Hey everybody, welcome to this episode of the Disc Golf Answer,
Man. I'm Bobby.
Cool daddy, Slick breeze. I didn't.
Hold that very long. Oh, we used.
Cool daddy, slick breeze. All right, we'll do it again.
Here we go. Bring it back just for the.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Hey everybody, welcome to this
episode of the Disc Golf Fancy man.
I'm Bobby. Cool Daddy Slick.
Breeze. There it is.
All right, so as you can guess, as you can tell, we have Mr.
Anthony in the studio here at the Disc Golf Answer Man Studio.
It's a good place to be in studio is in the studio studio.
So this is a special interview episode from the Disc Golf
Answer Man, and I am happy beyond words to have Anthony
sitting right next to me. So for you guys who are familiar
with the Answer Man and the Under Stable Mind podcast, you
remember Anthony from being working here at Dynamic Discs
Discs. Well, he is back sort of, and
we'll kind of get into that asterisk.
We'll kind of get into that a little bit.
But I just want to use this opportunity to kind of introduce
or reintroduce Anthony back to our listeners.
But yeah, Anthony, how are you? How are you doing?
Really good. Really good man.
I've been very, very out of the public eye by by choice for a
little while. And yeah, I mean, got a wife.
Same. Same wife still.
Yeah, that's good. Not a new one.
Same house. All that's going well.
New job, same kid. He's awesome.
Yeah. So life is life is good, man.
Sun shining. So what has been, what has life
like been for the last year and a half for you?
Like when you stepped away from Dynamic Discs, was it like a
step away from disc golf as well or?
Yes, yeah, yeah, it was a it was an escorted step away from
Dynamic Discs, a very voluntary step away from disc golf as a
whole. This, I mean, from, from the,
the summer going into my freshman year of high school,
which would have been 2007 up until 2024, disc golf was a, a
very big or the biggest thing in my life.
And like anything that's part of your life for that long, there's
ups and downs, there's positives and negatives.
And I just said, you know what? I'm just not, I'm just not in
love with it like I was. Maybe I just need to take a
little bit of a break, especially with, with everything
that happened, just kind of a let me, let me unplug, let me
decongest or whatever. And yeah, just just take a step
back or decompress. Not decongest.
Like allergies have been kicking my butt.
Congestion is, is a very regular part of my life.
Yeah. So just step away and, you know,
we'll, we'll let it come back when it comes back.
And yeah, it's back. So, OK, so we're going to jump
around a little bit because I have questions that pop in my
mind. But so being that you stepped
away, how did like did how did disc golf look like?
I mean, did you you don't watch anything at all or?
Long answer, well, short answer, no, I didn't watch anything.
Long answer, I watched very, very minimal.
I mean, I I stayed very, very loosely up to date.
I like I saw who won worlds. That was about it.
I didn't watch any pro tour, didn't watch any Jomas.
There was one time I went back and watched, I think it was 20,
14 or 2015, like Beaver State Fling, just one.
That was always a good, good time.
I love that Course. I like the Central Coast guys.
So I was like, you know what? I remember I was out there for
that one. Let's go back and rewatch that
watch like the the Philo Albatross, whatever, whatever
that was. I think it was 2015.
So, yeah, to, to say no isn't a complete truth, but it's 98%
true. Yeah, I didn't.
I, I, there was times I wanted to, but I just kind of forced
myself of like I, I just just leave it, leave it alone for a
little bit and just kind of kind of step away.
It was kind of like, I mean, I can kind of relate to that.
When I, when I stepped away, it was kind of like, do I even want
to be in disc golf, right? Because like it was such a, a
thing that you fell in love with and thing that became such a big
part of your life. It was like I think you
mentioned when we talked the other day, it was like breaking
up with somebody almost. Yeah, yeah.
It very much did have that feeling of like, you know, you
get broken up with and then do you, do you want to go check and
see what she's doing on Instagram?
Do you want to see what she's posting?
Not, not really. And then if you and it is, it's
like if you do see, like I remember looking at old videos
of mine and stuff and it would hurt to watch it.
