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.