00:03.84 The ModGolf Podcast Welcome to the ModGolf podcast, where we speak with the entrepreneurs, the innovators, the disruptors, and the influencers who are shaping the future of golf. I am your host, Colin Weston, and today i have a guest for you that's going to give you all the feels, all across the emotions here. This show, you're going to laugh, you're going cry, you're going to be inspired You're going to be enlightened. This man's journey is, it is a journey. And I'm lucky enough to consider him a friend. 00:30.87 The ModGolf Podcast And we've been trying to get Todd on. He's just so darn busy with all the things that he does here to get him on ModGolf for the last couple of years. But today is the day that we're making this happen. And I am very proud and honorued to welcome Mr. Todd Keirstead onto The ModGolf Podcast. Todd, welcome. Thanks for joining us. 00:48.68 Todd Keirstead Absolutely, Colin. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, it's been a little bit of a journey to coordinate, but you wrote me into this one and I'm excited about it. 00:55.71 The ModGolf Podcast I did. I did. And i know when we first met years ago, because I've been doing this podcast thing now for about eight years, and you've been doing what you do in the industry for a lot longer than that. 01:07.30 The ModGolf Podcast And of course, starting off yourself as a very accomplished golfer. And then with golf entertainment, we're going to talk about that. And then your personal journey. I'm not going to reveal anything. I'm going to let you talk about all this, but the way this is going to unfold, I'm going to start here, not at the very beginning, not when you were born. We'll save that. We'll condense this conversation. We don't have five hours here, but I love to ask this question as an icebreaker. And I don't know this one with you, so I'm curious to learn. 01:35.23 The ModGolf Podcast And that is your first ever golf experience. Who put that club in your hand, that power of invitation and that first positive experience that that kind of hooked you, gave you the bug, whatever that was in your life? 01:49.18 Todd Keirstead Colin, I had an incredible opportunity of learning the game like a lot of people through my father. I've seen pictures that I don't remember being taken with a golf club in my hand. 01:58.81 Todd Keirstead Literally, the putter was taller than I was. 02:01.52 ToddKeirstead But the amount of bonding times, the amount of shared experience that but my father and I shared on the golf course, it was amazing. And he gave me the gift of this beautiful game. 02:13.61 The ModGolf Podcast Wow. There you go. And can you talk about that first time you actually were on a golf course? What was that, that first amazing shot that you hit? Can you remember when you were a little kid that, that was that, you know, that pure one, that butter one that you don't even feel that hooked you for life. 02:27.86 ToddKeirstead I think I got the ball airborne at like the age of five and it was just getting the ball up in the air and and seeing the expression on my dad's face. 02:31.27 The ModGolf Podcast Wow. 02:36.60 ToddKeirstead Yeah, I was hooked. 02:38.46 The ModGolf Podcast That's a magical feeling. It's like, what? That just happened. That just happened. That's amazing. I love that. Okay. So let's fast forward a little bit here. So talk about your life as a golf entertainer. You do all kinds of great things with as a trick shot artist and you know and so much more than that. So why don't you talk about ah your elite level golf playing and how that morphed and transitioned into creating that into a business in the golf entertainment side? 03:06.52 ToddKeirstead So I played for a little bit. Then i grew up playing ice hockey. So old hockey injuries crept up. 03:12.27 The ModGolf Podcast Right. 03:12.45 ToddKeirstead Couldn't perform at the level um that I needed to make a living. But I ended up being headhunted and being going down to the Jim McLean Academy, being a part of the Jim McLean Teaching Academy. We opened up. I was down in Doral for a little bit. 03:28.21 ToddKeirstead Then we opened up a school up here in Canada. It was his first school up in Canada. And I realized A, how to teach because at the time there was no real methodology going on. 03:38.93 ToddKeirstead This was back in the late 90s and then having to go through Jim's kind of philosophies and and bringing all the instructors from all his schools around the world down to Doral when it was the Doral Rider Open at down and down in Miami. 03:39.13 The ModGolf Podcast right 03:54.00 ToddKeirstead And we do research projects and I remember standing on the on a tee with a VHS video camera 03:54.25 The ModGolf Podcast Right. 