Yes, I'd imagine kind of very similar.
Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, you go back and you see,
I know all that went into this or I know we're so close to
that, but it still hasn't been posted.
Where is it at? You know, the, the good feels
like a little bit of jealousy and then the bad is like, Nah,
ha ha, like that. That's not a place I want to be.
So no, I just just unplug and let let life go.
So the way I learned what happened with you and Dynamic
Discs was a video that you would put out, of course, you know,
when before you started with Dynamic Discs, you had DG
weekly? Yep.
That's basically how I got connected with you as I saw you
doing disc reviews, reached out to you, asked if you wanted to
do some for us, and then of course worked it to where we got
you here at in Emporia. So I saw the video you put out
and dude, it broke my heart, right?
It hurt watching you hurt. Yeah, rightfully so.
Right. So where are you at now with all
that having to go through that and then it will get, we'll get
a little bit into the process of you coming back, but where you
at with it now? Yeah, that was, I mean,
obviously a big and not, excuse me, not necessarily the video
itself, but everything that happened when I got laid off was
a big talking point between myself, Shane and Seth.
When conversations about me potentially coming back, where
we're going on. That was one of the big, that
was the biggest talking point was basically, hey, this is a
job opportunity that we have. We think you'd fit well.
But so there was, there was a lot of back and forth, a lot of
conversations from, you know, questions and things on their
side, questions and things on my side.
But obviously the, you know, the air was cleared.
There wasn't really any, any animosity or anything like that.
And to his credit, when everything went down, I think it
was even after I posted the video, I came back in and talked
with Seth for an hour and a half, two hours.
And it was a very open conversation.
I mean, he said things to me that he probably didn't need to
say. I said things to him that I
probably didn't need to say. But I mean, he answered all my
questions. I answered all of his.
And it was, it was very, you know, it felt like a very grown
up conversation. So no, there's, there's no hard
feelings. And that was what I tried to
express in that video was it's not a, you know, as upset as I
was, as hurt as I was at the decision that was made.
It wasn't a personal thing. It wasn't a performance based
decision. It was literally just money has
to get cut somewhere. And they, I mean, Seth and I
believe it was Berglund talked even that night before about how
do we cut this money and not have it be Anthony And that, you
know, like I said in the video and like I told Seth, like I, I
appreciate that, but at the end of the day, the decision still
was I was that cut. So yeah, there there was a lot
of hurt going into it, but I, I didn't want it to come across as
a bash DD I hope the place burns down.
Like I still maintained really close friendships with a lot of
people that were here. It was never it was never that I
understand business is business, money's money.
There's, you know, at the time there was what, 6070?
Some employees here in this building, plus the European
staff, like, I don't pretend that I'm more important than any
of them. So yeah, it's, it's it's good.
It's good. We had a lot of conversations
about it and everything is on the up.
And up. Good, good.
Well, obviously you're back. And so we're all happy.
Everybody's happy that you're back.
But tell everybody. So in the at the beginning I
said you're back, sort of, yes. What I meant was he's not back
to dynamic disks, right? Tell us exactly what is your
role? Yeah.
So I will be working with the sales team.
My actual job title is wholesale business development.
So I'll be a part of the sales team, but it's not a strictly
sales role. It's not, hey, these are your
KPIs. We need to draw in X amount of
revenue. It'll be working very closely
with the wholesale side of things.
Kind of your local disc golf store is going to be hearing
from me. I'll be reaching out to those
people, making sure they have what they need.
What can we do better? What is it that you like about
how things have been going? You know what, what would you
like to see? What would make it easier for
them to conduct business in the future?
So not nearly as much this on camera presence, a lot more of
reaching out to people within the industry that's, you know,
run a store, things like that and just build that
relationship, maintain those relationships and make sure that
that those people are happy so that Joe Schmo disc golfer in
Idaho can get the new whatever as quick as possible and that
the store is is able to get their inventory in and make sure
that that process flows. So yeah, not, not nearly the
same role of of making content, talking to people online,
talking to people on the phone now and doing some potential
travel for trade shows and things like that.
