Off the Deck
Golf is so much more than the scorecard and those birdies that are rarely made. It's about the people you meet along the way. From lifelong bonds to unexpected fast friends, Off the Deck highlights the lives and stories built through the game of golf.
Off the Deck
High Handy Caps with Mike Woodard
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Josh Decker talks with Mike Woodard, founder and owner of High Handy Caps about turning a personal love of hats and golf into a fast-growing custom headwear business. Mike shares how the brand grew from a local side project into an e-commerce operation built around a distinctive golf ball dimpled patch, handwritten thank-you notes, and a focus on the memories golf creates beyond the scorecard.
https://www.highhandycaps.com/
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Driver off the deck for Corey Connery. Here's driver off the deck. Victor Hoplin. So the driver off the deck. I knew you would try this, right? Oh my god. You have to put your foot on the gas. You pull out the driver off the deck and you put it on the drain all the way up the hill.
SPEAKER_02Welcome back to Off the Deck. My name is Josh Decker. I am the host of this uh silly show that we have entirely too much fun recording uh and publishing. Uh Off the Deck is brought to you by Ideca Golf. Uh in honor of our guest from Georgia today, which I've since found out he's a sooner and not a bulldog. I wore uh the perfect peach Capri Polo for this episode. Uh just throwing some some uh credit to Georgia and those beautiful peaches. Uh but visit uh idaca.gov, that's Id a K A.gov and use promo code OTD25 for 25% off. Uh this isn't 5%, this isn't 15%, it's 25% off. So check out the golf glove, check out the Capri Polo and everything going on at Ideca. Really excited to talk to Mr. Mike Woodard today. This is a fun one we've never met until just now, which these conversations are the ones that intrigue me the most because I leave this conversation with a new friend and I love learning about businesses, the inspiration behind the businesses. And you are the founder and owner of High Handicaps uh out of Cartersville, Georgia. Uh, but first, welcome to the show. I'd like to hear who is Mike Woodard. Uh tell me about yourself, your background. Let's start there.
SPEAKER_01Appreciate you having me and sorry about the technical difficulties, but uh all good up here, yeah, up here in Cartersville. We're not too we're not too bright with the the technology. But no, I've I've been here, Mike Woodard. Um I started this crazy hat company more because it was an excuse to have hats around the house and get out all the every golf course I went to, I'd buy a hat. But started about a little over a year ago, uh last May. Um since then it's just kind of taken on its own um journey. It just kind of took off before we know it. And just you hear all the stories about these e-commerce companies about staying up late, packing boxes. That's that's my wife and I. Uh so it it it was just it started something local and and um uh I think just the story behind it, I think people just kind of latched on to. Um and here we are a year and almost a little over a year later, and and it's uh I'm still trying to figure it out, but we've we've grown tremendously, been blessed with with so much, and it's my it's not my day job. Um so yeah, we we started this about a year, a little over a year ago, and here we are now, and just doing hats on e-commerce and doing a lot of custom stuff for some courses and and some companies.
SPEAKER_02So was it really the inspiration? Like you you just had because I I mean I've already been ridiculed plenty of times by my wife for the amount of hats that I have, and like you said, I always come home with a hat. So was that really the inspiration behind it of just like, hey, if I'm gonna have so many hats, I might as well make them on my own?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I mean I I grew up, I've always had kind of a uh first of all, I'm a big Tour Visor gang guy, and I I I that's always been my my style. But I grew up in the golf business. I I actually was in the PGM program through stage two um and was uh in the golf business. I was an assistant pro at Barnesley Gardens, which is what brought us back up to Cartersville. Um I was in it until about 2012, and then I got into did whatever smart person and ever well did what we warned about that we we didn't leave it, and I I got into employee benefits, so my day job is I actually run a employee benefits firm. I've been doing this 15 years, and so we really just take care of small business with their major medical dental vision and uh just develop relationships through that. Um being in the golf business, I kind of had a you know a sense of kind of what it looked like, although coming back 15 year years later, it was it's been a huge change. Um my first PGA show this year from 15 years ago, and it went from all equipment to like a madhouse. But so I I've had some experience and I've always kind of just been like a just a kind of a I guess you could call it golfy prep, just wear my polo and my tour visor every day for the last 15 years, pretty much. And and so I just kind of had a, I guess, a sense of style, had creative mind, I guess, is just making creating logos. I always enjoy just jotting stuff logos down and putting ideas, and so I just put it to some hats and um we started with just like the OG, almost title a script, high handicaps, and uh just kind of told our story online and and it went from friends and family and local club support to where we're probably shipping out 15, 20 orders a day. So it's um it's pretty crazy.
