EP #5 - MNML Golf: Sam Goulden (Founder)

Sam Goulden, the founder of MNML Golf, grew up in Washington, Missouri; a small town about 40 miles west of St. Louis and, for most of his youth, Sam spent more time skateboarding than golfing – even through his college golf career. It was his love of helping golfers of all ages which led him into a career in golf.

For 10 years he traveled all over the country in search of the best methods of teaching and coaching. He worked with many of the worlds best coaches and took what he learned back to small town America. As his students got better and better, Sam felt the desire to prove himself as a player.

In 2006, at the age of 26, Sam shifted his focus toward competing on the professional level. He began a strict regimen of practice, mental training, fitness, and diet and nutrition. As he grew as a player, it became evident that he would have to spend the majority of his time on developing his own game.

Sam moved to California in the fall of 2009 to focus on playing full time on the Golden State Tour and in 2012, determined to see growth in his game, Sam sold all possessions and set out on a journey. This time he would travel the country, playing in PGA Tour qualifiers, and documenting his journey on YouTube. He lived out of his car, eating on a budget of $5 a day, sleeping in a tent for many events, and relying on the kindness of friends for support.

Throughout the constant documentation of his journey, Sam’s following on YouTube grew to over 3 million views. He started writing and publishing golf instruction books and online courses and now has over 10,000 members of his online coaching platform. 

In 2018 Sam launched MNML Golf, a forward facing lifestyle brand which ushers in the non-exclusive vibes with modern, less traditional golf bags. His golf bag incorporates your phone, a bluetooth speaker, and a solar powered battery pack to keep you charged for 9, 18, or even 36 holes

Sam currently resides in Manhattan Beach, Ca where he starts his days with a sunrise surf, then coaches and tends to MNML Golf, and finishes his day with a sunset surf.

Transcript

Paul Liberatore: 0:00

What's up guys. This is Paul Liberatore from Behind the Brand Podcast where on episode five this week, I bugged my friend, Sam Goulden from MNML golf. I've been bugging him for about a month to be on the show. Sam and I have been talking since, I don't know, like probably mid now mid fall. He was like, who's this guy bugging me, but then we like totally bonded at the PGA show. And then now we're like long lost brothers. So Sam is one of the original godfathers of YouTube and sorts of has one of the coolest golf bag brands around. So without further ado, it's Sam Goulden from MNML. Hey Sam, how you doing today?

Sam Goulden: 0:41

Yeah, I'm doing great, Paul. Thanks for having me on the show. I'm excited. I'm super excited that you feel like we bonded as we did as well.

Paul Liberatore: 0:54

That was Epic. It was like, Oh my gosh. You're like a brother from another mother. So when I always talk to brands in the beginning, I always kind of want to know more about them. Right. So that's kind of my first question. I always ask the brand and, and the guys live in the podcast. They always say, you know, I always say, so what's your story, right? Because it's an open ended question, but it also tells a lot about the person and the brand itself. And I'll know within the first, like a couple of minutes, if this person's cool or their brand is cool or just you get the vibe. Right. So I already know your story. I'm going to ask that right away, obviously, but I guess really? What is, who is Sam? What, when did you start playing golf? That's the first one I'm going to ask you today because you have a pretty cool career.

Sam Goulden: 1:40

Yeah. It's it is kind of cool. I mean, I think probably it started off, like I was going to be a golfer. My very first golf memory was as a three year old making a 30 foot pot and having like my dad and uncle and grandpa all just like freak out. And I was like, Oh I don't know. You said try to hit it in the hole. I, I did like what, what's the big deal? And then after that, I didn't really play, like we were on vacation at the time and I didn't really play until high school. I played a few rounds with friends and I was like using my mom's plebs. And I'm actually, left-handed in baseball and hockey, but my mom played right-handed. So I like used to run into clubs and I really was just like terrible. And then my senior year in high school, we got a, we had a golf team coming in. Like they did there wasn't a golf team before. And then they were like, Hey, we're going to have them off the team. And I was like, I can make that. I'm going to try to do that. So I like just practice really hard. And I got on the golf team. I was like the fourth best player on a really bad team. So not very good. Right. But I got to play and I kinda like started falling in love with it. But then after high school, you know, I didn't have a country club membership or anything like that. And there weren't any, I really couldn't afford it to play honestly. But then while I was in college, I got a job at a golf course and I got free range balls and free golf. And I just like, basically played my way out of college. Like I started skipping classes to practice and then I dropped out of college because like, I basically failed everything my sophomore year, but then I know. Right, cool. And then, but then a buddy of mine in my high school and then go to school, kids don't do this still. It gets better. So my buddy, my buddy, one of the kids in my high school golf, basically the reason we even had a golf thing, his grandpa funded it because he was really good. He was going to a university and this, he came back and played with me over the summer and he was like, dude, what have you done? And I'm like, what do you mean? He hadn't played with me since high school. And he's like, you're like actually pretty good now. And I was like, yeah. I mean, I just like practice every day and hit like a million balls. And, and he's like, we could use you on our team. And I was like, you're kidding. And so anyway, we set up a day where I was going to go play with the team and I played with their number one player. And I played like amazing. I'm like calling shots. I'm like, okay, 95 yards. And I hit a little sandwich. It's going to draw, it's going to land behind the hole and spin back. And then you're going to make the pot. We're playing like, you know alternate shot format. And I played with the number one player and we dominated, we killed it. And he, at the end of the round, I heard him say to the coach, he's like, get this kid on the team. And I was like, Oh shit, like really? Like this is going to happen. So I got a full scholarship. So I literally like dropped. I like played golf and got dropped out of college and then full circle, got a scholarship applied. So then I played another year and a half in college. And then after college Lincoln university in Jeff city, Missouri, so pretty small school, but great traveling schedule but all over the country. And it was pretty evident that I was never going to, at that time, I wasn't going to compete with anybody really. I was just hoping to shoot something in the seventies and keep our team in it. But after college, I really just, my true passion in life is coaching. So I, that gives me the most joy. So I right out of college, I started coaching, started taking lessons from my Hank Haney. And just anybody you can think of who is in the top 50 is as an instructor at the time. Yeah. I would go see them. This is pre you know, pre YouTube. So I'd read, read their books, go see them. I was in the PGA of America. So I could go to like seminars and stuff like that and got to meet some insane people and learned a ton about coaching and about my own personal kind of coaching path. And then while I was doing that, I got better and better at golf. And so in 2000, so four years after college, I decided to compete. I wanted to compete to try to win the U S open. So I started playing and doing qualifiers for the, for the U S open. And I was playing terrible. She didn't like 80 in the qualifiers, but I started getting better. And I, I, at one point was like, if you're going to do this, you need to make a full commitment. So it was either Florida or California. So I was in st. Louis at the time. And the season's really short and crummy when it's cold and call when it's hot. And so I was like, alright Florida or California. So I like a Hooters store event. Didn't like it at all. Talk to the director of the golden state where Mike O'Leary on the phone. And I was like, here's, I want to do, what do you think? And he was like, Sam, I think you should do it. Come out to California. You can play on the golden state tour and you can learn what it takes to compete against the best players in the world. And then it was like done. So I moved out to LA, I started playing the golden state tour, full time, lost all my money, sold my house back in Missouri. Right. So my house, my car, all my junk and flew to California and then lost all my money in like six months. Cause it's like

