When You Swing and Miss | Pro Golfer Turned Full-Time Entrepreneur, Thane Ringler Shares How He’s Transitioning Into Career 2.0

Audio Transcription

On today’s  business coach ledshow, we’re interviewing a man who grew up in Kansas and he went on to become a professional golfer before transitioning into the world of entrepreneurship and defecting to California. Mr Fein wrangler. Welcome onto the show. How are you?

Man? I’m doing well in Sunny, Gorgeous California and effecting, I feel really good about it. You know, it’s um, it doesn’t have, it definitely has its own manner of problems, but such is life, so it was everywhere in life. Great to be here with you. Play in. Excited to dive into the life today together.

Where in California are you right now? Are you in the San Diego area? In Northern California?

I’m in the Los Angeles region, so I’m actually in Glendale, California, which is a suburb of La.

Okay. And for those out there who are not as familiar with your background is I am, because they haven’t spent as many, uh, hours a creeping on you, on social media, on your website, anywhere. Can you walk us through your path to becoming a professional golfer? I mean, did you just play a bunch of golf related video games are, or what your journey, what was your journey to becoming a professional golfer?

Yeah. No, it’s, it’s a long journey now and it doesn’t include playing some golf video games. Right? So important you learn a lot about the game hand eye coordination. Yes, yes. But, uh, but yeah, so I started when I was three or four years old, I started my gut and my dad got a club in my hand and it was a real love of mine. I was playing in the back yard with him going out to the local course about a mile away. And it was just a really fun way to spend time with my dad who I spend time outside and spend time competing because really that, that was one thing that ran really deepened my vein, was this competitive nature that I also inherited from my dad in the house and um, and it was a great avenue for all of those things. And um, and the, the development process is like anything in life, it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of dedication in order to bring about the refinement of skill and the accumulation of experience that’s needed in order to do something exceptionally well.

And I was blessed to be able to have both of those along the way.

When did develop mastery in the game of golf? I mean, when did, when did it become abundantly clear that you are now achieving at a level above that of the average business coach person? You were playing against

increments in stages early, early on and started using the junior golf Rome where I was above my peers at that stage. Right. And I was able to, when junior tournaments or compete to win most junior tournaments in my region, and then you get a little older and you can be in high school and you work your way through the ranks there and then in the junior golf in the state and then you go into college and then you are in a whole nother pool. And so I think along the way there was affirmation that, um, I did have a skill and talent that was above the majority of my peers. Now obviously, um, you don’t win everything and you can’t win it all. And I definitely wasn’t the best. Right? And so the goal is to become the best. And that happens over a lot of times. So I think along the way there’s a lot of information and really I would, I would actually say that I never, I’m fully reached match mastery. I think. I think reaching mastery is almost unattainable really in, in, in many fields, if not every field. Um, and I think, I think even if you talk to some of the guys that are at the top of the game currently, I think you’d hear very similar, uh, sediments. Um, because it’s, it’s, it’s a fleeting pursuit. It, it always seems just beyond your grasp.

Where did you play high school golf?

I played at Hutchinson Highschool in Hutchinson, Kansas, a town of about just under 50,000 people and has an amazing, amazing high school coach. Charlie Pierce and, and the reason why I say the main thing is that he did a great job of providing just enough strategy and structure to help us move past mindless golf because really in high school you’re at the place where you’re just really needing to get more and more competitive reps in, at, at a little bit bigger stage where more there’s more meaning behind it because it is for your school. And so the coach did a really great job of providing some resources and guidance to provide just a little bit more than most high schoolers get from their coaches.

Have you ever read Robert Greene’s book mastery?

I have not. I really wanted to though, I’ve seen, I’ve seen that I’ve, I’ve read about it, but I actually haven’t read it

well, just so you know, I’ve been reading the same book for about a year. Just reading it to keep up my bathroom, keep it near the bath. I got two copies just reading the book, just just trying to deep dive into it and this book is so deep, but one of the things he says, I want to get your take on this because I know you can relate to it. He says, the initial stages of learning a skill and variably involved tedium. Yet rather than avoiding this tedium, you must accept and embrace it. The pain and boredom we experienced in the initial stage of learning a skill toughens our minds. Much like physical exercise or learning to golf. Too many people believe that everything must be pleasurable in life, which makes them constantly searched for distractions and shortcuts in life, which makes them constantly. He goes on to talk about which, which makes these people. They’re kind of always yearning for success that they never get because I can’t push through that, that tedium. Can I. Can I ask you, I mean, when you were, when you were mastering golfer or becoming the best golf, or you could be, did you ever feel like you were just absolutely bored out of your business coach mind or that you were just like, oh my gosh, I cannot believe how much I’m practicing golf.

