WEBVTT - An Announcement from The Fried Egg 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.520 I miss a green for example, I'm already upset. 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:04.920 When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:05.960 And when I find my. 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:08.959 Ball in a brid egg Frida egg, the dreaded Frida egg, 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:12.640 Frida egg, Frida egg, bride egg, Lie, I'm about ready 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:13.200 to run. 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:13.400 Off of the. 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:39.320 Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Egg podcast. 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:43.919 Today's episode is with me and Garrett Morrison. We are 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:47.160 really excited and this episode is going to go into 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:50.560 great detail about this. We are launching a new membership 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.720 called Club TFE. This is kind of the next iteration 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.400 of the Friday Egg. We are not going to be 0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:00.800 changing really anything about what we do and as far 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:03.960 as what you've come to expect. We'll have our newsletters, 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:07.520 we'll have our podcasts as we've always had them. What 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.680 we're doing is launching a membership for people that want 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:13.800 more from us. So it's gonna be called Club TFE. 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.560 It is available today to join. We will have a 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.560 few things for members in the coming weeks, but it 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:24.920 officially launches on January second. So you're probably wondering what 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.440 is CLUBTFE And we will talk in depth about all 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:31.720 of these different aspects that I'm about to list off 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.360 with Garrett, but I just wanted to give you a 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:38.520 brief overview right off at the top Club TFE. What 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:41.240 you'll get as a member is a weekly course review 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:44.280 in rating, so we will go in depth and break 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.560 down a different golf course every week and assign a 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:52.040 rating to it. There will be a new Club TFE blog, 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:57.559 so that will be a blog that has updated posts regularly. Again, 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:01.240 we'll talk more about this with Garrett. A monthly virtual 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:06.600 hangout with the Frida Egg staff, a monthly member only video, 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:11.440 early access to the fridagg events, ten percent off the 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.919 Frida Egg Pro shop, and an annual gift. So that 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:19.040 is the as it stands today offerings of Club TFE. 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:21.160 We have some big plans and hoping to do more 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:23.320 and more as the year goes on, but that's what 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:26.480 we're promising today. And you get all this for one 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:30.760 hundred and twenty dollars a year, so that's the price. Obviously, 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:33.520 what that comes out to is about ten bucks a month, 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:36.960 so we'll be doing it on an annual basis. As 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:39.840 I mentioned, you can sign up for this now. You 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:43.680 can go do Thefrida Egg dot com slash membership and 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:47.080 that's where you can sign up and find more information 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:51.040 about that. Obviously, we will talk Garrett and I about 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:54.400 this in great length, as well as a few other things. 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:55.280 In this podcast. 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:56.920 We're going to talk about the history of the Frida 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.960 Egg as a company and how the golf media land 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.919 escape has evolved since I started this thing seven years ago. 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:06.960 Kind of crazy how quick time goes by. So I 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.760 think this was a pretty interesting conversation. Those are the 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:15.000 basics of CLUBTFE. Obviously, none of this would be able 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:18.359 to happen without the support of you guys, listeners and readers. 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:23.359 I really appreciate it. I'm thrilled about CLUBTFE and what 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:27.120 we could build there. What we're trying to do is really, 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:31.480 you know, bring our community closer together and provide you 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:35.280 guys with more content and more offerings from us. So, 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.560 as I mentioned before, if you want to learn more, 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.920 go do the fried egg dot com slash membership and 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:45.720 that's where you'll find all the information about that. And 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:48.320 thank you guys so much for all of support over 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:51.920 the years. This has been an amazing ride and we 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:54.720 just hope to make it better and better with this 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:55.720 new platform. 0:03:56.080 --> 0:04:07.040 Thanks first of all, Andy what specifically does Club TFE offer, What, 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.480 what are the what's the content that we're making paid 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:14.080 content that is, again in addition to the free content 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:14.960 that we've always done. 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:19.840 Yeah, I think at the heart of of Club TFE, 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:24.240 somebody is I think the question I get asked maybe 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:28.159 the most the two questions, there's two part question that 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:31.600 I get asked the most is what's what are your 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:37.240 favorite courses? And then followed immediately by what when I 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:40.599 answer when? When's the Friday going to have golf course ratings? 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:42.640 Right? When's your top one hundred coming out? 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:45.760 So you know, I I've needed to see a lot 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:48.000 of stuff and one of you know, we've been I've 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.599 been thinking about the golf course ratings standpoint and rank. 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.359 It's not a ranking, We're we're going to rate golf 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:58.960 courses and you know, one of the that's something I've 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:02.719 been thinking about for the five years. How we would 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.880 do it differently and how we would present it. I 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:09.800 think the thing that I want to really provide and 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:15.320 what I think we can provide is unbelievable course reviews 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.240 and write ups that give you all the information if 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:21.440 you're want a person that wants information about a course 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:25.240 before you play it public or private, that you know 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.000 you're armed, and when you go to that golf course, 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.240 you're really going to appreciate your day out there because 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:33.400 you're going to have a baseline of information that makes 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.760 you understand the golf course more before you get there. 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:39.080 And then we're going to come up. 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:43.360 We have a rating scale and I am going to 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:47.080 write a blog post about that, but it'll. 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:50.280 Be it needs a description, yeah, yeah. 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:53.560 Yeah, it'll be a one, two or three egg rating, right. 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:55.920 So we're doing it in a unique way. We're not 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.720 doing like a rating out of ten or a rating 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:02.279 out of one hundred, you know, uh where where you 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:05.000 know if you give if you get a one egg 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:09.720 rating as a golf course, that's something really special. That's 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:11.599 the basic idea. We don't need to go into detail 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:12.479 about it. Yeah. 