So sort of like a like a sales business relationship, yes type.
So fostering their relationships, building new
relationships, stuff like. That yes, yeah, sales department
for sure. But just with the way that the
disc golf market is, it's not really a hey, go, go get people
to open a disc golf store, right?
It's more of, hey, the people that have disc golf stores, make
sure that they're happy, make sure that they have what they
want, what they need, build that and and make that process in
those systems better. And what I love is that I
remember when Shane first approached me and, and had this
idea and asked me what I thought.
And part of the element was, of course, that you have the media
background, you know what you're doing, right?
And you could bring, you can break because like there's two
different customers, right? There's the retail customer and
then there's there's the wholesale customer, right?
We try to serve the retail customer with Instagram,
Facebook, YouTube and stuff like that.
And we can do very similar stuff on the wholesale side where
you're creating videos about disks.
You know, nothing speaks more powerful than video, right?
So I mean, for you to grab a camera and say, guys, this is
the latest what's going on, Yes. And stuff like that would be
nothing for you. Right.
Yeah, yeah. And that was one of the things
of why my name came up for it, because it makes it easier as a
general thing to send out to people to do that in video form,
image form, graphic form, anything like that.
But no, not things that are going to get posted on
Instagram. This will be very targeted to
wholesalers and say, hey, this is what's coming out.
This is what they look like giving people kind of sneak
peeks, things like that. But yeah, this, this will be my
exposure to like YouTube, Instagram stuff would all be.
Through you. Well, hopefully Shane's not
watching this because I do. I want to make like I was asking
Anthony the other day was like, hey, what if you're on answer
man, every now and then, right? You can bring U.S. news about
wholesale stuff. I would be happy, right?
I would be happy. And of course we've, we've, we
did film around yesterday. That'll be on our YouTube
channel. Didn't keep score.
Didn't keep score, but if we had but we didn't, you'll let you
know. We'll the video will let you
know who won. So if we had kept score.
If we had kept. Score if if that was a thing.
Fortunately, we did not. I did a little bit so but
anyway, my point is that like to have you on a YouTube video
every now and then again to talk about what's going on with
wholesale. I mean would be natural would be
a great thing to do. So yes, I'm excited about that
stuff. So same.
So OK, so we talked a little bit how you feel, but like the whole
process, it was a it was a it was going on for a couple
months, right. Did you take a really close look
at the disc golf industry and, and what went, went into your
mind as far as trying to figure out?
Cuz I, I, I'm assuming from our conversations, you weren't like,
yes, I want back right now. You were like, wait, right.
Let me treat this like any other job.
Yes, yeah. So to, to directly answer your
question, did I look specifically at the disc golf
industry? No, I, yeah, the first
conversations that we had were would you come back, you know,
yes or no? If yes, would you be interested?
Would you be excited or would it just be a job?
And I, you know, after some soul searching and things like that,
was like, yeah, you know, I, I would be excited.
So yeah, I, I thought about it as objectively, I tried to, for
whatever reason, my drive to my other job, I would go past Old
Navy every day. So Old Navy stuck out as the
business in mind. I was like, if this exact same
job, exact same everything was offered to me from Old Navy,
would I take it like, you know what I would, that'd be, that'd
be a pretty cool opportunity. Yeah.
OK, so the job, yes, I'm interested in now let's look at
the emotional side of, OK, I have to walk back into that same
building, not the same office, but kind of let's, let's look at
it objectively first and then tackle the emotional side.
And so I, I reached out to people that I stayed close with
here, yourself included, Obviously you went through a
very similar thing of coming back.
What was it like for you? And that was that was my sort of
deep dive, not necessarily into the disc golf market as a whole,
but hey, people that are still in that building, what's it like
in that building? You guys were there through
everything. How is it trending?
What does it look like? What do you feel?
And in those conversations, some of the people knew, some people
didn't. Some people I told, some people
I didn't. So I was able to get a good mix
of not that I wouldn't trust the people, but you know, people
that had no idea why I was asking.