They’d refer to the 10,000 hour rule is getting up to the threshold. Just a math experience. There isn’t inevitable. Um, introduction of boredom. Right? And so I think I would agree completely with a lot of what he said. I would actually add one thing to what he emphasized. And I think that that really stages are actually not as boring as you sing. I think the early stages, right? You’re learning so much because you come from really, I think until maybe the entrance into high school. Especially my experience with golf, it’s, it’s, it’s a lot more fun than it is boring because you’re learning so much and there’s so many things to learn early on because it’s all new and so it’s kind of this novel, this novelty of learning new things, but then you definitely get to a point like he’s talking about where it’s no longer is it this novel, these constantly novel occurrences. It’s more of these redundant repetition, muscle memory, ingraining work that is boring. It can be boring. Right? So I think, I think that the, the, the goal is always to find beauty in the mundane, right? To find joy in the learning and in the, in the struggle of progress because that’s how learning is actually accomplished. So I think for me in high school, especially when this started, I think that the competitive drive is what helped me, um, really enjoy and embrace the mundane or the boring elements of it.

You are a guy that played golf and a professional level, which I, I certainly have. I’ve never done a. and I would like to ask you, what is your daily routine look like when you were, uh, getting to the highest levels of golf, you know, before you got into college, but right there at the high school, your senior year, maybe your junior year, what did your junior year and senior year of high school look like? What was that daily routine and like that allowed to move on to a level where it wasn’t just, you know, something you’re doing on an amateur level, but something that you could maybe do professionally. What did that, what, what did, what did that daily routine look like?

To be honest, I couldn’t necessarily break that down for you because I wasn’t quite that sophisticated in high school. I think. I think that the routines that I did commit to or more of just dedicating myself to the sport and being able to say no to things that were outside that vision. So I think, I think in high school, right, there’s so many things going on. There’s so many social aspects are so many aspects of high school itself in that stage of life. It, it constantly vying for our attention. And so I think, I think the thing in that state that season as I was developing was just focusing in on priorities at hand. And the immediate goal for me was I was always the kind of realistic one which really stemmed from fear and we can get into that later. But my dad was definitely the one that was the dreamer of like, man, you know, you could, you could play professionally and it be so cool.

And I was always kind of a cautionary. Well, yeah, you know, it’s a long ways away. I’m just going to keep grinding, you know, I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high. And so my goal was, you know, playing in college and then it was competing well in high school and then junior golf level and wind tournament. And so those things led to me dedicating myself to practice and I think that the routines or habits would be just simply like when I was practicing, like not messing around, like seriously taking it serious and really focusing during that time where a lot of guys will often use it as time to hang out with friends or um, enjoy it more. And I was very, I think I developed early on a lot of focus and a lot of diligence and just preparing myself for what lied ahead. I guess.

Where did you play your college golf?

It’s called the Masters University. It’s a Christian school and then just north of here in southern California. And it was in the Nai division, which is a independently.

So when did you decide it was time to play pro? I mean, where, where does that process look like? I think a lot of people know, you know, for in the NBA, if you’re playing really good at the college level or very good at that in the high school level, a lot of guys will declare their eligibility to the NBA. Now you have to play one year of college. If you’re a top recruit, you say, okay, I’m going to declare my eligibility to the National Basketball Association draft. People who are familiar with baseball know that after high school you can play minor leagues. How did you know it was time to play professionally? How did you know that would work out? What? What does that process look like of becoming a professional golfer?

I’d say golf is unique in that it is an open platform. So the beauty of that is that anyone who has enough time and money can give it a shot. There’s no really minimum requirement. It’s just the money really, um, and the time to do it. And the reason most guys won’t is because one, when you lose your amateur status, it takes time to regain it. There’s some limbo period they’re into. It takes a lot of money and a lot of time. And if you, if you just on a whim, decided to take the leap without much background, you’ll quickly find out that it may seem near impossible to get there and likely is for you. So it really takes a high level of commitment for me, um, it looked like evaluating my progress throughout college and then talking and communicating and evaluating with my team, my coach, my family, and the people that were, um, trusted sources to see objectively, is this something that’s worth pursuing?

Do I have the objective skill set to be successful in this? If I do give it a shot? And then if so is that, is that what I want to do, you know? And by I wanted to make that decision for me, um, my, my, the summer between my junior and senior year and I love to be prepared. I love to do things well. And even then I really wanted to decide the year before so that my senior year I could put together the plan and the resources so that I could just launch into my professional career right after college. So that’s what I did. And God blessed me with a group of sponsors, investors, um, that were funding the pursuit. And that’s typically the route that most people will go in. They’ll get, um, a lot of times it’s very informal. It could be like a handshake at the country club and you say, I’ll double your money if I’m successful. That kind of thing. So it’s, it’s more of a donation than a, than an investment because the risk is very a non proportionate and um, and it, it, it, you have a better chance of making money in the stock market. It’s just not a great odds.

