00:00.38 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Welcome to the ModGolf Podcast, where we speak with the entrepreneurs, the innovators, the disruptors, and the influencers who are shaping the future of golf. I'm your host, Colin Weston, and today i am excited as we're going to have a fun one here today. And my guest is Geoff Tate, and he's the founder and president of Triple Bogey Brewing Company based out of my hometown or in the area of the greater Toronto area, the GTA. 00:28.29 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast I've connected with Jeff a couple of times here over the last few years and said, come Geoff, this entrepreneurial story, I've looked at your background. i've I can't quite connect the dots here to see how you went from where you started to owning a brewery. So we're going to have that story revealed today and I'm excited for that. So with no further ado, let me introduce Mr. Jeff Tate. 00:49.50 The ModGolf Podcast Geoff, welcome to the ModGolf podcast. 00:51.96 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Thanks for having me, my friend. It's good to see you. 00:54.17 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Absolutely. Good to see you and to hear you here today. And speaking of seeing you, just let our listeners know here, Geoff and I will be jumping over to our ModGolf YouTube channel once we finish up here for a slightly different conversation where, of course, we're able to see some visuals because right now Jeff and I, with the audio format, we're just waving our hands in the air here. So we'll continue with that and encourage our listeners, as I said, all of you to jump over there to the ModGolf YouTube channel. All right, Geoff, I usually ask this icebreaker question. I'm good going to ask this one today for you because i am perplexed. I've got no idea how you've arrived in the brewing space. So obviously there's a connection with golf. So that's where we're gonna start. So the icebreaker I like to ask quite often is what was your first golf experience ever? At what age and who introduced you to golf? That power of invitation, that person, that person, put a golf club in your hand and made you hit that first awesome shot that made you never stop. 01:58.14 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Well, that one's easy, man. I got to give all the credit to my parents on that one for sure. i was about six years old. They were members at the St. Thomas Golf Club down in Union, in St. Thomas, Ontario. 02:09.85 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company And yeah, they would always take myself and my sister out on kind of Sunday afternoons and, you know, for a nice leisurely family time. They really got me loving in golf and enjoying the sport. And I'll always remember those days as my favourite days in golf, the carefree days of golf where you're just trying to learn how to hit the ball and not really giving a giving a shit where it goes, so it's all good. 02:36.82 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast There we go. Well, obviously at that young and tender age, you weren't enjoying a beer or a transfusion out on the golf course. In fact, transfusions weren't even a thing back then. So ah we're definitely going to reveal how you arrived at where you are with Triple Bogey Brewing. So you do have a connection to golf, I understand. i believe you were for quite a few years there. You're the founder and president of Quagmire Golf. So working in the golf apparel space with Arnold Palmer enterprises. So why don't we start there and your background leading up to setting the foundation of how you arrived at where you are. 03:15.81 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast So yeah, tell us about your introduction professionally in golf and working in the industry. 03:21.49 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Well, I'll take you a little further back than that. So because I fell in love with those fairways at St. Thomas, I worked in the bagdrop when I was 12, picked the range and scrubbed the clubs and did all that stuff, at the golf course throughout my high school career. And then I went to Humber college where I went to the golf management program. 03:43.46 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company So I got to learn the ins and outs of the golf business. I learned from the great site, Grant Frazier and Kevin Thistle and all those guys. And I wanted to be a golf pro. I wanted to be in the pro shop and I wanted to do all that stuff. But I got swayed into going to university in Australia. So, I went to Australia after my college stint there I took business and that's when I really fell in love with the business side of things. And that's when I decided that I wanted to do something that had to do with golf, not necessarily be a golf pro, although I still loved that business and and I love the people in it. 04:28.28 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company But I decided I would take a different road and and try to build my own businesses within the golf world. i took a little time in between there and i went worked on the cruise ships and i taught some golf and i went down to Venezuela and taught at a university there as well little social studies just to get a little culture in me and that was quite a place to learn some culture but the the people were wonderful and the the place was beautiful and and i've never met a a more caring giving group of people despite the reputation that Venezuela has but it's a beautiful place with beautiful people. From there we took kids on this trip it was called west coast connection and i was a tour guide and we took kids to all these great golf courses. Bay Hill TPC stadium it was kind of a golf school or golf camp for rich kids, one of the kids his grandfather invented Kleenex so these kids had money and that was way out of my league. 