SPEAKER_02So so what was your introduction to the game of golf? Sounds like if you were in the PGM program, you grew up around the game, and that was kind of what you wanted to do. Is that fair?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. I I uh I didn't start, I didn't take up golf till like high school. So I've been we were actually I went to Cass High School, which is like these carzils like your Trevor Lawrence, Ronnie Brown, and Cass is just like the stepchild. All of our athletes kind of are you know, probably in jail. Um but uh but it it it grew. We we were just kind of the the the the stepchild of this Bartow County Carzil area, but um didn't plan on coming back here, but I took up golf in high school and we played at a little nine-hole goat track called Green Valley Greens um up here and got to got to play at the country club like once a month is the only time they let us out. Um and I would, you know, just always like, oh, this is awesome. But just picked it up. I was kind of athletic, played baseball and basketball all my life, and so um I I fell in love with it the moment I got my first set at a flea market, the Ackworth flea market up here when I was in sixth, seventh grade. So been playing since I was about 14 and and uh wanted to do it right out of high school. I I tried to go to school to be a teacher. I realized really quickly I just wanted to coach or be around athletics and and so I did I didn't want to teach. And so then I went into the PGM program, Georgia. They dropped the program. Uh so then I did my Georgia Sex and stuff through uh I was working at Reynolds um plantation. This is back in like the financial prices too, so it was like about to be sold out. I was working for basically free, and and but I was I was getting my my schooling paid for. And uh after stage one, I got a call from Barnsley because I was a cart kid here, and um ended up taking that job, um, then met a member through there, and that's how I got into employee benefits. And so, but chunk off golf like three years because I was so burnt out. It was like 60, 70 hour weeks at, you know, in the golf business. And so I probably put the clubs down for about three or four years. I picked it back up when my family and I joined this local Carzil local country club here, which is awesome by the way. Um, and just fell back in love with it again. Just uh, but so now I'm trying to, I guess the golf, the the apparel side of the golf business this time to see how much it how long it takes before I'm burnout again.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, golf goods. Yeah. Yeah. So so what was the moment you said you started it about a year, a little over a year ago. I guess it was May of uh what 25 that you started high handicaps. Was there a moment like you mentioned you had just hats everywhere? And but if you have hats everywhere, then it's like, okay, there's plenty of hats on the market, but you said, no, I'm still gonna do my own thing. What was what was that moment? Or was there an aha or something that triggered you're like, yeah, we're doing this?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was um really so the first club or golf club, and we don't do a lot of wholesale. I almost get it's it's nice. I almost get to pick and choose kind of who I want to go to and kind of do it for like where I think it's gonna um be great advertising for us. But um it I guess the a-haw moment was like we for some reason nobody, I guess every one of our patches we is is golf ball dimple textured. So we don't make so that's our niche. It's like our staples, like, so you'll see company logos and college logos and um golf course logos, but every single patch we make, no matter the logo, has the golf ball dimple texture. Um so it's like I don't know if you can tell by seeing this, but you can kind of see in this one. Yeah. Um and so it kind of it once friends and families were by, but then cars will got in, and then you know, we um Kevin over at Heritage, which is a public course here, where they have an awesome he's he's done a lot with the course, by the way, but they have an awesome logo, it's just the old blue tractor. And then he jumped on. I just started to kind of see like we started running ads on like on Meta, and I was only spending like five bucks a day, but like our return on the five bucks was like insane. Um, and you know, we were excited to get three or four orders. Um, and just the more and more like because you know, you're you get into something like this, your friends are always gonna buy a hat from you, your family's always gonna buy a hat. So you can't really judge the first couple of months just because it's like friends and family. But once we started to see like, you know, orders from all over the country from Mississippi, and I just kind of thought like we may be on to something with not only kind of our staple texture, but I think people really started to buy into the story, which was I see this YouTube golf and I see the fun in it and the the Bluetooth speakers and and like which is everything I love to do, right? I uh I don't think we we have a person in our Friday game that doesn't have a you know turtle box stake for their cards. So, but I also saw like you know the respect of the game and that there's places for that, you know, your local Friday game, but you still love the traditions of the the masters or like you know, go to some elite club like you know, Pine Valley or Bellmead or wherever you go, like that that historic tradition. And so I just kind of wanted to almost marry something, something make something super high quality. Like we don't manufacture our own hats. We go to the Imperials of the World, um, the Cap Americas, and and we say, like, hey, I'm not trying to get you to wear one of our hats. I want to just decorate the hat that you know you already like. And so we just manufacture with all the you know the probably six or seven different hat suppliers and get the blanks. And it just kept kind of growing. The more ad money we'd spend, the more orders we'd get. And then, you know, when I my wife's to stay at home, well she was, and now she works this thing third time. But when I got to the point of like, okay, we can't even like we take a weekend off and come back and we have like, you know, 40 boxes to to pack up Sunday night, I kind of started to see as like, man, if if they could believe in our I think these people are really starting to believe in our story, which was look, you don't have to you can wear high quality stuff and still have fun with it. Like Yeah. Our taglines like for the moments between shots. We want like I can't tell you at Fall Line what I shot. Uh I mean it was I mean, it was probably pretty good, but I can tell you every bit of things that happened before it, or in between the shots, or getting to know the caddies, or the lodges, the fishing, the the clay shooting, the just riding around on Polarises, and it you just build your memories really off the experience as opposed to the score, but everyone takes the score part so seriously. So I'm like, let's build something around that to where it's like, look, it doesn't matter if you're good, bad, elite, first-time playing, like we want you in our hats, and we want you to like we're all doing this for the same reason. None of us are out here like tour pros. So we just try to speak that into our brand of just like, look, we just want you wearing them. We want you to be part of this army that just loves a loves the memory of it, the story behind it, the the experience you have, because that's what you're gonna tell in 20 years, right?
