ModGolf interview with Hazel Thompson, Founder/CEO of Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours at The 2025 PGA Show in Orlando Florida. 00:31.11 ModGolfPodcast Hey there, I'm Colin Weston. Welcome to the ModGolf Podcast, where I speak with the entrepreneurs, the innovators, the disruptors, and the influencers who are shaping the future of golf. I am recording live today from the PGA Show in Orlando, and I've had the good fortune of being here in the media studio, and I've recorded three fabulous interviews so far, and I like to say, we hopefully won't offend the other guests by saying I'm saving the best for last here, but we're definitely saving a a great one for last and that is Hazel Thompson who is the founder and owner of Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours. 01:24.93 ModGolfPodcast I'm excited for this one because I'm going to be one of her clients! I have the good fortune in a couple of months time in May to traveling to Belfast Ireland for the first time in my life. I'm going to be speaking at a golf technology business conference there for four days, but I'm going to have a chance for an experience before the conference and then another one afterwards and we're going to run through all of that. Hazel is going to help facilitate that experience for me and hopefully show for you, if you're considering a golf tour that's revolved around golf but as you'll find out it's not exclusive to golf. So many other amazing diverse experiences that we're going to dig into here into here today! So that's enough with me explaining that because the woman beside me can explain it so much better with such a nicer accent than I have with my Canadian accent. And that is Hazel. Hazel, welcome to the ModGolf Podcast! 02:09.92 Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours Thank you, Colin. Thank you for that lovely welcome and introduction. I appreciate that. So as you say, I've been doing this for over 10 years. Yes. And bringing golf tours into Ireland. I live there. I'm a local. We know the land, we know the people, yes and I'm delighted to be able to help you with your trip to Ireland. That's great. 02:33.84 ModGolfPodcast I am excited. I'm very excited about this. So let's talk about the PGA Show. So you're part of the travel section here, and Ireland has had a presence for many years, but I've noticed that this year it's almost double the size. So let's start with that, why you're here at the PGA Show what's happening before we dig into all the good things that you are doing with Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours. And then how you're going to help me have an amazing experience before and after the conference in Belfast. 03:03.84 Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours Wonderful. Yes, I'm here with Tourism Ireland. Tourism Northern Ireland. And I'm on their Golf in Ireland stand. So I'm delighted. I'm showcasing also two whiskeys, one from the north of Ireland, the Bushmills 12 year old. And one from the south of Ireland, Red Breast, which I know is very popular over here. So I brought them along this morning. So they're on my table. If anyone wants to come and have a sample, it gives you a little taste of what one of our tours is like, because we personalize it. We ask you what drink you want on the coach, provide a complimentary. Each person gets the chance to say what their drink of choice is and then we have it on the coach stress-free and helps your guests enjoy their trip as well. 03:53.62 ModGolfPodcast Amazing, amazing. Well I'm finishing up, as I mentioned, our fourth recording this morning, almost two hours in, so I think I may have to come on over and perhaps if you've got a little bit of Bushmills that I may able to sample afterwards, I'd really appreciate that. I think my voice needs it. It's medicinal. Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours Well they say in Ireland it's to "wet your whistle". 04:35.57 ModGolfPodcast And my whistle needs to be wet right about now. I can feel that I'm starting to turn to lose my voice here a little bit. So let's talk about what we had run through before having some fun with a curated experience, two completely different experiences that I can have before and after the show. So here's the scenario for everybody listening and also watching on our YouTube channel that I'm going be at a conference in Belfast for four days, but for five to seven days before that and five to seven days after that I'm looking for two different experiences. Before the conference I'm looking to have my wife join me, who is of Irish descendancy, has been to Ireland before and loves the experiences but she is not a golfer. 05:09.58 ModGolfPodcast I want to have an experience there with the two of us where I managed to sprinkle in a bit of golf and some other things we had talked about that you pulled out of me to help curate this to find out what we would like. And then my wife would be leaving after the conference. And then I have seven of my buddies joining me for an eight guy golf trip for a week. I'm a mid handicapper. They're all very good players. So. they would love that championship experience. So let's run through this so why don't you talk first of all about what you have in store for me and my wife to start out when we descend upon Belfast and then move farther north. 