What does it cost to become a professional golfer? We talking about $50,000, 100,000, 10,000. What does it cost to become a professional golfer?

It’s a large investment. So I like to compare it to the stock market, right? When you, when you hear and read about investors who have developed great skills and performance within the stock market, usually they’ll talk about 50 to $200,000 that they’ve lost in order to learn how to do it well and win, right? So the same is true in golf. The timeline that it takes on average for guys to make it to the PGA tour, which is the goal for every golfer. It’s the best tour in on the planet. Um, the timeline, it takes an average of seven to 10 years for guys now that may be shocking to business coach people, but it’s the one percent of the one percent that you know about the tiger woods, the Jordan Spieth, the Rory Mcilroy, those guys are the right. But everyone else that you haven’t heard of that is playing out there has been grinding for a long time and that can take a lot of money. I would, I would say a safe estimate is minimum of like 50 grand a year that you’re doing it full time.

So who is the best golfer that you ever saw in person at a professional level and why? I mean, you’ve seen so many great golfers. Who’s the one that you saw up close and personal, what you thought, wow, this person is the best I’ve ever seen it.

Yeah. So I got to play in the Australian Open in 2015 and Jordan Speith and um, Scott and Lee Westwood and some of those guys were there. Um, so I think, I think just being next to them and the rope playing, I’m practicing, I’m seeing them compete. Uh, I think that that is, is a real honor to have had, I was really thankful for that because I think at a distance, um, a lot of guys that are on the developmental tours or the mini tours of web tour, um, we know that our skills and tool kit are the same if, if not comparable, right? But there’s such a separation in our own expectations that we look at guys like a Jordan Speith, like an Adam Scott as a different breed. And the biggest challenge for developmental guys is to understand that there’s no difference there. It’s just the differences becomes down to the mental discipline, the mind, the focus, the confidence and the belief in their abilities and obviously the experience in those stages in situations that are unique to the PGA tour.

And so I’m getting to play next to them was a real cool experience to see that the, the, the toolkit and the skills are comparable if not the same. It’s simply that determining the differentiating factor of the mind and the performance that that produces a that often makes the difference. So those were some sweet experiences for sure. I do, one of the things I do remember though, there was a tournament in Fiji I played in, um, and it was matt future was in the field and I remember it was, it was one of those tournaments where it’s just a straight battle. I’m a really challenging course and there was some storm Kinda, you know, rolling through to where it was 40 plus mile an hour winds consistently on a really challenging mountain, you know, tropical course. And it was such a battle. And I remember there was a shot I hit, it was, um, it was a 10 pole and it was a par five, about 600 yards straight into the teeth of the wind and uphill I hit driver, I hit, I was at long hitter off the tee.

And so I hit driver three wood and I still had a good hunter, 110 yards in. And I remember I was about 100 yards out. Actually. I remember it was straight into the wind and I try to hit a nine nine and did not do a good job of it. I didn’t keep it down enough. Uh, it was a really narrow green, really pin tucked on the back, back to front slope. All of these factors make extremely challenging. I remember sitting in the hotel room afterwards and watching an afternoon wave, I was in the morning and Mac hoosier had the very same shot and I remember he took a seminar now and hit this beautiful three quarter controlled low shock that went to about 15 feet and that really was just a great display of very refined mastery and wisdom in decision making as well. That, that was like a really cool example of, of some of the mind mistakes in his, um, his refinement and that, which was really impressive to see.

You said that you drove the ball a long way, typically off the tee. How far could you consistently drive a golf ball at this point in your career?

Yeah, it was, it was about three, 10, three, 15, 315 yards off the tee. So, um, I was, I was usually one of the longest players in the field in most terms that played in

now saying golf is considered to be a gentleman sport, which is why I’ve never really gravitated towards it, you know, because I have no have no class but in a professional level. Did you ever see some serious trash talking going on? I mean, did you ever see it? The pro level, like a really a big name. You don’t have to share their name, but somebody up who’s a huge, because you know, Larry Bird in the NBA is not known for being a super classy league gentlemen for Larry Bird. He competed in the three point contest in his book. He talks about his book drive. He talks about how he walked up in the NBA All star game a to the three point contest. He walks up to all the players. He says, guys, gather around here and this isn’t like a rookie or whatever. He’s like a very young player. And he says, I just want to know which one of you is going to finish second. Oh, I’m going to ask you. I mean, what kind of track do you ever see any trash talking going on there? I mean because it’s a gentleman, it’s a gentleman sport, but did you ever see any trash talk and taking place up close and personal

gentleman? Trash talking is kind of beneath the surface more what you do and is less than what you say, but there is definitely what you say involved as well and, but I think, I think for the majority of golfers out there, myself included, I mean that, that the verbal trash talking is going to be done, um, with people that you’re already like you would consider friends. Right? And, and it really, I mean, it can get intense at times because as hyper competitive and highly committed people like that, you mean it, you know, but it’s in the moment and so it’s much like I would, I would in a much lesser or embrace of form of like mma or boxing, you know, those guys, they’re able to respect each other after beating the living daylights out of each other because they respect each other’s skill, dedication and their, their, their toolkit.