SPEAKER_02And so, God, I'd I'd love that you said that because that's that's so true. I mean, there's there's obviously the hero shot, or if somebody makes an ace or just some remarkable shot that happens, or somebody holes out from the fairway, you're gonna remember that. But you you hit the nail on the head. So much more of it is all the conversation during the round or the hang after the fact. Um, all the ancillary things that go along with the golf, not just the golf itself. Um, yeah, that's that's well said. So in the group chat what you shot. They're just like right, nobody cares. Yeah. Exactly. So so you get basically uh a ton of blanks from we'll just say Imperial. And then are you manufacturing as it is a patch, or what is it that you're putting on the hat? Because the dimple, I'm already the one you held up to the screen that was high handicaps in the titleist font, I can already tell you that I'm gonna ask you for one of those that says off the deck, and I don't care if it's $500, I'm buying it because it looks incredible. Um But what does that process look like? And if you don't share anything proprietary, obviously, but is that something you guys are doing in-house or what?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we do. So we I literally when I wanted to start this hat company, I'm like, all right, now where do I find patches for hats? So I'm like literally on Facebook Marketplace, and I'm like, hat patches. And then this uh this company that's now in our office space. So we just got into office space, which has been so nice because for both our my benefit side and the hat side is completely next door. But um, this marketing company came up and he kind of branded a lot of ads on on, but he was out of Woodstock, which is 25 miles from me. And um, I kind of told him what I had and an idea of, and he's like, Why don't you come by? And so he came by and he sh pulls out these leatherette sheets like dusty, and he like he's like, Look, this is like every patch you see on a hat is this surface. And he's like, What if you did your like you know, your logo on the? I'm like, that is like amazing. Like, that's exactly because I was looking through like the Alibabos of the world, and like, how do I get this, you know, made and sourced over? And and he had some 25 miles from me, and so I'm like, that's it. Like, I don't want to do another hat. I don't want to do like, you know, we we're doing like shirts and and polos come this fall, and of course that'll probably be embroidered, but I kind of want to stay in our niche and be known for like our staple is like not only our story, but like everything we make to put on a hat. Like, sorry, we don't do embroidery, but laser made, which is the buddy that that does it, um, that I met with, they do, and so I'm able to like kind of pass on, like, hey, uh, you know, I don't do any of this, but I can I got a solution for you. And so he had all this leatherette sheets. I'm like, that's it. I want to do every logo, everything we do is on this patch. And so, because we're not able to, I guess, trademark it. It's ornamental, so you can't trademark a surface. So I guess anybody, everybody can do it, but I guess we just wanted to be, you know, almost known as like, hey, that's you know, when you see the the hat, like it's most likely a high handicapped hat. So we don't we do a ton of company, you know, corporate stuff. And I'm like, I don't want to be anywhere on the hat. Like we put one small peach on the back of it, uh, but that's it. Because I want them to know it's like, hey, your company's on here, but people are hopefully one day see that the golf ball dimpling, like, oh, that's that's high handicapped. So we went from there and then here we are a year and a half later, and we're we're busting out the doors.
SPEAKER_02So is the leatherette what's what's golf ball dimpled?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So like it just is like a plain white, and we can do like colors on this. So what's really cool about the the company I use is he's not only to print on this, he can like almost make it 3D. So like a lot of these like scripts are like raised ink to where it looks like it kind of sticks out. And he he's got this some high dollar machine that just is like, oh, we can print in color too. I'm like, really? Any color? He's like, Yeah. So it starts as white leather, and then anything I make is just overruns of ink passing through the printer, which builds up that surface, and then he's I literally I think we're still the only ones that do like a 3D raised surface on leatherette in full color. So yeah, everyone always asks me, is that silicone or rubber? I'm like, no, this is leather. They're like, how do you have it in color? And I'm like, I didn't have it. This guy had it next 20 miles from it. I got a guy. And so um it just yeah, it just started from there, and I just, you know, it's different, it's unique, and it tells a story. And so I think through all those three things, and then, you know, it's I don't do it to I do it because I mean it. Like literally from one order to now, like what keeps the cult my wife and I um of 15 years, by the way. So when you said 15-year anniversary, nice um back in June, we we don't take we don't take any order for granted. We we we personally handwrite a thank you letter in every single order we've ever done. Um just because I think like you get in this like AI, you get into technology, but like the person like behind it, whenever you can feel that emotion of like, man, this guy took his time out of the day to appreciate it, just because they took time out of their, they took money out of their wallet to to support us. And so we always just say, man, we're incredibly blessed. I don't want like our brand to lose that story of like we appreciate it because we 100% do every single one of them. So we don't ever want to take that for granted and and you know, so we we're gonna try to do this in-house for as long as possible because the biggest reason why is like I don't want to miss out on who ordered it so I can personally thank them. So that's it.