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:16.200 My thoughts on ratings are like their courses are in buckets, 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:20.599 and you know, if you ask me, what what is 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:23.200 your favorite golf course, it's like, well, what what am 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:25.360 I in the mood for? And that's what I want 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:28.880 the ratings to represent. So we're going to do a 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:33.360 weekly course review. That's something that we've you know, we 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:35.919 haven't done as many course reviews as we used to 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:40.600 do because of time effort, how much effort goes into 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:44.159 those course reviews, and this is something that paves the 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:48.680 way for us to do these more. Another big part 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.680 of this membership is going to be the Club TFV blog, 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:54.960 and I think this is something that you are probably 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:58.400 most excited about, so I'll like kind of explain it. 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:01.960 I'm also excited about the course obviously because I got 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:06.720 my start in golf media doing golf architecture writing, and 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:10.440 so I think that giving ourselves an incentive to do 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:14.080 more golf course architecture writing is going to be great 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:18.280 because right now that's not strongly incentivized, and that's part 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:21.160 of the discussion of the overall media landscape that we're 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:23.840 going to have in this podcast. But yeah, weekly course 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:27.440 review and just to be clear, folks, you know, initially 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:30.520 this isn't going to be like a big battery of 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:33.560 course reviews right away. We're building it up over time. 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:35.960 We're doing one a week and it's going to get 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:39.200 bigger and bigger. But yeah, we're not delivering a database 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:43.480 or an encyclopedia immediately. That's what we're building towards. So 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:47.200 Club tf Blog Essentially, this is what it sounds like. 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:50.440 It's a blog. It's going to be on various topics. 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:52.880 There's going to be some golf architecture. There's going to 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:55.520 be some discussion of the PGA Tour. There's going to 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:57.960 be short posts, there's going to be long posts. There's 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:00.920 going to be some jokey right, and there's going to 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:03.680 be some serious, excellent writing. It's going to be a 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.440 mixture of all of those things. And part of this 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:08.480 blog is that there's going to be a comment section. 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:11.720 And this is where you know, Club TFE members can 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:16.360 kind of respond to content that's going up on the 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:19.800 membership site and where they can you know, discuss among 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:22.680 themselves things that are brought up on the blog. So 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:27.560 why I'm really excited about this is that blogging has 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:31.000 kind of gone away in a lot of ways in 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:33.800 Internet culture. I mean, there's still blogs out there, but 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:38.640 they've lost their centrality to Internet discourse in a big way. 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.480 They've been a lot of their functions have been replaced 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:46.000 by social media and by podcasts. And I like social 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.920 media sometimes, I really like podcasts. I think those are 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:54.400 good additions to the Internet landscape, but I really miss blogs. 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:58.720 I think that blogs brought a lot to Internet life, 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:04.360 and when they became kind of an unsustainable business model. 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:08.360 When the business model that supported the blogging industry early 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:12.679 on shifted and went to other things, I think we 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:16.200 really lost something. We lost some really good writing. We 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:18.480 also lost some really bad writing. This is not to 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:21.760 say that all blogs are good, right, Like ninety nine 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:24.200 percent of blogs were pretty bad, but there was a 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:26.600 one percent of blogs out there that was just that 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:29.600 were brilliant, and that brought a lot to my life, 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:33.200 you know, ten fifteen years ago. And part of what 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:36.640 we're hoping to do with this membership is to reintroduce 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:41.079 some good fun writing into what we do on a 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:44.440 daily basis and to have a nice, lively comment section, 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.920 you know, like think of the old dead Spin comment section. 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:51.920 The old dead Spin comic session had some issues and 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:53.400 I don't want to shy away from that, but it 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.520 was also like a really fun place, and so we're 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:01.079 trying to create some of that culture within the membership. 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:02.360 That's the club TF blog. 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:04.600 Yeah, And I think like a way to think about 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:07.800 it too is like it in a way, the comment 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:11.959 section is going to enable this blog. Like in some 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:13.640 of the posts are going to be like kind of 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:18.160 thought starter posts like ways to create almost like a 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:22.920 daily guided discussion where it can be a topic on 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:25.680 a golf architecture topic, it could be something about the 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:29.559 PGA tour, but the idea of you know, there are 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:31.760 going to be essays that are going to be you know, 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:37.240 well thought out written takes on different things, but there 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:40.000 are also gonna be days where it's really like, you know, 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.920 so many times I think about stuff that's like, you know, 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:47.840 this isn't a take, And I think this is one 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:50.400 of the things that's happened with writing on the internet 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:52.800 is it's always got to have a take. But some 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:55.200 of it I think the most powerful stuff is just 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:59.280 asking a question and you know, coming to a question 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.120 of like is this what do you think? 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:05.120 Like is that? Do you like this trend of this? 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:06.640 Like is this a good thing? 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:09.520 Like A good example of this would be like I 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:11.600 don't think I have a take on it yet, it 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:15.280 hasn't been finished, but like, you know, what, how would 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:17.800 everybody feel about more leados? 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:19.880 You know, is that a good thing? 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:23.440 Right? What do you think about AI in golf course design? 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.320 Yeah, Like I don't know what my take is, but 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:28.760 it seems like that's going to be something that's going 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:32.560 to become a bigger trend in golf architecture. And and like, 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:34.839 I think there's things that are cool about it, but 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.040 there are also like I don't think I necessarily want 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:42.480 to have, like, you know, the next generation of golf architects, 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:47.520 like not you know, recreating courses and not building fresh 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:48.880 ideas you know, right. 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.360 Right, or designing on a computer as opposed to designing 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:53.360 on land. Yeah, I think you know. Part of what 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:57.320 you're saying that resonates with me is that the take 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:01.439 economy implies that everybody has it all figured out, that 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:05.600 the take givers have a settled opinion and they're delivering 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:09.840 it to you. And often that is so false, right, 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.480 and you know, we don't have everything figured out. And 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:17.480 part of why blog culture was fun a lot of 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:21.240 the time was that it didn't end with the post itself. 