05:33.40 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company But, from there I said, you know what, these kids need something to wear. Because they were all wearing their father's or their grandfather's clothing, or they were wearing stuff that didn't have anything do with golf. 05:45.40 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company And that's where I built the idea for Quagmire golf, which was the ah young funky golf clothing brand, the first of its kind. well before Puma and all these guys had big, bright, fancy colours. 05:57.98 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company And now everybody's doing it. But we were kind of the first. Travis Matthews was about a year behind us. But we went for it and everybody laughed at us once again. And we were making these crazy, funky golf clothes. And it was fun, man. It was it was a great time. 06:16.09 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Now, you have to elaborate on this. Of course, our listeners cannot see what I'm looking at right now, but your backdrop, and I don't think this is a virtual background that you have, that there's a picture of the king, Arnold Palmer himself, and it looks like a young Geoff Tate standing next to him. So you said you were teaching. With the West Coast Connections, Bay Hill was one of the courses. So obviously you got a chance to not only meet the king, but then forge a relationship and becoming part of Arnold Palmer Enterprises. 06:48.39 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast So tell me about how that went down. There's got to be a story or two there. 06:52.28 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company So those two actually weren't connected. I played Bay Hill before I even knew Arnold. But yeah, I did look a lot younger back then. Thanks for pointing that out. But we had Quagmire going for years. We were still in Canada and in the States. We were still in Macy's and Dick's and Golf Galaxy and all that stuff. 07:12.09 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company And I got a phone call from IMG, and it was Easter weekend. And it was a guy named Jim Nish, and he's actually based in Toronto here. And he said, we've been watching what you're doing. With Quagmire, would you be interested in coming down to so to TPC Stadium where the IMG head office is and having a chat with Arnold Palmer's crew and seeing if it's a good fit for you to redesign Arnold Palmer's clothing to make it younger and and more relevant and, and fun and funky here. 07:40.64 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company And I thought it was a joke. I was like, yeah, it wasn't April fools, but that's why I love the April fools so much these days. 07:44.64 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Right. 07:46.96 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company But it was a real thing. So, I put together some drawings and some samples and we flew down to TPC with our tail between our legs, just going, "what the hell's going on here"? 07:59.24 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company And we fell in love with them. They fell in love with us. I was with my business partner at the time, Bobby Pasternak and it worked, man. So we started pounding out the designs and turning out the clothing and we called it Arnie. So these pictures behind me are actually one's at Bay Hill, but the other one's at Augusta. During that time I spent with Arnold for about four years, he invited me to The Masters with him one time. And that's another story. 08:26.17 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Wow. 08:28.92 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company We had a hell of a run with with Mr. Palmer and and his team, and I'm still friends with his family to this day. 08:35.95 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Wow, that's incredible. So, okay, I'm really curious before we move on to your career now in the brewing industry. Did you have a background in apparel and fashion at all? I'm very curious because a lot of entrepreneurs and I work with a lot of founders, not only in golf, but across start the startup space. And a lot of them get paralyzed thinking that they have to do it all themselves. And maybe they don't have the experience of certain areas and they need partners. So I'm curious, did you have, from what I see, I don't think you had a background in apparel before that. So how did you put a team together to make this happen for Quagmire? 09:16.28 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company I don't have a a background in apparel. I was the one guy when I worked for Dan Campbell at St. Thomas Golf Club that was having my shirt untucked and I would be wearing Quicksilver shirts or different surf stuff, skate stuff. Some say i have an eye for fashion, but I've also learned that you surround yourself with the right people. And to your point, guys try to do everything all the time and and they get totally overwhelmed by it. 09:48.12 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company But yes, you have to find experts in different things. So I came with the idea, you know, I i can barely draw. But i I came with the idea to these designers and they brought them to life. And it was a perfect combination. So I did more of the creative and the marketing. And then I would surround myself with people that could actually bring things to life. I don't know how to sew. I don't even know how to thread a needle, to be honest with you. But I do know how fashion works and what it should look like. And I've learned a lot along the way. And that's the biggest thing. In any businesses you can learn it easily