Behind the Golf Brand Podcast with Paul Liberatore
It’s like playing a round of golf with some of the most interesting innovators and entrepreneurs and listening to the stories behind their success.
Hi, I’m Paul Liberatore, and I love talking to entrepreneurs and the stories behind their brands. I find it intriguing when people are vulnerable and honest about their struggles and successes. I invite you to join me as I explore other people’s stories. We will celebrate, above all, the challenges and setbacks that ultimately lead to some of the biggest names and brands in the game of golf.
So come join me on my quest to find the stories Behind the Brand.
Behind the Golf Brand Podcast with Paul Liberatore
#137 - MGI Golf: Miranda Turner (CEO)
MGI Golf is the premier global authority in electric golf caddies, integrating cutting-edge technology with ergonomic design. Since its inception in 1993, the Australian owned and operated company has a formidable reputation built on experience, innovation, and quality of design. MGI Golf revolutionized the electric caddy industry through patented Gyroscope Straight Tracker technology, automatic downhill speed control, and durable lithium-ion batteries. MGI Golf successfully expanded into the North American market, beginning with the U.S. in 2018 and followed by Canada in 2023, and was named America’s No. 1 electric caddy by independent research.
What's up guys? Welcome to the Behind the Golf Brand Podcast. This week I have my good friend, miranda Turner from NGI, and if you guys don't know who NGI is, then you probably never walked the golf course before, because they make pretty much one of the best golf push. Not even push cards anymore, it's all electric. It's cool. Like they make the navigator. It's really cool. Is it navigator? I don't know. They make a lot of really cool push cards cards. I don't even call it anymore because they're like smart cards. But anyways, I have Miranda on the show today. She is the ceo and we're going to talk all about mgi, so welcome to the show hi paul.
Miranda:Thank you so much for inviting me to your podcast.
Paul:I'm excited I'm excited too, so obviously with that accent you're probably not from here. Where is mgi from?
Miranda:um, I'm sitting out of where las vegas.
Paul:How long have you been in Vegas? Because you're not from there originally, right?
Miranda:No, I don't know if you can hear any accent. You sound like you have an accent, I'm okay. But I am originally from Melbourne, australia. So we set up our office out here actually in 2021 and I moved out just to help grow the business. You know boots on the ground two years ago now.
Paul:Oh wow. So when did MGI start? What's the story of MGI?
Miranda:Yeah, so really it's 32 years ago now. My father started the business, definitely the entrepreneur. Prior to that he was in tennis and prior to that he was in squash. So kind of interesting you know definitely a lot of you know kind of like you know, hand-eye coordinated type sports he was very good at and always interested in. I grew up in squash courts, around tennis, tennis centres facilities, you know. Dad was the distributor for Yonex Tennis Rackets back in the day. Yeah, yeah, we'd always end up at the Australian, you know, tennis Open.
Miranda:He'd be exhibiting and I'd be out the front scalping tickets, probably selling my own small business as a little girl, because we'd be stuck out there for 10 days, so don't tell anybody, no. So yeah, so we've always been around sport, our family, so yeah, so we've always, you know, been around sport, our family. And so 20 years ago, pretty much this year, I started in the business full time. So, being in that golf industry alongside my dad my sister also started a year or so before me and my uncle, so together we've kind of, you know, grown the business globally. You know you can now kind of find us in, you know, I think it's up to 45 different countries and you know the US the US has always been close to our heart. It was definitely more of like that last frontier for us because we only entered the market in 2018.
Miranda:So, yeah, we've been around a long time. We love golf, we love sport really and, being Australian, you know we love fit for life. It's something that's really close to us. You know you have to have sport in your life. It's going to present you with challenges, to help you through your life, it's going to put you in good health and not to mention the friends that you make along the way as well. So you know we love what we do and we hope we're here for another 32 years.
Paul:So 32 years when he started it. That's crazy.
Miranda:Yeah, yeah 93. Uh-huh, exactly.