And some people were just, oh, he's just touching base, seeing
how things are some people. Hey, I, I heard somebody was
talking to you about such and such and this and that is that
is it true? So I was able to get a, a good
mix and everybody said same things with like, yeah, it's,
it's a lot better than it was. It was hard.
It had been trending in a in a difficult direction for quite a
while when myself and then the the group of people that got
laid off at the same time, there was some, some pretty tough days
after that for the people that were still here.
But it's been what, 17 months, 16 months, something like that.
A lot has changed. A lot of things are trending in
a much better direction. And I can already, I mean day
three, I can feel that for sure. So, yeah, I, I didn't
necessarily look at the market as a whole, but you know, that's
the, the not necessarily company because I'm not, I'm not
strictly dynamic disks, but just the overall environment within
all of the brands. What is it?
What is it like? What do people feel?
And people from across the board all said the same things.
It was like, all right, you know what, the only reason for me to
say no would be if I was wanting to be petty, if I wanted to be
this or that. And that's, that's just not who
I am. So, yeah, it at first was not a
excuse me, it was not an immediate yes, absolutely.
I've been waiting for you to call me back.
But that was the, you know, after the conversations, after
talking with people that was obviously here.
I am the the decision was yeah, I, I am excited.
I would I would like to jump at this.
I think it's awesome. I think it's fantastic.
And yes, I would say even in the time I've been here it there's
a, a trend toward the positive, toward the good and toward
trying to rebuild. Yes, not only the trust with our
customers, but the trust within internally, right?
Right. And I, I mean, I, I think it has
to come internally. And that was one of the things
that was a struggle before was internally people were getting
beat down internally, people, the morale was lower.
And that makes it impossible to have the end consumer be super
excited about something that the people that are making it happen
are just going through the motions of.
But it's not, again, it's day three.
It's not that way anymore. You know, people I walk into
people are actually happy to be here.
People are excited. And there's one thing that was
nice. It's a lot of the same people,
you know, there's a couple of new faces, but a lot of the
people that I saw on a day-to-day basis before and
they're still here. Some of them are doing different
things like me, some of them are doing the same things.
But it's nice to see those people and you know, those
people are happy Again. It's a it's a good time.
That's what I've been telling people that is, yeah, there were
some tough times, but there there was.
There's always been the bones. The foundation is there, right.
Things are just getting better. And yeah, you can feel it for
sure. Yeah.
Well, what are you excited about the most for your new role?
I know it's only day three and you're still kind of learning.
You're still learning the ropes. Oh, yeah.
But what are you excited? What?
What it's exciting to you for this new role?
The the opportunity as a whole, obviously I had done the media
side of things for the better part of a decade, felt pretty
comfortable in that kind of knew my way, walked in, knew what I
was doing. But the opportunity to be on the
complete opposite side of the business.
Now before we were very focused on end consumer talking straight
to the customer at the end of the day.
Now, not that I don't care about those people, but hey, I need to
make sure that where they go to buy their disks, that person is
happy. That person is kind of my target
and I'm not in front of the camera on a day-to-day basis.
So it's a, it's a complete kind of looking glass into the other
side of the company and then the way that the, the market
operates. But I, I still get that.
I still get to, you know, it's a different person, but I still
get that direct. Like my job is to make someone
else's day better. My job is to make someone else
make their life easier and I get a lot of fulfillment from that.
I get a lot of enjoyment of seeing other people succeed and
making other people say, hey, you know what, so and so didn't
do that for me or this company doesn't do that for me.
Being able to, to be that difference maker and make it so
that's people can look at the, the brand's, you know, Dynamic,
Westside, Discmania, all that stuff the same way that I do
rather than just, it's another disc golf manufacturer.
Now there's there's something special here, There's a there's
some cool things going on and kind of helping to show that to
other people. So they look at it the same way.
Is is really cool. Yeah.
It's plus just, you know, so little bit of back story between
my time here, I was working at Verizon, selling phones, fixing
tech issues, things like that. Is, is is cool.
I met some really good people, some some friends for life, but
I'm not super excited about a Google Pixel 10.