if you just immerse yourself in it right so and now without that education in fashion i i have a homegrown education in fashion so 10:32.70 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Speaking of homegrown educations, ah your next step then, the next chapter of your professional career and your entrepreneurial endeavours, your journey here. I understand that close to the end of 2012 is when you moved on from Quagmire Golf and Arnie Ware. Did you have an exit? Did you sell that out? I see that you went on to teach for a little bit you took a bit of a break before you came up with your next great idea with his what you're working on now so how did you finish up there was it an exit or we go hopefully hopefully this is a good story with a happy ending here. 11:09.14 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Well, that's a podcast in itself, man. That might actually be a movie if we want to do that. There's a book to be written in there. So, no it wasn't a good ending. So we partnered with a company called JTX Group. They had the rights to Tommy Bahama, Penguin, Ben Sherman, all these good brands in Canada. And Eric Grundy is a good friend of mine still to this day. He was the money behind it after a while, because we got too big, too fast. And so we we brought on some partners with Eric and Bob and myself. 11:45.69 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Anyway, long story short, yes, it crumbled. Some business partner issues went down and we still had the Arnold Palmer license and we were still selling stuff. I walked out of my office with a $750,000 JC penny order on my desk that we didn't deliver. It was sad, man. we it was It was completely out of my control, something that I built out of the trunk of of my car. um is it was all my idea and it got us to sitting with the Arnold at Augusta and it was just amazing it was all surreal and I drove home one day and it was all gone it was just uh you know the everybody wanted to nobody wanted to kind of figure it out and everybody was just at each other's throats and we're all friends now but it it was just some business stuff that went down and it's out of our control and I went home and I cried on the floor and and told my wife what happened. and because this was our life, this was our livelihood. This was what we were doing. And yeah, I started drinking a lot of beer. i started losing my mind a little bit i was just depressed. I was very very sad that i just let this you know dream life go get away from me. So then i went and taught at Durham College marketing and i built a business plan for Triple Bogey while i was doing that. I said golf needed its own beer and that that was what was going to kind of bring me out and and in the middle of that my wife picked me up off the ground and she said "you got to do something!" 13:16.57 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Whew, I'm getting a little teary here. And I did. 13:21.14 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Yeah. 13:22.46 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company And here we are today, 13 years later, and sold $12 million dollars worth of beer last year for drinks. 13:28.56 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Wow. Wow. Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that that, Geoff. That was not easy. And I had no idea where the story with Quagmire Golf ended. But from the sounds of it now coming out the other side in having to take a breath and work through the darkness there. And also the time taking that year as a professor and building up the business case for Triple Bogey Brewing. So, okay, let's, ah yeah, you got me got me going here too. 14:10.13 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company right. Sorry. 14:15.48 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast So it seems like it was about a year after things went sideways with Quagmire Golf that then you launched with Triple Bogey Brewing. So I'm curious to hear then why you decided to into the brewing space. Again, just like with Fashion Apparel, were you already a certified brewmaster? Did you have any brewing experience before? So tell us about that and how you started there. 14:44.73 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Yeah, no, nothing. Nothing again. 14:47.06 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Love it. Love that. 14:47.99 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company I've always loved drinking beer. People know that. I was a Budweiser drinker, I was a mainstream lager drinker back in the day. and i I said, that actually, what am I going to do next? Do I want to go work for somebody? There's nothing wrong with working for anybody, but I have always had the entrepreneurial spirit in me. I said, what can I build? How can I do it? And how can I use the connections that I've already built over those past 15 years with quagmire and Arnold? 15:15.46 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Mm-hmm. 15:16.74 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company And, and is there a way that I can rebrand and rebuild my business. And we started with nothing. We started with me searching for a place that would actually brew the beer for us. 15:30.53 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company And we found one down on the ah Queens way and they were great. They helped us get our first beer off the ground. Again, I don't know anything about the beer business. I don't know anything about making beer. I just know how to drink it. I'm good at that. We started and we had about 50 guys that hopped on board the first year. This was before the big wave of everybody trying to be in the craft beer business and before everybody thought they could slap a label on a can calling it a golf-themed beer. We were the first of its kind again with the the clothing we were first and the beer we were the first to go after the the big boys on the golf course because it's all corporate. 