Right. So I think the same is true on the golf course, the, it’ll fill up a lot more in match play situations. Um, and with the Ryder Cup going on this fall, it’s those types of environments that really bring it out of people. But there can be a lot. There’s this fun is you can do in match play to really instigate more of that. Um, one of the rules that people may not know about is and match play when you’re playing head to head with someone, um, that you have to go in order of proximity to the hole, right? So whoever is further away from the whole goes first and say, I’m say someone goes out of order. Well you can make them really hit the shot. And so sometimes that’s one way you can, can, one toy you can use to mess with people if you really want to. The other is to give people, um, if you give people shots, I’m like a short Putt, for example, you can give them short putts the whole round. And then at the end you start making them, um, you started making them, put them, which can really mess with them mentally, so there’s a lot of covert things you can do to mentally mess with people.

My good friend in college, I won’t mention his name so I don’t want to get him in trouble, but he worked at southern hills golf course back in the day with tiger woods, came through there in Tulsa, Oklahoma and was competing at a national pga tournament. And he said that tiger woods was a dude who every time he had a bad shot, that dude. And this is back in the day, this is like, you know, 15 years ago he said that guy would curse like you wouldn’t believe. He was like, that dude was intense. And he’s like, that dude had like a, a massive crowd following him. Did you ever see other guys on the PGA tour at the pro level that were kind of like [inaudible] tell you? I had no idea that tiger woods would just freak out sometimes. Yeah. I mean, because, you know, you watch, you watch the golf channel, the PGA tour, the PGA channel. It’s like, all right, over here, you don’t ever see that somebody intense are, there’s some golfers that you saw up close and personal that are intense and you thought, man, that’s the intensity people don’t know about.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. There’s a big difference between watching on TV and being there in person. The interesting thing that people realize once you’re in person is how intense it is. Like not necessarily externally, but internally there’s just a buzz and there’s this pressure that you feel for them. Um, even if you’re not the one that’s playing that you definitely feel the player too, but you get more comfortable with it. So, um, and to be clear, I never was able to play on the PGA tour that I never reached my goal of getting there. And so I can’t speak to too many of the guys on tour, but you know, when you visited events, you clearly see there’s a wide spectrum of people that have differing personalities. And that’s it. That’s the thing you have to learn is that there’s not one right personality that produces the best golf game.

I think that there are, there are there characteristics of it but, but some guys are very mild mannered and some are hotheads, you know, and, and both of them are using their mannerisms and their personality type to accomplish their best performance and, and it kind of depends on how you’re wired. So, so guys like, and I think too, the other thing that people just need to realize that golf is an extremely humbling and demanding sport so you can never hit the perfect shot. And so there’s always something to be discontent about. And so how you handled that discontent is what you see external think.

My understanding is that you suffered a debilitating injury that caused you to have to move on from the game of golf. A golf and I just want to relate to it. The chip. I hate to one up against terror, but like a bucket third grade. I remember my dad took me to a driving range and psychologically I had a huge, a phantom injury. It’s not where it’s like a real injury documented, but I felt as though after trying to hit a golf ball for hours with my dad who could drive a ball north of 300 yards every single time, I had no talent, no skill, no business coach coordination, and no ability to focus and so I had to move on from the game that I loved for about 10 minutes. That elbow is just hurting you? Yeah. I just was worn out. Then I want to ask you thing. I mean, when you talk about your injury, what happened man? Did you, did you hurt yourself? Wow. What happened?

It was a series of unfortunate events, which usually are what most debilitating injuries are. It rarely is one thing and it started actually with a snowboarding injury. Um, I fell on a rail when I was snowboarding and that shows the competitive side, you know, rails are not something that would be conducive to do, but as a competitor I love pushing myself and that’s why I chose to continue in and being a pretty good snowboarder I. It wasn’t a huge obstacle for me. But in this particular instance, I ate it and it went to the right abdomen. What that did was shut off the neurological connection to that part of my body. I didn’t really know that at the time, but fast forward, um, after I healed from that fast forward five months, um, into the middle of the season, it was July and a perfect storm of a lot of time in the car, traveling to different tournaments, a lot of stress from competing in a qualifier and getting in a sudden death play off, which I won.