Me neither. IPhones, yeah.
Great, I got I got one it's right here.
It makes phone calls just like my other one did.
It's it's cool, but it wasn't like anything I got out of bed
excited for in the morning. You know, it was it was a
learning experience for sure. Like I said, met some really
good friends, but disc golf is something that kind of excites
me at my core. You know, there's an actual
fire. Like, hey, this is this is
pretty freaking cool. You know, even the hard days,
hey, I'm not getting yelled at because somebody's phone doesn't
work and they have to buy a new one now.
Or what do you mean there's a network outage and you can't fix
it? Like we have a plug in the back.
Like that sort of stuff was never ideal.
And, you know, with it being disc golf, it's like, hey, this,
even even the worst days are still going to be pretty cool,
you know? So another thing I found out
yesterday when we played that round was you hadn't played a
round in the year and a half or a year, right?
Yep, Yeah, there was. So I was let go October 1st of
24 and probably October 10th, we'll say of 2024.
I was like, you know what, forget it.
I'm going to take my bag and flip it upside down and I'm
going to put a whole bunch of new discs in there.
I'm going to get back into disc golf and I'm going to make it
happen. And I'm not going to throw those
discs. And I went over to, I think it
was Jones East and I was on like hole 3.
Like this is this is dumb. Why?
Like, I'm doing this just to be mad at someone, but that person
doesn't know. That person doesn't care.
They're not here seeing me throw whatever.
And yeah, so I, I played, I don't know, eight or nine holes
and was like, this is just me going out of my way to try and
be somebody that I'm not out of anger and spite.
And yeah, so after that was like, you know what, when I,
when I feel like playing disc golf again, I'll do it.
And I'm going to throw the discs that I want to throw.
And I'm not going to say, well, there's an MD3 disc mania makes
that I can't touch that thing, burn it like, no, I like the way
the MD3 flies. So if I'm going to go play disc
golf, I'm going to throw the discs that I like how they fly.
So no, yeah, I, I touched a disc once and that was like I said, I
was unplugged. Unplugged.
How'd it feel to have discs in your hand again and throwing?
It hurt, it hurt. I went and played with Shane on
Monday and the 1st hole I threw, it was pretty good shot, yeah,
but I couldn't feel my arm. We got up there to putt and I
had little tingles kind of from the elbow down of like, Oh yeah,
this is gonna need to get back into disc golf shape for sure.
Yeah. So yeah, are you going to start
playing more now? I sure hope so, yeah.
I would love to, yeah. Yeah, we'll have to go out and
play some. Round here I'll I'll it will
keep score next time. Next time, Yeah.
Next time we'll keep scoring. Yeah.
Well, Anthony, I'm excited to have you back.
I think it's awesome. I it's a whole new chapter for
you. But like you said, you're back
in something that you love, which is disc golf, which is
which is fantastic. And I know you'll do a great job
once these stores find out that it's you calling them.
And once they start talking to you, they'll stop.
Answering. Yeah, yeah.
They'll stop calling and no, they'll, they're going to
realize that that's you. They will feel the passion that
you have and I think it's awesome, dude.
So it's great to have you back. So all right, guys.
Well, it's a short episode, but I was super excited to get the
news out of having Anthony back. And so I wanted to put together
real quick episode for the disc golf Phantryman.
So you guys could know make sure if you haven't, if you're not
following YouTube Dynamic discs, be sure to follow that.
I'll have this an episode of me and him playing around at
Hammond Park and ask him not not keeping score.
Do not keep score in the comments either.
Yeah, so, but and we go over I'm I'm so just, I remember the
score so much. I'm so happy.
But we didn't keep it. So, well, I kept it.
Somebody kept it. That's it, Bennett.
The cameraman probably kept it. I I don't he's a questionable
character. I don't know if I trust his
judgement. Anyway, go check out that round
where we talk a little bit more about his coming back to House
of Discs. So all right, man, well, you
need to get to work get get to selling some.
Discs I I do this isn't my job and right is actively not
working at work now. Alright guys, we'll see you next
time. Bye.