Paul:Was he inventing stuff? Or like how did it like you know, uh-huh, exactly was he. Was he's inventing stuff? Or like how did it, like you know, was he like a tinkerer, or he had an idea or what like what's? How did it start? You know what I mean.
Miranda:I mean, yeah, no, it's interesting. So like because he was in tennis and um, his father was a golfer my, my papa and um papa said one day you know what, I don't want to get in the cart, but I need something. You know what else is out there? And dad was actually over here in the us. There was a really big sports um conference expo over here in atlanta. So he was over here with his tennis staff and you never know who you're gonna meet in a taxi line, right? So he's waiting for a taxi, talks to some guys from the UK, gets chatting with them, goes out for a drink, meets some guys from Canada and these guys are doing electric golf caddies 32 years ago. And they said you know what, why don't you just take some back, bring in a container, see if you can sell into Australia? So sure enough he did see if he can sell into Australia. So sure enough he did. And he quickly realised that they weren't great. They were good.
Miranda:They, you know they answered the question or they offered an answer to the problem, but they really asked a question of him. He's like I can do better, you know. And Australians, we play golf 365 days a year, so these things were built for Canadians golf 365 days a year so these things were built for canadians europeans that are playing six off, six on six off type situation um, we need something more robust. So he started um mgi with his own manufacturing in australia and you know, he's just a real avid golfer with great ideas. So he came up with a lot of the patents that we have in our product now and yeah, and the rest is history really so then, initially you were in australia, and then when did you, when did you start expanding to other, like territories, would you say?
Miranda:um, well, look, we've always looked globally.
Paul:Being being Australian, you always travel right, yeah, yeah, yeah, you travel five hours.
Miranda:Yeah, you go five hours. Everyone's talking the same language, same currency, same culture, same sport. You kind of like you have to get off that island. So we've always been, you know, avid travellers. So, dad, you know, sparked up quite a lot of relationships early on. So it was probably now we're getting on to 20 years of being global distributor. You know distributor network, but America was really our first office outside of Australia. So all the other countries we use local distributors who know the market very well, maybe speak the language, so they would distribute our product through, you know, through Germany, you know, up through the Nordics, you know, and of course, obviously other English speaking countries like South Africa.
Miranda:But the US, we really wanted it to do. We wanted to do it ourselves. We know this country, we know the people well, we fit in it to do. We wanted to do it ourselves. We know this country, we know the people well, we fit in culturally. I hope so. And no one was doing it very well here in terms of electric golf caddies, and so you know what. We just backed ourselves. We had a great formula in Australia and we took that here. And, yeah, we work very closely with the golf industry. That's what we do. We're very much a b2b company. We love relationships, um working with retailers, to, you know, benefit their business as well and look after the golf industry. So we love golf professionals at the golf course and really helping them thrive and that's what that's what I get a kick out of is really supporting those businesses make something of themselves.
Paul:So what I think is so cool about your carts is the innovations behind it, because I mean, with the Zip Navigator series or even the GPS, it's cool how you're bringing all this new technology into carts. Usually it's people just slap something on, but oh, we have whatever, but you're actually building it into the product. And that's when I got the GPS one. I had the Zip Navigator last year and that thing's a tank and it was funny.
Paul:The first time I got it I was setting it all up and I was trying to drive it in my house and that thing's powerful. Seriously, you can tell in my like house or my and and like that thing's powerful, like that. I mean seriously, you know how powerful that motor is and how the wheels like. I mean it's, I'll go home my wall because I didn't know what I was doing and I was like and I went straight forward, I was like holy smokes. But I mean, how do you it's? It's amazing to me how you guys are able to bring such new technology into that space, right? Not just not just basic, right like real technology yeah, yeah, look, um, we have a great team.