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:25.480 There was that comment section and that ongoing discussion that's 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:28.280 not a feature of podcasts. And so what we're hoping 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:31.160 is that that comment section can be a healthy place 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.079 to discuss things because right now, you know, the place 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:38.880 to discuss things is Twitter, it's Instagram, it's social media sites. 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.800 That have some major problems with toxicity, and you know 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:45.560 that's that's not going to be the vibe in the 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:47.560 Club TF blog. We're not going to be big enough 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:50.040 to let in all the all the toxic stuff. So 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:51.720 it should be it should be a really fun place 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:53.240 to have conversations. 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:56.439 Yeah, So moving on to other things that we're gonna 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:57.120 So we've. 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:58.800 Done We've done the weekly course review, We've done the 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:01.319 Club TF blog. We can go through the other ones 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.199 fairly quickly because they're I think they're pretty self explanatory. 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:07.520 But what are the other features of the Club TF membership. 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:10.400 We're going to have early event access, so a week 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:16.000 ahead of our public registration. For TFE events, which have 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:18.400 been very popular. We did I think twelve of them 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:22.280 last year. We're planning to do around that number next year. 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:25.840 We will have early access for Club TFE members to 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:29.319 those events. Obviously, some of these events sell out in 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:34.120 two minutes, and what we want to do is we 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:36.319 want for the people that are supporting us, we want 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:39.080 to give them a head start at getting into the 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.880 events that they want to get into. Also, we will 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:48.240 have a monthly member only video, so these will cover 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:52.720 wide ranges of topics. We last year hired Cameron Hurtis, 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:57.120 who's really taken our video platform, our YouTube channel to 0:13:57.160 --> 0:13:59.280 a new level. What we want to do for members 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:02.640 is provide more video. We have a huge library of 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:08.720 golf video of golf courses and topics of architecture and 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:11.720 that we want to dive into and uh, this is 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:15.680 a another reason to do more of that. So we 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:20.360 will do a monthly video for members only that will 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:22.640 be posted on the club TF blog. 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:24.920 So that'll be exciting that. 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:27.480 I mean, I think off the battle will probably be 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:30.840 a lot of golf architecture stuff. But like we said, 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.960 you know that we envisioned this becoming more and more 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.840 as it grows and as we as it evolves. So 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.440 those videos will be member they will be member only, 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:45.080 and then every month we will do a kind of 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.680 a digital Q and a hangout. So the software that 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:51.880 we've been using for a couple of years riverside, it's 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.080 been under used. I think we did it once with 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:56.720 a shotgun start during a major during like I think 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:57.520 of weather delay. 0:14:57.800 --> 0:14:58.360 We had one. 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:02.400 So yeah, you and you and Brendan, Yeah, and we. 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:05.200 Had we had a few call ins. We had. It 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:05.600 was fun. 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:09.000 So we can do these digital hangouts where people it 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:11.760 can be like live Q and A sessions people can 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:17.160 call in and and they're really fun, interactive, and we're 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:18.880 going to do one of those once a month, and 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:21.920 you know, it'll be kind of like no questions off 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:24.280 limits for the most part. Maybe there are some off 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:27.520 limits questions, but you'll have if you can't make it, 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:31.280 you'll have the opportunity to submit questions beforehand, and then 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:33.680 if you can't make it, we will obviously post the 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:39.200 audio and or video uh to the Club TFE blog 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:40.880 for people to digest. 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:41.720 On their own time. 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.600 So that will be once a month and that will 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.600 be just like almost like an additional Q and A podcast. 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:48.800 And then UH. 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:52.760 One other piece is we'll just have a constant ten 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:56.440 percent off discount in the Frida Egg Pro shop. The 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.280 neat thing with this is obviously, if you know from 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.040 the standpoint of like if you're looking, if you were 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:04.560 if you've been eyeing prints or something, and just use 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:06.840 this as an example. But if you've been eying, like hey, 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:10.280 I want to redo my office and you buy some prints, 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:13.280 you get ten percent off. You you're clawing back your 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:16.360 investment in the Fried Egg with every time you purchase 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:18.440 something or want to purchase something, I'm not saying you 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:20.400 have to, but it's just an added. 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:20.560 Perk, right. 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:22.680 We want to give you a little bit of a 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:27.520 thank you for your investment in our membership that we 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:31.160 hope to really grow the company with. So that will 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:34.560 be all the time. And then uh, and then finally 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:37.560 we'll do an annual member gift, So that'll just get 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:40.640 mailed out to your your address on file and uh, 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:44.040 it'll be just another thank you, and that'll be you know, 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:48.800 Club TFE branded and sent out directly to you. So 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:52.040 that's the offering as of now. As I've said a 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:54.800 few times in this like, we envision this becoming much 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:58.560 more and we're really excited about it. And and you know, 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:01.280 I think, you know, from day one to where we 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:04.879 are this time next year, I think it'll grow a lot, 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:07.879 and we're really excited about about this. 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:11.400 And I probably said excited about twenty times right now. 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:13.240 You're thrilled, so thrilled. 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:14.640 I gotta think about saying. 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.520 As yeah, but yeah, we'll come up with some other ones. 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:21.439 But that's the basics of Club TFE. 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:25.520 Weekly Course Review and Rating, Club tf Blog, Monthly Virtual 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:29.879 Hangout monthly video, early access to TFE events, ten percent 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:32.919 off the TF Pro Shop annual member gift. That's the 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:35.400 list right now. How much is it per year? 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:38.320 It is one hundred and twenty dollars per year. 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:42.919 Okay, are we selling out? Is this a crooked money grab? 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:44.400 Why are we doing this? 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:48.720 I don't think we're selling out. If anything, we're doing 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:52.640 the opposite. I think the the number one thing when 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:55.040 I started the Frida Egg that I wanted and that 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:57.399 I saw an issue with in golf media was the 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:02.399 lack of independence. And I don't think that's necessarily much better. 