Paul Liberatore: 6:19

So expensive and you're like playing golf and you're not winning politics. Yeah. So anyway, what year was this?

Sam Goulden: 6:27

This is 20, 1,900. I like 2010. I played golden state tour. And then sort of what's the opposite of graduate. Like I kind of like, not even punk, cause I didn't like repeat a year. I went down a level and many doors. I started playing on like the smallest, cheapest mini version you could play, but I still got to compete. There was one, you need tour

Paul Liberatore: 6:51

Five guys, everybody's drinking Corona. And they're old. Like, they're like all like retired guys. They're like, you're going to have to give us and stuff. And they're like snapping their fingers. I kind of wish that was the story, but it's not that good.

Sam Goulden: 7:08

Yeah. It would, it would have ended up up this way probably. But it led to a lot of stuff actually like becoming broke and not having income. Like I started making YouTube videos kind of on a win in 2009. Like one of my students was like, dude, you've got a lot of experiences. You've worked with a lot of great coaches. You should share those. If people want to hear about that. And it took him a while to convince me. And finally I was like, whatever, I'll make some YouTube videos. And then I was making YouTube videos and I'm competing and I'm like teaching a few lessons here and there and just barely getting by. And then I kind of, I kind of liked that for golf. I was like, this is like the Hogan story where you're going to, like, you're going to lose, you know, you're going to be eating your last orange off the citrus tree at the tournament, you know, and, and hiding them in your golf bag. And you're going to be on your last$12. And if you don't make the cut it's over, I thought that's what it meant to become a, that was my story that I thought it was, that was going to be my story. And then in 2013, I was like, dude, maybe you won't play your best if you're sleeping in your car. Maybe if you had like a new glove that would make things easier or like some brand new Titlest instead of the ones that you've found in the woods. And so in 2013, I was like, it's 2012. I pretty much traveled the country doing Monday qualifiers and slept in my car a lot. And like, didn't have any money. I was eating on$5 a day. I would buy like a stack of tortillas and a jar of peanut butter and a bundle of bunch of bananas. And that would be like my three meals for the day. And that's like, you're not going to play very good golfers here.

Paul Liberatore: 8:36

No like tired.