Miranda:We really do have a great team. Um, you know we've talked before about, you know, just attracting good people to to your business. Um, I think we have a really strong company, you know. Know, we're very honest. You know some people say, you know, happy wife, happy life. You know, I'm definitely more of a. You know, if you have a happy team, you kind of start living that dream. And with a good team comes really good ideas. So, you know, I do believe in bringing those ideas to life. You need everybody behind you working.
Miranda:We never rush anything to market. We really lead by delivering high, you know, beating everyone's expectations. So, hopefully, when you open up your caddy, you're like, oh, I don't know what I'm going to expect. You know, maybe it'll just, you know, walk out in front of me. But you know, hopefully your expectations were exceeded. And that's what we love to do and that's a part of our honesty. I think with our marketing we never oversell what we deliver. We let the golfer go oh my God, this is even better than I imagined and that's what we get a real kick out of. So we never rush anything to market. So we never rush anything to market. We do invest in our company. Up until last year, we were 100% family owned, so every dollar that we made was going back into our own research and development to benefit our company for the future.
Paul:When did you guys move to Vegas or the US office? When did you come here? What year was that 2012? One.
Miranda:Well, look, it was really yeah, look, it was 2018 when we hit you know, really hit the US soil and you know our strategy was really to, like I said, deal with the golf industry. So we kind of, you know, had it targeted of who we wanted to look at and, as that was growing, we did a lot of that from Melbourne. But, yeah, look, we opened up the office in 21. We now have 15 people working in our head office. Yeah, you've got to keep costs under control, but not at the expense of customer service. We love looking after our customers. We know that our product lasts a long time, so we like to look after them through the decision process of you know what do you need, like what kind of you know cost do you play at, what kind of you know technology you're looking for, and you know what's your budget. So we always want to match that up properly with our, with our customer service team.
Miranda:Um, but then we have this really long warranty, so we've got to kind of stand by the product, have people available, spare parts, diy, videos, and then people are going to keep them after that three years. So we need to be here to talk them through. How do we fix that? How do you replace that if anything ever happens? I mean, these things are pretty bulletproof. Unfortunately, they're working. It's um, they are actually very, very durable. So, yeah, we're're here to look after people. Anything could happen to it in terms of maybe they misplaced a wheel during winter, we can replace a wheel for them.
Miranda:So all of that's done out of Las Vegas, and I think that's part of the charm of what we do, too, is that we do care about our customers. It's not just a one-hit sale for us. We have MGI customers for life, and that's what I love about what we do is that they keep coming back going. I just love my MGI. I love my MGI. I think I'll get the next one now that the new tech's out.
Miranda:We never want to disappoint that. I don't like that. If anything's ever in the grey, we always talk about let's look after the customer. That's why we're here and that's what we do every day. Um, we want people to be fit for life. We want them to walk the course. We want to keep them out of a golf cart. Um, if we can keep people walking for the rest of their golfing life, we know life's better. It's better when you're walking, you know you're with your mate. You can feel that, golf course, um, you're not distracted by getting in and out of a cart, or you know the energy drain of pulling and pushing a.
Paul:You know a cart I always feel like I mean sometimes almost faster too, you know, if you're not riding like because you just go, and especially not caring, or you have to push it, it's like just following you around or whatever. It's like oh, I mean absolutely.
Miranda:Oh, I've seen I've seen it and it is. I mean, we've got two people chasing two balls in a car.
Paul:You know it's an absolute 90 degree rule or something, and then you're like, oh great, you hit it way over there and I gotta wait for you to walk across the golf course yeah, it's an absolute time waster.
Miranda:Uh, I mean, you can take our caddies right up to the green. You can, you know, navigate it around, you know, to the pathway for the next tee box. You're not going back to get, you know, your cart. Um, there's a lot of advantages in um speed of play, yeah, as well. So I think, um, you know, walking is definitely, you know, people forget, they think I've got to go play golf and I'm going to go to the gym later. It's like, well, actually that was your exercise, if you actually you walk a lot.
Paul:You don't even realize how much. You just walked like a lot yeah, yeah, so yeah, what didn't you guys do something? The epson tour? What's that? What I was reading about that, what is that?