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:05.440 Obviously there are some some like no laying up's a 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:09.160 good example of a of an independent another, but there's 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:12.200 you know, I think that if anything like what live 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:15.720 in the PGA tour has reminded us of is like 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:20.240 how little independence there are is in larger endemics. And 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:22.920 and one of the reasons that we are doing this 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.760 is to have the ability to grow our team to 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:29.480 where we want to get to. Like we we have 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:33.560 very high ambitions of what we what we can provide, 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:36.520 you know, for people that love golf, and we want 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:39.640 to keep doing that and in order to reach our 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:44.760 goals of what we can do in golf coverage. We 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:47.720 have to grow our team. And one of the reasons 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:50.160 that we're doing this is is so we can invest 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:53.960 back into our team so that we can continue to 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:58.320 add talent and produce more content. And that doesn't mean 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:02.320 just like more paid content, that's more free content. What 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:06.639 we want to do is do more. We have a 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:10.600 lot of ideas. We have hundreds of content ideas, if 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:14.200 not thousands, that we want to do. But our biggest 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:16.760 issue at this point as a company is a lack 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:19.400 of bandwidth. Like you know, we have we have six 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:22.920 staff members with me, me, and you included, right. 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:25.560 And if people think that's a lot, just keep in 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:29.440 mind we don't have a hidden army of people who 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:32.960 edit our stuff and people who post our stuff to 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:37.320 the website or to the podcast feed. We do all 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:42.240 of that ourselves right now, right anybody who's a publicly 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:45.199 known member of the Friday Egg and that's pretty much 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:48.520 all of us, that's all we are right now. 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:52.160 So you know, in terms of that, like, what what 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:56.000 this does is, you know, it provides us the opportunity 0:19:56.320 --> 0:20:00.120 to reinvest in our team and grow and add like 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.560 people want more and and this is the ability to 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:07.000 do that. The best way for us to provide more 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:10.200 is to be able to add talent and support for 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:13.840 our for our teams. So so that's a big reason. 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:16.040 And I you know, I don't think it's selling out. 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:16.680 Like the big thing. 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:20.840 I think we were all as a team, very steadfast 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:24.560 on was attempting to not take away anything from what 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:25.800 we are a provide. 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:29.440 Yeah, the Friday podcast that you're listening to right now 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:31.760 is going to continue to come out at a rate 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:33.919 of like six to eight a month, depending on the 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:36.760 time of year. Shotguns Start is coming out three times 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:38.960 a week. The newsletter is coming out three times a week. 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:41.920 That's the that's the core offering. We're also going to 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:44.199 keep doing the stuff that we've been doing on the 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:48.400 website and on YouTube. But uh yeah, we're not. We're 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:51.760 not putting anything behind a paywall with this, so that's 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:55.280 important to note. Now, I want to say something about 0:20:55.280 --> 0:21:00.120 why I'm excited about the membership model, and that is 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:05.720 is because what this kind of subscriber driven thing does 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:12.160 is it aligns our incentives as content makers with those 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:15.840 of the audience in a much better way, I think 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:22.000 than the general model of the public Internet does right. Now, 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:28.320 take Cameron Hurdis's videos for instance, that we've posted on YouTube. 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:36.120 They're brilliant, they're intricately crafted, they're really artful. But those 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:41.080 videos don't necessarily do better in the YouTube algorithm than 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:43.240 things that are made in a much more kind of 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:48.680 haphazard quick way. But you know who appreciates the videos 0:21:48.680 --> 0:21:54.760 that Cameron Hurdis makes are Frida Egg listeners, viewers, readers, 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:59.560 people who really like that stuff. And what we think 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:03.080 that the membership model can do is encourage us to 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:07.560 do great, well thought through content as opposed to stuff 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:11.280 that just kind of does numbers, right, that just kind 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:15.200 of drives traffic. We would prefer to do stuff that's 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:17.920 well crafted and that we think is a good product. 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:21.000 And I think that this is the best way that 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:24.159 we can be allowed to do that, both in the 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:26.119 membership and also publicly. 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:28.959 Yeah, and to give people an idea. 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:31.800 And this is a little like inside baseball, like running 0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:34.240 a media company, but like there are a couple of 0:22:34.280 --> 0:22:36.920 ways in which you could grow your team and provide 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:41.440 more content content to people. One of them would be 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:46.000 you could sell more sponsorships, And obviously, like that's something 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:48.239 that we're still going to try and do because we 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:52.280 want to provide more free content, and sponsorships and advertisers 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:55.239 and partners are a great are great avenue for that, 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:58.879 and we have great partners like people that really allow 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:02.040 us to do some great stuff, you know, but we 0:23:02.080 --> 0:23:04.720 would need a lot more partners and not every partner 0:23:04.880 --> 0:23:07.879 is a great partner. Like what happens a lot of 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:12.040 times with partnerships is that you're you're they want specific 0:23:12.160 --> 0:23:16.120 types of content. You know, come attend to this tournament 0:23:16.680 --> 0:23:20.359 and do something on this tournament. Come attend X, Y 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:23.919 and Z and do something on this and like that. 0:23:23.920 --> 0:23:27.000 That's great and all, but that's where you you begin 0:23:27.080 --> 0:23:31.640 to lose your independence. That's you know, like we're going 0:23:31.720 --> 0:23:35.159 to still attend the major, Like I the thing that 0:23:35.240 --> 0:23:38.520 I really think where I want to go attend golf 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:42.000 tournaments as majors. Right, you know what would be more 0:23:42.080 --> 0:23:47.399 valuable for our core audience me attending a B list 0:23:47.840 --> 0:23:50.760 PGA Tour event because we're getting paid money by a 0:23:50.800 --> 0:23:53.520 sponsor to go do that to that event, or me 0:23:53.680 --> 0:23:57.159 going and seeing a bunch of new golf courses in 0:23:57.160 --> 0:24:00.920 in the UK or something and providing like insights into 0:24:01.119 --> 0:24:04.880 what we thought about golf courses. You know, you different 0:24:05.119 --> 0:24:07.920 listeners would have different opinions, but I think where most 0:24:07.960 --> 0:24:10.760 would fall would be, like, I'd rather see them go, 0:24:11.119 --> 0:24:13.960 you know, discover some golf courses that I might go 0:24:14.000 --> 0:24:17.320 see at some point in my lifetime, you know, versus 0:24:17.440 --> 0:24:19.360 covering said tournament. 0:24:20.400 --> 0:24:23.160 So with that, like, that's one avenue. 0:24:23.240 --> 0:24:26.639 And we're still going to have advertisers and advertising on 0:24:27.080 --> 0:24:28.040 our free channels. 0:24:28.080 --> 0:24:30.120 Like that doesn't mean that's going to end. 0:24:30.480 --> 0:24:35.520 But like advertising, finding great partners isn't like an easy 0:24:35.560 --> 0:24:37.240 thing to do, and. 0:24:37.440 --> 0:24:40.560 The ones we have are fantastic and it allowed us 0:24:40.640 --> 0:24:44.880 to do what we want to do, sometimes incredibly so right, 0:24:45.320 --> 0:24:48.840 like I can't believe that, you know, we got an 0:24:48.840 --> 0:24:52.440 advertiser to buy into some particular project that we've done. 0:24:52.480 --> 0:24:55.600 So we have found those sponsors. But the thing is, 0:24:56.040 --> 0:24:59.479 we turn away a lot of sponsors because a lot 0:24:59.560 --> 0:25:03.040 of other ones kind of want us to do particular 0:25:03.160 --> 0:25:06.280 things when it comes to content. And so the ones 0:25:06.320 --> 0:25:08.760 that we have, you know, you're hearing from that sponsor 0:25:09.240 --> 0:25:12.359 because they've allowed us independence. That's that's the red line. 0:25:12.920 --> 0:25:16.240 But behind the scenes, there's a lot of sponsors who 0:25:16.560 --> 0:25:20.560 you know, would prefer content that's more along what they 0:25:20.960 --> 0:25:24.119 envision and and so that's the that's the issue with 0:25:24.280 --> 0:25:28.760 the completely ad supported content operation. Am I right about that? 0:25:29.200 --> 0:25:30.680 Yeah? It's the tricky thing. 