not free trip. Yeah. I

Speaker 8 17:08

Mean, yeah. I don't wanna downplay like the, the potential you can have at the PGA show. It was, it was, I think a lot of of people just didn't understand how much work it. Like they thought that the work was getting there. The work started once you were there, like that's the, the ones that were successful. They're the ones that really knew how to hustle while they were down there and you have to hustle and make it to hustle. Cause if you're just waiting for people to see you, like while yeah.

Speaker 7 17:30

Youand your booth like this, like, come see my stuff. It's like, there's a million other training aids here, dude. Mm-hmm<affirmative> like, why is yours any better than that guys? Like mm-hmm<affirmative>, you know, and then you start seeing funny, like, you know, people it's like a carnival, not gonna describe it. Mm-hmm<affirmative>, you know, like not all of it, but like some boos are like, literally they're trying to draw people into the product if they're not already known, you know? Right then. Yeah. I mean, I love, I love like, I, I was gonna go this year, but then with COVID like I got COVID and I couldn't go. But when I went, like, that's what, to me, I love the aspect of like, I built relationships over the last four years with everybody that like, it was cool to actually see them in person. It was like seeing, right. Cause we talk so much on the phone, we've done products, projects together. Right. And it's like, oh my God, you're a real person. Not just I, somebody talk to on the phone or via zoom. And that's what I enjoyed is like just that aspect of it. But right. So then what did you guys do? Just go to booze, talk to people, see stuff. Mm-hmm<affirmative> and then yeah. And

Speaker 8 18:27

A lot of it, we do ahead a time. Right. So like, we didn't want to go down there and, and

Speaker 7 18:32

You have the camera light on be like, hi, talk to me about your product,

Speaker 8 18:35

Right? Well, no, I mean, we we'd interview'em while we were down there. Right. So that was, that was our way to, to, to interview everybody in the same spot. Right. And then we could show'em at the show, you know, give'em some notoriety that way, but also like, we're like, they're there to sell their product. We didn't wanna be,<affirmative> like trying to sell them way

Speaker 7 18:52

Time when I was there, it was really cool because when I was there, like I was talking to my friends who own desert Fox caddies that holds your phone and I was in their booth. And then Matt from Mr. Short game came over, like walked by. And I was like, and then I didn't really need to pay attention. And then, um, my buddy's like, that's Matt. And I'm like, oh, that is and like, you know, and he's just caring. It was crazy. Cuz this is before I started doing YouTube and I was like, I start talking to him like, Hey, what? Like we became friends, my friend acquaintances. I was like, Hey, what camera are you using? What is that? Yeah, he like, oh, this is my go-to. And it wasn't like, it was like an older, I still have it. It's like an older cam quarter style. I was like this, the best camera shoots in 4k and it's small and it's light and it like does the job and it has a good battery. You don't need a, a seven, three or like, you know, and it was like he was building content and it was really cool to watch that because that's essentially what you were doing, but on a different scale. Right. Where like, I don't think a lot of YouTubers take that. Some are starting to again, but I don't think known YouTubers are there to make content they're there to be seen. Right. Mm-hmm<affirmative> or to like participate, but not like create, does that make sense?

Speaker 8 19:55

Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. And

Speaker 7 19:57

That's, and that's what I think was really cool. Like Matt, Matt was creating content. Right, right. There's a couple other like smaller YouTubers that creating, I've seen them in the last, on YouTube of summer or this winter during the show, like making content, like that's what you need to go do this. Just go make the content like yeah. You know,

Speaker 8 20:13

Look, there's a guy who gets it, like Mr. Short game, like he's, he's dialed in. Like he, I, I like his stuff. He, he does a good job. Super

Speaker 7 20:20

Cool.

Speaker 8 20:21

He's also entertaining though, but he is informative, you know? And that's, that's, that's awesome. So for what we do, like we're instructional based. But like, if you, if you did like the club type stuff, what better place to do all your content in one spot? I mean, you're gonna have everybody down there granted some years, like I think one of the last years we were there tailor made wasn't there. Like some of those big ones might not be there because I mean, they gotta be spending a quarter million for their boos. Their boos are massive.

Speaker 7 20:47

Oh man, those are a massive,

Speaker 8 20:49

That's just, just for the, the real estate, not

Speaker 7 20:51

Alone. It's like a hotel

Speaker 8 20:52

People, the, to staff and the people that have to set up two days before and two, two days after to tear down. And, but I mean, you can any cool thing that's up and coming, you go to the, the innovators section. That was one of my favorite ones was the, the, the low key little innovator section where there was like, I don't know, 30 featured products where like, you'd see something that's like, okay, I can see that that's going, we're gonna see that here in a couple years still like that, or these guys will probably, they, they could be something, but it's, it's just a matter, like, those are the real fun ones to, to see because then a few years later when they're established you, like, I remember when they were first at the show and you didn't hear anything about'em, but you could tell like that, like they, they, they knew what they knew.