Miranda:I know. So we all know the Epson Tour. So it's the LPGA qualifying tour where generally at the end there's about 15 players get their ticket to the big time. So it's just to be. It's actually one of our company's really proud moments to be be I know that sounds really corny but to be a part of not just the AMS on that professional level. Um, we've actually contributed to like a real change in golf. Um. So, having spoken to the Epson tour, who is actually a really innovative tour, like we had a lot of synergies in terms of, you know, keeping golf modern, keeping, you know, young people coming through the game, keeping them active and really helping these ladies achieve their dreams. You know we looked at it. And the men in their qualifying event you know their purse is huge. These ladies, I think it's around twenty thousand dollars if you win, um, there'll be like 120 girls out there and they're trying to sell finances too right, and then the purse isn't that big so then, it's
Paul:like, how do you even you have to get a sponsor. I mean, that's gonna be hard if you're just you don't have that connection right. Or like, yeah, I, it's already hard enough. And then it's even harder when like, yeah, so that's so. Then. So what is MGI doing? I know you guys do it a lot. That's why I want to ask this question. I think it's really cool.
Miranda:Yeah Well, one of the first ones was that having the rule changed.
Paul:So you know, this tour did not allow it.
Miranda:Yeah, it's a it's a really big deal. Now the players are on a level playing field.
Paul:Um, you know some some, you know some athletes were fortunate enough that you know they could afford a caddy which is about twelve hundred dollars an event, um, like if you're only going to make 20 grand on a purse, if you, if you call you know if you get it, we're really low odds and you got to spend that much money on a caddy Right and you've already.
Miranda:You've already had 18 events across East coast to West coast. Yeah, it's like the financial investment that they're already making is huge. So we thought, well, by allowing electric golf caddies, the athletes now don't have to carry their bags if they don't want to, they don't have to pull or push a golf cart and they can act just like the pro they are and walk down that fairway, you know, with the remote control MGI right out in front. So by changing that rule, we've kind of levelled that playing field um for those ladies and um. So by doing that, they've put us on as the you know, official electric golf caddies. So of course, you know we're helping to contribute to um, hopefully, you know, raising the profile of the tour um making it, you know, more efficient for them um.
Miranda:We've also taken on ambassadors as well, so hopefully we're helping them um. So we've got um. Hayley cooper and jillian hollis have come on as our mgi ambassadors and these, these girls, seriously, they are such great golfers, they have blown us away um, I love seeing their energy around our golf carts. So so not only have we given them an mgi, um and everything else apart, you know that they get us as an ambassador. We offered to kind of pimp their ride for them. So we said, look, why don't you?
Miranda:that's cool yeah, we said look, why don't you just tell us your favorite color and we'll get it wrapped? You know we don't very often do limited edition mgi's, um, so I think it was actually jillian sure that'd be cool, wouldn't it?
Paul:could you imagine like limited edition stuff, like that'd be sick, I don't know, no one does that, I feel like customization is such a big deal too like it is, it is unfortunately I mean that'd be oh yeah and we're in vegas, so car wrapping is huge here um it's like everywhere oh yeah, maybe it is everywhere, it's not just vegas no, I mean in vegas, like everyone, but like it's like, yeah, it's like all the advertising and stuff like that yeah, the cyber trucks that are all wrapped as well.
Miranda:But, yeah, look, so jillian's is coming out in red. I think she's named it. His name's kevin. Um, and it's just. It's just so awesome to see, like um, you know just the difference that we're making. They're so excited about using the product um, and they've just written some beautiful words about how they feel like it's really helped them achieving their goal and staying focused when they're playing um. So we actually wrapped a um caddy for dj khalid. He wanted to go. Yeah, we did that last month.
Paul:That's gonna get a lot of buzz too. Like I mean that's so smart, like it's. Like I mean, oh my god, so smart like it's fun, it's you know what what did you do for dj khaled?