Sam Goulden: 8:39

Yeah. And not sleeping well. So anyway, so 2013 I'm like find another way to make money. That's when my YouTube videos were kind of doing pretty well. And I was like, you know what, I'm going to write it. I'm going to write a book. I started writing books. I wrote three books in 2013. And and then I made enough money in 2013 off of those books to try to be able to fly and stay in hotels and stuff like that. And so 2013, 2014 traveled did a bunch of Monday qualifiers didn't ever qualify for a PGA tour event like that considerably better and also got familiar with what that life was like. And then in 2014, I quit playing golf, like randomly on accident. I got to, I got asked to help with the 1830s app. So the CEO of 18 birdies app calls me up and he's like, Hey, I think you should be our, our guy, our golf, you know, our direct, the whole operation and us breaking Bernie's. This is before it even started. So he flew to st. Louis where I was at the time. And I picked him up at the airport. We went to a barbecue spot for lunch, and then I dropped them off, back off at the airport and he flew back to wherever he was at the time, I think LA and then like a couple of weeks later, he's like, Sam, I'd like to hire you. How much do I have to pay you? And I was like, well, you know, I'm, I'm living my best life ever. I make money online. And I played off, like, why would I take a job? Keep it's like, yeah. You know, like, why would I take a job at this point? I'm happy, whatever I've got income, I play golf. And he was like, well, I think like, I really need you and I I'd be willing to pay you. So he's like, just tell me what the number is. And I was like, I'll give you a stupid number. So I gave him what I thought at the time was a stupid number. And he was like done. And I was like, shit, I should've asked for more, but me like, you know you know, it's just kind of young and I just didn't have like seven 50 an hour. It was more than that. But you know, it was like, not enough that it, I, it was, it was the right amount. I just didn't, I didn't know what, like a stupid number was. I should have asked for a really stupid number of, I didn't want to work. This guy's going to come and want to talk to me, but I gotta come. I'm on a call right now. Come, come over here. Okay. if one of the beautiful things about living right in front of the ocean is the ocean. Yeah. Yeah. The is right there. Shut up. You never knew that this whole time, not that kind of bonded yet. So I'm working for 18 berries and I'm loving it. It's so creative and so much fun. And we were like trying to figure out how to make the best coffee ever, which at this point I can, I'm comfortable to say that there is no other golf app that does, and we'll do what 18 burgers. It's awesome. And it's getting better every day. I coach I'm not going to get into that. But anyway, I I left 18 birdies after about a year and wasn't playing anymore. And I was kind of trying to ask myself, I was asking myself, like, what are you going to do with your life if you don't have a passion anymore? And so I just, I asked a buddy like, Hey, do you know anybody? That's got a free place. I could live in not a free, but like the place I could live in, in Southern California. Cause I was kind of traveling before that. And he was like, dude, actually, no, but the residual at the resort in Puerto Rico, his family owns a resort in Puerto Rico. He's like at Royal Isabella, the superintendent just quit in his house is for sale. And he's like, you should just move. And I was like, you know what? That sounds like a pretty good idea, Charles. So I sold my car on Craigslist and I flew to Puerto Rico and like my clubs, my laptop, and shared some aunts. And I was in Puerto Rico for two years. Yeah. I learned how to surf. And so we're almost there. So I left Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria and I just thought, I'll come back when the lights come back on and then they just never did. And while I was in LA, I came back to LA after that, to just like make money and, and surf or whatever. And while I was in LA, I got the idea for the golf bag minimal golf. And I was like, yeah, you know what? It's time to be passionate about life. Again. It's time to do something with yourself other than just like drink Coronas and surf all day. And so yeah, I started minimal golf and that was about almost a couple of years ago, 18 months ago or something. And here we are, that's my,

Paul Liberatore: 12:47

Oh my God, dude. I didn't know. I knew some of that. I mean, this is what I knew. I knew the whole YouTube thing. Like it was funny. I first met you and I was like, yeah, he's on YouTube a lot. Like he's not allowed you. Don't like you said, the original YouTubers. And I'm like, really? Cause I didn't, I don't, I'm not like a fan boy. So I like, and I realized, I was like, Holy crap, man. Like you have like what, how many videos? And you do like 500 or something crazy. It's all instructional. Like it's all free. Right? Like it's like, I don't know. And then I knew some of that. I don't know. You're from st. Louis. Yeah. That's crazy. Cause I'm from the Midwest, but that's awesome. So then when did you have the first had the idea for a minimal?

Sam Goulden: 13:25

I was in a garage. Every startup company goes like this. We were in the garage every single year.

Paul Liberatore: 13:34

I'm in a garage. I mean, seriously. Yeah. This is my garage. You know that this is like, this is like the, I would flip everything around, but like this is a whole half mile. Well I have, it's like one of my bays in my garage.

Sam Goulden: 13:48

That's great. It looks like, it looks like, yeah. Okay. Anyway,

Paul Liberatore: 13:51

It's not a great screen. Let's say that this is real look.

Sam Goulden: 13:54

So I'm in the garage with one of my students, Craig, who, this is a, an amazing story, but it's too long to tell here. I'll give you the short of it. He was a, roughly a 36 handicap when I met him. And within nine months he was essentially probably a three. We only played part like, like par threes and short part, full courses around LA. But he would beat me. I'd golf seriously. About nine months. It was phenomenal. He's coming in today for a lesson. Cause he's going to like refresh. But because we went from, we went from like, never like can't even score me. He could hit the ball, but there were times when he just wouldn't post a score. Cause he had too many eights. Right. Think any beginner golfer. And then he was literally like, I had to burn at one point he birdied the nine pole to beat me. And then the next day I had to birdie the ninth, pull the tie, him both rounds were, I think one pound round was one over part of the other one was even

Paul Liberatore: 14:46

Right. I was like a student you trained.