04:02.49 ToddKeirstead videotaping each person's swing and my drill or my project was how much does a golfer's head move in the backswing and literally it was magic marker on the TV screen and a ruler and it was old school but that was my first encounter really with teaching and gave me the confidence and the ability to be out in front of public. And then from there, I realized through, not going to say boredom on the drive range because it's always fun. But the time that I had off, I realized I had a little bit of hand-eye coordination. And I turned with the confidence that I had, I was able to turn that into a one-hour show where I would perform. 04:46.43 ToddKeirstead It was more of an instructional entertainment show where I've been able to travel around the world doing it now. I've been voted trick shot of the year on the Golf Channel, been featured on everything from yeah ESPN, Sports Illustrated. 04:58.71 ToddKeirstead I've been on TMZ and not in a scandalous fashion, but four different occasions by hitting golf balls with a ton of celebrities. 05:07.26 ToddKeirstead And it's been a very fun way to a make a living, but B, make an impact because I'm raising millions of dollars for various charities each and every year. 05:18.43 The ModGolf Podcast Love this. Love this. So of course we talk to entrepreneurs, startups, founders all the time here on ModGolf. So let's dig a little bit deeper into that. Just rewind that a little bit, when you saw your ability with that hand-eye coordination and your ability to entertain and pull off trick shots. 05:37.02 The ModGolf Podcast When did you see that was a viable business? I've had a few comedians on the podcast here and you see people doing standup and you think, oh, that's so easy, but they agonize over every word and they test it in front of an audience. 05:49.15 The ModGolf Podcast and may change a joke by removing one word or adding one word, and it just completely changes the timing of the joke. 05:52.52 ToddKeirstead Thank you. 05:54.94 The ModGolf Podcast So I'm curious with you as far as that experimentation is of what you realized, what tricks really worked, and you just doubled down on those, and maybe one just for fun that you thought everyone would love, or maybe it backfired and maybe it didn't work. 06:09.00 The ModGolf Podcast Tell us a little bit about that process of how you arrived over the last decade to to get where you are now in the golf entertainment space. 06:16.92 Todd Keirstead Well, the the hour-long show that I put on, it's only about five or ten minutes of actually hitting shots. So when I was coming up with a new shot and I figured out a new shot, it was more of the, the as you said, the comedic, the the entertainment segue leading up to the shot and and pulling people in and drawing the audience in. You know, you could be doing this in front of a live, I've done it in front of anywhere from 30 people to 3,000 people, and it's pulling them in and and being as on top, I want people as close as possible because I'm feeding off their energy, but it's creating that segue leading up to the shot that creates that hook and, and really brings people in. And that's been the trick shots nowadays, they're going viral on social media, but what a lot of people don't know that the camera's rolling for about four hours to get that one lucky shot. 07:06.74 ToddKeirstead And there's really only a handful of us in the world that can literally put on a live, 07:06.76 The ModGolf Podcast Right. 07:12.57 Todd Keirstead demonstration in front of hundreds of people and not miss and keep because the second we miss a shot or the second we lose the audience and you have to pull off these shots and execute the shots and and that's where there's only a select few there's a handful of us in the world that can pull these off in front of a live audience rather than the one shot where you catch and you get instagram fame so 07:38.71 The ModGolf Podcast Right. 07:39.77 Todd Keirstead It's kind of cool to be in that select category. And I talked to a bunch of them and I travel around with some of them and we ham and egg it and put it together and we have some fun with it. And there's not really a lot of egos involved. It's just, let's have some fun. We'll go five minutes, you five minutes, me when I'm doing something or I'm doing an hour long presentation by myself. And it's fun to be able to not only entertain people, but execute and doing something that you love with a golf club. 08:09.10 The ModGolf Podcast This is great stuff. Okay. I have to ask you this. Do you have a signature shot? If you want to see some of Todd's trick shots and much more than that, we will be jumping onto a video conversation afterwards for the ModGolf YouTube channel. So we'll be pulling up all kinds of imagery there. So if you want to see some of those trick shots, come and join us on YouTube. i will include the link in the show notes for that. So yeah, once we finish up here with our with our podcast conversation, Todd and I are going to do that. So yeah, I'm really curious to learn here, Todd. 08:42.53 The ModGolf Podcast What is your signature shot that's the Todd Keirstead shot? 08:49.97 Todd Keirstead well There's a few, but