Miranda:yeah, he wanted it gold, so it's all covered in gold. And then it's got we the best across the bottom. Um, yeah, it came out really and it's got. It's got the gold wheels hubs on it rims.
Paul:Sorry Did you deliver it to him yourself. You're like DJ Khaled, you're like Miranda Turner and you're like riding on top of it because it's so powerful. And you're like here's your car, like remember that old, pimp your Ride show? And it would be like here's your junker, and then here's his totally pimped out ride and it's like not, I just love that show.
Miranda:I wish, I wish, hopefully we'll do more. We've kind of tapped into a local team here that can do that for us, so I'm looking forward to getting that online.
Paul:I think it's a really cool idea because I've never seen do that right, like I've never seen anybody. And imagine too, for like the marketing side of it too, like like that's. I think it's also opening up a new you know, something no one else has done so far. If by you know which we're showing with the epson tour is like, okay, what another good way for companies to brand right instead of just a bag, now it's like oh, we also have the cart right and we're like more areas for and that helps the players because now they get more sponsorship, because they're big cards with them, and like I think it's brilliant, honestly smart.
Miranda:Yeah, thank you.
Miranda:Yeah, I think it's. Yeah, I think. And look, these people are getting a nice kick out of it, feeling really special, really good about themselves, and that's confidence building, right, that's what it's all about and anything we can do to help, you know, these athletes achieve their dream. I mean it's. I never, I never thought that we would be part of a professional level with electric golf caddies. But you know the usga, they actually allow them. You know the rule actually says we want you to walk the course and it doesn't say you can't use an electric golf caddy. So, um, you know, everyone can use one. And and that's what I love about what we do kind of like changing the way you play golf. We're trying to modernise it, but still back to the essence of the traditional way of walking, just keeping it modern, a bit of fun, not taking it too seriously, but at the same time having serious tech. You know that people are really proud to have and keeping it it premium at the same time. We love that, um, because it represents the quality of the product.
Paul:So, yeah, I think, um, I think it's cool, and then to get the rule change too, like you don't really like that's, that's a big deal. You know, like that's a huge deal.
Miranda:I feel like yeah, yeah, jodyodie Brothers heads up the Epson Tour there and he's just been an absolute driving force to you know, taking this whole tour to the next level for women golfers. So, yeah, he's an extraordinary man and, yeah, a guy I really admire. And I think, yeah, the tour's really, you know, really lucky to have him. He's a extraordinary man and a guy I really admire. I think the tour's really lucky to have him. He's a great guy.
Paul:I was also reading somewhere else. Troon is located here. I actually did some content at Troon's headquarters. They have a really cool simulator in their basement. I don't know if you ever knew that, but it's really cool. I haven't seen that?
Miranda:No, I've been there. You haven't seen that. I haven't seen it. Well, it's not the basement, it's like a weird building. You know what I mean.
Paul:Because you go up the elevator, but then they have multiple floors. It's a cool building, but what are you guys?
Miranda:yeah um oh well, look, you know, women. I mentioned like I love green grass, love green grass grass golf. I love the entrepreneurship of the golf pro. Um we love supporting their business at a club level. So trune was always on our radar even when I was in australia. And um. You know, like they, they're very selective of who they work with. Um.
Miranda:I've been speaking with them for years and they were like electric golf caddies. Yeah, you know, we hadn't really hit our strides with, you know, the level of acceptance or even awareness of our category. So, um, you know, it was really like a very personal goal of mine was to get in and have a great relationship with Trin I. Just, we just had so much synergy. You know, they're obviously a world-class, you know, golf club management group. So to be aligned with a world leader in that at that level would be, you know, was obviously quite an honour to have that. But also they're really about the member, you know, enhancing the members' experience, that they have a sense of fun, but they also have an aspect of health and well-being and that was part of the, you know the synergy between it.