Sam Goulden: 14:48

Yeah. Yeah. So, but it was, it was a super thing, but he used lefthanded and he had this basically looked like a pool cue case, like a really thin case that he would travel with that held like three clubs. And he had that because he's lefthanded and he would travel like Hawaiian and they would give him like a terrible rental set cause he's lefthanded or they wouldn't have one. And he's like, I'll just always bring three Bubs with me when I travel. So that's what he carried. He had these three clubs. Right. And I was like, dude, this bag is perfect. It's all you need. Well, okay. Maybe if it had a stand on it. And then so we found it on another bag on like, like a really cheap Amazon bag for like$39 that had a stand on it. I was like, this is great. If it had like one more pocket and I was like, you know what, Craig, like the way golf is going, you know, shorter rounds, less clubs, like let's make it. So this is like two years ago. So I'm like, I'm like, dude, I think this would this. We could make a company that's built around the modern game and make a bag that is built around that. And so, but then it's like, all right, well, if you're making a bag for sort of this younger new audience, you should probably try to have some features that, you know, that appeal to young, the younger audience, like a Bluetooth speaker for instance, and a solar panel and are not a solar panel, but like being able to charge your phone and then they use a Bluetooth speaker on the course, it runs out of battery eventually. So wouldn't it be great if you could charge that as well. So then it was just like, how, how do I make a golf bag that allows for listening to music and charging your phone and has all this stuff that like, I hate about golf bags, like get rid of it all. Like all the junk that like, like when you go on a bag's website, the first thing you see is 30 pockets and you're like 30 pockets. How many things do you need on the golf course? The whole thing was like, yeah, the whole thing is like eliminate everything you don't need from the bag, but let's add on the stuff that you do need. And at the end of the day, at the same time, let's make it dope. Like I want to buy, I want to carry a bag that like is part of who I am and makes me feel good to carry it. I don't want Titleist's name on my back. Sorry, toddlers, but I don't want to brand for you. And I that's why our logos are also small because I don't want people to feel like they're doing branding for us and selling our bag by just carrying it on their back. I want them to like, love the bag. That's why we're so big on customization. So yeah, that's kind of the, that's the Genesis of, of minimal. We were in the garage and I told Craig, I thought this would work. And he was like, dude, I think it would work too. And I really value his opinion on business business in general because of his, what he does for a living, which I know told me what he does for a living. So I'm like, I'm like, if this guy thinks this will work and he'll back me a little bit, he's like, I'll support it. Yeah. So we just got started man. And it was 2018 that we, that I, that I committed to it. Like I bought a car in LA. I was like, I'm staying. Yeah. And then we got the studio in October of 2018. That's this place. And then we got our first sample, January, 2019. Did a Kickstarter in May, 2019 products hit the U S December 31st of 2019. Are you going to kill it? Yeah. We literally got our first shipment on new year's Eve of like just new year's Eve.

Paul Liberatore: 18:07

Cause I was like, I think I got my bag. I don't know what was that like? Probably April mid no's, like mid February. It was like right after the show you were going to send it and you're like, I don't have a in yet. And then I was like, okay. And then we start at the show and you're like, I'll get you one, I'll send you one bag right now because you hadn't gotten like the full shipment or something like that. Yeah, that's right. That's right

Sam Goulden: 18:32

Bags. Yeah. We ordered 400 bags. 200 had to be fulfilled from the Kickstarter as like perks, you know? And then another 200. So Kickstarter works like this. You, you set your project and you have set a goal. So we set the goal of raising$50,000. So we could order 400 bags. That was the minimum number we had the order. So we raised$53,000. The people who donated to the Kickstarter campaign got things like if you donated$200, you got a bag. And if you donated$25, you got a tee shirt. So we got the$53,000 and then we had to send out 200 bags in a, as soon as they came in. So we ordered 400, sent out 200 for Kickstarter and then we had 200 left and those 200, you know, we sold through those pretty quickly. And the next order I had coming in wasn't until I guess I dunno. I think it was so crazy.

Paul Liberatore: 19:22

You're like, I don't even know like last year,

Sam Goulden: 19:24

Honestly. I've if you said it was February, I'd be like maybe March. I don't know. We've got 300 bat, 318 bags and like March ish. And then we got another 318 bags in may and now we have 750 coming in and we're just like right now, we're cool. But we're just barely keeping up with.

Paul Liberatore: 19:42

Yeah. I mean, if you think about this, you guys, right? Like the company started at six months ago, right? Like they literally like, I mean, it's been around for a little bit, but I mean, they didn't get started getting product until less than six months ago, which is insane. Right. You're already selling out, you know, but that's the reason why, like you guys are doing something different and people love it. Right? Like it's, I don't know. They have the charger, the solar port or the solar power, the Bluetooth speaker, everything. And it's light. I mean, it's so super light that, I mean, no one there's, no one else is being as innovative with a bag. I mean, there's pretty bags out there. Don't get me wrong, but no one's being innovative enough where they're changing is changing the game, you know? And I think that's why a lot of people are like, Oh, that's awesome. I want that bag. And the price points perfect. Like, it's not like, Oh, it's a$500 bag. No, it's like, anybody can afford this, you know?

Sam Goulden: 20:37

Yeah. That's really important to me. I, so exclusivity to me, I think maybe I don't know why maybe because I grew up pretty poor. I didn't have access to, you know, I hadn't been to the Ritz Carlton until I was like 30 years old. You know, things like this exclusivity always really turned me off. And even in golf, I was never a member at a club. I was always like the employee at a club. And I just didn't like the way it felt to be excluded. And so for me, I didn't want to make the bag feel or be exclusive in any way. So I want it to appeal to a certain audience because like I know I'm not going to make a 76 year old guy who hates music on the course. Happy. Like I know that, but I don't want to exclude him. I don't want to be like this. Bag's not for you. So the bag itself, you can get it without basically when you buy the bag, you're buying a golf bag, but you can add on the Bluetooth speaker, you can add on the solar charging. And then as far as being non-exclusive in price. Yeah. I mean the bag is the bag should be three 60. The bank should be three 69. Plus the tech should be four. It should be$400. It's the quality of the bag, the look and feel the bag when people get it out of the box, they're like, Whoa.

Paul Liberatore: 21:46

Yeah, it's not crap. It's like, it's. I mean, the leather saw the dividers, saw the pockets are like, they actually close, you know, like they're supposed to, and then that's, and that's even without the technology that's been built into the back, like I know there was a couple of other brands, which I'm not going to talk about right now. They have a technological black bag. Let's call it. But it's, it's ways of fricking ton. And it's this like, Oh, we're going to strap this onto a bag we've already made before. We're gonna call it something else. We'll just say same bag. It just, you just, you put a power port in it, graduations.