the one that won me trick shot of the year on the Golf Channel, I hit it off of a very famous and NHL player, because he was a hockey player, we put a jock strap on him, a protective cup, and I literally crushed one 300 yards off of the cup. And, and yo, it's a little bit of a risque shot, but you know what, when you have somebody lying on the ground and using them as a human golf tee and not missing, we have a lot of fun doing it. 09:22.07 Todd Keirstead hitting balls out of the air. I get people to throw balls at me. I'll get people to chip balls at me and I'll hit them out of the air. But the go-to shots are the body shots just because they're a lot of fun. And when you're doing it in a tournament, there's 144 players playing in a tournament. If I'm standing on a Tee deck, I'm basically putting on 36 eight-minute shows. And it's feeling the group out, know which shots you can get away with, what you can't get away with. 09:48.75 Todd Keirstead And it's a lot of fun. It really, really is. 09:52.07 The ModGolf Podcast hitting golf balls off an NHL player's jockstrap. What could possibly go wrong? 09:56.90 ToddKeirstead Exactly! I catch a lot of celebrities in that situation and that's where TMZ picked up on it. Now they'll catch these guys coming out of the LAX airport going, you let some guy do what? And it's a whole segue. And that's kind of where the TMZ is rolled in, they picked up on me hitting golf balls with celebrities and having them in some unique situations and they catch them coming out of the airport and asking the questions about it. 10:26.83 The ModGolf Podcast This is great. with Free publicity. That's the best kind, right? 10:30.32 ToddKeirstead yeah 10:30.46 The ModGolf Podcast There you go. 10:31.16 ToddKeirstead You know, social media has been my best friend. The thing about it is because the shots that I hit are so unique, um you know, 80% of the crowd has their phones out. So, you know, I've just got to make sure I put my branding in the right spot. So it's in every picture and every video. But yeah, it's kind of free marketing, free advertising. 10:47.12 The ModGolf Podcast This is great. This is great. All right. We've talked about a lot of fun things here. I'm going to kind of and flip the conversation here a little bit to something that's a bit more serious. Well, not just a bit more serious, much more serious. Something I know that you are a staunch advocate because you've had a personal relationship with cancer, just as I have, different forms of cancer. But over the last couple years, you have been like transparent isn't even the word. 11:12.03 The ModGolf Podcast I know after your surgery, you put images in the hospital of yourself out there and use that as a platform for skin cancer and what you had to deal with and the good work that you're doing as an ambassador for Melanoma Canada. So I'll leave the floor to you. Why don't you tell us about that experience and how important it is for you? 11:33.47 Todd Keirstead So, you know, spending thousands of hours under the sun, it was my living. It's my living being outside and being an outdoor worker. Skin cancer did catch up to me. I ended up getting skin cancer on my nose, but skin cancer did catch up to me. 11:53.95 Todd Keirstead Unfortunately, had it all over my nose. So it was something, the male ego, or I don't even know if it's a male ego, but it was, oh, it's nothing. It's nothing. It's just aging. 12:11.49 Todd Keirstead And then finally, one day I decided to um go get it checked out. The family doctor immediately sent me to a dermatologist. Dermatologist looked at it, didn't even have to do a biopsy and said, you have cancer. 12:23.89 Todd Keirstead And you know, that C word is probably one of the most scariest words in the English dictionary. 12:24.44 The ModGolf Podcast Wow. 12:27.93 Todd Keirstead You know, I talked about my father previously and he died of cancer. 12:28.24 The ModGolf Podcast I know it. 12:33.14 Todd Keirstead So, when you hear that word, it kind of punches you in the stomach. Ended up having nine facial reconstructive surgeries over the over a year and a half period. 12:46.65 Todd Keirstead It took four surgeries to remove all the cancer. From there, they did a pyramidion forehead flap. And what what happened was with the four surgeries to rid my nose of skin cancer, 12:59.11 Todd Keirstead it left a huge void in my nose. So what the doctors did was they took a template of the hole that was left in my nose, they put it on the top of my forehead. From there, they cut from one eyebrow all the way up to the top of my forehead, around the template, back down to my other eyebrow. 13:19.48 Todd Keirstead They then took the skin that they cut and they peeled it down. It was still attached. They peeled it down, inverted it 180 degrees and sewed it to my nose. So there was live living tissue. 13:30.93 Todd Keirstead They didn't take a piece of skin from my hip or from my leg. There was live living tissue. Then from there, they had to close this wound up. So I still have the scars and everything. 