0:25:30.720 --> 0:25:34.040 And you see, you see these challenges with a lot 0:25:34.040 --> 0:25:37.360 of outlets, right you know, Like I mean, I think 0:25:37.359 --> 0:25:41.320 Golf Channel and the PGA Tour's partnership in a way 0:25:41.560 --> 0:25:45.320 like rights partner, rights partner versus and that's like, listen, 0:25:45.359 --> 0:25:47.520 they're a rights partner. They have to be that way, 0:25:47.560 --> 0:25:50.840 but they can't be an independent outlet because of that. 0:25:51.000 --> 0:25:53.320 You know, they can't talk about certain things that happen 0:25:53.400 --> 0:25:56.679 on the PGA Tour because of that and what we 0:25:56.840 --> 0:25:59.240 want to do. And you know, I think, like I 0:25:59.760 --> 0:26:04.040 can say this with real confidence, like I don't want 0:26:04.080 --> 0:26:08.080 to do this if we can't say what we really 0:26:08.119 --> 0:26:11.720 believe about things. And I think I hope everybody that 0:26:11.920 --> 0:26:14.400 has been a listener and a reader for a long 0:26:14.480 --> 0:26:18.960 time believes when I say that, Like I think like 0:26:19.080 --> 0:26:22.040 we've we've pretty much spoken our mind about every single 0:26:22.080 --> 0:26:24.600 topic that comes up, and like I don't try and 0:26:24.640 --> 0:26:28.240 sugarcoat things. I try and say exactly what I think. 0:26:28.280 --> 0:26:30.879 And if the day when we don't do that is 0:26:30.920 --> 0:26:33.040 probably the day when I have no interest in doing 0:26:33.080 --> 0:26:38.240 this anymore. So with that, like, another option would be 0:26:38.280 --> 0:26:41.600 to raise outside capital and grow that way, and that's 0:26:41.600 --> 0:26:44.920 something that we you know, have have discussed and might 0:26:45.000 --> 0:26:48.240 potentially still do, but but that's not something we're doing 0:26:48.440 --> 0:26:51.240 to date. So it leaves you with like, okay, like 0:26:52.119 --> 0:26:57.360 the membership and a a you know, reader and listener 0:26:57.640 --> 0:27:01.440 supported model is the best way to grow your team 0:27:01.840 --> 0:27:05.680 in a sustainable way without giving up you know, all 0:27:05.720 --> 0:27:09.959 of your voice in your potential integrity, like and also 0:27:10.680 --> 0:27:13.240 providing the content that you know the readers want more 0:27:13.280 --> 0:27:15.600 of that maybe an advertiser is not going to buy, 0:27:16.240 --> 0:27:18.440 you know. That's the other aspect of this is that 0:27:18.640 --> 0:27:21.639 like we want to provide content that are we know 0:27:21.760 --> 0:27:24.760 our readers and listeners want, and that's going to be 0:27:24.840 --> 0:27:27.720 part of this too, is like, you know, what what 0:27:27.760 --> 0:27:31.040 people want is going to shape what we're doing in 0:27:31.080 --> 0:27:34.359 this membership. We obviously I think I have we in 0:27:34.440 --> 0:27:37.640 our team has good instincts on what what you guys want. 0:27:37.920 --> 0:27:42.200 But we will listen and take feedback and produce content 0:27:42.240 --> 0:27:44.600 more content if you if there's things that we are 0:27:44.720 --> 0:27:46.879 covering that you want more of, we will. We will 0:27:47.240 --> 0:27:52.159 strive to do that, and that's the exciting thing on 0:27:52.240 --> 0:27:55.760 top of what this membership from a community sense, like 0:27:55.800 --> 0:27:58.879 we we do we really like. I think that's been 0:27:58.920 --> 0:28:02.560 one of the most rewarding aspects of since I started 0:28:02.560 --> 0:28:05.320 this that I never imagined that it being was the 0:28:05.320 --> 0:28:09.320 community that's been built around, you know, and when we 0:28:09.400 --> 0:28:11.479 go to these when we go to our events and 0:28:11.920 --> 0:28:14.200 like the people we meet, you know, you see these 0:28:14.359 --> 0:28:18.600 these strangers that become like really good friends by the 0:28:18.720 --> 0:28:21.200 end of the day. And you see people that had 0:28:21.240 --> 0:28:24.720 never met in the morning or setting up golf for 0:28:25.080 --> 0:28:28.120 when they're back home in a couple of weeks. Right, 0:28:28.680 --> 0:28:32.040 that's the rewarding thing. And we want to create something 0:28:32.040 --> 0:28:35.000 that can foster even more community, and we believe that 0:28:35.040 --> 0:28:36.240 this membership can do that. 0:28:37.160 --> 0:28:41.000 Cool, all right, So that's Club TFE. Why don't we 0:28:41.160 --> 0:28:45.000 rewind a few years. I kind of just wanted to 0:28:45.040 --> 0:28:48.800 do a review of The Fried Egg to this point. 0:28:48.920 --> 0:28:51.120 You know, I know you've told this story in a 0:28:51.120 --> 0:28:53.720 few places, but I don't think that you've done that 0:28:54.800 --> 0:28:58.600 in full on this podcast really really talked about how 0:28:58.760 --> 0:29:01.640 you started this company and how you built it. I 0:29:01.680 --> 0:29:04.760 think Club TFE is a major moment in this company's history. 0:29:04.800 --> 0:29:10.800 We're moving towards something new and we're doing well right now, 0:29:11.400 --> 0:29:15.000 but we're trying to add to that with this. So 0:29:15.040 --> 0:29:16.360 I thought it would be a good time to kind 0:29:16.360 --> 0:29:20.080 of rewind and and you know, figure out where this started. 0:29:20.160 --> 0:29:24.280 So why did you start the fried Egg? Where were 0:29:24.280 --> 0:29:26.800 you at in your life and you know what possessed 0:29:26.840 --> 0:29:29.000 you to like start the company? 0:29:29.840 --> 0:29:35.960 Yeah, so I was. I was a golf nut. I 0:29:36.000 --> 0:29:38.480 was a member at a club in Chicago. I was 0:29:38.520 --> 0:29:41.760 working in the tech world there. It was called the 0:29:42.000 --> 0:29:45.320 built In and it was a it was like a 0:29:45.440 --> 0:29:50.800 hybrid media slash media company that had this job board 0:29:51.880 --> 0:29:56.760 and we had these sites, local sites in different cities 0:29:56.800 --> 0:30:00.200 that had big tech scenes. It still exists today out 0:30:00.200 --> 0:30:01.360 of built in dot com. 0:30:01.120 --> 0:30:01.560 And see it. 0:30:02.080 --> 0:30:04.680 But you know, I was working there and that's where 0:30:04.720 --> 0:30:07.320 I learned a lot about media. But I was in 0:30:08.320 --> 0:30:10.240 you know, as I learned more and more about media, 0:30:10.280 --> 0:30:11.800 I wasn't a writer or anything. 0:30:12.080 --> 0:30:12.440 I was. 0:30:12.520 --> 0:30:16.200 I was a business guy, and I just started to 0:30:16.200 --> 0:30:19.640 think more and more about golf and in other sports 0:30:19.680 --> 0:30:24.920 media and how nothing was really curtailed to like what 0:30:25.200 --> 0:30:30.240 I as, like a devoted golfer wanted. You know, I 0:30:30.280 --> 0:30:33.000 played every weekend, I watched tournament golf, and I would read. 0:30:33.120 --> 0:30:36.040 I'd read articles and on the l going into work 0:30:36.320 --> 0:30:38.520 on a daily basis and be like, why did I 0:30:38.600 --> 0:30:42.040 just spend like three minutes let's reading this or five 0:30:42.080 --> 0:30:45.600 minutes reading this like this, I just didn't get anything 0:30:45.640 --> 0:30:45.880 from the. 0:30:46.320 --> 0:30:49.040 Days of blogging, as we were talking about earlier. 0:30:49.800 --> 0:30:53.440 And so you know, I kind of got a lot 0:30:53.480 --> 0:30:56.040 of ideas from what we were doing at built In 0:30:56.120 --> 0:30:59.560 and some of what we weren't doing at built In 0:30:59.640 --> 0:31:00.960 that that got shot down. 0:31:01.080 --> 0:31:03.800 Like I was an avid podcast. 0:31:03.320 --> 0:31:09.480 Listener, and I was I really believed in the newsletter 0:31:09.720 --> 0:31:13.680 concept that companies like the Skim and the Hustle had 0:31:14.400 --> 0:31:17.960 had developed and were at their somewhat early parts of 0:31:18.000 --> 0:31:23.000 their existence. I like that kind of email that's delivered 0:31:23.080 --> 0:31:26.160 right into your inbox that has all the content in it, 0:31:26.280 --> 0:31:28.000 so you don't have to click out to like some 0:31:28.200 --> 0:31:31.160 article and you don't get served vibe ads. It's like, oh, 0:31:31.240 --> 0:31:34.360 I can just like read this email and be set. 0:31:34.480 --> 0:31:38.400 I know what's going on if I missed something. So 0:31:38.840 --> 0:31:40.920 that was kind of like the basis, and that's how 0:31:40.960 --> 0:31:44.400 the Friday started. I had I told a friend of 0:31:44.480 --> 0:31:47.240 mine who was a founder of a company and a 0:31:47.280 --> 0:31:50.720 really big golf nut. His name's Andy Mack. I said, 0:31:51.000 --> 0:31:52.760 I sat in his office. We were talking about a 0:31:52.760 --> 0:31:56.680 couple of things, a couple of business things, and I 0:31:56.800 --> 0:31:58.520 told him I was like, I got this idea for 0:31:58.600 --> 0:32:01.280 this business. And he was like, you know, Andy, like 0:32:01.560 --> 0:32:04.240 I spent the last like I spent six months before 0:32:04.280 --> 0:32:07.480 I started the company that he had founded at that time. 0:32:07.920 --> 0:32:10.960 I spent six months making sure everything was perfect, dotting 0:32:11.000 --> 0:32:14.239 all these i's, crossing all these te's, and like, the 0:32:14.280 --> 0:32:17.239 best thing I can tell you is just start doing it. 0:32:17.560 --> 0:32:21.239 Don't worry about it being perfect day one, launch it, 0:32:21.520 --> 0:32:24.320 and let it go from there and see what people think, 0:32:24.320 --> 0:32:26.640 because that's going to be the most valuable and most 0:32:26.920 --> 0:32:29.920 you know, important feedback that you're going to get. So 0:32:30.080 --> 0:32:33.560 that day, I like I went into work and I 0:32:33.600 --> 0:32:36.840 didn't work. And I was at this point an awful writer, 0:32:37.280 --> 0:32:42.360 horrendous like like no background in hiding, yeah, and like 0:32:42.680 --> 0:32:47.720 widely known as like very bad at writing emails, Like. 0:32:47.680 --> 0:32:51.000 You had a reputation, yes, as a guy who wasn't 0:32:51.000 --> 0:32:52.200 the guy to write emails well. 0:32:52.240 --> 0:32:54.720 And I worked at a company with writers and editors 0:32:55.040 --> 0:32:58.480 and like you know, they so there's a lot of 0:32:58.560 --> 0:33:00.880 It was funny when I started to tell people that 0:33:00.920 --> 0:33:02.280 I started this thing, They're like. 0:33:02.240 --> 0:33:03.360 Wait, what you're writing? 0:33:05.480 --> 0:33:07.240 So anyways, I went to work that day and I 0:33:07.320 --> 0:33:11.040 just wrote a newsletter and thankfully Kaylee, my wife is 0:33:11.360 --> 0:33:13.720 it was a journalist journalism major, and. 0:33:13.680 --> 0:33:14.480 She edited it. 0:33:14.560 --> 0:33:18.360 And I mean she she didn't know anything about golf. 0:33:18.680 --> 0:33:21.880 The first first newsletter, it took her I think like 0:33:21.920 --> 0:33:25.200 two hours to edit and she she at one point 0:33:25.240 --> 0:33:30.640 was in tears over the writing. So that was our 0:33:30.720 --> 0:33:33.760 humble beginnings. It went out to ten people and the 0:33:33.840 --> 0:33:36.120 list grew from there. It was like friends and family 0:33:36.320 --> 0:33:38.400 and then and then the next email I sent to 0:33:38.440 --> 0:33:42.400 like basically every email I could find in my in 0:33:42.480 --> 0:33:46.040 my email history. That was somebody that I had played 0:33:46.040 --> 0:33:48.400 golf with or knew they were really into golf, and 0:33:48.640 --> 0:33:50.600 I sent all of them like an email beforehand. 