The Cheat Code to Connections

**Rashad Bilal** (0:00)
We talk about this a lot, and we try to get people interested in golf, because we see a lot of business deals and a lot of business folk happens there.

**Troy Millings** (0:06)
I wonder for you guys, how's that been for you? You're in the world of golf.

**Rashad Bilal** (0:11)
How many business deals are being negotiated for y'all through your travels on the course?

**Troy Millings** (0:16)
All of them. Yeah, all of them.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:17)
Everyone.

**Rashad Bilal** (0:19)
All of them, yeah. Most of them.

**Troy Millings** (0:21)
I mean, even some of our partnerships, I just got hit up today, couldn't even make it because we're traveling, but they're inviting us out to go play golf, just to talk, where are you guys' heads? What do you guys have coming up next? How can we be involved? They're inviting us out to the nicest country clubs, trying to honestly sometimes earn our business.
This is how the game works.
There are no gatekeepers. There are no people that say, you can't talk to this person. No, you can eventually talk to them, just stay out there on the golf course. You'll eventually have that time to where you've been wanting the CEO's time, five minutes, a coffee or something like that, but you can actually get five hours of their time if you know how to play golf. You don't have to be good. Like Angie says, just keep up with the pace of the play. Keep up with the pace of the play.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:11)
That's right. I mean, I was recently planning this event on the Nexus Cup where I met Tiger Woods at, and I'm in the cart, and it was my partner, and his last name is Rezizio, and he's like a partner at, or runs the US for Mizuho Bank. I'm not sure if you ever heard of Mizuho Bank, but I hadn't, right? And so I'm asking an inquisitive question, like, oh, how much is under management? You know what I mean?
He used a number I never even heard anyone use. He's out there mouth. He said $2 trillion. I was just like, oh, okay. So I'm sitting on a cart with a guy that's like top level at a bank, a global bank. It's based in Japan called Mizuho, and they managed $2 trillion. They lend to like AT&T, like all these big Fortune 500 companies, like they do the lending to them. And so it wasn't like they automatically did our lending, right? That's not what I'm trying to say, but that's a relationship there, right? That if we do need to or if it does make business sense, that you can kind of grow and develop. So it's never a thing where it's like an instant, oh, you go to the golf course, it's going to immediately mean that you get something, because then it becomes like very transactional. But it's like the people that you meet, the opportunity, the time you get to spend with them, because I hear you talk about all the time, is relationships. One thing we talk about here is relationships. So being able to, again, nurture those relationships and getting to spend quality time with busy people is golf.
It's a cheat code.

**Rashad Bilal** (2:47)
So how do you see the future of golf? Because we have Topgolf, which has become very popular. Yes. We see a lot of hybrids of different sports that's taking place. We just had Rich Klein in here, and he was talking about lacrosse. We got like the street ball lacrosse, and then it's gone. So golf is a sport that is still a time-consuming sport. Yep. And we live in a culture that really appreciates things that's fast-paced. So do you see like a hybrid, faster-paced type, miniature golf, Adam Sandler on steroids type thing happening potentially in the future? I mean, like I said, Topgolf is actually like that. Yeah, nah, it's bullman.
It's like a driving range of sorts. But yeah, do you see a world with extreme golf?

**SPEAKER_3** (3:34)
I don't know if you get extreme. They got this thing coming out top of the year called Tomorrow Golf League, where it's literally played in an arena.
So you're gonna hit into a simulator. And then when you get to a certain yardage, you actually hit a real shot. And so they built this arena from the ground up. You got Tiger Woods, Macro Woods.

**Rashad Bilal** (3:51)
I was gonna say it sounds like Tiger Sting. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so.

**Troy Millings** (3:54)
But it's so, I mean, it's so technology savvy. Like, I heard, well, so yes, but then they have it to where the green can change elevations. And like, so under the turf, like you have this machine that makes it into this shape shifting type of place to where it changes into a different hole every time you play it. You know what I'm saying? You just, I mean, it might only be like, I think 150 yards, but you're going to hit your first shot. The hole might be 500 yards. You're going to get your first shot into a actual simulator. Then when you get 150 yards in, that's when you'll hit your real shot. But it changes and makeshifts every time when you get down to the 150 yards.