16:13.08 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company You know, back then it was all corporate companies that were selling and my buddies were laughing at me. They said, you're going up against giants with giant marketing budgets and you don't have a pot to piss in right now. And you're literally trying to take on these guys. And through friendships and through people believing in me and through a good product, we slowly chipped away at that business. And now we are what we are today. And I couldn't be happier. Yeah. 16:41.83 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast I love this. Love this, Jeff. So, okay. At the beginning, there's a couple of things I have to learn here. 16:46.20 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Thank you. 16:47.67 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast One is the name, which I love because of all the millions and millions of golfers, the 20 million golfers in North America alone, there's a lot more of those golfers that are getting a triple bogey on their scorecard every single time they play way more than ones that are getting birdies or the elusive eagle there. So tell us about the name. Was it the only name you had thought about or what was the AHA moment for that? Because it's so relatable for the average golfer. I love this. 17:15.45 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Yeah. And that's what it was. I'd say golf's too serious and life's too short. That's kind of my motto now. It's time to make golf fun and approachable for the next generation and get people excited about, about coming and playing golf and just going out there and drinking beer with their buddies and not trying to get eagles and birdies all the time and just going out and learning the fundamentals and swinging with your pals and having those two or four hours to unwind and and relax. 17:47.98 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Triple Bogey just came to mind. Our logo is a plus three or a T and a B and that was part of it as well. It just stuck. Everybody said, "why don't you call a birdie or eagle or whatever?" Back then, you weren't allowed to call it stuff like that, like the Alcohol and Gaming Commission. or i'm not exactly sure who wouldn't allow it, but you couldn't have birdie or eagle on your can because it would make you think that you're going play better. It would enhance your game. So, so yeah. 18:17.62 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Really? 18:18.85 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company so And that's fine. And that's kind of brought us to this. And I wouldn't change the name to this day. It's because it's me. It's my attitude. I'll go out and play six, seven, eight times a year. And I'll make, three or four birdies and I'll make a couple of triple bogeys who gives a shit. Right. So that's the reason behind it. And our slogan is "better hit another". And that's what it's all about. You hit one in the woods. You better hit another. Your beer cans empty. You better, better hit another. 18:48.09 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Love that. love that ah So in the startup space, in the tech space, especially, we talk about a minimum viable product, the first thing you come out with. So for you, what was your minimum viable product? I'm assuming you didn't try to then brew eight different types of beer and get them all out there. So I think I know the answer to this. But what did you start with to get things off the ground and get things moving? 19:14.10 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company So our first beer was the lager. It was a gold blonde lager. We won an award for it. But it was a good, clean beer that you can drink a couple of them in the 30 degree weather. Right. So again, everybody's like, "oh if you're going be in the craft beer business, you got to get hoppy. You got to do IPAs. You got to do this. You got to do that." I said, "you know what, man, our target market is sunny, beautiful days on the golf course. And I want people to drink more than one of them." 19:44.50 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company So I'm building a lager and I'm building a session beer that people will drink a few of. So we tried that. We did that for a couple of years and we added in the amber, And then we added in a light and we're all three of my beers are lagers. They're all drinkable lagers that people love to crush. And then from there, we got into the vodka drinks and stuff like that, which is taking us to a whole different level. 20:07.64 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast I do want to talk about the transfusions in a moment here. One thing I did want to talk about looking at your website this morning here is you also now offer a non-alcoholic beer. And for me right now, I had a surgery a few months ago, so I'm not drinking right now, but I love the taste of beer and can't get enough of it. So having the non-alcoholic option too is so great. So how long have you been offering that? 20:33.56 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company We've had that for four or five years. It's not as popular as the others. 