0:33:51.080 --> 0:33:52.600 And then that's what launched it. 0:33:52.640 --> 0:33:54.840 I think it was like two hundred people got that 0:33:54.960 --> 0:33:57.640 second email, and then we were off and going and 0:33:58.160 --> 0:34:00.560 it became just kind of like a pet side project 0:34:00.760 --> 0:34:04.040 for for a number of months, and eventually I quit 0:34:04.080 --> 0:34:07.920 my job and and started just going and jumped off 0:34:07.920 --> 0:34:11.279 the cliff and uh and it was it was you know, 0:34:11.600 --> 0:34:14.120 those those early days were crazy, you know. 0:34:14.200 --> 0:34:17.160 I in a way and one of the things that appeals. 0:34:16.760 --> 0:34:20.239 To me about this membership is like one of the 0:34:20.360 --> 0:34:23.239 my favorite things about the first couple of years of 0:34:23.280 --> 0:34:27.840 the Friday really like the first you know, two years, 0:34:28.239 --> 0:34:31.560 is like every day I would wake up and it 0:34:31.600 --> 0:34:33.279 would be like, Okay, what am I going to write 0:34:33.280 --> 0:34:36.880 about today? Or what am I you know, like and 0:34:37.080 --> 0:34:39.640 in a way like and this is something that happens 0:34:39.680 --> 0:34:43.560 when you're when businesses grow, is that like you have 0:34:43.920 --> 0:34:47.799 I have a lot more responsibilities now than I had 0:34:47.920 --> 0:34:50.279 then in terms of what I have to do for 0:34:50.320 --> 0:34:52.759 the business. And you know, we we obviously have a 0:34:52.840 --> 0:34:57.680 staff and and like my day is only partially devoted 0:34:57.760 --> 0:35:00.719 to content. But like I think think one of the 0:35:00.719 --> 0:35:04.800 beauties of this membership is that it it adds more 0:35:06.160 --> 0:35:10.440 emphasis to my daily basis on producing content and waking 0:35:10.520 --> 0:35:12.400 up and like, I think that's the beauty of that 0:35:12.520 --> 0:35:15.920 club TFE blog waking up And you know what, what 0:35:15.960 --> 0:35:17.440 do I want to talk about today? 0:35:18.320 --> 0:35:20.560 Is A is? A is A beautiful? It was it 0:35:20.800 --> 0:35:21.800 was it was simple. 0:35:22.760 --> 0:35:26.840 I had like no money, I was making nothing, and 0:35:27.080 --> 0:35:30.520 I was like sitting in my apartment. My my wife 0:35:31.239 --> 0:35:34.279 at the time, I think she was my fiance. She 0:35:34.360 --> 0:35:36.239 would she would go to work and it would be 0:35:36.280 --> 0:35:37.960 me and the dog just sitting in the. 0:35:37.920 --> 0:35:40.359 Apartment all day, Like what are we going to write 0:35:40.400 --> 0:35:41.000 about today? 0:35:41.760 --> 0:35:45.840 At what point did you start doing golf architecture content? 0:35:46.080 --> 0:35:51.640 Because the early newsletter wasn't necessarily focused on golf course architecture, right, 0:35:51.680 --> 0:35:55.960 that wasn't really a baked in concept in the business. 0:35:56.120 --> 0:36:00.839 So what made you start writing about golf architecture? And 0:36:00.960 --> 0:36:03.359 you know that eventually became kind of one of your 0:36:03.440 --> 0:36:06.399 calling cards or your early major calling card. 0:36:07.160 --> 0:36:09.560 So when you're a startup, I. 0:36:11.080 --> 0:36:14.520 My content strategy was like if I'm if I'm generally 0:36:14.560 --> 0:36:18.480 interested in something, there has to be thousands of other 0:36:18.560 --> 0:36:20.800 golfers interested in that same topic. 0:36:21.320 --> 0:36:24.400 Like that was my theory about content. 0:36:25.719 --> 0:36:27.880 And and so that was kind of like and I 0:36:27.880 --> 0:36:30.319 had always been really interested in my whole life in 0:36:30.400 --> 0:36:34.440 golf architecture. I grew up caddying, like as Tom Doak says, 0:36:34.480 --> 0:36:38.120 like caddies have a would make like the best golf 0:36:38.200 --> 0:36:41.440 architects because they in some sense because they like navigate 0:36:41.760 --> 0:36:44.799 a wide range. Like if you go caddy for like 0:36:44.840 --> 0:36:49.239 a senior or a woman or a junior who hits 0:36:49.280 --> 0:36:54.840 a lower trajectory shot, you know, you understand hazards and 0:36:54.880 --> 0:36:57.399 strategy and how to get around them, like if you're 0:36:57.400 --> 0:37:00.239 a good caddy, like it just innately, because that what 0:37:00.280 --> 0:37:03.479 you're doing is you're like trying to like navigate around 0:37:03.520 --> 0:37:06.680 the golf course and get your player into a position 0:37:06.719 --> 0:37:10.879 where they can attack, you know. And so I had 0:37:10.960 --> 0:37:13.560 been reading Golf Club at lists when I from like 0:37:13.680 --> 0:37:17.040 when I was in college, and I was always really 0:37:17.080 --> 0:37:21.560 interested in it. And and so we had started the website. 0:37:21.560 --> 0:37:23.839 We had moved from you know, obviously the just the 0:37:23.880 --> 0:37:26.839 newsletter at the start, but we had launched a website 0:37:26.880 --> 0:37:30.360 where we wrote because like the website's purpose. When I started, 0:37:30.440 --> 0:37:32.720 I was like, well, like I need to get people 0:37:32.760 --> 0:37:35.480 to sign up for the newsletter, So I'm going to 0:37:35.560 --> 0:37:39.680 write blogs that then make people want to sign up 0:37:39.760 --> 0:37:40.719 for the newsletter. 0:37:41.040 --> 0:37:43.160 Yeah, so that you know, that is all centered around 0:37:43.160 --> 0:37:45.600 the newsletter. I think the podcast started kind of in 0:37:45.600 --> 0:37:48.600 a similar way, right, you were like, I need I 0:37:48.640 --> 0:37:51.200 need more avenues for getting people to sign up for 0:37:51.239 --> 0:37:52.759 the newsletter exactly. 0:37:53.080 --> 0:37:57.319 So that was the idea and and then you know, 0:37:57.400 --> 0:37:59.799 with with the blog, it gave me the ability to 0:37:59.800 --> 0:38:04.440 write about more topics, right, And golf architecture was one 0:38:04.440 --> 0:38:07.319 that I always was interested in, and I was like, 0:38:07.360 --> 0:38:09.680 you know, I think I think people would be super 0:38:09.719 --> 0:38:12.319 interested in it. And outside of golf club aut lists, 0:38:12.680 --> 0:38:17.120 there wasn't really anything on the Internet that that was 0:38:17.200 --> 0:38:20.760 like writing about golf architecture at that point. 0:38:20.600 --> 0:38:23.640 Right, you know, and some of the legacy magazines had 0:38:23.840 --> 0:38:26.960 golf course writers would have you know, one or two 0:38:26.960 --> 0:38:30.279 maybe golf course or travel writers. They would have their 0:38:30.320 --> 0:38:33.200 top one hundred lists. But as far as like in 0:38:33.280 --> 0:38:38.080 depth golf architecture content was concerned that focused on like 0:38:38.160 --> 0:38:41.719 the design of golf holes, there wasn't like a whole 0:38:41.760 --> 0:38:44.120 lot out out there aside from golf club atlists. Golf 0:38:44.120 --> 0:38:47.600 club batlists was different. And so this was a kind 0:38:47.680 --> 0:38:50.760 of area where, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, 0:38:50.840 --> 0:38:54.040 but it would have been hard to notice that there 0:38:54.120 --> 0:38:57.400 was an appetite for this kind of content, yes, because 0:38:57.440 --> 0:39:01.279 it was so rare for it to exist on the Internet. 0:39:01.520 --> 0:39:02.200 That's the thing. 0:39:02.320 --> 0:39:04.920 And that's what everybody said to me at the beginning 0:39:05.080 --> 0:39:08.040 when I started writing about it. They're like, you can't 0:39:08.600 --> 0:39:12.799 build a company that writes about golf architecture and make it. 0:39:12.920 --> 0:39:16.120 There's not enough people. That's what everybody always used to say, 0:39:16.280 --> 0:39:21.160 there's not enough people. And I think like where I 0:39:21.320 --> 0:39:24.439 was different, and I think one of the beautiful things 0:39:24.560 --> 0:39:27.080 this is like a challenge, honestly, Like I think about 0:39:27.080 --> 0:39:29.680 this a lot. And what makes it a little bit 0:39:29.680 --> 0:39:35.760 harder at this point to write for write about golf 0:39:35.880 --> 0:39:39.880 architecture is like in the beginning, it was like I 0:39:40.000 --> 0:39:44.040 wrote as I was learning, you know, I was learning stuff, 0:39:44.120 --> 0:39:47.840 and it was kind of like me writing and taking 0:39:48.040 --> 0:39:51.200 people along for the ride. You know, there was like this. 0:39:51.600 --> 0:39:53.319 I go back and read it now and I kind 0:39:53.320 --> 0:39:57.400 of like cringe a lot. But it was like this 0:39:57.400 --> 0:39:59.480 this like it was me learning. 0:40:00.040 --> 0:40:02.520 Now you weren't talking down to people. I think that's 0:40:02.560 --> 0:40:06.160 a big deal that you weren't, you know, delivering insights 0:40:06.200 --> 0:40:10.239 and knowledge from on high because you were learning this 0:40:10.280 --> 0:40:12.839 stuff at essentially the same time that you were writing it. 0:40:13.560 --> 0:40:13.919 Uh huhm. 0:40:14.239 --> 0:40:17.080 And And like now it's like some of the things, 0:40:17.120 --> 0:40:20.960 like you know, I you look at things and you're like, well, 0:40:21.000 --> 0:40:24.080 like the things that I look at and care most about, 0:40:24.120 --> 0:40:26.600 and nobody will care about, you know, So it's like 0:40:26.640 --> 0:40:28.799 going back to like kind of that base level is 0:40:28.840 --> 0:40:34.279 always an important, important aspect of of of it. But yeah, 0:40:34.320 --> 0:40:36.600 that so I started it was funny I wrote this 0:40:36.760 --> 0:40:42.719 article on her Dan holds, Yeah, and my wife was like, 0:40:42.920 --> 0:40:45.840 I mean she was she edited everything. I mean, I 0:40:46.040 --> 0:40:49.600 just think anybody that's got a partner that doesn't know 0:40:49.719 --> 0:40:53.720 anything or like golf, like she was editing everything. 0:40:53.800 --> 0:40:56.480 I mean, it's like a comical thing to think back to. 0:40:56.600 --> 0:40:58.759 She I mean like she was in this she was 0:40:58.840 --> 0:41:02.400 working you know, hours a week on this thing too, 0:41:02.520 --> 0:41:05.520 like in an editing capacity, because I could nothing I 0:41:05.560 --> 0:41:09.280 wrote could go out on editing like nothing. 0:41:10.200 --> 0:41:11.640 So like she's. 0:41:11.400 --> 0:41:14.719 Reading this about Dana Holes and she's like, this is 0:41:14.760 --> 0:41:17.680 the most boring thing I've ever read in my life. 0:41:19.960 --> 0:41:22.800 And and then I posted it. I think I posted 0:41:22.840 --> 0:41:27.160 on the fourth of July and it was like post it. Yeah, 0:41:27.320 --> 0:41:31.440 awful like history like if you web traffic day, like 0:41:31.480 --> 0:41:34.040 one of the worst days of the year that you 0:41:34.080 --> 0:41:36.920 can post something on the on the web and expect 0:41:36.920 --> 0:41:40.319 to get traffic. And it was like our website for 0:41:40.440 --> 0:41:45.960 there that day's like that point standard like exploded and 0:41:46.000 --> 0:41:49.399 there was so much interest in it. I bet if 0:41:49.400 --> 0:41:52.160 you found the tweet of us tweeting it out, you know, 0:41:52.960 --> 0:41:55.239 in the archives, like you know, there was a lot 0:41:55.239 --> 0:41:58.239 of retweets. It was like this article in it in 0:41:58.400 --> 0:42:00.600 what it did to me it was Chris lies like 0:42:01.080 --> 0:42:03.239 you know what. Like it was it went back to 0:42:03.320 --> 0:42:07.080 the belief like I really I like golf architecture. I'm 0:42:07.120 --> 0:42:11.200 super interested in this and other people are too, you know, 0:42:11.480 --> 0:42:14.600 Like that's the thing if like you're super into golf 0:42:14.640 --> 0:42:16.479 and I give this advice to a lot of people 0:42:16.560 --> 0:42:18.759 that ask me for advice if they they're trying to 0:42:18.760 --> 0:42:22.080 get in and break in, is like, don't look at 0:42:22.080 --> 0:42:26.239 what other people do and do and try and be them. 0:42:26.480 --> 0:42:28.759 Like you can't look at No laying up and be like, 0:42:28.800 --> 0:42:31.400 oh we're gonna be just like No laying up. They 0:42:31.480 --> 0:42:34.439 have their own personal style. What you have to do, 0:42:34.560 --> 0:42:37.840 Like this was a great let I guess, like example 0:42:37.880 --> 0:42:41.400 of that is like righte about what you care about 0:42:41.800 --> 0:42:44.880 and like because if you're really like a golf nut 0:42:45.440 --> 0:42:49.200 and you have like things that you're passionate about, there 0:42:49.239 --> 0:42:53.880 are other people that are passionate about those same exact things. 