Episode 258: He Went Where the Opportunities Were with Founder of BombTech Golf Tyler “Sully” Sul...

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weddell. And before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and again, go to Wydell on winning.com webinar now to watch something I've put together for you. Now let's get going into this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind.

I'm with Tyler Sully Sullivan, the CEO and co founder of Bob Tech Golf. And they got over 600,000 golf clubs sold, over 15 million in sales. And they have got tremendous momentum in a huge, profitable business and probably a very lean product line right now that has opportunity to expand. And so, Tyler, thanks for being on and sharing today.

Glad to be here.

You know, I want to pursue, I want to follow up what you said when we talked earlier, which I just think is incredibly insightful. This is why I like to talk to winners, because winners, winners see things and explain things and in their own words. You know, it's like it occurs to me to them, and they could describe it. But you said you went where the opportunities were. Talk about that.

Yeah, you know, I just only knew what I knew, which was that much, you know, So I just, I kind of saw where there's traction. And for us, it was Facebook. You know, this is early days Facebook, before video existed, before Facebook Live, I think before even ads really started. And so I was just documenting and saw that we started to get not a lot of followers. We had like 2000 followers, and people were really engaging. They were commenting on everything. And I remember this moment specifically because I finally had my first kid and I made a video in the backyard while he was taking a nap. And it was like I had to run out, make it quick before he woke up. And I hit a ball into a net and it sounds like a bomb explodes. I hit it so hard and I go, what does your driver sound like? And posted it on Facebook when video first came out and I boosted it for 300 bucks and I got 300,000 views, 10,000 comments. And I literally went through every comment on my BlackBerry phone until my thumbs were almost blue, leading because I thought if anyone is commenting on our social media, it's worth talking back to them and having a conversation. So that. That's been my thesis over time when I mean opportunities, I just saw we're getting tons of engagement. It wasn't necessarily driving a ton of sales that day, but I was having real conversations at some type of scale that helped build the brand to be more tangible. And it just took a lot of Effort and time, which I had back then, because what else was I going to do? I had to make it work. That made us a brand for the regular guys. And then what I mean of go where the opportunity is. We knew Facebook was working, so we just doubled down on that. And then I asked my customers what they want. I don't dictate. I am not the boss of them. They're the boss of me. So when our driver was our only product, I said, hey, if you're the CEO of BombTech, what would you like? What would you make? And a lot of people said, wedges. Said, okay, well, let's. Let's make some wedges. So we made a wedge set. And I was like, I have no idea how this is gonna do. And we launched them. We did $60,000 in an hour. I said, that's pretty good. What else you guys want? And really that's been at the core, too, is I may not be that smart, but I do have a sense of, like, understanding and just willingness to listen. And I try to do that throughout the time, you know, 10 years with that one brand. And my other company, too, is just ask your. Your customers what's up and what they want and let them tell you because they're your biggest asset, you know, so now it's a much easier business because we've got so much product on the golf course, so many customers that are loyal to the brand. But you would be insane to try to start a golf company because it is the most competitive market in the world, and if you didn't absolutely love it, you'd be burnt out in a week, you know, so it's one of those things where, you know, I kind of just was able to pivot and keep scaling, and we still do that today. And I'm very fortunate and super thankful for anyone that's ever given our products a try. You know, I just. I have a ton of, you know, I'm just thankful and grateful.

Well, Sully, why are you the co. Sounds like you're the founder. Why are you the co founder?

I am the founder. There is no co founder. Just me. Yeah, that's my. My. My other business, Ecom Growers. I am the co founder.

Okay.

All right.

And the thing I other, you know, kind of an extension of this was the day you got fired and you found out your wife was pregnant. A lot of times you're not thinking clearly. And I can remember when I got fired, and my wife was already, like, four months pregnant with the second child three days before Christmas.

Oh, perfect.

And she was actually euphoric because now I could go do other things, you know, And I swear it's almost like she took up, took off doing cartwheels around the neighborhood. And so, you know, there's one thing about losing your job, it's another thing being freed up to, you know, go chase the dream. But how did you know what to. It's one thing to work hard, it's another thing to work hard on things that will pay you off. People when you're successful, Sully people. Look at you, you're just a genius. You know, all these things. And what I always say too, if I was a genius, I could have sure saved myself a whole lot of 20 hour days and sleepless nights. You know, I wish I was a genius. That'd be, that would be a real advantage, you know, and you know, I don't work long hours because I want to. It's just because I'm too dumb to figure out how to do it quicker. And so with your 20 hours, seven days a week, what were you doing? You know, you got a pregnant wife, you don't have a job to go to. You know, you don't have the resources. Like even now you've got minimal employees, which means you're outsourcing your manufacturing and your fulfillment. So probably so what, you know, what did you do 20 hours a day, seven days a week?