13:41.28 Todd Keirstead But to me, it was when I found out exactly what was going to happen, I did a ton of research, went on the Internet, knew exactly physically what was going to happen to me through the procedure. 13:50.47 The ModGolf Podcast Right. 13:58.33 ToddKeirstead And I've done a lot of work with our wounded military, done a lot of work with individuals with varying degrees of of physical situations. And i've I've done a lot of work and I know the the the psychological issues that come out, the PTSDs, the trauma. 14:15.30 ToddKeirstead And that's when I had no idea... how I was going to handle our faces, our brand, our faces, our image. You know, i always say at the story, you look down at a six month old child and they look back at you with a big smile on their face because they recognize your face. 14:31.03 ToddKeirstead I had no idea what I was going to look like. So I had three months of this experience. They call it a forehead flap, paramedian forehead flap. I had this bridge of skin from my forehead down to my nose um for three months. And I'm like, okay, I could either go into recluse for those three months and spend my time in the basement. 14:51.27 ToddKeirstead And with that, I had no idea what mental state I was going to be in. 14:56.36 The ModGolf Podcast Right. 14:56.88 ToddKeirstead So I had a conversation with my wife and it was a tough conversation, but I said, listen, I'm going to share my story. I'm going to go public with it. For two reasons, to put it out there, to be an advocate, to let people know what UV can do and what the sun can do, but also it might help out, help me out psychologically. 15:18.43 ToddKeirstead And it was the best thing I did. Like I've, I posted videos of every emotion that I had, I put it out there to the public. I kind of went full Monty and I exposed everything. 15:28.51 The ModGolf Podcast Right. 15:28.64 Todd Keirstead I exposed, as you said, the imagery from the hospital bed with, with all the bandages, what it looked like after the bandages. And to me, it was therapeutic because the amount of support that came was incredible, but even bigger, 15:47.32 Todd Keirstead Within about a three-month period, I had over 50 golf pros reach out to me that have seen my story and said, Todd, you made me go to the dermatologist. And over half of them had skin cancer themselves, knew something was going on, but just brushed it under the rug like I did. 16:04.72 Todd Keirstead But my story is what made them go to the dermatologist, and I received so much information. Thanks, because it gave them that little kick in the ass to go do something about it. So that was the biggest rewarding part for me in going public. 16:20.78 The ModGolf Podcast Wow. Wow. And yes, as I mentioned earlier, I do remember on LinkedIn and other social media platforms, you were unfiltered. You put your story out there and it sounds like it was very cathartic for you to do that. And so the feedback that you received, I'm assuming then that perhaps you were on their radar, maybe you reached out to them, but then with Melanoma Canada, 16:47.05 The ModGolf Podcast yourself as a brand ambassador, perhaps you could talk about that relationship as using your story, not only with your own community through social media and just everything you've done over the last 20, 30 years in golf, but now you've got the, the opportunity to amplify that message by sharing your journey. So talk about your relationship with Melanoma Canada for us a little bit. 17:06.75 Todd Keirstead Melanoma Canada is doing some incredible stuff. They have something going around in Canada called the Mole Mobile, where it's very challenging to get in to see a dermatologist. 17:12.85 The ModGolf Podcast Hmm. 17:15.69 Todd Keirstead A dermatologist, they're few and far between, especially when you're in a remote locations and they have a Winnebago bus that that has a dermatologist on site, you can book an appointment, show up for free, um have a physical screening, skin screening, they go over you with a fine tooth comb, but it's getting the message out there and it's getting the testing out there um to especially remote communities that don't have dermatologists in the area. 17:46.23 Todd Keirstead And when i grew a suntan and a sunburn was a badge of honour to how great the weekend was. And I put hundreds of hours of research into it. 17:52.87 The ModGolf Podcast Yes. 17:56.65 Todd Keirstead I'm creating right now. I'm putting the finishing touches on an online training program. And it's just stuff that I wish I would have known. When you talk about everything from you know, talk about base tan, how much protection, everybody thinks, oh, I've got a base tan, I don't have to worry about it. You know, the sun you can get through a car window, the sun you can get through a window in ah in a corner office, you know, people with darker skin tones, altitude, there's so much stuff that I keep on hearing every time I talk. 18:28.09 Todd Keirstead It's, I know about skin cancer, but I know nothing about skin cancer. And it's creating that that education piece and it's creating that awareness. And I look at it, it's nobody's responsibility to put sunscreen on me. It's nobody's responsibility to make me wear protective UV clothing. 