Um, and then having to get in the car and drive another seven hours sleep for two hours and then drive through a storm. So all these factors lead to being stressed out, my body be overused, overworked, none of recovery. And during the practice round and the next tournament, I, um, I finally strained what had been progressing slowly, but I hadn’t been aware of that point. It was a strain in my left rhomboid and it was a direct, it was a golf specific injuries. So that made it actually, that was what made it extra challenging is that it is from directly swinging a golf club. So the point of impact is where it really was. Highlight. Yes. Ron Boyd will left Rhomboid. So at that back,

he’s talking about his left Rhomboid. Okay. This one I’ll make sure because I’ve never heard that word ever uttered by human before. So I’m going to put that in the show notes. I got to put a link to it. I want to make sure because I’m a third grade boy who happens to be good at business. I’m a mentally, uh, a third grade boy. I heard that the left Rhomboid okay. So you, you discovered that this injury was a pretty intense. When did you decide it was time to move on from golfing?

It wasn’t until about a year and a half later, you know, as I learned through failure a lot of times of what not to do with recovering from injuries. Right. And so a strain, a muscle strain is actually really challenging compared to actually breaking your bone because when you break a bone, you get to put a cast on and say, Hey, hang out for six to eight weeks, and then you can get on the strain. It’s like, okay, you should wait probably six to eight weeks until you start feeling better. And then week four comes around and like, well it feels pretty good. I think I can, I think I can go for it, you know. And being in the middle of the season, I had events scheduled for pretty much every week, so I was very antsy and very impatient and it led to it recurring several times, uh, along with treating symptoms, not root causes. So a lot of times I was treating the symptom of the left Rhomboid when in fact it was at right abdomen that had been shut down neurologically speaking to where it was putting extra load that the left Rhomboid couldn’t handle within the golf swing. So it took me two or three cycles to figure that out. So five cycles later, a year and a half later was when I finally made the decision to pivot into a new career path.

What, what has been the most challenging aspect of becoming an entrepreneur? Because you’re no longer a pro athlete, you’re no longer focused on the physical disciplines of golf. What, what’s been the most challenging aspect for you transitioning into the world of entrepreneurship?

I think, um, I think that golf prepared me well in many ways, but at the end of the day, um, entrepreneurship is different, right? And it, it is challenging, um, and you have to learn through doing more than, than other more than just information. So for me it’s been a combination of just being patient and persistent, uh, that can be really challenging. You know, nothing happens overnight and it takes a long time to build things. And so being patient and persistent with the process, even if you’re not seeing the immediate results that you would hope for, I think it’s relearning that, you know, it’s something you learn in golf, but now it’s relearning that again in different area. And I think the other is embracing. I’m selling, I think it took me a long time to really embrace the need and importance of selling well and that a product is really only as good as you sell it and that’s one that that took me as taken me a long time to really embrace.

So what kind of products are you selling now or what kind of services are you selling? How do you derive an income as an entrepreneur?

Yes, so I’m building several different side aspects of that. So one of them is called collaboration work and what that is, is basically taking the professional athlete’s mindset to everyday people and everyday life and some coming alongside individual entrepreneurs or freelancers for business owners and helping them through coaching, consulting and creating a combination of those three and really kind of instilling the systems and disciplines that I had as a professional golfer that a lot of times nowadays more than ever before, people can start their own business, right? We, we have the empowerment, the ability to be our own boss or be our own business in many ways. So I’m just helping people have the toolkit to do that. Well, just from an individual, a personal standpoint, and then the other main business I’m doing is a, it’s a, it’s a coffee cart cart startup, so it’s a portable espresso bar that I’d built out for weddings and events and I’m starting local and looking to scale that as we go. So those are the two main avenues. And then through, um, through kind of my personal brand, I am obviously I wrote a book and then uh, I do some speaking now as well. So those are Kinda the two avenues on that side as well.

Marshall Morris or you work with a lot of business owners who have, they’re really good at it in a specific skill. They’re very good at laying a wood floor, very good at installing cabinets, a very good at controlling pests. Very good at. There’s something they do very well, teaching piano lessons, whatever. And at some point they decide, you know what? I’m good at this particular skill. Now I should start my own company. What questions would you have for thing? Because you worked with so many people that have struggled to make the jump from being good at a particular skill to becoming an entrepreneur who builds a business in that niche, in that skill area. What question would you have for Mr Thane ringler? So, so thing I’m a little bit of background on me is I played professional backer, a professional basketball down in Costa Rica just briefly, just a couple of years.

Okay. And so and so from a professional in a sports level, you have coaches as you’re growing up consistently and you have people that are mentoring you ongoing. There’s a quote from Bill Gates, he says, everyone needs a coach. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast, a bridge player. I’m sure that goes for golfers as well. Um, but one of the things is you see a entrepreneurs and business owners that need a coach as well. So my question to you is what is this, what does this business coach quote mean to you and how has this influenced you and why is it important for business owners to have a coach is well in the business world, why is that such a big important thing?