20:35.74 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Okay. Okay. 20:40.04 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company It does fill a spot in the fridge at golf courses, but it's only a tiny little corner of it, which is fine. But it's a necessary thing to have. And people try it, they say, wow, that tastes exactly like a real beer. So it is a good thing. It's not a huge moneymaker, only because people looking to drink beer are usually drinking our beer and lots of it. I have added a water it's called Casual Water it just came out last week it's a spring water so we'll be selling that to golf courses this year as well. Nobody knows that. You just heard it here first so it's a it's in the aluminum cans like the wide mouth cans down in the states so it's a cool collector bottle that you can refill. But, we want to have options that people can drink in. The plan is to venture out into, more non-alcoholic stuff. I won't give away all my secrets right now, but we're working on a few things right now that will separate us from the beer side to a bit healthier and, and have another option for people to drink. 21:53.59 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Well, I love that. Whereas, like I said, for now, I'm definitely your market for that. As compared to, fun little story here, everyone, my 99-year-old dad, who will be 100 in a few months, and he will make it, Jeff was gracious enough to send him two cases of beer that showed up on April Fool's Day. And my dad thought, it was a joke that, "why is there beer showing up on my doorstep?" So yeah, two cases of beer, 48 beers. And my dad has been, for our American friends, they won't know the brand, but it's Molson Export, which is their ale. 22:25.10 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast He's drank that for over eight decades. And he's a bit curmudgeon-y with his beer. But you were brave enough to send him and gracious enough to send him two cases. And the report I got back the other day was he loves it. So well done. 22:41.15 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company There you go never too long to convert. 22:41.94 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Well done. There we go. Absolutely. Absolutely. Maybe the next hundred years for him, all he's going to be drinking is Triple Bogey. There you go. So I do want to talk about the transfusions here, the term, maybe you could define that. Maybe some people don't know what that is. And I do notice that of the three that you have, you'll run through that. I think one here is definitely an homage to the King, Mr. Palmer himself there with the half and half hard lemonade and iced tea. That's like a Hard Palmer, I guess we could say. So tell us about your line there and when you introduced the transfusions. 23:24.66 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Yeah, so we have the Transfusion was our first ready to drink cocktail. So our ready to drink cocktail is called RTD. So these are vodka based cocktails. Again, we were watching the trends and we were seeing what people are drinking. Beer is Not flat. We're still growing with beer, but we'd love to have other options and make some more room in the fridge for our stuff. So we came out with a grape transfusion and it went wild. So we sold a couple of million cans the first year that we brought it out. 23:57.08 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company And it took us to a whole different level in the business world and in life. And from there, we added an orange and a cranberry. They're not as strong as the grape and I don't think they ever will be because grape transfusion is actually the original drink. They've been mixing grape transfusions in this in the U.S. and in Canada for years. We were the first to put it in a can and make it taste like it should, as if you were mixing it at home. And it sold like wildfire at the LCBO. And now it's in every grocery store, every LCBO, every convenience store, and you know, from the Circle K's to the Loblaws to the Walmart and the Costco's. 24:36.60 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company So it's taking us to a whole different level. But we've stayed true to ourselves in the beer. We're still selling the heck out of the beer. Yes, we have the Arnold, the half and half, which I'm not legally allowed to say that it's anywhere, connected to him whatsoever, but it's a half and half, iced tea lemonade is again, a popular cocktail in the world. 24:54.58 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Of course, of course. 25:00.31 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company And it's a pretty good one. It doesn't sell as well as the rest, because there is a lot of those out there. There's twisted tea and and stuff like that, but we think ours is right on par with those guys and then this this year we have a new new drink called The Water Hazard it's another drink that was started to be mixed down in the states so it's a very popular cocktail. We were the first to put it in a can. It's a blue lemonade or blue raspberry lemonade vodka soda that we just launched last week a zero sugar, zero carbs, 80 calorie. It's called The Fairway Fizz. So we have three coming out. We just brought the first one out. it's called The Citrus. 25:46.04 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company They're here for the first time right now so we are launching that across Canada as we speak and this is the first time we've ever gone with a low sugar or no sugar four percent low low everything and they're delicious. It's going to be a game changer again because people are looking after themselves a little bit better these days, and you're going be able to drink ah a few more of these because they're they're only 4%, but it's called the Fairway Fizz. 26:17.98 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Love it. Love it. So sounds like you're expanding and innovating at the same time. So as far as the market trends, is that really your job or you're the one that's at the tip of the spear of that? Or do you also have a team in place or is that your main responsibility? 