18:47.12 Todd Keirstead But I think there has to be that education piece. And that's what Melanoma Canada has been so great about is creating that that education piece. And we need to create that education piece like you're doing right now and in creating awareness that, you know, the sun is great. The sun is awesome. The sun is life, but there is another side to it as well, too. 19:08.17 The ModGolf Podcast So the beauty of the game that we love with golf is that it is outdoors. I know we have indoor simulators and all that during the rainy months or when it's dark or... Other times that we just want a different experience. 19:20.33 The ModGolf Podcast But for the most part, it is a green grass experience. So we love that outdoors, that connection with nature. So quite naturally, we're going to be exposed to UV light and the sun. So most people should know what to do and what not to do. 19:34.94 The ModGolf Podcast But I'm sure this is a balance you've managed to strike. I know you've been at this for a while now. You don't want to be preachy to people, but just even the low hanging fruit, what should people and myself on the golf course, I'm going out to university golf course today for a for a short game lesson. 19:41.10 ToddKeirstead Yeah. 19:51.18 The ModGolf Podcast So I'm going to be out there for an hour and a half in the sunshine. So what should I make sure that I'm doing out there to protect myself? 19:57.94 ToddKeirstead There's three lines of defence. The first one is shade. The first one is seen not being in the sun. So whether you're finding a shade, whether you're doing a lesson under, a canopy or whatever, that's the first line. The second line is wearing clothing, covering up. 20:12.18 ToddKeirstead And the third line is wearing sunscreen. Everybody thinks sunscreen is the first line of defence. It's actually the last line of defence on any exposed clothes, parts of the body. So anytime I go play golf now, I'm wearing a bucket hat. 20:27.27 ToddKeirstead My God, I can't stand a bucket hat! 20:30.00 The ModGolf Podcast Right. 20:30.19 Todd Keirstead But I'm wearing it now for full protection around the ears, the back of the neck, full facial. You see the guys on the on a tour, they take their hats off when they shake the hand on the 18th tee. And you see the tan line. So, you know, baseball hats really aren't doing... 20:44.43 Todd Keirstead full protection. They're covering the top of the head, but the tops of the ears, the back of the neck, the cheeks. I'm follicly challenged and you have the great picture of Stuart Cink when he takes his hat off. And I never wore a hat because of that very reason. I didn't want to put my wife through walking around in public with me with a ah baseball hat tan line. So I never wore a hat and I only use sunscreen when it was convenient or if I remembered. 21:11.83 The ModGolf Podcast right 21:12.02 Todd Keirstead Now I keep a bottle of sunscreen right by my toothpaste because it's still not habit for me to put sunscreen on. I do need that reminder. But shade covering up and sunscreen will definitely help you out a lot. 21:28.29 The ModGolf Podcast thank you for sharing that so in the show notes i will include All the links to Todd, if you want to book him as an entertainer. I know you're in Greater Toronto, but you're on the road. So you're all over the place, all over North America. So I will, of course, include a link to your website where people can find it if they want to book you. 21:45.35 The ModGolf Podcast But tell us where people can learn more to educate themselves and their friends with Melanoma Canada and some of the other resources that you can share here that I will make sure I include those links also. 21:55.96 Todd Keirstead There's a plethora of information out there. Melanoma Canada has phenomenal resources. There are other associations that are out there depending on where you live. This podcast is all over the world. Australia, they have a phenomenal sunscreen programs out there. 22:10.53 Todd Keirstead The US, just everywhere. Go online and you'll find it. But as I said, I'm pretty proud of this education piece out there. It's going into pro shops. It's going to be going into clubhouses. It's transcending to varying sports. So soccer, tennis, any outdoor sport. I just did a talk for a construction safety, a national safety convention. 