Miranda:It's like they have true and fit, where they actually have like a whole, you know, I suppose, value and department that talks about keeping, you know, anyone that plays at a Tune Club fit and healthy mentally and physically. So we've Come on as a sponsor of that. So they're a great bunch of people to work with. I have to say they're, you know, really innovative as well. They do, you know, know, I think they really represent the golf courses that they do very well. I can see why they're a world leader and it's a real, a real honor to be part of of that group. So that kind of just kicked off last year. So looking forward to this part of the season coming in, um yeah, it's gonna be a big.
Paul:I feel like it's gonna be a big season for you guys. You know, like just with, yeah, everything you guys have been like ramping up to right over the last couple years, but then, like, even the products are coming out, like they're just getting cooler in my opinion, like I don't know. I saw that when I saw the one the gps built into the handle, I was like what the heck?
Miranda:like that, that's cool, it is you know what it is, you don't have to worry about um charging your handheld gps, you don't do? You know? Some people don't like to wear a watch. Um, you can see exactly where you are on the golf course. Um, the aerial overview, um you know, just enables you to change any distance anywhere. Um, on the fairway, you have to stay on the fairway, of course, uh, unless you're on the next fairway and you could probably get that distance that's me.
Paul:I'd be on like two fairways over, so it would probably be like is it gonna? It's not gonna shut down, like you know those golf cars you drive and it's like you are not on the course and then it like shuts down in the middle of like nowhere and you're like, well, great, now what? So? Push this thing back, that'd be funny it's like an april fool's joke. Just be like. You are not on the fairway. You must now walk and pull your mgi behind you because you did not hit it straight.
Miranda:Yeah, I look we we're definitely moving the tech. One of the ones I would love to do is that it does have voice, and I think it will get to voice um, I'd be sick get over here cart and then it's like drives over to you I know I do love that too.
Paul:I'll make a note of this, get over here, and then I'd be like you're doing it wrong. Well, the cart just kept on telling you you're doing it wrong, like, know, like you're hitting the shot wrong. Put your head down.
Miranda:I love that, but there is one way you can actually you can actually talk to your mate. So you can Bluetooth and connect your phone to the top handle so that if you don't want to carry your phone, you can still see your text messages coming through. You can get an alert so you could actually just text your mate as he's walking further down the fairway and just say you know, you can just get a banter, you can text you're terrible like you would if you're in your own cart, like you're just terrible.
Paul:Just you should go play something else. Play tennis, squash.
Miranda:Golf is not your game I can see you doing that. I can see you doing that. I can see you throw him off the game. So what?
Paul:I guess what. What are the new? Is there? What are the new mgi's that are coming out, or what is the? You know? I'm saying what's for 2025? What cart is like the latest one?
Miranda:in case people don't know yeah, yeah, we haven't made all of our announcements for next year, um, but definitely it's no secret that you know mgi will be coming out with, you know, the best follow me technology in the market. Um, like I mentioned before, we don't rush to market with tech unless we really believe in it. You know we we're not going to put out you're ready to go.
Paul:You're not just going to put out like it's, the reputation is too much so. It's like if it's not perfect then we're not going to you release when you're ready to release right now someone else's schedule yeah, yeah, exactly, and um, I think the following market's interesting.
Miranda:Um, you know, I prefer to play golf with my equipment out in front. You know, you can see where. You know you can see where your caddy is and you know it's less stress. There's a lot of. You know, some people like the idea of just walking and it's behind you, you don't have to do any direction. So with that technology, we've always been a little dubious of well, what about the hazards? What's going to stop that going into the water? You know if you're all the bunker, if you're, you know, walking around quite close to a hazard. So with the AI, because we have the built-in course mapping, we'll actually be geofencing all of the water and the bunkers. So we'll be geoprotecting as well as the follow me.
Paul:So that technology is going to be really exciting. It's very advanced. You know what I mean. You're not just making a push cart. You're not making an electric trolley cart, whatever you want to call it like.