Speaker 7 21:35

They saw something, they had something like, yeah, like you, oh, they're gonna be big, you know? Like, so you were creating this content for real television. Right? Mm-hmm<affirmative> like real TV, not YouTube. And then were you taking the same videos and then starting to upload'em to like YouTube or, um, at the same time, or when did you start moving into YouTube? Cause you guys got a pretty big YouTube channel. Yeah.

Speaker 8 21:55

I mean, yeah. I mean, we were, we were uploading stuff on YouTube, but not with like any sort

Speaker 7 22:00

Of no intent

Speaker 8 22:02

Or like, it was like, well, we have the content, we might as well as put it up there, but like, we weren't doing any sort of tagging or descriptions or anything like that. It was just, uh, us go off TV, inter views, the putter wizard or something like that at the PGA show. Like who's searching for that. Right. So like, there was just, it was just like, oh, here's this YouTube thing that, you know, people are doing, it's

Speaker 7 22:25

A platform uploaded on there, so we might get more views. Right,

Speaker 8 22:28

Right. So like, we, we would do stuff like that. I think we started a channel unofficially, like in 2013 or something like that. So, I mean, we'd already been doing the, the PGA show stuff for a few years before we even put anything on YouTube. So yeah, it was, it was, it was just kind of like, we'd have some tips like that. We'd have like our on the lesson T segment where it was just like a quick minute and a half tip on like a, Hey, there is a quick ball position tip for you. Things like that. That was basically what we'd throw on YouTube because it was already sec like section or sections in our, our TV show. But like majority of our, our focus was still on the TV,

Speaker 7 23:03

Which was really, really easy for you to edit. Right. Cause you just like chop that part out, upload it. I mean yep. Right.

Speaker 8 23:08

Yep. Exactly. It was self-contained obviously its first purpose was not for YouTube. So like it was, you know, a little shorter probably than like now what you'd want, which is probably, you know, eight or 10 minutes or, I mean, if you can keep someone around for 20 minutes, obviously that's great too. But like the, the two minute videos really aren't gonna gonna take off much. So, and there were,

Speaker 7 23:32

So when did you start making a conscious effort at it though? Not just posting old stuff.

Speaker 9 23:37

Uh it's it'd be probably

Speaker 8 23:41

Late 2017, early 2018, I think as well

Speaker 7 23:44

When I first met you around at

Speaker 8 23:45

The same time. Yep. That was, that was about, yeah, it was probably a little before then. That's when we started to like, okay, this, this YouTube thing does have some merit, you know? And let's, let's, let's see, let's see what, what we can do with it. And that's that's about when we started to like, you know, do some more research into it and do some like, Hey, people actually want to learn how to golf online, you know? And Hey, that's, that's free eyeballs. Then you don't have to fly down to Orlando to get that, that audience, you know? So, so

Speaker 7 24:13

What is your, most of the content you have? Like what is your most popular content? Just Todd's instructions.

Speaker 8 24:19

Oh yeah. By like, we, we almost, we're almost entirely like if you go to our, our YouTube channel, like it's almost entirely instruction based like that's

Speaker 7 24:28

Are you guys testing? Are you guys testing a video? Like, do you put something up and say, oh, are you just, are you kind of know at this point? Like, okay, this is the video people.

Speaker 8 24:36

Yeah. You

Speaker 7 24:37

Instruction.

Speaker 8 24:38

Yeah. You, I mean, you'd be silly not to test in, in some form or fashion. More of it is, is the, the structure, I guess. But like you, we know our, our nuts and bolts, like we we're we're instruction based like that's, that's our wheelhouse, like it's it, we're not really interested in, in, in other segments I guess. And like, we wouldn't do it justice anyway. So

Speaker 7 24:58

Like that's the thing too. I feel like with YouTube, cuz it's owned by Google is that like, they wanna keep you in your wheelhouse. Right. If you're an instructional channel, like that is what's gonna do good. Right. And if you start doing product reviews, they'd be like, what the hell is this? Like, it wouldn't do well as well. Especially with your subscriber based. You're not gonna wanna watch it. Like it's almost like you have to, I don't know, stay in your lane. Does that make sense? Well,

Speaker 8 25:23

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so your audience to let you know what you want, if you do a video and it, nobody watches it, you know that wasn't something you to do more of, you know? Yeah.