0:42:53.960 --> 0:42:57.560 Or you can recruit them into your passion yes, because 0:42:57.600 --> 0:43:00.839 the key is that enthusiasm. People do tech, that they 0:43:00.920 --> 0:43:04.640 know it when they see it. It's rare, and so 0:43:05.520 --> 0:43:07.680 people are attracted to it. And I think that that's 0:43:07.719 --> 0:43:09.799 part of what happened with golf architecture. I think there 0:43:09.920 --> 0:43:12.880 was a I think there was a kind of silent 0:43:12.960 --> 0:43:15.680 majority of people who were already interested in it, and 0:43:15.760 --> 0:43:20.360 that there were more people out there than maybe we assumed. 0:43:21.320 --> 0:43:25.560 But there were also people who became interested in it 0:43:25.680 --> 0:43:29.080 because they noticed, you know, the passion that was starting 0:43:29.120 --> 0:43:31.879 to build up around it. And I think that's one 0:43:31.880 --> 0:43:34.719 of the most kind of surprising and fun things that's 0:43:34.760 --> 0:43:40.200 happened on the golf Internet in the past several years, 0:43:40.239 --> 0:43:44.399 is that building of a community around people who are 0:43:44.440 --> 0:43:48.160 generally getting into the weeds about golf course architecture. That's 0:43:48.200 --> 0:43:50.640 not to say that this the first time that this 0:43:50.680 --> 0:43:53.400 has happened anywhere. You know, we've mentioned Golf Club atleast 0:43:53.440 --> 0:43:55.839 a couple of times. Want to be clear that a 0:43:55.840 --> 0:43:59.240 lot of this stuff happened in its own way there, 0:43:59.760 --> 0:44:02.480 but there has been something in the past few years 0:44:02.520 --> 0:44:05.520 when when you know, more people have just gotten into it. 0:44:06.080 --> 0:44:06.719 Yeah. I think. 0:44:06.800 --> 0:44:08.840 I mean one of the big things was making everything 0:44:08.920 --> 0:44:13.799 accessible and inclusive and open, because you know, I like 0:44:13.880 --> 0:44:16.560 golf club at lists, and I like would I would. 0:44:16.680 --> 0:44:18.960 I figured out when I was in college how to 0:44:19.160 --> 0:44:22.040 use their message board. Their message board has some of 0:44:22.080 --> 0:44:26.480 the most amazing information about like you know, in its heyday, 0:44:26.640 --> 0:44:29.839 when they had a lot of the great historians posting there, 0:44:29.880 --> 0:44:33.680 when Tommy Nacarado was active, when when Tom Paul was 0:44:33.719 --> 0:44:34.279 posting on. 0:44:34.280 --> 0:44:39.560 There, Thomas Wood like these guys Thomas mcwood sadly, but man, 0:44:39.600 --> 0:44:43.040 he's done some of the best golf history architecture writing in. 0:44:43.719 --> 0:44:46.840 The treasure troves of information on that on that message 0:44:46.880 --> 0:44:50.960 board incredible, but like you know, like I'm a Golf 0:44:51.000 --> 0:44:56.080 Club batlist member now, but I had no hope of 0:44:56.320 --> 0:45:01.799 being a Golf Club bat list member until it was 0:45:02.000 --> 0:45:03.880 it was this closed off, like I couldn't get on 0:45:03.960 --> 0:45:07.040 there and ask questions for you know, Tom doak Er 0:45:07.440 --> 0:45:10.120 like there. You know, there's great things about it, but 0:45:10.200 --> 0:45:12.480 like one of the big issues was it wasn't inclusive 0:45:12.520 --> 0:45:12.839 at all. 0:45:12.920 --> 0:45:13.879 It was closed off. 0:45:13.920 --> 0:45:17.120 It was like you have to know somebody who can 0:45:17.200 --> 0:45:21.600 get you a log in, and and you know, and 0:45:21.640 --> 0:45:24.960 then you might get one, you might not, and and 0:45:24.960 --> 0:45:27.960 and I wasn't that person at this point, you know. 0:45:28.040 --> 0:45:29.799 I think that that was like one of the other 0:45:29.880 --> 0:45:32.279 things I think there was. I was extremely naive to 0:45:32.360 --> 0:45:36.440 the golf world when I started it, and and you know, 0:45:36.480 --> 0:45:38.880 I didn't know anybody in the golf industry. 0:45:39.200 --> 0:45:40.880 You know, I was just a golfer. 0:45:41.480 --> 0:45:44.680 And and I think like, as you get into it, 0:45:44.760 --> 0:45:49.040 like you realize like how how connected everything is and 0:45:49.080 --> 0:45:52.160 how small the golf world is. But I think that 0:45:52.320 --> 0:45:55.160 was one of the things about starting it as a 0:45:55.560 --> 0:46:00.560 outsider and like being extremely naive was was actually a 0:46:00.680 --> 0:46:05.040 huge benefit because I, like, you know, I didn't understand 0:46:05.120 --> 0:46:09.520 how difficult that the job and building this would be. 0:46:11.200 --> 0:46:14.560 But I was like very enthusiastic and passionate about it 0:46:14.640 --> 0:46:16.320 because I love golf so much. 0:46:16.600 --> 0:46:20.880 Right Well, okay, so on that theme of not really 0:46:20.960 --> 0:46:25.520 knowing what's going to happen next and maybe acting naively 0:46:25.760 --> 0:46:29.480 in a good way because you you didn't know how 0:46:29.840 --> 0:46:33.319 how difficult it would be. You started the Shotgun Start 0:46:33.360 --> 0:46:36.320 with Brendan poor Ath in late twenty eighteen. 0:46:36.680 --> 0:46:38.920 I believe it was September. 0:46:38.960 --> 0:46:43.560 I think September, okay, twenty eighteen, three days a week podcast. 0:46:44.360 --> 0:46:46.680 I think that this is a big turning point in 0:46:46.760 --> 0:46:50.160 the Frida Egg as a company. I feel like things 0:46:50.239 --> 0:46:51.200 sort of snowballed. 0:46:51.640 --> 0:46:54.120 You just for glossing over when we hired you. Was 0:46:54.160 --> 0:46:54.880 that twenty nineteen? 0:46:54.920 --> 0:46:57.680 Oh, that was twenty nineteen. That was post shotgun start. 0:46:58.000 --> 0:47:00.920 My theory is that, like you started the Shotguns Start 0:47:01.320 --> 0:47:05.479 and the company shifted and eventually you needed to hire 0:47:05.520 --> 0:47:08.799 somebody and you you hired me. But so so, what 0:47:08.840 --> 0:47:11.239 do you remember about how things started to change after 0:47:11.320 --> 0:47:13.719 you started the Shotguns Start? What did the Friday Egg 0:47:14.200 --> 0:47:17.040 evolve into? Because you know, okay, just to you've you've 0:47:17.280 --> 0:47:19.239 given an idea of what the Frida Egg was like 0:47:19.280 --> 0:47:21.880 early on when it was a one person operation with 0:47:22.040 --> 0:47:26.239 Kaylee helping with the editing and some business stuff. You know, 0:47:26.480 --> 0:47:29.480 you were making the content right, You were writing the stuff, 0:47:29.600 --> 0:47:32.200 posting it on the website. You were doing interviews with 0:47:32.239 --> 0:47:34.960 golf course architects and posting those on the Frida Egg 0:47:35.000 --> 0:47:35.760 podcast feed. 0:47:35.920 --> 0:47:39.360 Great audio if I might, Yeah. 0:47:39.280 --> 0:47:44.080 It was really excellent early on, especially the first couple. 0:47:44.120 --> 0:47:44.920 It's quite something. 0:47:45.040 --> 0:47:50.719 But I just rend I found episode one. Oh did 0:47:50.760 --> 0:47:51.480 you podcast? 0:47:51.920 --> 0:47:55.439 The lost episode one? Yeah? People don't know. The Frida 0:47:55.480 --> 0:47:58.880 Egg podcast starts with episode two right now, which I 0:47:58.920 --> 0:48:00.760 believe is an interview with Jim Herman. 0:48:01.360 --> 0:48:03.239 Yeah, yeah, I found episode one. 0:48:03.320 --> 0:48:04.319 You found episode one? 0:48:04.840 --> 0:48:08.200 Yeah, it was it was I founded my voice memo 0:48:08.440 --> 0:48:11.400 that it was a recorded voice memo on my phone 0:48:11.880 --> 0:48:14.759 that shows you the record, the sophistication of the. 0:48:14.800 --> 0:48:17.600 Audio recorded voice memo. Okay, well that's going to be 0:48:17.760 --> 0:48:20.680 a club TF perk. Clearly we'll post that on the 0:48:20.680 --> 0:48:25.040 Club TFI website. But in any case, so that's what 0:48:25.080 --> 0:48:27.279 it was like early on, you know, really sort of 0:48:27.440 --> 0:48:31.080 in super indie operation. You were doing your own stuff. 0:48:31.360 --> 0:48:36.080 You start the shotgun start. How did things change after that? Yeah? 0:48:36.160 --> 0:48:39.920 I think Brendan and I had talked a long time. 0:48:40.200 --> 0:48:42.799 We met. Everybody always asked like how we met. We 0:48:42.840 --> 0:48:44.560 met at you know. 0:48:44.560 --> 0:48:48.280 This will just tell you like how far golf media 0:48:48.280 --> 0:48:52.920 has come since then. We met at blog cabin, long 0:48:52.960 --> 0:48:58.360 time listeners and followers blog cabin. At the twenty seventeen 0:48:58.560 --> 0:49:03.640 players they PGA tour invited like it was it was 0:49:04.120 --> 0:49:07.759 it was Chris Solomon, uh DJ Piawski was at the 0:49:07.800 --> 0:49:12.080 tour at Tron Carter of no laying up those two guys, 0:49:12.400 --> 0:49:13.440 Kyle Porter. 0:49:14.120 --> 0:49:17.400 I think I think Bacon was there. I don't think No. 0:49:17.520 --> 0:49:18.480 Bacon wasn't there. 0:49:18.520 --> 0:49:22.760 Bacon was I think actually doing like PGA Tour live stuff. Maybe? 0:49:22.800 --> 0:49:28.840 Oh was he Ryan Baljee from Golf News Net, Brendan 0:49:29.000 --> 0:49:32.080 from eSPI Nation, and I got I think I'm forgetting 0:49:32.200 --> 0:49:37.160 some people. But they invited us down for the players, 0:49:37.360 --> 0:49:40.000 and they had like a rental house for us to 0:49:40.080 --> 0:49:43.880 stay at and in like the inside the gates of 0:49:43.960 --> 0:49:47.080 Panavidra and and Panavidro, and they gave us like the 0:49:47.160 --> 0:49:50.879 bikes to ride to the course every day. So that's 0:49:50.920 --> 0:49:53.080 where Brendan and I met. And it was like funny 0:49:53.080 --> 0:49:55.080 because like Brendan, you know, you just hit it off 0:49:55.120 --> 0:49:57.080 with certain people like we were we were the ones 0:49:57.120 --> 0:49:59.919 that were up to like three am at night drink 0:50:00.080 --> 0:50:02.719 and you know, thrown back. They dropped off like a 0:50:02.760 --> 0:50:07.160 truckload of michelob Ultra, partner of the tour and uh. 0:50:07.880 --> 0:50:10.760 And we were the ones like up up up late 0:50:10.840 --> 0:50:13.240 drinking talking golf, like just talking golf. 0:50:14.400 --> 0:50:16.360 And so that's where it kind of started. 