06:12.85 Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours All right great! I book the buddies trips, I do girlfriend trips, I do PGA professional golf members trips, golf club members trips and I do multi-generational family trips too which are very popular. So starting with you and your wife for the first week, what I like to do is get an understanding of your interests and hobbies as well outside golf. Your golf style, what you're looking for, and type of accommodation, because luxury means everything from guest house right through the private castle. So, Ireland is luxury. Luxury is the way it's put together and the personal touch and that essence. So that's where luxury comes in. So I'll start with what type of accommodation would you and your wife be looking for? ModGolfPodcast Well, I think we'd like something that is, I don't know if quaint is the quite right word. I think at the upper luxury price point of it, we don't want to be staying in a castle. We'd love it, but I don't think that's quite in the budget. So I think in that mid-upper tier, if you want to call it that, but not the most luxurious or extravagant. So if there's something that. We love to live like a local. That doesn't have to necessarily be an Airbnb, but something that isn't a big hotel, that's more personalized and even smaller, whether it's a smaller inn, something on that that line. I think that's something that we would find quite, I don't know if we're going to call it quaint, but I think that would that would be the experience we would we would like to enjoy. 07:31.88 Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours Yes, absolutely. And in terms of golf for that first week, how many rounds would you like to play? 07:49.19 ModGolfPodcast Well, if I think if I played every single day, my wife may not be happy with me because she's very athletic and loves to do outdoor activities like we talked about. She loves to do the ocean plunges and all these good things. And we like to go for bike rides and hikes. 08:14.89 Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours So to the answer to that question, I think that two rounds on the first week, because I know you have a busy conference. You've got your buddies coming for the second week. So what I might do for your viewers is explain on the map, because Ireland is small, but it's actually really big when you're there because the roads aren't great. It takes time to travel from A to B to C to D. So your conference is in Belfast, which is over here and where I live is Portrush, up here in the north. So I think for your first week, it would be lovely, you mentioned your wife likes ocean plungers and bike rides. I think coming over to Portrush and around that area, that's the Giant's Causeway, yes beautiful coastal scenic drives. 08:42.61 Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours Game of Thrones and film backdrops and you've got then Portrush Club where The Open is being been held this year. And there's a second course there too called the Valley and the Valley has had this amazing transformation. It's now going to be the top 10 in Ireland. So it opens in May. We've only been able to play nine holes there, but it's opening in May. 09:08.02 Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours So there's two courses, you've got Port Stewart, you've got Castle Rock, and then on the border you're into Donegal, where my mother's from. My father's from here in County Tyrrell, and my mother's from Donegal. So of some amazing courses here too. But for that first trip, I would start at three nights stay in Portrush and in one of the nice seaside small quaint hotels that you alluded to. Then we could have a round of golf on one or two of these courses here. Then I can organize lovely side trips for your wife. So she doesn't want to be sitting in the clubhouse waiting for you. She is an active person. 10:02.07 ModGolfPodcast No, she would not want to do that. She'd want to have her own individual experiences some of the times and then collective experiences together most of the time. Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours Yes right. And then we could have three nights in Derry, London Derry, which is here on the border and that's seen as the Killarney of the north of Ireland. So full of Irish music, Irish dancing, a lot of history too because it's one of the only fully-walled cities in Europe. Huge amount of history museums and great fun. You get up and close with the locals there as well. ModGolfPodcast There's a popular television show out of Derry right now too, I believe. Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours Oh yes, Derry Girls. It's really put Derry on the map. And it was also the cultural city of Europe in 2014. It's a fabulous place. So this is the way that I work. I find out what your interests are, what your hobbies are outside golf, what the non-golfing spouse who may be traveling as well, what they like to do. And then we work around that we work on transport. So how do you think you might like to get around on that first week? 11:09.45 ModGolfPodcast Well, I think there could be two options. My wife has driven in Ireland before and feels quite comfortable driving on the other side of the road as compared to North America. And I hear the roads are very, very narrow and people drive very, very fast. So I don't know if I'd feel safe. Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours So, there's two options. We either want to rent a vehicle if she wants to be the driver or we would actually like to have a situation where we have the driving taken care of us, whether it was small shuttles or we have private cars would drive us here and there if we can have that organized and taken care of rather than us trying to look into that. 11:45.47 ModGolfPodcast That that would be fantastic if that was already taken care of for the majority of the trip. Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours Absolutely, yes, can certainly work on that. And when you're in Derry, to go into Donegal, it's on the map in the north of Ireland, but it's actually part of the Republic of Ireland. So there's 32 counties in Ireland, six counties are seen as northern Ireland, Belfast is where your conference is, and then 26 counties. Donegal is part of the south of Ireland. 12:14.36 Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours Yes, so I can see beautiful activities also in Donegal for your wife. And you could perhaps have one round of golf up on the north coast and one round of golf in Donegal. That might work very well. To give you experience on both sides. So let me see if there are any other questions that I would like to ask. We organize everything as we're going through the accommodation. A lot of courses you're needing to book it about a year and a half an advance. So if you're planning a trip and for 2026, you need to start now. You need to to give me a call now and we can start it because we they open their books for 2026 the top courses they'll open them in March and we need to have your trip already planned so we can get those tee times booked for you. 13:01.51 ModGolfPodcast Yes yes. So to finish up with my wife's experience, oh by the way, I want to say if if you're listening on the podcast while Hazel is showing us this map, I will include a photograph of that map in the show notes so you can refer to to all the wonderful places that she's talking about in Northern Ireland here as we go along with the conversation. 13:39.24 ModGolfPodcast So the last thing to finish up with the experience for my wife and I is in the evenings. We both enjoy food, very diverse and local cuisine and we can be quite adventurous in our culinary experimentation, if that's a term. So we're kind of open to all gastronomical opportunities and so I guess that's a fancy way of saying we like to try pretty much everything, especially if there's some local delicacies that's that certain restaurants offer. So perhaps you can touch on that before we move over to the boy's trip here. 14:24.97 Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours Absolutely, certainly. So the area's got a lot of breweries and distilleries, and then there are a lot of foodie tours as well, all wrapped around that. So Ireland, in Belfast, there's more Michelin star restaurants per capita than anywhere in the world. Because we have cruise liners coming in and they're wanting the beautiful food. So Belfast, a lot of Michelin star restaurants. In Portrush where we're staying, we've got the beautiful seafood obviously. 14:40.07 Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours Fishermen are catching the seafood and also we offer trips with fishermen if you want to go out and do some fishing. So there are a lot of things to do with the sea in the north coast of Ireland. Some boating trips too and then when you go to Derry, there's amazing food tours. Irish food used to be seen as just potatoes and a bit of some meat, but they've really elevated that. People are blown away by the food, much better than what they expect. 15:12.60 ModGolfPodcast That sounds like a wonderful week and that might be enough but that's only the first half of the experience! So let's switch over to after I finish speaking at the golf business technology conference and then my seven friends descend upon me. Some of these guys they've got lots of energy and not only do they love the golf but they love the nightlife perhaps sometimes staying out a little later than for guys our age should. But we did that in Montreal the President's Cup. I needed a week's worth of rest afterwards because these guys, they like to have a good time. I guess that's the polite way to put it. So what do you have planned for myself and my seven friends, our two foursomes for the the seven days or so that that we're going to spend there? 15:58.30 Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours That's great! Well certainly a lot of buddies trips come over. They do for celebrating a major birthday or just having again an annual golf trip and there's a lot of onus put on the person who's actually planning the tour. So I'm very mindful, we're very mindful of making sure that whoever's planning the tour, the needs are met for them and for their friends because there's a lot of responsibility and we take the stress out of all of that. 16:29.54 Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours As I said within the tee times, transport, the after golf activities, the 19th hole obviously. But then out to the nightlife and unusual pubs, very old pubs. So your conference is in Belfast, so you're here and your buddies where do you think they will fly into? ModGolfPodcast They most likely will fly into Dublin because either from Toronto or Vancouver where I am it's a direct flight to to Dublin but not to Belfast. So it's more convenient for us to fly into Dublin. Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours Into Dublin, very easy. So Dublin's here. We do pick up and welcome them at the airport. And if we've got a few people arriving in different flights, can organize it where they meet at a hotel near the airport. There's some amazing Port Marnock, which is where the Irish Open has been held a number of times. You've got Port Marnock, links and Jamieson Hotel, very close by too, and Royal Dublin. So that can be a meeting place until everyone arrives and then the transport can take everyone up to the north to meet you after your conference. So What standard of golf are they Colin? What do they want to play? ModGolfPodcast Yes I am the weakest player of them all and I will say all of them have done very very well financially, business wise. 17:55.91 ModGolfPodcast I'm doing okay. Some of these guys have really done well. So I think for them, money is not an object. Not that we want the ultra ultra luxury, but between that, as far as price point and also golf experience, they are all good players. I may have mentioned earlier, I think between scratch, some of them had played quite competitive golf. A couple of them actually played college golf in the US. So they're good players. And so I think the majority of them range from a zero handicap to a 10. 18:25.24 ModGolfPodcast All in that range. Like I said, me and my 16 handicap are the weakest one, the weakest player out there. Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours So yeah, so good, good players and they love to travel and they definitely have the financial means to do to play a luxury elevated experience for the week. And are they wanting to play the bucket list? They're all kind of down the road from Portrush the top ranked courses in the world? ModGolfPodcast I believe the answer would be yes. For that experience if we can manage to get on those courses, that the answer would be yes. At least sprinkle that in. 18 holes every day. Maybe there was one day or so that we played 36. That would be great too. But I think for us to play at least, let's say at least five days of golf. 19:11.60 Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours Five days of golf. All right. As you say, your trip is in May and Royal County Down and Royal Portrush are booked out for this year. I do have though some spots for both courses in May. And I want them to go to good homes. So again, I purchased these last year. So I do have those, so there is an option to certainly get you on to Portrush and your friends if that can work in with your timing. Obviously we can discuss that later. Over here on the east coast it's got two courses. The second course very few people think about it but it weaves in round the championship course so you're on the same land, weaving in and around and that course I can get you on. You actually feel like you're playing the main course. The sea views are actually better and you see this is the local knowledge I bring. You've got the beautiful club house, professional shop, all the amenities are the same. You can stay in the hotel that's right beside or you can stay in town. So that is an option if they would still like to have that Royal County Down experience and if the timing doesn't work with the tee times I've got, then we can work through that. There's another place, Ardglass. It's seen as the old head of the north and it's only about half an hour from Royal County Down. Amazing views, cliff top views. It's one of the oldest buildings in the world used as a clubhouse. 1406. So it's an old, old tower castle. IT still has the old stone and all of that. So that's a really interesting course and everyone that goes there really enjoys that history piece for the course. And also, you're hitting over rocks, hitting over cliffs, an unreal playing experience. So I would say that one your friends might enjoy too. Obviously we can loop it around Royal County Down. 21:39.92 Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours And then the nightlife certainly is in Belfast. So you may like with your buddies to stay in Belfast and then travel each day to both of those courses, or you could stay and feel that full, raw, kind of down experience by staying in Newcastle, which is the main town there. Yes, those are options and what I normally do when it is a buddy trip, I give options to the leader and then they go off and talk to the others. So how I work is we have telephone conversation or zoom meetings. 22:20.78 Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours And then talk through the options, what experiences everyone is wanting to have. And then going back to the group and going through those, I can also do a Zoom with the group. So all of that is on the table because the most important thing to us is that everyone's needs are met. 22:55.82 ModGolfPodcast I love this. I love this. So as we finish up here, one thing I've seen now with artificial intelligence and AI and people looking or searching to book their next golf travel trip. Explain to us as we finish up here, and I think I know the answer already, because I've got a connection with you now, but what the value that you offer as someone that's lived and breathed and and grown up there, and have these connections? So what is, let's say, the value proposition or the advantage of working with you to curate a golf travel experience in Ireland as compared to just using Chat GPT to try to figure it out for them. Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours Sure, and certainly AI is disrupting travel. Where it's a simple travel experience, AI, could do it, but the travel times from each course, travel times from hotel, the human tour operator understands the local nuances of the courses, understands the local culture, can get interaction with with the locals. It's taking it to an elevated level if you're wanting unparalleled, unrestricted and unforgettable and most of all fun is or ethos. So AI cannot replicate this and yeah it's amazing because I use AI to help put together the beautiful colour pictures for the itinerary. So there's that place. AI helps me put the itinerary and the colour pictures together, but the actual experience of understanding what you want to do when you're there and putting all of that together. AI can't do that. 24:39.59 ModGolfPodcast I love that response. And so to finish up here, how can people get ahold of you and learn more and perhaps have a conversation with you to book a amazing, life changing travel experience with you and Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours? 24:54.97 Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours Thank you, Colin. Well, my details are on the on the website, www.excelgolftours.com, keeping it simple. And there's a contact form there. You can also phone the office number. You can call me direct on my on my mobile number, then we'll organize either a phone call or a Zoom meeting and then go through what you're looking for. And no question is silly. Everything is on the table. We talk through everything, what you're looking for, whether you have not been to Ireland before, you've been many times, but you're just wanting to really nail at this time. We have access to all golf clubs in Ireland. Knowing the people, knowing the land, we can get experiences that others cannot. So are you up for the challenge of the golf in Ireland, Colin? 26:00.41 ModGolfPodcast I don't know if my game is, but I'm definitely up for the experience and I'm all about experiences in life. That's what I want, rather than material things I want memorable experiences. So I'm going to have a great time in Ireland. So as I always do in the show notes, I will leave the link to Hazel's website for Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours, we'll include the link so it's nice and easy to connect. And also I'll have a bio page for Hazel so you can connect with her with by email. 26:27.24 ModGolfPodcast Making that nice and simple for you. So hey, to finish up, Hazel, thank you so much for joining us today and giving us some insight of the beautiful Emerald Isle and all the possibilities for golf and beyond, all those experiences that one could have. And I'm looking forward to having some Irish experiences in a couple months time. So thank you so much for joining us. Hazel Thompson - Excelerator Luxury Golf Tours Wonderful Coin. Looking forward to welcoming you to Ireland! Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. ModGolf interview with Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks at The 2025 PGA Show in Orlando Florida. 02:10.86 ModGolfPodcast 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 we've got a special treat this week because I am recording these episodes live from the 2025 PGA Show. And our next guest, this is a company that I've been trying during the last couple of years of the PGA Show to find a way to get them on the show. And the timing wasn't right, the planets didn't align. 02:40.25 ModGolfPodcast But the planets have aligned today because we have the CEO and co-founder of this company and that is Ship Sticks. And that is ah Jonathan Marsico who has been kind enough to join us to take a few minutes with us today. So I'm so glad that Jonathan has joined us. I haven't had the chance to speak with them yet until five minutes ago. 02:58.04 ModGolfPodcast So I have this curious side of myself, to learn the backstory, the AHA moment, the "why" behind Ship Sticks. So we're going to learn all that in the next 15 or 20 minutes that we're spending with Jonathan Marsico. So first of all, Jonathan, welcome to the ModGolf podcast! Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks Yeah, Colin, pleasure to meet you. Thanks for having us. As you mentioned, yeah we've been trying to connect for now a few years and glad we're doing this today. and as you referenced, we just met, but you know I love blind dates, so looking forward to spending some time with you. ModGolfPodcast Here we go, here we go. Okay, so let's start off with the origin story. Yourself as an entrepreneur, so tell us the birth or the inception of Ship Sticks. What was the pain point? Was it something that you saw personally or maybe one of your friends or co-founders and the why? There's a difference between seeing that there's a need for something and then taking the turning it into a sustainable, real business. So take take us back here, Jonathan. Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks Yeah, so I'll go back and probably start at ground zero. 03:59.58 ModGolfPodcast OK, perfect. Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks 2011, I lived in Denver at the time, which I still do. Going on a golf trip with a friend, who became a co-founder of Ship Sticks. And we're going from Denver to Scottsdale, I was. His home base was Florida. He had worked his previous role in New York. I was going from Florida to New York, New York, Scottsdale to meet me on a golf trip. 04:25.75 ModGolfPodcast right. Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks He didn't want to lug his clubs to work. That's a lot. In New York. From Florida, New York, New York, Scottsdale. So, did a little research, realized he could walk into a FedEx, ship his bag from Florida to Scottsdale, go proceed with his work. He didn't want his colleagues, didn't want his bosses saying, "hey, what? Why is this guy on a work trip, schlepping around his golf clubs?" So, subsequently did that, proceeding on his business trip to New York. I meet him in Scottsdale. His clubs are waiting for him. So from an overall experience, it was solving a need for him in a specific instance that you had a few multiple stops leading into what was a golf trip. And that evening, I remember it. Like it was yesterday, we're sitting at the fire pit at the place we're playing golf. He was telling me about the experience. 05:15.49 Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks And it was the experience we just laid out. But it effectively helped him initiate effortless travel. And it was at a similar time that the airlines were starting to charge for checked baggage. Because we all know, or at least I'm old enough to know that you know airlines at one point, you could walk on, you could check your two, maybe even three bags at no additional costs. The airlines coming out of the financial crisis, 2010, 2011, they started to charge for checked baggage. 05:43.44 Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks Yes, explaining that experience to me that he had, we just started to brainstorm about the idea of bringing this concept to the masses. 06:01.33 ModGolfPodcast So fascinating. So what was the next step there? What do you consider as we talk about in the startup world, whether it's technology based or not. A minimum viable product or a beta. So how did you guys test this to find out, was this viable? How did you go about creating this customer experience and also how did you tie this in to find your value proposition? What was the right pricing model? I'm sure you kind of tinkered with that. So tell us about those two components. 06:20.39 ModGolfPodcast Yeah, so I'll start with but the latter. okay From a pricing perspective, ultimately, what we aligned on, um really, that night at the fire pit was you know the convenience of traveling without your golf clubs. And can you do it economically? Can you be competitive with the now airlines trying to charge, or not trying, actually charging for checked bags? Yes, yes. When we think about airlines fees, in most cases, are $35 for the first bag. 06:47.52 Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks $50 for the second bag and a hundred plus for that third bag. Yes, we're thinking about it So we have oversized golf bags. How do we price this? So we wanted to be really competitive with the airlines and thought we could create the service in the convenience and pairing that, there might be a premium relative to checking your bags, but you're getting value for that from a convenient perspective. And then when you think about some of the ancillary benefits of it, you can get to the airport later. You aren't sitting and looking at the luggage carousel for as long. You might not, if you're going on a buddies golf trip, need the large Uber SUV. You might be able just to hop in a small one. So, there's additional cost savings that are derivatives of the actual transportation costs for your bags worth checking. 07:34.82 Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks So after thinking about the price, our first step was can we go to the logistics providers and see if we can effectively negotiate volume contracts for moving bags, which started just domestically and now is globally around the world. 07:51.14 ModGolfPodcast Absolutely. Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks so we went met with UPS and FedEx and shared our idea shared our concept and for some reason they believed in us. We believe in ourselves not knowing really what we were doing, but we had the idea and we thought we had experienced it and subsequently between that first meeting and meeting with FedEx and UPS, as well as our friends and family, tested the idea ourselves. Just from an execution standpoint in that and an understanding of how the process works. So we ultimately convinced UPS and FedEx to give us a shot, and we started that day. 08:40.93 ModGolfPodcast I love that. So that's such a great insight there, Jonathan, the power of partnerships rather than thinking we need to build this entire thing ourselves. I've heard this one before in the startup world, this metaphor of building a railway and building it all yourself, including the tracks and the engines and the cars and everything. Then getting the train moving rather than instead, why don't you just get a really nice hook and wait by the side of the track when an existing train appears going super fast and to hook yourself to that train. And it sounds like with FedEx and UPS that they were the existing train that you latched yourself to. So you didn't need to build that. So that allowed you to accelerate very quickly and take a lot of the pieces off your plate. 