SPEAKER_02I love that. Well, and so it's interesting what you said about the leatherette because I've done some own some hats for the show, and but the leatherette that I used, it was all based on what was underneath the main surface of the leatherette. So you would cut into the leatherette, and that would then give you whether it's black or green, to then contrast the actual leatherette itself, if that makes any sense. So being able to build on it is is really cool. So I look forward to getting my hands on my visor in a few weeks from you. Yeah, uh seeing what it's like. Um have you found that there are challenges in trying to get the Imperials of the world to send you boatloads of blanks, or is that something they're eager to do?
SPEAKER_01No, I mean, I think maybe because we've done so much, they're they're eager to do what I'm kind of, you know, and it and because of like the niche product we have, the leatherette, like I'm like, look, if you guys do it, I mean, we can talk, but nobody does it. So I'm like, well, I I have a reason why we can't put our logo on your, you know, you can't decorate the hats, is because I don't really have a need for it. And so um they don't do it, nobody does it. Like, seriously, nobody does it. And like we've seen some variations of like silicone and PVC, but um, you know, other than like some, you know, because Tyler Neal is his name, he's the marketing, um, runs the marketing company, but you know, it's it's almost like I guess this area is kind of like, well, someone's already done it, but it just blows my mind that no one else has actually took the opportunity because it's just uh the process is neat, but it's really unique. So yeah, we we went to Imperial, I got a rep. It was actually my same rep when I was in the business back in 2010. Uh Terry over Imperial. I was like, hey man, I'm sorry, I'm ordering all the blanks. I got a wholesale account. You literally just show your resale cert and show that you're a retail, you know, reseller of these hats, and they they set you up with an account. And so, yeah, I just ordered blanks from Imperial. Um, and I think it's just a way of supporting them too, because they didn't have to send me blanks. And so I've been offered to be flown like it, it's crazy. My messages, which I'm sorry by the way, I don't know how that automated message gets up.
SPEAKER_02So, what are you talking about? I sent him a message today to just confirm and I get some AI response.
SPEAKER_01But like, from because like we get so many messages from like manufacturers like China, Japan, Pakistan, Mexico, like flying, wanting to fly us out and come pick out our own frabic. They can say they can, you know, emulate it. And I'm like, I'm sure it's I'm sure you can. I'm sure that's exactly what you guys can do. But you know, I think I owe it to the Richardsons and the Pacifics and the Imperials of the world. That's like, look, you guys took a shot on me when you didn't have to. So for as long as possible, we'll try to continue to support them and and they're coming out with with some things for us that where they're able to custom, they'll start to be able to custom brand and have our tags and and everything on the inside. And so we'll be able to kind of co-brand it here shortly.
SPEAKER_02Let's go to the the blank from Imperial might show up and already have your little tag on the back.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so it'll like this is just we'll say Imperial, but there's a you know, we'll be able to like add our tag here. Yeah. And um, so and then they'll they they made us, they sent us some samples a day of this, the little tag here saying handy instead of Imperial. And so we'll be able to have to, we'll be able to market kind of the Imperial Tour visor with kind of our branding on it too, which is nice.
SPEAKER_02That's that's very cool. And there's something like, even if I go in a shop and see other visor brands, it's not the same as an Imperial Tour visor. Like that they they stand apart. I mean, it's just, you know what you're getting, and the look is always so crisp and so clean that I never I don't own any other kind of visor. Um, and I'm not I'm not normally a visor guy, I've kind of gotten back into it. Um, but yeah, that they stand alone in the visor world in my mind.
SPEAKER_01They're so awesome. And like you're right, like the high crowns, everyone's making them now, but you cannot replicate uh and and it's been like that since the middle. Like they never it never fails, like and they hand make them all. Like it takes we could get hats, we can get every rope hat you can think of from Imperial in two days, but we have to really like plan out our orders with the visors because they they hand make them in urban Missouri and it and everything's in the US and and so it's like a month when you order them, it's like a month um to get the blanks because they they almost order they make them as they're ordered. So, you know, it's I think the they've they've caught on to that and like you said, there's there's plenty out there, um, but I just don't think anyone does it like Imperial.