Miranda:It's like you're advancing the technology in the product yes, yeah, and really enhancing the experience, because what we're trying to do is helping equipment is, um, you just get to walk that course. So anything we can do to innovate to make that walk more enjoyable and just concentrate on your game, that's what we're about. So I think the follow me technology with the geo protect um, it's, it'll be huge. It'll be absolutely huge next year, um, and I'm looking forward to getting that to market. We've done an absolute truckload of testing. It's been a lot of fun, um. So you've got to think about well, what are what are people going to do with this thing? Are they just going to aim it straight at the bunker and just see if it's going to stop?
Paul:so you have to think about stopping distances.
Miranda:That'd be fun.
Paul:Yeah, yeah, yeah, usually you have someone standing right on the edge. Oh you, have a lake. You should have a lake right there and be like well, let's go on the middle of the lake, let's check it out. What if you put a ramp there? It'll jump the ramp like a TV show.
Miranda:No, okay, actually, you know, I heard, um, I heard places like yeti coolers will do real testing out in with bears. You know to see, I did. I heard this story the other day. That was like we were talking about that's kind of cool actually.
Paul:Could you imagine recording that like people would watch, that you guys should do that with a bunch of drunk guys was like we were talking about testing. That's kind of cool actually. Could you imagine recording that Like people would watch, that you guys should do that with a bunch of drunk guys and like that?
Speaker 3:would be your bear testing.
Paul:And then like let's see what happens when a bunch of drunk guys who think they can play golf have really nice equipment and they start running into each other.
Miranda:I think we've thrown around the slogan you know, don't drink and drive. You know with on the golf course with accidents. That doesn't happen with us, it's more on the ride-on car I can't hurt you though, man, that thing hits you.
Paul:That thing, that thing's powerful, that that I'm like. I told I was so impressed when I saw it, it was so funny. I was like holy crap, this thing's like. This is like a remote control car on steroids, like it was. It was cool. So you were saying earlier too, like it was 100 family owned until, like what last year. Is that right? What like aren't you working with like professional footballers or australian or something? I remember reading something like that. What was what's the story? Like? Like I know, because I'm american, I don't really know all the rules of other sports, but like who are those players or what is that? It gives you an understanding of what you know Australian football is.
Miranda:Yeah, well, yeah, our Australian rules, our Aussie rules, yeah, no, look. So obviously you know I've talked a bit about my dad and you know he was hitting his 70s and he's like you know what's my exit strategy? Do I have to keep working and my sister and I are still very much loving what we're doing. So we're still 100% Australian owned. But we took on investors last year. My sister and I stayed on as shareholders and, you know, obviously, ceos. But, um, yeah, we attracted the eyes of um, an investment group that um had a whole lot of sports people behind it, which has been really a wonderful thing to happen. And quite you know, you know you get a little bit overwhelmed. You're like, wow, these people are really interested in in our vision and where we've been and what it sure looks like.
Miranda:So, um, yes, we've had well, I don't know if you know, but kari webb is, um, one of our, um, yeah, one of our shareholders now, which is exciting. So I've had a few chats to her and, um, she was also very excited about the epson tour and the steps we were taking. Um, she lives very much, well, very much here in Florida but has family and strong ties. Still back to Australia, we've also had Matt Dell of Adova, who played for the Cavaliers in basketball. So, yeah, he's Australian. He's also one of our shareholders as well now. And, yes, we've got a couple of afl footballers um, they're always in our photography and our videos. We do all of that in-house and, um, you know, these guys in the off-season love golf, so generally we get those you know, more fit athletes coming in doing a bit of a video shoot for us.
Speaker 3:So yeah, we've got.
Miranda:We've got some really nice you know backing from. Yeah, people have been the top of their game and have said you know what? That's a really good aussie company that's, you know, doing great things and, you know want to really see us succeed into the future. So it's, it's an exciting time for us no, it's really cool.
Paul:So where can people find MGI like carts?