22:36.46 Todd Keirstead where I was the keynote talking about sun safety, things you you know, I never even realized. But you take a look at that construction worker that's doing a roof project or even just standing on the side of the road going slow and stop. 22:48.55 ToddKeirstead You know, they're out there for eight to 10 hours a day and the sun is beating down on them. So it's not only the sports industry, but it transcends to anybody, whether you're walking your dog, whether you're doing gardening, you are being blasted by UV radiation. 23:03.81 The ModGolf Podcast Yes. Okay. So now the third leg to this stool that is known as Todd Keirstead. Should just call you a stool? Maybe that's, so it was really bad branding, bad framing. 23:17.18 The ModGolf Podcast Maybe I should reframe that. No, we're going stick with that. Okay. The third leg of the stool here, i do want to talk about with all the good work that you do. 23:19.46 ToddKeirstead Okay. 23:24.08 The ModGolf Podcast And that is yourself as the founder and CEO of Paragolf Canada and your involvement with adaptive golf and coaching. So tell us how that came about and the good work that you're very proud of there. 23:36.92 ToddKeirstead I knew about adaptive golf, but I had no idea about adaptive golf. I ended up doing a one hour golf entertainment trick shot performance for a veterans hospital outside of Tampa, Florida. 23:54.38 ToddKeirstead So I'm doing this hour long performance and I'm going through my shots and I'm realizing some of the shots that I'm hitting are actually emulating these wounded veterans that are in attendance. So I'm hitting balls blindfolded. 24:06.59 ToddKeirstead I look out after I take the blindfold off. There were individuals that were affected by mustard gas in the Vietnam War and lost their sight. I'm swinging, hitting golf balls with one arm, showing the correlation between golf and tennis or golf and racket sports. 24:21.18 ToddKeirstead I looked out, there were arm amputees. I was hitting golf balls off my knees, hitting drivers off my knees. There were double leg amputees. I was hitting golf balls out of ah off a fold-out chair. 24:32.60 ToddKeirstead There were guys that were in a wheelchair situation. So it immediately turned the light bulb on to me that, This wasn't so much entertaining anymore. This was now motivating and inspiring because I was showing these incredible individuals that suffered some horrific physical and and mental injuries in the theater of war that, yeah, you know what, maybe you can't play the game of golf the way that you used to but here's an adaptive way to play. And it really resonated not only with them, but it resonated with me. So I came back up to Canada and I started a program that really picked up a lot of traction when Adidas Golf Canada and TaylorMade looked at and said, yeah, we want to be a part of this. 25:18.85 ToddKeirstead And from there, it's taken off. I've done a lot of work with the United States military. I traveled around the world with the U.S. Air Force, everywhere from Japan to South Korea, Germany, Italy, U.K., all through the U.S., working not only entertaining their their personnel that are on base, but also working with some of the people that were in the rehabilitative states. 25:42.84 ToddKeirstead I was just in Miramar Marine Base. I signed couple contracts with the Marines. So where they filmed Top Gun, putting on a show, but also working with some of the wounded. 25:50.64 The ModGolf Podcast Oh, right. 25:53.65 ToddKeirstead I was at Camp Peddleton in San Diego. I was at Paris Island where they do their 13 week bootcamp, doing the same thing. Plus a lot of amazing stuff that I do, you know, in Canada. 26:06.26 ToddKeirstead Working with some incredible individuals that have suffered some horrific situations, but giving them the opportunity just to show them that golf is still the game of golf. Yes, you might not be able to play the way that you used to But to me, I use golf as an excuse to get out of the basement and have that social aspect of the game. And for some people that have recently acquired a stroke and might have lost the use of one side of their body. 26:35.60 ToddKeirstead Golf might mean 30 yards and it might only mean hitting 10 shots in an 18 hole round of golf, but they're sitting in the golf cart with three of their friends, having a drink, having laughs. 26:46.44 ToddKeirstead And it's that social aspect that is pulling them out of the basement and giving them a purpose again. 26:52.26 The ModGolf Podcast Love this. Love this. So with Paragolf Canada, could you share with us a couple of specific stories you'd like to celebrate? 27:01.26 The ModGolf Podcast So some individuals that their story just makes you smile and warms your heart with the effect that it's had to help transform them both physically and emotionally. 27:11.32 ToddKeirstead So i'm going to share two and they're near and dear to my heart. One is I was working down in Sarasota, Florida, and I was doing a clinic down there with some wounded veterans. 27:21.97 ToddKeirstead And somebody came out for the first time was in a wheelchair, um was paralyzed um from the waist down suffering from some severe PTSD. 27:33.12 ToddKeirstead Didn't want to be a part of the group. 