SPEAKER_02I don't think anyone ever will agreed. Um okay, so you already kind of threw a little nugget out about Fall Line. Um and when you we were exchanging some DMs back and forth before we did this recording, you also went up and played Ultica Farm, which is one I've been is on my list. But what was the experience like at Fall Line?
SPEAKER_01Man, I'm telling you, like in about five years, I think the whole once the world catches on to this place, it it blew my mind. Like it it was like one of the most incredible experiences. And it's just it was just like a 24-hour trip. But yeah, I didn't even know about it. Like, you know, you I knew it was like I'd heard of it, but then you know, we had so they only have 72 members. One of the members is a friend of a friend, and so he had reached out to me and said, Hey, we're taking eight guys, members gonna host us. Do you want to go to the fall line? I'm like, the fall line. He's like, You never heard of the fall line? I'm like, um and but I didn't know about it like when he asked, and this is probably six months ago. And and then I looked it up, I was like, oh my god, this is the I didn't know it was I didn't know it was in Georgia. And so um I was like, uh yeah, I'm in. Um and we get there, and I'm telling you, man, it was Josh, it was like, yeah, it was like I don't know how to explain it because I've never and I've played some really cool places. Like I've gotten to play some some I mean there's incredible golf everywhere here, but like Tree Falmer, Mohoopy, you know, old Barnwell and and like but the experience at this fall line, like if you ever get the invite to go, because we when you when you go, it's like this guy didn't know us, so it wasn't like he was like paying for us. It was like I don't know, like $2,500 for like a 24-hour experience, but it was like all inclusive and you got to play the East and the West. And I mean I'm like getting chill bumps talking about it now because like it was literally like that special. Like their logo is like a firewood with a you know the flame over it, and their story is like when you come here, we want you to, you know, we want it to remind you of like sitting around a campfire with your buddies. And so I'm like, man, I guess why it I guess resonated with me, it'll resonate with everybody. The golf courses are unbelievable, but it was kind of the story like of what we do too, is it's like just kind of the memories you make. And so they set it up for exactly that. I mean, it was from the moment you you drive up, you never see your car again, you go into like the founder's house or like the this first log cabin, and you have a drink and a meal, and it's all like farm to table, like so. They will just bring out all samples of everything, and they have a tiny little pro shop in their corner, and you eat and you drink, and then you go play one of the courses, and you know the caddies are elite, and it's it's in the middle of nowhere, but these caddies are coming from everywhere to to loop this place. And we had one, Ben, who's awesome, played, ended up being buddy that I took, ended up being his college golf teammate. So well, that's cool. We got there, we played 18. It was the I think we played the East first, which was pure. I mean, it was it was so good. And we got done, and they we have Polarises, climate controlled. Like, so like the $50 million Polaris is four-door, and they each had a logo on it, like a snake or a lizard or a bear, whatever it was, and they're like, This is how you can identify your Polaris. And you know, we get in after, you know, we're walking around and you know, cracking a few drinks, and I'm like, we can just drive this thing anywhere. They're like, Yeah, just stay on our property. It goes 35 if you buckle up. It only goes 15 if you don't. And so we're just driving around. We drove to dinner, but the the lodge, we like the rooms, we had our own huge room. Out the back was like a fishing pond that they already had fishing reels set up. It was already baited, like with spinner baits or rooster tails. Yeah, it was already out there set up. You get out there, you throw it out. I'm telling you, these guys were catching logs, like four or five pounders, almost every time you threw out. I'm like, this is incredible. And that's out the back door. You go out the front door, it's like an 18-hole lit up putting green. Behind that is the nine-hole short course that goes around a rock for you. It was like goodness gracious. And like, this is in Mock County, Georgia, which is probably like population 10. I got I don't know how many people are there. But like, I'm like, this place is unbelievable. And I'll shut up after this, but like, so they have like a local rule, or I don't even know if it's a rule, but I'm like, think on hole seven on each course, and like the front nine and the back nine, the seventh and fourteenth, maybe, or maybe it was just a seventh hole on both. But on the seventh hole, like you hit your second shot, and then you go to the pond, and they already have the fish and uh this is what the member, I think, told me. It's close to this, but like you go out and you throw out a line, and if you catch the fish, you like get to take a shot off of your it's like a local roll, or it's like something they do in their member guests. Oh cool. And then the back nine, you go and they have a uh clay shooting contraption set up, and you go grab a gun and they you tell it, and if you hit it, then you get to knock off a shot off like your number. So like the whole experience was just tailored around like this is gonna be a good time. And it was a great one. I mean, it was it was amazing.
SPEAKER_02That's yeah, I've I've heard a lot about it. Uh, I've read a lot about it, um, and am trying to get on out there at some point. So was it a like a lunch-to-lunch experience or what was the Yeah, we got there at lunch.