Great question and really important topic to disassociate business or entrepreneurship or what we say quote unquote normal life. We disassociate that with sports when really they’re very synonymous. Many aspects of it and having a coach in sports is a non negotiable. So why isn’t it a non negotiable in the other fields and I think I think it’s helpful to start thinking about it in those ways. And this was the quote really highlights I. I’ve been blessed my, my brother in law actually was in a public accounting for awhile. It was really good at it, but then he transitioned in the last couple of years to coaching. Executive coaching particularly in has done really well. So I’ve had really a lot of secondhand benefit from having him grow his coaching career and he’s very good at it and so getting to have that influence on my life has been really important and it’s something that I’m truly grateful for and as I’ve kind of done a similar, it’s a similar type work that I’m doing now with individuals. It is something I really believe in because at the end of the day, what you’re paying for in a coach, especially in the business or entrepreneurship world, is two things that you can’t get on your own and that’s accountability in objectivity and two of those things just are not. You’re not able to produce that for yourself. And that’s why I think it is a non negotiable for people that do, that are high achievers that do have goals to have a coach and mentors and people that are, that are pouring into your life. We, we are better together. Right?

You appear to be a guy, and again I can only tell based off of your website and social media where I can find you appear to be a guy who’s committed to your personal development. What does the process of personal development look like for you at this point? I mean, what does the process of personal development actually look like?

Yeah, it’s really good and it’s going to look similar for everyone and someone different for everyone and I think that’s where there’s. There’s a distinction that needs to be made which is there’s universal principles that apply to everyone and then there’s also individually specific principles that apply to you. I think that that’s one of the big transitions that need to take place in personal development is a self awareness to know what you individually need. And so for me now I’m in life. Personal Development looks like evaluating my actions and decisions on a daily and weekly and monthly basis to see where my thoughts and what I say I believe lines up with what I truly believe, which is my actions and then understanding what leads to my best and highest performance. So that I can ultimately, and then I think the clear thing to add to this that’s really important is for the greater good of the world because at the end of the day there’s a quote that I think is really good.

Um, let me see if it’s basically saying I don’t know if I can get right on right now, but basically saying that personal development, oh, this is it. Michael Gerber and his book, The e myth revisited. Really good book said continuous improvement for its own sake is a waste of time. So there has to be an end result of why. And I think that’s really important to have the why be in the service of others. That’s what life life is not about us. Ultimately it’s about the collective of humanity and how can we benefit and serve others and society at large through our own development and provide better service and benefit to them. So I think that’s a really important add on at the end to, to attach our wire and our purpose too.

You decided to move from Kansas to California. Um, did you hit your head on a toilet seat? Uh, were you inducted via an alien? What caused you to want to move from the beautiful scenery, the tourist destination known as Kansas? And to move to California? What prompted this move

for Kansas? Because it is true, surprisingly, most people would not assume it, but Kansas is incredibly beautiful. It’s incredibly beautiful. So, um, I’m in for college and then I ended up saying so I think that my personality, my, um, my approach and my stage of life are very conducive for la. La is a city of dreamers at the city of strivers of people who are ambitious and it is really a land of opportunity now. It comes with a great host of downsides as well. Um, so you have to weigh it in and just see what’s best for you and it’s not going to be for everyone. And Kansas is a great place. It has a much more slower pace of life. It’s a much simpler, which is a good thing life. And it is really focused on people and they’re very more hospitable and personable. Um, and it’s, it’s a really awesome place, so I really, I’m a big believer that wherever you are you should be fully because that’s where you’re at right now and to be somewhere else isn’t fair to you or those around you, but the move to California and did happen for college and um, and I ended up staying because it is kind of just aligned with where I’m at in life and what I’m trying to build.

That’s awesome man. I’ve, I’ve visited California a couple of times and it’s a beautiful place. Um, I, I’ve got a question for you saying as you touched on it a second ago, personal development and earlier you were talking about, um, an issue that is huge for business owners and entrepreneurs that we work with and we see them struggle with this. And you said you had an ability at a young age to say no when other guys were wanting to mess around and practice or not go to practice, you were able to say no and actually get the work in that you needed to do to get better and get to your goals. How did you develop that outlook on life? Being focused and diligent and able to say no to those things at such a young age?

Yeah, super important. I’m glad you brought that up. Before I get to the answer, I would say that the thing that makes that so important is that today the stakes are even higher and I think it comes down to delay gratification. Right? And when we have, when we’re, we’re in, we’re in a society where our society is getting better and better at distracting and overwhelming us with information

real quick. You only, you only have two hours to hammer home this point, so I just want to make sure because this is a hot topic here at the thrive time show, so I want to make sure I don’t want to cut you off. You only have two hours to talk about just keeping distracted perpetually as a site. Is a society thing the next two hours or are for you?