0:50:16.520 --> 0:50:20.080 Was like it all kind of derives from blog cabin 0:50:20.239 --> 0:50:23.400 where we we kept talking about like, hey, you know, 0:50:23.400 --> 0:50:28.120 it'd be fun to do something and and Brendan and 0:50:28.160 --> 0:50:30.520 I kind of sat on, like, you know, what there 0:50:30.600 --> 0:50:34.279 isn't right now is like a regular golf show that 0:50:34.440 --> 0:50:37.319 talks about you know, at the time, like we were 0:50:38.440 --> 0:50:41.719 an episode whenever we got an episode done. No, Laying 0:50:41.800 --> 0:50:43.799 Up was kind of in the same boat. They had 0:50:43.880 --> 0:50:45.640 like a you know, an episode a week, and it 0:50:45.719 --> 0:50:48.000 was a lot of interviews, and like, you know what 0:50:48.160 --> 0:50:51.200 golf doesn't have is like a show that's like a 0:50:51.280 --> 0:50:54.759 morning show, like a morning radio show. Yeah, and and 0:50:54.840 --> 0:50:58.080 so that's where the idea of it started. And like 0:50:58.280 --> 0:51:00.520 I think like one of the things that in general, 0:51:00.640 --> 0:51:03.040 like you know, this is what happens on the internet 0:51:03.200 --> 0:51:06.600 is like people are like, oh, like you know, I 0:51:06.680 --> 0:51:08.960 used to get people be like, oh, Andy's just a 0:51:08.960 --> 0:51:12.560 golf architecture guy. He doesn't know anything about about tour golf. 0:51:12.760 --> 0:51:14.400 And it's like I write about it three times a 0:51:14.400 --> 0:51:16.840 week in the newsletter, you know, you know. 0:51:17.160 --> 0:51:19.719 Like because there are different audiences for the Frida Egg, 0:51:19.760 --> 0:51:22.040 this is one of the things that I've discovered. There 0:51:22.080 --> 0:51:25.080 are people who kind of run the gamut and consume 0:51:25.120 --> 0:51:26.960 the newsletter as well as the podcast, as well as 0:51:26.960 --> 0:51:30.239 the website, et cetera. But then there are also some 0:51:30.280 --> 0:51:33.239 of these micro audiences, you know, like even people who 0:51:33.400 --> 0:51:36.640 just follow our Instagram feed and don't do anything. 0:51:36.320 --> 0:51:38.719 Else, or there's people that just listen to the pod, 0:51:38.840 --> 0:51:42.440 or people that just listen just read the newsletter. It's 0:51:42.520 --> 0:51:46.160 all over the board. But anyways, so we started that 0:51:46.320 --> 0:51:50.279 and the idea was around like, hey, this can be 0:51:50.400 --> 0:51:53.240 like a quick update of what's going on in golf, 0:51:53.360 --> 0:51:56.200 and like it obviously changed, it's like everything, and like 0:51:56.239 --> 0:51:58.120 this is like I guess like one of the things 0:51:58.120 --> 0:52:00.400 with the membership that I'm most excited about out Like 0:52:00.560 --> 0:52:05.320 I think like this is an entrepreneurial take and something 0:52:05.360 --> 0:52:07.719 that like when you're a smaller company that you have 0:52:07.760 --> 0:52:10.120 the benefit of. But like what I kind of have 0:52:10.640 --> 0:52:14.040 like really learned from this experience is like when you 0:52:14.080 --> 0:52:17.520 start something, you can have like all of the stuff 0:52:17.600 --> 0:52:20.319 laid out of exactly how it's going to go the 0:52:20.320 --> 0:52:22.839 first six months, and none of it is. It's going 0:52:22.880 --> 0:52:26.080 to change so much and it's going to evolve in 0:52:26.640 --> 0:52:28.480 so much in for your eyes. And I think that's 0:52:28.520 --> 0:52:31.000 the thing I'm kind of most proud of of with 0:52:31.000 --> 0:52:33.239 with the Frida Egg and the Shotgun start is like 0:52:33.800 --> 0:52:37.080 what the original idea was and what it became you know, 0:52:37.760 --> 0:52:40.000 you know, it became so much more than what that 0:52:40.080 --> 0:52:43.920 original vision was, which was almost small minded. And I 0:52:43.960 --> 0:52:47.760 think like you know, the shotgun start. Yeah, we started 0:52:47.760 --> 0:52:50.120 that and and then I mean it added a lot. 0:52:50.200 --> 0:52:51.200 It was a lot of work. 0:52:51.239 --> 0:52:53.839 Things got crazy for you. Yeah, you're doing that three 0:52:53.840 --> 0:52:56.680 times a week. It was a lot more thinking about 0:52:56.760 --> 0:53:00.520 and following PGA tour too, because although you were writing 0:53:00.560 --> 0:53:04.200 the newsletter about it, there's a whole other level of 0:53:04.560 --> 0:53:07.399 you know, kind of engagement that you have to put 0:53:07.440 --> 0:53:10.359 out if you're going to have three times a week 0:53:10.920 --> 0:53:15.840 of talking about joking about the PGA Tour and related tours. 0:53:16.239 --> 0:53:19.279 Yeah, so that that changed everything. Then you came on 0:53:19.680 --> 0:53:22.279 like you know, that's kind of like when it just 0:53:22.760 --> 0:53:27.120 it gave us, it made us multi dimensional more so, right, 0:53:27.480 --> 0:53:30.640 So it was it was it was kind of a 0:53:31.520 --> 0:53:33.880 that was a moment where we were, you know, we 0:53:34.000 --> 0:53:35.120 became more than. 0:53:35.040 --> 0:53:36.560 Just like golf architecture guys. 0:53:36.560 --> 0:53:41.000 Even though the newsletter was was was there as as 0:53:41.040 --> 0:53:43.960 a you know, we'd always recovering PGA Tour golf. 0:53:44.320 --> 0:53:48.960 Yeah. So right, so fast forward to today, we're three 0:53:49.080 --> 0:53:51.919 years on from the time we were talking about from 0:53:51.960 --> 0:53:54.719 from when you started the shotgun start. We're four years 0:53:54.760 --> 0:53:58.040 on from that point. Actually, I keep I keep thinking 0:53:58.080 --> 0:54:00.440 that it hasn't been as much time as how But 0:54:02.320 --> 0:54:06.080 you know, we're a company of six now, you know, 0:54:06.160 --> 0:54:09.760 we've we've grown a lot. We have me and you. 0:54:09.840 --> 0:54:14.480 Brennan Poorath came on full time earlier this year. Cameron 0:54:14.520 --> 0:54:17.480 heard us. We hired toward the end of last year. 0:54:18.800 --> 0:54:22.160 Nights with us since. Yeah, Will Knights with us since 0:54:22.200 --> 0:54:23.280 early twenty twenty. 0:54:23.680 --> 0:54:26.719 I mean will Is. Will was an early writer. You know, 0:54:27.040 --> 0:54:29.799 he started writing for us way back even before you. 0:54:30.640 --> 0:54:34.000 He was Yeah, exactly, You and Will linked up before 0:54:34.160 --> 0:54:36.600 you and I were working together, and he started writing 0:54:37.160 --> 0:54:40.200 the newsletter basically on your behalf when when your time 0:54:40.760 --> 0:54:43.840 got consumed elsewhere. So so Will's been with us for 0:54:43.840 --> 0:54:47.120 a while and with us full time since basically right 0:54:47.120 --> 0:54:49.840 when the pandemic hit. That was an interesting period in 0:54:50.080 --> 0:54:52.120 the company's history that we don't need to go into. 0:54:52.800 --> 0:54:55.440 We also have meg Atkins working for us on a 0:54:55.520 --> 0:54:57.759 part time basis, though it seems like she does as 0:54:57.840 --> 0:55:00.920 much work as any of the rest of us at least, 0:55:01.960 --> 0:55:04.960 and so it's it's a great team. I love working 0:55:05.719 --> 0:55:09.840 with these people. It's been such a delight, but we 0:55:09.960 --> 0:55:15.239 are looking to change and expand and do more. And 0:55:15.320 --> 0:55:19.040 so as you're kind of looking toward the future, what 0:55:19.120 --> 0:55:21.800 are some of the things that you're most jazzed about 0:55:21.840 --> 0:55:25.600 going forward? What's kind of getting you going thinking like 0:55:25.960 --> 0:55:27.480 about what this company could be. 0:55:28.280 --> 0:55:31.800 Yeah, I think we've hit a few places where people 0:55:31.800 --> 0:55:34.520 are super passionate about. But what excites me about the 0:55:34.560 --> 0:55:37.640 game of golf is that there are so many angles 0:55:37.640 --> 0:55:41.680 to the sport that make people geek out and nerd out. 0:55:41.760 --> 0:55:44.600 And right now, I think, you know, we've hit on 0:55:44.840 --> 0:55:49.439 courses in travel and the competitive aspect of it, the 0:55:49.520 --> 0:55:52.600 PGA tour stuff, but you know, the beauty of the 0:55:52.640 --> 0:55:55.200 game is there's so many other angles that we haven't 0:55:55.200 --> 0:55:58.760 really explored. And I'm you know, what I'm confident about 0:55:58.920 --> 0:56:02.319 is like we we're going to explore different angles of 0:56:02.360 --> 0:56:05.279 the game in our own unique way and that's what 0:56:05.480 --> 0:56:09.040 we'll we'll continue to do and we'll find people that 0:56:09.120 --> 0:56:12.880 can that can help us do that. And and that's 0:56:13.440 --> 0:56:16.200 you know, when I when I think about what it 0:56:16.200 --> 0:56:19.360 can become, is is I just I believe that we 0:56:19.480 --> 0:56:23.040 can become a spot that, like, if you're interested in 0:56:23.080 --> 0:56:25.319 the game and what I always think about is like, 0:56:25.680 --> 0:56:29.239 we want to be a place that deepens people's affinity 0:56:29.320 --> 0:56:31.839 and love for the game of golf and makes them 0:56:31.840 --> 0:56:35.480 think about different things a little bit, maybe a little differently. 0:56:35.680 --> 0:56:40.160 And you know, some of the most rewarding messages that 0:56:40.239 --> 0:56:42.440 I've ever I've ever gotten is like, you know, a 0:56:42.480 --> 0:56:45.040 lot of people have sent me messages that are like, 0:56:45.160 --> 0:56:48.160 I didn't know I didn't know anything about golf architecture, 0:56:48.600 --> 0:56:51.399 and I'm even crazier about this game that I than 0:56:51.440 --> 0:56:54.600 I thought it could be when I thought I loved 0:56:54.640 --> 0:56:56.839 it as much as I could. And I think that's 0:56:56.960 --> 0:56:59.120 the you know, what we want to do for the 0:56:59.160 --> 0:57:02.640 game on a lot different levels, And you know, so 0:57:02.719 --> 0:57:04.839 that's that's kind of the goal, is like it's not 0:57:05.239 --> 0:57:08.880 you know, it's it's to become it's to continue to 0:57:08.920 --> 0:57:12.480 provide more and more content that make people think about 0:57:12.520 --> 0:57:13.839 and love the game more. 0:57:14.800 --> 0:57:17.440 The beauty of golf is that there's so many different 0:57:17.440 --> 0:57:20.000 ways to do that, so many different avenues that you 0:57:20.040 --> 0:57:23.880 can take to do a real deep dive or become 0:57:24.000 --> 0:57:28.240 a nerd about. There's such an array of those opportunities 0:57:28.400 --> 0:57:31.240 in golf. I think it's pretty unique among sports in 0:57:31.280 --> 0:57:33.920 that sense, and yeah, Club TF is kind of the 0:57:34.160 --> 0:57:36.720 kind of the next step there. All right, Well, I 0:57:36.720 --> 0:57:40.640 think we can wrap up there, Andy, we should probably 0:57:40.680 --> 0:57:43.640 give people remind people of where they can go to 0:57:43.680 --> 0:57:46.080 find more information and to sign up, right. 0:57:46.040 --> 0:57:47.720 Yeah, you can go to the website, the Frida Egg 0:57:47.800 --> 0:57:48.920 dot com. 0:57:49.040 --> 0:57:50.720 It'll be right on the front page. 0:57:50.720 --> 0:57:52.840 You won't be able to miss it if you If 0:57:52.840 --> 0:57:56.760 you subscribe to the newsletter, there'll be something that you 0:57:56.800 --> 0:58:00.760 get Tuesday from the newsletter. And yeah, we hope to 0:58:00.760 --> 0:58:03.960 see you in the club. And thank you to everybody 0:58:03.960 --> 0:58:08.000 for all the support through the years. Whether you know 0:58:08.080 --> 0:58:11.120 whether you join or not, we hope you'll keep listening. 0:58:11.160 --> 0:58:14.520 And every listener matters. And I can't believe that been 0:58:14.600 --> 0:58:17.440 able to do to us far and all that goes 0:58:17.480 --> 0:58:19.960 to people supporting us by just listening. 0:58:20.160 --> 0:58:29.960 So thank you to everybody. 0:58:32.440 --> 0:58:36.520 This episode of the Friday Podcast was edited by Meg Atkins. 0:58:36.560 --> 0:58:41.160 Thank you as always to Meg. We've done enough talking 0:58:41.240 --> 0:58:44.040 about what you can do to sign up for Club 0:58:44.080 --> 0:58:48.720 TF and the membership, et cetera. So I'll just stop 0:58:48.840 --> 0:58:52.160 with a thank you to our listeners and we'll see 0:58:52.160 --> 0:58:56.320 you again soon with a more traditional type episode of 0:58:56.360 --> 0:59:24.720 the Friday podcast