SPEAKER_01We we played the East the first day, uh, ate dinner, and then played on the the Put and Green and Par 3 course all evening and night, and drove around the Polaris's, got up, played the West Course, um, well, had breakfast, then played the West Course, and then they had like a closing, like a meal after you got done and set up all these showers for us. And then we were we were out the door. It was like probably a 30, you know, 28 hours. The best food. I mean, I don't even know where these people come from, but they were everywhere. It's like every time you needed something, it's like, I was like, right. I don't know where you came from. So we were the only people out there on the on the course. It was the eight of us that we were the only actually there were 16. There was another group, but they were we we you know, we never saw them because we swapped courses each day. And so it feels like you're just in this golf heaven for a full 28 hours, and you gotta go back to the real world.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, and you're right about the caddies coming from all over the place. Uh, I played the Lido at Sand Valley last year, and my caddy there, he was getting ready to leave uh Wisconsin to go down to Fall Line to work. And that was when it was real like super secret. They weren't letting people uh weren't letting people take pictures. Like it was all kept way under wraps. Like he had been threatened, like he would lose his job if he was seen with a cell phone out. Um, but yeah, it sounds like I mean I I've heard great things, and you've just made it even more intriguing. Like that sounds like golf heaven.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's it's amazing. And the the people are great, the staff was great, the member was a super cool guy, um, amazing guy. So maybe we can uh talk offline about maybe the chance to to to getting that done.
SPEAKER_02I would love that. That would be that would be wonderful. Um so uh we we kind of divert a little bit, talk about fall line. I want to get back to high handicaps. Um so still full-time doing employee benefits. Do you is it is the plan long term to eventually put employee benefits in the Ruby Mirror and sling visors and hats?
SPEAKER_01Oh man, I I think I mean that's I definitely have fun with the hats. Like it's more fun. Like I have a blast doing it, but I don't know. I've I've always had this like just I don't know if it's fulfillment or calling. You know, we're you know, we don't brand ourselves of like faith-based, but you know, I'm I'm a believer and and I just feel like a a uh like a fulfilling or calling or whatever to like my heart is to help. And I guess that maybe can resonate through the hats, but I think I mean when you're an employee benefits, it's already like it's a very immediate convers, you know, conversation enders. Like, what do you do? Insurance. Oh, okay. It's like you know, I think it's obviously and and some of it's deserved as so is like just gets a bad rap, you know, our our healthcare system or et cetera. So I don't know if I ever because I love it in a different way of like, man, it's it's it gives me a chance to actually open people's eyes and to educate them on like, you know, hey, here's here's maybe something I haven't thought of. And so when you when you kind of you're literally like you, you know, what you offer to these companies is like gonna, you know, save lives or whatever. And so it's like just the fulfillment of like maybe you know, educating people on what they, you know, what they have against maybe what they think they have. And so I don't know if I'll ever get out of it just because I love I love helping. Like I love just um getting them people to realize and tell us like, hey, uh no one's ever explained it like that. Like, thank you. And so I don't know if I'll ever get out of it. I'll I'm sure I'll always have a piece in it, but um I think my yeah, for sure my passion or what I have fun doing, like I still like it doesn't matter if I'm here till midnight. I don't ever consider my like the hat side of it a job. Like I have so much fun doing it. Um, but I think I I don't know, I've always just got you know, I just feel like it it helps serve others by doing what we're doing in the benefit space, and I don't ever want to, I guess, completely step away from it, but it would be nice to be able to just kind of have a 10,000-foot view over it.
SPEAKER_02Right, right. Well, and that's the thing, like you already talked about like now is your wife's heavily involved, and like if you take any time away, and that's kind of how these things evolve, right? Like you blink and you've been gone for a weekend and you've got 90-something orders still to fill. Um and is that something y'all are managing just with e-commerce systems, and it's just the two of you filling the orders, and you're walking next door and saying, Here, I need this patch printed, and we're off and running.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um basically, it's literally basically it's how it started, but it's it's gotten better. Like we've gotten, you know, we have a couple like part-time folks that help with fulfilling orders to where we can just maybe just it's just writing the letter, and that's all we have to do. Like they'll put all the whole order together after that. But um, yeah, everything's done in-house. Um, and I don't see us ever hopefully ever getting away. Hopefully, we can just hire more bodies to help or more equipment to patch hats. I don't, you know, I think fulfillment's a genius idea for sure, but I just don't. I don't ever want to lose that personal touch side of it. And so I just don't know how you do it without without it. So um to be able to see like, oh dang, and then read the names of who's ordering it and like, oh, right. I I knew him back in high school, or I was like, oh, this this person just ordered something all the way from Washington State. And um so it's it's just cool to kind of stay in it. And so I don't know if I ever want to like fully get out of it and just try to maybe hire in-house to to do it.