Sam Goulden: 22:19

Yeah. And I think that person who's using that bag, isn't really our customer, you know, the person who's using that big bag, big, giant bag with a big battery in it. You're probably riding in a car anyway and all the cards.

Paul Liberatore: 22:30

It's a big ass bag, dude. That's a bit not your bag. I'm saying the other bag. It's like, I'm not going to say the bag, but it's named after a very big airplane. So yeah. It's a very big bag. I don't see that person lugging at 18 holes. You can walk with this one. I mean your bag. No problem.

Sam Goulden: 22:46

Oh yeah. That that's primarily made for walking. I mean, that's why the straps are so wide and like padded and that's why it's like balanced the way it is. And I mean, really, like

Paul Liberatore: 22:55

I missed it, you know? Like as you get older, you kind of like, well I know it walk anymore, but then it's like, I don't know. We're the same age. And so it's like, you start like walking more. I'd rather walk. It's kind of fun because you can, unless you live in Arizona right now, it's too hot.

Sam Goulden: 23:09

Well, I'm not going to walk 18 holes in a charity event. Like I'm going to throw my bag on a cart. I want the bag to do that. You know, I don't want to have to change bags, but at the same time, if I go play par three course, and I bring like seven clubs, I don't want to have this giant card bag that I'm lugging around. So yeah, I wanted a bag that was a hybrid, but more gourd, more geared for the person who's who at least entertain the idea of walking and maybe goes on par threes every once in a while in walks. Because I do, I truly believe that the game is better walking and again, I'll play, I'll play in a part. Anytime I play 18 holes, usually I'm in a cart, but it's a walk. I mean, I absolutely love walking,

Paul Liberatore: 23:47

Walking to, it reminds me of more about being a kid playing, you know what I mean? Cause that's what you did. Like we were, we weren't rich, you know? So like we'd walk all the time. I play par threes. I'd pour play my muni chorus by my house. And we walked and it was hot, but I played for like$8, you know, because it was the summer rate or whatever it was. But that's when I think of golf walking, I said, I always first thing, this is like the first memory that comes into my mind, you know, and

Sam Goulden: 24:13

True. I mean, me too. I hadn't thought of that, but that's so true. And I think maybe like now that you're talking about it, that's one of the reasons why I'm so attracted to the true links, where brand and a hundred percent, I love their products. Their products are technologically better than anything else. And I'm like fully plugged in for truly inspired. Cause I freaking love their products and they're really good friends and they're good friends. They're awesome guys. But they're just the way their brand feels. It feels like the game of golf. And if you think about golf, the way you and I think about golf and the way they think about golf and the appeal is in that, that walk, the appeal is in that that's part of the game. And again, not to say that you can't ride like,

Paul Liberatore: 24:53

Oh yeah, me too. But I have a choice. Yeah. Like, you know, if you don't play nine holes, I'll walk it. Why not? You know, or if it's like an 18, I'm not walking 18 right now. It's hot as hell. But you know what I mean? But if it's, I don't know. I mean a lot of plays you came and walked that much anymore. I guess now it's, COVID-19

Sam Goulden: 25:09

Some, you can't some you can't, but some places you have to walk, which you know, I think it's pretty cool. It's interesting. Anyway,

Paul Liberatore: 25:16

In the last couple of months, you guys now do personalization of the bags, right? Like the coolest thing ever. And it's like real person, that's actually, that's some bull crap where it's like, Oh, I'm gonna sew on a patch. No dude, like I'm jealous. Cause I'm like, Oh I'm I wish my bag was personalized. I should.

Sam Goulden: 25:33

Well did I, I'm going to drop things today. That's that's really cool. This is like in a year, the first person to know this other than like my little team here, our little team here. Okay. So the personalization came about because well of course everybody loves the personalized stuff or at least I think a lot of people liked the personalized things I do. And I wanted personalization on the bag so badly. But the materials, the way the bags constructed, we're not like other golf bags. Like there's a bunch of there's patented stuff on this bag. That's like portal systems so that the wires can run throughout the bag and not interfere with the clubs and all this stuff. So the factory was like, yeah, there's no way to embroider these bags. And that really bummed me out. And I was just like, man, how can we make this happen? How can we make this happen? And finally, I was just like, I wonder if we could just like, like a airbrush, like, like if Banksy came over, could he like paint something on the bed? If he came over, like he could, could he just paint on the bag? Would paint, work on the bag? And so I called this awesome kid who Toshi, who did my sign here at the studio. I was like a tow sheet. Do you think he could paint on micro suede? Or this is like, it's, it's called micro suede and the material the bag is. And he was like I don't know. I'll try it out. So he came and he got some material and he came back and he came back and he, he hands these things to me at the time we were doing some custom bags for Adele. And then he put my assemble and golf logo on him on another cover. And he like handed them to me. And I was like, yes, yes, this is it. It kills it. This is like cuts to Nike's. This is like so sick. I was like, you're hired. How much do you cost? You're painting our bags. And then we made the Adele bags. And then from that moment on, I was like, everybody who orders a bag, you have to customize it because what he does is he takes your logo or your name or your initials or whatever it is. And he, he, he, he literally puts the picture right next to the bag and he hand paints, freaking logo onto the bag. It's beautiful. He's this little Japanese guy. And he's, he's just awesome. I like w I, I love it. He's amazing. And he's like, yeah, he comes into the studio and he sits down with like, it's his, all his whole thing set up. And he's got all this beautiful, like paint brushes and his paint. And then he starts painting on the bag and it comes out and it's like, gotta be kidding me. You just made another art.