Speaker 7 25:33

Or you could like you, YouTube tells you stuff. Like, I mean, I've learned a lot with the analytics. Like it tells you like, if not like, oh, does somebody watch it? Like that's part of it, but there's, there's so many other little facets. Like how long were they on the video for? When did they draw off? You know, how

Speaker 8 25:48

Did they find it?

Speaker 7 25:49

How did they even find it? They could tell YouTube, tell you, they'll say, oh, I found you from search. I found you from a website. I found you from Google. It found you they'll tell you like it breaks it all down. You're like, oh, if you know the key is just getting those early numbers really as high as you can, like the impression, then your impressions will go up. But um, it's just how you guys know that. So Todd Cole is an instructor. He's been an instructor for how long? Like forever, right?

Speaker 8 26:12

Yeah. Over 25 years now. Yeah.

Speaker 7 26:15

He really well respected. Like, so Todd's like the star of the show. Right? So Todd is the one who's giving instruction pro how to do anything, you know, like when it comes to the golf, um, you guys are filming in South Dakota mainly, right? Mm-hmm<affirmative> is there, does he a performance center or is it like a golf course? You guys film at or what's your normal thing?

Speaker 8 26:33

So yeah, he's, he's still partnered with his, uh, the academy, the Sanford power golf academy. Um, that's here in Sioux falls. They, they partnered up a few years ago before then it was his own academy, but he's still, he's still involved with them as well. But, and then, you know, he, he, he helps our, our stuff as well. So yeah, he's, he's the, uh, in fact, if, if anybody comes on, uh, to watch this podcast and they see you, us golf TV, they'll probably be like, well, where's Todd<laugh> who's this guy. Yeah.

Speaker 7 27:02

Todd,

Speaker 8 27:02

They're gonna know. They're gonna definitely know if they've heard of us. They're gonna know Todd before they know Nick so

Speaker 7 27:07

Well, what I think too, well, I think is cool is that you guys are very diversified, right? So like you have your YouTube channel. Are you still on live TV or is that a part of your

Speaker 8 27:17

No, in fact last year was our last year. We, we had scaled back a few, few years ago we scaled started scaling back and then last year I think was our last, I

Speaker 7 27:26

Feel like live TV's dying. I really just, well

Speaker 8 27:29

It's not so much dying. It's it's like we've repurposed ourselves so much that like, it doesn't make as much sense anymore.

Speaker 7 27:36

There's so much time and energy for you guys to do it. And the returns are not there like a use to

Speaker 8 27:41

Well, and there's just, there's a lot more overhead cuz then paying for air time and there's, that's true. Then you, then you have to get sponsors for this show to, and like it's, it's a lot, it's a lot more outside factors where we've, we've become a lot more, um,

Speaker 7 27:54

Self sufficient, like

Speaker 8 27:56

Self. Yeah. That's that's what

Speaker 7 27:58

Is like that's, that's the key I feel like with anything is like to get to that point where you're not relying on outside influences you just do your thing and people appreciate what you're creating. Right? Mm-hmm<affirmative> um, so you have the YouTube channel. You have, um, this website now the website primarily has tons of instruction, like tons and tons and tons and tons and tons instruction. Mm-hmm<affirmative> like written content and video, right. With whatever, what it is. And then you guys started moving into hard goods, right? Like in the last like use with, um, training aids and stuff like that. Right. Just like,

Speaker 8 28:32

Yeah. So we, we, we do wanna, we do wanna launch a few training aids eventually too. Our, our, our big wheelhouse, like you said, is, is an instruction. So we have a lot of digital products. One that's really resonated lately is, is a, a vertical line swing that's gonna be for, for your more experienced golfers, um, golfers that are, you know, they might have a bit of a bad back the traditional instruction of a lot of rotation, a lot of restricting hip turn and stuff like that is, is beneficial and great. If you, if you have a lot of flexibility in rotation, so you can, who does hip turn? You can, you can rely a lot more on your body versus, okay, well, what if you have a bad knee? What if you have a replaced hip? What if you slipped a disc in your back? What if you've had a torn lab room? You know, I think your lab room's in your shoulder hurt your shoulder. We'll say that to cover our bases.

Speaker 7 29:21

I think just growing

Speaker 8 29:22

Those things like that. I mean, that's, it's, it's uh, we've you know, like it's, it's almost a, a forgotten part of the, uh, golf industry is, is, you know, the, the person who has, I mean, I'm, I'm not old.