SPEAKER_02Is it is it something where it's entirely customizable? So like I had a golf trip a few months a month ago. Could I have sent you our logo and you have thrown it on the leatherette? Or is it something where you've got kind of a stock of what you'll do, like the title is font? Or is it is it can I go on a bachelor party and order hats from you?
SPEAKER_01100%. So like that's the cool thing is like as long as you have a logo, it doesn't matter if it's a screenshot. Like we send it in and we have to get it like vectorized. Um I didn't know how crazy trying to get something vectored is to it. It's ridiculous. I'm I was I felt so bad because he's like, dude, you don't know how to do vector. I'm like, here's the JPEG. Why can't you? It's just I learned that whole world to it. I'm like, I'm sorry. Like I didn't I was um b you know irrelevant to or just I didn't know the the details it took to vector, but no, we could take literally those two flags behind you if I took a screenshot and then blew it up and said, you know, took it to our digital vector person, he traces it out and then it goes to Tyler, who's now in like he's in our office space. So I don't know if I got to that, but he's now so what's what's nice is something that would take maybe two or three weeks for custom orders. Now I can get done in a week and a half. Oh like even earlier if I need it. So like if you feel like Mike, last minute, you know, wedding gifts for this, this, and this, and it's next week, I can I can get it done, which is nice because he's in the building. So I take that vector to him, I tell him the size, dimensions I want for the the the logo, and he puts it, he does something with his Adobe Illustrator, and he sets up his this huge printer and it prints off all the patches, and then he takes it to this laser machine and lays it out, and this laser like has like all these dots and outlines, and it just cuts every single patch to exactly my specification. And so it and it can be and it's all done here, like in Carzil, in-house, in my in our office space. So cool. And so it's it's been really cool because we're able to like really help a you know, like, you know, an embroidery company. This and you know, they're they're and the embroidery companies here have been here for 40 years. And so it's like kind of can appreciate them, but at the same time, it's like we'll be able to do something a little differently that may not, you know, be able, you know, com it may not touch what they don't have at they don't they're not doing what we're doing, I guess is what I'm trying to say. So maybe we have both have a a lane, so we're not like running people off. But yeah, it's it's been really crazy and really cool, and like we haven't even started really advertising the custom side of it, kind of by intention, and because it's like, do we have really room to get busier right now? And so we're trying to plan it out to like really start to market like corporations, pro shops, whatever, but like we love the corporate space because they're just like we need 50 hats for this event, and they don't blink at what you charge them. It's but you know, get in the pro shop game, it's like I want to be strategic about that because we have to s compete with you know all the the manufacturer and hat companies at 14, 15 bucks a hat. I'm like, we'd basically be losing at that point or breaking even at at minimum. And so we uh, you know, we we pick and choose, like doing those nice, the nice golf clubs that gives us notoriety in colleges, like we we work with a bunch of schools, um, and then even down to our staff player program, which is really cool. And we've got some some of the best juniors in the country wearing our hats. So it's it's all that's cool. It's kind of happened by doing it, I guess, a little differently because I I didn't I didn't know the whole this side of the game. I knew the the golf side of it, like from from working in a pro shop, but I didn't know the the sales or the you know the the reps. I didn't know that they're they worked for ten different golf companies and they just you're my imperial rep. I didn't know you worked for bonabos socks and whoop bands and just glasses and these head covers. I'm like, I had no idea. So um, yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Which I I I admire that you're doing it that way because you see oftentimes companies they just open up access to everything all at once and they get overrun and they can't handle the volume, and then the quality deteriorates, and before too long that brand doesn't exist anymore. So I think there's something to be said about like, hey, no, we're gonna make sure we continue to do what we do really well and provide a high quality item, and we're not gonna blast it to the masses. Um I I I admire that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. It's um I think it's part of it. And then when you start focusing on margins, you get away from your story. And, you know, it's like, how much can I make off of this, this, and this? I'm like, you know what, it's worth it to me, us, um, to like, you know, if we if we do an Imperial tour visor, sure it's gonna cost us six or seven bucks more a visor, and but I I think it then loses out on what we're the story we're trying to tell. And it's like, I'm not trying, I'm not in this to make a huge margin. I'm in it to be able to like, hey man, this is what I think about golf. And I think it's what a lot of people think about golf, but no one's making something to wear it, to show it. And so I think if you get away from that and not kind of uh, you know, appreciate what got you here is is when you maybe, you know, I'm not saying any companies do this, but that may be where you start to lose your story.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, for sure. That's that's well said. Yeah, you're you're right. You're absolutely right. Um if you were to build the perfect hat, uh I got a couple golfers, I'm gonna rattle off for you. You being the uh official off-the-deck hat expert here. Welcome. Um, if you were to build the perfect hat for Scotty Scheffler, what would that hat look like?