27:33.36 The ModGolf Podcast Okay. 27:34.20 ToddKeirstead Didn't want it anything to do with it. But his wife brought him there. They lived around the corner. He loved the game of golf. So we knew this clinic was happening. His wife said, you got to go to it. Just check it out. 27:45.16 ToddKeirstead So after I was done with the clinic, I saw him still back there in his chair. So I sat in a wheelchair and started hitting golf balls and, and being in a seated situation, you have to elevate the golf ball a little bit. 27:56.92 ToddKeirstead It's almost like you're playing seated T-ball because your legs will get in the way of your hands and the golf club moving. 27:59.71 The ModGolf Podcast okay 28:03.76 ToddKeirstead So I'm playing seated T-ball with myself and I'm hitting drivers and I'm hitting them a good distance. And every time I tee the ball up, I would glance over him with the corner of my eye. And and I could see that he was starting to sit up a little bit in the chair and he was kind of intrigued what was going on. i hit a couple more and about five minutes went by and he wheeled down to me and we just started talking. 28:26.96 ToddKeirstead And we're talking about his life and Sarasota and how he played golf before an, he really opened up, which I was very surprised with. Then I said, you want to give this a try? And he's like, absolutely. So, I got the driver in the hand, showed him how to do it. And within about 10 minutes, I had him hitting the ball about 100 yards. 28:47.41 ToddKeirstead And his face was lit up. And so about 20 minutes went by and I said, OK, you're ready to go. And he's like, no, I'm really having a good time. I want to stay and hit some. I'm like, no, you're ready to go play golf. 29:00.55 ToddKeirstead And he was like, really? And I'm like, yeah. So I wheeled him to the first tee, tee the ball up. He hits it a hundred yards down the fairway. What I didn't know is his wife came to pick him up and he sees him on the first tee. 29:14.68 ToddKeirstead Well, he had two of his buddies that lived around the corner that he used to play golf with all the time. She called two of them up. So we go out and we play hole number one. And then we play hole number nine coming back to the clubhouse. 29:28.08 ToddKeirstead So you got to remember, this is a hardened soldier that lost the use of his lower body, was hit by a bullet in the spine in Afghanistan and lost the function of his lower body, and dealing with some really dark issues because of the anger, the depression, everything. 29:51.86 ToddKeirstead So we're about 100 yards from the green. He looks up, he sees his wife in tears. 29:58.98 The ModGolf Podcast Hmm. 29:59.77 ToddKeirstead Two of his buddies are now in tears. I look over at him and He and all of us are in tears and, and just giving this individual the opportunity to get on the golf course again. 30:15.40 ToddKeirstead Then we spent another 15 minutes back on the driving range because I wanted to give the tools to his friends on how they can do this with them all the time. So that was really my first real personal introduction to adaptive golf on a really personal note where it wasn't with a group. And it affected me. I didn't really think I was doing much because I was having fun. We were talking, we're having a good time. 30:41.71 ToddKeirstead But when I got in the car to drive home, i was like, God, I think I really made a difference. And you don't realize that at the time, 30:48.43 The ModGolf Podcast Right. Right. 30:49.08 ToddKeirstead Then the second one, a young man named Ryan Stretznitsky, he was a Humbolt Bronco survivor. Everybody knows about the Humbolt Bronco bus crash that happened in Saskatchewan that took the lives a lot of junior hockey players and left some of the players in pretty bad physical situations. 31:00.11 The ModGolf Podcast right 31:08.42 ToddKeirstead So Ryan was paralyzed from the chest down, but he was playing, he was reintroduced back to hockey through sledge hockey. So here he was training for sledge hockey. He was sponsored by Adidas. I'm sponsored by Adidas through golf. 31:23.47 ToddKeirstead The word was planted to Adidas that he wanted to try golf again. So Adidas flew me out to Calgary. Again, Ryan's paralyzed from the chest down. 31:34.80 ToddKeirstead I knew he was coming. So I was sitting in a wheelchair when he got there. I'm doing my thing, hitting balls out of a chair. And he's looking at me going, you're doing a pretty good kind of mean, you can see you're able to play golf like that. 31:46.68 ToddKeirstead And that was the first question. I'm like, absolutely. I go, the rules of golf are specifically to rules of golf to Ryan Strznitsky. There's not the rules of golf to anything else. 31:56.83 ToddKeirstead The only thing you got to worry about is pace of play and course condition. So within about 10 minutes, I had him hitting the ball. He's a strong young man, very powerful. 