Miranda:Yeah, that's a good question. Hopefully it's not too hard to find. Hopefully not too hard to find. No, look, we support every golf course. So if a golfer loves to support their local golf pro, the golf shop, they can buy locally. We're also in the majority of key golf retailers as well, so you can walk into the store and see the product and also, you know, also online as well. So we do pride ourselves on trying to help people find that right model so you can, you know, jump online and see. You know what kind of terrain is best suited to my course or the technology that I need.
Miranda:We do love people experiencing our products, so there are quite a few strong demo programs that we've got out there so you can actually find one to use one. But the best person to find one, you know, to ask about it, is ask an mgi owner. You know we I've got videos of people going. I just bumped into an mgi owner and I videoed them talking about how much they love their product. Um, so you know, I'm so grateful for that. That's like, it's almost like they're such high quality.
Paul:You know, it's almost like. It's almost like a Bentley right. It's almost like a high end, like something that's really, really nice, like it's going to last a long time, like you're going to get your money's worth. That's the way I look at it. When I'm thinking of MGI. It's not like you know, I know there's like other. You know, I don't know, that's how I describe it. That's how I describe it. That's I don't know. That's just what I think of mgi. I'm like oh, they make the best it's a cool.
Miranda:It's like a cool car.
Paul:I agree it is like a cool, really cool. It's like a bentley, that's what I feel like. It's like a higher. You know what I mean. When you see it doesn't look like oh they, it was a car company that thought they'd be cool to put some electric stuff on it. You know what I mean. It's almost like no, this is made for, this is, this is nice, you know so that's my thank you.
Miranda:We do, we do yeah, look the tech's there but we know it has to look good. You know we want people to feel good and be really happy with their equipment and it is like a car, you know. You feel proud when you know you take care of it you take care of it.
Miranda:Yeah, like nice car or not, if you keep that thing clean. You take care of it. Yeah, like nice car or not, if you keep that thing clean. People have a level of respect for you too. They're like, you know, but it is, you know, if you, you know, for the golfer that cares about the equipment. You know, I think the brand has a lot of synergy with those people. But you've got to keep it. You've got to look after it too, because it is like a car um, it has, it's low maintenance, but it does love to be cleaned every now and then.
Paul:And um, your baby, of course. Right, take care of it. It's like everything. It's like your golf equipment. It's like you need to take care of it, but like it's gonna take care of you.
Miranda:So it's like well, it's gonna keep you walking, it's gonna keep you fit for a super long time, it's gonna keep you playing golf and and it you know. You know golf is such a social game. You know we play it because we're competitive, right, like I'm super competitive, but I try to keep a bit of grace about me. I don't have the ego when it comes, but I have to be the best, like I do. It's on or off the golf course, like we have to be number one, like there's just no doubt about it and that's what we fight for every day. But, um, but at the end of the day, it is only golf. It's a sport that we love. But you get out there with your mates and that's your time, you know. That's your four or five hours and hopefully an hour drink and then you go home, but it's the best.
Paul:It's like four or five hours of drinking and then an hour of playing that's how they played in ve right, or maybe everywhere, I don't know. It's hard for me to play golf in Vegas because I'm always like you're tired, I'm like, nah, I was going to play golf. I'm just kidding, that's not true.
Miranda:Just come in summer, you know the sun's up. Yeah, you come in the summer. It's like dead right? Well it's not as busy. I used to go there all the time, but I love. Vegas. Doesn't love me though. Well, you're always welcome out here. You're always welcome. We've got friends in Vegas.
Paul:Yes, that's awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on the show today. You guys should check out MGI. Like they seriously make like the best cards, like they're really nice, they're really're really nice, they're really really nice. But you can, I mean it's like mgi is mgicom, wait, mgi, golfcom, that's the. You guys do research on it, but like seriously, like these cards are really cool. Um so, thank you for being on the show and I hope to see you guys on the next episode.
Speaker 3:Thanks for listening to another episode of Behind the Golf Brand Podcast. You're going to beat me. Stay connected on and off the show by visiting golfersauthoritycom. 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.