SPEAKER_01Uh big and baggy, so probably unstructured. So it has a little nice. Uh um, it'd probably as hate, you know, I hate to say it, but it would it would probably have to be burnt orange. Um and yeah, golly, probably like a you know what I'd probably do like a the top foil of Chipotle, like the Chipotle burrito bowl. And just put like hook them on the foil and like them. Oh, that's all you heard of the Netflix series of like how much they ate Chipotle. I'm like, yes, you get it. You're humble, Scotty. Right, right. But we still know how much money you make. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02What would uh what would Bryson's look like?
SPEAKER_01Oh gosh. Like whey protein bottle. It's like whey bryson. Oh, that's great. Uh how about John Daly? Oh man, that would you know that'd be the best one. Um yeah, I mean, it'd probably just be a silhouette of like his staple long hair, just a just a Marlboro just sticking out, just sticking out a lip and doing that in 3D, and just like his face silhouette with the with the big six sticking out.
SPEAKER_02That would be perfect. Yeah. Oh, that would be so great. Um, all right, I got a couple just quick questions, uh, and we'll wrap this up. I've thoroughly enjoyed talking with you um and hearing the story. Uh, are you a rope or no rope Pat guy?
SPEAKER_01Man, I used to be no rope. I used to be like the X210 performance, and like the more I got into doing this, I I definitely became a rope, a rope person, and even camo, which is my goodness, the amount of people, and it may be demographic of where I'm at, but like the amount of people that buy camo hats has gone far beyond hunting. Like, right. Our last order we did for Cartersville was like we won 36 hats, and every one was like a uh camo print. And like even the logo we did was like a deer crossing sign, like the slow down for the deer cross.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I saw that on your socials.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so like that's the sign when you enter the club, is like you see that. And so we did that as kind of like a cool little side logo, and so it's crazy. I wear I never thought I'd say this, but I wear a lot of camo hats. I don't you're not gonna get me into like mossy oak and go hunting, but um, I do wear a lot of a lot of camo on the top now. It's it's pretty crazy. Structured or unstructured? I've always been a structured guy. Like I need to have my little almost like the high crown visor, I need to have my high crown on the hat. So I like the I like the structure. I I still like I'm 40, I just turned 41. So like I feel like I'm a little too old for the unstructured game because that's that's what a ton of our juniors wear, though. Like our players are all like, we want these retro, unstructured, you know. I'm like, these things look goofy, but they pull it off. I'm a structured person though, for sure. All right, are you in or out on a backwards hat on the golf course? I think that again goes to the like where you're at. Like typically you tee off and you're just out there having, you know, on tea time, just if you're not gonna tuck a shirt on, at least wear your hat for frontwards. But like if it's Saturday and you're in the shootout, yeah and it's member guest and you gotta lock in and you you have to have like a team timeout. It's like, look, what do we gotta do? We gotta and you gotta throw the rally cap on, then yeah, spin that thing around and take your shoes off and let's figure this out. Like if whatever, whatever it takes. But I've always been like one a big historian of the game to respect it, but like, you know, it's almost like read the room, right? Like if you're in a shootout and everyone else is you know 20 a case deep and whatever they decided to drink, it's probably not the the biggest thing that's on their mind. But I think there's a time and a place for sure. And uh yeah, I'll always um in my right state where my hat front works.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Mike, this has been awesome. Uh for the listeners, where can they find more information? Where do they should they go to your Instagram uh at high handicaps website? What's the best way to find you guys?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh that's it. It's our website, we highhandicaps.com, and it's literally like three separate words, H-I-G-H-H-A-N-D-Y-Caps.com, or our our socials, like our Instagram is probably our biggest because that's the only thing I knew how to use. Um so like we're trying to get in the TikTok and the Facebook side, but like our Instagram is kind of our staple platform. It's uh at high handicaps. So yeah, that's that's the two places. And you know, if they're ever in the Northwest Georgia area, they can always email. My cell phone is literally still on the website. Text me, call me, whatever. Brave man. Yeah, yeah. We'll see how long that stays. I'll I'll I'll try to continue with the letters, but we'll see. It it it kind of goes off a little bit more than I'd like, but I try to stay disciplined to kind of put it down. I need to put it down.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Mike, thank you so much for joining the show. Really appreciate it. Likewise.
SPEAKER_01Send me those, send me whatever you need. I'd I'd love to make you some tour visors and send some your way. That'd be awesome. That's happening. That's definitely happening. What's that? Where are you guys out of? I I'm in Birmingham. Okay, so you're close by. Yeah, I'm I'm an easy hunter. I'm pretty sure he's he's pretty close by, but seriously, you anytime you're in the Atlanta area, northwest Georgia, we're we're like 40 minutes from Atlanta. Okay. Love to take you to the club. Our our golf course is is sweet. It's awesome. It's a it's a hidden gem. So anytime you're around, just give me a shout. I'd love to take you out.
SPEAKER_02I certainly will. I certainly will. Well, for Mike Woodard, I'm Josh Decker, and this has been another episode of Off the Deck.