Paul Liberatore: 27:48

No, no. I saw, like I saw the ones on the website. I was like, Oh my gosh. So fricking rad, like the ones that like, I don't know. There's like the ones I saw were like, he had like a G I think it was like a,

Sam Goulden: 27:58

Yeah, the Greenbrier bag. That one cannot supersede another one for them. That's like even more custom. That's even more dope. And I'm just like waiting for people to tell me what they want. Like we're starting to venture into other places on the bag. Cause everybody's used to seeing their logo on that. We're like, we're like, no, you can put, you could put it anywhere. You can, like, you can paint you, you know, your huge logo down the side. If you want your name, if you just want to write Sam really big on the bag, whatever you want, then

Paul Liberatore: 28:26

No one does that. Right? Like, I mean, I've seen embroidery and I've seen patches. I mean, or embroidery, you know, that's it, I've never seen paint ever.

Sam Goulden: 28:35

And it's just really expensive. There's no way, like we don't make money. We make like barely anything on the customization because we pay it all to the artists. Most of it to the artists, but like, it's, it would be really expensive. They think, think about this. Hitoshi has to come from his house, come into this studio and paint for an hour. It takes them an hour to do a simple logo. So some of the logos are like two or three hours. So he's painting, like literally painting your artwork. There's no panelist. Isn't doing that, man. Like I, again, like, I don't know,

Paul Liberatore: 29:04

It's a flexibility, you know, like by being small, you have flexibility to do things that everybody else can't do. Like I had a conversation with a very big brand this morning that I work with. And the one thing I learned over, I have been learning is that when it comes to video content, like that's the last thing they have on their mind because they had everything else. Right. They have to do, you know, new, new product is coming in and you know, they're trying to incorporate it in their normal chain and all this stuff. And they don't have time to like talk about the product or whatever it is. And they're like, that's why we like to work with influencers or content creators because helping that, do that gap, because I find that problem too. But if I want to go find information about a product and I go to YouTube, there's like, I mean, there's a couple of product, my mind, a couple of people talking about it, but sometimes you don't and you're like, that's so weird, you know? Like you would think that's the first place I would go if I want to learn about this thing. Right. So

Sam Goulden: 29:58

Yeah. Same. Yeah, absolutely.

Paul Liberatore: 29:59

So, I mean, I mean, I know, you know, YouTube game better than anybody, but that's just, I think that's kind of, what's nice about being smaller. Right. And like independent is that you can do whatever you want and if it works, it works. And if it doesn't go well, you know, like, but I mean, what you get is awesome. I think that's going to be a big thing actually. Cause like everything with those custom Nike's do the same freaking thing.

Sam Goulden: 30:20

It's a, yeah, it's so cool that Nike just dropped a really cool, like hit custom bag, but like how many can they do, you know, a thousand or you know, like how many can they do? We're going to customize probably I'd say at the moment, customers probably about 65 to 70% of our orders are customized in some way, whether we put their like nickname down in the initial spot of the monogram spot or some college logo or company logo or whatever, we're probably gonna end up customizing somewhere around 80% of the bag.

Paul Liberatore: 30:50

I bet. I bet at some point, because of my a hundred percent of the bags then six months,

Sam Goulden: 30:54

I don't know why. I mean, I know it adds a little bit of cost to the bag

Paul Liberatore: 30:57

It's minimal. No, just kidding. It is. It's such a, if you're already spending that much money and then you want to have a hand painted bag and the cost, I can't remember what it is. What is it? It's like$40,$40,$40, like seriously think about it. It's like nothing, right? That's like, it's a round of golf. You're gonna have a custom painted bag. That's an already cool bag has already is like, I don't know. That's a, that's literally a drop. It's not even 10% of what you would have paid to go buy a bag at the store. Right. So I mean sometimes

Sam Goulden: 31:25

Right. Like, you know, for some people$40 is like the breaking point. They're like, I would love to customize it, but I just can't spend. So we're two 29. Right? And then when you add the speaker and the solar power bank, and this is I think a really inexpensive add on, but we're a solar power bank and a speaker Bluetooth speaker. It goes up to two 69. So it's a$40 upgrade to get that tech kit. And then if you add initials, it goes up another$40. So like you want to put like mosey on the bag balance. Now it's three Oh nine. And then if you want to put like your some really badass logo, now it's another you know, that's like hour and a half would say$60. So now you're at like three 69, it gets expensive. And I see why some people like I've been in that situation, like most of my life where I couldn't afford a$369 golf bag, but I will say, if you're going to spend 300 to get it customized, you know, or two 50 or something to get it customized, it's just yours. Now it's your bag. It's not titled lists. It's not, PXG, it's not Kings. It's your bag. And like, again, nothing against these companies, they have their mission. They have their, their, their reason for putting all that, what they do to their bags and they make great products. But our mission, like, I want you to feel like I want you to love this bag. I want you to be like, guys, check out my bag. And if you customize it, you're just,

Paul Liberatore: 32:45

Well, this is going to happen. People are gonna see the bag and then I'll be like, Holy crap. And then they're gonna be like, I want that bag. You know? And I want that customization. And like, it's a matter of time before somebody in that tour is gonna want that guaranteed.

Sam Goulden: 32:57

Oh, we already have. Yeah. I'm not going to name any names, but we already have already, we're already.

Paul Liberatore: 33:01

And once people see that they're going to be like, Holy crap. You know? And I don't know. I think it's like you found it, you found something very special. I think where people connect with the product and then people can make it their own. I mean, I think people already are excited when they put their name on a bag, you know? Cause usually it's like the staff have that bag. Right. Like has her name on it, but it's like, and then you think, well, that guy, I don't know. I just think it's really cool. It's really cool.