32:07.35 ToddKeirstead He was hitting the ball about 140 yards off the tee. Huge success story. Now he's in Calgary. Every year he has the Strass Foundation Golf Tournament where he stands on the hole gets on a hole, pardon me, with an adaptive golf cart that puts him in a standing position. As every group comes through, he hits a tee shot with him. 32:30.31 ToddKeirstead It's a powerful story. it's It's giving back. He wanted to play golf with his grandpa, and that was his big thing. He wanted to play golf again, and now he's doing it. So, you know, those are those are the success stories, but the success stories are there's a ton of them out there, um but it's just giving people back what they thought they've once lost and utilizing the game of golf to get some sort of normalcy back in their life, and it's a powerful tool to give that back to somebody. 32:58.83 The ModGolf Podcast Yeah, yeah. Wow. Well, as we finish up here, listening to you over the last half hour here Todd, the one thread that wonderfully weaves your story together is empathy, compassion, compassion, joy, curiosity, and love. And it's all bundled up around golf. And I'm so happy that I, more than 10 years ago, stumbled into the golf industry as an entrepreneur. And here I am. And this is what I do. And this is what I want to do for the rest of my life is the community. And you're part of this. 33:37.11 The ModGolf Podcast Some of the most wonderful people i have ever had the privilege of meeting. And you certainly fit into that group, sir. And I want to thank you for all that you're doing and for having the courage to share your personal story and to do all the good work that you're doing. And I've got a feeling you're just getting started. 33:58.75 ToddKeirstead I am. And we're having fun and you know what, we're both very blessed to have that four letter word of golf as part of our career, because God, it's incredible. 34:09.67 ToddKeirstead Like I pinched myself. I look at it. People say, what do you do for a living? I say I get paid to drive to and from the golf course because I don't think I'm working when I'm on the golf course. It's an incredible sport and it brings so many incredible people together. 34:26.14 ToddKeirstead It's the thread that brings a lot of great things in the world. 34:29.09 The ModGolf Podcast Yeah. What's that saying? Love what you do. You never work a day in your life. 34:33.27 ToddKeirstead That's exactly it, my friend. 34:34.33 The ModGolf Podcast There we go. That is a good one. Well, as I mentioned to all of our listeners here, thank you for joining us here today. And I hope you will spend a few more minutes jumping over to the ModGolf YouTube channel. As I said, I will include the link in the show notes there. Nice and easy for you. And you can also see Todd. 34:53.66 The ModGolf Podcast And I have to say you're even more handsome than before your surgery. That's no joke. You're looking good. They did a you did a wonderful job 35:00.00 ToddKeirstead You know what? I keep on handing a picture of George Clooney to my plastic surgeon. He's like, no, I'm not a miracle worker, but he does have an ego and he is bringing me back. and And nine surgeries later, you know what, between medical science and the human body, it's pretty impressive. 35:19.36 The ModGolf Podcast Love this. Love this. And to reinforce what Todd said earlier, i know myself, women are much better at this than men are, but men, whether we're suppressing things, whether it's the emotional side and our mental health and the work that I do with Heads Up Guys and and men's mental health there, but also with our own physical issues and just denying them or putting them to the side. And Hey, if you think like with myself, so we've talked about, and most people know that, I've had my journey with prostate cancer and coming out the other side after having surgery about 10 weeks ago. 35:55.81 The ModGolf Podcast And I would have never known if I didn't have a random blood test to say that my PSA level was was high. If the fact you didn't say, maybe I should get my nose checked out here, but it sounds like you were kind of thinking about that or putting that off for some time. So I think we can both say that... 36:12.86 The ModGolf Podcast If you think there's an issue or just take care of yourself, you know, be proactive and be the best version of yourself that you could possibly could be. And, you're worth it. Everyone is worth it. Take care of yourself. I'm glad I've done that. I'm glad that you've done that with yourself so that we can both be here and enjoy this game of golf and life as long as we possibly can with our friends. 36:35.67 ToddKeirstead Colin, that sums it up perfectly. I've got nothing more to say, my friend. Thank you so much for having me on the ModGolf Podcast. 36:42.89 The ModGolf Podcast You are welcome. All right. I will talk to you over on YouTube. And thank you, Todd, again for joining us today. It's been a pleasure. 36:50.42 ToddKeirstead Thank you.