Speaker 7 29:37

I really had the same conversation with somebody two days ago. Yeah. About his best content. Right. And he literally say the same thing, literally like different and not what you're, what you guys are having. Right. But pretty much the same conversation, which I never thought about it cuz I don't do instruction. And I'm like, mm-hmm<affirmative> yeah. It's like an UN it's so stupid. Right. Because it's complete underserved. When you think that like probably a majority of golfers are having those issues. Right. Right. So it's like,

Speaker 8 30:02

I,

Speaker 7 30:02

The content,

Speaker 8 30:03

But like I'm not at my peak physical ability either. So like

Speaker 7 30:07

Whatever

Speaker 8 30:08

You think you think I had, I haven't learned anything from, from that instruction. I mean, I'll do some of this stuff to give myself more rotation and wow. This for someone who, who never plays, I already, I can see the results even. So, I mean, again, it, because it's like Dustin, Dustin Johnson and Rory McLeroy sell the magazine, you know? And they're like, they're, they're the guys that are, that are seeing on Sunday. So like that's that it makes business sense to, to emulate those swings, but not everybody can actually do it. So, so

Speaker 7 30:40

What's the vertical swing. What is that? That's like a new method that,

Speaker 8 30:44

Yeah, it's, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a body friendly golf swing for, for, you know, your more experienced average golfer, you know, the, the guy who has, you know, the limited flexibility, the guy who can't create X factor or, you know, if I'm using the terms correctly and I we're get, I'm getting a little out of my realm of<laugh> of, of expect, uh, experiences.

Speaker 7 31:05

Yeah. You don't, you don't have the same abilities as you once did due to age or by whatever reason, health. Right. Um, but it's kind of good too, because if you're a new golfer, you know, anything. So like if this is a body friendly way of doing it, then it like, if you're a new, you haven't been mistrained yet. So it's almost like try this. This could be the way you might wanna swing your club.

Speaker 8 31:30

Right. We're not, you're not creating like weird wrist angle. Like you're not getting that Dustin Johnson and wrist angle. Like if I could do that, I would believe me, but I'm pretty sure I would probably be wearing a wrist the next day, if I was getting that, all that, all that flex going. So it looks awesome on TV. I'll I'll give him that, but I don't know if I can do that, but

Speaker 7 31:52

What are your, like, what are you guys working on this year? Like what's coming down the pipe.

Speaker 8 31:57

So we, we just, we just actually started a follow up to the vertical line swing or vertical line and short game system, which is more geared for yeah. So it's, it's um, some of the similar concepts, obviously to, to the vertical line swing built into more of the short game stuff. So it's, it's also, it's, it's all, it's all simplifying the game for people. Right. So, I mean, this, you don't have to be an older golfer to learn a lot from this stuff, especially. So, um, it's chipping, it's pottering and it's as bunkers, you know, the, probably the scariest shopper, the average golfer is a Greenside bunker, cuz you don't know what you're gonna do with it. Right. So that's we got that. And then, and then we're working on, on, on a series to, to help, uh, help golfers fix their slice as well, which hopefully be launching here soon in the, in the spring. So

Speaker 7 32:41

Those are the, so when you guys do series, like what do you do? Do you like do like a teaser or like something for YouTube or do you do like some partial instruction on YouTube and you say, yeah,

Speaker 8 32:53

Yeah. So we're, we're not gonna, we're not gonna try and create something that like we're not, not already teaching. Right. So we're not gonna go and, and teach people how to do something that we wouldn't also teach on our, on our YouTube platform. So a lot of the instruction is stuff you're gonna probably get concepts and tidbits from like

Speaker 7 33:11

Yeah. But not a real course, not like this is how you do.

Speaker 8 33:15

And, and that's, that's kind of the, the value that we found in, in creating a course is like,

Speaker 7 33:20

Yeah,

Speaker 8 33:21

When you, when you give somebody a, a tip on YouTube, it's, it's great. And you can learn a lot from it. But like there's, there's not as much structure. Like if you take the courses,

Speaker 7 33:30

Practice, what could do step by step. Right. It's a right. Yeah. It's whereas with the

Speaker 8 33:34

Course, like you're creating a, a template, like two golfers can, can learn same swing. But like, because one of'em has, let's say some, some knee issues or one of'em can't get as much extension in their arms. Like that, that, that learning, that core template is great. But like when you do it on YouTube, like if you, if you're, that's kind of like the, the, the gift in the cur of having a lot of following is like, you can't resonate with 160,000 people and at the same exact time. So like giving'em a, a, a course that gives them a, a template can, can help them like learn the process and then okay. From that you can custom tailor, like, okay, I understand all these concepts now, now it's

Speaker 7 34:18

Hard to fully learn. I feel like, well, right. It's like, like iceberg analogy, right? Like it's a tip of the iceberg. Mm-hmm,<affirmative>, that's, that's YouTube, whatever that tip is. Right. And then everything below is like, oh, if you really want to do this, like, you it's like learning any kind of skill. Like you have to have a process. That's not just like, oh, I watch this video. Cause you have a million questions after that. Or am I doing that? Right. Like you have no idea year, you know?