26:36.73 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company You're looking at them, man. This is it. 26:37.91 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Yeah. Yeah. 26:39.61 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company This is it. No, I work with my wife too, and she helps, and I bounce things off her. And Charles, my main guy here, Charles Guyot, he's my VP of operations. And he has taken over looking after all our awesome salespeople and delivery people and our warehouse. And He's taken the wheel away from me a little bit so I can continue to expand the business and allow us to continue to grow. I'm in on the big decisions. I'm making the big decisions. We're coming up with the big ideas. And then I have a great team that and under Charles's wings that execute it. And I just make sure everything's on the up and up and everything's staying between the lines. So they're all good. 27:33.13 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast There we go. There we go. So for our American listeners, so they can understand when you talk about the LCBO, so that's the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. Provincially, liquor is controlled through provincial jurisdictions. So I want to talk about the politics and policies around that and how tricky it's been to navigate that over time because you've been in Ontario since day one since 2014 and myself here in British Columbia on the West Coast. We haven't had your products for years but now they're starting to come so can you talk about that and is there the potential even though there's tariffs still in place is the potential for you to get your products the into the US or is that even something you even even desire? 28:17.56 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Yes, yes, yes and yes. So BC has been a tough one only because in BC, you're not allowed to deliver directly from your warehouse or from your place. So you have to go through the BC liquor board warehouse and do all that stuff. However, that just changed in the last two two months. 28:38.97 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Good. Good. good 28:40.73 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Thank god so now we are actually setting up shop and and ready to roll in British Columbia we do sell in Alberta we sell in Manitoba we sell Saskatchewan we sell in Nova Scotia, PEI, and Newfoundland. Ontario is our biggest but yes BC is a huge target for us. The LCBO up until a year and a half ago they were the only people that could sell drinks. So the LCBO they're wonderful to work with. The LCBO they controlled the whole market where all of a sudden the government opened it up and said "we want to sell to the convenience stores we want to sell to grocery stores". 29:24.25 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company I was scared of it at the beginning because we had such a good thing going at the LCBO and it was going to take a lot more work to go to all these convenience stores or grocery stores to try to sell them. I have a great team with a guy named Ian McDonald and a company called United Craft. He's done a wonderful job. He has all the relationships with all these guys. So I hired them to take the reins of our retail stuff. And now we're in anywhere and everywhere. I'll go into a convenience store in the middle nowhere and there's our drinks and I didn't even know we're in there. So it's a pretty neat feeling and a pretty cool thing, but it took a lot to get there because the LCBO is much easier to just manage and control. But now we're everywhere and it seems to be working. 30:08.95 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Love this. Love this. Wanted to ask you, one of the fears you had, your friends were thinking you were insane to create a small brewery going up against the Budweiser's and the Coors and the Labatts and the Molson's of the world here. So what partnerships have you nurtured over the years is as part of your differentiator? Do you work directly or sell directly to golf clubs? Is that even a thing? Tell us about that, of how you managed to punch above your weight class here with Triple Bogey. 30:47.21 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company so just to go back a way so we do have an awesome partner in a place called Equals Brewing they make all of our stuff so down in London Ontario so we don't we don't own the brewery in itself we contract to them and they're the ones that i sit with and we build the drinks together. So that's the first partnership that i had to figure out where do i want to go build a brewery and do i want to have a have a bottle shop and do I want to have a brew pub and make sandwiches? 31:15.24 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company No, I did not want to do that. I wanted to go out and sell and market the shit out of this thing. to every golf course in Ontario and across Canada and it's worked. So, 12 years later, we're in 600 golf courses and we do sell them direct. I have a great sales team from Ottawa to Windsor and a great sales agent in Alberta and one in Manitoba and all those other provinces. So we do sell, that's our main business is golf. It's selling directly to these golf courses. They order weekly. 31:43.83 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company I have a great team that emails or calls and says "you guys need anything this week?" and and we ship it out with our trucks and with a third-party delivery company and so we have the great infrastructure in place again going back to you know we don't have to be masters of everything. We need to surround ourselves with the right people that know how to do all of the right things and let them do their thing and manage it the way that we needed to manage and to meet our expectations when it comes to customer service. 