The thing that makes that really important, especially today, is that the divide between those who can and can’t is getting wider. And so I think that there is, like the studies show some children that have a higher propensity to be able to do that than others. Some of that is just their upbringing, right? And some of that is maybe some natural inclination. Um, and, and the thing is that nowadays that what starts as a small divide becomes massive by the time you get to college. And so that’s why it really is important to talk to for me. Um, for me, I think I had several. There’s probably a combination of three things if I had to be honest. One of my, my parents are very, uh, they were great parents. They were great on discipline. They were amazing at raising me well and instilling some of those things into me just from their nurturing, their, their development of me.

Um, I think naturally also got some of that too from my dad and my mom as well. And then, and then I was a Christian. I’m a Christian. So I think the faith element of, of what the Bible talks about and speaks to really combined to the disciplines that we strive to hold to. And I think the third thing that really obviously with a major factor, for me it was competition. Competition was huge. I, I hated doing anything that I wasn’t going to win at it. And so I would do things simply so I could win. It was as neurotic as shuffling cards for a week just so I can be the best card shuffler after school. I would come home and practice shuffling cards for like 30 minutes a day because I wanted to be the best card shuffler in like third grade or something. So I think the competitive nature is what really catapulted a lot of that discipline for development.

Robert Greene in his book mastery, he talks so much about how the world eventually is going to be divided between those who can focus and those who choose not to. And I think there’s a lot of listeners out there who find our show because we’re in the top 10 on itunes or because a friend told them about our podcast and then they find this show and they may say, you know, Gosh, I don’t know that I could ever write a book like thing just did mean thing. You just wrote a book. I don’t know that I could ever master a skill like thing just did. And so they become neil files by default. They’re always excited about the new idea, the new thing, the new idea. Can you walk our listeners through what the process was like for you writing your first book and then tell us a little bit about that, about your new book. Because the process of writing a book can be tedious, just like learning golf can be tedious. Talk to us about the process of writing the new book and how you were able to stay focused during that process.

Definitely. To underscore that question to your question. So the whole thing is, you know, we, we love novelty, right? We love novelty and we become addicted to it. But that there’s a quote by cs Lewis Actually, where he says that the pleasure of novelty is by very nature more subjects than any other to the law of diminishing returns. So the more and more we pursue novelty, the more novel things have to become. And there’s a point where there’s just a lot of diminishing returns that come there. But, um, I think, uh, you know, writing a book, sorry, the thing that I would say for writing a book is just that I believe that everyone should write a book at some point in their life, but I don’t think that everyone can. But if you can, I do think you should. It’s something that it’s just a great, um, it’s just a great tool for learning more about yourself and refining your thought process on any subject matter, whatever you choose.

Um, regardless of really what comes from it. But for me it looked like it really took a, the seed was planted, um, in January of 17 when I was on the plane to Thailand for an Asian qualifier, Asian tour qualifier. And um, my body had kinda aggravated the injury and I knew I wasn’t gonna be able to compete, but I had to give it a shot. So my mind was kind of figuring out, well, how can I repay my investors, uh, for what they’ve given me, if I can’t financially return their money? And the book idea kind of spring on that. So it started there with me just jotting down titles, right titles of what the book may be. So I think a lot of times we start with super big picture, okay, what, what and speaking of titles is thinking of titles is a good way to think really big picture 10,000 foot view, what, what would I write about, you know, so you jot down your titles and then allowing time for that to kind of sit and develop with the subconscious is really important.

So for me it happened just naturally, not necessarily cognizantly, um, or consciously. And it happened over about four months, five months. And when the injury returned I had some space and I decided I was going to dive in. So then I spent a month a really dedicating a lot of time to reading everything I had written up to that point. I was writing blog posts on my golf website, a breaking down events and just what I was learning. So I read through all that and then try to come up with some form of structure that ended up not really being at all what I wrote on, which is pretty fascinating. So I took two to three months after that to just puke out the initial rough draft, which, um, as Anne Lamott says in her book, bird by bird, which is really good book on writing, I would recommend to everyone she calls him crappy first drafts are really bad, you know, it’s not good. Um, and so then I let that sit with getting back into golf and then revisit it several times over the next year as a constantly refined and shocked away and added and refine and repeated that until you get to the place where you want to move forward with it. So it’s a long process, but it happens by taking baby steps.

Tiger Woods recently won a tournament for the first time in a long time. Tiger Woods, I believe he hadn’t won a. and you can correct me if I’m wrong. You’d probably know this better than I would. I. He had not won a tournament since 2013. At the time of this recording, um, it’s 2018. Um, how did you feel when you heard that tiger woods a one again? Was that inspiring to you? Did that impact you in any way or what were the thoughts going through your mind as an avid fan of the game of golf?