Speaker 8 34:42

Right.

Speaker 7 34:43

So then when is that coming out? The

Speaker 8 34:45

Short, so we just, we just launched a short game this, well, I guess now last month, cuz it was February. So just a few weeks ago. Um, and then the, the, the slice stuff hopefully will be coming out early here, early spring as well. So got a lot, got a lot of the that's the nice thing about what we found with, with YouTube is that, you know, people do want more information and like obviously you wouldn't do it if you didn't think people would want it. So we're finding that people, people resonate really well with, with the, the concept of, of a more body friendly swing. And it just makes, makes sense to, to help help them with a, with a more full blown course. What's

Speaker 7 35:24

What's cool about you guys like that you guys are like true instructors, instruction committee, you know what I mean? Like it's not like, I mean, Todd's a pro Todd has his, you know, school Todd's been teaching forever. Mm-hmm<affirmative> you came from a place where, you know, your traditional methods of giving, you know, on video, on TV. Um, and then like, you know, today as YouTube grows, like everyone thinks they're an instructor now. Right. And it's like not saying they're not instructors in real life. Yeah.

Speaker 8 35:53

Like

Speaker 7 35:54

You guys are poised cuz Tommy to could really grow your channel because you already have the, the foundation's been laid. Right. Yeah. Essentially. Right. So, I mean, I can see for you guys, like to continue to grow, continue growing your channel, like you have been, and then it's come out with like, like you said, like digital content that like is extra, right. Like more information mm-hmm<affirmative>, you know, more of a course driven.

Speaker 8 36:17

Right, right. And then there's, there's so many, we get so many people asking one for more information obviously, but also they want more instruction catered to, to them. Right. And it it'd be in, in a perfect world. We'd find a way to get a hundred thousand people in a room and, and teach'em all. But you know, truth matter isn't that just doesn't work. So being able to, to offer more ways to, or more touch points to, to get the instruction that they're looking for. Uh, obviously it makes sense, but also it just, it just bodes well for, for the consumer as well to, to find more of what they're looking for that way. So

Speaker 7 36:57

No, no, I mean, it's really cool. I mean, you guys, like I said, you guys, I've known you since the beginning, like for reals, like I probably talked to you and like I think my first article was written in January. I talked to you in like March of that year. So I mean, it's that long. Um, well I appreciate you being on the show. You know, you guys need to check out us golf TV, like I guess see they're everywhere. I mean you can go to us golf TV. Was it do TV, right.

Speaker 8 37:24

Us golf, tv.com. Yep. Com we're the original remember? Yep.

Speaker 7 37:30

Okay. Your OG and then, um, also check out their YouTube channel because they have tons and tons and tons of content, tons content, um, for an instruction. And I don't know it. It's just cool to finally get you on the show cause we've known each other so long.

Speaker 8 37:45

Yeah, no, this is, this is fun. I, I appreciate it. I appreciate, uh, and like you said, I mean, it's, it's, it's kind of cool because, uh, I think a lot of people, well, not necessarily golf, but just in general, like we're in a similar industry. So we it's, some people might look at us as competition, but like we're, we're, we're here to just, I mean, it's, this is cool. I mean, you get a, you get to learn more about companies you've heard of maybe. And, and I, I think that, that, you know, people like to hear the back stories behind stuff. So it's, it's cool to be able to share our story. And it's, it's cool that you're allowing people to the ability to do that.

Speaker 7 38:20

No, I'm glad you were on the show today. So you guys definitely need to check out us golf, tv.com, check out their YouTube channel and hopefully we'll have'em back on the show in the future and talk more golf.

Speaker 8 38:32

You bet hit that subscribe button<laugh>

Speaker 10 38:35

Yeah, he hits the five

Speaker 7 38:37

<laugh> and my, if you like to. Yeah.

Speaker 8 38:39

Well, while we're on the channel,<laugh>

Speaker 7 38:42

You guys later.

Speaker 8 38:43

See ya. Thanks Paul.

Speaker 3 38:45

Thanks for listening to another episode of behind the golf brand podcast, you're gonna beat me a golf stay connected on and off the show by visiting golfers authority.com. Don't forget to like subscribe and leave a comment. Golf is always more fun when you win, stay out of the beach and see you on the green.