Hey, listen, there's a lot of information online, but there aren't a lot of people who have actually done something. In my case, I've actually built a successful business, has accrued over $5 billion in assets under management, and has done well even during trying times. Now, if you want to know exactly how I've done this, go to Whiteellumwinning.com webinar Now, I've compressed a decade of learning into five short weeks. Just for those of you who want to give yourself an incredible advantage and are tired of waiting and watching others move up.

Yeah, I share the same lack of genius bone as well. So, I mean, I was doing all the wrong stuff. So I was assembling clubs at the time myself in my basement. You know, I had retrofitted my duplex into a club fitting studio, which was insane. Packing boxes, shipping boxes, doing the emails, taking the phone calls, making the social media posts, making. I mean, I did every single thing you would ever do and the things I had to do out of necessity because I had no money. Right? I had, I couldn't afford to hire anyone. I remember, you know, I finally hit my first million dollars in a year and I was doing like 180k a month. And I remember, when is it? I just kept saying, when is this going to stop? When is this going to die? I had that, such a strong feeling of it just ending. And then I said, okay, I got, I got something here. I've got some traction. I need to hire someone. I'm going to die. So I ended up hiring my first employee, Chris, who's now my partner in the other company, to do email part time. He was actually one of the engineering students at ubm and he was like, hey, if you need anything, any help with anything at all, I'd love to help. So at nights after his, you know, after his day at school, he would help me out with replying to emails for customer service. And I slowly, you know, with a newborn, 20 hours a day was like, okay. I learned to delegate and I learned to trust that other people could do things as good and actually better than me. And that was probably my most difficult hurdles because as, as someone that starts their own thing, there's so much ego involved in it, which I just was scared of it breaking and dying and not working and being able to pay them. But once I started and it took me years, you know, to really let go and find experts, and that was like the skill that I really like. I learned to do each task, whether it's running ads, email, assembling a golf club, whatever it is good enough to be dangerous. So I can then hire and fire people. And that was the real moment where I was like, okay, now I know what to do and what not to do. Therefore I can vet an expert and hire them or fire them if they suck. And that was how I was able to go from literally working 20 hours a day making the least amounts. My hourly rate, if you broke it down, would be the lowest it's ever been. The most I work now, I work the least I've ever worked and make the most because I've hired experts in those siloed, you know, categories. And like I like to have an outsourced model. Those are the most important guys are the in house guys. Yeah. And then my outsourced guys are the experts. I have my three pl, I've got my email agency, an ad guy, a CRO guy, all these different experts. But I had to find them. And that was really the second, like how to scale up but also stay lean. So I. My business model is a variable cost model where the more scale we have, like we have a good Month. It's great. We have a bad month. It's still good. And I didn't want to go down that path of having tons of overhead in case we did have a bad month. So I really believe. And I'm just going on a tangent, but overall, a lean business that kind of can run without you. And that. That's because of the kids. Just my. My journey through my life.

Yeah. And, you know, I apologize for. People have heard me tell this story, but I think you'll. I don't know if you've heard it, but Jeff Bezos, they were interviewing him on. I saw a YouTube interview, and he. He was talking about their days of getting started in their garage and where he was actually wrapping the stuff to ship. You know, he had two or three.

Other guys, and he.

He was down on the floor, the concrete floor, wrapping stuff on his knees, and he had this light bulb went on. He said. So he blurted out to the other guys, he said, I just got a great idea. This is Jeff Bezos.

Yeah.

He said, I just got a great idea. Why don't we. Why don't we get some knee pads? That way it's going to be easier on our knees. And one of the other two guys said, hey, I've got an idea. Why don't we just buy a table?

Wow. I get it. I get it. I can relate to that.

Yeah.

We've been there, haven't we?

Absolutely. Well, I remember taking pride in how many golf clothes I could fit into my Subaru legacy and how many trips it would take me to the post office to drop them off. And I remember I just wanted to fill the car, so I couldn't fill it anymore. And then I'd have to buy a van. And then I was like, I had to use my wife's car because we got a bigger car for her for the kid, and I would fill her car. And that was, you know, that was the tangible early days. I mean, I remember one point I could hold 20 golf boxes at one time. And it was like, I was so proud of that. You know, obviously, that's not my best interest to be doing it myself, but at the time, it was, you know.

Right. And I appreciate you bringing that up. It's like, what are the high priority things to focus in on? And we're going to get right to that.

If you enjoyed what you've heard and are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works in the real world. I've taken the most valuable business lessons I've learned over 40 years and put them into something for you to watch. Go to Whiteellumwinning.com webinar now in order to move up as fast as possible. I'm Larry Wydell, and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go, go.