You know, it’s funny you asked that. I found myself smiling, like literally smiling as I read it by myself because I actually missed the final round, but I was reading the highlight and I read some article. Man, you know, I was so, I was so encouraged and happy for him. It’s regardless of how people feel about who he is and the person to use and what’s happened to be able to overcome all odds and return. It truly returned to something that obviously he loves incredibly dearly. Um, and to see the sweetness of that is, it was really inspiring. Yeah, it made me really want to get back into the beyond that. So like, man, it’s so sweet. So I think it’s great for the game. It’s a great story. Um, I am, I am happy because to it, it elevates the game and, and you know, people that don’t know golf, they know tiger woods and so it’s cool to see him back in the mix. Um, and it, it’s just a testament to the amount of work he has put in because that just does not happen by chance and hardly ever if ever happens.

I want to ask you this final question as we wrap up today’s interview there. I know that you’re an avid reader. I know that, uh, you have a reading list that you actually posted on the up and comer show.com, the up and comer show.com, which is the home for your podcast. If you could recommend just one of those books to our listeners, what is the one book that you’d recommend for all of our listeners out there who are avid readers? They love to read. What’s the one book that you’d recommend for all of our listeners and why?

Man, it is so hard to come down to one book, but I would say the recency bias, so it’s hard to no one but the one that recently.

That’s an impossible question by the way. I’m sorry for even asking an impossible question and you can even say like your top five, your top three. If you’re like me, every movie I love is in my top five. There’s like 870 and everything. I don’t lie. I don’t love is like the worst, the worst ever worst ever. So you can a book. You’d say, Gosh, that book right there, I could really unlock or reset your mindset or help everybody out there.

Okay, I’m going to cheat and give you two. One would be make it stick and the book coauthored, but there’s two or three. Yeah.

We had them on the podcast. Loved that book. It was recommended to me from a pastor of a mega church made the stick. That book is awesome.

It’s all I’m learning. Right? Learning really shows that it’s counterintuitive, that takes work, it’s a fight and it’s super helpful. The second one that’s beyond that, that I would really challenge people with is fierce conversations by students. Got and it’s um, in today’s society, I think we’re getting, um, weaker and weaker, uh, at, at communicating well and fierce conversations really pushes us past just, you know, regular, a Chitchat and into deep and meaningful and intentional in challenging business coach conversations where we’re able to examine reality together without harming relationships, which is a delicate thing to do, but a really important thing to do for progress. So fierce conversations by students got really cool

now saying we’re going to air this podcast here in the next 15 days, it’ll, it’ll be released to there. And a lot of our listeners say, alright, saying, how can you help me specifically? This is Kinda your shameless elevator pitch. This is your toolkit where you can. And again, it’s the thrive nation. So everybody listening to this show owns a business or wants to. So we love shameless pitch, man. We Love, we love the guidance Tibo. We will have the wrong code guy with his dehydrated meat, Deli Bank, banks, whatever we love George Foreman and the grills. We love all of those. Shameless legit chap and we actually love a shameless pitch and we’d love to just analyze it so there’s no, it could be a shameless or it could be subtle, but how can you help all of our listeners?

I love it. Thanks for golf.

First off, I’d love for you to check out my book from here to there, a quarter life perspective on the path to mastery. I worked long and hard 18 months on it and I really, I’m really proud to stand beside it. Something that I am excited to share and would love for you to pick up a copy so you can go to Saint Martin [inaudible] dot com and get it there or on Amazon will be available to. Um, but the other way if you want a little bit more in depth time with me would be to visit my website and also send me an email that [email protected]. If you want to talk about what collaboration work would look like, I think my, my really refined and develop strength is I’m in self discipline and I’m in optimization and so I felt really, um, fulfilled in allowing and coming alongside people to, to impart that on them. And I would love nothing more to work with you in that way too, if that’s something you’re interested in.

Well, thrive nation. You heard it here. That stain wrangler, that’s his story thing. Ringler. He’s sticking to it. It’s t h a n e dot ringler I believe. Is it, am I pronouncing it right? Ringler, is that right?

You got it? Yep. You could say wrangler, but you know, I’m not affiliated with the Jean Company.

Nice. And so thrive nation. Check them out. I’m telling you, this guy is a great American. I’m excited about your career. Two point. Oh, and thank you for coming on to the thrive time show. We like to end the show with a three, two, one and then a boom we go. But because we have a lot of Caucasians on the show, we have to practice, you know. So Chubb, have you practiced? I’ve been practicing an hour a day. Marshall practice. I’ve been practicing in the mirror rhythm therapy things obviously in a good rhythm. He’s a good flow. He sounds like he’s a great. He’s a great dancer. Here we go. So here we go. He’s got the. He’s got the flow. Here we go. Are you ready for the boom? Are you ready for the boom? Here we go. Here we go. Three, two, one. Go.