09:08.44 ModGolfPodcast And also you didn't have the financial resources and the acumen or ability at that time to build it all. So to this day with your partnerships, let me ask the question this way. Moving fast forward now, walk us through the customer experience. I was planning, although it was very last minute that we managed to get you scheduled on the show here, but we were gonna have a little fun. I'm in Vancouver, Canada, coming down to Orlando for The PGA Show and then play some golf in Florida. 09:37.91 ModGolfPodcast Ship Sticks was going to send my clubs but there just wasn't enough time because it was the day before my flight and you need more lead time than that. But hopefully, because I'm going to be speaking at a conference in Belfast, we're going to do a little experiment and create a some fun video content around my first experience with Ship Sticks sending my clubs from Canada to Ireland. So I'm going to be playing over there after I speak at this Golf Business Technology Conference. So why don't you walk us through that customer journey, the customer experience and how you make this as frictionless an experience for your customers as possible. Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks Yeah, I think i think that's a great lead in. To your point, we couldn't replicate and still can't replicate what FedEx, UPS, and now DHL does for us, on the international side. Their infrastructure, their global infrastructure and network for logistics, you can't replicate from any perspective. So yes, starting from day one, we wanted to partner with the best in breed from an industry perspective, and then really add service and customization and personalization attached to that service. 10:39.66 Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks So what we've done is, and still today is, from a customer experience, customer journey perspective, everything the customer touches is with our business, is with Ship Sticks. So yes, we're powered by these great global logistics companies, but there's a real high end personal touch. We know as golfers, when you're going to golf resorts, when you're going to country clubs, when you're going to travel play golf, that's what the experience we're getting in ourselves and our customers are getting at the golf facilities. And we want to be a great extension and a great partner of that same experience for the travel and golfer, working with our team in our company. 11:17.67 ModGolfPodcast Love this, love this. Okay, so let's bring this down from the 30,000 foot level to let's say a scenario and experience that I'm going to have. So I'm in Vancouver, flying to Dublin, then I have to make my way up to Belfast. Then I'm going to be playing a couple of rounds of golf before the conference. And the first course I'm going to be playing and our next guest on is going to help facilitate that because she's Irish and from Northern Ireland. And she's a member at a Royal Portrush. So I'm going to be playing there. 11:45.04 ModGolfPodcast Will my clubs end up in Dublin at the airport, and I have to lug them all the way up to Royal Portrush, or will they show up for my first round? So tell us about that experience. What would work, not only for myself, for but all the other golf travellers out there that are listening today? Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks Yeah, so I would say just a general customer journey would be this. A customer would log on to shipsticks.com and just create a shipment. What I mean by create a shipment is you pick which day you'd like your bag picked up, you pick which address, then you'd pick your time in transit. Time in transit is how many days do you want to take. Do you want to get the bag from point A to point B? 12:25.04 Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks And a part of that is where and when do you want your bag to be delivered. In your case, if you're going from Canada to Ireland, do you want it delivered at your home, at your Airbnb, at the golf club, at the resort, wherever. So you really can specify when it's picked up and when it's delivered, from a variety of different perspectives. 12:45.73 Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks A lot of times the bag shipped directly to the golf facility because that really enables just, again, more effortless travel throughout the whole journey that you aren't worried about your golf clubs. And not only do they get there more efficiently, but prior to your trip, in a lot of cases, your bags delivered. So the stress of thinking about whether it's connecting flights, especially if you're going internationally and just saying, "Oh, is my bag going to make it? Am I going to be stuck in the luggage?" Just knowing, "Oh, my, my bag's waiting for me at Portrush or any other international destination. 