Sam Goulden: 33:28

Thanks man. Yeah. I'm really proud of it. It's it's the biggest, greatest thing I've ever done in my life. And it's been such a, an amazing like creative and taxing and scary, but just, yeah, just exceptionally awesome experience to, to bring this thing to life. And as I told you before, Oh, I told you I was going to drop something.

Paul Liberatore: 33:48

Yeah, he did. He dropped the story.

Sam Goulden: 33:50

And we've, and I've got just like a little bit of what I'm about to prepare for my next name. But dude, so the bags, anybody who has purchased, this is anybody who has purchased a bag or purchases a bag in, in our current startup phase, in this, in this first round of bags that we made this year, we'll be able to upgrade to a brand new bag for our costs. Plus shipping. When the, when the new, when the like every bag has little updates and improvements like right now I'm working on some big ones and, and the bags amazing as it is. Right. You have one, you know, it's awesome. But I'm a perfectionist in nature. And we are going to make some changes that are awesome improvements, but they're not coming for a while. And I don't want to feel like title it. I, sorry. I keep like bashing battlers. I like titles. I don't want to feel like one of those brands. Who's like, Hey, here's the bag? And you just bought it. And then like six months later, here's our new one. And OS are you missed out, but you can buy the new one. So we're literally gonna, if you bought a bag, if we've got an order number for you in our system, you can upgrade to the new bag. So anybody who bought it back as a bag today in like nine months or 12 months when, when our like updated version kind of version two, so to speak comes out, they will get, they will be able to enter code that bag for cost plus. So it's basically like dollar shave club, getting it, get a new bag. Anytime we released it.

Paul Liberatore: 35:15

That's like really awesome. Cause I mean, if you think about it, like no one does that. Number one, it's almost like, Oh, you want that bag? Gotta buy the new bag. Sorry. He's not a former bucks, but you're like, look, well, we'll gladly give it to the, I mean, cost plus shipping. I mean that's, that's phenomenal. That's awesome.

Sam Goulden: 35:32

Yeah. I was, you know, I was feeling like I was feeling like this bag is great and it's insane. It's so innovative. But because of some of these innovations, there are some things that are not as good as I want them to be. And so everybody who's purchased a bag now, like same thing. Like if I buy a driver and they come out with a new one, six months later, I'm like a little bit bummed. I don't want any of that stuff.

Paul Liberatore: 35:55

Some every year, like every year you buy this like a club and then it's like, Oh, that's the best book, this thing. Best thing since sliced bread. Yay. And then fricking, and then yeah. Now, yeah. Now it's February and now the new version comes out. Am I as worth half? As much as what I paid for it. And it's a piece of crap pose of the, because since even better, like, that's why I, that's why I don't like about the golf industry, because I think there's a lot of misnomers. I don't know. I don't want, you know, like

Sam Goulden: 36:25

We're not going to go on that. We're not going to go down that road, but you and I both know what's going on there.

Paul Liberatore: 36:29

Yeah. So like, that's why something like that. I mean, I've never anybody in any thing ever do that. I mean ever. Right. So, I mean, literally it's like tell a brand loyalty, you know? I mean, people are going to be like always supporting you because they're like, Oh, this guy really does understand, you know? Or like he cares about the consumer, right? Like those are, it comes down to his care about the consumer. And that's kind of how we do it here. It's like, I'm not a pro I'm not, I'm not, I'm just a guy talking about golf stuff. Cause I think it's fun. That's about it, right?

Sam Goulden: 36:59

Yeah. But you do the same thing. Like you care. You're like, you're looking for products that are new innovative, or maybe they've been around for awhile, but you're looking for products that you can share with an audience and they're going to be like, that's sick. Thank you. And that's the way I feel like I want to share this with somebody and have them be like, that's going to make my round of golf. More fun. Thank you. But then if in nine months we come out with a new version, that's even better. I don't want them to feel bad. So like obviously we can't just give them free product

Paul Liberatore: 37:27

Two seconds. But I mean, it's like, it's a wash. I mean, you guys, well, it's not, I mean, literally they're upgrading their bag.

Sam Goulden: 37:34

Yeah. We're not going to make money on that. But, but again, I'm small. I'm me. I'm just me. Like I don't have like, you know, fact, like, I mean, we do, we do pay a factory, but like I don't have some of these huge costs that I can't absorb something like that. Especially for like our first customers who we get to exist. Exactly.

Paul Liberatore: 37:55

If nobody bought the bag, there would never be around to. Right. So it's like, it's like, I've never heard of any, I mean, imagine that the car industry doing this, like, okay, the new car comes out. It does a car. The car industry is like the golf industry. Same thing. Right? Same damn car. So I mean, it's phenomenal. That's awesome. Too bad at all.