32:15.58 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company So from there, we built the brand on the golf course. And then because people would go to the LCBO and ask, you know why can't I get Triple Bogey here? Then all of a sudden there was the demand at the retail. And that's when the retail blew up, which is probably half our business now, where before it was one eighth of it. So it's awesome. 32:35.38 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Wow. So sounds like things are scaling up here. So speaking of scaling, i want to go back to what you had mentioned. As painful as that was with how things ended with Quagmire Golf, and from what you mentioned earlier Geoff, that one of the main... 32:52.47 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company You're not going to make me cry again, are you? 32:54.18 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Hopefully not. Hopefully not. This is more about lessons learned. It seems to me that that as awful and devastating as that was. You said you had scaled up very quickly, so you had to bring another capital and you unfortunately lost control of the company. 33:11.83 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast What have you learned from that to set you up positively for the growth and the scale and the lessons the painful lessons learned that you're now applying to Triple Bogey that in some ways you're not glad that went down the way it did with Quagmire, I'm sure, because it hurts so so much. 33:26.68 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast But there's lessons learned there. So what are the main takeaways and the way that you approach to scale your business that you don't lose control of it and can make those decisions and make sure everything ends with a happy ending here? 33:38.42 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Yeah, of course. And it already is. And we've sold more beer and more drinks than we ever sold shirts. And nobody can ever take away the experiences that I had with Quagmire. 33:45.63 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Yeah. 33:50.74 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company We were in some pretty special situations with Arnold and Tiger. All of a sudden we were hanging out with Jay-Z and all these rappers for some reason down in New York. And we were in LA doing different things. It was it was a pretty crazy time. So nobody can ever take that stuff away from me. They say the good old days. 34:13.72 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Yeah. 34:15.42 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company But what I learned was, if I'm going to do this, let's do a slow growth. That's why it's taken 12 years to get to the $12 million dollars mark. We've grown it organically. We've grown it with grassroots. For the first eight years or seven years, I was putting my own money back in. So we would never save any money personally, but I didn't want to take on other partners. I didn't want to do any of that stuff. I wanted to keep this thing in my complete control and not let anything kind of get away from me. And that's 100% what I learned from the last one. 34:53.21 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company And now we're at the point where, okay, now we can say to the banks, I got great relationships at the banks where I can get lines of credits. So now we're very, very comfortable with that. So When somebody says, "oh, I'd love to partner with you, I've got this, this and this", I say, "well, thank you. And it's a flattering that you want to join us, but we're in great shape the way we are". And I don't need to take it to a $50 million company dollar company tomorrow. I might get there one day, but I want to do that without losing control and losing my mind and and being able to run the company the way that I want to and and live my day-to-day life the way that I want to. 35:30.55 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast I love this. I love this, Geoff. So it sounds like one of the takeaways that I can distill down from what you just said there is that the best investor you can have is your customer. Because there's zero dilution of the evaluation of the company. 35:42.84 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Yeah. 35:47.53 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast You're giving nothing away. And as you said, the fact that you have those sales and they're growing, then all of a sudden all these investors want to invest and you don't need that. Then you have leverage there with the proof points of the sales that the bank is more than happy to give you a very good rate if you then need to leverage that for growth and to scale. So it sounds like yes, your customer is your best investor. 36:15.59 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast So we see shows like, Shark Tank and in Canada with Dragon's Den and the over romanticization of getting that money and getting that check. But ultimately, yeah, let's go out and sell some stuff. 36:27.96 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Yeah, man, we have such loyal people in the golf business, especially as people are so loyal. If you treat them right, they're not asking for stuff. They're literally asking for good customer service, a good product, and for them to be able to execute what they're trying to execute. And that's running a golf course. And if you make it easier for them, then they're going to always stick with you because why would they switch? And if people are happy, then it's all good. And that's where it's all stemmed from. And that's what we' we'll continue to build on. 37:01.33 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast I love this. So what I hear, what I see, there's this term that so people love to call themselves entrepreneurs, that they're serial entrepreneurs, but I prefer the term successful entrepreneurs. And you have all the characteristics and that DNA of being a successful entrepreneur. You are curious, you ask for help, you don't try to do it all yourself, and you, rather than demand certainty that everything needs to be lined up before you go, you're just looking for clarity. You launched and you didn't know everything about the brewing industry. You launched an apparel brand. And as you said, you couldn't even thread a needle. 