13:15.51 ModGolfPodcast Love this love this. So on that side, as we finish up here, I'm curious to learn what relationships that you have with golf resorts and courses, in the early days when clubs were showing on site and staff in the pro shop did not know what to do with them. How does that work? You guys have been around long enough with the brand and the awareness out there. I'm sure almost every golf course around the world knows who you are now. But tell us about that, early on with having to educate golf courses when a set of clubs in a Ship Sticks box shows up at their golf club and they don't necessarily know what to do with it. So tell us about that communication piece and in learning piece too. Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks Really good intuition and great questions. So going back to 2012 when we were starting the business, effectively we went door to door to country clubs and resorts. Introduced ourselves and started in the southeast and then went to the West Coast, really just the golf hubs domestically and introduced themselves. Shared what we were doing, shared we thought. We had a value add service for these clubs members and guests. As they were looking to book whether it was international travel like we referenced. 14:24.35 Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks We would call it "snowbird travel", migration north and south based on the seasonality of the business and as we all know when you're quote unquote "in sales" and you're knocking on doors cold, there was some people who were really receptive and some people saying "why would I ever ship my bag when when I can just put it on the airline?" 14:42.14 Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks Subsequently, you use the word disruption at the onset, we slowly, slowly started, I don't want to say disrupt, but I would say educate and change the habits of golf. And part of that was through our education to the clubs, which then educated their members and guests. But part of it was the consumer finding out about us through our traditional marketing or awareness and shipping it from clubs. Then the club would receive it. What the heck is Ship Sticks? And that was a good opportunity for us to educate them. 15:11.34 Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks For us to say "well this is who we are, this is what we do and these are the benefits for partnering with us". It up-levels the experience for your members and guests you'll have visibility of bags coming and going from your facility and you can really put that personal touch, that high-end touch that a lot of these clubs and resorts ultimately strive for. 15:31.81 ModGolfPodcast Nice, nice. Okay, the last question I'm gonna ask you, a bit of a fun one here. I'm sure you've shipped hundreds of thousands, if not millions of bags now around the world. So you probably can't say exactly which one, but I'm sure you've got a handful of ones that and one you can distill this down to. My question is this. So what is the most, let's say, complicated or longest global distance that you've shipped a set of clubs from where that ended up where? 16:01.56 Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks Oh, wow. I mean, I would have to look at the actual mileage of the time. ModGolfPodcast Is there a really exotic one that you wouldn't imagine someone from that place wanted to ship clubs to? Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks I mean, we ship US to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, South America. Really, when you look at the globe, and you think of the reach of FedEx UPS and DHL. Yes, you pick an address, we can get the bag to you. So, as there's been golf development and more developing countries, we've shipped golf bags, we ship supplies, we've done a number of things in these not only developing countries, but developing golf ecosystems and areas. So it's been rewarding, myself being a golfer, my co founder being a golfer to be in the golf industry. 16:53.96 Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks But we'd like to think we've had a little impact in the growth of the game. And that, I think, is part of the things we do with the PGA of America. They've been great partners of ours, really starting from day one, but continues to expand and grow the game through their network and their PGA Pro community. 17:13.52 ModGolfPodcast Love that. Love that. So hey, Jonathan, why don't we finish up there? Thank you so much for sharing the Ship Sticks story with us here today. It is right in the wheelhouse of the stories that we love to amplify and share with our audience here on the ModGolf podcast. So thank you so much. And I hope you have a prosperous and enjoyable remainder of the PGA show here in Orlando. 17:34.71 Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks Thanks so much for having me, and what a show! I mean, we've been coming since 2011. This probably feels like one of the most energetic, vibrant shows we've had for sure post pandemic and even prior. So thanks for including me and have a great rest of the show yourself. ModGolfPodcast My pleasure. Thanks so much. Jonathan. All right. Jonathan Marsico CEO of Ship Sticks Thank you.