Sam Goulden: 38:14

Yeah. So anybody who buys a bag now gets upgraded for cost plus shipping when our next version comes up. So don't feel like you're going to get stuck with last year's model. Cause you can always

Paul Liberatore: 38:24

By like last year's model. I mean, I can't believe it's like,

Sam Goulden: 38:28

It gets better every time. Like you won't, you wouldn't notice the differences when the new model comes out. But we speak like, I think we think we like 19 things from the bags that we had in January to the bags that we got stuff in six months, you change that many little things in three months, in three months. And then the next product that came, we, we tweaked like another six things. And then the bags that are coming in like 45 or 60 days, those have like another five changes. So it's always like tiny little refinements. Like I get the bags in and I'm like, okay, we can improve this. It's only like an inch, you know, literally there's one thing that we're improving by one inch, you can put a little notch here, then maybe we can put some Velcro here for your glove, like little tiny things that are like gonna make or break or change the way you feel about the bag. Those are happening all the time. But the big, big, big change that I foresee, it's probably going to be nine months to possibly more of a, probably about nine months. So I was, what is this June? So like by March. Yeah, I think so. After the DJ show. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, I don't want to discourage anybody from buying a bag right now. The bag is literally it's the most innovative drop bag period. Nobody can argue that it's got so many things that make your life better. The ability, the ability to film your swing when you're on the range or the course or wherever, just by slipping your phone in that little pocket, that's insane magnetic pocket. So you don't ever break a zipper. That's awesome. Yeah. All this stuff that we've put into this bag right now, it's awesome. And I want people to be confident that they can buy it now. And when they do make the cost, which is a phenomenal, that's phenomenal. I think it's pretty cool, man. I think nobody does that. No one's ever done that. Definitely not in the golf industry. So I mean, it's like, imagine if the title is sorry, titles, I guess we're bashing titles today. Somebody else said, Oh, you got the Epic driver. We'll cure you. The Maverick for costs. You know like, and I'm not sending, you don't have to send it back, dude. I'm not saying like, send us your old one and we'll get a trade in, trade up program. It's like, keep this, give it to your son or going into the high school golf team or put in your garage or whatever you want to do with it. But here's the new one. And yeah. I don't know. I don't, I don't foresee a company doing that, but if they did, that'd be a company that I would support. That's a freaking awesome thing. Yeah. Because you know, you do little tweaks throughout the year. Right. But then it's like, are you doing a massive overhaul? Right. Make it better. It's an imagine if you bought like the original Tesla and they were like, Oh, the new is out. Keep your old Tesla buy the new Tesla for like, you know, 40% of retail, something, you know, like, yeah. Companies don't do that, but you can, when you're small back to your point, you can, when you're small and my vision is a lot more longterm than that, the dollars we can make in the short term stuff. That's what you, and I've always talked about. You know, it's just like, yeah. It's longterm, so well, cool. So is there anything that I haven't asked you that you think I should have asked? I always ask that question and it's so loaded. I mean, you didn't ask about my surf game. Like I've learned a bunch of new stuff surfing recently. I've got a new board coming.

Paul Liberatore: 41:37

Yeah. Newport. I'm lucky. That's so funny. I went from, I went from my last episode was a guy in his basement. No dissing there to a guy on the beach at a beach house, looking at the ocean. What I thought you were joking around at first. That's kind of funny.

Sam Goulden: 41:50

No, that's a, I mean, I sacrifice other things for that, but but yeah, I like, I love being able. So I woke up this morning at five and I was like, checking the surf and it's first light. And then it was like, okay, I'm cool. I'm going to wait until six. Then I met my buddies in the water at six and I served from six to eight. I literally like got out of the water at eight 15 and like started my day. I got to the studio, which is five blocks from my house. So I got to the studio at like, I don't know, eight, eight 40 maybe. And it's just amazing to be able to get two hours of anything in before you start your day. So I,

Paul Liberatore: 42:24

So you exercise and the beautiful, like being at the ocean and

Sam Goulden: 42:29

Yeah. Yeah. And it's fun. It's like, it's like golfing a lot in so many ways. It's like off because you have good days and bad days and you're constantly evolving and getting better and you just randomly like, feel something. And you're like, Oh, that that's new. Like, I've never felt that before. What did I do there? And then like the next wave comes and you're like, I'm going to try that again. And then you screw it up and then like three weeks later, you get it again. And then all of a sudden it becomes habit. And you're like, dude, I can do this now. And yeah. I just love that aspect of trying to get better. There's a lot of beautiful things about being in the ocean first thing. So that's why I sacrifice other things to live wherever

Paul Liberatore: 43:05

That's okay. I mean, it's awesome. I mean, that's like the dream right to be, it's just, I don't know. I would love that. That I'll come visit you sometime. I was supposed to come see you in March. I remember that you like invited me to that party and then covert came and that was an Epic party. You still had it. That didn't happen. I was like, cause you're like, come down, you can stay by us

Sam Goulden: 43:29

With flyers made. We had like, this can and alcohol like mixed drink, like sponsoring it. We had everything ready to rock. And then like, people were like, dude, are you still having the party? And I was like, what do you mean? And they were like, do you not watch the news? And I was like, no. And they were like, it's like really dangerous to be around people right now. And I was like, literally, I was like, and then I started watching the news and I was like, Oh my God. Yeah, we definitely can have this party. But yeah. Thankfully things are starting to get back to normal. It feels like,

Paul Liberatore: 43:58

Yeah, hopefully. Well, thank you for being on the show today. I really appreciate it. We barely even scratch the surface here. I mean, first of all, it minimal is an awesome brand. They make really, really, really, really cool golf bag. I have a YouTube video I'm about to launch reviewing it and unboxing it and just you guys are gonna love it. I mean, there's all kinds of things about Sam. Like I know Sam talked about his book a little bit or his books, but he also has a course online, like an instructional core. So sampling of very innovative, right? He's always thinking of the game. So be sure to check out minimal and you guys will not be disappointed. And thank you again for being on the show today.

Sam Goulden: 44:38

Thanks man. Follow us on Instagram, minimal golf and minimal golf. And then the website's minimal golf and my website's Sam golden golf and my books and my books. And anyway, no dude, Paul, thank you so much. This was super fun. I can't wait to talk to you again as always let's chat soon, man.