37:45.60 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast But you just figured that and got the validation and then course corrected it as you go. So those are such positive traits as an entrepreneur that have to commend you that day year. You're doing great. Congratulations. 37:59.83 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Thank you, man. Thank you. i appreciate that. And it's that's nice to hear every once in a while too, to be honest, because it is a lonely world, being being an entrepreneur. 38:06.47 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast Oh, yeah. 38:10.26 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company All these positive things that I'm telling you, there's also those sleepless nights where you're waking up in the middle of the night trying to figure out how you're going to do that and this and this and how you're going to tackle the next step. But I think that's the fun of it, to be honest, and that's what makes it actually enjoyable. And yeah, if you get pits in your stomach and there's days that you just you know break down and cry and and you know there's always bumps in the road, but we got one life to live, you just got to keep on going. Yeah. 38:37.34 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast I embrace that also here, Jeff. Wow. Okay. Well, why don't we finish up there? One thing I do want to know, of course, Triple Bogey products are only available in Canada right now, not in every single province, but I'm in British Columbia. So once again, how can anyone across Canada, what's the best way that they can learn more about your products and get something in their hands? 39:00.82 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company So we're setting up shop in BC right now. I would say probably in the next six to eight months, we'll be selling in BC. I'm going to the Michigan next week. I got an email from a distributor in Michigan. For years I've been trying to email distributors and wholesalers and trying to get them on the hook. And all of a sudden, these guys came to us and they said, "we really want to sell your products in Michigan". So that's my first step into the States. 39:31.06 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company Again, baby steps, people say, "why don't you hop into Florida, that's where it's going to be year round business". But now we're going to test the market in Michigan. So we'll see how that goes. Other than that, in every other province other than Quebec and New Brunswick, we sell all across Canada. And yeah, it's out there. Just go to your local golf course, support them. With that, you're supporting my family. Sawyer and Fiona are my two kids and my wife, Megan. Then I have lots of employees that that have families. 40:10.60 Geoff Tait - Triple Bogey Brewing Company You're supporting a ah family business. so if you can get your hands on some in in any of those product or any of those provinces, please Please do and and know that it's not a faceless corporate brand. And and nd drop me a line Geoff at if you're looking for something. If you if you can't find it, i'm always I'm always there. I'm better on the email and on text than I am on the phone. I'm not a real good phone guy, but give me a call if you need a friend. So it's all good. 40:38.26 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast There we go. And yes, www.triplebogey.com. If you want to check out the fine array of cocktails and beverage products that that Geoff and his team offer there. In BC, I cannot wait until you're finally out here. I've been pestering you for the last couple of years. It's like, come on, Jeff. It's like, "Send some stuff out. Who do I pay?" And you're like, "I can't do it, Colin. Can't do it quite yet". But that sounds like that is changing. All right. Hey, Geoff, why don't we finish up there? As I mentioned earlier at the top of the show, we are now going to jump over to a video conversation. And I have a feeling that you've got more than a handful of Arnie stories that you can share with us. So I'm going to be asking you about a few of those because I don't think there's any bad Arnie stories out there. 41:31.58 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast So I'm looking forward to that. So I strongly encourage our listeners here to become viewers. Also in the show notes, I will include the link for our conversation there on the ModGolf YouTube channel. So with that, Mr. Geoff Tait, founder, president of Triple Bogey Brewing Company, based out of southern Ontario in beautiful Toronto. 41:54.60 Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast It's been a pleasure to see you again, sir and hearing the backstory, the ups and downs, and thank you for being vulnerable and sharing the bumps, the downs, because that's not easy to do and that's part of the entrepreneurial journey. And yeah, there is some darkness before we come out the other side with some light. So so I really do appreciate you sharing that, Geoff. I really do. 42:19.66 Geoff Tait Well, thanks for giving me the platform to do so, my friend. I appreciate you. 42:23.51 The ModGolf Colin Weston - The ModGolf Podcast I appreciate you too. All right, my friend, we'll see you over on YouTube. All right. Bye for now.